Booster Gold

Cover Description: Booster Gold and Blue Beetle III are reflected in the goggles of Blue Beetle II. There is a variant cover for this issue included on the second printing, but the only difference in the two covers is merely coloring: the reprint cover has a golden background whereas the original background was a darker blue.

Brief Synopsis: Booster Gold's friendship with the late Blue Beetle becomes a problem.

Costume Worn: MARK I.v2 power-suit

Issue Notes: This issue is a tie-in with the Blackest Night mini-series. Note that this issue, dealing in large part with the death of a fallen comrade-in-arms, was released on Veteran's Day 2009.

Story Notes: Blue Beetle III breaks out of his back-up feature to co-star in the issue's main storyline.

This story has been reprinted in the following issue:
Booster Gold: The Tomorrow Memory (2010)

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ISSUE ANNOTATIONS

Page 1, panel 3
HIS STORY: The origin of Michael Jon Carter is very quickly recapped. The Space Museum is pictured as including monuments to Amazo, Batman, Captain Marvel, Flash, Green Lantern, Rip Hunter (via Time Sphere), and Superman; many more exhibits than previously seen. Skeets I is also present, in all his football-shaped glory.

Page 3, panel 1
Blue Beetle II was killed in 2005's Countdown to Infinite Crisis #1.

Page 4, panel 1
PESL SIGHTING: A tombstone in the background of the panel is marked "Pesl." This is the name of the PEZ-like candy dispenser seen in Booster Gold, Vol. 2, #23. Coincidence or inside joke? (According to Shawn Baston: "It turns out it's the name of an old college buddy of Norm Rapmund from Grand Rapids, and Norm likes to sneak it in from time to time.")

Page 5, panel 2
SCHOOL'S IN: Rip Hunter stands before his latest chalkboard in his lab in Arizona as he and Skeets II debate Booster Gold's whereabouts. Hunter references Booster's latest romance, "Blair," likely Blair Butler, president of the Booster Gold Fan Club and cover model for the previously mentioned Booster Gold, Vol. 2, #23.

Page 5, panel 6
For those unable to download previous comic books directly into their brains like Skeets, Flash's message can be seen in full in Blackest Night #4.

Page 14, panel 3
Booster Gold helped trigger the origin of Blue Beetle III in Infinite Crisis #5. (Is it just me, or is this comic book referencing an unusual number of predecessors?)

Page 19, panel 4
A PAIR OF DOCS?: Booster Gold watches himself leave Ted Kord's funeral. Booster was long motivated to be the best hero that he could be following the apparent death of his sister. Now that she has returned to the land of the living, the memory of Ted Kord has replaced her as Booster's primary motivation for selfless heroics.

Page 20, panel 2
Since the narrative balloon would indicate that the following scene takes place in Metropolis, it would seem that Ohio native Daniel Carter has moved in with his main squeeze, Metropolis reporter Rose Levin. The house is clearly full of Daniel's possessions, including his football trophies, his big screen television, and his Xbox. The game that Daniel appears to be playing on his Xbox 360 is Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Page 29, panel 2
Booster Gold returns to the present in time to see the reanimated corpse of Ted Kord battling Blue Beetle III, Skeets, and Supernova II. (Considering that Booster was himself the original Supernova, one could say that there are two Blue Beetles and two Supernovas present. Though based on the condition of one Beetle and one Supernova at Jurgens' trademark cliffhanger conclusion to this issue, this may not soon be the case.)

For more annotations from this issue which occur at a different point in Booster Gold's chronology, click here.

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ISSUE REVIEW

Boosterrific Review: A fantastic issue that finally gives Ted Kord the funeral that he deserves only to drag him back into the never-ending fight of good versus evil. Though Boosterrific generally hates zombie stories, this one was done right. So good, I read it twice back to back.

Boosterrific Rating:

Currently 5.0/5 Stars.

Boosterrific!

Average Fan Rating:

Currently 4.0/5 Stars.

(3 votes)

Currently 2.0/5 Stars.

ncllcn (Aug. 15, 2010, 18:33:21)
The BIG problem I had with this is the fact that Maxwell Lord had Sasha Borduex incinerate Ted's body in the OMAC Project storyline. They say here that it's a closed casket because Max shot Ted in the head. But in reality there should be no body at all unless Booster went back in time and retrieved it before it got incinerated. Maybe I missed something but this seems a pretty glaring continuity error. There should be no corpse for a black lantern ring to reanimate, am I wrong?
[You're quite right. But DC Comics editorial is not about to let a little continuity get in the way of a good story. If, in order to bring a fan-favorite character into a storyline which requires that he have a corpse, he'll have a corpse. No matter what happend to the character in a previous story. Look no further than the villainous and human Max Lord as a perfect example of this policy. -Boosterrific]

Currently 5.0/5 Stars.

E (Jan. 4, 2010, 14:26:46)
The reason this issue works so well is because it shows what happened right after the events of Omac Project where Booster has to stop and think of the loss of Ted. All of his anger at Batman and the others that ignored Ted is still there ready to burst. You really get a sense that he's alone with no one else to understand him now. And for all his showboating what hurts him to most is his inability to say what needs to be said.

Currently 5.0/5 Stars.

Anon (Dec. 1, 2009, 20:01:23)
I'm not a neutral party by any means. This issue came out on November 11 which is Veterans Day and my thoughts went to an old friend of mine who died in the line of service. When we were kids, his favorite hero was Blue Beetle and mine was Booster Gold. While reading this issue, all I could do was wander back beyond Booster's pain and my own sense of loss. It was disconcerting to say the least. I have not read the issue since then but I am tempted to call this the best issue of the new run of Booster Gold and the finest issue yet in the continuing (and now reaching the point of seemingly endless) "Blackest Night" cross storyline. Ted Kord's funeral and Booster's role in it were done well and it was a nice idea to have Booster look over at certain individuals (including Oracle, Guy Gardner and Fire) while thinking about Ted. It was nice to see Rose and Daniel reappear. One quick note. It seems that Booster and Skeets are spending more time apart than together these days. This is getting repetitive and somewhat annoying.

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