Comic Book / Blue Beetle

Does whatever a Blue Beetle can! ^note From left to right, the three holders of the title: Dan Garrett, Ted Kord, and Jaime Reyes. Not present: the original, non-DC Golden Age Dan Garrett.

A Super Hero, or rather, several superheroes since Blue Beetle is a Legacy Character, whose main motif is Exactly What It Says on the Tin.

The original Blue Beetle was a Golden Age superhero, originally published by the Fox Feature Syndicate, first appearing in Mystery Men Comics (August, 1939). Dan Garrett started out as a rookie cop whose father was killed by gangsters. He got super strength from Vitamin 2-X, although he could be knocked out by a Tap on the Head. The Golden Age Blue Beetle soon got his own magazine. He had a reasonably long run of lurid, violent adventures where he fought gangsters, gorillas, reanimated mummies, etc. He even had his own short-lived Radio Drama. But sales began dropping in the late 1940s. There were gaps of several months between some issues, and finally, in August of 1950, the series was cancelled.

Eventually Charlton Comics bought the first Blue Beetle, at first only reprinting his old stories. When The Silver Age of Comic Books came around, they revamped him as an archaeologist who unlocked the powers of a mystical artifact he found in a pyramid. This mystical artifact was a bright blue Scarab amulet. Shouting a word caused the powers to activate, and Dan would find himself in blue and red themed armor, shooting lightning from his hands and flying. (Although he could still be knocked out by a blow to the head. Hey, it's better than yellow.) Dan was a pretty awesome Charlton character. The character held his own series from June, 1964 to February/March, 1966.

Then he died. Cue his friend, Ted Kord, millionaire and technical genius, who took the Scarab and the Blue Beetle mantle. Kord was introduced in the backpages of a title devoted to Captain Atom in #83 (November, 1966), appearing there until #86 (June, 1967). Then he got his own magazine, lasting from June, 1967 to November, 1968. After that the character mostly appeared in anthology titles. Ted didn't have any powers - the Scarab didn't seem to work for him, so he made up for it by using his neat gadgets to fight crime anyway. If he resembled another wisecracking acrobatic bug-themed superhero a bit, that wasn't too surprising, as he was created by Steve Ditko after he left Marvel.

In the 1980s, Charlton licensed most of its superheroes to AC Comics, only to sell them to DC a few months later. Ted made his DC debut as a reader point of view character in Crisis on Infinite Earths and was integrated into The DCU shortly thereafter, holding his own title from June, 1986 to May, 1988. He got to be a member of the Justice League International, get lots of Ho Yay with Booster Gold, and be an all-around Fan Favorite. Then Max Lord Dropped a Bridge on Him. Boom, Headshot! The character was killed in the one-shot Countdown to Infinite Crisis (May, 2005).

Cue the third Blue Beetle, Jaime Reyes.^note pronounced 'Hye-Mae', not 'Jamie' The new character first appeared in Infinite Crisis #3 (February, 2006). He found the Scarab lying on the ground in his home town of El Paso, TX, took it home, and overnight it crawled into him and attached itself to his spine. He soon found himself speaking a language he didn't know, transforming into a much more advanced tech version of the Blue Beetle armor, and whisked away to save the universe in Infinite Crisis. The character held his own series from May, 2006 to February, 2009.

Unlike Dan and Ted, Jaime never Jumped at the Call, he got shoved. This Blue Beetle retconned the Scarab into a piece of alien technology as opposed to a magical artifact—what wasn't retconned was the fact that Dan had been activating the Scarab using magic, which damaged the Scarab's memory and functionality. Jaime's series is notable for managing to make Jaime integrate himself into the Blue Beetle name and The DCU really well.

Although Jaime's solo series was canceled, he returned as a back-up feature in Booster Gold - unfortunately, the back-up also got canceled. Poor kid can't catch a break. That said, he did get to be a member of the Teen Titans (poor kid really can't catch a break), and joined the reformed JLI in Justice League: Generation Lost.

Never quite as popular as some superheroes, the three Blue Beetles have managed to keep a legacy with very little similarity in powers or even personalities, but all three have been rather likable, and all three have been fun rather than dark and edgy. Both Ted Kord and Jaime Reyes versions of the Blue Beetle have had appearances in Batman: The Brave and the Bold (and a dead Garret gets a cameo). Jaime Reyes appeared as a central character in the Smallville episode "Booster", which also featured Ted Kord as a wealthy industrialist rather than a superhero. Dan Garrett got a shout-out. DC has announced a Live-Action Adaptation starring Jaime Reyes; see Blue Beetle (2023).

Jaime later became a major character in season 2 of Young Justice (2010), with Ted frequently namedropped and memorialized as a deceased member of the Justice League. Both Ted and Dan eventually appeared in flashbacks in "Intervention," detailing the Blue Beetle legacy. The team and Jaime initially assumed that the Scarab Jaime found while taking a shortcut through a Kord Industries parking lot was an invention of Ted's, but it was actually the Scarab Dan Garret found on a dig in Bialya. While Dan believed it was just an Ancient Artifact that gave him powers and bequeathed it to Ted upon his death, Ted realized that it was alien technology and locked it up, refusing to allow it to merge with him. He was, however, inspired by Dan's example and joined the Justice League, fighting crime with his gadgets. When the alien race that created the Scarab came to Earth and allied with the Light, Sportsmaster and Deathstroke confronted Ted, demanding he give the Scarab over. While Ted died in the skirmish, he kept the Scarab away from the Reach, and Jaime found it.

DC later relaunched the series starring Jaime in September 2011 as part of their New 52 relaunch. As of January 2013, the new series was canceled. The story, however, continued in the Anthology Comic, Threshold, which was also canceled.

A younger, pre-Blue Beetle Ted was introduced at the end of Forever Evil (2013) in 2014, courtesy of the Cosmic Retcon that created the New 52. An Alternate Timeline version of Ted, based on his JLI incarnation, featured in Justice League 3000.

The series was relaunched in 2016 as part of DC Rebirth, featuring Jaime and Ted joining forces. And again in 2023 as part of Dawn of DC following the miniseries Blue Beetle: Graduation Day.

Not to be confused with the one from The Electric Company (1971) or Harry Dresden's car, a blue V W Beetle that was named as a Shout-Out to the aforementioned Electric Company character. Or another muscled, blue, arthropod-themed superhero.

Media appearances

Film — Animation

• DC Universe Animated Original Movies:
  • Justice League vs. Teen Titans - Jaime appears as a member of the Teen Titans.
  • Teen Titans: The Judas Contract - Jaime appears as a member of the Teen Titans, effectively as Cyborg's replacement.

Film — Live-Action

• Blue Beetle - Jaime's solo movie in the DC Extended Universe. He is played by Xolo Maridueña.

Live-Action TV

• Blue Beetle: A proposed live-action series starring Jaime. Never saw the light of day.
• Smallville: Ted and Jaime appear in the tenth season.

Video Games

• Infinite Crisis - Jaime appears as a playable character.
• Injustice 2 - Jaime appears as a playable character.
• LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham - Jaime appears as a playable character.

Western Animation

• Batman: The Brave and the Bold - A major recurring character, and Jaime's animated debut. Ted also appears.
• DC Super Hero Girls - Ted Kord appears as a millionaire investor early in the second season, then debuts his costumed identity several episodes later.
• Justice League Action - Jaime makes an appearance.
• Young Justice (2010) - Jaime debuts in season two, and returns in season three. Dan and Ted also exist, but are deceased.

---

Blue Beetle provides examples of:

Blue Beetle Volumes 1 & 2 (Golden Age)

• Badass Normal: What Dan Garret was before he saved Dr Franz.
• Captain Ersatz:
  • In his very first appearance in Mystery Men Comics, he wore a suit and a mask that made him look an awful lot like The Green Hornet. He switched to a chainmail armor he's best remembered for in the next issue.
  • Which only made him look like The Phantom.
  • For the record, Nite-Owl I is based on this guy, NOT Batman. Though Nite-Owl II does resemble Batman.
• Crossover: When AC Comics briefly licensed Charlton's Action Heroes line, it established that the Charlton version of the character was the brainwashed version of the original. This would be the last time the character appeared in a modern-age comic (that is, until Project Superpowers came along).
• Damsel in Distress: Joan Mason wound up in this role a lot in Blue Beetle stories. She was more competent in her own feature, where Blue Beetle played a supporting role.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Invented a wrist-mounted communicator, his trademark beetle-insignia-projecting belt and (later) his gadget-ridden beetle-themed car.
• Inspector Javert: Dan's partner on the force, Mike Mannigan, started off as this. He eventually came around and turned into one of Blue Beetle's biggest fans.
• Loves My Alter Ego: Joan Mason, a crime reporter, loved Blue Beetle but didn't particularly care for Dan Garret.
• Public Domain Character: The only version of the character that qualifies as this (though DC holds the trademark, which limits his usage a bit); Project Superpowers gets around this by referring to him as "Big Blue".
• Sidekick: Sparky/Spunky, an American boy who was adopted by Lord Wellington of Suppleshire, England. Became Blue Beetle's sidekick after his adopted father sent him to United States to protect him from Nazi bombings.
• Spin-Off: Joan Mason starred in her own feature back in the mid 1940s. It was notable for making her more competent then she often wound up being when Blue Beetle was around, solving lots of crimes all on her lonesome. Dan Garret made a few appearances in his civilian guise, but he wasn't all that essential to the plot.
• Starter Villain: The White Face, a gang leader who kidnapped an heiress for ransom, but is made short wprk of and arrested in his debut.
• Super Serum: Vitamin 2-X, a wonder-drug developed by Dr. Franz, a pharmacist he once saved.

Blue Beetle Volumes 3 & 4 (Silver Age)

• Adventurer Archaeologist: How Dan found the Scarab in the first place.
• Captain Ersatz: The Scarlet Scarab (and a bit of Spider-Man, but less than other incarnations) in Marvel Comics, plus Nite-Owl I in Watchmen.
• Clothes Make the Superman: The Scarab gives Dan magical armor.
• Death by Cameo: Dan makes a single appearance in Batman: The Brave and the Bold... as a dead body.
• Death by Origin Story: Dan dies in Ted's origin story, a flashback detailing that he sacrificed his life stopping Ted's uncle taking over the world with robots.
• Scarab Power: The Blue Beetle takes his name from a scarab amulet that Adventurer Archaeologist Dan Garrett, the first Blue Beetle, found in a pyramid and which gave him magical superpowers. His successor, Ted Kord, could never get the amulet to work, so became a Gadgeteer Genius instead. The amulet subsequently passed into the hands of Jaime Reyes, who discovered its full potential, leading to the revelation that the source of its power is not magic but advanced alien technology.
• Shout-Out: Dan does not appear in the Smallville episode "Booster", but is given a shout-out that explains that he had been a scientist who studied the Scarab before it fell into Jaime's possession, and that he had died when the Scarab was removed from his spine.

Blue Beetle Volumes 5 & 6

• Aborted Arc:
  • The second volume of Booster Gold had a running arc heavily hinting that Ted had somehow survived when he went back in time to his own death. It never concluded before the universe got rebooted.
  • After his solo series was canceled, the supporting cast were Put on a Bus, their own plots never fully getting resolved. Even Melody Case, despite being Ted’s Love Interest.
• A Death in the Limelight: Prelude to Infinite Crisis.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Ted harbored a massive crush on Barbara Gordon. They eventually became friends and flirted a little but he never had the guts to act on it.
• Badass Normal:
  • Ted's the only Blue Beetle without powers, but that never stopped him. He's like Batman who has fun.
  • Some characters have theorized that the reason why the scarab didn't give Ted superpowers was because he didn't need them.
    • His original DC origin story saw the Scarab lost in rubble when Dan Garret died.
• Blinded by the Light: Ted had a strobe light weapon that could temporarily blind his enemies. In the DC Comics stories, he upgraded the weapon to emit a powerful burst of air that could knock back his enemies, among other things.
• Captain Ersatz: Nite-Owl II in Watchmen, and Spider-Man, as mentioned above.
• Commuting on a Bus: Following his death, Ted became a recurring character in Booster Gold vol. 2 thanks to Time Travel and a Black Lantern Ring, and it wasn't till Flashpoint that the bus came to a halt. It took over three years before he reappeared at the end of Forever Evil (2013), and it was another two years before he returned to the main DCU in DC Rebirth with an ongoing role.
• Cool Airship: "Bug".
• Crimefighting with Cash: Ted's equipment (Bug airship, numerous gadgets, BB gun etc.) is not cheap.
• Crossover: Ted had several adventures with the Question in the 60s and teamed up with the rest of the Action Hero characters in AC Comics' Sentinels of Justice
  • This type of grouping was repeated by DC with the Charlton-originated characters and given the ever-so 90s name of L.A.W.: Living Assault Weapons.
  • His DC series featured adventures with the Question and the Teen Titans^note at that point Nightwing, Cyborg, Donna Troy, Beast Boy, Jericho and Starfire.. It also tied in to Crisis Crossovers Legends and Millennium.
  • Even the scarab got in on the act, getting an origin story in the 1990 Time Masters miniseries that involved the Time Masters, Vandal Savage, and Nabu of Doctor Fate fame. (Which was a bit odd, as you'd think the scarab's origin would be told in a Blue Beetle story, not an otherwise unrelated mini.)
• Deadpan Snarker: Ted was prone to throwing quips around in battle.
• Defiant to the End: Ted tells Max Lord off before Lord kills him, the moment currently being the trope picture.
• Evil Uncle: Jarvis Kord, who was Ted's first enemy and the one responsible for Dan Garrett's death.
• Fun with Acronyms: Ted Kord was the CEO of Kord Omniversal Research and Development, Inc. For short, you can call it KORD, Inc. Which is a nice bit of Biting-the-Hand Humor directed at "Detective Comics Comics".
• Gadgeteer Genius: Ted is smarter than even Batman.
• Genius Bruiser: In Jaime's original series, Guy Gardner claims that Ted is smarter than Batman, but wasn't given his due credit.
• Handicapped Badass: Ted becomes one after he’s diagnosed with heart arrhythmia.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Rather than use his brutal death in the comics, the producers of Batman: The Brave and the Bold opted to give Ted a heroic demise. Instead of catching a bullet to the brain, he sacrificed his life to detonate a rocket before it could hit Hub City.
  • Ditto Young Justice (2010), where Ted dies in a confrontation with Sportsmaster and Deathstroke, playing keep away with the Scarab.
  • In Booster Gold, after Booster manages to save Ted, Ted decides to go back in time and face the death history intended for him because it would save Booster and stop the Black Beetle.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners and/or Ho Yay: Boostle
  • Referenced in Booster Gold (v2) #25 when Jaime's little sister Milagro has Booster and Ted Kord dolls get married.
• Humble Hero: A key part of Ted's character was his humility.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Early in Ted's career it was his secretary Angela Revere, who managed to keep his life on track despite his busy schedule.
• Legacy Character: One of the earliest examples. Ted is notable in that, unlike the reboots of The Flash or Green Lantern, Dan Garret's adventures remained in continuity, with Ted often thinking about how to live up to his predecessor. One of Ted's earliest storylines involves him being a suspect in Dan's death, and on at least two occasions he has to fight an evil double of Dan who has (apparently) come back from the dead to retake the Blue Beetle identity.
• Literal Surveillance Bug: Ted has one called Snoopy that he sends out from his airborne hovership the Bug to do surveillance.
• Signature Laugh: Ted's laugh. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
• Sudden Downer Ending: Ted's 1980’s solo series, which was relatively light hearted with some Slice of Life elements spotlighting Ted’s life at Kord Industries, ends on a bleak note with the building damaged, Ted being ousted in favor of his father, and Ted getting angry and stomping away from the ruins. Not to mention that it’s implied that he has an Offscreen Breakup with Melody, as she’s never seen or mentioned afterwards.
• Sudden Name Change: In his Pre-Crisis appearances and early Post-Crisis stories, Ted's full given name was Theodore. During Chuck Dixon's run on Birds of Prey, his name was revealed to be Edward (with "Ted" as a nickname, similar to the case of Ted Kennedy). Later writers would try to reconcile the differences by listing his name as "Theodore Edward Kord", but his most recent posthumous appearances had the name as "Theodore Stephen Kord".
• There Are No Good Executives: Averted, Ted is one of the few exceptions in the DC-verse.
• True Companions: Ted with the rest of the Justice League International team, aka the Superbuddies. Even after Ted dies, they still pull together to help out Jaime.
• Tsundere: Melody Case, Ted's research assistant turn business manager and on-again-off-again girlfriend becomes this once he promotes her.
• Weight Woe: During the JLI days Ted grappled with a weight problem.
  • Big Beautiful Man: How some fans still perceive him.
• Writer on Board: Ted's creator was Steve Ditko, noted Objectivist. What do you think happened? Although, compared to some of the Objectivist characters Ditko would later create, this was downright subtle.

Blue Beetle Volume 7

• Abusive Parents: Brenda. The fact that her father hits her is brought up very early in the series. We later find out that in the year Jaime was missing Brenda's father beat her so severely that she was hospitalized, prompting her Aunt Amparo (secretly the crime boss La Dama) to have him killed in a staged DUI so that she could get custody of her niece and give Brenda a safe home. Despite being into very illegal dealings otherwise it's indicated that La Dama is the only good parent Brenda has had since the death of her mother.
• Adaptive Armor: Jaime's suit. The scarab has its own AI that reads threats and adapts defenses to them.
• Affirmative-Action Legacy: Keith Giffen requested that the new Beetle be Hispanic because he had some ideas on what to do with a Hispanic teen hero in Texas.
• Almighty Mom: Bianca "Is that a giant green fist?" Reyes.
• Anachronic Order: Volumes 5 and 6 of the trade paperbacks have a rather odd chronology—5 has issues 29-34, and 6 has issues 27, 28, 35, and 36 along with the Blue Beetle backup stories that ran in Booster Gold. This allows volume 5 to cover the entire "Boundaries" arc while volume 6 gets the two leftover one-shots that come before it.
• Anticlimax: Eclipso is built up to be an apocalyptic threat and is about to possess a magically-gifted baby, which will make her unstoppable. When Paco snatches the baby from her magic circle, Eclipso scoffs; due to the properties of the spell being used, Combat by Champion must ensue, with Paco as the baby's champion. Eclipso chooses Jaime, and casts a spell to bring out his darkness and thirst for power... which turns Jaime into a dentist—apparently the extent of Jaime's power-lust is limited to a lucrative job. Paco just smacks him in the head with a plank.
• Anyone Can Die: Nadia in the last issue pre-Flashpoint.
• Arch-Enemy: The Reach. The Negotiator/Ambassador and his enforcer Dawur (the primary inspiration for Black Beetle in Young Justice (2010)) being the main ones behind the plan, but the Reach as a whole are Jaime's greatest enemy. Almost all the bad guys he fights after that are either on the Reach's pay roll or part of their plans. These villains include Typhoon, Lobo and The Ultra Humanite. Even with them defeated, they still leave remnant surprises from that time, like the Khaji-Da Liberation Army.
• Artifact of Doom: The Scarab turns out to be one of these. Long assumed to be magical, it's actually a weapon left behind by a hostile alien race. And they want it back.
• Badass Boast: Jaime to the Ultra-Humanite:
  Jaime: Go ahead. Kill me. Kill me and he finally gets to cut loose. I'm the only thing stopping Scarab... from turning you... into a fine red mist and a #&%#$ shag rug!
• Badass Normal: Alberto and Bianca (Jaime's parents), Paco and Brenda, Peacemaker... Fanon holds that badass runs in the Reyes family, which suggests Milagro, Jaime's little sister, is destined for big things. That fanon maybe becoming Canon as a recent backup suggests that Milagro will be important, maybe more important than Jaime.
• Bad Boss: The Reach Negotiator, who at one point crushes an underling's skull just to get everyone's attention.
• BFG: The Blue Beetle suit can make so, so many different types of these. One of them is so powerful, it has theological implications.
• Big Fancy House: La Dama's house is huge and has a gate for visitors to buzz in, shocking Jaime when he returns from his year in space to find Brenda living there. (Crime does pay, apparently.)
• Bilingual Bonus: Issue #26 is mostly in Mexican Spanish.
• Book Dumb: Paco constantly surprises Jaime with his knowledge of science and apparently even has a decent grip on the how time travel works. At the same time, he's a Mexican-American who manages to fail Spanish class.
• By the Power of Grayskull!: Jaime wonders if he should invoke this when he armors up, solely for Rule of Cool. He tries out saying "Escarabajo" in a dramatic voice, but doesn't stick to it.
• The Call Knows Where You Live: Jaime didn't exactly ask to be a superhero. Booster Gold tracked him down and drafted him because the scarab's armor was the only thing on Earth capable of locating Brother Eye.
• Captain Ersatz: If Ted Kord was similar to Spider-Man, Jaime is even more so! Made even more blatant in Smallville, where Jaime is portrayed as a shy dork who constantly gets bullied by his classmates before finding the Scarab.
• Clark Kenting: Averted! While there's no way to tell the Blue Beetle is Jaime just from appearances, everyone puts two and two together when Jaime dashes into the hallways and immediately returns as the Blue Beetle during his senior prom. Although he does have the advantage of Kord Industries holograms to make it seem like Jaime the civilian is still present.
• Clothes Make the Superman: The Scarab creates a combat suit for Jaime.
• Color Character
• The Comically Serious/Deadpan Snarker: Batman's appearances have him as this in full force. And lampshaded—when his friends are impressed upon finding out he met Batman, Jaime basically says "He's not so scary in person. Even kind of funny in a really dry way."
• Covers Always Lie: Issue #20 shows Jaime being taken over by a Yellow Lantern ring while transforming. It's actually Peacemaker who gets hit with the ring and taken over by a scarab.
• Crash-Into Hello: How Jaime meets the Teen Titans, specifically Robin, though not a true instance of the trope
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Referenced when Jaime and Brenda talk to the son of THINKO!'s creator.
  Brenda: But...instead of robbing banks, why didn't he just market and sell his INCREDIBLY SOPHISTICATED ROBOT?
  Dr. Alan Von Neumann, Jr.: Who can say? It was a different time and he's long dead, so you can't ask him.
• Depending on the Artist: Every artist draws Jaime's wings differently. This can be justified since the armor simply creates things on the fly—there's very little reason for any weapon or armor addition to look the same each time.
• Disney Death:
  • Jaime during a fight with Doctor Polaris. Turns out that the Scarab killed him and resuscitates Jaime once Polaris leaves, since if Jaime had taken Polaris's seemingly fatal attack head on, he would've been vaporized.
  • And also during Generation Lost.
• Distressed Dude: During Justice League: Generation Lost, Jaime is captured by Maxwell Lord and experimented on so he can get important information by studying the suit.
• Doing In the Wizard: The revelation of the true origin of the "magic amulet". (Although even with this change, the first Blue Beetle did use magic to activate the scarab, which apparently wasn't that good for it. It is The DCU.)
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Nadia is killed off on the last few pages of the last issue. Why? Fleeing from a superpowered enemy whose pet peeve was people getting away once they started running.
• Empowered Badass Normal: In one issue, Peacemaker has both an activated scarab and a Yellow Lantern ring.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Of the two major Reach characters, one has a name and the other is just known as The Negotiator.
• Everything Is Online: A variation. Nadia has a hobby of computerizing household appliances.
  Nadia: Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to install Linux on the toaster.
• Evil Counterpart: The Black Beetle, an enemy of Jaime's from some point in his future, who also uses a Reach scarab. He also has a villainous alternate universe counterpart in Batman: The Brave and the Bold named Scarlet Scarab.
• Evil Former Friend: The Black Beetle claims to be Hector (a member of Jaime's Mission Control), who comes to blame Jaime for the death of Nadia and flees El Paso, adopting the pseudonym Joshua. This is most likely the truth, since this origin is more-or-less depicted in the actual comics (in other books, though). However, there's also the fact he keeps claiming to be whoever will get the biggest rise out of his opponent. Subverted since The Black Beetle claimed to have killed Hector and took his scarab which, considering we never see Hector later in the stories involving Jaime, seems to be more likely to be the truth.
• Flying Firepower: The Scarab grants Jaime various powers, including protective armor, flight, and energy blasts.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: The ending of the Reach arc features Jaime calling in favors from Traci 13, Dani Garrett, Oracle, Batman, and Robin even before the former JLI members show up.
• Good Parents: Alberto and Bianca Reyes are easily right up there with Jim Gordon and the Kents in the Good Parents Hall Of Fame
• Gratuitous Spanish: Most of the main and supporting characters being Hispanic, they even have a whole issue that is almost entirely in Spanish. Justified in that they hail from El Paso, where 86% of the population is Hispanic and almost as many are bilingual.
• Half-Breed Discrimination: Mildly. Brenda is half-white, which Paco uses to tease her.
• Henshin Hero: He's even insect themed.
• Heroic Host: Jaime and his Scarab.
• Hero Insurance: A battle between Jaime and Bottom Feeder practically demolishes a town in the boonies, making the sheriff angrily ask who's going to pay for the repairs. Luckily Peacemaker has favors to call in.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Blue Beetle deals with a spat of this when he takes out a gang of superpowered criminals who also happen to be illegal immigrants and the local media manages to spin it into the Blue Beetle having an anti-immigration stance, resulting in the Border Patrol deputizing him.
• Hot Teacher: Helena Bertinelli, a young Gotham University professor Jaime meets in the Brave and the Bold.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: In issue #16, Eclipso uses magic to bring forth Jaime's "deepest, darkest fantasies of ultimate power". The result? She turns him into a dentist.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Jaime tries this on anyone he finds under a scarab's control. Escalated into a Journey to the Center of the Mind when Peacemaker is taken over by his scarab and a Yellow Lantern ring.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: See I Just Want to Be Normal.
• Internal Homage:
  • In Countdown to Infinite Crisis, Ted Kord died on his knees, with a gun to his head. In Blue Beetle #24, Jaime breaks out of the Reach's prison and scavenges clothing and equipment off the Reach he dispatches that end up putting him in something that greatly resembles Ted's costume. Then he's re-captured by the Big Bad, who puts him on his knees and puts a gun to his head in an obvious callback to Ted's fate. The cover made it explicit, showing the scene with Jaime repeating Ted's last words ("Rot in Hell!").
  • Taken further in Justice League: Generation Lost #19. Maxwell Lord, the same man who killed Ted, seemingly kills Jaime by shooting him in the head. He doesn't give him a chance to say "Rot in hell" though.
• Just Between You and Me: Dr. Polaris spends an entire issue doing this in front of some Mooks. He's so powerful he just doesn't care.
• Kick the Dog: The Negotiator proves he's not on Earth to help anyone when he returns to his ship and kills one of his underlings just for babbling at him about sensor readings.
• Kid with the Leash: The scarab practically borders on Sociopathic Hero. Jaime will have none of it.
• Large Ham: The Negotiator, mostly in his first appearance. He delivers a speech about how the Reach have made it their goal to help lower civilizations over the hump of "high-tech warmongers" to "peaceful galactic presence". "Only 2% of civilizations survive past this threshold! Tragedy!"
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In the last Booster Gold/Blue Beetle backup, Paco complains about his favorite comic book being canceled. Brenda tries to comfort him with the fact that the main character's still in one of the team books, but it's just not the same.
• Legacy Character:
  • A recurring theme of the comic is legacy. Jaime comes to depend on the histories of Dan and Ted whenever he's unsure of what to do, and many of Jaime's interactions with other characters are tinged by how he measures up to Dan or Ted. The two-part finale of Jaime's ongoing also opens with a team made up of members of Ted's Rogues Gallery attacking Jaime, assuming that he's related to Ted and that his death will impact Ted's loved ones.
  • It turns out that aspiring supervillains actually have brawls—"title fights"—to earn the right to take on a deceased/retired villain's nom de guerre.
• Magic Pants: As well as creating the combat suit, the Scarab's also able to make normal clothes for Jaime out of dust, discarded skin cells, and whatever other stray molecules happen to be around. The process usually ends up triggering Squick in anyone watching.
• Magical Girlfriend: Traci 13. Practically lampshaded, since she teleports onto the hood of Jaime's car moments after he wishes he could meet a girl "who could deal with all the weirdness".

Paco: Wish for a porsche! Quick, before it wears off!

• Male Gaze:
  • Repeatedly used in the Brave and the Bold episode, "Night of the Huntress!" The subplot of the episode revolves almost entirely around Jaime's schoolboy crush on Huntress of the Birds of Prey.
  • Averted in the comic when he meets the Teen Titans and doesn't recognize Supergirl. When she asks how he missed the huge red S he replies "I was raised not to stare."
• Motor Mouth: Dani Garrett. Nobody else can get a word in edgewise when she's on the page.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Most of the Scarab's suggestions. It gets better.
• Never Mess with Granny: Jaime's grandma may be three feet tall and can't fight her way out of a paper bag, but you do not talk smack about Jaime or Blue Beetle in her presence.
• Nice Guy: One of the most notable things about Jaime is his all-around good nature and overall genuine desire to do good and be good. This also ends up thwarting an attempt by Eclipso to unleash his Enemy Within on an unsuspecting world-the supervillain summons Jamie's deepest, darkest power fantasy to possess him... and said power fantasy is Jamie as a highly-paid dentist.
• Noodle Incident: Peacemaker has had a lot of adventures offscreen.
• Oblivious Mockery: In one comic, Batman shows Jaime the Brother Eye satellite which went berserk and created an OMAC army in Infinite Crisis. Jaime asks what kind of person would build a machine like that, and Batman asks him not to let Green Arrow hear him say that (Batman was the one who built it).
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Parodied with the scene where Guy Gardener gropes a waitress and the very next page starts out with "After the really cool bar fight".
• Offstage Villainy: La Dama. In the story that introduced her, she seemed at first to be abducting teens, but in the end it was revealed that she was sort of creating an Extranormal Institute. In an issue of the relaunched The Brave and the Bold where the Blue Beetle teamed up with Batman, an alien tried to sell her a superweapon, but it's unclear what law that breaks. (Receiving stolen property is a crime, but when one alien steals something from another alien while on another planet, good luck prosecuting.) That's it for her villainy, and on the other side she has been a doting mother figure to her niece and has played The Cavalry to Blue Beetle at least once. This nemesis just isn't all that bad. It's explained that Amparo ratcheted down her illegal activities immensely when her sister, Brenda's mother, got sick and she realized that she might actually have to become a good influence in the life of someone she cared about.
• Oh, Crap!: It takes Jaime a second to realize that Brenda watching him try to protect La Dama from Giganta is a very bad thing.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: The scarab. In the climax of the Reach story, it's revealed that its name (or serial number, rather) is Khaji Da.
• Ordinary High-School Student: Jaime, one of the rare DC examples.
• Painful Transformation: Manifesting his armor hurts quite a bit after he got it re-installed/rebooted towards the end of his series (at least, in Teen Titans).
• Parental Abandonment: Averted. Jaime's parents are a big part of his life. They quickly learn his secret identity, and are both proud and supportive. Which probably makes it one of the greatest aversions in the history of heroic comic book teenagers. Not only do his parents know their son is a super hero, they are supportive of it! This was a big part of the appeal of the character to his fans.
• Person as Verb: "No. Do not try to conjugate 'Antonio Banderas' as a verb."
• Person of Mass Destruction: Jaime's basically walking around with with a sentient and homicidal WMD grafted to his spine.
• Phlebotinum Rebel: The Scarab is a Reach superweapon, but it failed to fully take over its host Jaime Reyes, who puts its plethora of weapons and ability to see the Reach's dimension-shifted tech to use thwarting the Reach Negotiator. The Scarab itself- excuse me, Khaji Da- later turns on the Reach when Jaime's Contagious Heroism gets to it.
• Pick on Someone Your Own Size: The Reach, with regards to Jaime—and by extension, as Dawur points out, any planet they set out to conquer, as the Reach's targets tend to be races and cultures many levels of development below their own.
• Powered Armor: What the scarab gives Jaime. Approaches Do-Anything Robot, but most of what it does are variations on weapons.
• Power Trio: Jaime, Paco, and Brenda.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "Is. That. A. Giant. Green. Fist?"
• The Punishment Is the Crime: The crux of Jaime's argument about why the Spectre shouldn't go after a drug addict who'd injured a prison guard in a riot is that his life is its own punishment; even if he goes legally unpunished, he's still going to be a miserable loser enslaved to his addiction and either suffering from withdrawal or unable to prevent himself from going after a fix.
• Puppeteer Parasite: How scarabs work when they aren't damaged by magic, like this one.
• Retroactive Wish: The first appearance of Traci 13 to the comic.
  Jaime: I just wish I could meet a cute girl who'd be okay with all the weird.
  Traci 13: (teleporting into the room) Are you the Blue Beetle?
  Paco: (jaw gaping) Say "I wish for a Porsche" before it wears off! Say "I wish for a Porsche" before it wears off!
• Rock Beats Laser: Jaime gets past the Reach surveillance on him by writing a letter on paper and giving it to a friend to take to the recipient.
• Rogues Gallery: Jaime has a bizarre one, most of which only get to show up once or twice. His first big enemy was his best friend's aunt, La Dama. Her number one henchman was the magician known as Diviner. The mysterious monster called Bottom Feeder has attacked him multiple times for varying reasons related to his insanity. There's also Doctor Alan Von Newman's robot creations (most of which he made back in the 40s) and the Scarab should it ever be properly rebooted.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Doctor Polaris, Brother Eye and Jean Loring/Eclipso. Most show up for just an issue, but some stick around for a lot longer. Other one shot other rogues include Giganta and Parasite. There's also the old Dan Garret enemy Mephistopheles, a mad scientists who made monsters who has long since retired, but his dog is still somewhat monstrous sometimes, as the death of his first monster scarred him deeply. He gets a few more rogues after his series ends: Black Beetle (whose origins are clouded in mystery, to Jaime's annoyance) and Maxwell Lord among them.
• Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: "Sometimes I like to make my own sound effects. Is that so wrong?"
• Scary Dogmatic Aliens: The Reach. They're of the Conquistador type. They have "business plans" for Earth, so they plan to take it over. They're surprisingly smart about it though, and are quite the Magnificent Bastard race, as their Evil Plans run for years.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Several of the Reach Negotiator's subordinates suggest that Earth is going to be more trouble than it's worth and to cut their losses and go after planets that aren't the home base for multiple Green Lanterns and hundreds of metahumans. The Negotiator doesn't listen.
• Secret-Keeper: So many that it's almost not a Secret Identity. By the end of his series, the group that knows the Blue Beetle's secret identity include his parents, little sister, grandmother, two best friends, two more teens recruited to help with the superhero stuff like Oracle, his girlfriend who's a superhero herself, a Badass Normal mentor, a local Anti-Villain crime lord, a local gang of meta-humans, the Big Bad, Batman, Booster Gold, and Guy Gardner. Some more superheroes might know as well, and to his classmates at school his disguise is little better than Paper Thin. (He uses a hologram to make it look like he's in two places at once, but that can't have been enough to hide the fact that there's some kind of connection between Jaime and the Blue Beetle.) But the Anti-Villain has a personal connection to him, so that neatly neutralizes the threat from the Big Bad.
• Seen It All: Peacemaker. Survivor of a thousand Noodle Incidents throughout The DCU.
  Peacemaker: Hey, any alien encounter where you don't end up dead or probed is a good one. Especially probed.
  Jaime: Your stories are getting weirder. You know that, right?
• Shout-Out: to Life On Mars in an early issue.
  • Jaime's origin and powers is very similar to Guyver's. Both Sho Fukamachi and Jaime Reye's were very normal teenagers before discovering an ancient alien artifact/suit of armor even older then most other aliens in the setting, which merged irrevocably to their bodies, but disappeared when not in use with a huge array of special weapons. Both the Guyver and the Beetle came with a wide variety of problems attached to them from their origins, and drawbacks which Jaime and Sho had to find out pretty much on the fly.
  • A superhero who wears blue beetle-themed armor with a black-armored Evil Counterpart? Seems like someone watched Beetleborgs and/or Juukou B-Fighter.
• The Sociopath: Doctor Polaris doesn't see other people even as pawns; to him, they're squares on the game board.
• Sociopathic Hero: The Scarab, which (before Jaime's influence begins to change it) always immediately picks the most lethal option available and doesn't seem to fond of being used for good.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Peacemaker can somehow manage this with a motorcycle.
• Steampunk: The reinvented version of Carapax.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: After Brenda's interstellar adventure, Amparo says she knows that Brenda must have a lot of questions about why the Mother Box was in their house (as well as the soldiers and scientists). Brenda tells her to relax because she knows... Amparo is working with the Justice League. Of course.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: The Scarab, which was created to be one of the most versatile - and deadly - weapons in the universe, and in The DCU that's saying something. It has enough firepower to threaten cities, and one of its higher-level weapons has potential theological implications... also, real Green Lanterns don't like being around it, with responses varying from "headache" to "homicidal urges." The GL Corps and the Reach have some history...
• Tear Jerker: In-universe example. When Jaime tells his friends and family the story about how how he was left alone in space when the Scarab cloaked him and all the heroes left him behind, everyone but Peacemaker is brought to tears. Milagro finally gives her returned big brother a hug, though.
• Teleportation Rescue: Jaime has to give up his chance to escape the Reach's station in time to ensure that its self-destruct can't be shut down. Fortunately, Booster Gold never runs out of time—he appears from a portal and pulls Jaime out just as the last second counts down.
• Thunder Beetle: As the Blue Beetle, Jaime wears a suit of scarab-themed Powered Armor and generally uses thunder and electricity powers.
• Titled After the Song: Issue 16 is titled "Total Eclipso: The Heart" after the Bonnie Tyler song "Total Eclipse of the Heart".
• Touched by Vorlons: Yeah, the Reach created the Scarab. They didn't mean for it to be nonlethal, though.
• Tranquil Fury: Mr. Reyes never has to raise his voice, and it isn't just because his wife is an Almighty Mom. When La Dama shows up with a dozen of her goons to bring Brenda back to her house, he's furious that she came to his home as a criminal and calmly tells her why that won't work. He also tells Peacemaker in calm but definite terms that you do not disrespect the boundaries of the Reyes home without an invitation, and gets an apology.
• The Unintelligible/Wingdinglish: The Scarab is at first one then revealed to be the other◊.
• Unreliable Expositor: As Jaime tells his family and friends about his role in averting the Infinite Crisis, we're simply shown a flashback. In the flashback, Batman tells Jaime to say that Superman was the one leading Jaime around, because everybody already likes Superman and Batman doesn't need people thinking he's a kindly mentor figure. Dialogue after the end of the flashback shows that Jaime did indeed talk about Superman and not Batman.
• Villains Never Lie: Averted with the Black Beetle. He gives so many varying origins for himself that Jaime eventually just gives up on believing any of them, even after Black Beetle seems to settle on "evil Jaime from the future."
• What Would X Do?: Jaime often thinks about what Ted would do (to the point where he has 'WWTKD?' - "What Would Ted Kord Do?" - stuck to his bedroom wall).
  • This carries over to Batman: The Brave and the Bold, with Ted replaced by Batman. Who is later replaced, at least partially, by Ted.
• World of No Grandparents: Averted, with the big family reunion in Blue Beetle #26.
• Yaoi Fangirl: Looks like Milagro is a Ted/Michael shipper in the making.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: The reason Jaime disappeared for a year—to avoid the Green Lanterns, the scarab phased Jaime in between dimensions; however, time flows oddly there, so a few minutes in between dimensions was a year on Earth.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Brenda is devastated when she learns that her beloved Tia Amparo is actually a crime boss and stays at Jaime's house for a while, though they eventually reconcile.

Blue Beetle Volume 8 (New 52)

• Adaptational Villainy: La Dama goes from Anti-Villain to full on Villain and gets herself and her house swallowed by magic trying to take the Scarab out of Jaime.
• Ancient Artifact: The Scarab crash landed in an ancient Mayan city centuries ago.
• Atrocious Arthropods: The New 52 reimagines the Reach with a more insectoid look, while retaining their role as an antagonistic race of conquerors.
• Badass Normal: Jaime's mom, Blanca, is not afraid to scream threats at La Dama when she thinks La Dama had something to do with Jaime being missing, making it clear she knows La Dama is a dangerous criminal and she's not afraid of her.
• Badass Bystander: During Jaime's fight with Booster Gold, as he explains himself and mentions La Virgen de Guadalupe (which is the Marian Apparition in Mexico and the patron saint of the country) when he's distressed about nobody believing he's not a villain, Jaime's grandmother Conchi, as well as several people, including a child, come to Blue Beetle's aid after he's knocked down, starting with Conchi smacking Booster in the face with her walker and daring him to hit her, then pretty much declaring he'll have to beat her off of him if he dares attack Jaime again, all while a man declares he's ready to post Booster beating up on an old lady on Youtube.
• Bad Boss: La Dama, in spades. She kills one of her underlings when he fails to retrieve the Scarab and uses his blood to power her magic.
• Big Applesauce: In issue #6, Jaime flees to New York City to protect his loved ones and to find other superheroes who will help him be a better hero.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: La Dama. Most people know her as Brenda's rich aunt, but she's also a ruthless crime boss.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: In the first couple of issues, The Scarab didn't care for human customs and morals. It only wanted to complete its mission.
• Body Horror: Jaime's first transformation into Blue Beetle is portrayed as this. After the Scarab bonds to his spine, the next page has nine panels showing the Transformation Sequence in great detail with Jaime looking horrified throughout the sequence.
• Brainwashed and Crazy:
  • Blood Beetle is really Paco. The Scarab fragment inside him took control of his body to carry out its Scarab Replacement Protocol on Blue Beetle.
  • Scarab units in general take complete control over their hosts and their minds. The only exceptions are Blue Beetle, Sky Witness, and (later) Khaji-Kai.
• Clingy Macguffin: While Jaime can shift in and out of his armor, the Scarab is fused to his spine and cannot be removed.
• Clothes Make the Superman: The Scarab creates a combat suit for Jaime.
• Clothing Damage: When the Scarab fuses to Jaime's back, his shirt is burned off.
• Collector of the Strange: La Dama collects weird ancient artifacts and has her sights on the Scarab.
• Color Character: Blue Beetle.
• Combat Tentacles: Blood Beetle occasionally uses them as part of his arsenal.
• Cool Old Lady: Jaime's grandmother. She is able to recognize Jaime even in his armor and breaks up the fight between Booster Gold and Blue Beetle.
• Darker and Edgier: The Scarab is initially harder to control and is willing to use lethal force to preserve Jaime's Identity. Paco learns this the hard way, but Jaime forces the Scarab to use a piece of itself to save him. The Scarab fragment takes control of Paco and transforms him into Blood Beetle.
• Deadpan Snarker: The Scarab is occasionally one of these.
• Determinator: Sky Witness: the first host of the Scarab. When Blue Beetle lands on the Reach homeworld, his presence awakens Sky Witness from his tomb and he will not rest until he has the Scarab again.
• Embarrassing Tattoo: When Jaime's parents see the Scarab attached to his back, they think it's a tattoo and tell him off for getting one.
• Episode Zero: The Beginning/Origins Issue: As part of DC's Zero Month. Issue #0 reveals that Jaime's Scarab was the first scarab unit made and details the time between when it crash landed on Earth and meeting Jaime.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: For a ruthless crime boss, La Dama really cares for her niece, Brenda.
• Evil Counterpart: Blood Beetle◊, who is Jaime's friend Paco with a piece of the Scarab latched onto his heart. His purpose is to eliminate the Scarab and take its place in the Reach's mission.
  • In issue #12, Blue Beetle manages to remove the Scarab fragment from Paco's heart and heal the damage to Paco's pierced heart; saving his friend and destroying Blood Beetle for good.
• Evil Is Bigger: Blood Beetle is much larger and muscular than the lean Blue Beetle. This is because Blood Beetle's host, Paco, is also bigger than Jaime, the Blue Beetle.
• Expy / Shout-Out: La Dama's Quirky Miniboss Squad bears a resemblance to the old Spider-Man villain team, the Enforcers.
• Fangs Are Evil: Blood Beetle has a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. Fortunately, he never bites anyone.
• Foreshadowing: In issue #2, when Blue Beetle is carrying Paco to Brenda's quinceanera, the Scarab senses a "nonrational energy source" in La Dama's home. Issue #3 reveals that La Dama practices black magic and her home is filled with magical artifacts.
• Gangbangers: Paco is a gangmember of Chuco-Thirteen. He reforms when his gang is taken out by supervillains in issue #4.
• Glowing Eyes:
  • Blue Beetle's eyes occasionally glow orange or blue when angry.
  • Blood Beetle on the other hand has solid orange Glowing Eyes of Doom.
• Gratuitous Spanish: When most of the characters are bilingual it's kinda expected.
• Heroic Build: Notably averted with Jaime, as he retains his slim teenage physique when he transforms into Blue Beetle.
• Heroic Host: Jaime and his Scarab.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: After Blue Beetle slaps and threatens to kill Brenda to convince Blood Beetle to release control of Paco's body in issue #6, the scene ends up being caught on camera and uploaded to an anti-metahuman website called Superfail.com. The footage is even broadcast on television, making him look like a menace. It is only until Blue Beetle saves Brenda and Paco from Blood Beetle in issue #12 when the public warms up to him.
• Historical In-Joke: Issue #0 reveals that before the Scarab bonded with Jaime, it was bonded with a Mayan Sky Witness (astronomer). The Sky Witness used the Scarab's power to drive the invading Aztecs off of Mayan land. He left several survivors in a marsh where Mexico City stands today. While the Aztecs were able to establish the Aztec Empire, they never forgot their old foe and remembered the Sky Witness as the cruel god Quetzalcoatl.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: Scarab units have safety protocols that prevent them from terminating themselves. This becomes a problem when Blue Beetle fights Sky Witness, who was the Scarab's first host and has some of the Scarab's technology in him.
• I Know Youre In There Some Where Fight:
  • Blue Beetle uses this to defeat Blood Beetle in issue #6. He pretends to relinquish control to the Scarab and threatens to kill Brenda, which causes Blood Beetle to cancel its Scarab replacement protcol and transform back into Paco.
  • Brenda uses this against Blood Beetle in issue #12. She manages to distract him long enough for Blue Beetle to fly in unnoticed.
• Imagination-Based Superpower: The Scarab is capable of morphing into nearly anything Jaime can imagine.
  • Adaptive Armor
  • Flight: Flies with orange stationary insect wings.
  • Instant Armor
  • Plug 'n' Play Technology: The Scarab can interface with a wide range of devices and access the internet.
  • Powered Armor
  • Robo Cam: As Blue Beetle, Jaime sees the world through a blue and orange interface. It can target individuals, their vital organs, and can increase the range of his vision like binoculars.
  • Swiss-Army Weapon: The Scarab can create arm cannons, blades, claws, and much more.
• Inhuman Eye Concealers: Probe has psychic powers and an Eyeless Face, which she disguises with sunglasses.
• Insectoid Aliens: The Reach, which is composed of several different castes. Worker drones are the smallest, most insectoid, and communicate mainly by pheremones. Soldier drones are slightly more humanoid and are the largest, towering over humans. Command Drones are the most humanoid, have four arms, and are around average human height.
• In-Series Nickname: Jaime tends to call the Scarab "Bugsuit".
• It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Or rather, it's the alien killing machine lodged in my spine.
• Kid with the Leash: In the first couple of issues, Jaime could barely control the Scarab and needs to force the Scarab to comply. Later the Scarab becomes more responsive to Jaime as it learns more about human culture.
• Lady of Black Magic: La Dama practices black magic. She tries to use it to against Blue Beetle, but he breaks her spell, causing it to destabilize and engulf La Dama and her home in a sphere of light. When the sphere disappears, there is nothing but a smoldering crater where the house was.
• Legacy Character:
  • While Jaime was the first superhero to wear the Scarab, he was not the first person. Issue #0 reveals that when the Scarab crash landed on Earth centuries ago it was found by Mayans. When the Mayan's Sky Witness (astronomer) went to investigate, the Scarab bonded with him. However, the Scarab was damaged and had little control over its host. When the Sky Witness was dying of old age, the Scarab tried to break off and find a weak minded host to control, but the Sky Witness grabbed it to stop it from escaping the collasping pyramid they were in. The Scarab tried to teleport back to the Reach homeworld, but teleported the Sky Witness instead. The Scarab was buried under the collapsed pyramid; rendering it dormant.
  • In issue #13, it is revealed that the Sky Witness was preserved by the Reach. When Blue Beetle is teleported to Reachworld, the Sky Witness is awakened by his presence and is determined to get the Scarab back.
• Let's You and Him Fight:
  • In issue #9, Blue Beetle meets Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, Red Lantern Bleez, and Orange Lantern Glomulus. The Scarab identifies them as enemies of the Reach and activates every weapon it can. Jaime however, knows Green Lantern is a good guy and they stop fighting and team up when a hired alien assassin tries to kill Kyle.
  • In issue #11, Booster Gold broadcasts on television for Blue Beetle to meet him at Liberty Island. Blue thinks Booster's going to help him, but when they meet, Booster tries to kill him. Booster think Blue Beetle's a Reach agent assigned to prepare Earth for invasion. The fight is only stopped when Jaime's grandmother and her neighbors step in. Booster Gold tries to cover it up by saying that he was testing Blue for a spot on the Justice League International when he realizes that Blue's not like other Scarabs.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: In issue #14, Khaji-Kai teaches and uploads several Scarab battle modes and weapons to Blue Beetle's armor to prepare him for their journey to the scarab homeworld. Scarabs normally have these modes, but Blue's Scarab was damaged and couldn't access them.
• My Sensors Indicate You Want to Tap That: The Scarab sensed Jaime's metabolic arousal once when he was talking to Brenda and again when Red Lantern Bleez pounced on him.
• Never Found the Body: When La Dama gets herself and her house absorbed by magic, it is revealed that she left in her will that should any thing "unusual" happen to her, her niece Brenda will inherit a great deal of money. Until La Dama returns or is confirmed to be dead, Brenda will keep the money in a trust.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In issue #1, when Jaime runs away with the backpack carrying the Scarab to distract Brutale and Rompe-Huesos from harming Paco, Brutale throws a knife at Jaime's spine to cripple him. Instead of severing Jaime's spine, the knife hits the dormant Scarab in the backpack. This reactivates it and fuses the Scarab to Jaime's spine; transforming him into Blue Beetle for the first time.
• Painful Transformation: Jaime experiences pain whenever he shifts in and out of his armor. Overtime, he gets to feel no pain, but only when he controls the transformation or he asks the beetle to make it not hurt. But if the beetle feels the need to armor up all of a sudden due to whatever it views as a threat, the sudden transformation will hurt Jaime.
• Parental Abandonment: Inverted. In issue #6, Jaime flees to New York because of the hell the Scarab has now made his life.
• Phlebotinum Rebel:
  • Centuries ago, the Scarab (real name: Khaji-Da) was damaged by a Green Lantern before it crash landed on Earth. The damage it sustained is the reason why Jaime's in control.
  • In issue #13, Blue Beetle meets Khaji-Kai, who gained partial control when a Blue Lantern attacked him. The Blue Lantern's healing ray temporarily removed Khaji-Kai's armor; allowing him to remember who he was and resist his Scarab. He wants to team up with Blue Beetle and free all the other scarab units by destroying the planet the scarabs come from.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: La Dama's trio of supervillain underlings: Brutale the knife-throwing marksman, Rompe-Huesos the hard hitting acrobat, and Coyote the wolf man.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Blood Beetle
• Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: When Blue Beetle defeats Blood Beetle the first time, Blood Beetle's scarab fragment cancels its Scarab Replacement Protocol retreats back into Paco's chest. In issue #11, the Department of Extranormal Operations abducts Paco while he's in New York and try to remove the scarab fragment from his chest. This reactivates the fragment and it transforms Paco into Blood Beetle again.
• Shirtless Scene: Jaime has a few scenes shirtless to show off the Scarab on his back.
• Sociopathic Hero: The Scarab initially. It barely responded to Jaime—that it does at all is considered a miracle. As the series goes on, the Scarab becomes less vicious as it learns more about human culture. It even saves Jaime's friend Paco by reconstructing his damaged heart with some of Jaime's heart cells because it learned about self sacrifice.
• Speech Bubbles: Blood Beetle talks with a red speech bubble with white text. When Jaime makes his voice sound like the Scarab's, his speech bubble becomes blue with white text.
• Starfish Language: The Reach can communicate with either pheremones or their own unintelligible language. Fortunately, the Scarab can translate their language for Blue Beetle.
• Technicolor Eyes: As Blue Beetle, Jaime has orange eyes and blue sclera. Normally his eyes are brown.
• Transformation Name Announcement: When Jaime transforms into Blue Beetle for the first time, he involuntarily shouts "Khaji-Da!", the Scarab's real name.
• Trauma Conga Line: Taking a shot every time Jaime gets screwed over would knock out the hardiest man.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: When Jaime tries to reveal his secret identity at Brenda's quinceanera, the Scarab tries to silence Jaime by making him vomit. Some of it gets on La Dama's leg and dress.
  Jaime: Oh, my god. Tell me those weren't expensive...

Blue Beetle Volume 9 (Rebirth)

• Ambiguously Evil: Ted's opinion of the Posse, who he thinks could either be heroes or villains.
• Adaptational Villainy: Arion, the first Big Bad of the series, has traditionally been a good guy.
• Artifact of Doom: The Scarab, which seems to be connected to the dark entity seemingly behind the supernatural events unfolding in El Paso.
• Ascended Fanboy: Ted is a huge superhero fan in this version, and is alive and well when Jaime is bonded to the Scarab. When Jaime comes to him looking for help removing the Scarab, Ted sees it as an opportunity to help people, and decides to help Jaime fight crime.
  • Subverted, as he confirms he used to be Blue Beetle himself.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: The Posse are fiercely protective of Dr. Reyes, as seen when Nightcatcher threatened Jaime to leave her alone not knowing he's her son.
• Berserk Button: Jaime gets mad enough to unlock new abilities in the armor when Mordecai Cull attacks his mother.
• Big Bad: The first one is an unnamed entity lurking beneath El Paso and causing much of the city's supernatural events. We eventually learn that he's Arion of Atlantis, an ancient enemy that Doctor Fate faced once before in ancient times.
• Catchphrase: Sarcastically saying "wonderful" in situations that are the complete opposite.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: So far, Tina and an unnamed brunette both seem to have a crush on Jaime, while Blur has this for Blue Beetle.
• Continuity Nod: Ted's clothes reference his old superhero costume, having a shirt with a beetle symbol and yellow goggles or glasses.
• Cool Airship: The Bug.
• Cool Car: Ted has a sick-looking futuristic blue limo when he isn't traveling in the Bug.
• Crimefighting with Cash: After he joins up with Jaime.
• Deuteragonist: The opening credits of each issue so far always take care to say that Jaime and Ted are the Blue Beetle.
• Disappeared Dad: Ted's father died in the beginning of Forever Evil (2013).
• Doing in the Scientist: It now appears that the scarab was a magical artifact after all, and the alien technology story was just what it wanted Jaime to believe. By the time of Graduation Day, this has been re-retconned again.
• The Dreaded: Jaime's mom is this; everyone, including Ted and the Posse, is terrified of her.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: La Dama so far seems to be more on the morally-ambiguous-to-evil side of the morality scale, but just like her previous versions she genuinely cares for Brenda.
• Expy: Ted's role this time around is closer to that of Old Bruce from Batman Beyond.
• Fully Absorbed Finale: The series follows up on plot threads from Justice League 3000.
• Hollywood Heart Attack: Ted makes a reference that he knows a heart attack from experience; later he has what looks like some chest pains while Beetle is fighting Rack n' Ruin.
• Hope Spot: Doctor Fate's host experiences this in issue #7, when it briefly seems like the Doctor had been felled.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Ted seems to be delegating Kord Industries' day to day operations to his assistant Teri, who seems to not mind. This is a bit of a Mythology Gag to Ted's first solo series at DC where he did the same thing with Melody Case. Melody however was usually far more exasperated at his antics.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Jaime just wants the Scarab off of his spine, and isn't interested in Ted's plans for heroism.
• Jumped at the Call: Ted eagerly leaps at the chance to mentor and support Jaime as a superhero, despite Jaime having come to him in the hopes that the billionaire inventor could help get the Scarab off of him.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Jaime learns his mom of all people is helping the Posse as their doctor, and that Ted is funding this through her new clinic in return for the occasional report.
• Mercy Kill: At the end of issue #6, it looks like Doctor Fate is going to attempt this on Jaime's body to keep the Scarab from wreaking havoc.
• Mission Control: Ted's intended role for Jaime, who's not impressed by his efforts.
• Older Sidekick: Ted supports Jaime from the sidelines and basically acts as a sidekick despite being older.
• Power Trio: Once again, Jaime forms this with Brenda and Paco.
• Retired Badass: While Ted used to be Blue Beetle himself, he's not any more.
• Rogues Gallery: Rack'n'Ruin, La Dama, and Arion.
• Secret-Keeper: Ted seems to be withholding the fact that his assistant Teri and Milagro's new friend Tina are from the future, namely from Giffen and DeMatteis' Justice League 3000 and 3001 series. He also hid the fact Jaime's mom is helping the Posse as their doctor, and he's funding her clinic.
• Sink or Swim Mentor: Ted seems to come off as this, having Jaime try and solve his fights himself.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Blur can teleport, but even spamming Beetle with rapid teleporting, her powers are no match for his armor or weapons.
  • Also people tend to think he is nuts talking to Ted who is his Mission Control.
  • Subverted because it was hinted that Root, her boss, ordered her to distract Beetle.
• Teen Genius: Ted went to college at sixteen, and was developing insect-sized drones by nineteen.
• There Are No Good Executives: Remains an aversion, being inspired by his father's example to make a difference in the world.
• Town with a Dark Secret: El Paso in this series seems to be this; Ted confirms that the 'spontaneous metahuman' population is higher than anywhere else in the U.S.
• Villains Never Lie: Played with in issues 5 and 6. Mordecai Cull's boss tells him that if he can retrieve the Scarab in his second attempt, he'll be forgiven. While he was ultimately forgiven, it turns out that his plan was never to get the Scarab back, it was to sacrifice Mordecai to it.
• We Can Rule Together: Played with. Jaime is unconscious when Arion announces that Jaime will be kept alive and by his side as Arion takes over the world. The role is also implied to be more symbolic than a role as a co-ruler.
• You Fight Like a Cow: Ted is trying to teach him this but Jaime stinks at it so far.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Subverted by the first Big Bad of the comic, the entity lurking beneath El Paso. It sends Mordecai after Jaime, but discovers that he was meant to be a sacrifice to the Scarab once he'd brought it to him rather than the other way around, and Mordecai initially thought he was about to become a straight example. Then when Jaime is briefly separated from the Scarab, his role of bringing it to Arion and luring in sacrifices fulfilled, Arion actually saves Jaime's life and states that Jaime will be kept by his side as a token of gratitude for the role he played.

Blue Beetle Volume 10

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