Time Masters

Cover Description: Rip Hunter reaches though rubble for a clock while Jeff Smith looks on. In the background a large clock points to 8 o'clock. (No Booster Gold.)

Brief Synopsis: Rip Hunter begins to suspect that a powerful group called the Illuminati are manipulating world events.

Booster Gold's role in this story:
Supporting (Booster Gold plays a lesser role)

Costume Worn: MARK I power-suit

Issue Notes: The events of this issue likely take place between the events of Justice League America #33 and #34, the later of which is the first appearance of Booster's latest costume alteration.

Story Notes: The title to this story is a reference to a song of the same name made famous by the band Outsiders.

Reprint Notes: This issue has been collected with the rest of the series in Time Masters.

Page 3, panel 1
Appearance of Rip Hunter, last seen in Booster Gold, Vol. 1, #25. Rip is still pursuing his dream of finding a new method for time travel. Since the collapse of Booster Gold International, Rip has apparently been employed by Dr. Will Magnus, genius inventor of the Metal Men. Rip Hunter, Booster Gold, and Will Magnus will all play a role together in restoration of Skeets in the pages of 52, though at no point have these three men met together.

Page 8, panel 6
Booster Gold (and Goldstar and Jack Soo) is seen via flashback to Booster Gold, Vol. 1, #13.

Page 11, panel 9
A History of Secret Societies by Arkon Daraul is a real book originally published in 1961. Chapter 22 details the Illuminati. However, when Hunter retells the history of the Illuminati, especially its connection to Adam Weishaupt/George Washington, much of what he describes is taken from The Illuminatus! Trilogy novels first published in 1975. Perhaps not coincidentally, The Illuminatus! Trilogy was adapted by Rip Off Press for comics as Illuminatus! in 1987. All of these influences would no doubt be very familiar to issue writers Bob Wayne and Lewis Shiner, both authors of science fiction and comic book aficionados themselves.

Page 15, panel 7
Booster Gold arrives in Rip Hunter's lab in upstate New York. This is the third time that Booster has visited Rip at home. This is the first time that Booster has met Jeff Smith, Rip's Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) classmate.

Page 17, panel 7
Booster agrees to try to recruit "reliable, adventurous people" to test Rip's new backpack Time Pack. Booster himself is unable to use the Time Pack as it contains only the two time travel methods that he has already attempted. (In the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Universe, each person can only travel through time once per method without fear of injury because of the stress on the human body.)

Page 18, panel 2
Appearance of Dr. Calvin "Cave" Carson, a professor of geology at Vanderbilt University and famous underground adventurer. This is the first appearance of Cave Carson in the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Universe.

Page 21, panel 8
Booster admits to Martian Manhunter that his primary motivation in helping Rip Hunter is that "Rip might find a way for me to go home again." This motivation is only partially surprising because Booster has so little to return "home" to. Perhaps he has even less to stay in the present for.