‘Blue Beetle’ Invented a New DC Comics Character With Susan Sarandon’s Villain
The Blue Beetle trailer premiered on April 3, 2023, and gave viewers their first look at Susan Sarandon’s villain, Victoria Kord. Sarandon’s Kord will be the main antagonist of the film, alongside Raoul Max Trujillo’s secondary villain, Carapax the Indestructible Man. When Sarandon’s casting was officially announced in April 2022, little was known about her character besides her name.
Of course, comic book fans quickly recognized that Kord shares a last name with Ted Kord, the second iteration of the Blue Beetle, leading many to speculate that she was related to Ted in some way. Since then, it has been confirmed that Victoria Kord is the older sister of Ted and serves as the CEO of the business he inherited from his father, Kord Industries. Meanwhile, Bruna Marquezine has also been revealed to be playing a member of the Kord family, Jenny Kord, in Blue Beetle. Her specific relation to Ted is still unknown, but she could be his niece, daughter, or younger sister.
Given that Sarandon has spent over five decades in the film industry and boasts an Academy Award, BAFTA, and six Emmy nominations, fans are particularly excited to see her DCU debut. While she is an original character conceived for Blue Beetle, DC decided to add some backstory to her character by integrating her into the comics before the film’s release.
Who is Victoria Kord in Blue Beetle?
After Sarandon’s casting was announced in April 2022, Kord made her comic book debut in Blue Beetle Graduation Day #2, where her relation to Ted was revealed. Her villainy isn’t immediately apparent as she is actually first introduced to Jaime Reyes by Ted, who proudly refers to her as his “big sister.” Victoria emphasizes her role in the “research and development” department of Kord Industries and her goal to better humanity. As time goes on, though, it becomes apparent that she’s not as taken with Reyes as Ted is.
In fact, as more Beetles start showing up—including the mysterious Yellow Beetle and Green Beetle—her true intentions start to show. Reyes, like his predecessor Dan Garrett, gets his powers from a scarab—an artifact of alien technology created by an extraterrestrial race known as the Reach. Kord believes alien technology is too dangerous for anyone, especially a teenager, to have their hands on, so Victoria sets out on a quest to acquire the scarabs of all the Beetles—including Reyes. Although Ted also took on the mantle of Blue Beetle, he never actually bonded with the scarab, which is why he’s not on his sister’s radar.
Meanwhile, Victoria claims that she wants to use alien technology for her research and development to continue bettering humanity. However, her plans are pretty vague, and she doesn’t strike readers as the most trustworthy figure to wield a large amount of alien technology. In the Blue Beetle movie, it seems that her motivations will be similar to those in the comics. In the brief glimpse viewers get of Sarandon’s character in the film’s trailer, she tells Reyes (Xolo Maridueña), “The scarab may have chosen you, but it belongs to me.” Given that there will only be one scarab in Blue Beetle, it seems Victoria is hyperfocused on Reyes and likely willing to take drastic measures to get what she thinks is hers. Her real motivation for wanting the scarab, though, remains to be seen.
(featured image: DC Comics / Jamie McCarthy, Getty Images)
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