Franz Kafka never realized how close he came to kickstarting a superhero franchise.
Ever since Gregor Samsa awoke in his bed to find himself transformed into a monstrous dung beetle in “The Metamorphosis,” we’ve had spider-men, wasps, ant-men, crime-fighting ticks and mighty mantises – such a super swarm of insectoids that you might be tempted to reach for a fly swatter.
We’re now back to the beetle with the new DC Comics film “Blue Beetle.” But what distinguishes “Blue Beetle” isn’t its place in the bug brigade but the person doing the metamorphosizing.
Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) is the first Latino superhero in a leading role in a DC film. It’s not just token casting, either. “Blue Beetle,” directed by Ángel Manuel Soto and written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, is firmly rooted in the experience of the Reyes clan, a close-knit Mexican-American family scraping by in the shadow of the gleaming Miami-like fictional metropolis of Palmera City.
