The newest DC hero is about to make his debut on August 18. His name is the Blue Beetle and has a very long and interesting past. Jaime Reyes aka the Blue Beetle will be played by Crobra Ki Xolo Mariduena and judging by the trailers he has been very well cast. Acuccording to James Gunn he will be the first hero in the new DCU. He’s not as well known as Superman, Batman or even Aquaman, but the character has existed almost as long as those three in one form or another.
The story starts with the first blue beetle a man named Dan Garret, spelled Garrett back in 1938. However his first appearance was in radio serials. His first comic was mystery men number 1. The character was named after the then popular Green Hornet and had many similarities in the early days, he had a magic scarab that gave him many powers, Dan was killed and replaced by a very new hero, Dan’s protege Ted Kord.
Ted never got the scarab to work so he relied on his intelligence and technology. Luckily the Blue Beetle along with other heroes were bought by dc comics right when they were doing their biggest even crisis on infinite earths. After that the blue beetle lost popularity until dc came up with the idea of bringing together a group of lesser known heroes on a Justice League team with Batmen. With that the Justice League International was born. With Batman , Guy Gardner Green lantern, Booster Gold and Blue Beetle and others. this time Ted was rewritten to be more comic relief with partner in crime Booster Gold.
This all changed when ted uncovered a conspiracy by then ally Maxwell Lord. in one of the saddest stories in dc comic history, he tries to get help from the other league members but cuz his past wasn’t taken seriously so he confronted Maxwell alone only to be killed by him. This is one of the biggest moments in comic books as it also led to Wonder Woman killing Maxwell Lord which in turn led to a dark age in DC comics. Ted’s life and death would be felt even to this day. However this wouldn’t be the end of the Blue Beetle as the inactive scarab found its way to the back of Jaime Reyes.
Jaime was a young latina teenager from El Paso. The scarab formed an armor suit with an AI that spoke with a voice only he could understand, it had a large amount of weapons and technology making Jaime very powerful as the new blue beetle. For instance he once fought the Spectre and held his own. After when asked about it he said he was afraid not cuz how powerful the Spectre because the scarab kept offering more and more options to kill the Spectre.
To reiterate the blue beetle has weapons to kill the right hand of god. Unlike most young superheros before, he told his parents about the scarab which would help him a lot moving towards his biggest challenge, the reach. he also had a pair of best friend Paco an ex gang member with a heart of gold and Brenda, his very smart female friend with a poor home life. Early on we met Hector who would be his technical support and Peacemaker who was very different from the John Cena version.
With his friends family and allies he fought and defeated the reach who were the alien race that turned out to have created the scarab. This story was used for season 2 of the Young Justice where the Blue Beetle would appear heavily. In the comics Jaime would go on to join the Teen Titans and have many adventures until the new 52 and was rebooted. His first live action appearance was Smallville along with booster gold. Soon blue beetle joins the likes of Batman Superman and the Flash in having his first live action movie. there are high expectations after James Gunn stated Blue Beetle will be the first hero of the new DCU, this and all the history has made many looking forward this movie. the movie is around the corner releasing on August 18 and I for one as a fan can’t wait.
