With Blue Beetle set to make his anticipated debut in the DC Universe this week, most fans, especially those who are quite unfamiliar with the character are interested in finding out more about his abilities, weaknesses, and just how strong he is for a DC hero.
While many hardcore DCU fans have long been awaiting his standalone live-action film, some of you might not be aware of just how powerful Blue Beetle really is. Well, this article pretty much covers that.
Here's how strong Blue Beetle is in his DC Comic origins and in the latest DC installment.
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WARNING: This part of the article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for the Blue Beetle movie, so READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
How Did Blue Beetle Get His Powers?
While DC Studios is officially welcoming Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) as the live-action Blue Beetle on the big screen, it's worth mentioning that Jaime is NOT the first Blue Beetle hero.
Here's a little overview of how the Blue Beetle suit came into Jaime's hands.
The Blue Beetle suit came from an ancient Scarab artifact that was founded by the first-ever inheritor of its powers, Dan Garret.
Dan Garret was no superhuman. He had no superpowers. Garret was an archaeologist who discovered the blue suit in an old Egyptian tomb, also making him the first to take the heroic mantle of the Blue Beetle.
The second to continue the Blue Beetle legacy was Ted Kord, whom Garret trained enough to become the next hero.
Contrary to common beliefs, Kord did not manage to activate the Scarab to bind with it.
Instead, he was able to create a similar high-tech suit supposedly providing him with great superpowers to defeat every villain he needs to defeat.
Most recently, the Blue Beetle we see in the theaters, Jaime Reyes, is the most fate-intertwined inheritor of the Blue Beetle suit.
This is because he is the youngest to hail the Scarab suit of the three. In DC Comics, he stumbled upon the Scarab artifact purely by accident while he was returning from school.
Most surprisingly, the Scarab bonded with Jaime's spine which provided him with every single ability and power the Blue Beetle suit provides to its host.
In the comics, Ted Kord was able to help and train Jaime himself. However, we have yet to see how Jaime will be training in the film to master the secrets behind his newfound identity and super suit.
The DC film did this differently, though.
Instead of accidentally stumbling upon the Scarab on his way home from high school, Jaime Reyes has been aged up as a college graduate in the DC flick.
He found the blue Scarab while he was trying to apply for a job Jenny Kord previously offered him.
At the time, Jenny was looking for a way to store the Scarab into safe hands and she entrusted it to Jaime while she was on the run.
As much as Jaime tried to keep his word, though, his family practically teased him into opening the box, which led to Jaime getting chosen by the Scarab.
Don't forget: Jaime was always destined to be chosen by the Scarab. It wasn't by mistake, and the film has just set up his origin story this way.
Now, as for how he slowly 'bonded' with the Scarab, the first time Blue Beetle transformed into the suit, the AI (aka Khaji-Da) outrightly stated that the activation of the Scarab meant testing the suit on the physical capabilities of the host.
In this sense, Khaji-Da had stated that the suit's main goal is to protect its symbiote host, which is Jaime himself.
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How Strong is Blue Beetle’s Suit?
As you can pretty much tell from DC’s official Blue Beetle official trailer alone, Blue Beetle’s powers originate from the symbiotic Scarab that takes over by attaching itself to its host's body, in this case, Jaime.
This Scarab artifact grants him enhanced powers and abilities that all come from the power of the blue suit that protects him from the outside world.
Now, as for its comic origins, the Scarab suit was a legacy passed down from the previous original Blue Beetles who first used it, as mentioned previously.
Only, the suit was improved upon by each inheritor to suit and adapt to the user's body.
Since Dan Garret worked as a policeman, his main goal as the Blue Beetle was to fight crime with the enhancement of the suit while also avenging his father's death.
In this case, he got the bulletproof suit while taking a special vitamin that gave him superior strength to defeat his villains.
The second inheritor (Ted Kord) was a genius who excelled in most forms of science (physics, engineering, alien technology, etc.) and was also responsible for the early improvements of the Blue Beetle suit.
This included inputting tons of gadgets into his suit, such as a de-masking system lock in which no one could unmask him unless he allows it.
Since he has knowledge of alien technology, Kord made use of the advancement of Blue Beetle by enhancing its ability through weaponry such as handheld weapons and even jets he could shoot off to thwart enemies.
The Blue Beetle suit wouldn’t have been considered one of the strongest suits in existence in the DCU if it weren’t for its high durability to withstand extreme conditions (such as countering natural calamities, and even re-entering the Earth after coming from outer space).
The suit also includes its own beetle-shaped wings and rocket boosters so Jaime could fly at high speed.
To add to that, the strength the Blue Beetle suit provides to Jaime lasts even when facing up against super bombs.
Of course, who could forget: apart from what AI could offer to the owner of the suit, it also comes with its own variety of gadgetry and weapons including razor-sharp blades, shields, and grappling hooks that come with its nanotechnology.
Like many other super suits run by AI, the Scarab suit has an ‘infiltrator mode’ in which emergency calls could lead the suit to take over and use ‘annihilation mode’ to eliminate the target enemies under the command.
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Is Blue Beetle The Strongest Hero in the DCU?
One of the main things you have to understand about Blue Beetle is the fact that he is a human DC hero.
While he may not be Superman, Wonder Woman, and plenty of others who gained immortality and god-like powers, his strength lies in his experience and in knowing how to operate the suit he was bestowed with in the first place.
Human heroes tend to remain mortal and maintaining accommodating to the requirements of his suit means he is much stronger than he looks or seems to be.
Pretty much similar to Batman in the technological aspects of the Scarab suit.
Canonically, in the DC comics, Jaime Reyes’ Blue Beetle suit includes an advanced Artificial Intelligence system, Scarab Sight, high-tech weaponry, and many others.
The fact that its AI system could easily take full control of the suit to protect Jaime is one of its many features that makes Blue Beetle one of the strongest DC heroes.
Jaime debuts as a teenager in his own solo film, meaning he’s about to learn the basics of the alien tech he unknowingly had his hands on, as seen in the official trailer.
Now, the answer to how DC plans on portraying Blue Beetle as one of the strongest heroes, we'll have to see once he gets past his solo debut film.
The least bit of a 'teaser' we can get from Blue Beetle is highly dependent on how far the blue Scarab is willing to protect its symbiote host.
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Does Blue Beetle Have Any Weaknesses?
While the Blue Beetle suit is made of alien technology and AI, it still undoubtedly holds its own setbacks and weaknesses that could endanger Jaime Reyes’ life.
Since the Blue Beetle suit is made out of Reach tech, an alien race of intergalactic conquerors who created Scarab exoskeletons (including the Blue Beetle suit), anything made under the same creators would of course render the Scarab suit vulnerable to destruction.
So, when Victoria Kord managed to extract the blue Scarab's formula into her own Kord Industries' weapon attached to Conrad Carapax, it was only then that Jaime's Blue Beetle suit got destroyed.
There’s also some inconsistency in the mechanics of the suit.
While it does have an anti-magic mechanism, when Jaime was once confronted by a sorcerer in the comics, the Blue Beetle suit would fail to deflect its impact.
It is also said that the suit has a tendency to show weakness against powerful magnetic forces that could disrupt the Scarab suit’s abilities that require its machinery.
Consider that the Scarab symbiote somewhat has the freedom to bond with its owner which would strengthen their relationship as they work together in utilizing the suit to its full potential.
This links to one of the weaknesses Jaime Reyes once encountered in the animated Justice League series, in which the Scarab being linked to his spinal cord endangered his life to the possibility of facing death just to rid himself of his connection to the artifact.
You can check out more DCU-related news stories right here on Epicstream!
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