Blue Beetle’s dead, new Beetle’s red, Savage Dragon is black (and so is the mood at Marvel)–a colorful week in review

There’s been a lot of discussion on message boards this week about the apparent introduction of a new Red Beetle in Justice Society of America #48. Appearing in a splash panel chock full of other JSA members and notable “legacy” characters (including Marc Andreyko’s Manhunter), is a female character who appears to be wearing a red version of Ted Kord’s old Blue Beetle costume. Who is this person? Is she a time-and-space-displaced leftover from one of the various recent crises? Dani Garrett, the granddaughter of Golden Age Blue Beetle Dan Garret? Or something else entirely?We’ve seen a couple of Red Beetles over in the pages of Dan Jurgens’ Booster Gold run–one simply appearing as an anomaly in the timestream (looked like just Ted in a red suit, and he only appeared in one panel) and one who was created as a plot point in an alternate future devised by the villainous Black Beetle, who then took that Beetle’s scarab and added to his own, making himself both more powerful and more red. There hasn’t, as far as I know, been any explanation that would explain a female version of that character appearing in current continuity, although it certainly creates an air of menace around the apparent death of Jaime Reyes (Blue Beetle III), who was, like his predacessor, shot by Maxwell Lord–this time in the newest issue of Justice League: Generation Lost.