"Blue Beetle" tells story of Latino superhero and his family in first-of-its-kind live action film (2024)

FAQs

Is Blue Beetle the first Latino superhero? ›

The film is the first to feature a Latino superhero, and it was shot entirely in Puerto Rico. It also takes Latino representation to the next level by not only making Jamie but the entire Reyes family the focus.

“It's nice to see Blue Beetle, the first brown superhero, from a major studio like DC,” said Jack Rico, a ShowBizCafe.com journalist. “But to really reach mainstream status, we need to defy those metrics.” According to Comscore/Screen Engine's PostTrak, Latinos made up almost 4 in 10 (38%) of the box office turnout.

Introduced in 1939, the original Blue Beetle, Dan Garret, was a Fox Comics police officer who fought crime with superpowers gained by ingesting Vitamin 2X. A revamped version of this character, archaeologist Dan Garrett, introduced in 1964 by Charlton Comics drew mystical abilities from an ancient Egyptian scarab.

Xolo Maridueña as Jaime Reyes / Blue Beetle: A recent college graduate who gains superpowers when an alien Scarab grafts onto him, forming a powerful reconfiguring exoskeleton around his body. Adriana Barraza as Nana: Jaime's grandmother, who it turns out is a retired revolutionary.

The characters are Mexican and Mexican American, and they live their lives normally — or as normally as a story where an extraterrestrial scarab gives Jaime superpowers. The family is surrounded by cultural touchstones and quirks. Their Thalia telenovelas, their Virgen de Guadalupe paintings, and Selena on the radio.

“Blue Beetle” is not only a superhero film, but also a family film. The central message of the film is that there is nothing more important or stronger than family. Throughout the film, the audience can tell that the most important thing to Jaime is to keep his family safe and out of danger.

Jaime Reyes embodies the values of loyalty, resilience, and the importance of family bonds. His unwavering commitment to protecting his community mirrors the leadership roles that many Latinos naturally step into within their own families and social circles.

Blue Beetle has a cheap kid's TV-movie look and feel most of the time. I enjoy the social commentary, some of the horror leanings, the film's anime action and some dialogue and character moments stand out. But beyond that, it's sadly, predictably, nothing especial.

The Beetle was conceived in the early 1930s. The leader of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, decided there was a need for a people's car—an inexpensive, simple, mass-produced car—to serve Germany's new road network, the Reichsautobahn.

Jaime Reyes suddenly finds himself in possession of an ancient relic of alien biotechnology called the Scarab. When the Scarab chooses Jaime to be its symbiotic host, he's bestowed with an incredible suit of armor that's capable of extraordinary and unpredictable powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the superhero Blue Beetle.

Blue Beetle / Film synopsis

Is Blue Beetle a superhero or villain? ›

A Blue Beetle has been a part of the superhero community in the DC Universe in some form since 1939, serving both as a solo adventurer and as a part of teams like the Justice League and the Teen Titans, creating one of the greatest heroic legacies in the DCU.

DC Comics' hero Blue Beetle was created in 1939 by Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski, then reimagined and given new identities several times over, until Keith Giffen, John Rogers, and Cully Hamner redefined him as a Mexican American kid in 2006.

Blue Beetle: Everything you need to know about DC's first Latino superhero | Culture | EL PAÍS English.

Reyes was first introduced in 2006, and he appeared as a Mexican American from El Paso, Texas. Throughout the character's time in the DC Universe, he was known to have his own stories but also joined superhero teams like the Justice League and the Teen Titans.

Marvel's first Latino hero, Hector Ayala, debuted in 1975, after the success of “Black Panther.” Written by Bill Mantlo and drawn by legendary comic artist George Pérez, Ayala, known as White Tiger, was a Puerto Rican college student living in New York.

As the first Latinx DC hero with his own movie, Jaime Reyes has broken barriers as Blue Beetle. But there are a number of heroes who came before him that allowed this beetle to fly.

Family is at the heart of 'Blue Beetle' and Jaime Reyes' superpowers. Jaime Reyes' love for his family is what gives him the strength to step into his power. "Blue Beetle" is the first time we see a superhero share the load of his superpowers with his family.