Booster Gold
“52 Pick-Up, Chapter 6: Meet the Beetles”
Volume 2, Issue 6, March 2008
Released January 9, 2008
Cover Price: $2.99
Guide Price: $3.00 (as of 2011)
Estimated Issue Sales: 36,263
Writers: Geoff Johns, Jeff Katz
Penciller: Dan Jurgens
Inker: Norm Rapmund
Colorist: Hi-Fi Designs
Letterer: Randy Gentile
Assistant Editor: Harvey Richards
Editor: Michael Siglain
Cover Artists: Dan Jurgens, Brian (Hi-Fi) Miller, Norm Rapmund
Heroes: Blue Beetle I, Blue Beetle II, Blue Beetle III, Booster Gold, Rip Hunter, Sasha Bordeaux
Villains: Black Beetle, OMAC unit
Supporting: Maxwell Lord, Skeets II
Settings: Alps Mountains, Switzerland, 21st-century; Rip Hunter's AZ Lab, DCU, USA , 21st-century
Cover Description: Blue Beetle II leaps towards Maxwell Lord while a bloodied Booster Gold lies helpless in the foreground. The cover of this issue is intentionally evocative of the closing panels of Countdown to Crisis on Infinite Earths, with Booster lying in the pose previously occupied by Blue Beetle.
Brief Synopsis: Booster Gold joins three time-displaced Blue Beetles in an attempt to save the life of Ted Kord.
Booster Gold's role in this story:
Featured (Booster Gold plays a prominent role)
Costume Worn: MARK I.v2 power-suit
Issue Notes: According to the cover, this issue was published the same week as Countdown #16.
Story Notes: The title to this story is a pun on the title of an album released by the musical Beatles in the mid-1960s.
This story has been reprinted in:
Booster Gold: 52 Pick-Up (2008)
Page 2, panel 1
SCHOOL'S IN: Booster Gold, Skeets II, Rip Hunter, Blue Beetle I, Blue Beetle of the Future (identity unrevealed), and Blue Beetle III stand before Hunter's chalkboard in Hunter's lab discussing the possibility of rescuing Blue Beetle II (Ted Kord) from death. (Notes on the chalkboard are the same as those seen in the previous issue.) Despite Hunter's insistence to the contrary, the mysterious fourth Blue Beetle declares that his 27th-century technology can change time and save Ted Kord without damaging the stability of the timeline following that event. ("Solidified Time" is beginning to give me a headache.) Whether this is true or not, Booster is determined to give it a try.
Page 3, panel 5
In one of the worst displays of continuity in the history of Booster's appearances, the bruises on Booster's face appear to shift randomly from panel to panel. Apparently, the Joker is so unpredictable, that even the wounds that he inflicts behave randomly. (See Booster Gold, Vol 2, #5.)
Page 4, panel 1
Fittingly, in a book featuring four Beetles, there are several references to the 1960s four-member band, the Beatles. In addition to the aforementioned story title (and it's font), this panel is a reference to another album, Abbey Road, which has become one of the most famous album covers ever created. In this reproduction of the cover, Booster stands in for George Harrison. It should be noted that much controversy has surrounded the cover of the album in relation to its much ballyhooed subtext indicating that Paul McCartney was dead. In the reproduction seen here, the first Blue Beetle stands in for McCartney, and he is, in fact, the only character present in the image who is unquestionably deceased, appearing only through the magic of time travel.
Page 5, panel 1
Booster joins the Beetles in their 27th-century Time Sphere, leaving a disapproving Hunter and a damaged Skeets. They pass images of Red Robin and Jason Todd (events hinted at in recent issues of Countdown), Sherlock Holmes, Batman, and Elongated Man (as seen in Detective Comics #572), and Shade the Changing Man and Starman VII (a juxtaposition of sorts, as one of Starman's most common supporting characters was an ex-villain also named Shade).
Page 6, panel 1
Booster recaps the biography of Blue Beetle II (Ted Kord) for the benefit of Blue Beetle I (Dan Garrett). Though Garrett was Kord's mentor, at this point in his timeline, Garrett has yet to meet Kord. Booster seems completely unconcerned with whether or not this "little history lesson" of Kord's personality and adventures could create a dangerous time paradox for Garrett, though Booster is careful to minimize the details of the interactions between the two Beetles.
Page 11, panel 2
At the appearance of Rip Hunter's Time Sphere in his home, Daniel Carter misquotes Michael Corleone from the movie Godfather III. Corleone's quote, "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in," (which in the context of the movie was a lament about Corleone's inability to extricate himself from his family's criminal activities) refers here to Hunter's next action...
Page 11, panel 3
FASHION ALERT: ...returning to Daniel to get him to don the Supernova costume again. Hunter also holds one of Booster's spare costumes, hinting that Rose Levin may soon become the third in a line of females to sidekick for Booster Gold.
Page 12, panel 2
The data displayed about Booster Gold on the screen in Checkmate's headquarters was previously seen in Countdown to Infinite Crisis.
Page 14, panel 1
Booster Gold and the 3 Beetles crash into a room, interrupting a conversation between Blue Beetle II and Maxwell Lord previously seen played out differently in Countdown to Infinite Crisis. This encounter was alluded to on the final page of Booster Gold, Vol. 2, #1 and was previously indicated to take place on "Week -8, Day 7," in relation to the events of 52.
Page 15, panel 3
Blue Beetle I and Blue Beetle II meet for the first time from the chronological viewpoint of Blue Beetle I. Their first actual published meeting, and the first meeting from the chronological viewpoint of Blue Beetle II, was presented in Charleton Comics' 1967 Blue Beetle #2.
Page 16, panel 2
The fight is joined by Sasha Bordeaux, the "Black King's Knight," and several Pawns. Booster previously met Bordeaux in the battle against the Brother One satellite, though from her perspective, this would now be their first meeting. (Time travel does make things so confusing.)
Page 16, panel 3
Booster's comment about "looking for someone else to blame" is a reference to the commonly held opinion that the hijinks of Booster Gold and Blue Beetle were largely responsible for the poor reputation of the Justice League International era of the Justice League.
Page 20, panel 2
POWER DOWN: With an OMAC occupying the 3 Beetles, Maxwell Lord initiates a sequence of events nearly identical to those leading to the murder of Ted Kord in Countdown to Infinite Crisis. However, this time around, without taking the time to activate his force field, Booster takes the bullet that was meant for Kord...
Page 21, panel 1
SPOILER WARNING!: Reveal
Boosterrific Review: This is the story that readers have been clamoring for since the publication of Countdown to Infinite Crisis. Welcome to the salvation of Blue Beetle. Turning each page is an exercise in exultation (for the return of Ted Kord) and dread (didn't the events of the previous issue teach us readers, if not Booster Gold, that the events of this issue should be impossible?). Why, exactly, all of the Blue Beetles to-date must be involved is never explained. And the art is terribly uneven. (Did Jurgens forget that he had bruised Booster earlier in the issue, or did Rapmund just not care?) Despite the technical failings of plot and art, this story generates an emotional resonance to fans of the DC Universe that overcomes its flaws and still delivers an enjoyable comic.
Boosterrific Rating: Worth Its Weight In Gold.
Average Fan Rating: (2 votes)
A very excellent issue and it was great to see Booster get his friend back. Lots of humorous music group references, too.
Great story but I share Boosterrific's concerns. There was no real reason to bring the other Blue Beetles in.
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