So, we’ve hit twenty-five of these things. I’ve got to start reading more often for spontaneous fun again. Going back to the original pile, though, there’s always going to be some series that have been dust-collecting there that began as limited series before being picked up for something longer. That happened with Once and Future and Damn Them All, but now it’s time to dive into something that had its completed mini-series before being brought over to a main series with a different title. Sometimes it’s difficult to get people into comics for this reason. But at least it’s easy when it’s a story likeBlue Beetle: Graduation Day by Josh Trujillo, Adrián Gutiérrez, Wil Quintana, and Lucas Gattoni.

I remember all of my graduations too well and I didn’t have to fight anyone before getting thirty calls from my parents that I’m missing it. But then I’m not bonded to alien technology that lets me fight anyone with a gimmick and criminal intent. Jaime Reyes can, but that’s not really helping him much at the moment. He’s finally graduating high school, but he doesn’t know what to do with himself afterward since all of his friends are heading to college without him. Coupled with the alien scarab on his back is starting to glitch out and other scarab-wearers coming out of nowhere to fight him in the street, he’s having a rough few days. And then the message of a potential invasion from the aliens who created his scarab come in for the whole world to see.

Jaime Reyes was one of the most popular characters in one of the greatest Batman animated series, Batman: The Brave & The Bold, and it’s easy to see why in Graduation Day. He’s perennially more of a teen than the Teen Titans or any of the Robins. Many of his writers over the years have been able to hone in on what works best for him by focusing on his family and his role as a legacy character. In general legacy character terms, Blue Beetle is one of the best between Jaime and Ted Kord—the third and second Beetle, respectively—and that anchor helps to give Jaime himself a strong connection to past characters and established lore, but enough space to really dig into his own life. From the off-set, Jaime as a character, and the Jaime we read in Graduation Day, feels so much more relevant to those younger readers that would identify with him. He’s the kind of character comics needs to help get new readers invested.

The more stories we have like Blue Beetle: Graduation Day, the more readers we can draw into comics as a medium. It’s fun that’s steeped in the lore of the past, but much of that background lore is explained with enough detail for the moment or is something like Batman being moody. As a series, it’s a stepping-on point for someone unfamiliar with the universe at large and provides so much of the same feeling as that first The Brave & The Bold episode with Blue Beetle back in 2008. 

Get excited. Get nostalgic.

Drew Barth (Episode 331, 485, 510, & 651) resides in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida.