Three different men have been Blue Beetle across nearly a century of DC Comics: archaeologist Dan Garrett in 1939, inventor Ted Kord starting in 1966, and teenager Jaime Reyes since 2006 — and unlike most legacy heroes, all three are still referenced as distinct people in current continuity rather than one identity retconned away.
Last updated September 7, 2026.
Dan Garrett: The Original Blue Beetle (1939)
The first Blue Beetle predates DC owning the character at all, and his powers didn’t start out mystical. Created by Charles Nicholas for Fox Comics’ Mystery Men Comics #1 in 1939, Dan Garrett was originally a rookie police officer who gained super-strength by taking a formula called “Vitamin 2X” — no scarab involved. The now-familiar scarab origin came later: when Charlton Comics acquired the character and relaunched him in the 1960s, writers retooled Garrett into an archaeologist who discovered a mystical (later alien-linked) scarab on a dig in Egypt, replacing the vitamin gimmick entirely. DC didn’t acquire the character until buying Charlton’s roster of heroes (including Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, and the Question) in 1983, which is also where Watchmen’s Nite Owl and Doctor Manhattan trace their DNA — Alan Moore originally pitched Watchmen using the Charlton characters before DC asked him to create new ones instead.
Ted Kord: The Detective Without Powers (1966)
Steve Ditko created Ted Kord as Garrett’s successor, first appearing in Captain Atom #83 in 1966. The twist that separates Kord from almost every other legacy superhero: he couldn’t unlock the scarab’s power at all. Instead, Kord became Blue Beetle purely through his own wealth, engineering genius, and martial-arts training — gadgets, a signature “Bug” flying vehicle, and hand-to-hand combat, no magic scarab required. That made him functionally DC’s answer to a street-level Batman, which is exactly the role he played as a founding member of Justice League International in the 1980s, where his comic double-act with Booster Gold became one of the most fondly remembered friendships in DC history. Kord was killed off in 2005’s Countdown to Infinite Crisis — a death long considered one of DC’s more controversial legacy-character exits, since it cleared the way for a new Blue Beetle rather than following from his own story.
Jaime Reyes: The Current Blue Beetle (2006)
Created by Keith Giffen, John Rogers, and Cully Hamner, Jaime Reyes first appeared in Infinite Crisis #3 in 2006, just months after Kord’s death. Where Garrett and Kord kept their identities secret, Jaime’s family — his parents and younger sister — know from early on, a structural choice DC leaned into again when adapting him for film. His scarab is explicitly the same one Garrett and Kord’s line traces back to, but retconned as Reach alien technology rather than pure magic, fusing to his spine and constructing a living exoskeleton he doesn’t fully control at first. Reyes has anchored Teen Titans, gotten his own ongoing multiple times, and became DC’s first Latino character to headline a theatrical film.
The Three Blue Beetles, Compared
| Blue Beetle | First Appearance | Power Source | Signature Trait |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dan Garrett | Mystery Men Comics #1 (1939) | Mystical scarab | Archaeologist-hero, pulp-adventure roots |
| Ted Kord | Captain Atom #83 (1966) | None — pure tech and training | JLI-era comic relief with real detective skill |
| Jaime Reyes | Infinite Crisis #3 (2006) | Alien (Reach) scarab technology | Family-integrated identity, symbiotic armor |
How the 2023 Film Changed Jaime’s Origin
Warner Bros.’ Blue Beetle (2023), starring Xolo Maridueña, kept Reyes’ core identity but restructured his origin around two changes worth knowing before reading the comics that inspired it. First, the movie relocates his story from El Paso, Texas — the setting the comics use specifically to explore Jaime’s border-town, dual-culture upbringing — to a fictional Palmera City, a change made so the film could build its own DC-adjacent setting rather than a real one. Second, and more significantly, the film makes Jaime’s entire family aware of his powers almost immediately, discarding the secret-identity structure that both Garrett and Kord operated under; the comics’ Reyes family stays in the dark far longer. The result is a film that centers the Reyes family as co-leads rather than supporting cast, which reviewers noted made it one of the more overtly family-driven entries in the modern superhero genre.
Sources
Character history verified against Wikipedia’s Blue Beetle overview and CBR’s history of Dan Garrett; film changes verified against SuperHeroHype.
Jaime Reyes has spent much of his career as a Teen Titan — see our Teen Titans members ranked from weakest to strongest for where he lands next to Beast Boy and Starfire, and our Justice League Dark guide for another corner of DC’s stranger legacy teams.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the original Blue Beetle?
Dan Garrett, created by Charles Nicholas, first appeared in Mystery Men Comics #1 in 1939, published by Fox Comics before Charlton Comics later acquired and relaunched the character.
How did Ted Kord become Blue Beetle without the scarab’s powers?
Ted Kord inherited the Blue Beetle identity from his mentor Dan Garrett but could never unlock the scarab’s mystical power, so he became a hero purely through his own wealth, engineering, gadgets, and martial-arts training.
Is Jaime Reyes’ scarab connected to Dan Garrett and Ted Kord?
Yes. Jaime’s scarab is established as the same one Garrett and Kord used, later retconned as Reach alien technology rather than a purely mystical artifact.
Does the Blue Beetle movie follow the comics?
Loosely. The 2023 film keeps Jaime Reyes’ core identity but relocates his story to the fictional Palmera City instead of El Paso, Texas, and has his family learn about his powers almost immediately, unlike the comics.
