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popculturebuffet · 10 months

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Beetlemania: Ted Kord (A review of Blue Beetle V5 #1 and 2 and Blue Beetle V6 # 1 and 2) (Patreon Review and Comissioned by Brotoman.Exe and WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy beetlemaniacs, and welcome back to beetlemania, my look at those proud boys in blue just in time for the film.. well the day after it came out because my schedule has been in freefall.

Today we look at the man, the myth, and the guy who built his own giant dope as hell bug ship, Ted Kord, the second blue beetle.

To get to the blue part of the blue and the gold though, we have to talk about what happened to Dan. While fox published Blue Beetle into the 50's, dan fell victim to what most heroes a the time did: The Superhero Bust. Post WWII until the mid 50's, kids just werne't checking out superhero comics, preferring western and romance comics. As a result most superheros vanished and only super popular ones like Batman and Superman carried on and even the world's finest were hitting a wall. As a result Fox Comics went out of buisness and sold it's stock to Charlton comics Charlton DID try to make a go of things with dan, twice. First they reprinted golden age stories as a backup before giving him his own title in the mid 50's, ironically a likely result of superhero comics becoming hot again thanks to Dan's future owners DC Comics, before being taken over by Mr. Muscles. Now already just with THAT TITLE alone, I was curious.. but then I looked into it on wikipedia and who boy. Okay first off he was created by Superman Co-Creator Jerry Siegel.

Okay so brace yourselves for this breif detour: So Mr. Muscles is a former wrestler, who still wears a neat belt, has a kid sidekick and female version and fights with the power of being in peak physical condition, much like captain american if he could choke slam you. I also like the angle to him that he promotes physical improvment to the point that a guy who tries to KILL HIM WITH TIGERS, is instead given a chance ot better himself. Those parts.. all honestly work and i'm shocked this character has never been revamped especially since he REALLY would've fit well with the wrestling boom of the mid-late 80s around the same time the charlton cast got added to the dc universe.

But the most bonkers part is his origin....

Yes folks, Mr Muscles beat Polio, a disease that cut countless people down before Jonas Salk's polio vacine started to help just three years before this comic THROUGH SHEER FORCE OF WILL. Take that science! Again he'd probably need his origin touched up as "I didn't need a vacine I just beat this disease through will" isn't the uplifting message it was in 1955. Sadly the world just wasn't ready for him, and both Mr. Muscles and Dan Garret sat on the shelf.

So we enter the mid-60s. After dc plateaued with it's stories, Marvel breaks in with stories that treat it's characters like real people. Sometimes their real people who will fake being their own hepcat twin brother to fool their friends because they can't just tell them who they are because shut up, sometimes they'l lfight communists every week and sometimes they'll have their college roomate wind up as a dictator with his own country, but still people who have mostly realistic emotions and what not. So sensing another chance to cash in Charlton tried one more time to bring back Dan. The stories seem good, with Dan getting a new love intrest Cheri, an egyptian archelogy professor and a new job as an archelogist, an origin I honestly feel works better given the scarab and was carried over. The series breathed new life into the character.. but not new sales and once again the beetle was gone. However with a new boom going on they decided rather than let the beetle gather dust again to try a new approach: They combined the approaches of both companies: they'd give someone new the blue beetle identity.. and have one of marvel's top guys give him that sense of realisim.

Enter Steve Ditko, soon to be objectivst, loveable curmudgeon and co-creator of spider-man. Understandably angry Stan kept taking all the credit for the wall crawler and less understandably angry lee was a liberal, Ditko walked out of marvel and Charlton snapped him up and put him to work on a similar but still distinct new version of the blue beetle. They started with backups, just to be safe, before giving Ted his own title that... somehow only lasted 5 issues. Still it's a bafflingly un-republished classic that introduced one of the greatest superheroes of all so let's give it a look under the cut, along with what dc did with a similar premise

Blue Beetle Bugs the Squids: While another writer is credited.. it was simply a front: Ditko actually wrote and scripted the stories here, he simply didn't want a writing credit for some reason.

So we open with a high class party. The spread is bland, sauerkraut and boiled goose. There's no way these people will ever cut loose.. but more importanlty there's some man in squid suits with suction cups climbing the building.. suction cups on their ARMS.

The suits do look neat, not as squidy as i'd hope, I love me a good squid. Their beady eyes, their cupped mouths the fact they can murder you. Good boys. But their still a nice design.

They crash the party to rob it, but before the mystery men can burst in to stop this a diffrent costumed hero crashes the party

Ted's quip game is STRONG here, I can't show you them all, image limits, but Ditko's comedy and action writing is up to bat as ted acrobatically handles the much larger group. IT's very spidey-esque, without feeling EXACTLY like peter: Ted has no powers and thus his movements are more human level acrobatic, using a lot of throws and a lot of hand stands. It's a great level of art.

The Squids try to bug out with beetle following in the bug, his flying machine and something so iconic the blue beetle film makes sure to use it even with ted not physically present. But before we can get to that say.. do you have problems being short? Well charlton comics ad pages have a solution for you.

I can now see how randy newman thought short people got no reason to live, he was brainwashed by the liftee corportation! Someone deprogram randy newman!

we also get this ad for the charlton action heroes. We get a white guy doing judo, captain atom in his best red, blue , dark blue and silver armed ensemble, peacemaker: he'll eat every dick on the beach clean for liberty and of course the classic character Peter Cannon Thunderbolt. I have no idea who this guy is and don't care to. Why he's here and not Mr. Muscles, only god and charlton editorial knows.

Annnd looking it up he's bascially got the same gimick of human perfection with some added "White guy learning asian wisdoM' uncomfort. : Also I just noticed he's basically wearing socks.

Anyways beetle chases after teh squids in the bug which here looks more like a cricket than an actual beetle, something later designs would iron out.

We then see Ted Kord's personal life. It's largely what it'd be for most of his career: working as a researcher at a lab at his father's company, sometimes Ted's own company, though things.. aren't happy. Lt. Max Fisher is trying to figure out what happened to Dan Garret on Pago Island, and Ted can't tell him for reasons we'll get into next issue.. reasons he refuses to tell his girlfriend and fellow lab tech tracey.

He has reasons for keeping Max from knowing though: there's a secret there that could threaten the world, again more for the next issue. For now he's going to enjoy being blue beetle for as long as he can. I get the sense the detective subplot was added to throw in some drama to Ted's life, spider-man style. There' some elments of peter here: the dictomy of brooding civlian, carefree hero, the science background, the quips, the secret id driving a wedge between him and his loved ones.. but what I like is Ditko takes steps to make sure ted is his own man: he dosen't have powers, relying on techno wizardy, acrobatics and his own brain, has a steady love intrest from the word go and as we'll see next issue DOSEN'T keep his id a secret from those he loves for long if it'll keep hurting them. It's clear from the next issue Ditko either realized going the broody rout woudln't work forever or he was simply swerving his audeince expecing "Spider-man but blue and without powers". Either way it's nicely done.

So we cut to Todd Van III, a socilate suggesting a yacht party to raise money for .. something. Naturally given this guy we've never heard of has a lot of focus, he's the big bad behind the squids, having spent his inhereitance to show he can make his own money to his dead dad. That'll show his ghost! He also plans to make himself out to be a hero: since th eparty's a masquerade he swaps places with a minon so said minion will play him and stand up to the squids, who then slink away to the lower decks with the money.

This ends up backfiring as Ted was montoring the scene the whole time. It's nicely set up too: this time he's ready since the yacht party is too big a target for the squids to pass up.. and thus he notices how weird it is the squids AREN'T on his radar.

So we get a really fun action scene as the yacht, c leared of guests but not of squids, gets sieged by ted, who uses the bug in some really fun ways, including giving them a second to sweat it out before pouncing. It's cool stuff. Todd has decided to blow this pop stand... literally. He plans to blow up the yacht and everyone involved to get away. Unfortuantely for him the squids find out and escape while Ted is able to chase todd, and get the very moist back of money back. We get a REALLY fun fight scene as Ted keeps quipping about how todd REALLY wants to go to prison.

IT's a really great bit and really sells who ted is. In the end Beetle wins, the squids go to jail and he wonders what's next. Before that though I have to say..t his is a REALLY fun story. The dialouge is hilarious, the mystery for next issue is very well set up, and the squids are fun badies. Their not exactly a threat, but their not really here for that: there here more to give ted someone to show off against. To show what the beetle can do and to show he dosen't have any powers like dan. For a first issue it's a lot of fun

This issue also introduces the Question. The question is vic sage, a tv reporter by day who fearlessly speaks against corruption despite a good chunk of the board at his station wanting him gone. You can see a LITTLE of ditko's budding objectivism peak in, him blaming people with gambling problems for enabling mobsters, but otherwise it's also a great story. It's a really solid first issue and given it introduces such important characters i'm baffled dc hasn't reprinted these since the 2000's. It's great stuff. And there's more of it coming up next

The End is A Beginning By this point steve apparently got less shy about taking the writing credit as this one credits him rightfully as writer and artist.

Ted's stressed as Lt. Fisher keeps pressing him and Tracey hasn't showed up for work. So after Fisher leaves he decides to do some blue beetling to clear his head.

He flies over Pago Island, remphasising for new readers it has some terrible secret.. but it also has a guest. Ted's worried so he checks in.. and finds Tracey. Turns out she was here all day searching..

I... fucking love this scene. Ted sees his loved one is hurting.. and decides to come clean, despite the risk. Because it's the right thing to do. It's something I REALLY wish more superhero works did after this. Nowadays this sort of thing is way more common and deconstruing the secret keeping way more often, but it still took it's sweet time and even then we have things like miraculous ladybug where they just.. outright keep the ids secret because shut up. Here ted sees his girlfriend in distress and simply agrees to tell her.

So we cut back a few months: Ted was working with his Uncle Jarvis, with Tracey running his lab while he did as Jarvis preferred ted work only at his lab. Ted was curious, only getting in pieces, and while he was innocent enough to not ask big questions he still wanted to know what was going on. Jarvis agreed to tell him.. but then exploded.. literally. The lab explodes, Jarvis is apparently dead as he's the only one there.

Naturally though it's not that simple as Ted finds a box not destroyed in the fire.. and to his horror finds out the experiment was actually to create some cool looking artifical super solders. Before now their weakness was being slow.. but Ted accidently solved that. So he goes to Dan. In this continuity their old college buddies, and he figures Dan can find it with his archelogy. Dan tries to go alone so he can beetle it up if needed but Ted insists on going with because.. of course he does. He gave his uncle the keys. As for the whole being dead thing Ted rightly dosen't buy it and has to be sure. What I also love is that Ditko makes sure we get Tracey's perspective: she thought Ted was distraught because his uncle died, and she was supscious he was lying about being alone on pago island because she KNEW he left his house with someone else.

Naturally Jarvis not only has his atomic men capture them but gets monologuging. This case I get though: he has NO idea ther'es a superhero among the two guys he just captured, thus he has no reason to fear them.

dan naturally goes into action, secret identity be dammned and we get one hell of a fight. It alsos hows Dan's own fighting style: throws and more up close brawling once again to Ted's later acrobatics. Sadly... given ther'es only ONE blue beetle in present day.. you can probably guess how this ends.. in tears.. and expoding robot men

dan's body was soon lost for an explosion and while Ted managed to make it out, the police were left supscious.. but now he's given good reason. While Ted COULD at least reveal the pago island stuff without outing himself or dan as the blue beetle, though the latter might be necessary, he can't trust that anyone find the robots now jarvis is dead (his control center also conveintly overloaded), as no one man can be responsible for that kind of power.

So after some soul searching Dan used some of his dad's old experiments, his dad having left indefintely on his own vauge quest, and thus.. a legend was born

Turns out though the Androids themselves aren't gone and we get a breif but awesome fight. This is the real test: Ted is out powered, out gunned and barely survives.. but he manages to outwit them, dumping the two that emerged into a crevice.. but barely. It really cements who ted is: he's not a brawler, he can't use brute force: all he has is gadgets (something emphasized more in the dc version) and his greatest weapon: his brain. Like spider-man he has to think his way out over stronge foes but unlike spidey his brain is all he has.. and he uses it well. he then has the bug cover the crevices to be sure. Tracey vows to help him no matter what and the two embrace.. as under the island more robots are made... and the future is uncertain.

This issue is even better, giving ted a really fantastic origin story one that's been kept in most versions of him since, it's that good. DC would use it, brave and the bold would base an episode around it, and even the movie is using pieces of it, simply turning Jarvis into his sister rather than his uncle and , like brave and the bold, having the scarab be the basis. The art is fantastic, the fights as usual are great, and the stuff with Tracey is top notch character work, making her feel more like a person and less like an object.

Out From the Ashes!

So after only a few issues the blue beetle folded. Again. He'd appear breifly in AMERICOMICS. Because Merica, which finds a nice way to reconcile his golden age adventures with his silver age ones: reincarnation. It makes sense given both the egyptian themes present in the second run and the scarab itself not being defined as an alien just yet. Also as one last note the term Kahji Dah pops up here. Remember it, it'll be important later.

Anyways with that the beetle set on the sidelines again till the mid 80s. In 1983 DC Bought Charlton Comics, and it's characters, seeing the potetial Charlton had squandered just letting Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby creations sit on a shelf somewhere. At the same time Marv Wolfman, editor at dc and writer of the new teen titans (I covered his run with george perez in full last year and STILL feeling winded from it), had pitched a crossover: history of the dc universe!... which was set to completely reshape said history for a new generation, with Wolfman feeling the various parallel earths of dc had gotten a bit much, and with DC lagging behind marvel they felt a refresh was needed. They changed the name to...

Something I intend to cover eventually. When i'm not sure (I'd be happy to do it on comissoin). For those not familiar with it, Crisis was a massive 12 issue crossover, and while marvel beat them to the punch with secret wars as the first crossover, crisis was still the first proper linewide crossover: every book was effected in some way, and many would never be the same for better or worse. The book brought in EVERY altenate earth dc had, had most die horribly, and merged the remainder.

It was in these pages our boy Ted made his dc debut, and once the dust was settled he and the other charlton characters were put front and center in the new universe and most given another shot at a title or mini series with Captain Atom and Blue Beetle being the first to get ongoings, likely since Steve Ditko had worked on both, with the Question, after a guest stint in Beetle's own book, getting one and peacemaker getting a mini series and a key role in checkmate.. the latter of which I only know because he showed up for an overly long crossover between Checkmate and Suicide Squad, before largely disappearing until...

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Giving him a starring role in the suicide squad book thanks to his movie apperance and his own mini series recently.

The four along would also be adapted into the Watchmen, another book i've covered, as DC wanted to reuse the chalton characters after and watchmen was a bit too.. permeant.

And so in 1986 ted bravely and boldly enterted the dc universe proper with Blue Beetle #1.

Writing the book was Lein Wein, comics legend responsible for co-creating Wolverine, Colossus, Storm, and Nightcrawler, and of course KRAKOA THE ISLAND THAT WALKS LIKE A MAN AND WAS A MUTANT NATION TILL RECENTLY. IT'S COMPLICATED. Lesser known though was his run on Spider-Man. What i've read of it is pretty dang good, and it's clear even after a healthy run with the wallcrawler Lein still wasn't quite done doing this type of story and jumped aboard when DC asked him.

So once again we have a spidey alum bringing a wallcrawling energy to Ted, let's see how it bears out.

We open with some brave chicago firefighters tryign to put out a penthouse blaze... and failing. Goly firehouse 51 was a lot less competent before Chief Boden ran it huh.

Anyways Chief Red Haired Guy is dismayed to see a familiar face, The Blue Beetle, who he thought retired. Apparently Ted took some time off between picking up the mask and now, a nice way to explain why he hadn't been in any recent dc history prior to the crisis in-universe. What they never explain is WHY Chief Carrot Top hates Ted. No really this guy is j jonah jameson levels of dismayed ted is back, gets weirdly mad at him later, they never tell us WHY this guy hates ted. Maybe it's in an issue past where i've read in this book, I don't know, but it is hilarious, you have to give it that.

At any rate ted swings in on a line he has that comes out of the bug and he can call for help. It showed up in the previous adventures. Ted then tries to help someone in the fire.. only to get a cup of punch to the face instead. Turns out this is our villian..

Yeah the idea of firefist is a good one, and we'll get to why he keeps starting fires besides it being his desire later as well as why it burns so hot. But that outfit.. where do I even begin. the armor parts MOSTLY look neat, my only complaint being that his eyes shoudln't be visable, especially since he has a whole thing about wanting no one to see his face, trying to barbeque ted over it. The idea of an armored man with undousable fire who is determined to murder all firefighters is brilliant. The problem is the rest of the outfit. The pure white underpinning, the inexplicable utility belt no doubt caring firefist shark repeleant, the GIANT bulge

And the fucking logo. He looks like a dollar store shredder knockoff. I like paris cullen's cartoony art on this book, it fits well and he makes ted look great but I have NO IDEA what he was thinking on this costume.

It's honestly what i've realized on a second read took me out of the book the first time I tried reading it. Since dc had all the issues and no intention of reprinting the series (and as of this writing despite the movie STILL hasn't, though they have reprinted Jamie's series after too damn long which is nice), I bought the first two.. and wasn't really impressed. It felt like it was trying way too hard to be spider-man. I see now it's not really that bad, it has some good stuff i'll get to, I just let the problems stack up because one of the first things I saw was this guy. And on second read like I said he's not a terrible villian he just has a bad costume. And he's far from the first supervillian to start out with a bad costume before getting an upgrade later. I'd honestly love to see him fight Jamie if he hasn't already: just upgrade the flames to make hima threat to the scarab and your good.

At any rate firefist gets away though Ted escapes via the zip line thing I mentioned the sky wire, and uses it to save the last firefighter left in the building. The sequence is tense cool and really shows what ted can do. Granted I woudln't of also opened with him getting punched in the face but I do get it: they didn't HAVE to talk ted up since he had a prominent-ish role in crisis on infinite earths.. but for people just turning into bb it's a weird choice.

The Fire Comissiner wants answers and wants Beetle to come int o the fire house.. what. Ted does tell him about firefist but skedadles as fire chief grumpus vows revenge.. well he dosen't but wouldn't i tbe neat if he did.

Ted is a LITTLE bummed that was a bumpy return.. but what I like is he dosen't stay glum for long. He instead comforts himself with the fact that he at least prevented some damage. We then get a rundown of things as he pilots the bug underwater and into his secret lair. We also find out something I think is neat as Ted unmasks: the beetle mask has a lock on it that he can undo with his glove. It's clever, giving good reason why someone can't just yank the top off and find out who the blue beetle is and fits who ted is. Wein is the one who really codified that ted is a man of gadgets: while Ditko's Ted used more acrobatics, this is a ted who uses sceince and skills and it's something that would stick from here on out. And I .. really like it. It's a way to set him apart from both spider-man and batman, his most obvious comparisions being both a bug based hero with a load of quips having a load of fun doing this and a gadget based viglante. Peter is smart and WILL use his science knowhow and strategic genius to down foes, it's part of his charm, but dosen't really pack a ton of gadgets in most runs, only doing so when he has enough backing to afford gadgets or in the Insomniac universe, while

It's more criminology: most of his gadgets are based around crime solving and are down to earth. He CAN have something custom whipped up if the need arises, but prefers more practical solutions. It's seen in their modes of transportation: batman has a car, a boat and a plane, all speclaized just in case he needs one, and while all conspicious all black, fast and able to get in and out quick. Ted by contrast has the bug which while not exactly slow, is flashier, multipurpose (both plane and sub) and designed to more make an impact and look real cool. It's in how they treat the job: To ted this is something that needs doing and honors a friend, but something he also has FUN doing most of the time or can snark at to cope when he really REALLY isn't. For batman it's a sacred mission that has to be handled with the utmost seriousness while he wears a bat costume.

We get a recap of ted's origin, which is mostly untouched. The only diffrences are a change in design for the robots, Dan is switched from a college friend to Ted's old teacher and the fact this time out ted got to control the narrative, so while Lt. Fisher is still suspcious, we'll get to that, Dan is thought to have died mysteriously.. and in a nice touch the beetle cave has a memorial set up for him, the newspaper reporting his death with two candles next to it and Ted hoping to do him proud. It's a great way to speed through the origin without trivalizing what it means or what ted's lost.

Ted rides an elevator up to the proper levels of Kord Omniversal, his company which he runs as CEO. This is it's research part. He meets with his secretary, Angela, who has really neat looking big pink glasses and is nice.. but is hiding something. To get this out of the way now she's subtly stealing tech from the company for her uncle whose forcing her to. It's a subplot that dosen't get paid of here so i'm mostly glossing over it, but I apprciate these first two issues setting up later ones already. I also love this bit of ted going through the stack of messages she has for him.

It suits him so well. I also like his hat. I want that hat. Mail me that hat.

Ted heads to the lab where we meet Melody and Jermiah. Melody is ted's love intrest.. and a fairly eh one. Sh'es mostly just "Perky' and "Into ted" in the issues i've read. There really isn't a lot to her. With Tracey it was fine because A) it was two issues and b) It was 1965, love intrests rarely got fleshed out and her feeling as fleshed out as she did for the time was nice. It dosen't really help that ted later has chemistry with both Barbra Gordon (though sadly it never went anywhere), Power Girl and Booster Gold. I personally like Karen, but i'm not against tedbabs or the blue and the gold. What i'm saying is ted is just so likeable and charming that like Spider-Man he is shippable as fuck and Melody just dosen't do enough to stand out against what came after. Update: As I was writing this review I looked ahead at future issues via the dc database (their wiki).. and found out there IS an intresting subplot where Melody is mad Ted keeps vanishing.. that being said it's still frustrating as Ted has no real reason not ot tell her WHY he's vanishing and still dosen't quite fix the character. It IS neat though.

As for Jerry he's an old friend of Ted's dad's and a wacky guy, doing get rich quick schemes reguarly and having been fired from STAR Labs for it. For those not familiar with it, STAR is dc's go to super science outfit, with branches all over the country, and has heavily shown up in Superman the Animated Series and was home base for Team Flash in the CW Flash.

Ted then has the team analyzie the wreckage to figure out what Firefist is using without saying that. I do like that Ted uses his resources cleverly and being boss, and on good terms with both Melody and Jerimiah, they don't question it. That said.. I would've preferred it if the two just.. knew who he was. There's no real reason to hide it at this point and they don't give us a good one: Melody and Ted are doing super well and Jermiah is an old friend of Ted's dad and clearly likes the kid. Jerry MAYBE could tell kord sr, but there's no reason given Ted's dad can't know either. It'd be more fun for him to not have to hide it and see how they grapple with this as well as how they help Ted hide he's the beetle from the rest of the world. Loop his secretary in too. It isn't helped by hindsight: as noted above the flash show demonstrated how cool it is for a hero to have his own support staff, while as we'll see with Jamie while he still has a secret identity, his family and two best friends learn VERY early on and his book is better for it, something the movie seems to stick to judging from the trailers.

We cut to Pago Island where we meet Conrad Caprapax, aka one of the movie's villians.. and our second subplot that dosen't payoff here. In this case it's understandable. To get it out of the way this issue ALSO sets up Lt. Max Fisher looking into Pago Island, recyling that plot from volume 5. I figured the two plots would eventually dovetail, and since i had only read the first ten issues my first time trying this book, I looked it up and confrimed: the two plots do indeed payoff eventually in issue 14 and at the same time.

We then get to setup for future issues #4, or three chronologically, as Ted helps his good friend Murray Takamoto over at star. It's a neat setup too: Murray's an old college buddy and Ted often does consulting work for him. It's a nice way to setup plots. In this case a red headed stranger wants to steal some promethum star labs plans to transport to kord omniversal. The guy turns out to be Dr. Alchemy, longtime dc villian and honestly a fun choice to go up against the more traditionally scientific ted. I love this setup. He later tries to flatten the tires on the delivery but we find out his magic is shorting out, hence the promethium need. Oh well possible stories for another day.

With our various b-plots mostly out of the way we can focus on the main story again. Ted's chilling with Murray and chatting over coffe whcih his a bit fun if also a LITTLE bit stitled, but I get comics back then weren't the most natural and prefered over the tom, 80's sitcom style talking between characters, and it still feels natural enough.

Ted heads off when he gets a ding on his watch, as he was montoring for fires.. and Firefist has stepped up his game this time SETTING A FIREHOUSE ON FIRE. Ted is prepared though using fire foam on him from the bug before fighting the guy and actually has the upper hand this time. It shows off ted's smarts with this time his acrobatics. The roof caves in.. but we get an absoltuely DOPE shot of ted sliding down the fire pole.

Sadly this dosen't last and we end with Ted pinned under flaming wreckage while firefist gloats.

This City is Not For Burning

Man Len REALLY loved his melodramatic titles.

Anyways Blue Beetle is trapped in a burning building and we get a moment that's a clear homage to a spidey classic: This be my destiny aka that image of spidey under a ton of rubble he barley escapes from through willpower alone. Here it's diffrent ENOUGH for me to consider Len.. isn't just ripping it off: Ted has no power, the heat is a diffrent kind of complication and he has to use what he has on hand, a pipe and whatever else to escape. It's a well done scene all thigns considered and ted BARELY escapes. Fire Cheif Petty Grudge decides to call it even if Beetle can stop this guy. He's still mad Ted won't fill out his forms.. which is fair.

We then get firefists origin.. and I meant what I said earlier. While his costume is messy... his origin is both great and genuinely heartwrenching.

My guess is they assumed he was dead.. but I still can't blame him for being mad they abandoned him. Granted it still dosen't justify putting on a costume for revenge but frankly if no one did that superhero comics would be kinda boring wouldn't they. I also like the ambiguity: we geninely DON'T know if that firefighter didn't care to save the victim his friend went in for.... or simply missed the guy and assumed he was dead. It's a true tragedy and i'ts clear the ptsd and circumstance warped this poor guy into the arsonist we see now.

So with that Melody and Jerry find out the substance is apparently greek fire, a substance used to burn ships and find all the places the ingredignts could've come from before clocking out. ONce ted gets back and notices via the computer that everyone's gone he heads home for a shower and folks... and he's not alone.

I.. am endlessly baffled and amused by this whole thing. Does ted like being choked and Melody just simply didn't think to ask consent because it was the 1980s, or did Melody REALLY just think "Tee-Hee you know what would really be fun, suprising my boyfriend in his dark apartment alone when he's the head of a major company and thus a target for robbers or kidnappers. The fact that as the lights go back out Lt. Fisher is watching the apartment just proves my point. He already has a stalker, he dosen't need it simulated.. unless that's what he's into and again you gotta set that stuff up first.

A few subplots later ted gets the info and goes out after firefist but while he finds the stuff to make it, the guy's already gone. He did burn his newspaper in a rage thoug hso ted has meldoy read it to him.

This.. really hurts my brain. Ted is careless as hell with his identity here. Which again would be fine if the people he was careless to found out.. but instead we get a subplot of melody being mad he disappears.. and it somehow gets worse as she not only emotoinally cheats on him but CALLS IN HIS DAD TO DEAL WITH HIS ABSENCES WITHOUT TALKING TO HIM ABOUT IT. When as far as I could tellt he company.. was fine. Ted was just missing meetings but he still did all his work on time. Girl chicago , as far as I can tell has the ONE superhero. Company 51 is still under old managment, we're not there yet.

Anyways Firefist publicly targets a firefighting museum with ted giving chase as we get an add for the dc roleplaying game from back then.. and now I want to play that. if you knwo where the docs are online or have a copy let me know.

Anyways Beetle fights him and it's a decent enough fight.. with ted trying water for some reason even though greek fire is famous for being waterproof

Ted eventually wins by tarring up the mask and then takes off the mask... with firefist seemingly comitting suicide over his burns. A tragic end. Blue BEetle plugs firefigghting and the issue ends.

This two parter.. is a decent intro to ted. It shows off his skills, what his wealth can do, and firefist, while looking like bargin basement moltar, is a good first opponent: powerful enough to give Ted a workout, but nothing to major off the bat and with a tragic ending.

The books flaws are more character wise: Ted's well done, as his his secretary, but everyone else feels kinda.. eh. Len wanted the vibe of spider-man and the repor but forgot the audience needs to feel it too. I also could've done with using more tactics with ted: while him bounding around was nice as always, part of what made the ditko one so loveable was Ted was SMART: he could outhink his foes not just out manuver them. We see bits and pieces but with ted having a full secret lab and a fortune this time we really don't see him use it. The final fight is decent.. but he dosen't say try to figure out how to counteract greek fire or at least use some gadgets.

It was fine in the ditko era he didn't whip up specific gadgets because the situations didn't call for them; The squids were tricky but he had the means to deal with them. They were just guys in suits at the end of the day, same as him, but without the skill and the bug did the rest of the lifting and while he COUDL'VE for the androids with time, he simply didn't. Here he's dealing with firefist for two days, gets full analysis of what he can do.. and does NOTHING with the info but track the guy. Say what you wil about ted curbing from spidey.. but this bit, the thinking after getting his face caved in and being ready next time, is the one bit that was crucial and that ditko rightly carried over. As it stands this is just okay and i'ts a shame this is, as of this writing one of the ONLY two solos ted's had. It's not horrible and might even get better with time, i'll certainly look into it but the more I wrote about it the more it became clear why I just.. never really took to this run: it's good god ideas.. but just does not a whole lot intresting wtih them.

Fortunately Ted would get another big break midway into his series.

But more on that next time as we find out whatever happened to ted kord.. and see the rise of a new boy in blue. Thanks for reading.

#blue beetle #ted kord #dc comics #dan garrett #jarvis kord #firefist #star labs #dr alchemy

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joleneghoul · 8 months

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Ted Carter-Kord! Retired hero and father of two, with a passion for invention.

Companion to the Booster Who's Who for my stuff.

Rip and Jeff will be next if not Waverider.

Text from picture under cut In case it's hard to read

Personal Data: Name: Ted Carter-Kord (he/him)

Alias: Previously Blue Beetle II

Height: 5’9

Eyes: Brown Hair: Auburn / Grey

Occupation: Temporal Scientist, Inventor, Mechanical Engineer.

Base of Operations: The Vanishing Point

Home Origin: 20th century Chicago

History:

A young Ted Kord in the early 80s, after discovering his uncle Jarvis’ plans for technological domination of the world, looked for help from his previous mentor, Dan Garret. Not knowing that Dan was Blue Beetle until they were captured by Jarvis. Daniel sacrificed himself to save them and destroy the island, and in his dying moments placed the Blue Beetle mantle into Ted’s hands. Unfortunately, The Scarab refused to work for Ted, and after trial and error he was unable to figure out the artifact. Instead, Ted built his own tools and gadgets for his work as Blue Beetle, bringing in skills of gymnastics and martial arts along with his eye for strategy to aid him throughout the years.

Within 15 years of being a hero he had an exciting and fulfilling career. Joining the Justice League in the early years he met many lifelong friends, including Booster Gold. Blue and Gold soon became inseparable as a pair (minus the few times they separated…but hey they always made up!) of superheroes. Though, after being gravely injured after an encounter with Doomsday, Ted shifted towards wanting a life outside of being a hero, wishing for a family. Tired of a life of living personal tragedy to tragedy. Finally after his life Partner Booster was killed and promptly brought back to life Ted shifted his focus to fully leaving the mantle behind and to support his loved ones from the sidelines.

As Booster Gold continued life as a fulltime hero, Ted took over control of their joint company Lightspeed entertainment from which he is able to provide for his family. Together Blue and Gold began a family, taking in an orphan girl named Rani then eventually having their son, Ripley. In order to keep their family safe from the many dangers of time they live a life half inside and out of time itself on Vanishing Point and Earth. Although Kord is now retired from a life of heroism and adventures, if his family needed help he’s not above kicking a few asses yet again.

Gear/Abilities:

The Bug (airship), The BB gun, Baby Bugs (Snoopy, mechanical beetle shaped robotics), genius intellect, acrobatics and martial arts.

#Ted kord #my art.png #TM Bios #is my tag for my time masters things like these whos who parodies #if there are any typos sorry im dyslexic lol

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raaorqtpbpdy · 6 months

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I just watched Blue Beetle and as much as I enjoyed it, I can’t say I’m not also a little disappointed.

Like it had all these fantastic elements! It had wonderful dynamic characters, and a very well established sympathetic secondary antagonist cast against a completely detestable primary antagonist, and a fun aesthetic, and cool technology, and great humor—I mean I watched it with my dad and brother and there wasn’t a single joke that didn’t make at least one of us laugh.

But it felt like all these stupendous pieces had been stuck together with duct tape and chewing gum instead of being stitched together properly and fully integrated with each other to create a cohesive story.

(spoilers under the cut)

I never advocate for movies to be longer because I’m not great at sitting still—but this is one movie that really could have used an extra ten minutes or so, just to slow down for proper scene transitions and to let people actually process the story aspects rather than just the characters.

I don’t want to knock its emphasis on family either, because it was not a bad thing by any means (I loved the family dynamic and it felt very organic and realistic), but it was sometimes redundant to the detriment of other necessary elements of the story.

Like the scarab, you know, the catalyst for the entire film?

It got treated as an object even after they learned it was sentient, and then largely ignored unless it needed to say or do something to progress the plot. They said it was sentient and then didn’t give it a personality. Even Jarvis had a personality in the Iron Man movies and he was just a computer program, not a sentient AI.

The only time I felt like the scarab was being treated as an actual character as it should have been instead of as an accessory was when Jaime’s mom pulled him aside and addressed it specifically when she gave them both her motherly pep talk, and then the callback to that pep talk during the subsequent fight scene, and I absolutely adored that moment, I just wish it wasn’t the only one.

They told us repeatedly that Jaime and Khaji Da were integrated and their respective minds were connected, but they didn’t really show that. They didn’t really address it at all outside of the way they fight together. Like these two characters are literally irreversibly fused together but somehow they never got an actual relationship dynamic.

Khaji Da immediately agrees when Jaime makes his no killing rule clear, despite obviously disagreeing before that point. It responds instantly when he asks for specific weapons. In fact, after the initial booting-up sequence, when it dragged Jaime around without consideration, it almost never disagrees with Jaime or exerts its own will at all, despite it being supposedly sentient.

It doesn’t even get a proper introduction. Jaime just starts calling it by name unprompted and that gets completely glossed over. They don’t even use it to further establish how their mental connection works.

The plot just skips over the inconveniences of a symbiotic relationship to jump into the action.

Also, any information we get about Kord or Khaji Da is rushed and simplified and then immediately gets tread on by the character development scenes. And I’m a sucker for good character development, which this movie has a lot of and which I loved, but you can’t throw necessary exposition and worldbuilding under the bus for it. A good movie and a good story needs both, and this one just wasn’t quite balanced right.

All in all, I definitely liked it, but I’m frustrated but the potential that was so agonizingly visible but that it didn’t quite live up to.

#blue beetle spoilers #blue beetle #blue beetle 2023 #blue beetle movie #jaime reyes #movie review #khaji da #also I definitely don’t know everything about blue beetle by a long shot #but of the handful of things I do know about the character almost all of them were changed #and they weren’t especially good or bad changes they were neutral changes #but I won’t deny it was a little frustrating also that my limited knowledge of the character was worthless when it came to this movie

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angelbroad · 1 month

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This Scarab Is Blue

Inspired by an age swap au by @runeiio , but with a colder Khaji-Da

Milagro waited outside the middle school, scrolling through her phone as she waited for her little brother to come out. She had finished school earlier, and mom had asked her to pick up Jaime since she would be working later than expected. The pop of her bubblegum was simultaneous with the ringing of the bell, and Milagro waited and looked at the horde of children leaving the doors to find her own. She finally spotted a poof of brown hair and a blue backpack, and making her way through the children horde, Milagro got a hold of Jaime.

"Ey, Jaime!"

"Hola Mili.", the boy greeted back.

The two were soon on the street, Milagro meeting Brenda and Paco along the way and catching a conversation. Milagro unconsciously toyed with her ring, itching for a flight. Her attention was turned to an empty plot by Paco.

"Didn't this place used to have a building?", he asked.

"Kord.", Brenda confirmed, "And now it's like nothing was ever there."

Milagro looked at the empty plot with a flat mouth. It had been just over a month when her and the other Lanterns had this serious of a mission. Guy was especially cautious about this one, as it involved one of the Corps' oldest enemies. The Reach. Somehow Kord had gotten their hands on an Infiltrator, and Jarvis Kord wished to replicate that technology. Thankfully, they had help from the Blue Beetle, who was sadly lost in the crossfire as well as the Infiltrator. Guy considered it a somewhat win. The scarab was out of sight, and hopefully it would stay inactive and out of mind as well.

The girl noticed that Jaime had gone inside the plot, because he was coming back from it by the time Milagro turned her attention back to him.

"You off exploring little man?", she asked as the group started walking again, Jaime skipping to catch up to the teens.

"H-Hey! Wait up! Yeah, I just went and looked a little bit."

"Bien.", Paco said, "Found anything good, little man?"

Jaime shrugged, "Maybe."

"Oh sweet. Show me when we get home.", Milagro said.

"Mmmm, what if I don't?", Jaime teased.

"Oh you will you little twerp.", Milagro answered with a smile, "'sides, if you don't show me I'll just take it from ya when you're asleep."

"Would you stop stealing my stuff??"

"Naaah."

The two seperated with Brenda and Paco a little further down, the duos going their seperate ways. Jaime and Milagro decided to wait until their parents got home to start eating lunch, Milagro already preparing the food and forgetting about Jaime's supposed discovery. She made it easier on herself by using the ring to multi-task. Yes, mom said no suits in the house, but she wasn't here right now.

"Milagro Reyes."

Ah fuck-

"Sorry mamá.", Milagro said as she made everything disappear and rubbed the back of her head in guilt.

Bianca shook her head with a sigh as Milagro helped her with the bags, "Mili, I just don't want another accident in the house. Do you remember that time when your energy construct made a cabinet fall down?"

"Lo sé, lo sé. Lo siento, mamá."

"Está bien cariño.", Bianca responded, placing a hand on her shoulder, "Just try and keep that in mind, m'kay?"

"Yes ma'am.", Milagro responded, also going to greet her dad.

During the meal, Milagro couldn't help but feel...wrong. Her ring was ringing in her head like crazy, like the alarms blaring at the red flags on your tinder date. The constant rubbing of her temple had her dad ask if she had a headache, which she declined despite herself. It was her turn to wash dishes today, so she had her back turned as Jaime was telling their parents about his day.

"-and I also found something weird in that Kord space."

"Kord space?"

"Where that building was."

"Jaime, hijo, I told you not to go there. It's under construction, it could be dangerous."

"I know, I'm sorry.", Jaime said, "But I'm not hurt."

"What did you find, Jaime?", Alberto asked.

"Oh, I have it in my bag. Let me go get it.", Jaime said before getting up and skipping off.

Bianca looked at Milagro, "What did he find, Mili?"

Milagro shrugged, "I dunno, he didn't tell me." Her back was still turned to the three as Jaime returned, emptying the bag on the table much to his mother's dismay.

"Huh. Now that's something new.", Alberto said.

Jaime nodded, "I picked it up with my backpack, cause I didn't know if it was cool to touch it."

Milagro raised an eyebrow as she looked out the window. What a weird comment to make.

"It looks...weird.", Bianca commented, seemingly picking it up to study the object herself, "A little dirty, but I think it's alright to hold."

The object was handed back to Jaime as Milagro turned around.

"What did you find any...way..."

The thing Jaime was holding. It was the Infiltrator. Its legs started moving, Jaime looking at it with innocent wonder.

"No no no! Jaime put that down!", Milagro moved, but was not fast enough as a shocked Jaime backed away as the scarab climbed up his arm, finding its way to his back where it dug its feet in, making the boy scream in pain.

Their parents were terrified, and Milagro started cursing to herself and then out loud as she transformed. She knelt down to hold Jaime before looking at her parents with a panicked expression.

"Call Gardner. Now!"

Alberto moved to get a phone as Bianca stood there with the most shocked expression Milagro had ever seen from her.

"Milagro. What is this??"

"It's an Infiltrator. It-"

Jaime begun to shake as something started to sprout from the scarab, encasing her brother in a black and blue armor as the scarab hid itself in an enlarged beetle on his back like a crude backpack. No no no no no-why?? Out of anyone on Earth, why Jaime?!

"S-Sis...? W-What-t's hap-ppening?"

"Shhh, shhh, it's okay hermano. W-We'll get it out it's just..."

Oh god, she couldn't even recognise her brother's face. Jaime jumped, looking around.

"H-Hello?"

"Jaime?"

"I heard a voice..."

The scarab...Milagro grabbed his arms and made him look at her, "Jaime. Whatever you do, don't listen to it, okay?"

Host: aquired

"H-Host?"

Hello, Jaime

"W-Why?"

"Because it's evil!", Milagro blurted out. Bianca looked like she was about to pass out.

"It went to the answering machine.", Alberto said as he entered the room.

Jaime noticed the backpack was opening up as Milagro turned her head away.

"Well fuck-"

"What are thrusters?", Jaime asked.

Milagro looked at him, "Who-?"

Suddenly, Jaime was flung through the roof, leaving a hole in the ceiling.

"...Oh no you don't.", Milagro said through gritted teeth as she followed the Infiltrator through the hole in the roof.

"W-Where are we going??", Jaime asked as he was practically dragged out of his own house.

Testing flight systems., the voice replied.

"I can see that!"

Don't worry, no harm will come to you

"I find that hard to believe-"

"Jaime!", Milagro called out as she was gaining on them. The Reach could take a lot of things, but her familia was off-limits!

Threat detected: Green Lantern

"N-No, that's just Mili."

A canon manifested on his right arm, his arm moved up by the scarab and towards Milagro.

"Mili! Look out!", Jaime warned, Milagro working to avoid the blasts coming her way and making a shield as she moved behind Jaime to grab him.

"Let him go you damn space bug!", she barked at the scarab. The mandables tried to poke her in the face and neck, but through quick thinking, Milagro made armor for those parts. But as she focused on holding her brother, she failed to pay attention to her surroundings, resulting in her back hitting a building and her grip loosening, which resulted in Jaime escaping. "Fuck, fuck, fuck." Where was Guy Gardner when you needed him??

The flight became more stable the further it went on.

"Why did you do that??"

Elaborate

"You tried to hurt my sister!"

All Green Lanterns are to be eliminated on sight

"Stop using those big words! And my sister is not a threat!"

She is now., it said, Now that you are of the Reach, you are an enemy of the Green Lantern Corps

"But...I'm not...", bad. Jaime wanted to say he was not bad. But the words wouldn't come out for some reason, even when they finally landed in a deserted area. Jaime held himself, shaking. "C-Can we go home...please?"

Negative. Green Lantern will know of our position

Jaime frowned, "For the last time, Mili is my sister! She'd never hurt me!"

Host puts too much trust in family unit

"Says you! Why should I trust you, huh? You took me from my house!"

Green Lanterns are dangerous. Retreat: best option

Jaime's face softened as he realised something, "Are you...scared of Lanterns?"

Nonsense., the voice sounded quite rushed to respond, further confirming Jaime's suspicions.

"You are.", he said, hands on his hips.

I am a warrior of the Reach. Fear is not within my programming

"Liar."

Host: testing patience

"Look, if you take me back home, I'll tell sis to not kick your butt. Okay?"

That didn't seem to convince the scarab, much to Jaime's frustration. He started to walk, the armor feeling weird on him.

"Guess I'll walk then."

It would take at least one Earth day to return 'home'. Insufficient strategy

"Well, if you won't fly me back, I'm walking there."

Meanwhile, Milagro was panicking, having called Gardner at least eleven times as she searched for the Infiltrator. She was sent to the answering machine every time, but on the twelfth time he finally picked up.

"Hey kid, what's the-"

"The Infiltrator has been activated!"

"The what??"

"The Reach Infiltrator! What the fuck were you doing that you couldn't pick up the phone???"

She could hear Guy cursing as he moved his phone away from him before he returned, "You know the host?"

"Yes. Do not lay a finger on him when you find him, or I'm kicking your ass all the way to Antarctica!"

"This is an Infiltrator! It's supposed to be-"

"The Infiltrator took my brother!", Milagro screamed at the phone, "If I see even a scratch on him when I find him and you were involved, you're fucking dead!!"

Guy gulped, eyes widening as he remembered the alarmingly young age of the boy. He should have expected the Reach to stoop this low.

"...You have my word.", he said, flying off to find Jaime Reyes.

#ao3 writer #ao3 #ao3 fanfic #dc #dc fanfic #milagro reyes #jaime reyes #au #dc au #guy gardner #khaji da #angel writes

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joemerl · 1 year

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Assorted "Blue Beetle" Trailer Thoughts

I like that the family is in on the situation from the beginning, rather than trying to sideline them like in the New 52. Having them witness Jaime's origin is a good way to tighten up the story.

Apparently Jaime and Milagro are older now? I don't think I like that. Especially Milagro. Her actress is 24. Give me my terrible goblin child.

Also, the villain is "Victoria Kord?" I assumed that was supposed to be La Dama. I'm only familiar with Jaime's original series, so is this someone from the comics? Or a gender-flipped version of Jarvis Kord?

Also, the Scarab has the same female computer voice from basically every sci-fi thing ever. I'm not even sure if it's going to be a "character." I prefer the Young Justice cartoon, where Jaime's VA gives it a flat, vaguely evil voice.

#Blue Beetle #Blue Beetle 2023 #Jaime Reyes #Milagro Reyes #Victoria Kord

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queenretcon · 10 months

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I have slept on it, so here is a mostly unorganized list of every thought currently in my head on the blue beetle movie. lots of spoilers. this is really long.

SHE WASNT BEAS DAUGHTER. I WAS STRESSED.

That was straight up Ted’s origin story. Why did a Jaime movie include Pago island or carapax at all. You could’ve made a movie about one of Jaime’s stories and you literally just adapted Wein Beetle?

(Despite my frustration at it being included in a Jaime led movie, it was a good adaption of that source material. but again, why make it the source material?????)

I don’t know why DC doesn’t believe the best legacy character of all time can stand on his own two feet and why they don’t understand the magic of the three beetles all bringing something radically different to the legacy but it was my biggest frustration.

Despite that, I thought it was a really good movie, and in the end most of the things that frustrated me won’t matter to the kids getting to see themselves reflected for the first time. And people in my theatre definitely enjoyed it. Jenny & Jaime’s kiss got like. A lot of claps. I am not with them in that space but it was nice the movie got applause.

He was a perfect Jaime. I knew he would be, but goddamn. In general, it was a really well-directed and acted movie with great visual design with a script that was very weak at points.

(people clowned on the ‘family makes me strong’ cliche stuff in the trailers and it was very cliche and on the nose in how the script incorporated it.)

I am probably going to see it again soon now that I’m not sleep deprived and sick with anxiety over the whole thing fdjdjjsksk

okay into specific shit I keep thinking about: Bro was that Jarvis’s skull or Dan’s they crushed. that shit is haunting me.

Victoria sucks. Jenny is generic and doesn’t make sense to me but not offensive. I liked Rudy by the end.

I think most of Jenny’s screen time would have been better spent on setting Khaji Da up as a character rather than a resource. That “KHAJI DA” moment was fucking electric when it happened in the comics for the first time and the movie totally mishandled it. Khaji should be a huge presence in a Jaime movie I feel.

On that note, the “Khaji, I need you” was probably one of my fave moments. More of that would’ve made me happy.

The first scene with the transformation was pure fucking joy. They captured perfectly the terror and horror of Hamner’s art in those first few issues when Jaime doesn’t have control yet and the suit looked SO good. I didn’t think it looked bad by any means in previews but even after seeing all those previews I literally gasped seeing it because it looked so much better on the big screen. Seeing the picture perfect recreation of the lights at the fingertips was like a transcendent experience I’m different now

In general the fight scenes were great. I still hate Khaji’s voice and how much the movie version seems modeled after iron man shit but seeing the reach alphabet on screen was like. A level of joy I didn’t expect it to be fjdksksks and the moments of khaji just pulling out toy after toy to an increasingly into it jaime was really fun

I was nervous about grown up milagro because I just personally have a very firm concept of grown up milagro she’s important to my future jli ideas but um. mouthy goth in stompy boots with fishnets who punches hard and calls women hot is actually literally exactly who she is to me so. big fan of that adaption.

They did Bianca DIRTY. I liked that she influenced Khaji to start speaking Spanish (I love that khaji started speaking Spanish) but she felt like a totally different, worse character than comics Bianca who fucking rules. leaving out entirely that she was a doctor frustrated me and could’ve made the Alberto heart attack scene much better. A lot of more interesting character was lost to “streamlining” that wouldn’t have been necessary if they focused Jaime’s movie on Jaime’s supporting cast instead of ted kord fanfic

Killing Alberto was a fucking mistake and focusing a JAIME REYES story on anger and revenge was frustrating. So much of what makes him special was ignored I felt and they tried to make him a more generic superhero type when Jaime was a new kind of hero who influenced a lot of legacies that came after him.

Which leads me to Dan! The decision to make Dan’s connection to Khaji the same as Jaime’s sucked. Jaime is special BECAUSE he can utilize the scarab in a way neither of his predecessors could. They undercut THE PROTAGONIST to make some old white guys look better. It made me very frustrated.

No dentist reference :( pre-law instead :(

Nana being a former revolutionary was delightful, but her using a ted-designed Gatling gun to mow people down completely ruined any attempts to have Jenny stopping kord industries from making weapons matter. That SHOULD have been a good plot point, but the movie couldn’t stand by it.

Here is the section where, despite complaining the movie focused on Ted too much, I focus on Ted too much:

Listen he’s bad at having a secret identity but not “scarab tile mosaic over the secret entrance to his lab” bad

I understand the narrative & social reasons to have Jenny’s mom be what inspired Ted to be a better person than his family but as a Ted fan it did irk me to imply his compassion for the little guy was something he had to learn rather than something he always had that set him at odds with his family. Like I understand why and I don’t have an issue with it being included in this version of the story but I am required to point out it isn’t true of the comics character

I wanted to hate the extended focus on teds lab but omg that’s my friends teds houseeeeee. I loved the suit and the video game console and the fact it was my friends teds houseeeee in a movieeeeee

I lost my goddamn mind at ‘like Batman but with ADHD’ like yes! you correctly boiled him down to his essence!

when Jaime went to put on some of Ted’s clothes I was like ‘lol they’re not putting him in anything Ted would wear’ and then he walked out in a matching silk tracksuit in beetle colors so like yeah movie you got me there he would own that

BUG AS MECHA. I was BESIDE MYSELF.

Like I can NOT stop thinking about that scene. With the bug crawling over the wall while some Ted-as-hell 80s music blared with three of my favorite little comic people inside. I am also different now after this scene. I will probably see this movie in theaters several more times just for this scene.

“Kickstart my heart” being the song tho Ted you are so annoying and I love you

me for most of the movie: SHUT UP ABOUT TED SHUT UPPPPP

me at the after credits scene: if I don’t hear everything about ted right now I will die

I find ‘trapped in a computer’ stories really compelling and unsettling. The chances of me writing movie verse fic with fucked up weird tech horror is high. I love tech horror.

Mike Norton is related to a family friend and from the area and I happened to go to the movie with my family bc I was visiting for my moms birthday and so we did all lose our minds at somebody we’ve met being thanked in a movie credits fjdjdjsksk

#talk tag #this probably actually isn’t every thought but this ended up so long god

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windona · 10 months

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I saw Blue Beetle last night, and loved it! Jaime looks great- the practical effects and costuming has come a long way since Smallville took a crack at it. Khaji Da is very much treated as a sentient being and even has character development. And of course, they have the family incorporated in a way that is very 06. Spoilers under the cut.

I admit, I love what they did with Victoria Kord. She's very much a revamped Jarvis Kord- Jenny's evil aunt instead of uncle. I liked how the incorporated the weapons manufacturing versus Ted and Jenny shutting that part down. It is interesting how they tied Victoria in with what looks like (to inexpert eyes) Operation Condor and the general US interventionism in Latin America. Carapax's origin story is tragic, and I do like how his end was his choice, given how important choice no matter the situation is to Jaime's themes.

I am curious who Jenny's mom is. I'm betting on Tracey. And beyond that, Jenny is interesting. She serves a bit of a Dani role- person connected to a previous beetle that gives the details- but she's a very different character and has her own life. She certainly wasn't there to be a love interest but to have her own story, and as such is a welcome addition. That brings up another point- I like how the romantic side plot was there, but not distracting or overwhelming.

I do wish we had more of Jaime's parents- Alberto is obviously an emotional touch stone, but sadly Jaime's mom seems the least developed and focused on of Jaime's family. Milagro is good, being bratty but also supportive in a fun way.

Overall, I recommend it! Though I do have one question: why move it to Florida from Texas.

#Blue Beetle #Blue Beetle movie

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ethanreedbooks · 10 months

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Blue Beetle: DC's Anime Breakthrough?

When you look at it, Blue Beetle could be the ticket for DC to break into the anime scene. It's got this cyberpunk vibe going on, all that high-octane energy, which is what anime thrives on. And here's the thing: it doesn't follow your run-of-the-mill superhero script. It has heart and soul, and the action is wild when Jaime Reyes and the Scarab team up. These two go from strangers to basically siblings on a mission to save the world.

Over time, they figure out they need each other, like on a deep human level. It doesn't matter that one's from Earth and the other's not. This bond is what makes Blue Beetle's ending so satisfying. Jaime becomes a one-man wrecking crew, and it's just incredible. incrediblThethe director, Ángel Manuel Sotalsohas, admitted that anime influenced the film. So, who knows, this might just be DC's golden ticket into the anime world.

DC's dipped its toes into anime, but it's never set things on fire. I mean, Suicide Squad Isekai looks decent, but it's not exactly the talk of the town. Disney hit a home run with Star Wars Visions, and people couldn't stop talking about it. It had substance and style, you know? DC fans have been wondering when they'd get something like that.

But Blue Beetle's got that cyberpunk energy that could make it happen. Jaime's world in the Edge Keys is like Akira meets Neo Tokyo, and it's a visual feast with all those neon lights and synth music. If they decide to make more, DC could use this aesthetic to bridge the gap between Blue Beetle films. And here's the genius part: they can bring in all those obscure villains that the movies and live-action shows don't have plans for.

Imagine seeing Jaime and Jenny, Ted Kord's heroic daughter, using tech for good and taking down bad guys with names like Overthrow, the Madmen, or Jarvis Kord. It's like a teen Iron Man but with a romantic twist. That's the stuff of a killer modern anime right there. The movie has that fast-paced, cartoonish action, so it's a natural fit.

And there's more potential here. Blue Beetle can dive into the DCU's past. You've got Dan Garrett and Ted Kord, the previous Blue Beetles, right? Well, an anime prequel could set the stage for Jaime's story. Show how Dan found the Scarab in Bialya and kicked off the Blue Beetle legacy.

It's also a chance to bring in other heroes, like Gunn's Justice League or the Justice Society, with their immortal Hawkman. This backstory could explain why Amanda Waller and Task Force X later join forces with heroes to keep tabs on these super folks. Plus, it could explore Ted and Dan's friendship, why the Scarab didn't bond with Ted when Dan died, and why Ted disappeared.

You could even throw in some military subplots with Victoria and Carapax, showcasing the OMAC project, armored soldiers, and mechs on secret government missions. This would give Victoria's character more depth and shed light on how she turned Carapax into DC's version of the Winter Soldier.

Sure, it might be expensive to do all that in a film, but in anime, you can show the scale of Victoria's vision and the destruction her weapons caused worldwide. After the movie's success, expanding on this winning formula is a no-brainer. It'd create a comprehensive roadmap, so no character gets left behind in the DC Multiverse.

Now, James Gunn has a mission to make the DCU just as emotionally gripping as the MCU. And he's been leaning into animation, as we've seen with Creature Commandos. So, diving into anime, a medium loved by fans worldwide, makes sense. It's a chance to explore Jaime's Latine culture, his family's journey as Mexican immigrants, and the Scarab's alien past as Khaji-Da.

This mix of mediums, periods, and characters has worked for shows like Pacific Rim: The Black and Skull Island. They might not have hit as big as Marvel, but Blue Beetle is building a dedicated following. It's a way to prove that the DCU is adaptable, open to blending styles, and can appeal to fans worldwide while still keeping its own identity.

So, Blue Beetle's in theaters now, but who knows, the real adventure might just be beginning in the anime world.

#blue beetle #dc comics #anime

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dccomicsnews · 2 years

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Sharon Stone In Talks To Join "Blue Beetle" Film, Raoul Max Trujillo Locked In

Sharon Stone In Talks To Join “Blue Beetle” Film, Raoul Max Trujillo Locked In

Sharon Stone and Raoul Max Trujillo enter the DC Universe in the upcoming Blue Beetle movie. Stone – best known for iconic roles in Basic Instinct, Casino, and The Quick And The Dead – is in talks with producers of the project. She is interested in portraying Victoria Kord, a character created for the film. Sources suggest this may be a gender swap from Jarvis Kord, the uncle of Ted Kord, the…

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#Blue Beetle #Booster Gold #Carapax The Indestructible Man #Catwoman #Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski #Dan Garrett #DC Comics #DC comics news #Halle Berry #jaime reyes #Raoul Trajillo #Sharon Stone #ted kord

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mickroryapologist · 2 years

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2, 7, 22, 33, 39, 47, 50?

2) What character death for the sake of drama was the worst? LIAN HARPER'S AND JOSHUA JACKAM'S! THEY WERE JUST BABIES! 7) What "throwaway" character could they have done more with? Joke answer: Mick Rory's evil psychiatrist. Real answer that sounds like a joke answer: Ted Kord's evil uncle Jarvis. I would love to see more of the emotional fallout of Ted's favorite uncle, who he was apparently quite close with, being the one who killed Dan Garrett. Especially considering Ted accidentally helped him do it. 22) If you could cancel one comic book that's running right now, what would it be? Oh that's a hard one sad;fljsda Probably the current Nightwing run? It's just a terrible run all around. Tom Taylor is an awful writer and an awful person. Babs' depiction is disgustingly ableist. Dick has yet again been dumbed down to prop Babs up, instead of just writing her better. Dick has a surprise sister? It's all so bad I can't stand it lmao 33) Which character that deserves a solo didn't get one? JESSE QUICK! I would kill for a Starman (1994) or Green Arrow (1994) -esque series on the complications of being a legacy hero that focuses on Jesse. Like, not only is she a double legacy but her parents have WILDLY different views on vigilantism and whether Jesse should even be involved with it at all. There's so much to explore there! Also, no surprise here but I would also KILL for an Obsidian or Hourman II solo series! Particularly if they focused on Todd and Rick's respective complicated relationships with their fathers. 39) Which character do you get the most defensive of? Another hard one sa;fdjklsd Probably a tie between Roy Harper, Jade Nguyen, and Ted Kord. I also get pretty defensive of Wally, but really only against like. Barry fans who hate Wally despite never having read his comics lol Or people who have seen YJ only and act like comics Wally must be the same. 47) What's the worst blatantly untrue fanon take you thought was canon? For a really long time I thought that Dick was the one who "fired" Tim as Robin and gave it to Damian because people talked about it all the time. Come to find out it was?!? ALFRED?!?! Idk why Dick has been getting the blame all these years ;aslkdfjdsak;ls 50) What's something that bled into comics from a TV show or movie that you hate? Whatever the fuck CW-verse has been doing with Leonard is CLEARLY effecting the comics negatively. As far as I can tell at least, that's where a lot of this idea that he's calm and level headed and a planner has come from? Also, not to have Marvel opinions on this blog or whatever, but the fact that they changed Wanda and Pietro's parentage and entire backstory just because Sony owns X-Men and Disney doesn't makes me want to kill Also I'm sorry this took so long, this is the first time I've been able to sit at my computer in a couple days :)

#asks #magnetickid

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gvthamshq · 4 years

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ted kord (blue beetle) // twenty-five // cismale, he/him // hero

+ selfish, meticulous, work-obsessed, & stubborn

tw death

Ted’s life had basically been set up for him since the moment he was born. He was the only child to Clara and Thomas Kord, the creator of Kord Industries which more so Clara’s brainchild. Thomas provided the money while Clara was the idea woman, constantly wrapped up in her work that she had no time to be much of a coddling mother. Ted was sent from their home in Texas to an all boys school in Massachusetts, and from there he went on to study at MIT. He received his degrees in Physics, English Literature, Theoretical Mathematics, and Anthropology. Most notable in Ted’s academic career was his archaeology professor, Dan Garrett, who Ted frequently accompanied on archaeological digs in Egypt to study an important scarab. When Ted was done with school, he found that his parents had moved Kord Industries to Gotham in order to start competing with businesses like Wayne Tech. With the growing popularity of KI, the paparazzi latched onto Ted like leeches.

Forgetting the fact that the cameras always seemed to be on him, Ted decided to walk home after a little late night fun rather than call for his car. The paparazzi caught him leaving the penthouse of the Kord Family’s lawyer’s son. Ted didn’t exactly hide what had been going on as he acted sly with the cameras. The next morning, Ted’s excursion was all over the papers, and his father was severely unimpressed with his son and told him he’d destroy the company. Ted didn’t listen much to his father after he was sent away as soon as he could start kindergarten. He never had a real relationship with his parents and he sure wasn’t going to start to. So he decided to move out from the family mansion into his own, smaller place. It wasn’t until Ted heard that his Uncle Jarvis was planning to take over the company by killing Ted’s parents. Unsure of who to call, he phoned his old mentor Dan Garrett for help. When Ted arrived at the KI building, he found a masked man with the same scarab Ted had studied fighting off Jarvis. It wasn’t until both Ted’s uncle and the masked hero were dead that Ted found the masked man to be Dan Garrett. As his dying wish, Dan passed on the scarab to Ted.

It’s been months since Dan’s death, and Ted cannot for the life of him figure out how to open the scarab. He’s done his research on Dan’s persona of The Blue Beetle and how he’d fight villains, and Ted believes this is his true calling. However, he can’t exactly do that without the powers of the scarab. Despite not having powers, Ted’s trained himself to be in peak condition as he sets out to be among the other heroes of Gotham.

faceclaim: robin migne

penned by m

#dc rp #comic rp #superhero rp #dceu rp #new rpg #gvthams.hero

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thecomicsnexus · 5 years

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Echoes of Future Past

SECRET ORIGINS #2 MAY 1986 BY LEN WEIN, GIL KANE AND ANTHONY TOLLIN

SYNOPSIS

This is a retelling of the Charlton origins (silver age) of Dan Garrett and Ted Kord. As such, they are full of cliches.

Dan Garrett was a professor and an archeologist that found the blue scarab in an Egyptian tomb and was given powers by a defunct pharaoh.

After a few years, Ted Kord, former student of Dan Garrett, goes to him for help (of all people), because he thinks his uncle Jarvis is trying to take over earth with some killer robots he unknowingly helped create.

They go to the caribbean island of the day to face him, and they get captured by his uncle that after explaining what they already knew, decides to kill them. Dan becomes the Blue Beetle and saves the day, but the lab comes down on him and Jarvis. He makes Ted Kord promise him to become the new Blue Beetle, even if he had no powers, nor the scarab.

REVIEW

I sometimes feel like the secret origins are a LOSE-LOSE situation for both creators and readers. These stories were retold almost exactly the same as they were with no credits to the original stories. And readers got a very dumb story for modern age standards. My main complain is how unrealistic Dan Garrett seems. It’s almost impossible to relate to him. In fact, I can relate a little more with the Fox version of the character (the cop, no powers).

Ted Kord however, is a bit more relate-able, mostly because he has to come up with a way of not getting killed. He is more grounded than his antecessor.

Gil Kane does his usual thing, where most people seem to have the same face. I know some people out there really enjoy his art, but sometimes it just has too many lines (or his backgrounds look too fake).

I give this issue a score of 6

#gil kane #ricardo villagran #ed hannigan #dc comics #comics #review #1986 #modern age #secret origins #blue beetle #ted kord #dan garrett

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ofmorninglory · 5 years

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Hey, since I’m reading Blue Beetle and I absolutely hate how terrible life is for my son Jaime Reyes, here are some headcanons for my favorite blue boys in Room Enough AU! Complete with some Ted Kord and Tony Stark bonding, some science shenanigans, and Jaime speaking to Tony in spanish just to spite Uncle Ted!

So, we’re doing a weird mix of Young Justice and Blue Beetle (2016) because if there is one (1) thing DC did right was giving Ted the chance to be a mentor figure to Jaime Reyes. Sure, Ted can be a little bit of a doofus and Jaime and he fight on almost every panel, but Ted’s there for Jaime at the end of the day, and keeps his family safe as much as he can.

Am I mostly going to ignore everything happening in Blue Beetle (2016)? Yeah, sort of. Fuck Doctor Fate being all weird and magic-y and telling Ted that he has to “mercy kill” Jaime because that’s bull and we all know it.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way!

Ted Kord and Tony Stark have been friends for a very, very long time! Being sons and heirs to two of the most technologically advanced companies in this universe may have brough them together when they were younger. Unlike with Bruce W, let’s picture a ten-year-old Tony who didn’t have many friends other than Edwin Jarvis and who was maybe too smart for his own good. He meets Theodore Kord in one of those fancy parties his parents throw sometimes, and the two are basically inseparable for the rest of the night. Tony and Ted will keep in contact as much as possible, except after Afghanistan happened, Tony kind of fell off the face of the Earth--even when he had come back. He stopped answering Ted’s calls, didn’t even let Kord see him. Tony was fragile, and vulnerable, and didn’t feel like he could lean on someone who wasn’t Pepper, Rhodey, and much later, Hal Jordan.

Meanwhile, Ted of course gives Tony his space because he can’t really begin to imagine what his friend went through during captivity. Plus, he’s got his own set of things to worry about--heart condition, multi-billion dollar company, alien tech attached to the back of some kid from El Paso--you know! The Usual!

Jaime comes to Ted for help, because he’s the closest genius available (I have a feeling Ted lives in El Paso?). The mysteries of the scarab are hard to uncover, but Ted and Teri are trying their best, running tests, trying to figure out what the fuck is this thing and where on Earth (or out of Earth) it came from.

Ted hits a dead-end, because of course! Alien tech! In the form of a blue beetle! That Jaime swears is talking to him. Constantly. It’s driving the poor kid off a goddamn wall. It doesn’t help that Ted chatters in his ear, too! Jaime is a grumpy 17-year-old, even if Ted’s oblivious to this.

So, Kord does what Kord thinks is best, and finally picks up the phone to talk to Tony Stark. By this point, his old buddy and he had talked here and there, once Iron Man had come out to the public, and the Avengers had been formed. Kord Industries had even helped on the rebuilding of New York! Ted is a good buddy and a good man, okay?

Tony doesn’t even get a word in, and Ted tells him that he’s paying him a visit. He says it’s important, so Tony just listens, and tells Barbie to hide all her chemicals in her lab because Theodore Disaster Kord was coming to the tower.

When Ted arrives, Blue Beetle in tow, both Tony and Barbie are drooling over the armor. It’s nothing like they’ve ever seen before and, of course, way more smooth looking than the Iron Man armor itself. Tony won’t say it, but Barbie will, because those are some smooth lines on that design.

Jaime is, rightfully so, scared as all hell and a little intimidated because of course he knows who Tony Stark and Bárbara Pierrez are. He’s a latine kid who needs heroes, and who better than these two power houses that are on every fucking headline from here to China? Jaime idolizes them both, but his fear over the scarab is maybe a little bit bigger than his absolute fanboy-ness over latine excellency.

Tony has a very heart-felt chat with the boy. (He’s Irondad, this is his thing.) He tells Jaime that he’s the robot expert around here, and that, if this thing is a robot, he’ll figure it out in no time--”if it’s not, well then, we’ve got some pretty cool tech up here to help us take a look a it! who knows, maybe we can reverse engineer it and understand it.”

“I promise you, kid. If there’s someone who can fix it, those would be us--the Stark Pack.”

Jaime wants to laugh but he’s also terrified and maybe crying a little bit. Tony’s good at the emotional support, seriously.

Ted and Jaime spend like several months up in the tower. Doesn’t Jaime have school? you cry in the background--well, he’s staying with genius #1 Tony Stark, genius #2 Barbie Pierrez and Uncle Ted (”why am I not genius #3?” “Well, you did end up here with no clue as to what to do, right?”), so it’ll all be alright! He’s getting all the education he needs and more, I promise you this.

Jaime will hold entire conversations in quick Spanish with both Barbie and Tony while Ted looks on in complete distress. He should’ve paid more attention in the Spanish classes he had in high school, he’s pretty sure Jaime is cussing him out and saying horrible things about him (actually, Jaime is telling Barbie how much he appreciates Ted being there for him, but asks her never to tell him; Barbie’s taking this secret to the grave)

They probably call Thor in at some point because alien technology, you know? And he gets to play around in the lab like Tony never lets him and Jaime is all starstruck and a little disoriented because hey! This is his life now, apparently!

Bruce B pops in, too! He’s one of Jaime’s favorites! Bruce is so soft, Jaime just feels like everything will turn out alright eventually. (Jaime is a dumbass, he has no idea Doctor Banner is the Hulk; he finds out in the worst way possible, by crashing into a very exhausted Doctor Banner out in the hallway just outside from Barbie’s lab and getting a Hulk instead of Bruce B telling him it’s all fine. They have to shut down Barbie’s lab for repairs for like two weeks. She’s distraught)

Imagine that Endgame scene with Tony, Nat and Doctor Hulk all laying down while shooting ideas back and forth? Well, Tony’s workshop floor is now a bed and Ted, Tony, Barbie, Bruce B, Thor and Jaime have all comandeered at least a tiny space for themselves.

Ted is using Tony’s stomach as a pillow underneath Tony’s workstation. DUMM-E brings them a blanket and dumps a bottle of water over the two of them at some point (unopened, it hit Teddy straight in the face). A little farther, Thor is leaning against the couch (not on it, against it) while Barbie is snoring away over his thigh. Jaime, in turn, is resting next to Barbie’s stomach, close enough for her to card her fingers through his hair when she was awake (“piojito is the highest form of affection, Tones, I’ve told you”) but not on top of her because he’s still a shy boy. Bruce B is trying to remain awake, but he’s losing a battle somewhere sprawled in between Thor’s feet and Ted’s outstreched arms.

Do they figure out what the scarab does? They probably do not until some blue speedster comes running into the workshop, screaming “bad landing! bad landing! bad landing! bad landing!” in quick succession, tripping over her own feet and landing on a heap right under DUMM-E, who sprays her with his extinguisher.

Anyway, I’m not saying that Jaime might also be a little bit of a Stark Kid--but I am, Tony’s got shared custody on this one with Ted and he’s okay with it.

Also, JAIME AND PETER BECOME FRIENDS!!!! BUG BUDDIES!!! THEY MAKE A LOT OF INSECT PUNS!!!! BARBIE HATES IT!!!