DC reinvented the Justice League’s most innocent hero as pure nightmare fuel. DC’s multiverse contains many wild variants of its icons, and they were brought together to fight in 2007’s Countdown: Arena. Issue two of Arenasaw various incarnations of the Blue Beetle from across the multiverse slug it out in a fight to the death, and one nightmarish version stood above the rest.
Countdown: Arena #2 is written by Keith Champagne and drawn by Scott McDaniel. Monarch has brought together several different Blue Beetles to fight, including Jaime Reyes. A swarm of blue insects devours this Jaime variant, as he pleads “stop it! Stop biting me” with them. The blue beetles devour Jaime and another alien Blue Beetle tries to help, only for the swarming creatures to enter his mouth and consume him from the inside out.
This Blue Beetle, a native of Earth-26, declares itself the winner.
Blue Beetle Has Always Been a “Fun” Superhero
Yet the Earth-26 Blue Beetle is Anything But Fun
This Blue Beetle is a grim and nightmarish version of one of DC’s most innocent heroes. There have been three Blue Beetles in the primary DC Universe. The first was Dan Garrett, active during the Golden Age. He was followed by Ted Kord, a happy-go-lucky industrialist who would go on to have a memorable tenure with the Justice League. After Kord’s death at the onset of Infinite Crisis, the mantle passed to teenager Jaime Reyes. Blue Beetle’s legacy in the DC Universe is deep, and it extends into the multiverse.
The Blue Beetle character carried an air of innocence and fun, and this was particularly so with the Ted Kord incarnation. Ted Kord was Blue Beetle during the Justice League International era, a time in which traditional League mainstays such as Superman and Wonder Woman were not members. Instead, a number of second-string characters, culled from across DC’s recently consolidated multiverse, stepped up to become the Justice League. This version of the League featured lighter hearted stories, and the bro-mance between Blue Beetle and Booster Gold helped provide this tone.
The Murderous Blue Beetle Hails from the Most Unexpected Place in the DC Multiverse
His Legacy of Evil Stretches Far and Wide
The Blue Beetle of Earth-26 is a stark departure from Ted Kord and Jaime Reyes. Ironically, this murderous Blue Beetle hails from the same Earth as Captain Carrot, another character noted for innocence and whimsy. The Earth-26 Blue Beetle lacks the intellect and morals of Kord and Reyes, instead preferring to simply overwhelm its victims and eat them alive. Lacking the goodness that is a hallmark of the Blue Beetle, this nightmare fuel variant was able to kill the others and assert its dominance across the multiverse. Terrifyingly enough, he could still be out there, ready to strike at the Justice League.
