The Blue Beetle Es El Hombre: The Evolution of The Blue Beetle

The Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes) courtesy DC Comics

The Blue Beetle has been around since 1939 and was wildly popular back in the late 30's and 40's. This character was introduced during the Golden Age of Comics along with other heroes like Superman and Batman. Through the decades the hero has endured a massive amount of change.

One of the biggest contributing factors to this change has been ownership rights to the super hero over years. So far there have been three completely different characters taking on the mantle as The Blue Beetle.

Dan Garret - Blue Beetle: courtesy Comic Vine

Dan Garret was the original Blue Beetle and the one all of his predecessors would look up to. The origin story has been often recreated throughout the years mainly because the rights to the Blue Beetle have been owned by many different Comic Books before landing on DC for good.

In the original story Dan's father (a police officer) is murdered by a mob boss. He then becomes a police officer himself while taking on the identity as The Blue Beetle to take down his father's murderer and bring all gangs to justice. In this story line Dan has no powers but later takes a secret concoction -Vitamin 2X to attain super strength and invulnerability.

Later stories describe him as an archaeologist which discovers a Blue Beetle scarab in Egypt. This scarab of an unknown origin becomes the source of his power.

Ted Kord - Blue Beetle: courtesy DC Comics

Ted Kord was the second Blue Beetle. Before passing away, Dan Garret passed on the scarab to Ted. He uses his wit, skill and technology to fight crime (similar to Batman). Although he never learned how to use the scarab and never had any powers he is one of the most respected heroes in the DC universe.

Haunted by the memory of the past Blue Beetle and always trying to live up to his standards, Tim always feels like he has something to prove. This was one of the factors that led him to infiltrate a secret government agency, Checkmate, whose sole purpose was to destroy all meta-humans.

Refusing to join them in the fight for the ultimate destruction of super heroes and super villains alike, the leader of Checkmate, Maxwell Lord savagely murders Kord.

Jaime Reyes is the third and most recent Blue Beetle. For many reasons he happens to be my favorite. First of all, name at least one other Hispanic American super hero...exactly, not many huh? It's just nice to see. After all, real life heroes come in all shapes, sizes and backgrounds.

This version of The Blue Beetle is much more complex than the past two which is what makes him the most interesting. A teenager (whose favorite super hero happens to be Batman) discovers a blue scarab in the shape of a beetle and it attaches itself to his body.

This scarab becomes the source of Jaime's power granting him flight, super strength, shape shifting and blasting abilities. The scarab is also linked to Jaime's thoughts. They are in constant conflict since the scarab's only concern is to selfishly protect itself and Jaime.

We later learn the source of the scarab. It is alien technology sent over by a conquering race, The Reach to learn about the planet, earn the trust of the people and eventually take over it. It is meant to take over the host body, but somehow both the scarab and Jaime break free of the Reach's control in order to save the planet.

This story does a good job of linking the past Blue Beetles and the present one in a clear way, drawing a line where there was none. As mentioned earlier, different versions of the Blue Beetle and different ownership rights to the character scattered the identity of the hero.

The TV show Young Justice (which I highly recommend) does a great job at telling this story. He is a very underrated super hero and I am glad he got the exposure that he did in this television series.

So which Blue Beetle is your favorite? Where did you first hear about the Blue Beetle? Share in your comments below!