<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

The Blue Beetle is a fictional comic book superhero, originally owned by Fox Features Syndicate, then by Charlton Comics, and finally purchased and published by DC Comics.

While the Blue Beetle went through a lot of crazy rewrites at the outset of his creation, there is generally considered to be three Blue Beetle characters.

Blue Beetle
Gender	Male
Publisher	Fox Features and Charlton Comics
Origin	Midwestern University
First Appearance	Mystery Men #1 (1939)
Creator(s)	Charles Nicholas
Alter ego	Dan Garrett
Aliases
Abilities	Flight, super-strength, energy beams, x-ray vision.
Affiliations

Contents 1 The Dan Garrett Blue Beetle 1.1 Character Origin 2 The Ted Kord Blue Beetle 2.1 Character Origin 3 The Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle 3.1 Character Origin

The Dan Garrett Blue Beetle

The Blue Beetle of the Golden Age of Comics was an attempt by Fox Features Syndicate to cash in on the comic book superhero craze began by Superman in Action Comics #1 (1938). While he had his own comic until 1950, appeared in a brief daily comic strip and appeared in a short-lived radio program, the Blue Beetle never made it into the big time of movie serials, cartoons, and merchandizing. Even the introduction of a teen sidekick named Sparky didn’t help much. In 1955, he was brought back by Charlton Comics briefly, but without real success.

Character Origin

The origin of Dan Garrett is retold by Len Wein and Gil Kane in Secret Origins #2 (1986). Garrett is an Indiana Jones styled archeologist teaching at a fictional Midwestern University. On the way to Cairo from a archeological dig, his plane is almost shot down by renegade General Amenhotep, who claimed to be a descendent of the last Egyptian Pharaoh. Amenhotep was using a bit of disputed land as base for his dreams of conquest. In Cairo, Garrett runs into the General and confronts him. He gives him a quick beating, and then flees from the General’s men.

The next day at the dig, Garrett finds the lost tomb of Kha-Ef-Re, said to be an evil sorcerer. On top of the sealed sarcophagus he finds an ancient blue scarab in the shape of a beetle. When he picks it up, he hears the voice and sees the image of an ancient and powerful figure.

The god-like being says, “Behold me man of the future…and heed my words well. The power of our sacred scarab has brought you here before us to receive a wondrous gift. You are a man of courage and honor, Daniel Garrett, and the spinning fates have chosen you as the champion of all mankind. Go ye forth and do battle against the forces of evil wherever you may find them…for when you speak the holy words, yours shall be the power to banish evil from Earth for all time…the power of the sacred scarab…the power of…The Blue Beetle!” Garrett swears that he will do as the ancient wizard asks.

No sooner does this happen, than the tomb comes under the attack of the jet of General Amenhotep. Saying the magic words “Khaji Dha”, Dan is transformed into the Blue Beetle, wearing a skin tight blue uniform with red gloves, a blue hood, and a small black mask. Now he can fly, see through walls, project blue force beams from his eyes, and has tremendous strength. Suddenly, the mummy of Kha-Ef-Re comes to life and grows to giant size. Sensing that gaining control of this mummy is Amenotep’s goal, Blue Beetle does battle with both the mummy and the general, defeating them both. The god-like figure appears again, and tells Garrett that, for defeating Kha-Ef-Re, he may keep the power of the Blue Beetle and use it to fight evil everywhere.

Enemies: Mr. Thunderbolt, Praying Mantis, Mentor the Magnificent, Red Knight, Mister Crabb, Magno-Man.

Blue Beetle
Gender	Male
Publisher	Charlton Comics and DC Comics
Origin	Midwestern University
First Appearance	Captain Atom #83 (1966)
Creator(s)	Steve Ditko
Alter ego	Ted Kord
Aliases
Abilities	Ted utilizes his own technical genius and the resources of Kord Industries, the company he inherited from his father, to build non-lethal scientific weaponry and defenses. He has trained himself to be a good physical fighter and acrobat.
Affiliations	Justice League

The Ted Kord Blue Beetle

In 1964, the Ted Kord version of the character was introduced. He was purchased by DC (along with the other Charlton heroes) in the early 1980s and introduced into the DC Universe during the massive crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline in 1985. Soon after, he received his own short-lived series, but became a major player in the Justice League comic book (by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis) of that time. The character was murdered by Maxwell Lord in the one-shot Countdown to Infinite Crisis (2005).

Character Origin

When Ted Kord finds out that his late Uncle Jarvis not only faked his death, but is working on Pago Island with the resources of his late father’s company on perfecting a master super robot capable of world domination, he goes to his old college Professor Dan Garrett for help. Ted is hoping that Garrett’s archeological knowledge will help him locate the hidden workshop. Traveling to the island, they soon discover Jarvis Kord is planning to use his robots to conquer the world. When Jarvis sends the robots to kill them, Dan transforms into Blue Beetle, revealing his identity to Ted Kord. He defeats the robots, but Jarvis causes them to explode. Taking the brunt of the blast to save Ted, Dan is mortally wounded. Before he dies, he asks ted to swear to carry on after his death as the Blue Beetle. Ted swears to do this. Suddenly, the secret facility caves in, burying Garrett, the sacred scarab, and Jarvis Kord, seemingly forever.

Ted narrowly escapes with his life, and soon turns his attention to the problem of continuing the Blue Beetle legacy without the scarab’s power. Using the research and resources left to him by his late father, Ted constructs an extraordinary vehicle, his giant mechanical bug, which can crawl around on the ground like an insect, fly, and travel underwater. It has radar, a remote control piloting system, a built-in lab and sleeping quarters. He then trains himself for physical combat, an original uniform made from a metallic weave, a “strobe light gun” that will temporarily blind his opponent, and an array of non-lethal technology and weaponry, to become the new Blue Beetle.

Blue Beetle
Gender	Male
Publisher	DC Comics
Origin	El Paso, New Mexico
First Appearance	Infinite Crisis #3 (as Jaime) and #5 (as Blue Beetle).
Creator(s)	Keith Giffen, John Rogers and Cully Hamner
Alter ego	Jaime Reyes
Aliases
Abilities	Can will the appearance of amazing armor that can protect him, manifest an array of offensive weapons, fly, and detect and track any form of energy.
Affiliations	El Paso High School

The Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle

Jaime Reyes seems to be a normal teenager, but has the sacred scarab fused to his spine. The scarab provides Jaime with blue armor with amazing capabilities. It can reconfigure itself to form an array of weapons like an energy cannon, blades, shields, and wings that allow Jaime to fly. The suit contains an artificial intelligence that can track any source of energy, whether scientific or mystical in nature. The artificial intelligence seems to have a will of its own, and Jamie often has to fight the A.I. for full control of the armor. The suit’s potential and limitations are an on-going discovery for Jaime. While wearing this armor that conveniently masks his true identity, Jamie soon becomes known as the new Blue Beetle.

Character Origin

The sacred scarab does eventually come into Ted Kord’s hands, but he is never able to access its magic powers. Before its death, he gives it to the wizard Shazam, who keeps it with him at the Rock of Eternity. When the Rock of Eternity is destroyed, the scarab falls to Earth. The sacred scarab lands in El Paso,Texas, where it is found by high school student Jaime Reyes.

During the night, the scarab fuses itself to Jaime’s spine. Jamie awakens hearing strange unintelligible language in his head, which turn s out to be the scarab trying to communicate with Jamie. Whenever Jamie needs help, the scarab creates a super-powered armor around his body. At first Jamie is confused and victimized by the transformation, but before his fears can get the better of him he is drafted by Ted Kord’s former superhero colleagues to fight against Brother Eye, a creation of Batman that was subverted by and Maxwell Lord, the man who murdered the previous Blue Beetle. While with the Justice League heroes, Jamie learns about Ted Kord and the Blue Beetle legacy. He later finds out that the scarab is of alien origin, a creation of a race called the Reach, who have made an uneasy pact with the Guardians of the Universe not to interfere with Earth and other “primitive” cultures.

In this way, Jaime becomes the new Blue Beetle, and does what he can to use his power responsibly while trying to live the life of a normal high school teenager at home.