How Powerful Is Blue Beetle? Powers & Abilities Explained
Even though it turned out to be another commercial flop for DC Extended Universe, the ‘Blue Beetle’ movie is still very important because it marked the debut of Jaime Reyes on the big screen. Jaime is the first Latino character who had his own movie in history, and the movie did a splendid job when it comes to Latino representation. Still, although he has his own movie now, Blue Beetle still isn’t among DC’s A-listers. So, in this article, we’ll talk about his powers and abilities, mainly focusing on the movie version played by Xolo Maridueña.
Blue Beetle may not seem as powerful as all the most powerful DC characters, but he’s still a strong powerhouse. All of Jaime’s powers and abilities come from Khaji-Da, aka the Scarab, a piece of alien technology that bounds to its host and provides him with protective armor and a handful set of skills, including superhuman strength, durability, speed, agility, and the regenerative healing factor. The Scarab also allows the host to create any construct needed, usually weaponry.
We could easily say that the Scarab is for Blue Beetle what the Symbiote is for Venom, with the difference that Khaji-Da is a piece of extraterrestrial technology, and the Symbiote is literally a creature with parasitic abilities to bind with a human and leave them at will, which can result in the individual’s death. From what we’ve seen in the movie, the Scarab can be removed from its host only after the host dies, but unlike the Symbiote (at least those evil ones), the Scarab will always activate to protect the host when endangered. In the next paragraphs, we’ll take a look at every power and ability the Scarab provides for Jaime Reyes.
“Whatever you can imagine, I can create.”
The ‘Blue Beetle’ movie starts with Susan Sarandon’s Victoria Kord, the movie’s main villainess, as she looks for the Scarab, hoping to use its technology to create a series of high-tech weapons known as OMAC (One-Man Army Corps). However, her niece Jennifer Kord is aware of her aunt’s bad deeds, so she steals the Scarab and gives it to Jaime Reyes to keep it safe.
Although Jenny warned him not to open a burger box in which she hid the Scarab, as it usually goes, Jaime took a quick peek, and the Scarab chose him as its next host. Immediately after attaching itself, the Scarab took Jaime for a test ride, where we get the first glimpse at everything Blue Beetle can do. The ability to fly is just the beginning; the Scarab can also take its host to outer space, so now we also know that the suit provides air if the host finds himself outside of Earth’s atmosphere.
One of the main abilities Blue Beetle uses in a fight is construct creation since the Scarab can provide its host with any weapon or tool the host needs at the moment. Blue Beetle usually uses this ability to create non-lethal canons and launchers that can incapacitate his enemies, as well as the Buster Sword, which we’ve seen in the movie’s third act. The Scarab can also create protective shields that are powerful enough to slice the bus in half.
The Scarab helps Jaime even when the suit is not active. Since the Scarab and its host eventually become one with their bond, the Scarab also provides a regenerative healing factor that instantly fixes any cuts and bruises. That part reminded us of the Wolverine’s healing factor, to be honest.
Jaime isn’t a trained fighter, which means the Scarab itself does all the hand-to-hand fighting. However, that also means that the Scarab is Jaime’s biggest advantage and his biggest weakness. Although it provides him with all those amazing powers and stuff, Scarab and Jaime occasionally wrestle for full control, which was also depicted during the movie when they argued about that usual no-killing rule.
It took some time for Khaji-Da to connect with Jaime fully, but by the movie’s third act, it’s safe to say they become one with their bond. As it usually goes with these origin movies, the main hero is first trying to adapt to his new life while encountering his first supervillain.
The potential sequel (which is unlikely to happen given the movie’s commercial result, but we could see more of Jaime in upcoming DCU installments) could depict the further relationship development between Jaime and Khaji-Da, along with that usual “balancing the superhero life with normal life” stuff we occasionally see in the superhero sequels.
At the time of this writing, the ‘Blue Beetle’ movie just passed $100 million worldwide against its production budget of $104 million. It’s safe to say the movie won’t break even. The movie is still playing in theaters worldwide and will be released digitally later this month.
Have something to add on this topic? What is your favorite thing about the Blue Beetle character and his recently released movie? Let us know in the comments.
