Paco Testas
17 years ago - Paco Testas is born in El Paso, Texas
3 years ago - 14-year-old Paco Testas becomes a runner for a local street gang.
2 years ago - 15-year-old Paco Testas's friend Jamie Reyes becomes the Blue Beetle. He and Brenda Del Vechio help him navigate becoming a superhero.
1 year ago - 16-year-old Paco Testas & Brenda Del Vechio are abducted by the Reach with Jamie Reyes.
As great as the superhero storytelling and design of the Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle were, it's really his relationships with all the supporting characters that really elevates that series into such a must-read. It's telling that, while Jaime was in the Teen Titans he specifically told Paco and Brenda that he likes hanging out with them more, because the genuine affection between everyone was just SO obvious.
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Paco's Comic HistoryPaco appeared for the first time in 2006's Infinite Crisis as it set up the new Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle, but really arrived, along with the rest of Jaime's supporting cast, in the launch of his new series.
Both Paco and Brenda arrived seemingly built as existing stock characters; the pretty studious girl and the street-smart guy. The stockness of Paco was probably a little more blatant; he was more visibly Latino and seemed like he was setting up some negative stereotypes; he talked about his dislike and disinterest in school, and even started the series associating with local gangs. The book just didn't let him backslide into that sort of problematic characterization, though. He was always a much more whole person than that, playfully bantering with his best friends even through his ongoing will-they-or-wont-they romantic tension with Brenda. His association with the local gang even developed into a major plot point as they became pseudo-allies of Jaime. Appearances of Paco in the post Nu 52 series, if you ask me, do sort of fail to show the fun and thoughtful character of Paco in favor of the stereotypes, so we really need to focus, again, on the original series. |