Booster Gold

ARTISTS

Writer: Dan Jurgens
Penciller: Dan Jurgens
Inker: Norm Rapmund
Colorist: Hi-Fi Designs
Letterer: Sal Cipriano
Editor: Michael Siglain
Cover Artists: Dan Jurgens, Norm Rapmund

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CHARACTERS & SETTINGS

heroes: Booster Gold, Changeling, Cyborg, Green Arrow I, Kid Flash, Kyle Rayner, Raven VI, Rip Hunter, Robin I, Starfire III, Wonder Girl I, Zatanna
villaines: Black Beetle, Deathstroke, Lex Luthor, Ravager I, Trigon
supporting: Skeets II

Settings: 20th-century New York, NY, USA; 21st-century New York, NY, USA

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ISSUE SUMMARY

Cover Description: Booster Gold flies away from the oversized spectre of the Black Beetle.

Brief Synopsis: Booster Gold and company cofront Trigon and the Black Beetle in a battle for Earth's future.

Costume Worn: MARK I.v2 power-suit

Issue Notes: With the publication of this issue, the second volume of Booster Gold is now longer than the first volume. Booster Gold, Vol. 1, ran for 25 issues, while volume 2 has now had 26 published issues (issues 0-24 and 1,000,000).

This story has been reprinted in the following issue:
Booster Gold: Day of Death (2010)

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ISSUE ANNOTATIONS

Page 3, panel 4
ALTERNATE REALITY: Being a time cop can be an especially difficult job. Once again Booster Gold finds himself fighting against a powerful enough enemy to have successfully altered the course of recorded history. In this case, the villain is the demonic Trigon, a long-time Teen Titans foe who has finally been successful at subjugating the Earth thanks to the time-altering powers of Black Beetle.

Page 6, panel 3
In this alternate future (the year 2020, to be exact), Lex Luthor has allied himself with Trigon and Black Beetle. Booster and Luthor have been bitter enemies for years, so when Luthor offers to turn his back on his allies, Booster is right to distrust him.

Page 8, panel 5
Booster is joined by his allies Rip Hunter, Skeets, and the Teen Titan Raven as well as a small band of freedom fighters still resisting Trigon. These rebels include Kyle Rayner, Zatanna, and Green Arrow. (Whenever time seems to run amok, somehow Green Arrow always manages to survive. For example, see Booster Gold, Vol. 2, issues 8, 9, or 14.)

Page 11, panel 3
Identifiable trophies in Trigon's chamber include the remains of Superman, Green Lantern II (with ring and power lantern), and Hawkman, Dr. Fate's helmet, the helmet of Flash I, the costume of Flash II, the Cosmic Staff of Starman VII (also once stolen by Supernova as seen in 52 Week 36), and Wonder Woman's tiara. Future panels will show Adam Strange's helmet, Atom Smasher's costume, Hawkgirl's mace, Phantom Stranger's cloak, Shining Knight's sword, and Wonder Woman's magic bracelets and lasso.

Page 12, panel 5
SPOILER WARNING!: Once it is revealed that Luthor has been less than honest, Rip Hunter kills him as promised. Oddly, Luthor doesn't seem to be as upset about this fact as one might expect. In fact, his final comment, "Totally outsmarted, Hunter," would seem to indicate that Luthor predicted this situation and that his own death had always been part of Luthor's plan. This doesn't seem to make much sense, but Luthor was always smarter than everyone else. So perhaps we're only seeing part of his plan. Reveal

Page 13, panel 3
FIRST APPEARANCE: First appearance of the Red Scarab. This little artifact appears to be identical to the Blue Beetle's Blue Scarab and the Black Beetle's Black Scarab.

Page 16, panel 3
Booster mentions the Green Bay Packers and New York Giants, two franchises of the National Football League. For a fellow who once was an all-star quarterback (two-years running!), Booster Gold doesn't mention football very often.

Page 16, panel 6
"Fixing" games, or "shaving points," is the process of athletes adjusting their performance during a game in order to control not the win or loss of a contest, but the exact final score. Usually this is done in order to profit on a game by gambling on the outcome. Fixing games is generally frowned upon by the general public, and is exactly what ruined Booster's chances at a career as a professional football player.

Page 17, panel 6
A PAIR OF DOCS?: Deathstroke the Terminator and Ravager confront Teen Titans Changeling, Cyborg, Kid Flash, Robin, Starfire, and Wonder Girl, exactly as seen in The New Teen Titans, Vol. 1, #2 (and in Booster Gold, Vol. 2, #22).

Page 19, panel 2
This panel, originally in The New Teen Titans, Vol. 1, #2, has appeared in three consecutive issues of Booster Gold. By this point, original panel artist George Perez probably should be receiving royalties for its constant reuse.

Page 20, panel 2
SPOILER WARNING!: In this third pass at the same point in history, Booster Gold has been impersonating Deathstroke to ensure that the third pass is identical to the first pass. However, it was not the interference of Deathstroke but of Black Beetle that caused the second pass to alter known history. If Booster traveled back in time to change the past, he needed to destroy the alliance between the Black Beetle and Deathstroke, not replace Deathstroke in his fight with the Titans. So the question is really where is the Black Beetle during this fight? Rip Hunter is not present, so presumably he could interfere with Booster Gold's presence at the fight, but not necessarily Black Beetle's.

If you think that's confusing, think about this: if Booster Gold has now successfully changed history so that the future in which Trigon has dominated the Earth never happened, doesn't that mean that Black Beetle must also have never siezed possession of the Red Scarab? If Black Beetle still possesses a Red Scarab, it is most likely because the alternate future that he engineered that no longer exists is one of an infinite number of alternate presents (as dictated by the Quantum Theory of time travel) which contain an infinite number of Red Scarabs, all available for the stealing so long as someone is capable of transversing the quantum time barrier. And that certainly makes the job of a time cop like Booster Gold very difficult indeed. Reveal

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ISSUE REVIEW

Boosterrific Review: Events of this issue feel like a retread of recent issues of this series. Worse, the resolution to the story makes little sense, resulting in the entire adventure of the "Day of Death" storyline being somewhat more frustrating than necessary, especially if the sole point to the story was only to ensure that the Black Beetle obtained his magical dingus. Hopefully this lackluster issue is not a sign that writer Dan Jurgens is running out of creative ideas just as the series celebrates the milestone of outlasting its predecessor.

Boosterrific Rating:

• Currently 2.0/5 Stars.

Average Fan Rating:

• Currently 3.3/5 Stars.

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