Booster Gold

Cover Description: Booster Gold stands in front of (from left to right) the Blue Beetle's scarab; Rip Hunter; a Time Sphere containing the story's "mysterious villain," Michelle Carter, and Skeets; Vanishing Point; and the chronal Egyptian dagger.

Brief Synopsis: Booster Gold teams up with Booster Gold to save the history of the Blue Beetle.

Booster Gold's role in this story:
Featured (Booster Gold plays a prominent role)

Costume Worn: MARK I.v2 power-suit

Issue Notes: Although there are two Booster Golds and two Skeets in this issue (or, more accurately, one Booster Gold and one Skeets interacting at two different points on their own timelines), the Skeets do not meet while the Booster Golds spend most of their time together.

This story has been reprinted in:
Booster Gold: Reality Lost (2009)

Page 2, panel 4
A PAIR OF DOCS?: This meeting of Booster Golds takes place between panels on page 19 of Booster Gold, Vol. 2, #4.

Page 3, panel 3
Future Booster tells past Booster that he will be taking Rex Hunter's Time Sphere. Why mention this? You'll understand when you get to page 18.

Page 3, panel 6
BORROWING THE CAR: Booster's right: his plan will work. It's already been proven: for future Booster to even be talking to past Booster, the plan has already worked itself out.

Page 7, panel 1
Booster's mention of "31st-century tech" is a reference to his force field and Flight Ring, both designed by Brainiac 5 of the Legion of Super-Heroes. The Flight Ring contains a telepathic translation device -- a Universal Translator -- used by Legionnaires to communicate with one another. (Booster is wearing his Flight Ring on the middle finger of his right hand, though it has been mis-colored in this panel to be the same color as his blue glove.)

Page 8, panel 1
The scarab that the priest holds is the scarab of the Blue Beetle. The scarab's purpose and powers have been widely misinterpreted over the years. Dan Garrett, the first Blue Beetle, found the scarab in the tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Kah-ef-Reh. At the time, he believed that it was protecting against the "evil" of Kah-ef-Reh. Now it would appear that the priests believed that it would resurrect their deceased leader.

Page 11, panel 6
Utilizing the unique properties of Vanishing Point to view any event in history, the villain shows Michelle Carter being "torn apart" by the explosion that everyone believed killed her. Because she was saved by Rip Hunter, she was never killed, and what Michelle is watching should not exist. However, by existing outside of time, Vanishing Point is able to display any point in any possible tangential timeline (essentially the entire range of Hypertime), so whether Michelle is viewing her own death or the death of an alternate reality version of herself remains unclear.

Page 17, panel 5
SPOILER WARNING!: Booster finally learns the identity of the mysterious villain he has been pursuing. Ironically, it is the younger version of himself who clues him in (after he was told by Skeets) when younger Booster asks older Booster if he knows who Rex Hunter is. This question is rather confusing, as if younger Booster knows who Rex Hunter is, of course an older version of himself would also know. If that isn't enough, the two Boosters discussed Rex Hunter on page 3 of this very issue, so both Boosters have clearly established that they both know who Rex Hunter is. Reveal