If the Blue Beetle Trailer has been bugging you, this article is for you. This brand-new first look is jam-packed with Easter eggs, intimate details, and stuff you missed, so there’s much to discuss. Throughout this article, we’ll break it down and discuss the comic book character’s identity and vast and fascinating past.
James Gunn has suggested that he includes the character in his DCU, pushing this project from its original HBO Max release to a full theatrical one. I thought they would cancel this movie last year, but Warner Brothers must believe in the movie for them to give it a full theatrical release.
The Blue Beetle Scarab, which turns Jaime Reyes into the title character, is shown being given to him in the trailer. This teaser does a fantastic job of introducing us to his family and demonstrating Scarab’s capabilities.
Blue Beetle Trailer Breakdown
Jaime Reyes is one of the numerous Blue Beetle incarnations that we’ve seen throughout the years. Charles Nicholas Wojkoski came up with the first version in 1939.
The original Blue Beetle was Dan Garret, the son of a murdered police officer. Given special abilities through a sacred scarab, he became the hero of a weekly radio serial and his comic book line. We see this costume later at the end of the Blue Beetle Trailer in the center of the model next to the one that followed it with the red belt, boot, and gloves.
The Second Blue Beetle: Ted Kord
There seems to be a mannequin with a missing costume, which could hint at someone else is out there wearing the costume that may be our second version of the character. Now that man was called Ted Kord, and during the Crisis On Infinite Earths Storyline, he was taken over into the DC universe along with all the other Charlton comic characters the company had bought. Ted was more of a scientist, and it was thought that the blue beetle Scarab had been destroyed.
At the end of the trailer, we can see the characters coming across his lair, which is why they have all this scientific tech there. They say it’s like Batman, who, uses gadgets, and we can see Jaime looking over a power belt. His sister Milagros checks out an energy shield, and George Lopez snoops around in some cupboards and calls Batman a Fascist. Internet isn’t going to like that, mate, spoiler alert, there’s going to be f**king kick-offs.
Love Interest: Jenny
Anyway, though you might assume Lopez is playing his dad, he’s his uncle Rudy. His love interest Jenny is also at the back of the room,, which is her likely showing them about the basement in Kord Industries. We can see the name Kord on the tower at the beginning, and I guess that we’re going to be learning about how Ted found it, and then the company took it, experimented on it, and Jenny snuck it out like what we see.
Jenny is your Gwen Stacy in Amazing Spider-man archetype and will probably be a sort of Liz from Spider-man Homecoming. In the comics, Jaime ends up dating a character called Thirteen from Young Justice. His real name is Traci Thurston. I’m guessing Jenny will be the girl he’s after first on….the movie before he gets his Thirst on for Thurston.
Now Jenny may be based on Jenny Quantum,, his friend in the comics too. Ooop friendzone, anyway, she was a member of Young Justice as well, but ended up leaving the group to go then and explore the multiverse.
Victoria Kord: The Villain
Now back to the company, and we know that in the film, Susan Sarandon will be playing Victoria Kord,, who is Ted Kord’s sister in the comics. CEO of Kord Industries, she was first introduced in Blue Beetle Graduation Day Issue 2, and she became one of the first foes the character clashed against in that run.
Sharon Stone was initially in talks to play her, but I’m guessing they watched Catwoman and went with Susan instead. Kord eventually became a member of the JLA, but was killed during the Infinite crisis event. Again going back to that mannequin, I think he might be out and about in the world, and potentially, he had to run away due to his sister’s experiments.
At one point in the trailer, we see them flying out in the bug. I’m guessing this is Kord’s ship, with them using it to escape the skyscraper and head back home. The bug pulls from the comics, and if it looks familiar, then this is because this is what was adapted into Nite Owl’s Archie in Watchmen.
Third Blue Beetle: Jaime Reyes
Now the third Blue Beetles is the one we’re going to center around in the movie, and this is Jaime Reyes, who’ll be played by Cobra Kai’s Xolo Maridueña. He built off the back of the original Blue Beetle, and discovered the magical Scarab attached to his back, giving him an armored battle suit with enhanced abilities.
Though it was thought that it had been destroyed while Ted was in the role, it turned out that he’d found it in a pyramid. This was later lost on the Rock of Eternity, and when this was destroyed,, it hurtled across the world, where it landed in El Paso. Jaime discovered it at this point, and the rest is history.
Now they are changing things slightly from that, and instead of having it in El Paso, we’re hitting up the fictional Palmera City. This new location in the DCU universe was first introduced on Blue Beetle Graduation Day, and it keeps up with the motif of the comic publisher inventing new places for their heroes to inhabit. At least I hope Palmera City is fiction cos f**king hell if it’s not, I’m in deep, deep trouble. They were already pronounced everyone’s name wrong.
How Jaime Becomes Blue Beetle
We start with Jaime and his sister working at a resort, and from there,, we cut to their home life away from the city in the more impoverished areas. This juxtaposes the opening of the Blue Beetle Trailer Breakdown, in which he’s posing as one of the elites that own a mansion.
The next day, we get him going to what’s later said to be a job interview at Kord Industries. I’m guessing it’s similar to Oscorp, where they have internships, as Jenny is there as well,, similar to how Gwen was in that movie. I’m not 100% on American School Uniforms because I’m not a weirdo, mate, but I’m pretty sure this is a school jacket with a patch denoting his. In the comics, he went to El Paso high school, but with the change up to Palmera City, they may have altered that.
We see him sitting in the lobby with other possible applicants beside him before Gwenn…Jenny comes down and gives him a big belly burger box. This fictional fast food chain has appeared in the dc universe at several points and it’s featured in CWs Flash a fair bit. The mascot is a big bearded guy just like in the comics and this is made to look like John Byrne who invented it for DC.
After opening it up we see some fries and also the Scarab where the burger should be. After picking it up this immediately jumps out at Jaime, does a sort of face hugger on him, and electrocutes his uncle and a transformer. It’s very much showing that it has this lethal side to it and it carries this idea of body horror as we watch it take over his body.
Now the Scarab is very much its own lifeform and it’s sort of a parasite that brings with it incredible abilities. I dunno if the parasite is the right word but Jaime is unable to remove it from his back and it can also communicate with him.
In the comics the first night it attached itself to him seen it induced powerful hypnotic dreams. I could see them even doing some stuff like what we get with Venom where the Scarab goes back and forth with Jaime and this adds a lot to action scenes and the dialogue. They talk about how it can control its host and he may have to wrestle with it and turn it away from being the world-destroying machine that Jenny says it is.
Jarvis and Tony had some nice banter back and forth in the MCU and it just allows the character to kinda sound off their thoughts in a natural way. Comics are of course able to show a character’s thoughts whereas it’s a lot harder in a film so having something like this would work really well to let the character spout quips and stuff. Personally, I think it sounds more like Karen from Homecoming and again they are trying to lean into the idea of Spider-man because if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
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Blue Beetle Powers
The shot with Susan Sarandan has her saying how it chose him and obviously, this whole thing is gonna be about how he has a good heart and that’s why it went to him instead of her. He has his family values too and like his uncle says…with Great Power…comes…great catchphrase.
Blue Beetle takes his first flight and we see him overlooking the entire world. It shows the power he’s been given and it very much shows it can control him and not the other way around.
Now from here we cut to Jenny opening a door to what I’m guessing is the basement of Kord Industries. There are rumors that Jason Sedukis will be playing him in the film but they’ve been denied like an Andrew Garfield photoshop even though we’ve seen it in 4k mate, We’ve all seen it.
Next, we get a bus cut in half with Jaime’s perception of time changing as it goes on. This is cut in half by an energy shield that the character had in the comics. Now if you’ve played the Injustice Games then chances are that you’ve either fought as Blue Beetle.
Anyway Blue Beetle has a number of different powers and these include flight, superhuman strength, and metamorphosis. His hands and body in the suit can shape-shift and change into different weaponry meaning that you can pull off some sweet combos in Injustice 2. Shabow.
Now, this weaponry tends to be based around sound, energy, and pyrokinesis making it none lethal. He also has Mechanokinesis which means he can alter and manipulate machines. Pretty cool skill set and depending on when the situation calls for it the Scarab can take over and help out.
Learning About The Powers With Family
We then get Jaime at home with his family and this kinda gives us a Ms. Marvel setup where she was learning to deal with her newfound abilities whilst also living at home. Where they differentiate though is that Jaime’s family knows about it instantly here and this is more them helping him deal with his power rather than him hiding it.
We then see a machine powering up and a quick disclaimer, the trailer we got isn’t super high quality so it’s difficult to make out little details like what these are but they do seem to be almost like miniature scarabs. We have the electricity as well which is similar to what was shot out at Rudy and the transformer at the beginning.
Victoria Kord clearly finds out about him and we see Swat Team members swarming his home. His family is held up and later on we see Jaime beating the same swat team members up underground possibly leading off the back of this scene.
The Indestructible Man
Now in between this, we get a shot of Carapax The Indestructible Man. A major antagonist of the Blue Beetle, he was an archaeologist that they could end up using to explain how they managed to get their hands on the Scarab in the first place. In the comics, he came across an indestructible robot suit that they might use in the film. This was red and potentially the power cells we saw charging up before could be the suit starting up.
Failing to get control of the Scarab might have pushed Victoria to create her own which could lead to him having a sort of reverse Scarab suit. He does the usual sort of villain stuff talking about how the love he has for his family is a weakness. It’s not exactly A1 writing mate but he’s gonna sort of be your first villain that forces the hero to get to grips with his power over.
Going To The Origin Island
We then see the bug flying out and this seems to go to an island, potentially where the Scarab was discovered. It’s a giant rock potentially referencing the rock of Eternity and this could be where they find Ted Kord at.
We also see the family home getting destroyed following the motif that Jaime’s new abilities have brought a cost to them. He then creates a giant sword using the suit and this looks very similar to Clouds from Final Fantasy Seven. The Buster shows this buster is a big buster but he loves video games so we bloody love him. Shabow.
Anyway, the Blue Beetle Trailer ends with them in Kord’s lab and his sister is wearing an overall with Reyes on it looking like a mechanics shirt. We can also catch an Area 51 Arcade cabinet which, no prizes for guessing is about aliens. As his uncle Rudy slags off Batman we can also catch a sarcophagus in front of him tying back to the archaeological stuff.
Anyway, that ends the trailer and I’m guessing some of you might wanna pick up some comics involving the character and the best place to start is probably Infinite Crisis as that kinda recounts a lot of the main events with them. After that you wanna get Blue Beetle Volume 7, yes that’s Volume 7 as it basically builds off the back of Infinite Crisis. I think they might have updated it to be called Blue Beetle Jaime Reyes Volume 1 but I’ve got no idea mate. No f**king idea now.
Now I’m guessing this primarily will just be an origin story and we will probably just follow the things laid out in his secret origins. I’m actually happy we are getting an origin story for once you know. Missed em a bit and we kinda have had this trend where characters like Iron Heart and so on are just thrown into movies as characters without us really learning who they are first. I just want an origin story so I can get attached to the character mate and yeah this seems to be doing that.
Overall Thoughts On Blue Beetle Trailer
Now as for my thoughts on the Blue Beetle Trailer. You know, kinda have a weird relationship with DC and I’ve said often said that no one hates DC more than DC fans. I think Shazam Fury Of The Gods showed that they’ve kinda killed the buzz around these films by announcing that they don’t matter.
Well spoiler alert, we are an insignificant speck of dust in the cosmos that’s barely alive for the blink of an eye when it comes to the vastness of time and space and nothing matters. Not you, not anyone you know, and certainly not some DC movie. Could be fun though right but back to the initial point and that is that I think they kinda killed the hype for this.
Personally, I think that James Gunn is a great director and writer but he’s just a crap Hollywood exec. Guys probably cost the studio a lot of money announcing things don’t matter and he also spends a lot of time on Twitter arguing with people which, never see my uncle Kevin Feige doing. So yeah I’ve just had no hype for the upcoming dc films and have kinda thought they’re just releasing them for the sake of it so we can get the reboot in a couple of years.
The drama around DC recently has overshadowed their product and it’s all been a big mess. Saying that though… This looks good and I am excited. I think Jaime is one of those underdog characters that can really grow into their own and Xolo of course killed it on Cobra Kai. The guy is a great martial artist and I think they can do so many cool things with him.
Blue Beetle’s kind of your c list character that the studio can build up and though I don’t think it’s gonna be a massive movie. I do think that it can build up towards something bigger down the line when he grows into the role. I’m guessing they’ve not spent that much on the movie either with it originally being HBO Max and it’s probably gonna be a win-win for the studio.
Also, it’s nice to see a Latino character getting some love. They’ve always been reduced to being either sidekicks or minor ones but yeah, I hope it does well. So yeah, quite excited about it now even with all the ongoing DC drama.
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