The thought was brought on my how that one issue towards the end of the 2006 Blue Beetle run that very much gave the impression that the writer just kinda skimmed some descriptions of Ted's villains but didnt actually do proper research cause like?
Firefist was there to fight Jaime even tho that fucker died in Ted's run. (Like, a lot of Ted's villains fucking died in their confrontations with Ted. In his DC solo usually from their own bullshit offing them, he did kill people occasionally pre-DC)
And that fucking redesign of Carapax to be steam powered to avoid being defeated via technological means? Ted didn't defeat that fucker through technological means, he just keep dumping Carapax's heavy robot ass into deep bodies of water to buy time.
But also why the fuck would Catalyst be here? Just for payback on a dead man he ran into all of once when the writers never fucking got to the potential bigger storyline with him, the kidnapping, and the corporate espionage?
And also just blatantly not utilizing fuckers effectively is also what gets my goat. Like? The Live action movie utilized Carapax well as a threat for Jaime to fight (made him a whole different character in the process, but frankly it was an improvement). If yer gonna have villains fighting above their weight class, you gotta have them fucking fight smart rather than just throwing them at Jaime as a group for the sake of a fucking cameo/callback and shitting on Ted's era further by choosing not to utilize bitches better.
Like? Catalyst especially, is not a fucker that attacks people directly. He's a fucking corporate spy who sneaks up on, drugs people, and then kidnaps or kills them. Why the fuck is he here attacking in the open with a big ass group rather than targeting and kidnapping Jaime's family?
The Masked Marauder too is also a sneaky spy type bitch who is not about some fucking action unless he catches someone he thinks he can take off guard and isolated. If he does fight he's fighting just enough to get the fuck out of dodge. Like, make him a fucking mastermind type and organizing shit from the shadows instead of just putting a bunch of Ted's villains on page just to show them and then toss them aside.
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But its also shit like how no one fucking seems to get the Madmen even tho they have an extremely simple premise. They're distractions for hire (formerly a gang of bank robbers and occasionally opportunistically commit crimes on their own) they dress like clowns and act wacky to distract superheroes while their clients commit crimes while the superheroes are distracted.
It's a very simple premise! Also its a very easy villain group to keep going, franchise shit its a business have new fuckers take up the grease paint.
The fact that writers outside of the Blue Beetle 1986 run kept trying to give their leader Fleeter fucking mind control powers to make him more of a threat while failing to address the fact that if the fucker can mind control people to be his minions why wouldnt he just mind control Ted? But also the Madmen aren't following Fleeter against their will, they're homies and have practiced shit a lot don't fucking be lazy and try to undermine that. They don't need powers, they're literally just dudes who's entire thing is being distracting they dont need to be much more.
(But also stop underestimating a bunch of very athletic dudes? Like there's a good number of superheroes that are literally just athletic dudes, they can be just as threatening.)
And probably the worst incarnation of the Madmen were the Madniks (granted that's a really cute sounding name) from the DCAU tie in comics where they just fucking made them 'crazy' wereclowns like the DCAU's version of the Creeper. Which is bad thanks.
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Just... you can tell how much folks don't give a shit about Ted Kord/Blue Beetle 2 outside of the shit from Justice League International and its spawn and spinoffs and that in turn means folks don't give a shit about Ted's villains.
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