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Boosterrific.com: The Complete, Annotated Adventures of Booster Gold
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Showing posts 141 - 145 of 218 matching: justice league international


Friday, October 12, 2012

This Day in History: Meet Bloodbath

Extreme Justice #6

Last week, we reviewed Booster Gold's sole appearance as the villain Bloodbath in a bit of pseudo-history. This week, let's take a look at some real history, Booster Gold's appearance in the first issue of Bloodbath.

If you're unaware, the summer 1993 DC annuals featured the Bloodlines storyline of an other-dimensional alien race who came to Earth to harvest humans spinal fluid. (Don't bother asking why a race of aliens would develop the need for human spinal fluid for their reproduction process. Comic books don't have time for your silly science.)

DC used the event to create new characters from the survivors of these alien attacks. These new super heroes -- all very '90s, if you know what I mean -- were called the "New Blood" and received the majority of the focus in these stories. That left precious little room for established characters like Booster Gold.

At the time, Booster was still adjusting to his new, post-Doomsday armor, and was arguably more hindrance than help to the Justice League. As a result, Booster confronts and is defeated by three separate aliens in this issue alone. Even if the story doesn't give our hero much of a break, it's still great to see Booster's commitment to heroics.

Yes, the premise is a bit ridiculous and smacks of market-driven storytelling, and yes, Booster Gold comes off looking washed-up. However, there will always be something satisfying about DC heroes banding together to save Earth from yet another alien invasion. If nothing else, the series deserves credit for inspiring the DC Bloodlines website, and that's got to count for something.

(P.S. The Boosterrific Forum is back online. Hopefully we'll get some good Booster Gold news to talk about from New York ComicCon this weekend!)

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: bloodbath bloodlines dcbloodlines.blogspot.com history justice league justice league international reviews

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Wanted Poster Reward

Here at Boosterrific, we are developing quite a relationship with the Kevin Maguire/Terry Austin "Class of 87" Justice League International poster.

Justice League International Poster © DC Comics

You may recall that back in August I solicited help getting a close-up of Batman's shoulder. I am finally at liberty to tell you why: the original art was in need of some repair, and the new owner, Malvin, needed a photo reference. Now the work is back from the restorer, and it looks great.

Class of 87 poster inks courtesy of Malvin

In addition to this piece, Malvin has a very impressive catalog of art online at ComicArtFans.com that you may enjoy (including a much larger resolution image of these inks). We both offer thanks to everyone who helped, especially Shawn Baston.

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: comicartfans.com justice league justice league international kevin maguire malvin poster terry austin

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

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Booster Gold versus Boring Scripts

Why was Justice League International volume 3 cancelled? Probably because by issue 12 it was selling about as well as Booster Gold volume 2 was selling at issue 47.

Justice League International volume 3 sales

If Booster can do as well alone, why stick him with a bunch of dead weight like Guy Gardner and Batman? (Note that while our old pal Shag at FirestormFan.com will attribute the sales bump beginning at issue 9 to an appearance by Firestorm, but it's really do to a change in DC's return policy.)

Comments (4) | Add a Comment | Tags: firestorm firestormfan.com graph justice league justice league international sales shag

Thursday, September 6, 2012

What Could Have Been?

It's been a week, and I'm still pissed off about how bad Justice League International Annual #1 was.

Last week's poll question: Did you enjoy how Justice League International Annual wrapped up the series? (43 votes)

Did you enjoy how <em>Justice League International Annual</em> wrapped up the series?

But enough about the present. Let's return to the topic of three weeks ago: classic artists. How you feel about the classic writer/artists teams? Each of the following pairs created an iconic hero with a discernible style.

Comments (3) | Add a Comment | Tags: artists justice league international polls writers


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