Who Is Blue Beetle’s Love Interest in Comics?

‘Blue Beetle‘ just got released worldwide in the theaters, and from the first reactions, we can safely say that the iconic DC superhero is very welcomed in the birth of the restructured DC Extended Universe. We already covered the origins of the Blue Beetle and its holders, but we never really discussed are love interests of the bluish superhero. After Dan Garret and Ted Kord, Jaime Reyes is the current holder of the Blue Beetle mantle, and in this article, we will discuss who is his love interest in comics.

Jaime Reyes had only one significant love interest in DC Comics, and that was Traci Thirteen, a member of the Homo Magi race who can naturally manipulate magic at will. Blue Beetle and Traci Thirteen were together during the pre-Flashpoint era on New Earth when the couple joined their efforts to stop a powerful cosmic entity Eclipso. They were together for most of the pre-Flashpoint era (from 2007 to 2011) until the New 52 reboot of DC Universe. Since DC Rebirth, Jaime and Traci’s relationship was “erased” with the timeline, which also meant the revised origins for each character.

Traci Thirteen’s origin story was changed with the New 52 and DC Rebirth, and she and Jaime never really interacted. However, the animated universe seems to still see them together, which we will explain further in the article.

Traci Thirteen was Blue Beetle’s only significant relationship in DC Comics

We all know that Blue Beetle is one of the oldest DC superheroes, with Dan Garret’s version of the character first appearing in Fox Comics ‘Mystery Men’ from 1939 but consequently “replaced” by Ted Kord in 1966 in ‘Captain Atom’ DC comics book run.

Kord’s character had on-and-off popularity among DC fans, but he was eventually killed off in ‘Countdown to Infinite Crisis’ in 2005, which led to the creation of the young Mexican Jaime Reyes, who is still the holder of the famous mantle.

Ted Kord was eventually revived and is currently a mentor and supporter of the young Mexican. All in all, with the arrival of Jaime Reyes to DC Comics, Blue Beetle’s mantle was revised and, most importantly, expanded, which was something the superhero desperately needed.

Of course, teenage superheroes who eventually join superhero teams will eventually find discover their crushes, which didn’t necessarily happen with Jaime – he met his love interest during the fight against the major threat. In this case, Jaime met Traci Thirteen in the seventh volume of ‘Blue Beetle’ comics released in 2007, where the original Spirit of God’s wrath arrives on Earth to find his next victim – a potential new host.

Of course, Traci comes to the rescue when Eclipso finds a “suitable” baby to use as the host and the young Homo Magi uses her magic to repel the villain. In the same comic book run, we see Traci reaching out to Jaime and asking him for help against Eclipso, and their encounter is quite funny – she just appears out of nowhere and immediately knows Jaime’s secret identity.

Jaime is hanging out with his best friend Paco at that moment, and they have a conversation about dating and girls being weirded out about the prospect of dating a boy with a secret superhero identity.

The whole issue sees Traci and Jaime hitting it off but never really acting on their feelings. After Traci uses the Staff of Arion to defeat Eclipso, the couple finally kiss at the end of the issue.

The whole situation is adorable, and since then, Traci Thirteen and Blue Beetle have been steadily together. In the third volume of ‘Teen Titans’ from 2009, the members of the esteemed superhero group actually ask Traci to join Teen Titans, but she refuses because she would feel odd being on the same team as her boyfriend.

However, the Flashpoint and New 52 occur in DC Comics, which revises and reboots most superheroes of DC Universe, including Traci Thirteen. Besides her origins, Traci’s romantic interests change, and she exclusively starts dating women, making her one of the superheroes part of the LGBTQ+ community of DC Universe.

The post-DC Rebirth era sees Blue Beetle and Traci Thirteen not dating anymore, but there are still representations of their relationship in the animated universe.

Are Traci Thirteen and Blue Beetle still together in DC Universe?

We already established that Traci Thirteen and Jaime Reyes are no longer together in the comics after the multiple reboots of the DC Universe. They actually barely interacted in the comics post-DC Rebirth, and Traci exclusively dates women, specifically Natasha Irons, a superheroine Steel.

However, the animated universe seems to still love this couple because Traci and Jaime appear in ‘Young Justice’ TV series and ‘Teen Titans: The Judas Contract movie.

In ‘Young Justice,’ Traci Thirteen appears as the young protégé of another Homo Magi, Zatanna. Her character is actually called ‘Thirteen’ in the show, with Traci Thurston being her real name. At one point, she was one of the rotating hosts of Doctor Fate, and she’s in a serious relationship with Blue Beetle.

Regarding the ‘Teen Titans: The Judas Contact’ animated movie from 2017, Traci is Jaime’s colleague to whom he is attracted. However, there are hints of their relationship and references to their comic book romance.

For a young superhero, Jaime is quite the opposite of his Teen Titans colleague, Dick Grayson, who, until he settled with Barbara Gordon, dated every superheroine under 25 years of age.

Jokes aside, Jaime currently isn’t in a relationship in the comics, and until that changes, we have the DC Animated Universe and Jenny Kord from the ‘Blue Beetle’ live-action movie.

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