The Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle movie officially opens today. I keep seeing online that people are A) surprised that such a movie even exists, and B) predicting it to flop. Neither of those sentiments makes a bunch of sense to me because B) who doesn't obsessively pay attention to superhero movie news? and B) why would anyone cheer for any movie to flop?

Anyway, for those of us Booster boosters hoping for any sign of our favorite superhero in Blue Beetle, well, I haven't seen the movie yet myself, but I'll say that early reports are not encouraging.

And then there's this article at Inverse.com, an interview with director Ángel Manuel Soto:

"We always thought about this before James Gunn came in, but the fact that James Gunn loves Booster Gold and wants to do something with Booster Gold," Soto says. "We've always been setting up Ted Kord through the daughter, through the conversations and disappearance. Having that mid-credit scene is cool because we don't have to promise nor deny the possibilities of this collaboration."

"Neither promise nor deny" is never encouraging. I think this makes Soto a "Booster Tease."

So be forewarned: don't go see Blue Beetle expecting to see Ted Kord or Booster Gold. Go see it for all the Easter eggs (like the Bug!). Or go see it to send a message to Warner Bros that there's an audience for a sequel that (hopefully) pays off the very brief, very late mid end credits scene.

Or, maybe, go see it because you want to see it. That's such a crazy idea, it just might work.

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On YouTube, DC Kids has posted an 8-minute supercut of Teen Titans Go! they're calling the "Best of Blue Beetle & Booster Gold!" But is it the best? Judge for yourself.

https://youtu.be/ledRwxAqt34

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I've sliced my thumb rather badly on a food processor — while putting it away, no less; it wasn't even running! So posting might be a little light for the next week. Sorry about that.

Justice League Task Force #13, 1994

I'll try to be more careful next time.

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Booster booster Marty directed me to this image on The App That Used To Be Twitter:

The whatever-it-is that-we're-calling-tweets-now implies that cocktail menu comes from "the #BlueBeetle after party", whatever that was. As you can (barely) see at the bottom of the list, there's a drink there named for Ted Kord's best buddy, Booster Gold.

The ingredients read "Mezcal, Ancho Piña Shrub, Grapefruit, Lime, Close Honey, Angostura." Full disclosure here: I'm an absolute teetotaler. I haven't had an alcoholic beverage since the Olympic Games were held in Atlanta, Georgia. (It was a Tom Collins.) So my working knowledge of cocktails is a little rusty, and I have no idea what that tastes like, much less what some of those ingredients even are.

But my Google skills are strong. Allowing for typos — "close" should be "clove" — and a brand-sponsored tequila substitution, it seems those ingredients combine to make what Difford's Guide calls a Mercado Roma and The Educated Barfly calls an Oaxacanite. Here's a picture of a good-looking presentation of those drinks on Instagram:

It's certainly the right color.

As for whether this hints at any role Booster might play in the movie... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . I guess we'll find out when the film hits theaters on August 18.

Thanks for the drink, Marty.

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And so at last we reach the end of Booster Gold Volume 1. It is, without a doubt, the ugliest of all 25 original issues.

Robert Campanella's inks are not a good fit for Dan Jurgens' pencils, and even most of Jurgens' layouts are subpar. Either this issue was rushed through editorial to fit the aggressive Millennium publishing schedule, or all the visual artists involved were in a hurry to move on to greener pastures. Maybe both.

(In my opinion, this issue is the only one in volume one that I think looks definitively superior in the often careless recolored digital reprints over the original newsprint publication.)

It's really a shame about the art, because the Dan Jurgens' script deserves better. It hits all the right notes as it forces Booster to face the down-side of publicity (in an American fast food restaurant) with a Communist providing outside perspective.

It also cleverly draws in the Justice League characters Booster is closest to while setting our hero up for a triumphant come-back in the future. Both of those latter elements factor into my favorite page of Booster Gold #25 (especially Beetle's lecture in panel 2):

Yeah! What Beetle said!

That's what I like so much about Booster Gold. His path meanders, but he always gets to the right place in the end.

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