I know this is a comic that came out last week, but it had special significance to me and I felt it needed to be talked about. The plot is fine and the standard for the new Blue Beetle. Jamie Reyes attempts to introduce his new girlfriend to his family at a reunion when he gets word that the Parasite is attacking. Our young hero flies off to battle where he promptly kicks the crap out of the bad guy. A little too neat for my liking, especially since the Parasite has brought Superman to his knees and Jamie Reyes thumps him in a matter of four or five pages. The reason why it was wrapped all nice and neat though was it would have been very difficult to have a real epic battle drawn out over several comics in Spanish.
What? That’s right, Spanish. This is the first comic, based on Jamie’s Hispanic descent and location in El Paso, New Mexico, that had every printing done almost entirely in Spanish. Doing a comic in a foreign language like that is a strain on resources and that is why this was a one-shot. I have a problem though with the Spanish comic and not just because it forces them to waste a great villain like the Parasite. I appreciate the translations in the back, but it made reading this comic damn near impossible for someone who is not fluent in the language. Comics revolve around their drawings, but the script and dialogue is vital as well and for the first time maybe, I realized how much so. I breezed through this comic and did not give it my usual time and care because I couldn’t read it. Now the reason for this is a political issue, that with the ever growing number of Spanish speakers in this country, more and more things have to be translated or have dual writings on them. I understand and do not mind, but when English, the first language of this country, gets trumped, I have a problem. I have no problem with equality. You can print the comic in every language if you like, but when you provide Spanish as the only language for a comic in this nation, I have a problem. We are a diverse nation made up of all different people and this comic is a testament to this, but when you ostracize most of your population to cater to a small demographic, you are going to piss off a lot more people than make happy. I appreciate what DC tried to do with this comic, but please do not do it again. If you want to print comics in Spanish and English, all the better, because again, the more people reading comics the better, but when you only provide one option, you are making a statement that I do not think everyone in this country is ready for and since most of us grew up only having to know English in my generation, you alienate your foundation. Not a smart move and I had a problem with this comic DC.
The other political issue I had with this comic was that I noticed for the first time the difference on the barcode. Now, unless you are a computer, every barcode looks the same, right? True, but below the barcode is the price of the comic and always you see both the American and Canadian price. It usually looks something like this: $2.99 US $3.99 CAN. With this comic though, I noticed this. 
The price was the same in Canada and the US. The American dollar has plummeted so much in the world community that the American and Canadian dollar are equal in value. Now, I do not have a problem with our neighbors to the north, especially considering how much of a hockey fan I am, but my whole life I knew that we had a strong enough economy that our currency was stronger than theirs. If this is not a recession ladies and gentleman, then I do not know what it is. You hear the talk of this stuff all the time on CNN and MSNBC and all those other news channels, but until you see it in something you can relate to, it does not really hit you. Even with gas prices skyrocketing and the job market going to hell, it was comics that this really hit me on. All I know is that come November, someone better get elected that is going to fix this.
-Ray Carsillo
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