Blue Beetle created by Charles Wojkowski.
"All I can tell you is that the lunatic who apparently started the blaze called himself Firefist, the Incendiary Man! But then, I call myself the Blue Beetle -- so who am I to throw stones." - Blue Beetle (DC) #1
Personal Details
Codename: Blue Beetle I
Codename: Blue Beetle II
Overview
The original Blue Beetle was a mystically powered member of the early Silver Age belonging to the same generation as Barry Allen and Hal Jordan. One of the first heroes of that generation to retire he was brought back into action one last time by former student Ted Kord.
When Dan Garrett the original Blue Beetle was killed, Ted Kord swore to continue the fight in his name. With the loss of the mystic Scarab, Kord created a new Blue Beetle identity using his knowledge of advance science and technology. With the hostile take over of his company Kord threw himself full time into the JLI and later Extreme Justice alongside best friend Booster Gold. Together they are still active in Las Vegas, up to their normal tricks and can be often found at Warriors in New York.
Background
Professor Dan Garrett was a noted archaeologist and Egyptologist who briefly acted as a visiting lecturer at Midwestern University where he taught electronics major Ted Kord before leaving to work on the Kha-ef-re Dig with colleague Professor Luai Hoshid. Their dig into the tomb of that legendary evil pharaoh was dogged by both labour problems from suspicious natives and the interference of rogue Egyptian General Amenhotep who believed himself to be the descendent of the last pharaoh.
The day after a run in with the General during a dinner date the two archaeologists unearthed the Tomb of Kha-ef-re. They found a musty tomb filled with grotesque imagery and the Sarcophagus lying on an Alter still stained with the blood of his victims after thousands of years. On the chest of the Sarcophagus Garrett found a blue Scarab. When he touched the Scarab he found himself in a dream state where he witnessed a mysterious god like figure telling him that he was fated to be a great champion for good by speaking the magical words "Kaji Dha!"
Waking from the dream Garrett found out the true reason for the Generals interest in the dig. By using an unknown form of radiation delivered by a bomber he managed to animate the mummy of Kha-ef-re causing it to grow to a gigantic size. By saying the magical words Garrett was transformed into the Blue Beetle and managed to defeat the rampaging mummy. After dismantling the Generals war machinery, Garrett returned to the US and began a second career as the Blue Beetle battling evils such as Praying Mantis Man, the Red Knight, Magno Man and the grotesque Mister Crab. Eventually the Blue Beetle gained the upper hand against his enemies defeating them all and took a well-earned retirement.
Meanwhile Ted Kord had graduated and had gone to work as an inventor for his father's firm of Kord Omiversal Research and Development Inc. (a small science research firm). He helped work with the fledgling Justice League of America to full fill their technology needs. Later Ted would go onto work with his uncle Jarvis until a mysterious explosion destroyed Jarvis's lab. In the wreckage Ted found evidence that implicated Jarvis in the creation of a series of robotic killing machines. Convinced that his uncle was still alive and planning to conquer the world Ted turned to his old mentor of Dan Garrett.
Garrett and Kord investigated Jarvis's hidden hideout on Pago Island where they were promptly captured by the robotic army of Jarvis. Garrett was forced to transform himself into the Blue Beetle to destroy the robots. Jarvis detonated his robots rather that letting himself he captured and was killed in the ensuing cave in. The cave in also mortally injured the Blue Beetle who asked Ted to carry on the fight. However before he could pass on the Scarab Garret was buried under hundreds of tons of rock trapping his remains and the Scarab far from the reach of Ted Kord.
Ted Kord had over the years built KORD Inc. into an organisation to rival STAR Labs and decided to use its industrial resources to create a second generation Blue Beetle. Using old experiments carried out by his father (who had left to travel the world after the death of Ted's mother) he constructed the amazing Bug - a vehicle that could operate in either air or water and could be remotely controlled using devices in his gloves. Training himself to excellent physical fitness he found himself a gifted acrobat and gymnast.
The second Blue Beetle began a career in Chicago where KORD Inc. was based and quickly saw action against criminals such as Firefist and Chronos. Despite an initially resistant local police force the Blue Beetle was one of the heroes that defied the presidential order to cease all activity during the anti-hero riots. Afterwards he found himself a founding member of the Justice League International, however the shadow of Pago Island would remain for a number of months.
Minor archaeologist Conrad Carapax went to investigate the ruins of Pago Island and unearthed a highly advanced battle android left over by Jarvis Kord. When he tried to activate it he found his consciousness transferred into it. He ended up battling the second Blue Beetle on the island. The tremors set off by the battle awakened the original Blue Beetle who had actually been in a deep sleep beneath the island protected by the Scarab. It turned out that the Scarab was actually an alien that the possessing the resurrected Garrett. The two Beetle's fought each other with Garrett eventually managing to break the control before he died. The Scarab was destroyed - shattered into a million shards.
With the constant responsibilities of the Blue Beetle, Ted found that he had begun to neglect board meetings and paperwork at KORD Inc. prompting his father to return from his trip and regain control over the company. The power struggle between father and son was rendered a mute point when the main site was destroyed in a revenge between Carapax and the Blue Beetle. Refusing to build the company up a second time Ted left it in the hands of his father. He then left Chicago and his corporate responsibilities to devote himself to the Blue Beetle and the JLI full time.
As part of the Justice League Beetle first teamed up with the Michael Jon Carter alias Booster Gold when they defeated the android Ace who was part of a reformed Royal Flush Gang. Often acting as group jester the Beetle developed a much more relaxed attitude to life without the corporate responsibilities. He was approached by the government backed hero Captain Atom who tired to win his friendship by revealing that Atom had actually worked with the original Blue Beetle. However discrepancies in the story combined with suspicions by Mister Miracle meant that Beetle was one of those responsible for revealing the true origins of Captain Atom and exposing him as a government plant within the team. Over the years Atom has proved his worth to Beetle and the two maintain a strained friendship (often disrupted by Atom's more militaristic and headstrong approach).
Beetle and Booster were part of the League's covert strike force led by the Batman in to Bialya when the two friends were kidnapped by the Queen's forces and implanted with post hypnotic suggestions. Once back in the United States the Queen Bee activated the suggestion in Beetle with a telephone call causing him to maniacally attack Maxwell Lord with a knife seriously injuring Oberon in the process. In the end it was the passing Huntress that managed to take Beetle down. The brainwashing was first tackled by Amanda Waller but it soon proved that more powerful means were needed and Nabu (the Lord of Order who powered the original Doctor Fate and at the time was living in the dead body of Kent Nelson) swapped minds with Beetle temporally to remove the hypnotic blocks.
During their time together in the League Booster and Beetle (who had both lost companies to others) tried a number of money making stunts including an extended period as super repo-men but their greatest moment came when they created Club JLI. A casino and tourist resort on the League's landed holding of Kooey Kooey Kooey. Unbeknown to Maxwell Lord the two used League resources to finance the operation that was bankrupted by Major Disaster and Big Sur. In the aftermath rather than expel the two from the team Max decided to relegate them to menial work, doing the cleaning and chores for the entire team. It was this pressure that forced Booster to quit and to form the Conglomerate.
Without his old sparing partner Beetle fell into a state of neglect only operating with the League and kicking back the soda once to often. His fitness suffered and he forced himself to take a crash fitness course under the tutelage of the original General Glory. Teased by Guy Gardner the two ended up settling their differences in the boxing ring under the direction of the General. However when Beetle gained the upperhand Guy cheated and serious injured Beetle who was forced to watch injured as the rest of the league fell apart after the attempted assignation of Maxwell Lord. Even when healed Beetle was kicked out of the League by its new CEO and was also rejected for membership of the Conglomerate due to his lack of fitness. Determined Beetle saw a dietician and began a rigorous regime of healthy eating and exercise (namely over the top patrols and super heroics) he was motivated by a battle of wills with Power Girl over who could reach their target weight first.
After the League was reformed Beetle found time self once more in the forefront of the League receiving a new Bug from Maxwell Lord and having access of the technical facilities of the new League Headquarters. Beetle had his suspicions about the new member Bloodwynd but before he could act on these he was beaten into a coma by Doomsday. While in the coma he and the Atom's dreamscapes were assaulted by Dr Destiny who created a parallel dark-JLA in the dreamscape, the entire team managed to defeat them, in the process exposing Bloodwynd as the Martian Manhunter as Beetle had suspected.
Over the coming months Beetle rebuilt armour for both Booster and Warrior but he found himself increasingly frustrated with the way the League was operating. When the League was in disarray after the Judgement Day incident it was Beetle who decided to tell the word on his own about the death of Ice II realising that her sacrifice must be shown to the word. In the process he broke an informal agreement over taking to the press the League had at that time. In the aftermath he accepted Captain Atom's offer to join a Justice League splinter group. The more pro-active team based in an old covert military base was created by Atom to combat threats that the normal Justice League with their procedures and rules were powerless to do anything about.
As part of the "Extreme Justice" team Beetle discovered that his father had been selling KORD Inc. designs to the highest bidder including designs for his original Bug that he had left at the company. This caused a further split between father and son. Currently Beetle works for the Las Vegas electronic entertainment company owned by Booster Gold and acts as one of the few remaining members of the Mount Thunder team.
Powers and Abilities
The Blue Beetle Scarab granted Dan Garrett could focus his internal energies into a number of special abilities including super strength, x-ray vision, flight and could fire lightning from his finger. He wore a special chain mail costume that protected him from small arms fire.
The second Blue Beetle, Ted Kord, is an electronics genius who designed the Bug aircraft, numerous versions of the Booster Gold Armour and much of the early Justice Leagues technology. Physically he is just a normal person who has trained himself to excellent fitness excelling in gymnastics and aerobatics. He tends not to use personal weaponry but has used a strobe and compressed air gun in the past. Currently he often uses a pair of floating platforms (that seem to be based on Mister Miracles Aerodiscs) to keep up with the rest of the team.
Kord's greatest weapon is his specially designed Bug. Originally a one person air/water vehicle recharged by special solar collectors it could hover life a helicopter and contained numerous stock features and stealth systems. When he joined the League he expanded it to contain the rest of the team and added a lab and recreation facilities (a large CD selection and the best coffee machines in the business). At one time he could control the bug via devices in his costume gloves.
Recommened Reading
Overpower Cards
Blue Beetle II - Common - Matt Haley/Tom Simmons
Energy: 4 Fighting: 6 Strength: 4 Intellect: 5
Airgun - Uncommon - Matt Haley/Tom Simmons
Allies
Booster Gold - Michael Jon Carter, a football star from five hundred years in the future. He came back to our time to escape a match fixing scam and to create a super heroic identity for himself using future technology. He and Beetle are often involved in the centre of many get rich quick schemes and other fooling around.
Captain Atom - Former military backed superhero, Cameron Scott is actually the quantum clone of the second Monarch. At first Beetle distrusted him but over the years he has earned Beetles trust enough for Ted to follow him as part of a League splinter group.
Jeremaih Duncan - The best friend of Thomas Kord and an expert chemist. His own perchance for get rich schemes got him sacked from STAR Labs. At KORD Inc. he was a form of mentor to Ted who seems to have picked up his perchance for get-rich schemes.
Melody Case - Initially romantically linked to Ted Kord they two became estranged due to his responsibilities as the Blue Beetle. It was her duty as a senior member of KORD Inc. to recall Ted's father when the company was neglected by it's CEO.
Murry Takamoto - Former room mate of Ted's at collage he went onto work with STAR Labs. He enlisted the aid of KORD Inc. in creating a new Protheium alloy.
The Question - Protector of Hub City. He wears a featureless mask to hide his identity as a TV journalist. He has teamed up with Blue Beetle a number of times.
Major Enemies
Carapax - Minor archaeologist Conrad Carapax found he mind transferred to an advanced android on Pago Island he battled the Blue Beetle who dropped who he thought was just an android in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. He walked back to land and followed a tracer he had placed on the Bug. In a revenge battle the main headquarters of KORD Inc. was destroyed.
Chronos - The criminal master of time and former foe of the Atom II. He battled Beetle during the anti-hero riots after he was exposed as the uncle of an employee of KORD Inc.
Jarvis Kord - The brother of Thomas Kord he used Ted to create a special unstoppable alloy from which to build his super robotic soldiers. Covering his tracks with an explosion he relocated to Pago Island but was eventually defeated by the original Blue Beetle who was killed when Jarvis destroyed his own fortress.
Queen Bee II - despotic ruler of the nation of Bailya she used extensive mind control apparatus to hold sway over the country and an unrevealed number of world figures. She used post hypnotic suggestions to get Beetle to attack Maxwell Lord. He was later apart of the covert team that destroyed her countries mind control centre.
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Alter Ego: Dr Daniel (Dan) Garrett
Occupation: Archaeologist
Known Relatives: Unnamed wife (deceased)
Group Affiliation: None
Base of Operations: Hub City
First Appearance: MYSTERY MEN #1 (Fox Publishing. August, 1939)
Height: 6' 0"
Weight: 189 lb.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Reddish Browm
Alter Ego: Theodore (Ted) Kord
Occupation: Computer Games Designer and Research Scientist, former CEO of KORD Inc.
Known Relatives: Thomas Kord (father), unnamed mother (deceased), Jarvis Kord (uncle, deceased)
Group Affiliation: Extreme Justice, formally the Justice League International.
Base of Operations: Las Vegas formally Chicago, Illinois
First Appearance: (historical) CAPTAIN ATOM (first series) #83 (Charlton. November 1966); (current) CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #1 (April, 1985)
Height: 5' 11"
Weight: 190 lb.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown
The Bug - Uncommon - Matt Haley/Tom Simmons
Bwah-ha-ha-ha! - Rare - Matt Haley/Tom Simmons
Frictionless Foam - Uncommon - Matt Haley/Tom Simmons
Quick Wits - Uncommon - Matt Haley/Tom Simmons
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