Hot Shot of the Week Companion Feature
Ten Question About Blue Beetle With Will Pfeifer
Russell Burlingame reporting for Comic Related
ComicRelated: This was a very character-intensive issue. Was that a bit of a challenge, coming into a book as a fill-in writer with a character who's not as established as, say, the big-franchise characters are?
Will Pfeifer: In a way, it’s easier. The big-franchise characters – Batman, Superman, even Catwoman – have been written for so many years by so many different people that it can be hard to get a handle on just who they are beyond the broadest strokes. But with Jaime and Co., they’ve only been written by essentially one or two writers over a relatively short time, and they’ve been written well, too. It’s easy to see what makes Hector different from Brenda, and both of them different from Jaime, and so on. And that makes it easier to write them as individual characters, especially when you’re only writing them for one or two issues.
CR: Coming off a critically-acclaimed run on Catwoman that was plagued by low sales and wandering over to Jaime's neck of the woods, does it ever feel like your lot in life is to be the good steward of the B-list?
WP: There’s nothing wrong with the B-list. Like B movies, those comics tend to be a little more under the radar and, often, a little more personal. There’s more room for a writer or an artist to put his or her own stamp on the character, and to tell stories that are a tad more off the beaten path. Of course, B-list also means B-level sales (if you’re lucky), which tends to mean a smaller, more devoted audience. Just like the writers and artists feel connected to these characters, the readers do too. And boy, do they let you know about it.
CR: Do you know what the long-term plans are for Jaime and Traci, or were you just told what you needed to write this book and the next one?
WP: I’m just the seat holder for two issues. I don’t know what’s coming for those crazy kids, but I’ll bet it’s going to be something fun. That, more than anything, seems to sum up Blue Beetle.
CR: Speaking of, since both of them are one-and-done issues rather than an arc, do you want to tease the next issue a little bit?
WP: Sure. We had demons in this one, and we’ve got monsters in the next. Peacemaker and Dani Garrett stop by El Paso to tell Jaime about a former supervillain who’s been spotted in the area – not coincidentally at the same time a mysterious monster has been wreaking havoc. My favorite parts of the issue, though, involve none of the main characters – they’re flashback scenes to the original Blue Beetle, and artist David Baldeon perfectly captured the static, awkward art of the era. It’s great stuff!
CR: The tone of this issue really reminded me of Tom Peyer's spectacular 1990s run on Hourman, which also featured a really entertaining, dim-witted demon (although in fairness, the dimwits here are really the ones who summon the demon, not the demon itself so much). So, now I think of it, did Hitman. Why do you think these creatures are so common to your better superhero books?
WP: Demons are just great all-purpose villains, especially when you want something to get out of control. Nitwits, like the guys in this issue, summon them, then have absolutely no idea what to do with them once they arrive. They’re funny, creepy and immediately lead to chaos.
CR: When you're filling on a book with a fairly new character, who has no established rogues, do you make a special effort to write villains who can be easily reused, rather than just "Bank Robber #3" or something?
WP: I just try to write interesting characters – someone who seems to have a life beyond the few panels they happen to appear in. I don’t specifically plan for anyone to use them later, but if some writer wants to, great. From my perspective, it’s always fun to spot a minor character in an old comic book and use him in a story that references that last, brief appearance.
CR: So besides Blue Beetle and Teen Titans, Jaime will next be seen in Manhunter #31. Where will Will Pfeifer next be seen?
WP: Aside from a single issue of Supergirl and the remaining issues of Catwoman, I’ve got nothing specific planned – though I have a few proposals I’m working on, and hope to get something lined up soon. Help?
CR: I noticed that this issue had a lot less direct interaction with the Scarab than the last few have. It sort of acted more like the H-Dial, to be honest—kind of as a way to transform Jaime at the key moment. Was that a writing choice or was it more because you didn't know how the end of #25 was going to pan out, with the Scarab becoming much more sentient?
WP: I wasn’t quite sure what the state of the scarab would be, so I decided to play it down a bit in this issue. With Jaime and the gang, Traci, the demon summoners, the demons, the school, the mall, the coffee shop and the other-dimensional library, I figured there were enough elements to pick up the slack.
CR: Is it challenging to write the supporting cast? These guys have always struck me as characters who are great and well-developed, but who could easily become annoying in the hands of a less-than-stellar writer. You nailed them here, and I think it speaks well to their development so far in the series as much as it does your talent.
WP: Like I said, they’ve been so well written in the past that I thought it was pretty easy to step in and write them. They’re fun, they’re clearly defined and they’ve each got their own personality traits that bounce well off each other. It’s exactly what you want a supporting cast to be.
CR: It's kind of funny—superheroes are a genre where the Damsel in Distress is a frequent theme. Here, not only did Traci hold her own, but she essentially bailed Jaime out when he was pretty well-hosed. Still, he seems pretty broken down by the way the fight panned out. Is this building to something in your next issue, or were you just trying to give a little color to the character for the future?
WP: It doesn’t build to anything in my next issue – actually, Traci doesn’t even appear – but I thought it gave the ending a nice emotional touch after all the crazy demon fighting that preceded it. Jaime is still very new to this whole super-hero business, and though he’s been through a lot, he still has a lot to learn. I just wanted to get across the idea that it’s a big, crazy and sometimes scary universe (the DCU, that is), and even an amazingly powerful scarab isn’t going to solve every problem. Traci, who grew up with this sort of stuff, is much more blasé about it. Jaime? Not so much.
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Review of Blue Beetle #27
Page last updated on October 12, 2008