Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes)

Jaime Reyes is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Keith Giffen, John Rogers, and Cully Hamner, the character made his first appearance in Infinite Crisis #3 (February 2006). Jaime Reyes is the third character to assume the mantle of Blue Beetle, but is substantially different from his predecessors.

Introduced in 1939, the original Blue Beetle, Dan Garret, was a Fox Comics police officer who fought crime with superpowers gained by ingesting Vitamin 2X. A revamped version of this character, archaeologist Dan Garrett, introduced in 1964 by Charlton Comics drew mystical abilities from an ancient Egyptian scarab. Published by Charlton Comics and later DC, 1966 creation Ted Kord was Garrett's student who continued his legacy of costumed crime-fighting, although he had no superpowers.

DC's introduction of Jaime Reyes in 2006 retconned and expanded upon the Blue Beetle mythos. Revealed to be alien in origin, the scarab bonds with Reyes shortly after Kord's death and provides him with a suit of extraterrestrial armor. Though only a teenager, Reyes quickly forms a working relationship with Kord's former teammate and best friend Booster Gold and is inducted into the Teen Titans and the Justice League.

Blue Beetle has appeared in various media outside comics. Will Friedle, Eric Lopez, Jake T. Austin, and others have voiced the character in animated television series and films. Jaren Brandt Bartlett portrayed the character in a 2011 episode of the television series Smallville, and Xolo Maridueña portrayed the character in the 2023 live-action film Blue Beetle, set in the DC Extended Universe, and will continue to play the character in the rebooted DC Universe (DCU) franchise.

Jaime Reyes debuted as Blue Beetle in Infinite Crisis #5 (March 2006). His own monthly series debuted two months later with Blue Beetle vol. 7 #1 (May 2006); it was initially written by Keith Giffen and John Rogers, with artist Cully Hamner. Giffen left before issue #10 and Rogers took over full writing duties, joined by artist Rafael Albuquerque. Rogers left in issue #25 to concentrate on his television series Leverage.

After a couple of fill-in issues, Lilah Sturges became the main writer in issue #29. The series was canceled with issue #36 in February 2009. Editor Dan DiDio attributed the cancellation to poor sales and said that Blue Beetle was "a book that we started with very high expectations, but it lost its audience along the way".

The character returned in June 2009 as a "co-feature" of the more popular Booster Gold comic.

Jaime lives in El Paso, Texas, and is the son of Alberto Reyes and Bianca Reyes and the brother of Milagro Reyes. Jaime has an acute sense of responsibility for his immediate family and friends Paco and Brenda Del Vecchio, though he complains about having to sort out their problems. He derives strength and courage from his family's support, wanting what is best for them.