The Real Story Behind El Paso Superhero the Blue Beetle

Iron Man has New York City, Batman has Gotham, but the Blue Beetle has El Paso Texas.

One of the first Latino superheroes portrayed in mainstream comics, Jaime Reyes is a teenager who attends El Paso High School.

Enter your number to get our free mobile app

There aren't a lot of heroes in the pages of comic books for Hispanic children to look up to and admire.

Off the top of your head try and think of one, don't worry I'll wait.

The character history gets complicated so I've included a couple of videos below to help explain it.

According to the DC comics database:

Jaime Reyes was a relatively normal high school student from El Paso, Texas. His father ran a garage, his mother was a paramedic, and his little sister was a brat. Jaime hung out with his two best friends Brenda and Paco, the mediator between the hard-working Brenda and the laid-back Paco...

In a nutshell, Jaime Reyes is the third recipient of the Blue Scarab, an extraterrestrial artifact that gives him extraordinary powers.

Not only is Blue Beetle an established comic book character with a Hispanic protagonist, but the character is repping El Paso hardcore and making it to the Big Screen as part of the DC Cinematic Universe:

And, a lot of it was filmed in El Paso!

Check out what I've already written about the director of the Blue Beetle movie showing up in town.