History YMMV / BlueBeetle

* TearJerker: Ted's internal monologue at the end of Countdown To Infinite Crisis as he seems resigned to his impending fate:
--> "My name is Ted Kord. I am the second man to call himself the Blue Beetle. I tell myself there will be a third. And I hope whoever he or she may be, they do better at it than I have."

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: As noted above, the New 52 Beetle series has gotten a mixed reaction from fans who missed the light-hearted nature of the previous volume.
** For Rebirth, many are unhappy- or at least confused- as to why the scarab was made magical once more. Part of this is probably due to the change meaning the fan favorite Reach are no longer involved in the scarab's origin.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The 1940s Dan Garret Blue Beetle has almost ''nothing'' in common with any of the following Beetles. This version is a young beat cop who gained limited powers when taking "Vitamin 2X", and by wearing a bulletproof chainmail costume. There is no scarab, no magic and no aliens, just Garret fighting mobsters and other real world criminals. At the end of the 40s, when the popularity of superheroes began to wane, the Blue Beetle comics leaned into this aspect even more heavily, with the final years of the series run being more akin to gritty crime dramas, with such a diminished focus on the Blue Beetle's super powers that they were eventually just removed altogether.
** The absolute first appearance of the Blue Beetle in 1939 was ''even more'' different. This original concept for the character was a 1930s "mystery man", a masked crime fighter without powers who wore a blue suit and a fedora.

*** It's gotten to a point when some consider Ted Kord to be an {{Ensemble Dark Horse}} to the whole DC universe. Ironically, he shares this role with the Question. The Blue Beetle and the Question? [[ComicBook/Watchmen Why, I'll be]] [[GoshDangItToHeck a monkey's uncle!]]

* MoralEventHorizon: A hotel manager manages to cross this in one issue when he refuses to let the locals take shelter from a rampaging supervillain in his hotel, doesn't care about the resulting deaths since they're not paying customers, and [[SmugSnake laughs in Jaime's face when called out]]. [[spoiler:We can only hope that Batman fired his ass with extreme prejudice]].

** [[ScaryDogmaticAliens The Reach]] have proven to be surprisingly popular villains despite not having much presence outside Jaime Reyes' initial run, likely for [[EvilIsCool being a badass alien empire who wield insectoid power-armor]], and having more personality than your average space warlords. This is likely why they show up in both ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' and ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice''.

* {{Adorkable}}: Still. If anything he's even ''more'' charmingly geeky than the previous version.

** Jaime Reyes to Ted Kord, though it mostly came down to how Ted had a bridge dropped on him and was replaced by Jaime ''in the same event''. However, it became an AvertedTrope and Jaime has become a textbook example of how a LegacyCharacter, especially a [[AffirmativeActionLegacy minority]] one, can be done right by actually developing the character rather than just replacing the old one and expecting people to like him. In fact, for many younger audiences, Jaime ''is'' the Blue Beetle they know.

* AccidentalInnuendo: The name of one of the more infamous gangsters fought by Dan Garrett in the original Fox Comics era: ''[[UnfortunateNames Big Dix]]''.

* HilariousInHindsight: The armor superficially resembles Blue Beetle's armor in ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'', which also had a connection to Dan Garrett's scarab.

* MoralEventHorizon: A hotel manager manages to cross this in one issue when he refuses to let the locals take shelter from a rampaging supervillain in the hotel, doesn't care about the resulting deaths since they're not paying customers, and [[SmugSnake laughs in Jaime's face when called out]]. [[spoiler:We can only hope that Batman fired his ass with extreme prejudice]].

* MyRealDaddy: Similar to what happened to his friend {{ComicBook/Booster Gold}}, Ted Kord was created by {{Creator/Steve Ditko}} in the 1960s, but he is mostly associated with his time in the {{ComicBook/Justice League International}} under J. M. [=DeMatteis=] and Keith Giffen.

* SequelDisplacement: Dan Garrett is known for being the original Blue Beetle, but much like [[ComicBook/GreenLantern Alan Scott]] and [[ComicBook/TheFlash Jay Garrick]], he's been completely overshadowed by his successor Ted Kord, who in turn has been overshadowed by ''his'' successor Jaime Reyes. The general audiences know them far more than the original.

* HilariousInHindsight: The armor superficially resembles Blue Beetle's armor in ''ComicBook/KingdomCome''.

* MagnificentBastard: The Reach (at least pre-New 52) as a whole are surprisingly smarter and more subtle than the standard alien invaders. [[spoiler:Since a peace treaty with the Green Lantern Corps prevents them from conquering planets with military might, they instead use a LoopholeAbuse, approaching worlds by [[BadSamaritan pretending to be peaceful traders here to share their advanced technology and science, thus gaining the natives' trust]], and using the scarabs as infiltrator agents who pose as guardians to protect the planets until their arrival. They then release a chemical agent in the atmosphere, so small it's practically undetectable, and let it build up and infect the planet's inhabitants over an entire century. When that time has passed, they cause fake magic temples all over the world to blow up, causing a massive disaster, and offer the surviving natives to help them in exchange of essentially becoming their workforce, and forcing them to agree through MindControl using the chemical agent they have been infected with.]]

* MyRealDaddy: Similar to what happened to his friend {{ComicBook/Booster Gold}}, Ted Kord was created by {{Creator/Steve Ditko}} in the 1960s, but he is mostly associated with his time in the {{ComicBook/Justice League International}} under J. M. DeMatteis and Keith Giffen.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: All three Beetles may not have a lot of fans, but the ones they have are very supportive of the characters. There's a reason that as ComicBook/JusticeLeagueInternational went on Blue Beetle had bigger roles and more stories focused on him.

** Ted came dangerously close, between struggling with his weight, rarely being taken seriously as a superhero (something which led directly to his death), and his unrequited crush on Barbara Gordon the poor guy rarely caught a break.

** Jaime Reyes to Ted Kord, though it mostly came down to how Ted had a bridge dropped on him and was replaced by Jaime ''in the same event''. However, it became an AvertedTrope and Jaime has become a textbook example of how a LegacyCharacter, especially an [[AffirmativeActionLegacy minority]] one, can be done right by actually developing the character rather than just replacing the old one and expecting people to like him. In fact, for many younger audiences, Jaime ''is'' the Blue Beetle they know.

** Jaime Reyes to Ted Kord, though it mostly came down to how Ted had a bridge dropped on him and was replaced by Jaime ''in the same event''.

* MagnificentBastard: The Reach (at least pre-New 52) as a whole are surprisingly smarter and more subtle than the standard alien invaders. [[spoiler:Since a peace treaty with the Green Lantern Corps prevents them from conquering planets with military might, they instead use a LoopholeAbuse, approaching worlds by [[BadSamaritan pretending to be peaceful traders here to share their advanced technology and science, thus gaining the natives' trust]], and using the scarabs as infiltrator agents who pose as guardians to protect the planets until their arrival. They then release a chemical agent in the athmosphere, so small it's practically undetectable, and let it build up and infect the planet's inhabitants over an entire century. When that time has passed, they cause fake magic temples all over the world to blow up, causing a massive disaster, and offer the surviving natives to help them in exchange of essentially becoming their workforce, and forcing them to agree through MindControl using the chemical agent they have been infected with.]]