With the movie out now, I thought it might be a good time, or a bit past, to review the history of the Blue Beetle. Or Beetles, really. Like most characters who have been around for a while, there have been several versions of the character, and even three different companies publishing their adventures. Plus a bonus version down at the end. For now, though, the start of the several heroes:

Blue Beetle I– Dan Garret was a rookie cop who somehow ended up with a bulletproof costume and took “vitamin 2X” that gave him rather vague “super energy.” He popped up in 1939, so very early in the superhero rush that eventually became known as the Golden Age, and even had his own comic, radio show, and newspaper strip. The character gradually faded away, and Fox Comics went out of business.

Blue Beetle I Version 2.0- Dan Garrett (slightly different spelling now) came out a few years later from Charlton Comics, who bought a lot of the defunct Fox’s properties. Now a college professor, usually of archeology, this Dan found a mystic scarab that gave him flight, invulnerability, minor energy blasts, and strength. He fought crime for a few years before also fading away.

Blue Beetle II- Theodore “Ted” Kord was a student of Garrett’s, and helped him in a big adventure that led to Garrett’s apparent death. Ted was motivated to carry on the legacy of his teacher, especially since he died fighting Ted’s Uncle Jarvis. However, the same sequence of events that led to Garrett’s death also had the stereotypical “supervillain’s base blows up” ending, and the destruction collapsed enough of it that Ted couldn’t recover the mystic scarab that gave Dan his powers. Ted, a genius inventor, became the new Blue Beetle, a gadgeteer-type hero, with his own airship, the Bug, that was transport and a mobile base and lab. Why someone who was such an inventive genius couldn’t figure out a way to excavate the scarab is something that never seems to have come up.

Eventually, Charlton, too, went under, and sold its heroes to DC Comics. DC has a long history of buying up other companies (that’s how they got Captain Marvel and Plastic Man among others). Blue Beetle and the other Charlton heroes (Captain Atom, Question, Nightshade, Peacemaker) were integrated into the DC Universe during the major event that was Crisis on Infinite Earths. Those same heroes were also the basis for the alternate universe story Watchmen.

Blue Beetle III- Jaime Reyes was the third hero to use the Blue Beetle name, but the first one to be created by DC Comics (See? Things are getting complicated). A kid from a small town, he found the scarab formerly used by Dan Garrett, which had a few adventures on its own. It ended up in the possession of the Wizard Shazam, the one who gave Billy Batson the power to become Captain Marvel. Shazam stored it in his Rock of Eternity, a vast fortress/repository of magical artefacts. During the Days of Vengeance event, the Spectre went mad and attacked many of the magical characters in the DCU. When Spectre killed Shazam, the Rock was destroyed and pieces of it rained down all over. Jaime happened to be near where the scarab ended up, and it bonded with him.

Eventually, it was revealed the scarab was a dangerous piece of technology from an alien race called the Reach. How Shazam, one of the most powerful beings in the DCU, managed to not recognize it wasn’t magic was never explained. Jaime had a lot of trouble figuring out how the scarab worked, and eventually became a powerful hero in his own right.

The new movies focuses on Jaime, although the trailers have hinted that we will at least get nods to the past Blue Beetles. This makes sense, if for no other reason than the rights for the characters gets complicated. For example. Ted Kord was supposed to be in the Arrowverse shows, but they couldn’t get the rights cleared, and his projected role was eventually given to Ray Palmer, the Atom. Although Kord Industries might be the most-robbed company in the Arrowverse.

Bonus Blue Beetle:

On the children’s tv show The Electric Company, there was a bumbling superhero called Blue Beetle. Aside from the name and color scheme, he was utterly unrelated to any of the comic cook characters. But, since The Electric Company also had a few random live-action Spider-Man shorts, one could argue that the show was, in fact, the first Marvel/DC crossover. The two even met up once.