Board Thread:Episodic and Issue Discussion/@comment-47881-20130227210719/@comment-6775379-20130228020919

Bobbobin wrote: In Before the Dawn, they have NO idea who are what works against Black Beetle, in True colors they found out that energy beams(Arsenal's laser) works agains Black Beetle.

So, by the time of Blue's betrayal they already have an idea of what works and what does not, it's just that they did not manage to utilize them because Arsenal took that chance away.

Not exactly. Yeah, they had an idea. But it's been demonstrated already that Arsenal's mechanical arm alone is not enough to defeat Black Beetle. And keep in mind that by the time anybody on the team realized what was going on, it was virtually already too late. Again, I can only point to four characters who were still active at that point (Superboy, Bumblebee, Robin, and Sphere). I've already explained that Bumblebee and Robin were basically useless in that fight -- except maybe as distractions. We don't quite know how well Sphere would have fared. And Superboy in theory could have done something more than just get smacked in the face with one of Blue's staples. So, maybe Arsenal getting Sphere sucked out of the room cost them a victory.

There's another thing to consider here, though. Remember in Darkest when Kaldur and his team infiltrated the cave? Sphere seemingly recognized him as a friend, and did not attack. Now, either Sphere was in on the op the whole time, or just inherently knew that Kal was one of the good guys. We may have had the precise situation in War: Sphere knows that Jaime is really one of the good guys, but is being controlled by the scarab. If that's the case, Sphere may not have attacked him at all.

In fact, given this scenario, it's entirely probable that Arsenal's actions actually benefited the team. If Sphere had refused to attack Blue (for the reasons specified above), she may have been severely damaged or destroyed by Blue. Since she is not compatible with Reach tech, what use would they have for her? So, Sphere being destroyed, Nightwing and Miss M could not have found her, and therefore could not have come to the aid of Superboy and company. Assuming they had more difficulty with the Red Beetles than expected or hoped, the fight between Black Beetle and Mongul could have ended in time for one of them to intervene. What do you suppose happens next?