A Heap of Mallow and Company

In honor of the glorious and generous Marionette, who has helped complete my life by presenting a biography of Marsha Mallow, I reprise my blog entry of April 19 on Fat Funny Friends..

High-Carb Companions, or, Where did all the fat people go?

One of our favorite toys here at the Absorbascon is the "Dynastic Centerpiece" model, that is, the idea that DC's iconic characters become iconic partly because a 'dynasty' of other characters with prescribed roles (e.g., "Kid Sidekick") are built around them. One option in the model used to be The Fat Friend.

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say "Funny Fat Friend", for these figures were almost always played for laughs. Batman had Alfred (yes, he was originally quite the tubbo and was strictly comic relief), Jonny Quick had Tubby Watts, Plastic Man had Woozy Winks, the Legion had Bouncing Boy, Green Lantern Alan Scott had Doiby Dickles, Wonder Woman had the (relentlessly fabulous and unrepentently fat) Etta Candy. Even Lois Lane had a Funny Fat Friend, her roommate Marsha Mallow (who you'd think had to have been Silver Age, but, no, we're talking 1970s, folks!).

Where did they go? Alfred went to a fat farm (no, really ... he did), Tubby disappeared, Woozy has been covered up by DC in a desperate attempt at superheroic legitimacy for Plas, Bouncing Boy has yet to be seen in this week's Legion reboot, Doiby Dickles is living on a distant planet (it was a Young Justice story; anything could happen), and Etta, the worse victim of the anti-fat conspiracy, went on a diet, got married, AND disappeared (only to return last month in a WW cameo). Marsha Mallow? Not sure; I think, using the fortune she made on Ebay by selling her name to the highest-bidding drag queen, she hired a gigolo who digs Big Beautiful Women and moved to Santa Prisca to avoid taxes. I'm sure I saw her as a background figure in a "Question" story once....

Now, maybe the reason for their disappearance is simple. Maybe DC got rid of them because comic relief characters went out of style, or because having Funny Fat Friends was too much like making fun of fat people, which isn't cool. That's all understandable.

But Funny Fat Friends served their purpose in the Dynastic Centerpiece model and I think we've lost something of value with its absence. Funny Fat Friends were pretty darned intrepid. Spunk is not reserved to those with Olympic-level musculatures, and the F3s made that clear. Woozy Winks, in his passive way, was almost as powerful as Plastic Man. Doiby Dickles was a serious scrapper, and Etta ... ! Woe betide any fool goosestepper who tried to take on Ms. Candy. Just for giggles, she'd beat the snot out of you, paddle you in front of her girlfriends, and make you sing "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles", all while eating a box of chocolates. Woo-woo, indeed.

Funny Fat Friends (F3s) didn't suffer from "negative self-images." They respected the heroes without being slavishly in awe of them. They didn't question their own ability to contribute to any venture, despite being paired with people who could use their magic rings to overturn battleships. On the whole, they enjoyed their adventures, a luxury our stone-faced hero sometimes didn't have. Okay, so they weren't very funny by our standards. But they were fun!

Funny Fat Friends weren't funny on account of being fat but despite it.. Oh, sure, they would occasionally use their heft to their amusing advantage in a tussle, but no one thought lesser of them for it. In fact, they showed that Fat (and otherwise imperfect) people could still be quite cool. Hey... they hung out with the world's greatest heroes; how much cooler than that do you get? Etta Candy is 900 times cooler than Snapper Carr (heck, Marsha Mallow was cooler than Snapper Carr).

Even more realistically, they showed that imperfect people existed. When's the last time you saw someone in comics without a washboard stomach? When's the last time you met someone with one? In the real world, people built like Killer Moth and Dr. Light wouldn't be supervillains, they'd be supermodels.

With the loss of the F3s, we lost from our stories their message: You don't have to be super or perfect to be confident, make a contribution, and have fun.

High-Carb Companions

Where did all the fat people go?

One of our favorite toys here at the Absorbascon is the "Dynastic Centerpiece" model, that is, the idea that DC's iconic characters become iconic partly because a 'dynasty' of other characters with prescribed roles (e.g., "Kid Sidekick") are built around them.

One option in the model used to be The Fat Friend. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say "Funny Fat Friend", for these figures were almost always played for laughs. Batman had Alfred (yes, he was originally quite the tubbo and was strictly comic relief), Jonny Quick had Tubby Watts, Plastic Man had Woozy Winks, the Legion had Bouncing Boy, Green Lantern Alan Scott had Doiby Dickles, Wonder Woman had the (relentlessly fabulous and unrepentently fat) Etta Candy. Even Lois Lane had a Funny Fat Friend, her roommate Marsha Mallow (who you'd think had to have been Silver Age, but, no, we're talking 1970s, folks!).

Where did they go? Alfred went to a fat farm (no, really ... he did), Tubby disappeared, Woozy has been covered up by DC in a desperate attempt at superheroic legitimacy for Plas, Bouncing Boy has yet to be seen in this week's Legion reboot, Doiby Dickles is living on a distant planet (it was a Young Justice story; anything could happen), and Etta, the worse victim of the anti-fat conspiracy, went on a diet, got married, AND disappeared (only to return last month in a WW cameo). Marsha Mallow? Not sure; I think, using the fortune she made on Ebay by selling her name to the highest-bidding drag queen, she hired a gigolo who digs Big Beautiful Women and moved to Santa Prisca to avoid taxes. I'm sure I saw her as a background figure in a "Question" story once....

Now, maybe the reason for their disappearance is simple. Maybe DC got rid of them because comic relief characters went out of style, or because having Funny Fat Friends was too much like making fun of fat people, which isn't cool. That's all understandable. But Funny Fat Friends served their purpose in the Dynastic Centerpiece model and I think we've lost something of value with its absence.

Funny Fat Friends were pretty darned intrepid. Spunk is not reserved to those with Olympic-level musculatures, and the F3s made that clear. Woozy Winks, in his passive way, was almost as powerful as Plastic Man. Doiby Dickles was a serious scrapper, and Etta ... ! Woe betide any fool goosestepper who tried to take on Ms. Candy. Just for giggles, she'd beat the snot out of you, paddle you in front of her girlfriends, and make you sing "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles", all while eating a box of chocolates. Woo-woo, indeed.

Funny Fat Friends (F3s) didn't suffer from "negative self-images." They respected the heroes without being slavishly in awe of them. They didn't question their own ability to contribute to any venture, despite being paired with people who could use their magic rings to overturn battleships. On the whole, they enjoyed their adventures, a luxury our stone-faced hero sometimes didn't have. Okay, so they weren't very funny by our standards. But they were fun!

Funny Fat Friends weren't funny because they were fat. Oh, sure, they would occasionally use their heft to their advantage in a tussle, but no one thought lesser of them for it. In fact, they showed that Fat (and otherwise imperfect) people could still be quite cool. Hey... they hung out with the world's greatest heroes; how much cooler than that do you get? Etta Candy is 900 times cooler than Snapper Carr (heck, Marsha Mallow was cooler than Snapper Carr).

Even more realistically, they showed imperfect people existed. When's the last time you saw someone in comics without a washboard stomach? When's the last time you met someone with one? In the real world, people built like Killer Moth and Dr. Light wouldn't be supervillains, they'd be supermodels.

With the loss of the F3s, we lost from our stories their message:
You don't have to be super or perfect to be confident, make a contribution, and have fun.

Stan and I Pass Judgement!

We all know that the Starman Archive has no rival for DRAMA. But if it did, that rival would be "Who Wants to be a Superhero?"

Boy, when Stan Lee said the tests would only get tougher, he wasn't kidding, True Believers.

Love the Enforcer's new supervillain outfit and his mushmouthed scenery-chewing! I'm now his biggest fan -- or second biggest fan, judging from last night's challenge! HA! AhHAHAHAHA!

He's not a real supervillain, of course; he's a Sinister Sidekick ("Hey, Bawss, you'll find dese here seecret recordins ree-uhl useful-like!").

Who would have thought the "Buying Lunch Challenge" would be an insidious snare, and one which would easily trap all but two of the heroes? FOOLS! THE UTTER FOOLS! Truly an ingenious deception; I applaud the producer's evil.

I bet Nitro G and Levity wouldn't have fallen for that trick, because they actually read comic books. Feedback escaped because of his steely gaze and power of super-disturbing-sincerity. Fat Momma, well, I think she escaped only because the trap was flirtation-based and she knew darned well no one would be flirting with her.

There were two eliminations last night and, lemme tell ya, they were pretty shocking! Shocking, but justified in the context of ratcheting up the moral standards of the contestants. Sadly, two of the contestants I liked the most were eliminated, leaving two who I can't stand.

Now it's time for me to pass Moral Judgment on some of them, like my idol, Stan Lee.

"Lemuria -- you are a vicious backstabbing viper-fanged beyotch of the worst kind. You are a nightmare and should turn in your costume. However, as a consolation prize, you're being sent to DC as the latest member of the Outsiders."

"Tyveculus -- it's my job to tell Lemuria she's a vicious backstabbing viper-fanged beyotch of the worst kind, not yours. Soopuheerowz are supposed ta make people feel bettuh about themselves, not worse! Captain America called; he wants his high horse back."

"Feedback -- if I asked you to bite off the head of a hamster to prove your courage, would you do it? Ah, no, Feedback! Put down the hamster! The '90s are over, Feedback, and people want heroes who can do their jobs non-psychotically."

"Creature -- I hate you less than I used to, because you immediately understood the Self-Sacrifice Challenge and you met it with complete sincerity. I don't like you, but you've earned my respect and you seem to be actually learning something during the process."

"Monkey Woman -- I have adored you more with each passing episode and you are a Tower of Fabulousness. But! A Tower of Fabulousness built on the Quicksand of Deceipt will inevitably sink. 'Nuff said."

"Fat Momma -- you have gone over to the dark side. I was so happy for you when you aced the Fire Walk With Me challenge and used your donuts to comfort the Screaming Twin! But you totally missed the point of the Self-Sacrifice Challenge. I used be a huge supporter of you, but you have abadoned Justice and embraced Vengeance. Overwhelmed by emotion, you have lost your mission and you are lost to us. You will reassigned as the Fat Funny Friend of the Punisher where it is hoped you will revive its sagging sales in the black female readers demographic."

"Major Victory -- every time I think you're going to trip on your own cheesiness, you prevail. Even though you stumbled on the Buying Lunch challenge, you of all the contestants seem to have the best natural sense of what it means to be a soopuheerow. I don't know whether you'll win, but I'm becoming convinced which each passing episode that you are the only man worthy of fathering my baby."

Ten Things I'm Sick Of

 1. "Bat" & "Cat". It's a stupid, childish attempt to Sound Cool.

Zdarksy. Of course.  Who else would think imitating Tom King is a way to sound cool?

2 & 3.  Japanese Manga's weird fetish/obsession for nymphettes in sailor costumes and Corgis/Shiba Inus.

It's creepy in its relentlessness. Why can't they fixate on circus boys in swimming trunks, like normal Americans?

4. The continued Wink&Nod sexualization of Catwoman.

"Uncovered"; oh, it's not naughty ambiguity, it's a genuine exploration of her as feminist anti-hero icon, blah blah blah.  At least in the Golden Age when she wore a split-skirt and plunging neckline, they were more honest about it.

5. Yaoi.

Look, I suppose we gay people have a right to creepy trash as much as anyone, but I don't have to like it.  If this stuff is even FOR gay people, rather than just female readers who get off on watching male characters treat other male characters as badly as female characters are usually treated.

6 & 7. G'nort. And "swimsuit issues".

Who is this FOR?! People who fetishize grown-up circus boys in swimming trunks?

You know, the Fat Funny Friends of the Golden Age may be mostly gone, but don't convince yourself that the contemporary equivalent, the Lore-Riffing Parody Meta-Character (I'm looking at you, Dr. Quinzel) is any way more sophisticated (OR funny).

8. Oh So Clever Parodies/Satires/Homages that try to excuse themselves by lampshading that that's what they are.

Although ever time you DON"T lampshade it, some fool who missed the joke will inevitably start to take it seriously (e.g., Lobo, Sentry, the Extremists, the Watchmen), and, inevitably, that will include not just readers but writers.

9 & 10.  Chip Zdarsky and The League of Overused XXXtreme Batman Tropes.

"Batman descends on Gotham City, full of rage and force, more driven than ever to save his home. But the new landscape has turned friends into foes. Can anyone stop his reign of terror? Should they? The Gotham War continues in this second chapter!"

The Featured Cast

Before I turn to comics characters, I want to talk briefly about Dr. Zachary Smith (as portrayed by Lost in Space's permanent Guest-Star, Jonathan Harris).

"Is this REALLY necessary, my boy?"

Whenever you read any on-line discussion about Lost In Space, someone inevitably complains about Dr. Smith being useless. I can understand why they think this: certainly, his virtues are almost nonexistent, his skills debatable at best,  and his flaws are, if not endless, nearly bottomless.

Many people forget that originally Dr. Smith was an Air Force Colonel, the Jupiter program's head physician, and an expert enough combatant to knock out a military guard with one karate chop.  Over time, the show intentionally "forgot" all these details so that Dr. Smith would be as useless as possible. 

People focused on Dr. Smith's in-universe uselessness tend to overlook Dr. Smith's narrative purpose (other than as an "internal antagonist"): Dr. Smith was there to emphasize the HORROR of the situation.

And NO ONE has ever been better at emphasizing horror than Zachary Smith.

The Space Family Robinson (including Don West) are supernaturally brave.  It's kind of baked into the fact that they were chosen for the Alpha Centauri mission to begin with, and they are remarkably resolute in the face of each episode's new terrors. Dr. Smith is there to provide a "normal" (if frequently dramatic) reaction to the horrors they encounter (and of being lost in space generally).  People complain about Dr. Smith's goofy histrionics undercutting the seriousness of show.  But it is exactly that quality of Dr. Smith that SELLS THE DANGER.  It is, ironically, Dr. Smith who convinces you to take seriously the threats that might otherwise seem just goofy.  There is ZERO doubt that Dr. Smith is 100% terrified EVERY TIME and you cannot help but identify with it to some degree.  Dr. Smith's shrieking cowardice isn't a character flaws; it's his principal FEATURE.  If you miss that, you are missing much of the point of the series.

Similarly, many readers, too focused on imposing their own logic to "in-universe" situations, miss the narrative purpose of supporting characters (or of certain characteristics of some main characters).

The prime example of this is, of course, James Bartholomew Olsen.

"... again"?

I'm just going to assume that if you are reading this blog, you are already sufficient familiar with The Flaws of Jimmy Olsen.  Let's just say that Jimmy is somewhat ... impulsive.  And overconfident.  Such traits get him into Situations, ones that even his pal, Superman, is challenged to handle.

But that is not a "flaw" of Jimmy Olsen; that is the POINT of Jimmy Olsen.  It's not just a useful plot device that Jimmy's a congenital idiot with less impulse control than a toddler; it's essential metaphor.

Jimmy Olsen isn't merely "non-superhuman", he is painfully HUMAN.  Jimmy Olsen -- powerless, too impulsive for his own good, foolishly confident, oddly blasé when he finds himself in bizarre situations he has usually brought on himself -- IS humanity.  To ask "Why on earth is Superman pals with Jimmy Olsen?" is to ask "Why does Superman put up with humanity AT ALL?!"  Jimmy Olsen shows what makes Superman special.  It's not having superpowers; it's have superpowers and STILL caring about a self-destructive, short-sighted mess like Jimmy Olsen (and by extension the rest of us).  And Jimmy provides a benefit to Superman that almost no one else in-universe: by and large,  he treats Superman and Superman's life as NORMAL

Look, we all love Superman, but normal he ain't.

If Superman has one consistent fear, it's of being ostracized and abandoned.  There is nothing Superman -- who is really just Clark Kent, after all-- values more than being treated as normal.  The reason all his friends are work colleagues is because (other than his appearance) having a job is the most human thing about him.

Nothing says "I'm secretly afraid of being abandoned by my entire planet AGAIN" than naming your secret headquarters "The Fortress of Solitude".

There's a similar situation with Wonder Woman: the readers who deride classic Etta Candy as merely a "funny fat friend", an extended fat joke from a less enlightened era.  

Your crippling man-hungriness repulses me, Diana; and I am someone highly accepting of man-hungriness.

But they are missing the point of Etta Candy (especially all those writers who have her lose weight).  

Dieting Etta Candy is not Etta Candy at all.

As I pointed out twenty years ago, Etta Candy neither needs nor wants your permission to be herself.  Unlike Golden Age Wonder Woman, Etta is neither vain nor hung up on men.  

Shut up, Diana. I'm sick of your sanctimonious fat-shaming. Etta is not your "project".

Etta isn't "fat" because she lacks willpower; she could be thinner,  but trying to have a Wonder Woman physique isn't where her values lie.  

Etta knows her value doesn't come from others.

Etta's purpose isn't to be laughed at; it is to be admired because she doesn't HAVE to be a runway model to be vivacious, popular, and effective.

Batman has a misunderstood supporting character; it's must less obvious, but I think it's just as important. The character is Bat-Girl (the real one, I mean).

SPOILER ALERT:
She's a heroine.

So many versions of Barbara "Batgirl" Gordon integrate her fully into the "Bat-family".  It takes a variety of forms.  In some media/contintuities, she has a romantic relationship with Dick Grayson (or even Bruce!) or she operates out of the Batcave with her efforts being coordinated by Batman as leader of the Bat-family.  To me, this misses the point of the characters. Specifically, to BE independent of Batman.

Whose baby ARE you, anyway?

The Batman'66 show, of all versions, got it right.  Batman and Robin never knew who Batgirl was, but they appreciate her cooperation and her professionalism and never tried to control her.

There's was not an entangling alliance.

Even when Barbara Gordon switched from being Batgirl to being Oracle, she wasn't "Batman's resource".  She was depicted as an independent operator and a resource for the entire superhuman community.  The independence of Batgirl made her a feminist role model (in a way that man-crazy Wonder Woman never actually was), the logical successor of the original Batwoman and Bat-Girl.

Remember them...?

Now only modern Batwoman serves that role and it's undercut rather severely by the fact that Batwoman is Bruce Wayne's cousin and so is quite literally part of the Batfamily.

I am sure the attempts to be "inclusive" of Batgirl in the Batfamily are well-meant; no one wants to dismiss or diminish Barbara Gordon as a character.

Well; almost no one.

But doing so does diminish her as an entity inspired by yet still independent of Batman. This is why I have always resisted fandom's relentless "shipping" of Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson.

That and sartorial considerations.

I am myself am (somewhat) guilty of this type of mistake.  No one has been more critical of Silver Age Aqualad than I.

Because he is a big-headed, purple-eyed freaky menace.

But even in my blinding detestation of Aqualad (who was always useless in-universe), I intuited his narrative purpose: making Aquaman look cool.  When Aqualad was freaking out, Aquaman retained his composure.  When Aqualad thought they were doomed, Aquaman remained hopeful. When Aqualad could see no way out, Aquaman found a simple solution.

Or at least the Silver Age's idea of "simple".

I have been similarly critical of Iris West. a.k.a., The Meanest Woman Alive.  But her in-universe flaw is a narrative feature: she shows that Barry Allen is The Most Patient Man Alive.  Which explains how he, the Flash, can live in world where literally everyone is much slower than he is.

Hal Jordan's legendary bone-headedness is certainly a flaw, but it has a narrative function: it highlights the fact that his defining features aren't intelligence or planning, but rather fearlessness and willpower.  

For about the sound of one hand clapping.  
What does it mean for Hal Jordan's mind to go blank?

Now, you might think these are insufficient or inappropriate virtues to determine who wields a power ring, but you are not the Silver Age Guardians of the Universe.

And who are we to doubt the wisdom of beings with their superior sense of color coordination?

I could go on, but I've covered most of the icons and I think you catch my drift.  Next time you feel critical of the flaws of a particular character, stop to consider whether those are part of their narrative function.  Or do so right now in the comments!

My two pennies' worth

Frank Miller invented Alfred.

I think it's fair to say I'm not Frank Miller's biggest fan. Far from it, in fact. But one must give the devil his due.

Alfred began unspectactularly as just another Fat Funny Friend. He was well-meaning bungler, a wanna detective, and an intruder on the Wayne household.

How things change! Alfred skinnied up and grew a mustache to resemble his first movie counterpart, retconned his name from the comic "Beagle" to the dignified "Pennyworth", stopped speaking in dialect, and acquired responsibility for upkeep of the Batcave. That evolution saved Alfred from the fate of other comic relief characters of Golden Age. At some point (help me out on this one), he was retconned in as the family butler when Bruce was a boy, becoming a surrogate parent after the Waynes died.

But Alfred was still, on the whole, a colorless faithful retainer type for decades.

Until...

The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller is credited with revitalizing, darkening, and solidifying the Batman. Pfah. What Miller really did was revitalize, darken, and soldify Alfred. In not too many scenes, Miller created the image of acerbic, painfully dry and understated retainer that is now Alfred. So right was Miller's characterization, so desperately needed to give Alfred the larger and deeper role readers have always wanted him to have. So successful was he in doing so, that not only did every writer afterwards follow his lead, but readers began to think that Alfred was always that way.

He wasn't.
Thank you, Frank Miller, for re-inventing Alfred as someone who could both "fight" Batman to a standstill and make Batman part of one of comics' greatest comedy duos.

Blue Beetle: La Pellícula

 I saw Blue Beetle today, and enjoyed it.

Some of the beats were a bit worn for me. "!FAMILIA!" is nearly inevitable for a film with Jaime Reyes at the center, but has "FAMILY IS EVERYTHING!" beaten to death as a pop culture message in the last 15 years, or what?

Pictured: The Supreme Importance of Family

Even WITHOUT "The Fast & Furious" films. Really, you can't have followed any longer-form pop culture saga without this theme having been anviled on your head incessantly.  Gods help you if you don't Have Family, because It's The Only Thing That Matters, and so most popular narrative is designed to make you feel like you have NOTHING.

When you love your family so much,
you have to marry them.
BTW, only two of three people in this picture survive the ceremony.

It's convenient for long-form narrative, because it lets writers define their cast of characters As A Family and then justify anything around that.

And you don't abandon family,
even if they aren't perfect.

This is why it is so overused.  BUT it's a theme that actually DOES belong in Blue Beetle, where it is handled, well, not subtly, certainly, but solidly.  

As for the rest of the film, 

The CGI was good and believable, which is impressive given how difficult the Blue Beetle III concept is to visually represent.  The film also has the coolest set of stairs since The Exorcist.

Which are quite vertiginous, btw.

Jaime and the other characters were likable and (broadly) believable (except for the villains, who were neither).  

Having a likable and believable hero as your protagonist should not be taken for granted.

The characters are pleasant enough, if a bit stock-y: the Saintly Supportive Father, the Weepy Attentive Mother, the Perky Nana, the Sassy Sister. I missed Paco Testas and Brenda Del Vecchio, who I (and even CBR) think of as Jaime's real supporting cast.

They were sacrificed in favor of family, because family is all.

The plot was pretty tight (if vague: the Scarab doesn't seem to me like something Whose Code You Can Download, but many hands were waved in the making of this film) and proceeded at a good clip; I never felt the movie dragging at any point.  Except in the Afterlife, but you know how leisurely people in the Afterlife are.

Blue Beetle history fans have every reason to be pleased, given how accurately and respectfully Dan Garret (Blue Beetle I) and Ted Kord (Blue Beetle II) are incorporated into the plot.  

I mean: Ted Kord foe CARAPAX? Who expected THAT?!

Delightfully, even though Ted doesn't appear, his tech DOES and it is very satisfying, because it represents him perfectly. It's goofy, amazing, impressive, and not always reliable.  As one of the characters says, "He was like Batman, but with a sense of humor."  Ted Kord doesn't cast a shadow on the movie, he shines a light on it.  This is perhaps the film's most impressive feat.

Fans of broader Ted Kord lore should pay very close attention to where his daughter is from.  True fans will understand the significance of it.

It's pretty sweet.

The film even climaxes on Pago Island.  I didn't expect that amount of comics-accurate respect.

That one; in the DCU.
Not Pago Pago; that's in Samoa.

Mercifully, while the film includes much Blue Beetle history, it spares us any mention of The Reach or The Bleed, which have always been tedious with their Invader Zim bit. The Scarab is "alien combat tech", period.

There are plenty of familiar (and familial) aspects of Latin culture (even more specifically, Mexican) that those in the know will be tickled by (I was slain when the film embraced The Red Grasshopper).  It also does a good job of reminding us that the old people in your life have entire decades of living underlying them that you just know nothing about.  

At the cinema I saw the film at

The Alamo Drafthouse, which has really made Going To The Movies a special treat again.

a trailer interview with Blue Beetle's director (Angel Manuel Soto, famed chronicler of Menudo) ran before the film that was elucidating.  What struck me most was his understanding that shifting the setting from El Paso (where Jaime originally was in comics) to a fictionalized version of that city ("Palmera City") is a "promotion" for Blue Beetle, because tentpole heroes in the DCU have Their Own Cities and lesser ones generally do not.  It's one of the most clear reinforcements of one of my favorite concepts, the idea that The Fictionopolis matters and it's one of the DCU's advantages over the Marvelverse.

Palmera City was created FOR the film, but appeared in comics at least half a year earlier, because comic books not written by Frank Miller come out faster than movies do.

P.S. Because sometimes The Fat Funny Friend is FAMILY, the film has George Lopez in it. Prominently. But I still recommend that you see it, which is high praise, indeed.

Tragically, his character survives.  
Truly, a failed promise.