Booster Gold: Futures End
“Pressure Point”
Volume 1, Issue 1, November 2014
Released September 24, 2014
Cover Price: $3.99
Estimated Issue Sales: 57,579
Writer: Dan Jurgens
Pencillers: Brett Booth, Will Conrad, Ron Frenz, Dan Jurgens, Steve Lightle, Moritat
Inkers: Will Conrad, Scott Hanna, Mark Irwin, Steve Lightle, Moritat, Norm Rapmund
Colorist: John Kalisz
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
Assistant Editor: David Pina
Editors: Joey Cavalieri, Matt Idelson
Cover Artists: Hi-Fi Designs, Dan Jurgens, Norm Rapmund
Heroes: Blue Beetle III, Booster Gold, Captain Atom, Godiva, Goldstar II, Kamandi, OMAC IV, Superman, Wonder Woman
Villains: Doctor Spectro, Prince Tuftan, Validus
Cover Description: This lenticular cover features two images, replacing the New 52 Booster Gold with the Booster Gold in ARGUS armor attacked by Tufton and one of the Tiger-Men. DC Comics considers the lenticular "3D Motion Cover" to be the standard cover, and the plain cover (featuring only the second of the two lenticular images) to be the "2D Variant Cover."
Brief Synopsis: Booster Gold is lost in time. Or is it space?
Issue Summary: Reveal Potential Spoilers
Booster Gold's role in this story:
Featured (Booster Gold plays a prominent role)
Costume Worn: ARGUS power-suit
Issue Notes: The non-lenticular cover for this issue has a cover price of $2.99.
Story Notes: This one-shot issue is branded as a tie-in to the Futures End maxi-series, although there is very little connecting it to that story.
Page 3, panel 1
Booster Gold finds himself in a Victorian setting, beset by criminals. He is wearing the ARGUS (Advanced Research Group Uniting Superhumans) armor last seen in Justice League International Annual #1. Booster's last memory is being in "Justice League HQ."
Page 4, panel 1
Realizing that he must be in Gotham at the end of the 19th century, Booster tries but fails to communicate with Skeets.
Page 4, panel 2
ALTERNATE REALITY: Remembering his "mission" (which is never explained to the reader), Booster flies away just as Batman arrives. Batman is wearing the costume from Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, a story typically credited as the first Elseworlds book. In the post-52 multiverse, Booster Gold must be on Earth-19.
Page 6, panel 1
A PAIR OF DOCS?: Booster finds himself unwillingly transported to the final encounter between OMAC and the Justice League International as seen in the aforementioned Justice League International Annual. Booster describes this as "back where he left," but as we saw in the Annual he left after these events.
Page 7, panel 1
The dialogue in this panel is not identical to the dialogue presented in Justice League International Annual. Is this panel just a summary of that conversation, or is this actually a different conversation?
Page 7, panel 4
As ARGUS-Booster begins to fade away, he says "I've... seen this. Lived this before!" Sure he has, assuming he and the younger Booster are the same person displaced through time. Or is this Booster and the younger Booster two different people? Could one of these Boosters be from an alternate reality? Which one? Given that this scene doesn't match Justice League International Annual and the other clues (about having just been here), could this be a new, third timeline or alternate reality?
Page 8, panel 2
ALTERNATE REALITY: Next Booster finds himself teleported to 31st-century Metropolis, where the Legion of Super-Heroes is fighting Validus and Tharok. At the conclusion to the post-Flashpoint Legion of Super-Heroes series, it was hinted that the events of that series took place on another Earth, possibly Earth-2. Is that where Booster is now?
Page 10, panel 4
ALTERNATE REALITY: After another unwillful teleportation (which Booster begins to suspect is being manipulated), Booster Gold spots Captain Atom and Dr. Spectro in battle and recognizes that he is on Earth-4. Booster also mentions that he and Rip Hunter discovered the Multiverse, an obvious reference to the events of 52 Week 52. Is this evidence that this Booster Gold clearly remembers the pre-Flashpoint DC Universe? (This Booster can't be from before Flashpoint; ARGUS didn't exist until the post-Flashpoint revisions to history!)
Page 11, panel 5
Earth-4 is the alternate Earth featuring the characters from the Charlton Comics universe including Blue Beetle Ted Kord! Of course, this Beetle doesn't recognize Booster. Would this Booster have recognized Ted?
Page 12, panel 3
ALTERNATE REALITY: Booster is teleported again, this time to the post-apocalyptic world of Earth-51, home of...
Page 14, panel 3
... Kamandi, "the last boy on earth!" Booster is teleported away before he is able to help Kamandi against the attacking Prince Tuftan and his Tiger-Men soldiers.
Page 16, panel 1
Booster thinks perhaps he is home when he arrives in modern-day Metropolis. He has doubts when he sees unfamiliar "blasters" set around the golden globe atop the Daily Planet building.
Page 16, panel 4
Re-introducing Michelle Carter to the post-Flashpoint DC Universe (as Goldstar)! Michelle doesn't recognize Booster's ARGUS costume and thinks Booster looks older than when she last saw him. Is it possible that these twins aren't from the same Earth?
Page 17, panel 1
Michelle informs Booster that no one can get into or out of Metropolis, and that no one had any powers until "a minute ago," a theme that has echoed across all the realities Booster has visited. Is this another alternate Earth?
Page 17, panel 4
A PAIR OF DOCS?: Booster Gold and Michelle are both relocated to the holding cell of a younger Booster Gold, presumably the Booster seen elsewhere in this issue (though we can't take that for granted anymore, can we?).
Page 18, panel 1
New 52-Booster thought Michelle was dead, indicating that he experienced the events of Booster Gold, volume 1, #22 but not those of Booster Gold, volume 2, #1,000,000, which ARGUS-Booster has.
Page 18, panel 5
SPOILER WARNING!: Reveal
Page 20, panel 6
SPOILER WARNING!: Reveal
Boosterrific Review: I like what this issue promises more than I like what it is. The story and art are disjointed and present far too many new questions for a character who has had far too few old questions answered in recent years.
Boosterrific Rating: Gold Standard.
Average Fan Rating: (2 votes)
Correction - Superman and Wonder Woman never showed up in this issue.
[BOOSTERRIFIC: Yes they do. Both Boosters see them on the monitor following the fight with OMAC.]
For a story that gave the impression (it's called a one-shot, ya?) of being fairly self contained, I really didn't follow much of the story. I was just as confused as both Boosters were. When I got to the end, my first thought was...where's the ending? It almost felt like they released an incomplete story. Although, in the spirit of honestly, I haven't read any of Future's End anyway. Though somehow I doubt that would help (dry tone).
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