Ok first off, I would have preferred a film about Ted Lord – the second Blue Beetle, but on saying that a film about the third makes sense to me and is something im looking forward to watching.

So let’s get down to the brass tax, who is Jamie Reyes?

And who is the Blue Beetle?

Well there have been three Blue Beetles of note. Dan Garrett was the original. Created in 1939, he was an old school adventurer and superhero who had vague superhero powers originally derived from a pill, later retconned to from a blue scarab he discovered at an excavation.

The second Blue Beetle was Ted Kord, a student of the original. After, Dan died fighting Ted’s uncle, Ted would take up the mantle of Blue Beetle. He was never able to activate the scarab but he made up for this by building an awesome set of gear and training himself to the peak of human fitness. Also he was created by the amazingly talented Steve Ditko, as co-creator of Spider-Man.

And finally we have Jamie Reyes the third Beetle. Jamie came into being way back in the 2000’s back when I was really into DC during Infinite Crisis. Pretty much Ted sacrificed himself to save everyone and then DC Comics wasted the potential of Infinite Crisis and Ted’s death. But one interesting note was they used this opportunity to create a new Blue Beetle one who was not a random middle aged White Dude and yes it totally paid off.

This new Beetle was able to fully activate the beetle which turned into a full battle armour that gave him near limitless powers and added this deep cosmic twist to the character, which helped differentiate Jamie from his predecessors. It also gave DC something fresh to work with and when Ted came back the fans were treated to two very different heroes, both that complimented each other.

The new movie seems to focus solely on the third Beetle, but it pays homage too and definitely shows the existence of the previous holders of the name, which gives me hope.

Where I do worry is villains. The film had possibly two different villains in it. The first is Carapax the indestructible, old rival of Ted’s whose mind is trapped in an artificial body. Then we also have the wonderfully talented Susan Sarandon as Victoria Kord. I’m guessing she is a relative of Ted’s who wants to hold onto his legacy, so her role may adapt and change.

A final worry is, I’m not sure if this is going to be part of the future DC Slate or is it being sent out to die. Which would be sad because not only does this look like a story crafted with love for DC but the casting of Xolo Maridueña is perfect and I hope they don’t waste this opportunity.