Justice League Quarterly
“Klaarsh Reunion!”
Volume 1, Issue 7, Summer 1992
Released April 14, 1992
Cover Price: $3.50
Guide Price: $3.50 (as of 2003)
Writer: Michael Jan Friedman
Penciller: Eduardo Barreto
Inker: Carlos Garzon
Colorist: Gene D'Angelo
Letterer: John Costanza
Assistant Editor: Frank Pittarese
Editor: Brian Augustyn
Cover Artists: Phil Jimenez, Jose Marzan, Jr.
Heroes: Blue Beetle II, Booster Gold, Elongated Man, Fire, Flash III, Green Lantern IV, Ice, Metamorpho, Power Girl
Villain: Vinic
Setting: Marquette, DCU, USA, 20th-century
Cover Description: Ice, Blue Beetle II, Fire, and Booster Gold pose among a high school reunion class picture as an alien spaceship passes overhead. On the left side of the cover are inset pictures of the issues other key characters, from top to bottom, General Glory, Rocket Red #4, and Rising Sun.
Brief Synopsis: Blue Beetle and his friends attend his high school reunion only to run afoul of an alien tyrant.
Booster Gold's role in this story:
Featured (Booster Gold plays a prominent role)
Costume Worn: MARK I power-suit
Page 3, panel 1
Blue Beetle II, Booster Gold, Fire, and Ice arrive (in formal wear) at a formal event in what appears to be a hotel banquet hall. A banner over the door announces the event as the "Marquette High School Class of '77" reunion. Since this issue was published in 1992, this is presumably Blue Beetle's 15-year graduating class reunion. Blue Beetle's first DC Universe appearance as an established crime fighter and business owner in 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths #1, only 7 years prior to the publication of this issue.
Page 4, panel 5
Beetle hesitates before introducing Booster to his classmates as Michael. Booster's legally recognized name in the twentieth century is really "Booster Gold." He has no alter-ego.
Page 5, panel 3
Booster Gold is cornered by a drunk who is trying to figure where he knows Booster from. Figuring that Booster was once the most famous hero in Metropolis and was recently the figurehead of the highly publicized Conglomerate, this fellow must not get out much. Or be really, really drunk.
Page 6, panel 3
When a localized earthquake shakes the building that they are in, Booster speculates that they are under attack from "some old enemy of the League" when in fact...
Page 10, panel 4
FIRST APPEARANCE: ...this is the first appearance of Vinic, Lord High Reacquisitioner of the Klaarsh Empire, as the culprit behind the abduction of the "class of '77."
Page 12, panel 2
As Booster listens in, Blue Beetle is told that he was the only human in his high school class in the fictional town of Marquette, Illinois. The rest of the citizens were all Kaarsh expatriates. Marquette was named for French explorer Jacques Marquette who mapped the northern Mississippi River and performed missionary work in present-day Illinois.
Page 14, panel 5
Beetle reveals his new "Justice League interpersonal communications device" that works by tapping into telephone lines. Essentially, Beetle has invented a wireless cellular telephone, a device already available to the public in 1992.
Page 16, panel 4
Booster is surprised when one of Ted's classmates (who also happens to be an alien) reveals that his children are big fans. Surprised, but not displeased.
Page 20, panel 5
POWER UP: At Beetle's suggestion, Booster uses the "micro-vision" in his goggles to search the alien Kaarsh vessel for weak points in its hull for entry. This is the first time Booster has demonstrated the powers of his goggle in quite some time. So long, in fact, that Booster seems to have forgotten that he possessed the ability to do so.
Page 27, panel 5
Flash III comments on Power Girl's costume. Despite recent changes in Justice League Europe #37, in this story, Power Girl wears her original costume, not her white and yellow leotard or her blue and white striped pant-suit. Elongated Man wears the costume he originally donned for the Justice League Europe, not the darker costume with a mask.
Page 30, panel 1
The two Justice League teams finally meet in the Kaarsh ship. Present on-panel are Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Elongated Man, Fire, Flash III, Guy Gardner, Ice, and Metamorpho. Also present, but not in this panel, is Power Girl.
Page 30, panel 2
Booster jokingly chastises Beetle for disappearing during the battle with the Kaarsh. This is Booster's last appearance in this story. Presumably, he is present until the Justice League returns to Earth, which is inevitable at the end of the story.
Boosterrific Review: This anthology issue contains the stories featuring General Glory echoing the Marvel Captain America stories of the 1960s ("If This Be My Destiny...?"), Rocket Red investigating the humanitarian effect of the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union ("Homeward Bound"), and Dr. Light avoiding the unwanted romantic advances of Rising Sun in this issue's weakest story ("Time To Enjoy The Light").
The feature story of this comic book is the surprisingly enjoyable tale "Klaarsh Reunion!". I say "surprisingly" because the story is built on the absurdist premise that Blue Beetle was unwittingly raised as the only human in a town populated entirely with interplanetary refugees who are finally tracked down by their alien oppressors at their high school reunion. Despite this significant obstacle for suspension of disbelief, the story moves along at a fast clip as the Justice League engages in the action-packed adventure that it does best.
Boosterrific Rating: Worth Its Weight In Gold.
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