Blue Beetle is out now in cinemas, and it’s a fun-if-familiar superhero movie romp that has that special Latino flair. It’s also great that one of DC Comics’ lower-tier heroes get the spotlight, especially one who is earnest and isn’t a moody teen; the fact that Cobra Kai actor and highlight Xolo Mariduena is charismatic and talented helps carry the film further.

Here are all the comic & video game references in the DC movie. We’ll be talking about the whole film, so here’s your spoiler warning:

Green Lantern Insert

The opening credits of Blue Beetle had a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, featuring a green light flashing at the Scarab. Yeah, any moment now with a new Green Lantern entry, Warner Bros.

Palmera City

Superman has Metropolis; Blue Beetle/Jaime Reyes has Palmera City. This version of the comic book city is a Florida with a huge distinct rich/poor class dynamic.

Daily Planet & LexCorp

Even with Metropolis far away, Palmera City has many, many ads for the Daily Planet and LexCorp. Daily Planet is the news publication Clark Kent/Superman works for, while LexCorp is a tech conglomerate owned by his nemesis Lex Luthor.

Classic Blue Beetle Suits

So yeah, there is a Ted Kord in the film. See, he’s been missing in the film, presumed dead at this point. Jaime, Jenny Kord (Bruna Marquezine), and Rudy Reyes (George Lopez) ended up at Ted’s secret lair underneath his mansion. There, you can see his gadgets and also all three Blue Beetle classic suits. Yep, old-school Blue Beetle’s in the film alright, with the gadgets and the flying Blue Beetle vehicle: the Bug!

They also found out that the first Blue Beetle who bonded with the Scarab is one Dan Garrett. He’s the first Blue Beetle in the 60s. In the film, he got help from Ted Kord in the bonding process.

The Power Glove

One of Ted Kord’s gadgets is a modified Power Glove (made by Mattel for the NES console in the 90s) complete with a shield and giant fist for defense and offense. Jaime’s sister Milagro Reyes (Belissa Escobedo) uses this in the climactic battle.

Final Fantasy VII’s Buster Sword & Limit Break

This one’s in the trailer as well, but there’s a follow-up in the final movie.

Jaime uses the sword in the fight against the bad guy Carapax (Raoul Max Trujillo). Jaime also performs Blade Beam as one of his attacks, a level 2 Limit Break move Cloud uses in Final Fantasy VII.

Scorpion’s Harpoon

Jamie while in Blue Beetle form says “get over here” as he drags main bad guy Carapax to him for the final battle. That’s a Mortal Kombat reference; Scorpion says this when he confirms his Harpoon move.

Blue Beetle Post-Credits: Sequel Bait

At the end of the movie when all is said and done -Jaime defeats the evil corporation and gets the girl- the movie cuts to the Kord hideout. After the song “All Out Of Love” by Air Supply plays for a short bit, we get a message stating that Ted Kord is alive.

We doubt a sequel is going to happen given the new DC Universe’s shift to a new continuity, but who knows? It really depends on how Blue Beetle does in the next few weeks at the box office.

If Blue Beetle does end up doing well enough at the box office, we might be able to see the debut of another iconic DC hero soon; Booster Gold. Back in February 2023, James Gunn already confirmed that a Booster Gold TV series is part of the first phase of the upcoming DC Universe (DCU) reboot.

Since that’s the case, it’s possible that the voice in the first post-credits scene of Blue Beetle isn’t Ted Kord himself, but actually Booster Gold instead. That’s because he’s saying “Ted Kord is alive”, and it’s rare that someone would refer to themselves in the third person. If it was Ted Kord himself, he would have said that “I’m alive.” or something to that effect.

In the comics, Booster Gold is the best friend of Ted Kord Blue Beetle ever since their Justice League International days. When Ted Kord died before the events of Infinite Crisis, Booster Gold even tried to go back in time and try to bring him back to life. That could be the case in the Blue Beetle post-credits scene as well; perhaps Booster Gold have been searching for Ted Kord all this time and has found him, but now he needs help in the journey so that’s why he left the voice recording in the Blue Beetle cave.