Thursday, June 9, 2011
How to Tell When You've Changed History 101
Look, up in the Sky! It's certainly no plane. It's the first sign you're in an alternate universe: it's a dirigible.
Sure, we've got dirigibles here on Earth-Prime, but you don't see them everyday. However in alternate universes, such as the Flashpoint timeline visited in the panel above from Booster Gold #45, they are more common than birds. Why is that?
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Wednesday, June 8, 2011
New Releases: Booster Gold #45
The DC solicitation text for today's Booster Gold #45 is unusually vague.
Booster knows that the Flashpoint world isn't his own. But how does he get back? How does he make things right?
Maybe he doesn't.
Normally, that sort of hype would lack dramatic tension. At the end of the story, we would assume that everything returns to business as ususal. But now? If nothing else came out of DC's dramatic announcement last week, at least they are making us wonder if maybe this time things are a little bit different.
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Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Dan Jurgens Hints at JLI
In general, Dan Jurgens is tight-lipped in interviews. He rarely if ever gives away any secrets about his upcoming stories. That's great if you want to avoid spoilers, but frustrating as the firmament of the DC Universe appears to be reshaping itself beneath our feet. In the past few days, Jurgens has given interviews to both Comic Related and Newsarama that may contain clues to the future of Booster Gold.
From "Dan Jurgens on life after Flashpoint " by Russ Burlingame at Comic Related:
CR: This is probably a conversation for another time, but Booster Gold has been the protector of the timeline. What happens here, a massive shift in history and continuity and all that, seems to suggest that he fails rather spectacularly. Was mitigating that impression part of why Booster was allowed to be "the guy who gets to see Flashpoint"?
DJ: I don't think this change suggests that at all. With a lot of this, you have to wait until you read the end of the story.
CR: Of all the characters in the JLI, it appears as though Booster Gold is the character who got the most radical redesign of his costume. That seems to dash the theories that a lot of us had about his being the "Psycho Pirate" of the new universe--the one guy who remembers the way it used to be. Will we get a real, solid ending for Booster, Rip and company since their role in Flashpoint lends it to one more than any other title?
DJ: I'll be happy to answer questions about the end of Booster Gold and Flashpoint... once it appears in print. No writer gives away his ending!
Bad news first: Jurgens appears to be confirming the cancellation of Booster Gold Volume 2. However, Jurgens is a crafty interviewee, so we can only take his responses at face value. It's always best not to read too far into his responses. (Keep hope alive!)
From "Jurgens Brings International Flavor to DCnU in Revamped JLI" by Vanetta Rogers at Newsarma:
Newsarama: Dan, what attracted you to writing the Justice League International?
Dan Jurgens: It's the Justice League! International style, yes, but it is still a vehicle for some of DC's best heroes, which as part of this new launch, is tremendously appealing.
I've always been drawn to books that allow for a wide range of stories that have a chance to be big in scope, and the JLI certainly fits that description. Plus, it's a chance to continue to lift Booster Gold's profile, which we've been working on the past few years.
Nrama: Is this the whole team?
Jurgens: This is the whole team for this issue! After that... things can change.
The good news is that Jurgens is committed to raising the profile of Booster Gold. This means there will be plenty of Booster in the upcoming Justice League International series. Better still, if things are really so flexible in the future, maybe Booster won't be stuck with that terrible costume for too long!
Comments (2) | Add a Comment | Tags: comicrelated.com dan jurgens newsarama.com reboot russ burlingame vaneta rogers
Monday, June 6, 2011
Misty 4-Color Memories of the Way We Were
This weekend in the Boosterrific Forum, Comic Related "Gold Exchange" columnist Russ Burlingame asked: "As the hardcore fans of the series, what is your favorite single image from the Jurgens/Rapmund run on the title? It could be a cover, a splash page or whatever."
There are quite a few things to like about the Jurgens/Rapmund run. If I had to narrow it to one image, it would be this panel from page 5 of Booster Gold #12.
I'm nuts about the trophies in the Batcave. I think it's great that Batman cares for continuity as much as I do. It is wish fulfillment at its finest to see Booster Gold (and Goldstar!) travel back in time to steal the 1966 George Barris Batmobile from Alfred. What can I say? I'm a fan, too.
If you have an opinion, travel over to the Forum to tell Russ what you liked best from the soon to be discontinued second volume of Booster Gold series.
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Friday, June 3, 2011
DC Stands for Dumb Costumes
I had almost gotten used to the steady stream of terrible news coming out of DC Comics this week. Every book is getting cancelled so that titles can restart at number 1? Stupid, but I survived the 1990s once. DC will be launching 52 titles over the course of a month? Ridiculous, but I survived the DC Explosion, too. Creative teams are being totally reshuffled? Pointless, as the best teams will still be on the books with the highest selling potential. Every DC character dons a new costume designed by Jim Lee. Uh oh.
There's no denying it: Booster's first costume was a time-capsule of its era. Love it or hate it, it screams 1980s, as did the character of Booster Gold: a selfish corporate crusader who saw super-heroics as a means to capital wealth. For good or ill, the high-collared costume became indelibly associated with the character.
By the 1990s, both Booster's status and costume were destroyed. His costume was redesigned to look completely ridiculous, like a football player's pads on steroids. This was done intentionally, allowing a slow transition during which his costume design could evolve alongside its wearer, eventually emerging with typically 1990s flair. These costumes weren't all good -- that was the point -- but the changes were story-driven and organic.
Booster was reunited with his partner Blue Beetle in the 2000s, and his costume was miraculously and inexplicably restored to its 1980s glory. Take note, if you are going to make changes to a design without explaining how or why, tried-and-true is the direction to go. Someone must have realized that this costume wasn't new-millennium enough, and the collar was dropped and the gold sections of costume were linked by wide stripes. Sponsorship patches were added and removed, all in the name of character development.
But now DC decides to change everything just for the sake of changing everything. This is a marketing event, plain and simple. Somewhere someone said, "Jim Lee's art sells, so let's let Jim Lee do all our art!" Make no mistake about what this really is: a travesty.
THIS COSTUME SUCKS.
While Booster's costume was once iconic and unique, it now looks like every other "future-tech" costume in comics. Yes, Booster has a blue star on a gold field. And he's wearing goggles with exposed blonde hair. It's almost like there was a corporate-mandated checklist for what Booster's costume had to incorporate for licensing purposes. (You don't really want the kids who see Booster Gold on Batman: The Brave and the Bold, DC Universe Online, and Smallville to wonder who this dumb-looking character is, do you, DC?) After that, it goes quickly to hell. From the top down:
- Head: Booster Gold now has a visible forehead. This means that either his goggles are responsible for holding his cowl up, or he has a very stiff and uncomfortable head covering. On the upside, artists now have space to draw sweat on Booster's brow! Hoo-ray?
- Face: What is the need for the gold on the mask around the face? Is Lee just curious to see how fast he can make the colorist screw it up? The design makes Booster look older and wider. Apparently now "Booster Gold" should be synonymous with "fat head."
- Neck: Why a "w" encircling the neck? This is artist shorthand for "technology" and does nothing but make the neckline busier. As if we didn't already know it, Jim Lee demonstrates his belief that you can never have too many extra lines on a costume.
- Shoulders: Yay! More extraneous piping on the shoulders. At least Booster doesn't have full-scale 1990s shoulder-pads, but I'm guessing that's only because someone realized that would be too obvious.
- Arms: I suppose it was too unrealistic to have his Booster Shots mounted on the back of his gloves anymore, so now Booster has sleeves. What kind of high-tech design is that in gold at the end of the sleeve, anyway? Atlantean? Apokolipsian? Arrows? Please, not arrows. Surely by now Booster Gold knows which end of his arms to point at the bad guys without context clues on his costume.
- Waist: There is no such thing as a great male super-hero costume without a belt or similar costume element separating the torso from the waist. Otherwise the costume ends up looking like a unitard, and no one looks great in a unitard.
- Feet: We can't see them here, but I promise you they look terrible. The new costume probably doesn't even have golden boots, but terminates in solid blue stocking feet in keeping with previous costumes. Couple that with the lack of a belt, and Booster's new costume would look like elaborate footed pajamas.
Will this redesign stick around? I sure hope not. It already looks like garbage. The sooner DC takes out this trash, the better.
Comments (14) | Add a Comment | Tags: costumes dccomics.com jim lee reboot
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