Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show I'm your host Paul and if the Blue Beetle
Trailer is bugging you out then this is the video for you. Packed with easter eggs,
hidden details and things you missed there's a lot to talk about in this brand new first look.
Throughout this video we're gonna be breaking it all down and going over who the character
is in the comic and their long and rich history that has got us to this point.
This was originally supposed to be an HBO Max release but now it's been pushed to a
full theatrical one and James Gunn has hinted that he's bringing the character
into his DCU. I was thinking they were gonna Batgirl the entire thing but Warner Brothers
must have a lot of faith in the film to upgrade it to a full theatrical release.
The trailer follows Jaime Reyes as he gets given the Blue Beetle Scarab and
this transforms him into the titular character. This trailer does a brillaint job of introducing
us to his family and it also shows pretty much all of the Scarabs powers and what it can do.
Now Jaime Reyes he's one of the many iterations of Blue Beetle that we've had over the years. The
first version was originally created Charles Nicholas Wojkoski all the way back in 1939.
Several companies have owned the rights to the character him originally belonging to
Fox Comics before this changed to Charlton. DC then bought the rights to the characters
back in 1983 and this came in a package deal along with characters like Peacemaker and The
Question. Alan Moore originally wanted to use these for Watchmen but DC kicked off
and thus he had to do ones that riffed on them for the final release. DC were
kicking themselves for years that they didn't let him use the ones they'd bought because
they had less rights with them and ended up having to do what they did in Doomsday Clock.
Urrrrr.
Anyway the original Blue Beetle was called Dan Garret who was the son of a mudered police
officer. Given special abilities by a sacred scarab he became the hero of a weekly radio serial
and his own comic book line. We actually see this costume later on at the end of the trailer
in the centre of the models next to the one that followed it with the red belt, boot and gloves.
There seems to be a mannequin with a missing costume as well and this could be hinting at
someone else being out there wearing the costume that may be our second version of the character.
Now that man was called Ted Kord and during the Crisis On Infinite Earths Storyline he
was taken over into the DC universe along with all the other charlton comic characters that
the company had bought. Ted was more of a scientist and it was thought that the
blue beetle scarab had been destroyed. I think at the end of the trailer that we can see the
characters coming across his lair which is why they have all this scientific tech there. They
say it's like batman who of course uses gadgets and we can see Jaime looking over a power belt.
His sister Milagros checks out an energy shield and George Lopez snoops
around in some cupboards and calls Batman a Fascist. Internet aint gonna like that mate,
spoiler alert, theres gonna be f**king kick offs.
Anyway though you might assume Lopez is playing his dad he's actually his uncle Rudy.
His love interest Jenny is also at the back of the room and this is her likely showing them
about the basement in Kord Industries. We can see the name Kord on the tower at the beginning and
my guess is that we're gonna be learning about how Ted found it and then the company took it,
experimented on it and Jenny snuck it out like what we see. She's very much your Gwen Stacy
in Amazing Spider-man archetype and will probably be a sort of Liz from Spider-man
Homecoming. In the comics Jaime ends up dating a character called Thirteen from
Young Justice. Real name Traci Thurston I'm guessing Jenny will be the girl he's
after first on....the movie before he gets his Thirst on for Thurston down the line.
Now it's possible that Jenny is based on Jenny Quantum who was his friend in the
comics too. Ooop friendzone, anyway she was a member of Young Justice as
well but she ended up leaving the group to then go and explore the multiverse.
Now back to the company and we know that in the film Susan Sarandan will be playing
Victoria Kord who in the comics is Ted Kords sister. CEO of Kord Industries she was first
introduced in Blue Beetle Graduation Day Issue 2 and she became one of the first
foes the character clashed against in that run. Sharon Stone was initially in talks to
play her but I'm guessing they watched Catwoman and went with Susan instead.
Anyway Kord eventually became a member of the JLA but he he was killed during
the infinit crisis event. Again going back to that manneuqin I think he might be out
and about in the world and potentially he had to run away due to his sisters experiments.
At one point in the trailer we also see them flying out in the bug. I'm
guessing this is Kords ship with them using it to escape the skyscraper and
head back home. The bug pulls from the comics and if it looks familiar then this
is because this is what was adapted into Nite Owls archie in Watchmen.
Now the third blue beetles is the one we're gonna centre around in the movie and this is
Jaime Reyes who'll be played by none other than Cobra Kais Xolo Maridueña. He actually built off
the back of the original blue Beetle and in the he discovered the magical scarab which
attached itself to his back and this gave him an armoured battle suit with enhanced abilities.
Now though it was thought that it had been destroyed whilst Ted was in the role, it turned
out that he'd actually found it in a pyramid. This was later lost on the Rock of Eternity and when
this was destroyed it ended up hurtling across the world which is where it landed in El Paso.
Jaime discovered it at this point and the rest is history.
Now they are changing things up slightly from that and instead of having it in El
Paso we're hitting up the fictional Palmera City. This new location in the DCU universe
was first introduced in Blue Beetle Graduation day and it keeps up with the motif of the comic
publisher inventing new places for their heroes to inhabit. At least I hope Palmera City is ficition
cos f**king hell if it's not I'm in deep deep trouble. Already pronounced everyones name wrong.
We start off with Jaime and his sister working at a resort and from there we then cut to their home
life out away from the city in the more impovrished areas. This juxtaposes the
opening of the teaser in which he's posing like one of the elite that owns a mansion,
always hits the thunbs up button and has a wealth of youtube subscriptions
to mediocre youtube channels like the one youre watching right now.
Now the next day we get him going to what's later said to be a job interview at Kord Industries.
I'm guessing its a similar thing to Oscorp where they have internships as Jenny is there as well
similar to how Gwen was in that movie. I'm not 100% on my American School Uniforms becuase I'm
not a weirdo mate, but I'm pretty sure this is a school jacket with a patch on it denoting his.
In the comics he went to El Paso high school but with the change
up to Palmera city they may have altered that.
Anyway we see him sitting in the lobby with other possible applicants beside
him before Gwenn...Jenny comes down and gives him a big belly burger box. This
fictional fast food chain has appeared in the dc universe at several points and it's
featured in CWs Flash a fair bit. The mascot is a big bearded guy just like
in the comics and this is made to look like John Byrne who invented it for DC.
After opening it up we see some fries and also the scarab where the buger should be.
After picking it up this immediately jumps out at Jaime, does a sort of face hugger on him and
it electrocutes his uncle and a transformer. It's very much showing that it has this lethal
side to it and it carries this idea of body horror as we watch it take over his body.
Now the scarab is very much it's own lifeform and it's sort of a parasite
that brings with it incredible abilities. I dunno if parasite is the right word but Jaime
is unable to remove it from his back and it can also communicate with him. In the comics
the first night it attached itself to him seen it inducing powerful hypnotic dreams.
I could see them even doing some stuff like what we get with Venom where the scarab goes
back and forth with Jaime and this adds a lot to action scenes and the dialogue.
They talk about how it can control it's host and he may have to wrestle with
it and turn it away from being the world destroying machine that Jenny says it is.
Jarvis and Tony had some nice banter back and forth in the MCU and it just allows
the character to kinda sound off their thoughts in a natural way. Comics are
of course able to show a characters thoughts whereas its a lot harder in
a film so having something like this would work really well to let the character spout
of quips and stuff. Personally I think it sounds more like Karen from Homecoming and
again they are trying to lean into the idea of Spider-man because ey, if it aint broke.
The shot with Susan Sarandan has her saying how it chose him and obviously this whole thing is gonna
be about how he has a good heart and that's why it went to him instead of her. He has his family
values too and like his uncle says...with Great Power...comes...great catchphrase.
Blue Beetle takes his first flight and we see him overlooking the entire world. It shows the
power he's been given and it very much shows it can control him and not the other way around.
Now from here we cut to Jenny opening a door to what I'm guessing is the basement in Kord
Industries. There are rumours that Jason Sedukis will be playing him in the film but they've been
denied like an Andrew Garfield photoshop even though we seen it in 4k mate, weve all seen it.
Next we get a bus being cut in half with Jaime's perception of time changing as
it goes on. This is cut in half by an energy shield that the character had in the comics.
Now if you've played the Injustice Games then chances are that you've either fought as Blue
Beetle or youve smashed him like it's the dislike button on a Ryan Arey video.
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Anyway Blue Beetle has a number of different powers and these include flight, superhuman
strength and metaphorphosis. His hands and body in the suit can shape shift and change into
different weaponry meaning that you can pull off some sweet combos in Injustice 2. Shabow.
Now this weaponary tends to be based around sound, energy and pyrokinesis making it none
lethal. He also has Mechanokinesis which means he can alter and manipulate machines.
Pretty cool skill set and depending on
when the situation calls for it the scarab can take over and help out.
We then get Jaime at home with his family and this kinda gives us a Ms Marvel set up
where she was learning to deal with her new found abilities whilst also living
at home. Where they differentiate though is that Jaimes family know about it instantly
here and this is more them helping him deal with his power rather than him hiding it.
We then see a machine powering up and quick disclaimer, the trailer we got isn't super
high quality so it's difficult to make out little details like what
these are but they do seem to be almost like minature scarabs. We have the electricity as
well which is similar to what shot out at Rudy and the transformer at the beginning.
Victoria Kord clearly finds out about him and we see Swat Team members swarming his home.
His family are held up and later on we see Jaime beating the same swat team members up underground
possibly leading off the back of this scene. Now in between this we get a shot of Carapax
The Indestructible Man. A major antagonist of the Blue Beetle, he was an archaeologist that they
could end up using to explain how they managed to get their hands on the Scarab in the first place.
In the comics he came across an indestructible robot suit which they might use in the film.
This was red and potentially the power cells we saw charging up before could
be the suit starting up. Failing to get control of the Scarab might have pushed
Victoria to create her own which couldlead to him having a sort of reverse Scarab suit.
He does the usual sort of villain stuff talking about how the love he
has for his family is a weakness. It's not exactly A1 writing mate but he's gonna sort
of be your first villain that forces the hero to get to grips with his power over.
We then see the bug flying out and this seems to go to an island, potentially where
the Scarab was discovered. It's a giant rock potentially referencing the rock of Eternity
and this could be where they find Ted Kord at. We also see the family home getting destroyed
following the motif that Jaimes new abilities have brought a cost with them. He then creates
a giant sword using the suit and this looks very similar to Clouds from Final Fantasy Seven. The
Buster shows this buster is a big buster but he's loves video games so we bloody love him. Shabow.
Anyway the trailer ends with them in Kords lab and his sister is wearing an overall with Reyes
on it looking likea mechanics shirt. We can also catch an Area 51 Arcade cabinet which,
no prizes for guessing is about aliens. As his uncle rudy slags off Batman we
can also catch a a sarcophagus in front of him tying back to the archaelogical stuff.
Anyway that ends the trailer and I'm guessing some of you might wanna pick up some comics
involving the character and the best place to start is probably Infinite Crisis as that kinda
recounts a lot of the main events with them. After that you wanna get Blue Beetle Volume 7,
yes that's Volume 7 as it basically builds off the back of Infinite Crisis.
I think they might have updated it to be called Blue Beetle Jaime
Reyes volume 1 but I've got no idea mate. No f**king idea now.
Now I'm guessing this primarily will just be an origin story and we will
probably just follow the things laid out in his secret origins.
Im actually happy we are getting an origin story for once you know. Missed em a bit and we kinda
have had this trend where characters like Iron Heart and so on are just thrown into movies
as characters without us really learning who they are first. I just want an origin
story so I can get attached to the character mate and yeah this seems to be doing that.
Now as for my thoughts on the trailer. You know, kinda have a weird relationship with
DC and I've said often said that no one hates DC more than DC fans. I think Shazam Fury Of
The Gods showed that they've kinda killed the buzz around these films by announcing
that they don't matter. Well spoiler alert, we are an insignificant speck of dust in the cosmos
that's barely alive for the blink of an eye when it comes to the vastness of time and space and
nothing matters. Not you, not anyone you know and certainly not some DC movie. Could be fun though
right but back to the initial point and that is that I think they kinda killed the hype for this.
Personally I think that James Gunn is a great director and writer but he's just a crap Hollywood
exec. Guys probably cost the studio a lot of money announcing things don't matter and he also spends
a lot of time on twitter arguing with people which, never see my uncle Kevin Feige doing.
So yeah I've just had no hype for the upcoming dc films and have kinda thought they're just
releasing them for the sake of it so we can get the reboot in a couple of years.
The drama around DC recently has overshadowed their product and its all been a big mess.
Saying that though...
This looks good and I am excited.
I think Jaime is one of those underdog characters that can really grow into
their own and Xolo of course killed it on Cobra Kai. Guy is a great martial artist
and I think they cna do so many cool things with him. He's kind of your c list character
that the studio can build up and though I dont think its gonna be a massive movie I do think
that it can build up towards something bigger down the line when he grows into the role.
I'm guessing they've not spent that much on the movie either with it originally
being HBO Max and its probably gonna be a win win for the studio. Also its nice to
see a latino character getting some love. They've always been reduced
to being either sidekicks or minor ones but yeah, I hope it does well.
So yeah, quite excited for it now even with all the ongoing DC drama.
Now I'd love to hear your thoughts on the trailer so make sure you comment below and let me know.
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If you want something else to watch then make sure you check out our breakdown of
perfect scene in Spider-Man Homecoming. We break down the
entire thing so it’s definitely worth checking out if you wanna know more.
With that out the way thank you for sitting through the video, I’ve been Paul
and I’ll see you next time. Take care, Peace