DC's How to Lose a Guy Gardner in 10 Days
“Golden Pairs”
Volume 1, Issue 1, March 2024
Released February 6, 2024
Cover Price: $9.99
Writer: Danny Lore
Artists: Ted Brandt, Ro Stein
Colorists: Ted Brandt, Ro Stein
Letterer: Josh Reed
Editor: Michael McCalister
Hero: Booster Gold
Villain: Marine Marauder III
Supporting: Mark Reiner, Skeets III
Setting: Palmera City, DCU, USA, 21st-century
Cover Description: This book has multiple covers. Booster Gold appears on none of them.
Brief Synopsis: Booster Gold tries to save his dating app company by traveling back in time to fix a date gone wrong.
Booster Gold's role in this story:
Featured (Booster Gold plays a prominent role)
Costume Worn: MARK I.v2 power-suit
Page 21, panel 1
The "Lanterns of Love" are the Star Sapphire Corps, wielders of the violet light of the emotional spectrum and longtime rivals of the Green Lantern Corps.
Page 21, panel 3
PRODUCT PLACEMENT: Booster Gold is filming an advertisement for his latest venture, "Golden Pairs" (a pun on the Asian Golden Pear fruit), in which he is turning his inability to maintain a long-term romantic relationship into a dating coaching service. Booster has had high profile dalliances with actor Monica Lake, crime-fighter Firehawk, and screenwriter Blair Butler.
Page 22, panel 1
Buying online reviews is a bad idea. Unethical at the best of times, in the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) considers purchased reviews to be a form of fraud and has pursued lawsuits against offenders.
Page 22, panel 4
"Speed dating" is the practice of having multiple brief encounters with potential romantic partners in a very short period of time. "Speedster dating" is what happens in "Too Many First Dates," the very next story in this anthology issue depicting the first meeting between The Flash and his future wife, Iris.
Page 23, panel 1
Booster Gold and Skeets have traveled one month back in time to the Marine Couture event in Palmera City where they hope to salvage the successful future of Golden Pairs by ensuring dating-blogger Mark Reiner has the perfect date. Skeets is clearly against this idea, and after the events of "52 Pick-Up" in Booster Gold Volume 2, Booster should know better than to attempt changing history for his own benefit.
Page 25, panel 1
FIRST APPEARANCE: Skeets identifies Reiner's date as Min Soo-Jin, who will become known in the future as the latest criminal to use the pseudonym "Marine Marauder."
Page 25, panel 4
Booster realizes that the date has been a pretense for the Marauder's real plan, stealing the Dolphin Diamond from the Marine Couture event.
Page 26, panel 5
Booster's correct; like Aquaman, the previous Marine Marauders had the ability to communicate telepathically with sea-life. The original Marine Marauder first appeared in 1977's Adventure Comics #449 and could only communicate with air-breathing sea creatures. The second Marauder was the first to be able to control all sea creatures, confronting the Outsiders in 1986's Adventures of the Outsiders #37. This incarnation of the Marauder claims be just a simple thief... for now.)
Page 27, panel 4
POWER UP: A reflected Booster Shot ray cuts through a one-of-a-kind dress and the dummy wearing it. Booster Shots have variable power levels. Given that no Marine Marauder has invulnerability, perhaps Booster shouldn't be shooting to kill.
Page 29, panel 2
Despite Booster's attempt to alter history, Golden Pairs fails anyway. This is a good demonstration of solidified time, or the Fatalism Theory of time travel paradoxes.
Boosterrific Review: Although I have my concerns about some characterizations that don't match what I would expect in usual continuity -- including Booster Gold seeming to forget the rules of time travel in the DC Universe -- this is an enjoyable anthology overall.
Boosterrific Rating: Worth Its Weight In Gold.
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