See DC’s Blue Beetle Trailer Arrive And Look Like Marvel Made It
Blue Beetle's first trailer has arrived with a new look for the DCU.
Warner Bros. just dropped the Blue Beetle trailer, and it has us scratching our heads a little bit. While it looks like a fantastic action-adventure film with dazzling special effects, we can’t help but think it looks like a Marvel Studios production rather than a DC property. Though Blue Beetle is a DC property, commenters on a recent Deadline article say that the trailer gives off “Iron Man meets Spider-Man meets Green Lantern” vibes, two of which are Marvel titles.
The Blue Beetle trailer is our first look into the big-screen adaptation of the comic book of the same name. And for those of you unfamiliar with the comic, it follows the story of Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña), a teenager whose body fuses with a powerful scarab produced by ancient alien technology that gives him a suit of body armor with incredible and unpredictable powers. If you really want to make the Marvel comparison, you could place Jaime Reyes in a similar wheelhouse to Peter Parker’s Spider-Man alter-ego.
On paper, there are several parallels between Marvel’s Spider-Man and DC’s Blue Beetle characters, and the trailer certainly has us noticing them. In both properties, we’re dealing with teenagers who suddenly have superpowers thrust upon them from external forces and must cope with their newfound superhero status to save the world. A radioactive spider bit Peter Parker, and Jaime Reyes has a mysterious scarab fused to his spine.
Though Marvel and DC are both known for adapting comic books into movies from their respective camps, they occupy very different territories in terms of their writing style and cinematography. The former lends itself to a lighter, more family-friendly feel with a fair amount of comic relief, while the latter often treads into darker themes. While looking at the Blue Beetle trailer, we’re definitely getting heavy Marvel vibes because of the trailer.
Up until this point, it always seemed like an unspoken rule that DC properties focused on anti-heroes, like Batman, while Marvel properties had a more tried and true superhero status. In the case of the Blue Beetle trailer, we’re feeling Marvel vibes because the dialogue is snappy, the colors are bright and fantastic, and it seems that Jaime Reyes is a pretty cut-and-dry good guy. In other words, Blue Beetle lacks the raw, gritty feel typically found in the DCU.
However, it’s worth noting that Wolverine is a Marvel character who is an anti-hero in his own right. Yes, he’s more of a hero than anything else, but his character is dark and conflicted, and he certainly doesn’t mind collateral damage in the form of bloodshed if it means getting the job done. So if Marvel can get a little dark, then why can’t DC also flip the script like they seem to be doing with the Blue Beetle trailer?
Blue Beetle is slated for an August 18 theatrical release, and this could be exciting new territory for the DCU to explore based on the trailer. Though we’re huge fans of the darker subject matter that typically comes from the DC camp, there’s certainly nothing wrong with letting a little bit of light in from time to time.
