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Boosterrific.com: The Complete, Annotated Adventures of Booster Gold
Boosterrific.com: The Complete, Annotated Adventures of Booster Gold

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Booster Gold

“Vicious Cycle, Part Two”

Volume 2, Issue 12, November 2008
Released September 10, 2008

Cover Price: $2.99
Guide Price: $3.00 (as of 2011)
Estimated Issue Sales: 32,040

Boosterrific.com Rating
  • Currently 4.0/5 Stars.
Fan Rating
  • Currently 4.0/5 Stars.

Booster Gold, Vol. 2, #12. Image © DC Comics

 

ARTISTS

Writer: Chuck Dixon
Penciller: Dan Jurgens
Inker: Norm Rapmund
Colorist: Hi-Fi Designs
Letterer: Sal Cipriano
Assistant Editor: Harvey Richards
Editor: Michael Siglain
Cover Artists: Dan Jurgens, Brian (Hi-Fi) Miller, Norm Rapmund

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CHARACTERS & SETTINGS

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ISSUE DETAILS

Cover Description: Commissioner Jim Gordon and Booster Gold react to the unmasking of Batgirl.

Brief Synopsis: The new Time Masters have trouble executing a plan to save history without the guidance of Rip Hunter.

Booster Gold's role in this story:
Featured (Booster Gold plays a prominent role)

Costume Worn: MARK I.v2 power-suit

This story has been reprinted in:
Booster Gold: Reality Lost (2009)

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ANNOTATIONS

Page 1, panel 1
Sometime in the past, Booster Gold stands astride a life-sized mechanical Tyrannosaurus Rex inside Batman's Batcave. The robot is a souvenir of Batman's adventures on Dinosaur Island as told in 1940's Batman #35. (The giant penny seen in the background is a souvenir of Batman's 1941 encounter with the Penny Plunderer as told in World's Finest, Vol. 1, #30.) This panel is likely intentionally evocative of the panels seen in Booster Gold, Vol. 2, #0 and #1,000,000.

Page 4, panel 3
Continuing their tour of the Batcave, Booster, Michelle, and Skeets peruse the Batman's costume collection. In addition to the classic Batman costume Booster holds, visible behind Booster are a camouflage costume, a scuba costume, an insulated costume, a white costume, and a bubble-helmeted costume. Several of these costumes were seen in "The Strange Costumes of Batman!" in Detective Comics #165.

Page 6, panel 2
In order to escape the Batcave before a second confrontation with Batman's shotgun-wielding butler, Alfred Pennyworth, Booster steals the Batmobile modeled on the popular car from the 1966 Batman television series.

Image Copyright DC Comics

Page 8, panel 1
Failing to steal Batman's costume from the Batcave, the Time Masters try Plan B, stealing Batgirl's costume. When Booster confronts Barbara Gordon, it is her first chronological meeting with Booster. Booster, however, has a history with Barbara, having tried as recently as Booster Gold, Vol. 2, #5 to save her from her future fate at the hands of the Joker.

Page 10, panel 1
Of course, Booster's interference in Barbara Gordon's life attracts the attention of her father, Police Commissioner Jim Gordon. Naturally, finding an intruder in his daughter's room, Gordon fires his Smith & Wesson .38 Special at our departing hero. The Model 36 S&W revolver was especially popular with American police departments throughout the second half of the 20th century.

Page 12, panel 1
FASHION ALERT: At Michelle's insistence, Booster changes clothes, purchasing a jumpsuit reminiscent of those worn by Elvis Presley, the "King of Rock and Roll," in the early 1970s. Seen discarded nearby is some red cloth decorated with lightning bolts, a common Presley trademark adopted from his childhood hero, Captain Marvel, Jr. (Like Booster, Elvis was a fan of the classic heroes.)

Page 12, panel 5
Booster and Michelle are surrounded by Gotham policemen who have been hunting them since their encounter with Gordon. The four policemen present inexplicably hoist 4 different weapons: two different automatic pistols (similar to the commonplace 1911 U.S. military specified .45 caliber handguns), a indistinguishable service revolver, and an M16 rifle. The Gotham police force clearly has quite an arsenal at its disposal.

Page 15, panel 1
A PAIR OF DOCS?: When Booster crashes his own robbery of the Gotham Museum of Antiquities (see previous issue for details), his "takin' care of business" comment is a reference to Elvis Presley's personal motto, often abbreviated simply "T.C.B." The poses in this panel are intentionally identical to page 12, panel 1 and page 2, panel 1 of the previous issue, as all three panels take place at the exact same time on three divergent timelines.

Page 15, panel 3
Booster punches his past self dressed as Killer Moth. This is not the first time that Booster has battled himself, (see 52 Week 15) though it is the first time he's confronted himself as hero versus villain, and the first time that he's fought while disguised as two people other than himself. (In his previous fight, at least one Booster admitted to being Booster Gold.)

Page 17, panel 1
Michelle struggles to come to grips with the complexities of objective viewpoint time travel within the DC Universe (as discussed in greater detail here).

Page 18, panel 2
For the second time, Booster confronts Wiley Dalbert. Second time for Booster, that is, as he has cheated time, living through the intervening time since their meeting. For Dalbert, whose previous meeting with Booster has been invalidated by recent events, this is the first meeting between the two. (Did I mention that the confusing complexity of DCU time travel is covered in greater detail here?)

Page 19, panel 3
Again fleeing the Gotham Police, Booster again paraphrases a common quote associated with Elvis Presley: "Elvis has left the building." The phrase, actually used to announce to adoring crowds that their idol would be giving no more encore performances, has come to generally mean that something has reached its end. (Booster, as usual, means what he says.)

Page 20, panel 3
Batman and Robin (Dick Grayson, now known as Nightwing) are seen briefly in a true cameo appearance, quite literally driving by Booster and company.

Page 21, panel 1
The conversation between Booster and Michelle is incongruous with their pictured activity. Why would the pair need to return to the Batcave to recover their costumes when Michelle is holding Booster's costume and she was wearing hers when they left the Batcave? One of the two must be confused, right?

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REVIEWS

Boosterrific Review: For part of this issue Booster Gold, who is wearing an Elvis Presley-inspired jumpsuit, sits beside Goldstar, who is wearing a Batgirl costume, while driving the ever popular 1966 television Batmobile. If that isn't a good enough reason to read this issue, I don't know what is.

Boosterrific Rating:

  • Currently 4.0/5 Stars.
Worth Its Weight In Gold.

Average Fan Rating:

  • Currently 4.0/5 Stars.
(2 votes)

  • Currently 4.0/5 Stars.
KMD (Dec. 22, 2009, 12:05:56)
A fun issue and the 60s Batmobile and Booster Elvis take the cake.

  • Currently 4.0/5 Stars.
Erin (Oct. 15, 2009, 17:54:25)
Except for the headache you'll get trying to figure out time travel details this was an excellent issue. Showing that a hero can have fun while on the job. The fact that Booster is a huge fan of Batman only makes it more entertaining.

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