maskormenace | VIDEO | ID says Blue Beetle

[Hello, everyone, and welcome to what may well be the Blue Beetle's first - and possibly last - ever video post! He's clearly in uniform, and frankly looks a little inhuman; his red-yellow lenses glow faintly, even though he's posting from a rooftop out in the sunshine, he's conspicuously noseless, and he's covered from head to toe in a blue and black carapace armour. When he speaks, his voice is calm and measured; he's clearly been thinking about this for a long time, and it's something he wants to get out right, even if his speech is a little marred by the fact that he's speaking through a faintly robotic filter.]

Hi, everyone. Um, some of you might know me, even if I don't talk here a whole lot, but just in case -- I'm the Blue Beetle. Not my real name, for the record, but plenty of us superheroes still do the codename thing, even here. But that's not what I'm here to talk about! I wanna talk about powers.

See, as far as I can tell, we all get powers when we get here, unless we already had some back home, and now? Even the people who were born here have them. It's especially hard for people who got dangerous powers. Some people try and use them for good, and other people just try to ignore them, and others try to master them by themselves, but this kind of thing isn't something you should have to tackle by yourself.

Where I'm from, there are a lot of people with powers. We call them metahumans. And sometimes when they try to tackle these things by themselves, it works out just fine! A lot of the time, though? It doesn't. Especially when they go out and use them to try and do a lot of good, and I know that's what people here are doing too. Maybe it seems like it's not a big deal from the outside, but it is. That's how a lot of people wind up dead. [He pauses, just for a moment, and inhales quickly before continuing.] It's how a lot of people I know wound up dead. It's not something to take lightly. I know I didn't have a lot of help - I didn't ask for a lot of help - when I started out, and if I did? Things would have gone a lot smoother.

But I'm not trying to lecture anyone! I know a lot of people here have been doing this for a lot longer than me, [he admits, flashing a quick smile at the screen, teeth white and human behind his mask.] This is just me making an offer. If you're trying to break into what people like me do, or if you're trying to figure out your powers, don't do it alone. If you're not worried about yourself, at least think of other people -- if you've got some strong powers going on, without training, it's really, really easy to hurt other people accidentally. If you guys want help, I'll do that, the best I can. And if I can't, I have a feeling there's a lot of others who'd be willing to help too.

So, um... yeah. I guess that's it! Didn't... really think about how I was going to end this.

[He blinks at the communicator, suddenly awkward before clearing his throat and saying:] Bye!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ A laugh, then. ]

Yeah -- I guess...

That'd be nice, wouldn't it?

I feel like that's the goal, you know? If we help these people figure out how to keep their powers under control, they won't have to do anything but be themselves. It sucks that when you get them, all of a sudden it's like your life can only go one of two ways.

[He's embraced the superhero thing by now. But not everyone has to.]

Who knows where you would have wound up, if you had different opportunities.

Yeah.

[ A laugh. ] If I wasn't as lucky, or well-supported, I'd have probably either ended up a... ah, freedom fighter for L2s [ read: terrorist ] or drugged out of my mind half the time, probably.

Support makes all the difference, I know that one better than most.

[Without his support group, Jaime knows, he would have literally taken over the world. He has to laugh at that, even if the subject is a dire one; they really shouldn't be subjects of powers so great that they would literally run around murdering innocents without someone to help them out.]

Trust me, I wouldn't be the guy you know now without my friends and family helping me out, even if they weren't sure what to do with the whole superpower thing. I hope that the people who got new powers have families that are taking it well instead of just booting them out.

Would've been bad, huh?

[ A wry twist. He's seen how bad it can be. ]

Yeah, I think it's that way for a lot of us. That's just more reason to... you know, try to do exactly what you do. Maybe we should all take that as an example.

I wouldn't say no to more people trying to help each other out! But feeling obligated to do it is, like, kind of the opposite of the point I'm making. I hope that people who just want to live their lives feel like they can do it, since they've got guys like us trying to take care of the rest.

Okay, okay. Maybe it's just the military in me, that thinks we should all find a way to serve, you know?

But don't you serve so others won't have to?

In the way that I do? Yeah. In general, not so much -- I mean... if we're given power like this, I think we should use it responsibly, you know?

I'm not saying we have to, but... it would be nice?

Wouldn't it be nicer if nobody felt that they had to? I mean, nobody -- well, not many of us choose this. There are people out there with powers who just wanted to be teachers, or doctors, or writers, or... I don't know, stay at home moms and dads.

They should be allowed to choose that life. If that's what they really want.

VIDEO | ID says Blue Beetle

Video

Video

Video

Video

Video

Video

Video

Re: Video

Video

Video