Superman

ARTISTS

Writer: Dan Jurgens
Penciller: Ron Frenz
Inker: Joe Rubinstein
Colorists: Digital Chameleon, Glenn Whitmore
Letterer: John Costanza
Editor: Joey Cavalieri

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CHARACTERS & SETTINGS

heroes: Booster Gold, Scorn, Superman
villain: Metallo
supportinges: Emil Hamilton, Jimmy Olsen, Skeets I

Setting: 20th-century Metropolis, DCU, USA

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ISSUE SUMMARY

Cover Description: Scorn, dressed as Superman, smashes a green SUV in homage to the cover of Action Comics #1. (No Booster Gold.)

Brief Synopsis: Booster Gold returns to Metropolis to meet with Superman.

Costume Worn: MARK XI armored power-suit

Issue Notes: Superman diamond chronology "1997:23." Once again, Booster is featured in an issue of Superman scripted by Booster's creator, Dan Jurgens. Following the events in the Final Night mini-series, Superman has changed costumes and powers as part of a storyline partially masterminded by Dan Jurgens. In this issue, Jurgens will change Booster's costume, essentially restoring Booster Gold to the powers and abilities that he lost the last time there was a significant change to Superman, namely his death courtesy of Doomsday in the "Death of Superman" storyline partially masterminded by Dan Jurgens. Booster's first costume was destroyed exactly 50 issues ago in Superman, Vol. 2, #74.

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ISSUE ANNOTATIONS

Page 3, panel 1
Booster Gold, poorly disguised in a red baseball cap and trenchcoat, arrives in Metropolis at the scene of Superman's battle with Metallo and Scorn. Nearby, Jimmy Olsen and Dr. Emil Hamilton worry about the inert body of Metallo. This is the third time that Booster and Olsen have been in the same panel without actually meeting. The first time (in Booster Gold, Vol. 1, #1), Olsen was reporting for television station WGBS, a job that was removed from continuity with the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths re-launch of the Superman mythos. Ironically, it was partly Olsen's reporting in his new television job at WGBS that caused the recent fight between Metallo and Superman.

Page 4, panel 1
Booster takes to the sky in search of the missing Man of Steel. He boasts to the crowd of onlookers that he is "America's Favorite Hero" with rights reserved by the defunct "Booster Gold International." Skeets, still occupying Booster's armor, chastises him for the fraudulent statement, though whether Skeets objects to the boast or the inaccurate legal statement is unclear.

Page 5, panel 3
POWER UP: Booster and Skeets use a "side spread Booster Shot" as a sensor array. This is the first time that Booster has used his Booster Shots in such a manner.

Page 7, panel 2
POWER UP: In an attempt to save Superman, Booster demonstrates that the Mark X/Flesh-Driver armor is capable of a force-field projection...

Page 7, panel 4
DON'T MAKE 'EM LIKE THEY USED TO: ...which proves unable to shield Booster from an energy overload. This overload destroys Booster's Mark X armor, shattering it off his body. Superman's new energy powers are a lasting result of the events of the Sun Eater's attempt to devour the sun in the Final Night miniseries. It has taken Superman some time to control his powers, and the side-effects of their use.

Page 12, panel 2
Booster reveals his true motivation for seeking out Superman: after hearing that Superman had adopted a high-tech containment suit for himself, Booster had hoped that Superman would help him recover a costume similar to his original, "classic" Mark I armor. In essence, Booster came to Metropolis to gain a new costume, and in the process destroyed his current costume. There is perhaps a lesson to be learned here. No doubt, Booster won't notice.

Page 14, panel 2
Booster's comment about a time-traveling "cosmic stair-master" is a reference to the Cosmic Treadmill that Flash II did indeed use to travel through time. Booster will encounter the Treadmill in Booster Gold, Vol. 2, #4.

Page 15, panel 1
Superman introduces Booster to the Bottle City of Kandor. Kandor is a Kryptonian metropolis that was shrunken and imprisoned inside a bottle by an alien invader. (Though the city's kidnapping was originally perpetrated by Brainiac, at this point in Superman's continuity it was blamed on the wizard Tolos who also took partial blame for Superman's new powers.)

Page 15, panel 4
Superman finally admits that he knows that Booster Gold is a hero. This is the first time in their contentious relationship that Superman has called Booster anything other than a selfish, glory-hound. Booster blows off Superman's praise while he drinks a can of the ubiquitous DC Universe's favorite beverage, Soder-Cola.

Page 17, panel 3
FASHION ALERT: Booster debuts his Mark XI armor. Manufactured by Emil Hamilton with the technology of Superman's containment suit (including alien Kryptonian circuitry and materials manufactured by LexCorp) and based on the schematics of Booster's classic Mark I armor, this suit has all the abilities that have come to be associated with Booster Gold. This power-suit is most similar in appearance to Booster's original suit, though the iconic chest star has been moved over Booster's left pectoral muscle. Blue stripes extend down the outside of Booster's thighs. Like the Mark X armor before it, Skeets' artificial intelligence occupies and controls this Mark XI armor.

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ISSUE REVIEW

Boosterrific Review: The cover of this issue is completely incongruous with the story within: the tale of loss of Booster Gold's old costume and the creation of Booster Gold's new costume. This comic is very important to devotees of the life and times of Booster Gold, but just a brief and not particularly noteworthy aside in the episodic storyline of the new "Electric Superman." The story and art are passable, so if expectations are kept low when opening the cover, the book will be pleasantly satisfying.

Boosterrific Rating:

• Currently 3.0/5 Stars.

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