Blue Beetle

Status
 Weight

**Ted Kord** was the second person to become the **Blue Beetle**. Deprived of the scarab that empowered his predecessor, Ted was forced to rely on his superior athleticism, fighting prowess, and technological genius to combat crime.

## Biography

### Early Life

Ted Kord started his career as the Blue Beetle when he was just a college student. While in college he started to work for his uncle Jarvis Kord. He is mostly kept in the dark for the duration of the project but later finds a small box containing a map of and a reel of film. The film reveals that his uncle’s secret project was in fact a collection of evil experiments to create an army of super-androids to be used for his own megalomaniac means.

Not knowing what to do, Ted turns to his college professor Dan Garrett. Dan promises to help Ted and they travel to Pago Island (the location of Jarvis' secret lab). Arriving on Pago Island Ted and Dan were immediately captured by his uncle’s advanced androids. They soon learned Jarvis was alive and planed to carry out his scheme for world conquest.

Dan was forced into revealing his identity as the Blue Beetle to Ted when Jarvis ordered his androids to kill them both. In the battle Jarvis causes an explosion resulting in his death and mortally wounding Dan as well. Knowing he was dying, Dan asked Ted to keep the secret and carry on in his place as the Blue Beetle. Feeling just as responsible as his uncle for what had transpired, Ted agrees to Dan’s request. Before anything else could be said a cave-in causes Ted to be separated from Dan. Dan is buried in the rubble along with magical scarab that gave him super-powers.

### Inspiration Leading to Vigilantism

Ted goes back home to Hub City, unable to fill in his mentor's shoes but wanting desperately to carry on the Blue Beetle Mantle. He graduates from college and starts working in his own lab. He becomes a brilliant inventor, keeping his best inventions for himself to fight crime. He starts going through a rigorous physical training program to develop an athletic body. With his scientific know-how, Ted develops an arsenal of gadgets and constructs an aircraft, simply called The Bug, made from unfinished experiments left by his absent father, Thomas Kord. Another one of Ted's inventions is his less-than-lethal side arm. This shoots out a compressed blast of air usually knocking his opponent over and sometimes even knocking them out. He also modeled it to shoot an extremely bright light that would temporally blind his opponent.

As a brilliant inventor Ted becomes very successful and falls in love with his lab assistant, Tracey. Despite all his success and love he is continually harassed by a detective Max Fisher. Max believes Ted had something to do with Dan's death and he continually drops by the lab. To clear Ted's name Tracey goes to Pago Island and Ted follows and tells her his origin. As Ted finished his tale to Tracey they are attacked by two of his uncle’s super-powered androids that had failed to be destroyed earlier. Ted manages to send the two androids down into a crevice and uses the “The Bug” to drop rocks, permanently sealing them below the surface. Ted would carry on as the **Blue Beetle** fighting various criminals as his career would extend.

## Abilities

* **Genius Level Intellect**
* **Gadgetry**: Rivaling Batman's inventive mind, Ted was the creator of many inventions and crime-fighting technologies, like his solar-powered "Bug" vehicleny, Kord Industries, which produces hundreds of new technologies.
* **Acrobatics**: Kord was an accomplished acrobat, who more often than not, utilized this greatly into his hand-to-hand fighting style.
* **Espionage**
* **Martial Arts**: Had studied with several martial arts masters, and can out-fight just about any group of thugs or criminals with his fighting skills alone.

### Equipment

* **Baby-Bugs/Snoopies**: Small bug-shaped flying surveillance drones used for spying or for hazardous areas e.g. radiation zones.
* **Radiation Suit**: The "Bug" also contained a radiation suit similar to his standard suit.

### Transportation

* **The Bug**: A multipurpose 80% solar powered beetle-shaped craft, capable of operating in air and water and built with a mobile lab, blasters, magnetic manipulators, grasping "claws" and defense shields.

### Weapons

* **Beetle Gun**: could produce a blinding flash or a blast of compressed air capable of knocking down several grown men. He also had other weapons and gadgets in the "Bug" to deal with larger numbers of opponents.