Respect Ted Kord, The Blue Beetle (Post-Crisis)

comics

##Respect: Blue Beetle #The Azure Avenger

Titles and Aliases:

Allies: Booster Gold, Tim Drake, the Justice League International, Super Buddies, Extreme Justice. Teen Titans, and the Birds of Prey.

Enemies: Max Lord, the Mad Men, Carapax, Ra's al Ghul

#Background

WHO IS BLUE BEETLE?

Growing up, Theodore Stephen "Ted" Kord was extraordinarily bright. He was good at science, business, and everything else he tried. In college, he received degrees in Physics, English Lit, and Theoretical Mathematics. He considered joining his father's business, Kord Omniversal Research and Development, Inc, of Chicago, but overall, he had no real direction.

When Ted's uncle made an attempt to take over the world, Ted set out to stop him, recruiting the help of his archaeology teacher Dan Garrett - the first Blue Beetle, who could call on superhuman powers from an ancient scarab he had found in Bialya. In the course of the adventure, Dan was fatally wounded and asked Ted to carry on the legacy of the Blue Beetle, passing the scarab onto him. However, Ted couldn't get the scarab to work for him, and eventually set it aside, electing to go ahead without it.

Ted trained himself to his physical peak, constructed an aerial vehicle affectionately nicknamed the "Bug", made himself a Blue Beetle costume, and set out to establish his own identity as a superhero, using his wit, agility, and a large number of gadgets to stop evildoers.

##Power and Abilities

Equipped with the most infectious guffaw in the multiverse
The Bug, A multipurpose beetle-shaped craft that he uses to get around Chicago
The BB Gun, which can fire both blasts of light and compressed air.
Peak human strength, durability, reflexes, and a high proficiency in martial arts
Top 5 acrobat in DC, falling below Deadman, Nightwing, and the Danger Twins
Superhuman intellect of that rivaling (or exceeding, depending on who you ask) people like Batman, Lex Luthor, and Ray Palmer

#Feats

Strength

Shifts a massive boulder off of Kingdom Come Blue Beetle

Tears through the metal fastenings on the Calculator's suit

Pulls a sword out of Kingdom Come Diana's hand

Pushes himself out from under a fallen roof (Narration says that it weighs multiple tons)

Knocks over an hourglass over three stories tall

Throws a large man in combat gear at the end of a line with one hand

Hurls Carapax out of the Bug

Staggers Dan Garrett (Blue Beetle I) with an iron pipe

Kicks his way through a roof

Durability

Tanks a bloodlusted Canary Cry and only takes a few moments to recover

Hurled into a boulder by Kingdom Come Wonder Woman

Tanks a hit from Prometheus

Survives a hit from a bloodlusted Blue Beetle I

Tanks a blast from an OMAC. A similar blast oneshot Hawkman.

Speed

Dodges fully automatic fire

Dodges an attack from Kalibak, the eldest son of Darkseid

Reacts to an alchemy beam

Weaves in between high speed energy beams

Dodges half a dozen high speed plasma projectiles

Acrobatic Skill

Performs a double frontflip in midair reaching almost a dozen feet into the air

Vaults over Behemoth, who is around three meters tall

Catches Captain Atom as he falls from midair

Outmaneuvers Eclipso

Combat

Incapacitates almost half a dozen hitmen with his hands tied behind his back

Temporarily incapacitates Blue Beetle I

Knocks out two Mad Men by kicking them from the ground

He's also been trained by several martial arts masters, including Batman

Master of Aikido and Karate (Scan pending, Extreme Justice #18)

Intelligence

Creates a hard light hologram which mimics the properties of a real human in order to preserve his secret identity.

Hacked into the US Defense servers at the age of 13

Guy Gardner ranks him above Batman in terms of intelligence

Reverse engineers Apokalyptian technology to generate the heat of the sun

Fixes Red Tornado

Hacks Max Lord's OMACs to make the bug invisible to their sensors

Has degrees in Physics, English Lit, and Theoretical Mathematics (Scan pending, Booster Gold #36)

Equipment

The BB Gun

Solar powered

Produces a blinding flash of light which incapacitates a crowd of several gangsters

Can blast the compressed air with such force that it destroys a lock

Has an attached laser powerful enough to cut through Apokalips tech

Can flatten an elephant

Strong enough to kill Blue Beetle I at maximum intensity

Sends Supernova flying

Temporarily stuns Extant

Zipline

The Bug

Grasping claws and a net

Automatic targeting system

Has a self destruct feature

Super powerful magnetic beams

Solar energy blasts and electromagnetic pulses

Equipped with Deflector Shields

Includes a complete crime lab and an autopilot function

Electronic controls built into his glove

Solar powered

Can electrify its hull to repel invaders (Scan pending)

Can move at supersonic speeds for the purpose of intercontinental travel, and could also reach orbit. (Scan pending)

Other Equipment

Acid strong enough to melt through steel

Smoke bombs

Tazer strong enough to overload Metallo

Created flight pads similar to those used by Mister Miracle (Scan pending, Extreme Justice)

Despero ranks him as the second most intelligent member of the Justice League after J'onn

IQ of 192 (Scan pending, Countdown to Infinite Crisis)

Miscellaneous

His costume is fireproof

Can speak some Arabic

Has a degenerative heart disease

Dick Grayson commends his physical skill (Scan pending, Power Girl vol 2 issue #21)

Has the saddest death in all of fiction

##Bromance

Now, I say that Ted has no superpowers, but I guess that’s not entirely true. Booster Gold and Blue Beetle have the greatest bromance in all of creation, and the amount of love they feel for eachother is superhuman (I'm shocked that they're not Star Sapphires), so I figured that it deserves its own little spot in this CotW thread.

Steals all of J’onn’s chocos. That’s as many as four tens (or more!). And that’s terrible.

THEY’RE NOT GAY!

Oh, who am I kidding?

They throw the best parties

Together, they lead a secret resistance in an alternate timeline

Ted literally sacrifices his life in order to save Booster

I don’t care what anyone else says, this is tragic

Babes

Happy birthday, Ted

##Recommended Reading

Crisis on Infinite Earths

Blue Beetle v6 1-24