The Blue Beetle scarab is grafted onto Jaime's spine and can manifest a number of powers of its own volition, an act usually accompanied by blue energy emitted by the scarab's "antennae". Over the course of the first year of his ongoing series, Jaime had little, if any, control over those powers, but slowly asserts himself. When Jaime is in danger, the scarab activates, crawling out on to Jaime's back and generating a high-tech suit of powered armor around his body. The armor is resilient enough that it can protect him against re-entry from Earth's orbit. When the danger passes, the scarab deactivates, dissolving the costume and retracting back onto Jaime's spine, causing intense pain.[
citation needed]
When in use, the suit can reconfigure itself to produce a wide array of armaments. Common functions include an energy cannon, a sword and shield, a grappling hook, a device resembling a communications satellite, and a set of foot-long powered blades that can shear through tree trunks. In addition, the suit can produce a set of wings for flight that can also act as shields. Jaime alludes to weapons that may be powerful enough to harm even the Spectre, one of DC's most powerful characters, claiming that some of the weapons are of
W.M.D. caliber, but refuses to use lethal force.
[44] The suit can adapt to different situations, including producing energy discharges from the hands that can neutralize magic, discharging
Kryptonite radiation and tuning "vibrational frequencies" of extra-dimensional objects to make them visible. The suit can create armaments of different composition and style. The wings, for example, were initially composed of the same blue opaque armor as the rest of the suit, but beginning with
Blue Beetle #12 (April 2007), began manifesting themselves in the form of a colorless, translucent material.[
citation needed]
The scarab has at least one power it can manifest whether dormant or active; it can give Jaime a peculiar form of "sight" to perceive extra-dimensional objects, which gather information on the scarab user's adversaries. The scarab is able to communicate with him in a more comprehensible fashion if need be. The scarab's language slowly morphs into a format resembling English, claiming
Khaji Da as its own name and Jaime as its first real friend.
[14] However, it has occasional language relapses.
[14] The suit is capable of compensating for Jaime's
digestive system, so that he does not need to expel
waste materials when using the suit, and can even make paper out of dead skin cells the suit collects.
[45]
The scarab exhibits a reluctance to harm nature, as evidenced in
Blue Beetle #4, in which Jaime is attacked by a pair of
anthropomorphized trees, and the suit declines to use great force against them, until Jaime convinces the scarab that his life is in danger and wrests control over the suit to destroy the trees, much to the scarab's displeasure.
[46]
When necessary, Jaime can have the Scarab take over in Infiltrator Mode. When this happens, the suit becomes taller, more muscular and grows spikes and allows the scarab to fight without Jaime's conscience as a restriction. This lets it fight more brutally. However, Jaime and the scarab do not like this and only resort to it in desperate situations.
