Who Is Carapax? Everything You Need To Know About the ‘Blue Beetle’ Villain

The first Blue Beetle trailer made a splash when it dropped on April 4, 2023. Despite being centered on a relatively obscure hero, the trailer made the rounds on social media and racked up many positive reactions. Even though it’s still a little ways away, with a release date of August 18, fans are already looking forward to this new installment in the DC Universe.

The trailer largely captured attention for how fun and family-centric the film seems to be. Blue Beetle‘s director, Angel Manuel Soto, has been very adamant about authentically portraying a multi-generational Hispanic family and doing justice to DC’s first lead Latino hero, Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña). Meanwhile, the trailer is also appealing to comic book fans, who noticed many references to Blue Beetle’s comic book history. Even though the film focuses on Reyes, the third iteration of Blue Beetle, it also features several references to the Ted Kord iteration of the hero and even widens his story arc by introducing his older sister, Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon).

Victoria will be the main villain in Blue Beetle. While she’s an original villain created for the film, she made her DC Comics debut before the film’s release to add more context to her character. However, she won’t be alone in taking on Reyes. A secondary villain, Conrad Carapax, will also be appearing in the film, portrayed by Raoul Max Trujillo. Unlike Victoria, he is a comic book character with a history as one of Blue Beetle’s frequent adversaries. Here’s everything you need to know about Carapax.

Who is Carapax in DC Comics?

In the comics, Conrad Carapax is an archaeologist who had a rivalry with Dan Garrett, a fellow archaeologist and the first iteration of the Blue Beetle. However, Carapax was unaware of Garrett’s alter-ego, meaning he didn’t understand the circumstances of Garrett’s eventual death. Garrett was killed on the remote Pago Island, where Ted Kord’s evil uncle, Jarvis Kord, had established a secret base and created an army of robots—including an “indestructible” robot meant to be the army’s leader. When Garrett started interfering with Jarvis’ plans, he had his robots self-destruct, killing both him and Garrett and burying what was left of the base and robots.

When Conrad heard that Garrett had died on Pago Island, he immediately started to question why Garrett would have visited the remote location. He concluded that Garrett had died during an archaeological dig and traveled to the island himself in hopes of finding whatever it was Garrett was after. What he eventually uncovered was the remains of Kord’s base. Of course, he had no idea how to utilize the advanced technology, which resulted in him dying and having his consciousness transferred into one of Kord’s indestructible robots, making him Carapax the Indestructible Man.

He was seemingly driven mad by this accident and subsequently murdered an entire search party on Pago Island that was investigating Garrett’s death. Kord, taking up Garrett’s mantle, tried to stop Carapax by dropping him in the ocean and attempting to detonate him. However, Carapax always managed to survive and return, even sticking around long enough to come up against Reyes’ Blue Beetle.

It’s unclear if the Blue Beetle movie will follow this storyline, though, as Trujillo is spotted in the trailer without a suit of armor. Of course, it could just be that the accident that changes him into a robot hasn’t yet occurred. Ultimately, fans will have to wait and see if he becomes the fully robotic Carapax from the comics or if the film will choose to retcon his origin and reinvent the character.

(featured image: DC Comics)