The Invasion! event was one of the few over the years that did, genuinely, change the ongoing status quo of the DCU when the Alien Armada detonated its Gene Bomb in issue #3, activating and super-charging the innate abilities of countless heroes and villains.

One long-term result of this was Fire becoming the familiar (if you'll pardon the expression) human torch we all know and love today. Another is the development of Maxwell Lord's mind-manipulation. But the immediate aftermath of the Gene Bomb was chaos, as powers ran wild across the globe.

Of course, in a world gone mad, it was up to heroes without the so-called "meta gene" to step up and save the day, heroes like Blue Beetle and Booster Gold.

Note that the first line on this page (spoken by Booster) is a reference to advertising campaign for Excedrin pain reliever and the final line (spoken by Beetle) is a reference to the George of the Jungle cartoon. Obviously, those two guys watch too much TV.

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The Invasion! crossovers continue in Justice League International #23, in which the League finds themselves tasked with disarming potentially deadly alien technology in the South Pacific. Granted, it's not a glamorous job, but somebody's got to do it.

And it does give Booster Gold a chance at a well-earned beach vacation.

I love this page mostly for the single panel of Booster making sandcastles, but I also find it interesting to be reminded that in the early years, Fire couldn't fly. Although it will still be several issues before she will "green flame on" on-panel (in Justice League America #28), the trigger for that power upgrade occurs in this very issue.

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DC's late 1988 event was Invasion!, and in the early days of the alien assault on Earth, Booster Gold played an important role... as the Justice League International member assigned to monitor duty.

Booster has a brief supporting role answering a telephone call from Wally West in Flash #21. Since that's just a one page appearance, we'll skip to Booster's larger supporting role in Justice League International #22, where our hero confronts the invading enemies directly.

JLI #22 is divided evenly into two stories: a surprise alien ambush on the League's New York Embassy, and the League's first battle against a fleet of alien warships over the South Pacific Ocean. The first story is mostly comedy, so of course that's the one that features Booster Gold.

It doesn't go well for our hero, especially on page 5.

Poor Booster. He should have been on his toes. As everyone who has ever read a Justice League comic knows, there's nothing more dangerous than being assigned to monitor duty.

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Booster Gold appears in only two panels in Justice League International #20, so we'll skip ahead to Justice League International #21 where Booster Gold has about the greatest three consecutive panel sequence you'll ever read in a DC comic.

And can we just take an extra moment to admire Ty Templeton's pencils on what is very obviously a layout (with an iconic Darkseid closeup) by the late, great Keith Giffen? Amazing work, guys.

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Thanks to the unique combination of Keith Giffen's plotting and layouts, J.M. DeMatteis's vaudevillian dialogue, and Kevin Maguire's rendering of body language and facial expressions, almost every page in Justice League International #19 is a standalone delight.

From Ice Maiden falling for Guy Gardner to Green Flame hitting on Lobo to Oberon saying goodbye to Black Canary to Superman rejecting Batman: pick a page at random, and it's probably a winner.

But the best page, my favorite page, is the one where Booster Gold and Blue Beetle get a door slammed in their faces.

If you ask me, turkeys are much more intimidating than beetles.

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