Old Comic Characters are New...Again?

I already wrote about old comic characters getting a new life in major modern motion pictures. Er, before the writers and actors strikes...? 

Whatever. How about the prospects of the DC product Jaime Reyes, the Blue Beetle:

Currently a DC property, Blue Beetle didn't start out as one. The character is just as old as Batman and Namor the Submariner, if a little younger than Superman, having debuted in the summer of 1939. Like Shazam/Captain Marvel who'll follow a year later, Blue Beetle gained popularity and even graduated to his own comic. Below is his first cover for Mystery Men Comics and his first solo title, a few months apart in 1939:

1939

He even got the "punching Hitler" treatment, but a few years after Captain America:

1941 for Cap; 1944 for Blue Beetle

In the lean superhero years that followed, he was resurrected a few times, with Charlton Comics purchasing the character from Fox Syndicate. It seemed like every few years they'd make another go at him:

1955; 1964; 1965

In 1967 Charlton decided to revamp the character, gave him a new name, origin, and costume redesign. When DC finally bought the property, it was this version they started a title for, and it was this version I remember. These titles were nearly 20 years apart, though:

1967; 1986

That was during an era when the old rivals were brought under the DC moniker. Shazam/Captain Marvel and Blue Beetle, among others, had been real sales rivals to Superman and Batman, and like Mario and Sonic, they ended up on the same team.

It would take another 20 years and another character name, origin, and costume revamp to get us to where we are today, to finally arrive at the character who'll be portrayed in...live action...in a big budget movie:

2006; 2011; 2016

Like the sentiment from the link I shared in the first line: if you would have told me that two of the three must-save-the-company movies made by DC's parent movie-making arm would be starring BLACK ADAM AND BLUE BEETLE, my head would have melted. That they surround a floppy-flop Flash movie makes sense.

Doom Patrol? Done after the next six episodes. Sandman? Way too expensive, so maybe done. How can Harley Quinn be so good, and those other two properties be so entertaining, but in the theater we get certified they/them crazy-dude sandwiched between Black Adam and Blue Beetle movies?

That's not to say that a Blue Beetle movie will automatically suck. I desperately want it to be good. Minority characters should definitely be given the chance to thrive. 

This is the Blue Beetle I remember, being paired up with time-traveling douche Booster Gold:

Hoping for the best! Get some, Blue Beetle! Save the DCEU, or whatever it's called these days.