The Blue Beetle is finally getting a chance to step out of the shadow of other DC heroes. There have been several versions including Dan Garrett, Ted Kord, and Jaime Reyes. Jaime is the one finally getting his own DC movie as part of the DCEU, before James Gunn's semi-reboot of the universe. He's a former police officer who gets his energy from a sacred scarab.
While Blue Beetle has normally been seen as a sidekick, when he takes center stage, he's got some very interesting villains to fight. Some are stronger than others, but every one of them has posed a threat that the Blue Beetle has been called on to stop and save the day.
10 The Coyote
The Coyote is a villain first introduced in 2011 as a foil for Jaime Reyes. He is a were-coyote sent to retrieve the sacred scarab for La Dama. Unfortunately for the Coyote, Jaime reaches it first to become the Blue Beetle.
The Coyote, of course, looks like a coyote, but he is incredibly strong and has sharp claws and fangs that help him in fights. He is also bilingual, understanding both English and Spanish.
9 The Masked Marauder
The Masked Marauder has had run-ins with both the Ted Kord and Jaime Reyes versions of the Blue Beetle. Count von Steuben takes on the role of the Masked Marauder. He was defeated by the Ted Kord version of the Blue Beetle and spent years of his life preparing to exact revenge.
After Ted Kord's passing, the Masked Marauder continues to wage war against the Jaime Reyes version of the Blue Beetle. At times, he has hired a small army of the Blue Beetle's enemies to work together to fight the hero. The Masked Marauder always presents an interesting parallel no matter which version of the Beetle he is facing.
8 Dr. Polaris
Dr. Polaris is a common adversary of the Blue Beetle. There have been many iterations of the Doctor, but one of the best would be the second iteration, John Nichol. He is a grifter who takes over the mantle. He has magnetic capabilities, making him very similar to Marvel's Magneto.
Dr. Polaris is driven by greed. He is happy to murder anyone in his path, whether it be to climb a corporate ladder or fellow supervillains. He's easily one of the Blue Beetle's greatest foes.
7 La Dama
Amparo Cardenas presents one of the most intriguing hero-villain dynamics for the Blue Beetle. In earlier iterations of the character, she is the villain La Dama but is also the aunt of Jaime Reyes' friend Brenda and a well-connected drug lord. In later iterations, she is an almost immortal being with godlike magic.
La Dama doesn't hate the Blue Beetle - she wants him to join her. The version that is the aunt of his friend knows Jaime is the Blue Beetle, but he also knows Amparo is La Dama. Depending on how she's written, she's either a massive threat by herself or can engineer one as a drug lord.
6 Mento
A former member of the Doom Patrol, Mento became a villain and started leading the evil Hybrid organization. He has several powers that are handy in a fight including flight, telepathy, and mind control. He can also cause amnesia.
Mento is a powerful genius, making him an incredible ally when he's on the side of good and an incredible foe when he's evil. He is one of the hardest villains for Blue Beetle to defeat.
5 Jarvis Kord
A family of heroes can make some of the most compelling villains, and Jarvis Kord is no exception. Ted Kord's uncle is a talented engineer but is looked down upon by the rest of the Kord family. He faked his own death and worked to build nearly indestructible robots.
Jarvis Kord's actions led to the death of Dan Garrett as the Blue Beetle and his own nephew, Ted Kord, taking on the mantle. He is also the uncle of Victoria Kord, another villainous member of the Kord family.
4 Victoria Kord
Victoria is Ted's older sister and eventual CEO of Kord Industries. She's villainous but not in the same way as her Uncle Jarvis. She is trying to collect all the scarabs because she fears what alien technology could mean if it fell into the wrong hands. Her motivations are understandable, but her actions are not.
She works with some of the Blue Beetle's villains to try to get Jaime Reyes to give up the scarab that gives him the Blue Beetle powers. Amazingly, her own brother is never on her radar despite him also being a Blue Beetle.
3 Black Beetle
Every hero needs his villainous counterpart. Flash has Reverse Flash. Superman has Bizarro. And the Blue Beetle has Black Beetle. At first, he seems like a friendly time traveler as he convinces both Dan Garrett and Jaime Reyes to travel through time to save Ted Kord.
It's later revealed he is an enemy of Jaime who just wants to prevent Reyes from ever becoming the Blue Beetle. He has similar powers to the Blue Beetle, so he makes the perfect villainous counterpart and a classic nemesis.
2 Dr. Alchemy
While Dr. Alchemy may have started as a foe for The Flash, he soon morphed into one of the strongest antagonists of the Blue Beetle. He used the Philosopher's Stone to change elements and targeted Kord Industries for its promethium stores. Plus, his telekinesis helps him control the Stone without being near it.
He battles the Blue Beetle several times and uses the strength of promethium to his advantage. He's a very formidable opponent that's difficult for the Blue Beetle to defeat.
1 Maxwell Lord
Maxwell Lord is a villain who has tangled with several different DC superheroes. He was the main villain of the first season of Supergirl, played by Peter Facinelli. He was also one of the villains of Wonder Woman 1984, played by Pedro Pascal. But he made his biggest impact against the Blue Beetle.
Maxwell Lord may at first seem like another version of Lex Luthor - he's smart, ambitious, and a businessperson. But he is more useful in a fight than Luthor. Still, Maxwell Lord is the one who kills the Ted Kord version of the Blue Beetle. Granted, Ted Kord was sacrificing himself to fix a broken timeline, but, in the end, Lord is the one who fires the fatal shot, making him one of the villains to kill one of the heroes.