Summary
- Victoria Kord, the villain in Blue Beetle, has a comic book history that connects her to the movie's hero, Jaime Reyes.
- Victoria is the sister of Ted Kord, the second Blue Beetle in DC comics lore, and she has deep ties to the Blue Beetle mythos.
- In Blue Beetle, Victoria pursues the Scarab, which grants Jaime his superpowers, with the goal of weaponizing it for her own ends. Her motivations stem from a combination of power lust and feeling cheated out of what she has earned.
Victoria Kord, the villain of the upcoming DC superhero movie Blue Beetle, has both a history and motivations that connect her to the movie's hero. In Blue Beetle, the happy-go-lucky Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) comes into possession of a super-powered Scarab that bonds with him, forming a blue flying suit of armor and granting Jaime metahuman powers. With his newfound abilities, Jaime becomes the superhero known as Blue Beetle.
While Jaime comes into possession of the Scarab by accident, others are interested in obtaining the powers it grants, especially the head of Kord Industries, Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon). Originally planned as a streaming release on Max, Blue Beetle will debut in theaters on August 18, 2023. With Jaime Reyes as the protagonist of Blue Beetle's cast, the movie is likely to take a fairly deep exploration of Blue Beetle's character history as part of its story, and that also extends to Victoria's role in the film. Here is the history of Victoria Kord as the villain of Blue Beetle.
Victoria Kord's DC Comics History Explained
Unlike most superhero movie villains, Victoria Kord is an almost original villainess created for Blue Beetle, but she does have some comic book history that briefly precedes her role in the film. Though developed for the film, Victoria made her comic book debut in the DC Comics mini-series Blue Beetle: Graduation Day, which debuted in December of 2022. In Graduation Day, Jaime Reyes is finally graduating from high school but faces a new villain known as Yellow Beetle.
Victoria Kord debuts in issue two of Graduation Day, in which she is introduced as the sister of Jaime's Blue Beetle predecessor, Ted Kord. With Graduation Day being written and released so closely to the Blue Beetle movie, it essentially serves as a primer for Victoria's role in the film and a tool for more firmly cementing her within DC Comics ahead of the movie's release. However, despite being a very recently created comic book character, Victoria still has deep ties to the Blue Beetle mythos.
Victoria Kord's Brother Ted Kord's DC Comics History Explained
Victoria Kord's links to the history of Blue Beetle may be very recently established, but she also ties into DC's larger legacy as the sister of Ted Kord, the second and most famous Blue Beetle in DC comics lore. Originally created by Steve Ditko and first appearing in Captain Atom #83 in 1966, Ted Kord is a brilliant inventor and head of Kord Industries in the DC Universe. Additionally, Ted is also an apprentice of the original Blue Beetle, Dan Garrett. After Garrett's death, Ted Kord becomes his successor as Blue Beetle.
Ted Kord's iteration of Blue Beetle has gone through numerous iterations throughout his comic book history, though his super-powered tech and intellectual genius have remained constant. Ted's comic book death in the mid-2000s would also set up Jaime Reyes to become the third Blue Beetle in 2006. Of course, no superhero's death has ever been permanent, with Ted Kord returning during the Brightest Day story arc and later being re-imagined alongside Jaime in DC's New 52 and Rebirth revamps.
Victoria Kord's Role In Blue Beetle Explained
Victoria's presence in Blue Beetle's trailer has been relatively minimal, but some information provides some hints as to what her role will be. Aside from being Ted Kord's sister in the film, Victoria Kord is also in pursuit of the Scarab that becomes Jaime's Blue Beetle suit. The first Blue Beetle trailer also shows the Scarab being passed onto Jaime when he is visiting Kord Industries for a possible job. This indicates that the Scarab is being experimented upon behind closed doors, with Victoria's ultimate goal being to weaponize it for her own ends.
The first Blue Beetle trailer also shows Victoria intoning to Jaime, "The Scarab may have chosen you, but it belongs to me," with the Reyes home then being swarmed by a paramilitary unit. Additionally, Susan Saradon has described Victoria's role in Blue Beetle in an interview with EW, saying her father gave the Scarab to Ted over Victoria and that everything Victoria has done in building up Kord Industries "has gone towards the building of power." This all paints a picture of Victoria's motivation to pursue the Scarab being a combination of both her lust for power and her sense of feeling cheated out of what she has earned.
Will Victoria Kord Appear In A Potential Blue Beetle 2?
Blue Beetle is in a somewhat vague position as far as DC movies go. Per DC Studios Co-CEO James Gunn, Blue Beetle is the "first character" in his DCU franchise, while the Blue Beetle film itself is not the first movie of Gunn's plans (that designation going to Gunn's Superman: Legacy). As a kind of singular island within the DC on-film pantheon, Blue Beetle also does not have a sequel officially announced, but both Gunn and director Angel Manuel Soto have made hints about Jaime's future after Blue Beetle. Whatever form that may take, it likely depends on the overall reception to Blue Beetle upon its theatrical release.
As for how that impacts Victoria Kord, her potential return in Blue Beetle 2 depends as much upon where Blue Beetle takes her as it does on the movie's potential sequel. Victoria dying a possible greed-driven villain's death in Blue Beetle would likely rule her out for Blue Beetle 2. However, should Victoria survive, or a resurrection mechanism of some kind be at play in the film, Victoria Kord could well return to challenge Jaime again in Blue Beetle 2. As with Jaime's own prospective return, that also hinges to a significant extent on whether Blue Beetle 2 will be a DC Elseworlds movie or be integrated into Gunn's DCU.
Victoria is not the only villain to appear in Blue Beetle, with the movie's trailer and marketing clips showing Victoria's henchman Conrad Carapax (Raoul Trujillo) becoming the super-powered Indestructible Man to battle Jaime as Blue Beetle. Victoria, by contrast, is shown to be much more of a behind-the-scenes manipulator type of villain, and her role in the film could very well be setting her up as Jaime's true arch-nemesis. However Blue Beetle plays out, Victoria Kord could prove to be a key player in the big-screen future of Jaime Reyes.
