The CW has had moderate success with bringing beloved DC characters to the small screen in recent memory, but that hadn’t always been the case. We can scarcely remember back in the early days of the network following the WB merger with UPN. Superheroes had not reached the heights they have now, and some shows didn’t always respect the source material in the best light. Tom Welling will always be an iconic representation of Superman for an entire generation, but that doesn’t mean Smallville was always doing anyone any favors.
The CW series often played fast and loose with trademark characters. Remember Kara, played in one episode by Adrianne Palicki? That’s okay, we don’t really want to, either. Another one of these egregious examples was the inclusion of Jaime Reyes in the final season of the show. Premiering a good decade before his feature film debut in Blue Beetle, the Jamie that appeared in Smallville pales in comparison to the character that was on the page.
By season 10 of Smallville, the series had essentially accomplished everything it needed to. Clark works at the Daily Planet with his financé Lois Lane (Erica Durance) and cultivates his alter ego of a mild-mannered reporter. But the season still gave way to some well-known characters such as Jaime Reyes, though you would see only a small resemblance to his comic book character. Portrayed by Jaren Brandt Bartlett, Jaime resembles Clark when he was in high school. He is a bumbling fool who can’t seem to get his life together until superpowers change his life.
A blue scarab attaches itself to Jaime, encasing him in a robotic suit. While tangentially related to the Blue Beetle of DC canon, Jaime in Smallville has no control over the technology. The suit goes rogue, trying to kill a selfish newcomer on the scene, Booster Gold. As debuts go, other Smallville introductions have been worse. But Jaime deserves better. After a struggle with Booster Gold (Eric Martsolf), Jaime understands he has the potential to become a hero. However, this plot only matters because he is a direct mirror to Clark. Through this experience, Clark discovers he has the strength to be what he never thought possible… a mild-mannered reporter. An alter ego that arguably needed no introduction or backstory.
DC’s film adaptation of the Blue Beetle blew expectations out of the water and should be considered the real debut of the character. The DC film shines a light on a type of family often underrepresented. Taking inspiration from Mexican cinema, Blue Beetle makes a solid attempt at being unlike any other DC film thus far. It actually tries to say something. And though it performed at the box office lower than Warner Bros. probably would have liked, that doesn’t take away the important story Blue Beetle tells.