Showing posts 11 - 15 of 20 matching: flashpoint
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Readers love 'em, as evidenced by the fact that they sell like wildfire. But event books -- those mega summer crossovers -- have treated Booster Gold very poorly.
Booster lost his wealth and his title to Millennium. He temporarily ceased to exist in Zero Hour. Identity Crisis -- admittedly a downer for everyone in the DCU thanks to the the inferiority-complex driven rapist super villain and the ethically challenged heroes as a glorified red herring -- killed his relationship with Firehawk. Infinite Crisis went a step further and killed his best friend. And now Flashpoint has him failing at his job and losing his second title.
Those don't even include losing his powers to "Death of Superman" or his sidekick to evil in 52, both of which are more media stunts than event-driven mini-series. (If "Death of Superman" were done today, there would be 14 tie-in mini-series.) Booster should probably count his blessings that his involvement in Underworld Unleashed and Final Crisis was so limited.
Do good things ever happen to anyone in event series? Because good things certainly don't happen to Booster Gold.
| | Tags: 52 dccomics.com flashpoint identity crisis infinite crisis millennium zero hour
Kevin posted on Aug. 18, 2011 at 12:00 PM
Infinite Crisis brought about 52, otherwise known as the start of Booster's glory days (with Skeets returning to live) and the creation of his Vol. 2. Blackest Night, allowed Booster to put the ghosts of Ted to rest at long last. Flashpoint did not see him fail (how can you say he failed when you haven't even seen the final issue yet?) and also leads to him being the leader of the Justice League International, which puts him squarely as a near A-Level hero now.<br /><br />Besides, all events cause badness for the heroes...if they were all about roses and happiness, then they wouldn't be interesting, would they?
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Aug. 18, 2011 at 1:49 PM
Ah, Kevin, the sunshine to my rain cloud. I absolutely agree that all roses and happiness stories wouldn't be interesting, but how about an occasional roses and happiness story?
I loved 52, and we don't get to 52 without DC trying to further cash in on INFINITE CRISIS. INFINITE CRISIS was itself a very entertaining story with a lot of positives for a lot of characters. But don't forget that it killed Ted Kord to make Max Lord "Evil." Booster's role in the story was merely to involve the new Blue Beetle, himself a Deus Ex Machina device: new character debuts with exactly the power needed to defeat the machine that Batman can't beat! Argue anything else you want to about it, but in terms of character development: the key element for Booster Gold in INFINITE CRISIS is that it killed his best friend.
I will agree that it's fair to say that I don't know the ultimate outcome of FLASHPOINT, but DC hasn't exactly been subtle about the fact that it will mark a turning point in DC Universe history. How can he be a success in maintaining history when history will be changed at the end of the series? Is your argument that Booster was supposed to participate in FLASHPOINT and time was supposed to change around him? From that fatalistic point of view, Booster was doomed to fail, but still he failed.
I like the sound of Booster Gold called an A-Level hero, but I don't believe it for a second. A team with Guy Gardner, Fire, Ice, Rocket Red, Godiva, August General and Vixen is not a squad of A-listers, which is probably a good thing. I think you'll find that a team of B's is a far, far better read because the characters can be challenged and developed in ways that A-level characters cannot. But I refuse to get excited about a book where Booster is a 1/8 of a team after the cancellation of a title where Booster was featured in 100% of the adventures. Replace Booster in your argument with Batman, a popular character shoe-horned into JLI in a blatant attempt to cash-in on his rampant popularity. If DC had just cancelled BATMAN to put the character on JUSTICE LEAGUE, would a Batman fan be excited about that?
Kevin posted on Aug. 18, 2011 at 3:40 PM
No, but Booster didn't have Batman's popularity, did he? Let's be honest...the numbers for Booster's book SUCKED by the end. It was going to get canceled. But instead of shunting Booster off like they did in the 90s, they are making him the leader of a Justice League team. A book that has been one of the top ten books DC has been soliting each month. For Booster this is a GIANT step up, better than merely having a self-titled series that sold low. You also forget that it is being written by the man that created Booster.<br /><br />But of course, if you've already made up you mind to hate something before even reading it, that wouldn't really matter, would it?
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Aug. 18, 2011 at 4:50 PM
First, yes, Booster's book was selling poorly, but not because I wasn't buying it. I never said I wasn't looking forward to JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL. I merely said that I was disappointed by the cancellation of BOOSTER GOLD. If you loved chocolate ice cream but discovered that the only available ice cream parlor didn't carry chocolate ice cream, would you be excited that you had to settle for Neapolitan ice cream to get your chocolate fix? You are asking me to be excited by a diluted form of something I enjoyed. I'll take it, I have no choice. However, that doesn't lessen my disappointment.
Second, no, I have not forgotten that Jurgens will be writing the book, but that doesn't give me cause for excitement. With all due respect to Dan Jurgens, his work on team books has never impressed me. His work on JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA in 1992 focused on inter-squad squabbles and battles with aliens at the expense of realistic characterization. TEEN TITANS in 1996 was a weaker effort, attempting to give voice to the angst of super-powered teens in the eXtreme 1990s and instead creating a team of cardboard stereotypes. Like everyone else, Dan Jurgens has strengths; I do not consider writing team books to be among them.
Jesse posted on Aug. 18, 2011 at 5:17 PM
For the record it was not an event that had Booster losing his arm.
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Aug. 18, 2011 at 6:46 PM
True, that major crossover was more "Death of Superman" than INFINITE CRISIS. It also resulted in Booster permanently requiring a life supporting suit.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Yesterday, DC announced on The Source that Flashpoint #5 and Justice League, Volume 2, #1 will be released at 12:01 AM on August 31. DC encourages you to "check your local comic book store for any special events that may be occurring." So the post-Flashpoint era begins with a yawn.
Locally, the last Wednesday of August has been a school night for decades, and I'm sure we're not the only area. That means the teenage and younger target audience that DC says it wants will be largely excluded from events that start after midnight in many, many locations. Sounds like DC is after a different audience for this launch.
If DC calculates the kids will just be downloading the books anyway, maybe the company hopes that this stunt will appease the rest of us who like going to comic shops. Most of the comic book readers I know have full-time jobs and the schedule to match. Some will be unable to attend, and others that do will be sacrificing sleep to do so, all for a few books most of them will be having their local comic shops pull for them anyway.
Keep in mind that this is no "Death of Superman" event: it's just an early on-sale date for a book that most Americans are going to completely ignore. But DC doesn't have to pay the employees who are going to hang around for those long hours, so what do they care? No, this burden is on the comic shop owners, very few of which would typically be open after midnight on an early Wednesday morning.
All of these facts seem to indicate that this artificial event is designed to fail. I had assumed that DC wanted comic retailers to be able to compete with Comixology.com, but I wouldn't have expected this to be the way they planned to do it.
| | Tags: dccomics.com dcu.blog.dccomics.com flashpoint reboot
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
What a long, strange trip it's been.
Above is the sales graph for the entire Booster Gold Volume 2 series to date, including the recently sold-out first printing of Booster Gold #44. Even without figuring in the second printing or the digital sales, that's a pretty good bump from Flashpoint tie-in sales.
I'm not going to pretend that I understand how sales bumps from Flashpoint tie-ins are supposed to transfer to entirely new series, but if even a few new readers discover the golden goodness of Booster Gold during this transition, at least some good will come of it.
| | Tags: flashpoint graph sales
Eyz posted on Jul. 6, 2011 at 3:17 AM
Yeah. It's great for the book.<br />That plus from other charts, I've seen the Booster TPBs have been selling pretty well, in the range of GL books.<br /><br />This just shows Booster should keep his book, reboot/revamp or not...
BoosterPowershot posted on Jul. 8, 2011 at 5:59 PM
Too little too late, I'm afraid. They'll get interested in Booster Gold just to watch him share the spotlight with other characters they may not like.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Remember 3 weeks ago, when I wrote that mistake-filled blog post about the issue of Booster Gold that tied-into Flashpoint? Well, welcome back. DC appears to have really hit a home run with the Flashpoint event.
DC announced via The Source on Friday that Booster Gold #45 has sold out and would be going back to press in coming weeks. Flashpoint #2 was released a week earlier and also sold out of its initial printing. Does all of this sound familiar? It should, as the exact same scenario happened last month with Booster Gold #44 and Flashpoint #2.
I think I've made my disdain for alternate history stories perfectly clear, but I am going to have to accept that I am in the minority on this. Flashpoint and its tie-ins are doing exceptionally well. No doubt they will make a great springboard for DC's second Explosion or first Heroes Reborn or whatever shenanigans DC is planning to roll out at the Flashpoint conclusion.
| | Tags: dcu.blog.dccomics.com flashpoint sales
RussBurlingame posted on Jun. 13, 2011 at 4:40 PM
AND before DC announced it on The Source, Dan Jurgens gave it to me exclusively on The Gold Exchange, which was live for about 2 hours before DC posted their Flashpoint Friday post! ;)
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Jun. 13, 2011 at 6:20 PM
My apologies, Russ. You had broken that news to us here in the Boosterrific Forum (http://www.boosterrific.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=132) and I didn't even mention that in this post. I'm a terrible host.
Surgeon Girl posted on Jun. 15, 2011 at 1:21 AM
And they are going to cancle Booster Gold? WHY? WHY?
RussBurlingame posted on Jun. 15, 2011 at 11:46 AM
Surgeon Girl, I really think the cancellation decision was made a while back. Comics readers are creatures of habit and it was going to be very difficult for Dan to regain the readers lost in the last year or so. So I think with the End of Everything coming up on the horizon, they decided that Dan could have a final hurrah with his character if it was plunked down into the middle of the crossover where it would sell like crazy...but I don't think there was ever hope for more than that.
Eyz posted on Jun. 16, 2011 at 4:03 AM
Awesome news! I love seeing Booster doing fine these days.<br />Maybe, Flashpoint as well, Booster's appearance in Smallville did introduce him to new fans?
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Russ Burlingame's latest "Gold Exchange" column with Dan Jurgens has been posted on Comic Related.com. Among other issues, this month's column insightfully has Jurgens comparing and contrasting the current Flashpoint event with Jurgen's own Tangent line of a decade ago.
GX: In a very general way, what separates Flashpoint from something like Tangent? The creative approach seems to be the same (lots and lots of people working on a universe "led" by a couple of guys) and obviously we've got the "similar-but-not-the-same superheroes" thing. What's the big thing that should make us go "Damn!" and think that, continuity-wise, this is more of a rat's nest than when Kyle Rayner got stuck in the Tangent Universe for a while?
DJ: Tangent was structured around the idea of taking the names of DC characters and completely turning them around, upside down and inside out, in a very different universe. Flashpoint is very much about a timeline that differs from the normal DCU because of altered elements.
A word of warning: before you head over to read the rest of the interview, be sure to read Booster Gold #44. There are definitely spoilers in this week's "Gold Exchange."
| | Tags: comicrelated.com dan jurgens flashpoint gold exchange russ burlingame
RussBurlingame posted on May. 26, 2011 at 1:59 PM
It's worth noting that I perceive The Gold Exchange (as well as the similar columns I do for Savage Dragon, Shinku (upcoming) and Rachel Rising (upcoming)to be postgames/"director's commentaries" on the books. As a consequence, ALL of the columns should be marked as spoiler-filled or at least potentially spoiler-filled since we pull no punches and can talk about "that panel where so-and-so dies..." as though every person reading the column has the book open right in front of them.
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on May. 26, 2011 at 3:03 PM
I'm sure that most of the people who seek out that sort of commentary are fore-warned, but better to be safe than sorry. I once had a friend-of-a-friend tell me that I had damaged his enjoyment of 52 because I had mentioned Boosterrific.com to him and he saw the reveal of Supernova here on the site before he read it in the series. That appalled me, and I have taken great pains to warn of spoilers at every opportunity ever since.
RussBurlingame posted on May. 26, 2011 at 3:08 PM
Very sensible approach. Mine was a comment mostly to give context to readers, not so much to say your spoiler warning was unwarranted. I wish that I could run a spoiler notice at the top of every column--and I have done in the past when HUGE reveals were contained within--but I often forget.
