Justice League Unlimited
“Poker Face”
Volume 1, Issue 2, December 2004
Released October 6, 2004
Cover Price: $2.25
Estimated Issue Sales: 16,582
Writer: Adam Beechen
Penciller: Ethen Beavers
Inker: Ethen Beavers
Colorist: Heroic Age
Letterer: Nick J. Napolitano
Editor: Tom Palmer, Jr.
Cover Artist: Ben Caldwell
Cover Description: Booster Gold, Huntress, and Superman combat the Royal Flush Gang.
Brief Synopsis: Booster Gold joins the Justice League Unlimited against the Royal Flush Gang
Booster Gold's role in this story:
Featured (Booster Gold plays a prominent role)
Costume Worn: Justice League Unlimited
Issue Notes: This series is based on the events and characters depicted in Cartoon Network's Justice League Unlimited television series. Though these characters and events are similar to their comic book counterparts in the Justice League, there are varied and noticeable differences.
This story has been reprinted in:
Justice League Unlimited Volume 1: United They Stand (2005)
Page 2, panel 1
Booster Gold is playing 5-card draw poker with his Justice League teammates Flash, Huntress, Steel, and Superman in the Justice League satellite Watchtower. Future panels will indicate that this is Booster's first Justice League poker game.
Page 4, panel 1
Booster Gold accuses Superman of cheating at cards. You shouldn't tug on Superman's cape, but you also shouldn't accuse him of cheating at cards.
Page 7, panel 1
The poker game is interrupted when the Royal Flush Gang attacks a Las Vegas casino. In this panel, King is quoting lyrics from the 1978 Kenny Rogers song, "The Gambler."
Page 9, panel 2
In order to distract the Justice League while the Royal Flush Gang makes its getaway, King knocks a giant sword off of the exterior of the Casino Avalon. (There is no such hotel in the "real" world.) Avalon is the source of the sword Excalibur of Arthurian legend.
Page 10, panel 2
Superman places the falling sword into a rock outside the Cro-Magnon Hotel & Casino. (Again, there is no such hotel in the "real" Las Vegas.) Placing the sword in the stone is another reference to Arthurian legend, and Cro-Magnon man was an early ancestor of modern man, living in caves during the Stone Age.
Page 16, panel 3
Queen's line is a pun on a quote from the 1981 Mel Brooks' movie The History of the World: Part 1, "It's good to be the king!"
Page 17, panel 1
Booster stands alone against Ten, the most powerful member of the Royal Flush Gang. When Booster Gold joined the Justice League in familiar DC Universe continuity (in Justice League #4), he earned his spot on the team by overcoming Ten.
Page 18, panel 1
The giant cowboy sign Superman wields in this panel (in a wanton display of blatantly capricious property damage) is from a "real" Las Vagas hotel. Vegas Vic is a 40-ft sign built to advertise the Pioneer Club Casino in 1951. The sign has been restored and still stands on Fremont Street (at least until Superman destroyed it to crush Ten).
SPOILER WARNING: The content at Boosterrific.com may contain story spoilers for DC Comics publications.
Booster Gold, Skeets, and all related titles, characters, images, slogans, logos are trademark ™ and copyright © DC Comics unless otherwise noted and are used without expressed permission. This site is a reference to published information and is intended as a tribute to the artists and storytellers employed by DC Comics, both past and present. (We love you, DC.) Contents of this page and all text herein not reserved as intellectual property of DC Comics is copyright © 2007-2024 BOOSTERRIFIC.com. This page, analysis, commentary, and accompanying statistical data is designed for the private use of individuals and may not be duplicated or reproduced for profit without consent.