DC's This Land Is Our Land: A Blue Beetle Story Team Talks Twist on Coming of Age Stories
Writer Julio Anta and artist Jacoby Salcedo give us all the details on DC's new Blue Beetle graphic novel
DC's Blue Beetle continues to be one of DC's most relatable characters, and that's especially true in DC's newest graphic novel This Land is Your Land: A Blue Beetle Story. The new graphic novel (up for pre-order now) was created by the all-star Frontera team of writer Julio Anta and artist Jacoby Salcedo, and the duo takes fans through a new version of Jaime's origin story that mixes the bigger-than-life aspects of superheroes with the realities of racial tensions and politics. The result is a grounded and relatable story of several friends coming into their own and facing what the world throws in front of them that feels unmistakably Blue Beetle, and ComicBook had the chance to speak to Anta and Salcedo all about creating their version of the character, his world, and bringing real-world elements into the mix.
Dream Scenario
For Anta, crafting a new Blue Beetle story was a dream scenario, and once the gears started turning he knew a few things he wanted to focus on in the graphic novel. "Well, I'll start off by saying that Jaime is one of my favorite DC characters, and I was so honored coming out of the... I was part of this program called the Milestone Initiative, and coming out of that program, my editor Courtney approached me and just asked me, 'What's your take on Blue Beetle?' And I dropped some hints that I'd love to write Blue Beetle one day, but to be asked that question really just sends my mind in a million different directions," Anta said. "And I think with this take on Blue Beetle, we knew it was going to be an origin story because it is a standalone YA graphic novel, but we also knew that it had to bring something new to it. And this was prior to the Blue Beetle film coming out. It hadn't been released yet, so I didn't know what that take was yet."
"I knew that they were moving him to a new city, but for me, it was important to keep him in El Paso and to keep him historically rooted because so much of what I love about that character and that I wanted to share about that character has this really strong sense of place and using that place as almost a character of its own," Anta said. "On one of the first pages of the book, on the first page of the book, Jaime says that his family has been in El Paso for generations, back when El Paso was still Mexico. And that was really sort of like a guiding light for me with that character."
Rooting things in El Paso also allows the story to work in the realities of living in a border town and how that is affected by whatever politics are in power at any given moment. Jaime is rather apolitical, something that comes up quite a bit throughout the story as he interacts with others, and he's also always looking to the stars, a new facet to the character that symbolizes his aspirational view of the world.
"This is a character that exists in this historical context, but then also he's still a teenager and he might know that his family is Mexican-American and they've been on this land, the borders across them, but he's still a kid that has seen the political cycles of living in a border town go back and forth," Anta said. "And he's in a very apolitical place where he's just ready to focus on the things he loves like stargazing, which is something new that we gave to the character also in addition to a few new characters. But my guiding light was he exists in a historical context, but despite that he's still a regular kid that just wants to live his life and isn't necessarily concerned with everything that's going on around him. And that's his journey throughout the rest of the book.
Grounded but High Tech
As an origin story, fans get to see Anta and Salcedo's vision for the Blue Beetle costume and accompanying power set, as well as their unique version of The Reach. Salcedo wanted to bring some menace to them while also highlighting the energy and dynamics of Beetle and what Jaime can do with his newfound abilities.
"Definitely wanted to stick to that scare factor, make sure that they feel very much like insects. And it was more so like, okay, how do I transform these kinds of insect-looking exoskeletons to Jaime's suit which is slightly different from other iterations? I mean I was definitely looking at the current run that's going on with Josh Trujillo and Adrián Gutiérrez and I was like, okay, this is something cool. Let me make sure I don't do the exact same thing as them. But also, I mean I just wanted... Julio was, one of his things was like how do we make it kind of grounded but also high-tech, which is like those are on different levels so it's like, okay, just give me the hardest request. Sure (laughs). But I want to make it like it's skin-tight. I definitely didn't want his little piercers," Salcedo said.
The reason for that lies in the team's first Blue Beetle story. "Because Julio and I did a short Blue Beetle story for the main DC line and I remember drawing those and I was just like, I hate these things so much," Salcedo said. "And they just kind of block visually. It just doesn't work. But I just want to make the Reach and Blue Beetle suit similar but also enough where you can be like, okay, Blue Beetle is a good guy here and the Reach have a more sinister vibe about them."
A Unique Partnership
There are also new wrinkles in the relationship between Jaime and Khaji Da. This time around Khaji is sent on a mission for The Reach and is not rebelling against that mission when Jaime first discovers them. Over time Khaji's viewpoint morphs and changes as the dynamic with Jaime grows and evolves, and they learn to live with each other in a different way than we've seen previously.
"Yeah, I think the Khaji part came maybe the most naturally to me. From the start of this book, I knew that I wanted this to be both a superhero origin story and a sort of YA coming-of-age story, but also, and this speaks to the dichotomies that Jacoby spoke to a little bit, but also a sci-fi adventure and a celebration of Latino culture and a cautionary tale about radicalism and radicalization," Anta said. "And to me, the Reach and Khaji fit that role of being this radicalizing effect on Jaime, this effect that makes him do things that he doesn't want to do or tries to convince him to do things that he doesn't want to do."
"And with Khaji, I kind of wanted him to walk that line slightly where he's not this altruistic refugee, he has a mission, but then towards the end, you can see the sympathies shifting. You can see him saying, well you're going to want to do this if that's what your goal is and just kind of being there. But I think a lot of it is just informed from my desire to want to have a super grounded story while also having sci-fi elements and using Khaji as the impetus for a lot of these sci-fi elements and the Reach as well," Anta said.
Real World Issues
This Land Is Your Land's coming-of-age story focuses on concepts like finding your voice and discovering and ultimately understanding what's truly important to you. Another key focus is how Jaime deals with the hate and fear the world can throw at you on any given day, and the unfortunate places and people those feelings can emerge from. There's also an empathetic element to the story represented by a former friend named Riley who falls in with the wrong crowd, and fans will learn as much about Jaime as they do Riley through their confrontations.
"Yeah, I think Jacoby and I, obviously we both grew up reading North American comics also Manga and in that space... but as creators, we're also coming from the YA space and the book market and our last book Frontera was very much a book that mines a lot of that territory of a grounded story with a slight supernatural twist but that helps you empathize with these characters," Anta said. "And while Jaime isn't necessarily the character that we need you to empathize with within this book, we want him to empathize with different people. But it's also the Riley character, which is a new character that we created for this book. We are looking for a sort of empathy for that character because we do want him to find reconciliation amongst his community in a way that I think is not often afforded to people who go down the road that he does."
"But that I believe there has to be, you can't just lose 16-year-old kids because they're isolated and they go down these racist rabbit holes. There needs to be a way for them to understand, to come to know where they went wrong and to seek reconciliation and for it to be accepted," Anta said. "And that's one of those kind of, I think, tricky themes that we tried to balance here. And that's why he does come to see how he was manipulated. He does come to see how these dangerous words become real-life danger, the consequences of those words and how it all just... He gets in too deep and now he wants to find a way to make right. But we're sort of balancing a lot of themes while still making sure that this is a big, fun, hopeful superhero story with a lot of big action and set pieces. So it's a lot to balance, but I think when you work with someone like Jacoby who's just an amazing artist and can really do the emotion and the action so well, it makes it a lot easier," Anta said.
There's actually a series of panels that focuses specifically on Riley's story, and so much of his pain, turmoil, and anger is skillfully conveyed through Salcedo's beautiful artwork. Riley might put on a brave front, but he's genuinely scared, and getting to maximize expressions was a key way to highlight that throughout the book.
"I think I love facial expressions. I would, not to brag, but I feel like that's a good strong point for me. I love drawing a face and I think early on we see Riley, he has this hard exterior and I'm Mr. too cool for this s*** and I think this is stupid. And in reality, when we get towards the middle and the end of the book, I really want to play to the fact that he is scared. He's gotten himself in too deep and I think that was just really something fun to play with and just playing with everyone's emotions," Salcedo said. "I mean, Jaime who is... He's trying to not necessarily avoid it, but he is not being aware of what's going on around him. I think playing with that as well as having where he's just a little bit scared as well and trying to play it cool, but everyone else is like, no, this is not cool. Things are happening right now. Yeah, I think playing with Riley being scared was, it was fun. As fun as it could be."
This Land Is Our Land: A Blue Beetle Story is up for pre-order now, and hits stores on October 1st.
Are you excited for This Land Is Our Land: A Blue Beetle Story? You can talk all things comics with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb!
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