Like with the DKR Jason moment. It is what it is.

The fact that modern (well, later) writers use it for stories that may well not be as good as the stories they are taking...inspiration from is beside the point.

More than anything else though, that panel shows what an excellent artist Adam Hughes is. From the anatomy to the body language to the fluid line-work. That panel is damn near perfection!

I dunno, I can appreciate in the abstract that Ted's death has been made into some kind of noble moral victory on a par with Barry Allen, but as someone who identified with the character on a more personal level- I wanted things to go better for him, and I still kinda do.

As for Max, the problem with the direction they took him is, what made him interesting in JLI was that he was an ambiguous character. You never knew quite what he was up to and whether he was acting as the responsible leader or the self-serving scumbag. The other characters didn't know where they stood. By making him into a supervillain they removed that.

How about the new Blue Beetle? That's cancelled too? Jeez, you comic fans are a fickle, superstitious and cowardly lot, aren't you?

-Citizen Scribbler

Just goes to show how much Geoff Johns has taken from other writers and expanded upon...

First the Alan Moore Blackest Night thing from a few Cool Moments ago, now this.

"Hmm, let's twist this a bit, Blue Beetle gets shot, rather than Booster..."

Say, whatever happened to Big Sur?

This was one of the funniest arcs of the Hughes era, even though Beetle was really acting like a selfish moron in these issues. I can't blame Max for being mad at the boys though, and he did "punish" them in a way at the end of the story.

JLI pulled the franchise out of the crapper after the Detroit debacle. DC ought to remember that and stop trying to erase this period of League history just to appease their star writer.

Anyway--killing Ted was not funny or cool, but there is a chilling reference there now.

Sometimes, there are touchstones within the DC Universe where people forget the *meaning* of the moment. Blue Beetle went out with a huge heroic storyline, setting events into motion that would lead to the heroes shutting down Max Lord and the OMACs. His sacrifice isn't pointless or sensationalist; it's a defining moment for the character. One of my favorite fantasy games has a good quote for this: "the truest test of courage is the final one."

Besides, Captain America went out like a punk too, and you don't see people complaining about Steve Rogers being ruined.

But, I have to say, Ted's death was handled much better in the Batman: The Brave & The Bold cartoon. It was a noble sacrifice, not a cheap bit of gratuitous violence.

Doug M.