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Boosterrific.com: The Complete, Annotated Adventures of Booster Gold
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Showing posts 1 - 3 of 3 matching: bloodspot

Wednesday, September 29, 2021

Not Counting Halloween Costumes

Booster Gold has topped yet another CBR listicle, this time "10 Most Bizarre Alter Egos DC Heroes Have Used" by Scoot Allan.

Quoth the article:

1 Booster Gold Faked His Death And Disguised Himself As Supernova During 52

DC launched a weekly comic series called 52 following the events of Infinite Crisis that explored a year in the DC Universe without Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman. A mysterious new hero known as Supernova appeared in Metropolis that kicked off an ongoing mystery about the man behind the mask.

While many thought it was Superman, it turned out to actually be Booster Gold, who had faked his death in order to stop his corrupted robotic pal Skeets. What's really bizarre bout the Supernova identity is that it was also used by Booster Gold's ancestor Daniel Carter and then stolen by Booster Gold's father from the future, making it a multi-generational costumed alter ego.

First of all, let me say that if you have not yet read 52: why not? It's no accident that issue 15 made my list of the twelve best Booster Gold stories.

Secondly, the Supernova identity is more bizarre than even Scoot's two understated paragraphs imply. (Hint: it involves Superman pretending he's Batman.) For more information on the Silver Age comic book origins that inspired Supernova, I strongly encourage you read the July 2019 Boosterrific Blog post "Sunshine Supernova."

And thirdly, I'd say that Supernova isn't Booster Gold's most bizarre alter ego. That honor goes to Bloodspot.

© DC Comics
JLA: Incarnations #6

Comic books are the best kind of weird.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: 52 alter egos bloodspot cbr.com jla incarnations lists scoot allan superman supernova

Friday, August 28, 2020

The Difference Between Satire and Parody

If I write "Deathmetal" and "Bloodspot," you'd be forgiven for thinking I was just a bad typist.

One of the biggest talking points to emerge from last week's FanDome has been the upcoming Suicide Squad movie. Because its central tenant — belied by its title — requires the eradication of its members, the Suicide Squad has always been populated by lesser known villains from the fringe of the DC Universe. As Booster boosters have known for nearly a year, one of the characters in the upcoming film will be Blackguard, the villain Booster Gold fights on the cover of his very first appearance. Blackguard will be played by comedian Pete Davidson.

Another barely known Suicide Squad character who has been creating ripples in the fan press is Bloodsport. That's probably because Bloodsport is being played by Idris Elba. Like Blackguard, Bloodsport made his first appearance on the cover of a comic (Superman volume 2 #4, 1987). Also like Blackguard, he hasn't had a very illustrious career. Think of him as a deranged version of Rambo First Blood Part II who kills innocent people to protest how the American government treated Vietnam vets. It's not creator John Bryne's best work, and there's really not a lot of reason you should remember him.

Unless you have a head for Booster Gold trivia and remember the extremely Boosterrific JLA Incarnations #6, in which Booster Gold parodied the excessively violent, heavily muscled, tank-top and bandanna wearing Bloodsport. About the biggest change Booster made to Bloodsport's shtick was dropping the "r."

© DC Comics

© DC Comics

© DC Comics

Blue Beetle and Booster Gold will always be the real Deathmetal and Bloodspot to me.

Comments (2) | Add a Comment | Tags: bloodsport bloodspot blue beetle death metal deathmetal jla incarnations john byrne

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

This Day in History: Meet Bloodspot

Eleven years ago today, DC released JLA: Incarnations, an anthology mini-series focused on telling the "untold" stories set a various points in the prior history of the Justice League. Most of the fun and frustration of this series was in seeing how writer John Ostrander would mangle characterization and history in order to squeeze his new stories into pre-existing continuity. Issue #6, published 11 years ago today, was no exception.

Image Copyright DC Comics

This issue contains two stories set about 7 years apart, and both stories generously feature Booster Gold. Booster and Blue Beetle are the protagonists in the issue's lead story, "Buddies." The pair invent the villainous identities of Bloodspot and Deathmetal in order to sneak into the rogue nation of Bialya. As entertaining as the story is, at times almost everything seems to be an anachronism. Errors stretch from DC Universe chronological impossibilities (Mister Miracle's inclusion in events would have been impossible in the time period) to real-world industry conventions (the ultra-violent "grim and gritty" comics that would feature characters with ridiculous names "Bloodspot" and "Deathmetal" wouldn't be published for several years after the era in which this story was set). Even the relationship between the protagonists is blatantly misrepresented (Booster Gold should be playing straight to Blue Beetle's zany ideas, not the other way around).

The other story, "Authority," doesn't do much better. "Authority" details the untold and much-needed story of the dissolution of Extreme Justice, mostly from the point of view of team leader Captain Atom. Booster naturally plays a part in this story as well, although artist Eric Battle doesn't seem to realize that Booster wore more than one costume between the founding of the Justice League International and the conclusion of the Extreme Justice debacle. Again, Ostrander doesn't let history get in his way, as he, like Geoff Johns in the more recent retcon seen in Justice League International Annual, ignores that the United Nations washed its hands of the JLI long before the end of the team. As we all know, DC's writers never let facts get in the way of telling their stories.

That's not to say these stories aren't enjoyable, because they are. Objectively, they are entertaining reads that add to our knowledge of the period they represent. Subjectively, however, they don't quite live up (or in Extreme Justice's case, down) to the era that inspired them. Without hesitation, I recommend reading the issue, but like any story of historical fiction, I'll leave leave it up to the reader to decide how much truth they contain.

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: blue beetle history justice league justice league international mister miracle reviews


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