Showing posts 6 - 10 of 49 matching: kevin maguire
Friday, April 14, 2023
My Favorite Pages: Justice League Intl 7
At last we come to Justice League International #7, which happens to be the *first* issue of Justice League International because back in the day publishers didn't restart series every other week; they just retitled existing series and kept the previous numbering. Was it confusing? Sure. But that's comic books for you.
Taking the Justice League international was a pretty big deal at the time (heck, if you ask me, it's still a big deal), but Booster Gold didn't have much of a role in the events. Aside from (kind of) saving Batman's life in space on international television, Booster spends most of the issue as just another pretty face in a crowd.
Which explains why he's not on my favorite page of the issue. Superman is.
The Man of Steel enters the United Nations Security Council politely. By walking in the door. So many writers/artists would get that detail wrong.
Speaking of artists, Kevin Maguire's art for the oversized issue has always looked a little rushed, but it's especially sketchy in higher-definition reprints. I recommend reading this on the original blurry newsprint if you have the option. Newer isn't always better.
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Friday, January 13, 2023
My Favorite Pages: Justice League 4
This series is intended to address all of Booster Gold's comics in the order of their publication, yet so far, I've only covered issues of Booster Gold Volume 1. I've skipped spotlighting issues of New Teen Titans, The Outsiders, and the earliest issues of Justice League because Booster doesn't appear on a full page's worth of panels.
Now, at last, we come to Booster's first significant appearance outside of his own title. It also happens to be my single favorite Booster Gold comic story of all time and the number one entry in my list of the Twelve Best Booster Gold Stories Ever. If you read the title to this post, you already know I'm talking about Justice League #4.
I can (and have) looked at this book all day. But if I could look at only one page of panels from Justice League #4, it would be the only page one with a smiling Batman.
I like how Batman's smile dawns after the line break, but I especially love that Booster's head turn in the final panel builds tension while leading to the single panel on the second page of this two-page spread, where artist Kevin Maguire gives us this:
Yeah, Justice League #4 is a Boosterrific comic, even if I do say so myself.
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Monday, August 22, 2022
New Release: Tales of the Human Target 1
Tales of the Human Target #1 (of 1) will be available tomorrow at your Local Comic Shop. According to the solicitation text:
Chance teams up with fan-favorite members of the JLI in four connecting mysteries that lead them to that fateful day when one them will kill the Human Target.
Taken literally, that means that the Big Bad of the series is one of the JLI characters featured in the issue, either Fire, Ice, Guy Gardner, or Booster Gold. DC played this same "one of these heroes is a murderer!" with Tom King's Heroes in Crisis in 2018 and have done nothing but bend over backwards to undo it ever since. Glad to see they've learned a lesson from that debacle.
(To be fair to King, he doesn't write the solicitation text. He just, you know, makes heroes into murderers.)
As usual, the stars of a Tom King project are the amazing visual artists DC teams with him. In this case, it's Kevin Maguire and Alex Sinclair on the Booster story, but you can see Greg Smallwood also gets a chance to draw Gold in the issue preview at AIPTComics.com.
As if that wasn't enough great art, keep in mind that a piece of Booster appears on the David Marquez open order variant Cover B.
Yeah, I'm certainly not going to complain about that.
Buy this issue and make Skeets happy.
Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: aiptcomics.com alex sinclair david marquez human target justice league international kevin maguire new releases previews tom king
Monday, August 15, 2022
Goofballs Are People Too
Tales of the Human Target is due to arrive in your Local Comic Shop next week, on August 23. Tales is an anthology book, with stories featuring Guy Gardner, Fire, and Booster Gold. According to Newsarama @ gamesradar.com, Booster Gold was chosen because that's who Kevin Maguire wanted to draw. I'm very much okay with that.
That Newsarama article hyperlinked above is an interview between Grant DeAmitt and Tom King about a whole bunch of Human Target-related stuff. Importantly for Booster boosters, it includes an on-the-record discussion about why King keeps putting a dumbed-down version of Booster Gold in his stories:
Nrama: Okay, moving on, the next character that's in Tales is Booster Gold.
King: My favorite character in comics. I love writing him.
Nrama: Oh yeah?
King: I tell Dan Jurgens all the time, 'thank you for creating this character.' Even if I write him a little differently than Dan would write him, because Dan writes him a little smarter than I write him. I write him a little more goofy. But I love that sort of goofiness of him.
Nrama: Is that what attracts you to the character? The goofiness?
King: There are two things that attract me. Number one, I write these tragic, sad things. I never get to write funny. I love writing funny. I love comedy. It's a chance to get into that. And yeah, there's this like, don't tell anybody this, but I base him kind of on Futurama, on Zapp Brannigan and Kiff. You know how Skeets is his partner who, like, loves him and hates him at the same time? I love that.
I also love — this is the thing I got from Jurgens. What Jurgens understands about this character is, that in the end, Booster does the right thing and doesn't get credit for it. He's the superhero who's like, yes, he first thinks of himself. Yes, he first thinks of money. Yes, he's a goofball. But at the end of the day, he's really a really good person. He really is self-sacrificial. But just because of all that other bravado stuff, nobody gets to see that part of it. He's one of the nicest, best heroes in the DC Universe. Everyone assumes that because he's a goofball, he's not good. And I love that about him.
Nrama: So in the beginning of Tales, when he has that monologue about being just like Superman, he's actually right? He's closer to Superman than we give him credit for.
King: People forget that in 52, the big DC event, he was the Superman for a time. A character called Supernova. So again, you read that and you're laughing at him, but there is something in him that's just a little Superman.
The craziest part about Booster is that he had the stupidest plan in the world. He's like, I'm going to go into the past. I'm going to steal a bunch of tech and go back and be a superhero. And then he actually did it! He executed the stupidest plan, and it worked! There's something Brave and Bold about that.
Futurama? Really?
That said, all jokes — and my personal appreciation for King's ouevre — aside, I don't want to discourage anyone from enjoying Booster Gold for whatever reason they find to enjoy him, even if their reason isn't mine.
Live and let Booster Gold.
Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: gamesradar.com grant deamitt human target interviews kevin maguire newsarama tom king
Friday, May 13, 2022
Coming Soon: Tales of the Human Target
Ready for some scary news for Friday the 13th?
Tom King is going to be writing more Booster Gold.
Announced earlier this week via substack.com, Tales of the Human Target is a one-shot anthology issue of Human Target / Justice League International team-up stories that will include a Booster Gold adventure drawn by Kevin Maguire.
(Par of) Booster will even appear on the issue's alternate cover by David Marquez:
Booster and Beetle! Ice and Fire! Batman and Mister Miracle?
I have not enjoyed King's treatment of the JLI in the Human Target mini-series so far, so I can't honestly say that I'm enthusiastic about reading this. But I will definitely be buying it to look at Maguire's pictures when the book comes out on August 23, 2022.
Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: david marquez everlastingproductions human target kevin maguire solicitations substack.com tom king
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