The Blue Beetle #2
Blue Beetle #2 (2006) is the second chapter of the ongoing series that formally established Jaime Reyes — DC's first Mexican-American protagonist to headline his own ongoing title — as the third Blue Beetle, filling the void left by Ted Kord's death in Countdown to Infinite Crisis. The issue concludes the extended flashback arc that explains exactly how the alien scarab (Khaji Da) bonded with Jaime's spine, and it marks the first appearances of the Posse gang unit and several of its members (Damper, Bonita, Scour, Thumper), street-level characters who would become recurring fixtures in the El Paso mythology Rogers and Giffen built around Jaime. By grounding a DC superhero story in a working-class Latino household in Texas rather than a Gotham penthouse or a star lab, the creative team introduced a tonal and cultural specificity rarely seen in the publisher's line at the time, a quality critics and readers recognized as a meaningful step forward in the diversity of mainstream superhero comics.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The 2006 Blue Beetle series was conceived as a direct consequence of the Infinite Crisis event, in which DC deliberately killed off Ted Kord (in Countdown to Infinite Crisis, May 2005) and introduced Jaime Reyes — a Mexican-American teenager from El Paso — as his replacement. The character was co-created by veteran DC writer and Justice League International architect Keith Giffen, television writer John Rogers (who would go on to create the TV series Leverage), and artist Cully Hamner, with the project supervised under editor Dan DiDio's post-Infinite Crisis line restructuring. Giffen and Rogers co-wrote the first nine issues, with Hamner on art for the opening arc, before Giffen departed around issue #10 and Rafael Albuquerque joined Rogers on the book. Issue #2 was published April 26, 2006, and received a second printing with a new Cully Hamner cover on June 1, 2006 — an early sign of reader interest in the new character.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Written by Keith Giffen and John Rogers; art and cover by Cully Hamner. Published April 26, 2006 by DC Comics (Blue Beetle Vol. 7 #2).
- Story title: 'Can't Go Home Again.' The issue concludes the extended origin flashback detailing how the alien scarab (Khaji Da) fused to Jaime Reyes' spine in the days before and during the Infinite Crisis event.
- First comic book appearances of the Posse street gang and several of its members: Damper, Bonita, Scour, and Thumper — all of whom appear only in flashback within this issue.
- First issue in which Jaime's parents Ernesto (Alberto) Reyes and Bianca Reyes, and the entity 'Probe,' are named in dialogue.
- El Paso High School makes its first comics appearance in this issue (via flashback), establishing the specific Texas setting that defines the entire Giffen-Rogers run.
- The issue received a second printing on June 1, 2006, with an alternate cover by Cully Hamner — indicating healthy early demand for the new series.
- This issue is collected in Blue Beetle Vol. 1: Shellshocked, the trade paperback gathering the first six issues of the series.
- The 36-issue series (2006–2009) that this issue is part of served as the foundation for Jaime Reyes' later appearances across animated series (Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Young Justice), the Injustice 2 video game, and the 2023 DC Extended Universe film Blue Beetle starring Xolo Maridueña.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Blue Beetle: Shellshocked #[nn] (2007), The Flash Giant #2 (2019), Blue Beetle: Jaime Reyes #1 (2022)
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