Unsung Heroes

Booster Gold is a loser from the future who stole some technology and inserts himself into the past where he hopes to cash in and strike it rich.

I never really read Booster's adventures much in his first solo book. That lack of familiarity made it easy to just accept the idea that the character was a bit of a joke and move on. Most of what I DID know of him came from the occasional Justice League books I read during the "Bwa-ha-ha" days, or his few guest-appearances in other heroes' books and crossover events. In those cases, Booster's buffoonishness was played up all the more. So, he was a bit of a one-trick pony for me, and not all that much of a trick was ever really expected from him.

My first inkling that there could be more to Booster was his star appearance in the Justice League Unlimited episode "The Greatest Story Never Told." In this episode, the entire Justice League is engaged, mostly off-camera, battling the wizard Mordru. The senior members of the League seem to think of Booster much the same as I always had, and thus assign him to handle "crowd control." In the episode, Booster bemoans this assignment as beneath him and longs for the front lines of the battle where he can show-off. Collateral damage from the main battle causes a S.T.A.R. Labs experiment to go awry, and Booster is forced to handle a situation which could prove even more disastrous than Mordru's attack, but of which no one else is even aware.

I have no idea if this episode had any influence on what was to come, but it foreshadowed changes in Booster's mission in the comic books, as he was about to become the "greatest hero the world has never known."

These changes are set-up in the pages of 52, where Time Master Rip Hunter begins to work with Booster, and continues into the 2007 re-launch of Booster's own title. Now, Booster must monitor and correct time anomalies in the past, present and future, policing the DC Universe time stream from threats great and small. And all the while, he must maintain that buffoonish image, so that time villains will not suspect him and move to eliminate the threat he poses to their nefarious plans.

This is the kind of concept that could go horribly off the rails quite easily -- time-travel stories can cause anyone to suffer from headaches and continuity snafus -- but here things are handled by some very talented and capable creators. Geoff Johns was one of the architects of 52, and he and Jeff Katz wonderfully guided the first year's worth of the re-launched Booster series. They were wonderfully assisted by Dan Jurgens, creator of Booster Gold, first on art chores, and later when Jurgens assumed the writing responsibilities shortly after Johns and Katz left the book.

The plots may sound quite complicated and confusing, but wonderfully imaginative tales are told, often touching on events that at least this reader found near and dear to his heart. Initially, Booster only agrees to help Rip Hunter police time if he is first allowed to save his friend, Ted Kord, the second Blue Beetle, from being gunned down in the run-up to Infinite Crisis. Rip tries to explain to Booster that time can't be changed like that, in fact, this is the very kind of thing Rip wants Booster to help prevent. But Booster won't listen, goes back in time, saves Ted, and returns to a present very much altered.

Other time-correcting jaunts involve the crippling of Batgirl Barbara Gordon at the hands of the Joker and the initial meeting between the New Teen Titans and Deathstroke the Terminator. In the earlier adventure, Booster tries to save Batgirl from her fate, again only to learn that no matter how hard he tries, he is unable to change how things were "meant" to be. In the latter, an evil adversary travels back in time to assist the first Ravager and Deathstroke to defeat the Titans in their first meeting. With the Titans slain, no one was prepared the first time Trigon the Terrible sought to conquer the heroes' dimension, and the Justice League, as well as most solo heroes, all fall to the inter-dimensional demon. These story arcs were presented well and involved characters and events that I enjoyed the first time around. They do nothing to detract from the original tales; in fact, these new stories were like visiting old friends and reliving common memories from new angles.

I'd be very happy to see this kind of story continue, especially from Jurgens and current artist Norm Rapmund. But alas, that is not meant to be. A new creative team and a new direction for the title are set to begin. Possibly the new creators will find an equally successful direction for Booster Gold, but I've grown fond of the time-traveling, unsung hero he became for a few short years.

Back to the Future

OK, short post this time. Got my current month’s worth of comics over the weekend, got ’em added to the database and read just a couple over the weekend. Since I get the bulk of my books once a month when so many folks get theirs on a weekly basis when they’re released, I’m always behind when I get a shipment. But I keep track of which books arrive in the stores each week, and that’s the order I read my new ones in, oldest first. Since I’ve been talking about some of the storylines I’m reading or re-reading as I go back through my older comics, I figured I’d just continue that motiff with the new ones, too. So, here’s some mini-reviews/thoughts on the first three books I read from this latest shipment.

52: Week Four (DC Comics) - This series is starting kind of slow, but I’m intrigued by a number of the storylines. For instance, I’m not sure where the whole thing with the Question and Renee Montoya is going but I’m definitely willing to come along for the ride and find out. I also like the emotional ploy of using Ralph “Elongated Man” Dibny as a central character. And speaking of Ralph’s story, what the hell’s going on with Wonder Girl and this cult of Superboy? I’m not as interested in the Booster storyline right now; I don’t hate it, but I don’t love it. Same with the Steel storyline as I haven’t followed the charcter much of late. And holy crap, what’s up with the return of the space heroes? Especially the enormous Hawkgirl and the apparently now one-eyed Alan Scott? I know Scott is shown in Checkmate as wearing an eyepatch, but he doesn’t have it in current issues of JSA so I figured maybe something happened between those two stories, maybe something in the current JSA Classified storyline with Vandal Savage. Now, I’m not so sure.

Action Comics 839 (DC Comics) - The Up, Up and Away story reintroducing Superman has been pretty good so far. Writers Geoff Johns and Kurt Busiek brought me to this storyline but I don’t normally stay with the Super titles very long. I like Superman, but his stories just aren’t my cup o’ chocolate milk most of the time. Maybe this round will be different.

Crisis Aftermath: The Spectre 1 (DC Comics) - I was looking forward to this one. I’ve always like the occasional appearances of Det. Crispus Allen in the Bat-titles. He’s one of the reasons I first gave Gotham Central a try when that title debuted. I was shocked when he was gunned down in the final issue of that series just before Infinite Crisis. His death made more sense when the Crisis aluded to his reincarnation as the new Spectre. I’m looking forward to this journey, and this first issue seems to hold a lot of promise.

And that’s all I’ve had a chance to read so far. Look for more soon.