GUYVER VS THE BLUE BEETLE

With the upcoming 2023 Blue Beetle film by Warner Bros/DC, Directed by Angel Manuel Soto and starring Xolo Mariduena, I've never been more excited to see another classic superhero romp!

Now granted, while superhero fatigue may have settled in pretty hard, this is a character I've been waiting to see debut for a while now. (And look at that, they even beat Marvel to the punch for first Latino superhero film, not counting pulp heroes like Zorro or the unbelievably overpowered Mirage Man from 2007!)

Today, I'm here to compare the third incarnation of the Blue Beetle, Jaime Reyes, to the 1989 Japanese OVA series Guyver: The Bio Boosted Armor.

The story of Jaime Reyes and Sho Fukamachi (Guyver) are about living up to the legacy passed down to them by sheer fate, that legacy being high tech exoskeleton armor powerful enough to decimate the entire planet!

Sho Fukamachi was walking with his buddy Testuro Segawa when they came across a discarded briefcase holding a strange piece of tech, which he would soon find out is the Guyver Unit, stolen from the labs of the corporation "Chronos."

In El Paso Texas, Jaime Reyes was walking home with his two high school pals Paco and Brenda, when he came across a strange blue Scarab, which had crash landed on Earth following the DC crossover event Infinite Crisis (long story for another day). This Scarab was an artifact owned by the two previous Blue Beetle's Dan Garett and Ted Kord.

They are both gifted with techno-organic alien armors! The transformation was very safe and harmless!

Now, the origin of the Guyver Unit dates back to the creation of all life on Earth. Godlike beings called The Advent use the planet as a ground for biological experiments using the early Neanderthals. They turned them into monsters called Zoanoids, and a being to control them called a Zoalord.

For shits and giggles, The Advent gave a Zoanoid monster the first Guyver Unit, to see how powerful it would be. This was Guyver Zero, who went rogue and wreaked havoc. The Zoalord Arcanfel had to forcefully remove the armor.

The Advent considered this a failure, and right before leaving Earth, they sent down a giant meteor (you see where this is going?). Thankfully, the humans were saved by Arcanfel The Zoalord, as well as the remaining Zoanoid monsters (but not the dinosaurs, which should not have existed with humans anyway but that's just a personal pet peeve).

Fast forward to the present day and we see Zoanoids still running amuck, there are now 13 Zoalords, one of which wants to merge with a Guyver Unit to become the most powerful being in the Universe, and a teenage boy with his own suit is stuck in the middle of it.

As for the Scarab imbedded in Jaime Reyes' spine, its true name is "Khaji Da", a codename given by the alien race known as The Reach, who are planetary conquerors. The Scarab is a weapon with the purpose to infiltrate, allowing The Reach to take control strategically. They are cold and calculating, even being enemies to the Green Lantern Corps.

Just like the Guyver Unit, the Scarab attaches to a host like a parasite, protecting them with a high tech armor in which The Reach can use as an enforcer. The only way to remove it is to kill the host.

However, Khaji Da was a defect long forgotten on Earth since the 1940's. The alien weapon was instead a gadget passed around collectors and the two Golden/Silver Age Blue Beetle superheroes.

A stroke of fate has allowed Jaime Reyes to unlock the full potential of the Scarab for the first time! (Well, there is a canonical reason behind this, but we'll get to that later..)

Both the Guyver and Blue Beetle suit have a similar move set. For starters, they can both slice and blast the shit out of things!

They are both able to heal the host from injuries, even fatal ones. They also have sensory detectors to help them know what's what!

The one notable difference is The Guyver's inability to fly, as well as a weak spot right in the center of the forehead called the Control Medal. You remove that from a Guyver host, and well..

I would definitely recommend The Guyver series, especially if you enjoy Sci Fi Super Sentai with a pinch of body horror, but unfortunately it was short lived and unfinished..

There's the original OVA from 1989, as well as a reboot from 2005 which expanded upon the story a tad more, but got canned before the conclusion. To add salt to the wounds of fans, even the manga would go on hiatus, leaving off on a major cliffhanger.

There were also two live action films.. The less said about them the better. Although there is ONE thing about them. Mark freakin' Hamill.

As for Blue Beetle, I would recommend his first series back in 2006 by John Rogers and Keith Giffen.

This was an excellent character study on Jaime Reyes and his supporting cast. A lot of time is spent with them. What made Jaime stand out at the time was his immediate openness about his superhero identity to his family. This might not be a big deal nowadays, but at the time this was still a bold move, especially considering what normally happens to your close ones when others know your identity (looking at Kyle Rayner's girlfriend)

For being the new kid, he really did take off, both in universe and in our time. I remember first seeing him in the Batman Brave And The Bold Cartoon as a kid.

He was also in the freakin' Smallville show (which just baffles me), the Young Justice Cartoon as well as the Injustice Fighting game!

Jaime fights along side the Teen Titans, sometimes facing off aliens in space, all while balancing his teenage social life.

A quick rundown on the other comic runs (as this is already pretty long winded)

Avoid the New 52 stuff. Just trust me. They tried to retcon everything that made the first series good, and tried to explain why the Scarab chose Jaime. Apparently, the Scarab landed on Earth long before Dan Garett got a hold of it, specifically in Mesoamerica. A Mayan tribe leader got a hold of it and the Scarab attached to him, infecting his bloodline, which would reach all the way to Jaime Reyes.

I don't even know if this is still canon considering DC's reboots tend to change up stuff a lot.

Also, he fucking KILLS Paco (not really though)

The Rebirth run is eh. I think its interesting to see Ted Kord back and mentoring Jaime Reyes into the superhero game proper. This is something I wouldn't mind seeing in the film, even if the dynamic of Iron Man/Spider-Man and Batman/Flash in the recent outings kind of soured my taste for that sort of thing.

Blue Beetle’s newest run is about to kick off from the 6 part mini series “Graduation Day”, by Josh Trujillo and Adrien Gutierrez.

It shows a lot of promise, even though I really don't care for the anime art style. I shouldn't be surprised, the Ara-Ara Era has truly taken over.

They bring back the original Reach (they were also changed during the New 52 run), and his newest foe is from... El Salvador?

What is this DAMN feeling in my cold bastard heart..?!

Am I finally.. REPRESENTED??

So in conclusion, do I believe the Blue Beetle film will contain the same edge or even scope of the Guyver series? Probably not. Will it be an artistic masterpiece like Across The Spiderverse? Definitely not. Will it contain the same emotional impact as the third Guardians Of The Galaxy film? That would be tough. My honest prediction is that it will end up pretty generic. But hey, I’ll still be there opening night!

Here’s hoping that Warner Bros at the very least makes it.. competent.

(I’ll definitely let you know in my review for it!)