Blue Beetle dates back to early days of comic books
Word Balloons #1177: Jaime Reyes is the third Blue Beetle character
Warner Brothers’ “Blue Beetle” film hit theaters to mostly positive reviews and perhaps middling box office, though the film still finished #1 last week.
The charming tale with a charismatic lead and intriguing supporting characters may or may not lead to a film sequel. But there’s plenty more to dig into about the Blue Beetle in the world of comics, where the character dates back, in original form, to the very early days of comics.
The first Blue Beetle debuted in 1939 and was Dan Garret, a police detective who gained super abilities through the ingestion of Vitamin 2X. This version of the character was popular enough in comics’ Golden Age to be featured on a radio show, and a newspaper strip, drawn by Jack Kirby.
The Golden Age Garret was published by Fox, and later Holyoke, who went out of business, leaving their characters in limbo. Charlton, who may or may not have purchased the rights to the Beetle, published four issues in 1955. In 1964, Charlton Comics revived Garrett, adding an extra “T” to his name. Garrett was now an archaeologist who received his powers from a mystical scarab, thus becoming the Blue Beetle.
In 1966, Chartlon updated the character again, as Ted Kord takes over as the Beetle. Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man, created this version of the character, a talented inventor and athlete who fights crime using his fists, nonlethal weapons, and a flying VTOL ship called the “Bug.”
When DC Comics acquired the Charlton characters in the 1980s, Kord was the Beetle brought into the DC Universe via “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” subsequently becoming the star of his own series written by Len Wein and drawn by Paris Cullins.
Copper Age comics fans may best-know the Blue Beetle from the “Justice League” series of the 1980s, where he was part of a wisecracking duo with Booster Gold, the cocky but charismatic hero from the 25th century.
In 2006, 40 years after the introduction of Ted Kord, DC Comics updated the Blue Beetle yet again, when Mexican-American teen Jaime Reyes finds Dan Garrett’s mystical scarab. The scarab is revealed to actually be alien in origin, and fuses itself to Jaime’s spine.
Reyes was created by writers Keith Giffen and John Rogers, and artist Cully Hamner.
Reyes’ Blue Beetle has been prominently featured in both the 2011 “New 52” and 2016 “Rebirth” reboots at DC Comics, with slight tweaks to the origin story each time.
The most recent Jaime Reyes tale, “Graduation Day,” features Reyes’ graduation from high school, and dealing with what happens next as challenges arise in both his personal life and superhero life.
The six-issue mini from Josh Trujillo and Adrian Gutierrez was released in a collected edition earlier this month.
Matthew Price, matthew@matthewlprice.com, has written about the comics industry for more than two decades. He is the co-owner of Speeding Bullet Comics in Norman, Oklahoma.