I'm a big
Blue Beetle fan, in case you didn't know/guess it from
my comic parodies on that other blog.
Over the years, there's been 3 very different Beetles, each perfectly representing the various eras they were invented during.
The Blue Beetles each have a quite original and quite different take unlike all the
Green Lanterns or
The Flashes, which if they were adapted into a feature film, for example, they'd mostly had to start from the original silver age retelling (a Green Lantern movie had to be about Hal Jordan rather than Kyle Rayner, John Stewart or Guy Gardner, or you'd have to mix the origins of the later with Hal's origin story and end up with a strange hybrid character most people would hate - the same goes for Barry Allen instead of Wally West or Bart Allen conflicted origins).
The original Blue Beetle was the perfect example of a pulp "mysteryman", using magical artifacts and facing mystical beings.
Blue Beetle II was a more techno-hero, using gadgets, plans and even a vehicle. He relied on science and in that way wasn't very far from characters like Batman and such.
Finally the current Blue Beetle III is a modern retelling using alien technology and adventures himself in plain science-fiction.
All are different in personas and their background. It even shows pretty good in their costume/character design.
Anyway, here's a great starting point to every thing Blue Beetle, their current
canon origin story in the DC comics universe.
