Comics Friday: Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes)

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Blue Beetle #30

The third Blue Beetle, Jaime Reyes, is for sure one of my favorite superhero characters of all time. I mean, I was already a goner when it got to "transforming alien armor with a homicidal sentient AI"—who could say no to that? Combine that with an adorkably endearing but also quite badass teenaged protagonist, expressive art and fantastic writing in the 2006-2009 series, and what's not to like?

The Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle series (a.k.a. Blue Beetle vol. 7) has a bit of a teenaged slice-of-life feel, combined with superheroics around Jaime's hometown of El Paso, and later shenanigans in outer space. It feels fairly lighthearted and humorous (see the panels above), but it also portrays Jaime's relationships with his family and friends in a touching way (Blue Beetle is, for once, a series where the teenaged protagonist doesn't hide his superhero identity from those closest to him, which is delightfully refreshing) and covers some weighty topics, such as immigration and border control, with thoughtfulness and sensitivity.

Jaime's Latino heritage—which frequently factors into the series—adds a rich and unique facet to his comic. One of the strengths of his comic, though, is its relatability, even if the reader is not a person of color from an immigrant family: at the end of the day, Jaime is just a regular American teen who unexpectedly ends up acquiring superpowers via the Blue Beetle scarab and has to figure out what being a superhero means. All this, while arguing with the scarab's homicidal tendencies—and trying not to look too weird for doing so ("I'm not crazy, I just hear voices in my head!" - Blue Beetle #5).

Sadly, Jaime Reyes's story took a turn for the worse with the New52 reboot of his character, which ended up with Jaime being estranged from his family (and initially his friends as well, though he later patched up relations with them), causing a lot more violence (his control over the scarab seems much more...faulty) and being viewed with much more hostility and suspicion as a result, overall leaving out much of the charm that made his previous series so amazing. Since his solo has been canceled, he's been stuck in comics limbo, sadly. Here's to hoping DC will eventually revive Jaime Reyes in the future.

Recommended reading:

- Young Justice: Invasion (Season 2): Okay, this isn't exactly reading, but the YJ animated show is a great introduction to Jaime Reyes and features him in a pivotal role. Also, Jaime's relationship with the scarab is hilarious.

- Infinite Crisis #3-6: Jaime's first comic book appearance. Recommended if you want to read about how Jaime found out he'd become the scarab's host in the first place.

- Blue Beetle (vol. 7) (#1-36)