THB #383: Blue Beetle's Shazam Problem

I really liked the idea that seemed to be at the core of Blue Beetle.

Kind of like Black Panther, it often seemed like Blue Beetle wanted to filter a classic comic book hero experience while fully acknowledging and embracing the ethnic culture of the hero… in this case, the Spanish-speaking culture. I am not specifying a nation is because the movie doesn’t. It’s in the made up Palmera City, which seems to be an often-hyperreal mix of a bunch of places, from Miami to Mexico to Rio, and Lord knows where else. Interesting.

The cast is also a melange. The lead was born in LA and is of Mexican, Cuban and Ecuadorian descent. The female lead is a Brazilian model. George Lopez is a famous Angeleno of Mexican descent. Adriana Barraza is a Mexican-born Oscar-nominated actress. And Raoul Max Trujillo was born in New Mexico and is a mixed blood descendant of Tlaxcalan (Nahuatl), Ute, Apache, Comanche, Pueblo., French, Sephardic Jew and Andalusian Moor.

Fair enough. The core story is about a 20-som…