I got the news around lunchtime yesterday that Ted Kord, more commonly unknown as Blue Beetle, was killed in action by (of all people) Maxwell Lord.

Blue Beetle was considered by many to be a cross between Spiderman and Batman, though honestly I considered him uniquely better than both. He was, in many ways, one of the most unique characters I ever saw in comic books.

In some ways he was a man of the fanboys. He fought weight issues like many of us do. He was smarter than average, though never quite able to commodify it between failed business ventures and only sporadic success with the ladies. He was the class clown that was puzzled when people wouldn't take him seriously whenever he was serious.

But mostly, he was human without being melodramatic. And more than any other character in comicdom, he was the kind of guy you'd love to share a beer with and talk to and joke around with until some ungodly hour of the morning.

Kord's death is tragic to me for more than any one reason. Part of it is that it marks what will probably be a somewhat permanent severence between myself and DC comics. Kord was my favorite character. My second favorite, Helena Bertinelli, still lives but has been changed into something that I don't appreciate nearly as much.

I always assumed that I would start collecting again. I still might somewhere along the line, but I'm not nearly so sure as I was a week ago. I'm not necessarily angry with DC as characters come and go and that's part of the arrangement. But the updated, "darker" universe they're building isn't the one that I collected before. It's like leaving a town and during a quick trip back realizing the town that you originally left doesn't exist anymore.

So anyway, adios Ted. Say hello to Adrian Chase, Peter Cannon, Tora Olafsdotter, Christopher Smith, and the rest.