Ted Kord

Latest revision as of 06:00, 22 April 2024

Blue Beetle Ted Kord in Living Assault Weapons v1 #1.

Ted Kord is a male comic superhero who features in DC Comics.

Biography

Charlton

Ted Kord continues the legacy in Secret Origins v2 #2.

Ted Kord

In college, he was noted to had met Dan Garret who had a reputation for being level-headed and trustworthy. At some point, his father took part in an expedition and disappeared as a result. (Blue Beetle v5 #2)

One day, his uncle Jarvis Kord asked for Ted's help in an experiment though was very secretive about his work. During the height of their work, significant progress was made on the project with Ted wanting to know more about it. Jarvis willing to tell him the next day but when Ted arrived at the lab an explosion occurred that seemingly killed his uncle. After the fire was put out, Ted went to examine the site where he found a damaged box that marked Pago Island. This led to Kord believing that his uncle was still alive and went out in search of him. Enlisting the help of Dan Garret, he revealed to him that his uncle had improved on a model of invincible robots that the pair had been working on that could be the basis of a dangerous army. Travelling to the island, the Kord and Garret were captured by robots where they were brought before Jarvis. He revealed his plans to use his super robots to take over the world where he intended to eliminate the two intruders. It was then that Garret revealed himself to be the Blue Beetle where he broke free and freed Ted with him battling the robots. To stop the hero, Jarvis triggered an overload that resulted in a feedback bringing about a large explosion. Jarvis had been killed whilst Garret was fatally injured where he asked Ted to keep his identity a secret and that Kord carry on the legacy of the Blue Beetle. Ted agreed as he felt responsible for Dan Garret's death and managed to make his way back home. (Blue Beetle v5 #2)

Back home, he informed the authorities that he became lost at sea where he kept the true nature of past events a secret. He then looked to carry on the legacy of the Blue Beetle where he began to use his father's workshop to create equipment to use as a masked vigilante. (Blue Beetle v5 #2) His debut as the Blue Beetle saw him responding to a robbery by Killer Koke whose gang nearly captured and unmasked him. However, he was able recover and succeeded in capturing the criminal along with his gang. (Captain Atom v1 #83) The business premises of his civilian identity was later broken into by the criminal known as the Masked Marauder. (Captain Atom v1 #84) Afterwards, Kord was questioned over the recent disappearance of Dan Garrett though he claimed to had no knowledge of this incident. He later then went as Blue Beetle to help stop a passenger jet from crashing and dealt with the crew of a submarine responsible for the attack. (Captain Atom v1 #85) Later on, he foiled another plot by the Masked Raider from stealing valuable technology from his company. At the same time, Ted looked to find a way to escape police suspicion over the disappearance of Dan Garrett. (Captain Atom v1 #86) The Blue Beetle then had to contend with a masked criminal gang called the Squids. (Blue Beetle v5 #1)

Later on, the Blue Beetle was responding to an incident involved armed weapons where upon arriving at the scene he was ambushed by the gunmen. Kord was only saved by the timely arrival of the Question who helped fight the armed men off but this was revealed to had been a distraction to capture the Bug. The Bug was taken away by a mysterious criminal called the Enigma who had been committed robbery and murder until he was caught by Blue Beetle. The Enigma spent years in prison where he plotted his revenge with his scheme looking to kill Blue Beetle. However, the Question's involvement in the incident allowed the Blue Beetle to survive with them breaking into the Enigma's base, escaped his death-traps and fought his henchmen. Ultimately, the villain was defeated but escaped capture where he vowed to get his revenge. In the aftermath, Blue Beetle was reunited with his ship and took the Bug back to continue his war on crime. (Charlton Bullseye v2 #1)

One day, he was fighting criminals on the streets when seemingly a still alive Dan Garrett as Blue Beetle was at the scene. At first, Ted was amazed at his friend being there but Garrett seemingly rebuffed Kord claiming he was a disgrace for leaving to die and telling him to abandon being the Blue Beetle. Ted was left dismayed but the urging of his girlfriend made him look into other possible reasons as to how Garrett was still alive. He concluded that this Garrett was in fact an imposter and was really one of his Uncle Jarvis's robots. The prototype machine had observed the events on Pago Island and took on Garrett Blue Beetle identity. However, the machine came to fear Kord and developed an elaborate plan to eliminate him. Upon being confronted, the robot attacked Ted Kord and nearly killed him when a sudden random blast from the Bug destroyed it. Kord came to wonder what resulted in the random attack that saved his life as he continued his career as the Blue Beetle. (Americomics v1 #3)

Blue Beetle later was responding to a hostage situation on a rooftop where he knocked out all the criminals at the scene. It was then that he as approached by Harbinger who requested his aid against a great crisis. He joined a number of heroes at an interstellar satellite when they all came to be ambushed by Shadow Demons. The creatures were forced away by the Monitor who revealed himself to be responsible for calling all the chosen champions to the location. (Crisis on Infinite Earths v1 #1)

DC

Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. Ted Kord

When he was a kid, he spent all his life fixated on a computer screen where he felt that he was bundled safely from the outside world. When he turned 13 years old, he got a new laptop and used it to hack into the U.S. defense servers leading to his arrest by the authorities after they tracked him down. He was in an interrogation room where they ultimately released him with his father telling him that he was lucky he did not end up in prison. (Countdown to Infinite Crisis v1 #1)

The young Ted was a student at a midwestern university where he was a student in noted archaeologist Dr. Daniel Garrett. Despite being an electronics major, he liked to participate in the lecturer's classes. (Secret Origins v2 #2)

He was working on a new security system for the Justice League when they came to inspect it. (JLA: Year One v1 #3)

At some point, he became romantically involved with one of the company's computer scientists named Melody Case to the point that he wanted to marry her but she refused stating that she wanted to keep the relationship as it was during that time. (Blue Beetle v1 #4) During his early career as a superhero he encountered a fire-wielding opponent known as Firefist. (Blue Beetle v1 #1) He later fought Doctor Alchemy who hired the Madmen to attack Kord. Inc. so that he could acquire the Prometheium compound stored on the premises. The Blue Beetle later confronted Doctor Alchemy at the Chicago S.T.A.R. Labs facility where the supervillain was being consumed by his own power after trying to take the full might of the Philosopher's Stone for himself. (Blue Beetle v1 #4)

Kord was in Chicago where he continued targeting criminals but a wave of anti-hero sentiment ha spread across the nation leading to the police nearly killing Blue Beetle who managed to escape the scene on the Bug. (Legends v1 #2) Afterwards, Blue Beetle tried to stop Chronos from a crime spree but the villain managed to flee the scene with the authorities once again attempting to arrest Ted Kord instead. (Legends v1 #4) He then joined a group of superheroes gathered by Doctor Fate that looked to oppose G. Gordon Godfrey who was riling the people up against their heroes. (Legends v1 #5) They came to discover that Godfrey was simply a vanguard of Apokolips whose forces were bolstered by Parademons sent by Darkseid. Once the threat was defeated, a new Justice League came to be formed with Blue Beetle joining the team. (Legends v1 #6)

Afterwards, Maxwell Lord came to reform the Justice League into being a U.N. sanctioned international peacekeeping force that would operate as an independent city-state with Blue Beetle remaining on the team. (Justice League International v1 #7)

During the Blackest Night, black Power Rings went out into the universe in order to resurrect the dead as members of the Black Lantern Corps. (Blackest Night v1 #1) Ted Kord came to be revived as an undead Black Lantern who went on the hunt for loved ones in order to claim their hearts. This led to him attack the home of Daniel Carter who was an ancestor of his best friend Booster Gold. The Black Lantern was at first confronted by the new Blue Beetle Jaime Reyes and also Daniel Carter who was the superhero Supernova. Despite this being the case, they were unable to stop the Black Lantern Ted Kord who had injured Supernova as he was confronted by Booster Gold. (Booster Gold v2 #26)

Post-Flashpoint

Following the Flashpoint, a new version of history was created with a different series of events. Ted Kord

During Forever Evil, his father Thomas Kord had been killed when he went to Metropolis to meet with Lex Luthor who wanted to buy Kord Industries. After the Crime Syndicate of America was defeated, Ted went to meet with Luthor over selling the company but Lex refused and instead revealed that Thomas Kord had wanted his son to continue the family business. This impressed the young Ted Kord who was convinced that Lex Luthor was a good person. (Forever Evil v1 #7)

He was approached by Jaime Reyes who had a been bonded to a mysterious scarab that had turned him into the Blue Beetle. The billionaire Kord offered to aid Reyes and provided support as he sought to encourage Jaime to use his powers to be a superhero. He came to provide aid to Jaime when a duo of superpowered mercenaries named Rack and Ruin took people hostage in order to draw out the Blue Beetle. Ted helped provide a distraction during the fight that caused the two supervillains to flee the scene. Kord was later approached by Doctor Fate who warned that the Blue Beetle Scarab was dangerous due to its ties to magic. (Blue Beetle: Rebirth v1 #1)

Looking to help Booster in his venture, he brought the matter to Kord Industries but they refused to fund the project and instead removed Ted from the company. (Blue & Gold v1 #2) Deprived of his financial resources, he was unable to repair the damaged Bug and had to make alternatives with the limited means at his disposal. With this equipment, he responded to an incident when an alien named Omnizon was attacking Booster with Ted deploying Buggles who used a teleportation beam to transport the alien warrior to a remote swap. Though the danger was neutralised, the two heroes still lacked money and faced a predicament as Booster had publcaly revealed their partnership together. It was then that they were approached by Michael's old aide Trixie Collins who owned a building and was happy to loan it out to the pair. Ted and Michael then decided to use crowdfunding from Booster's online profile to fund their hero operations. (Blue & Gold v1 #3)

Overview

Personality and attributes

Upon becoming a masked vigilante, he came to take the name of the Blue Beetle and had the same goals as the former bearer of the name. (Captain Atom v1 #83) He took the name in honor of the former bearer of the mantle who asked Ted Kord to continue his work. (Blue Beetle v5 #2)

Similar to his father, he swore to make a difference in the world which in his case was designing technology. (DCU: Rebirth v1 #1)

He noted that he was fond of things in Russian such as composers and literature with him having read "The Brothers Karamazov" three times with him believing that Dostoyevsky as being the greatest writer who had ever lived. (Justice League v1 #3)

After seeing the Justice League, he was inspired to become a superhero like them. (JLA: Year One v1 #3)

He was noted for having an uncle by the name of Jarvis Kord. It was said that Jarvis never got along with Ted's father. (Blue Beetle v5 #2)

It was noted that he and Dan Garrett had been friends ever since college. (Americomics v1 #3)

Originally, he was involved with a woman named Tracey at his company where she longed saw Ted Kord as a hero even before she learnt he was the Blue Beetle. (Blue Beetle v5 #2)

Powers and abilities

Ted Kord was an ordinary human being with no special powers though was noted for his intelligence. He had received degrees in Physics, English Lit, and Theoretical Mathematics. (Booster Gold v2 #36) Ted started college when he was 16 years old and had invented drones the size of an insect when he was 19 years old. It was also known that had he had written some work on nanotechnology. All these accomplishments showed that Kord had a gift for invention and that his work was revolutionary. (Forever Evil v1 #7)

He later came to be inspired to be the new Blue Beetle from his predecessor. This saw him spending months creating, testing and practicing with his equipment. He went through a crash physical training program to be able to operate as a hero. (Blue Beetle v5 #2) He went through practice and training to hone his body to become a crime-fighter. (Captain Atom v1 #83)

Underneath the beetle insignia was a series of electronic remote control buttons that were activated by a tiny control point hidden on his gloves fingertip. (Captain Atom v1 #83) The metallic mesh mask contained a lock on the chinstrap that could be opened with an electronic control on the fingertip of his glove. (Blue Beetle v1 #1) A metal-mesh fabric in the costume helped protect him from impact such as those from bullets. (Legends v1 #2)

Using his scientific knowledge, he designed sophisticated equipment that allowed him to operate as a superhero. He could program his craft the Bug to go on patrol and report findings to him which he received on his watch thus notifying Kord when he was in his civilian guise. (Blue Beetle v1 #1) He developed a flying drone stinger that attached to his backpack and could be deployed where he operated it through holographic controls with it firing electrical attacks at targets. (Blue Beetle v10 #10) Ted at one point invented a remote-controlled holographic projectors and directional speakers that allowed him to generate a hologram of himself allowing him to visually appear at two places at the same time. It was installed at Kord Industries to project an appearance of himself whilst he operated as the Blue Beetle thus keeping his secret identity maintained. (Blue Beetle v8 #36) Other inventions included:

• B.E.R.T. : the Building Equilibrium Regulation Trainer was a crude child-like artificial intelligence that which could run a buildings energy usage and minimised waste whilst increasing worker productivity. To operate, it was kept on an isolated system to prevent it being corrupted by learning things on the internet and had been used to manage the Kord Building for a decade. (Blue Beetle v10 #18)
• B.L.A.I.R. : an upgraded artificial intelligence that stood for Building Local Artificial Intelligence Regulation that was an advanced patch on B.E.R.T. (Blue Beetle v10 #18)
• Buggles : a blue-coated sphere shaped machine with a yellow projector on the front who had a feminine voice and personality. Considered a technological asset, she possessed a transportation beam based on Justice League tech allowing her to teleport targets anywhere in the world. (Blue & Gold v1 #3)
• Buggy : a blue-coated jeep that was used as an alternative to the Bug where it had a port that could store Buggles. (Blue & Gold v1 #3)
• Bug : He operated the bug shaped flying craft that served as his primary method of transportation that responded to his commands with a control system. It possessed hypersensitive antennae capable of probing the night for sound. (Captain Atom v1 #83) An anti-gravitational apparatus allowed the craft to fly in the air and it was able to operate in different environments as it could submerge into water. (Captain Atom v1 #84) It was strong enough to attach its legs to a jet and helping pull it up from a crash. The Bug was capable of generating electrical shocks at a target with Blue Beetle able to trigger this remotely. (Captain Atom v1 #85) If drained of power, it had a stand-by power system that was able to power the craft. (Charlton Bullseye v2 #1)

Ted was shown to had once created a small facsimile of the Bug that could operate on its own power. The drone was equipped with a mini-TV camera and microphone allowing him to secretly spy on a person. (Captain Atom v1 #85) Kord once claimed that he could design an A.I. that would mimic Mister Miracle's Mother Box. (Countdown to Infinite Crisis v1 #1)

He operated as a scientist, entrepreneur and as the chairman of the board of Kord Inc. (Blue Beetle v1 #1)

This headquarters was a fortress that was beyond all comprehension that was equipped with the latest scientific apparatuses for crime fighting. (Captain Atom v1 #84)

Notes

• Ted Kord was created by Steve Ditko where he made his first appearance in Captain Atom v1 #83 (November, 1966).

Alternate Versions

• In The Multiversity: Pax Americana v1 #1 (2015), an alternate version of Ted Kord appeared in the Earth-4 reality of the reborn Multiverse. Blue Beetle was a crime fighter, inspired by the OSI sponsored cold war hero Dan Garrett, and he regularly teamed with the vigilante Question. In 2008, President Harley, inspired by his father’s love of superheroes and his work on Major Comics, decided that America needed costumed heroes, and recruited Beetle and Question to be part of his super team Pax Americana. Blue Beetle was thrilled, and hoped to make a fortune on the endeavor. He thought the Sentinels or the Law would be a better name for their team, but was shot down. In NYC Harley announced his team to the world, and debuted Captain Atom, Earth’s only superhuman, who created three towers where the twin towers once stood. Question and Beetle busted crime together, and the Question shook his partner by force feeding a drug dealer an overdose of heroin. Question, a maverick as always, split with Pax and went rogue, more concerned with investigating the deaths of Yellowjacket, the world’s first costumed hero, and Nora O’Rourke than following government orders. Question discovered Algorithm 8, a key to the multiverse, and was pursued by Blue Beetle. After an intense chase the Question used a giant magnet to contain the Beetle’s bug craft. He told Beetle he’d compromised, and by following government orders he was less of a man.
• In Justice League 3000 v1 #12 (2015), an alternate version of Ted Kord was shown to had survived into the 30th century.
• In Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Infinite Crisis v1 #1 (2019), an alternate version of Brother Eye was shown to inhabit a world in the Dark Multiverse. On this Earth, Ted Kord killed Maxwell Lord where he came to use the A.I. to help him stop threats to the world. This saw him take over the Checkmate organization where they began neutralising threats around the planet. Kord came to uncover the existence of Alexander Luthor, Jr. and Superboy Prime where he convinced the latter to join him. Afterwards, Brother Eye convinced Kord that the greatest threat to the world was its superheroes and that its population needed to be better controlled. Ted Kord then relinquished control over to the artificial intelligence thus becoming the planet's greatest villain after he was transformed into a cyborg.

In other media

Television

• In Batman: The Brave and the Bold, the Ted Kord Blue Beetle appeared in the animated series where he was voiced by actor Wil Wheaton. After Ted's mentor Dan Garrett was killed in action, Ted swore he would follow in his teacher's footsteps as the Blue Beetle. However, Ted could never get the extraterrestrial Scarab to work for him, so Ted used his mind and ingenuity to build his own gear to fight crime as a non-superpowered Blue Beetle. During his career as a superhero, Ted developed a good working relationship with Batman and became best friends with Booster Gold. Ted never told either of his friends about the other because he knew the two would spend more time fighting than working together. Ted's only mistake one day was giving he scarab to his uncle Jarvis Kord who used the scarab as a basis to build a army of androids to conquer Hub City. With the help of Batman, Jarvis' plan was stopped and the Scarab was taken from the villain's hand, but with a heavy price. Ted died when the rocket to Hub City exploded causing the Scarab to fall into the hands of Jaime Reyes. Two years later, Jarvis tried to the trick Jaime into thinking the scientist was Ted Kord and tricked the young hero into giving him enough energy from the Scarab to power his mechanical army. A misunderstanding that Batman cleared up.
• In Smallville, Ted Kord appeared in the live-action television series with him appearing in the episode "Booster" where he was portrayed by actor Sebastian Spence.
• In Young Justice: Invasion, the Ted Kord Blue Beetle had a non-speaking cameo appearance in the animated series.

Video games

• In Injustice 2, Ted Kord was mentioned in dialogue interactions in the fighting video game.

Appearances

• Captain Atom v1: (1966)
• Blue Beetle v5:
• Charlton Bullseye v2: (1981)
• Legends v1:
• Justice League v1:
• Justice League International v1:
• Secret Origins v2:
• Booster Gold:
• JLA: Year One v1:
• Booster Gold v2:
• Justice League v2:
• Justice League 3000 v1:
• Blue Beetle: Rebirth v1:
• Blue Beetle:
• Blue & Gold v1: (2021)

External Links

• DC Database Entry
• Comicvine Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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