Booster Gold #6

Oh...My...God!

As you all recall from LAST months Booster Gold, poor Booster has been taught a very harsh lesson by Rip Hunter...mainly that there are just some things that you can't change. Booster being Booster however, he doesn't want to believe Rip. And then, out of the blue...(heh) who should appear, but THREE Blue Beetles! Dan Garrett, Jaime Reyes, and some guy from the future, who seems to be running things. And THEY want Booster to come with them and SAVE TED KORD!

Guess who is more than happy to oblige? Rip of course is trying to talk our boy out of this little jaunt, by pointing out that the sudden appearance of the three Beetles is AWFULLY convenient. Hmmm...ya know, he may have a point there. Booster is just in no mood to listen however, and off they go. The visual of the four of them walking away, is a lovely little homage, which I don't have a scan of, so you'll just have to go out and buy it.

Rip is ticked, to say the least, but the Beetle from the Future keeps assuring all and sundry, that they can INDEED rescue Ted, and that the time stream won't be harmed in the least. Booster believes him, because he WANTS to believe him. Rip can't help being a skeptic.

So off they go. Dan doesn't even know who Ted is at this point, so Booster gives him (and us) a lovely recap of just how friggin' awesome ol' Ted is. Then there is some nice back and forth with Jaime, which is fun.

Meanwhile, Daniel is trying to convince his future love that HE's actually Booster, when Rip shows up, all cranky and bearing costumes. This probably won't end well.

So...we're back at the Checkmate Castle, and Ted is confronting EvilMax, when ALL the Beetles...plus Booster come crashing through the window. You have to admit that it is a HECK of an entrance. Needless to say, Ted is slightly confused ,since he thought that Booster was still in the hospital, while EvilMax is just ticked off. Flunkies are dispatched, EvilMax does some bloviating, and then an OMAC shows up. Booster doesn't care, he's just so tickled at seeing Ted alive, that you can practically see him giggling to himself.

Then EvilMax starts to get really nasty, and uses his nasty old mind-control powers to shut down Booster's brain. Ted yells "Rot in Hell, Max!" and Max fires...and Booster jumps in front of Beetle, with the bullet going through his goggles before he falls to the floor! Ted naturally goes nuts and whaps EvilMax before giving him a headbutt, and smashing his face into the chessboard. At which point, Booster sits up and says "Oww." Ted is thilled and amazed that Booster isn't dead, the shot just went through his goggles and grazed his forehead. The other Beetles in the meantime have neutralized the OMAC, but according to Jaime's Scarab, more are on the way, so they all grab Ted, and get the hell out of Dodge.

Booster is just giddy, Ted is still rather confused, Jaime is a little worried about what is going to happen to HIM, and the Future Beetle reasures him, and also points out that in order to preserve history, nobody can know that Ted is alive.

Well. THAT sucks. But I don't care, and I don't think that Beetle or Booster do at the moment either.

*sigh*

So...how do I feel about this? THRILLED TO MY TOES! However, as delighted as I am, I can't help but feel a bit on the terrified side as well. It just can't be this easy. Knowing Comics, I can't help but have that "waiting for the other shoe to drop" kind of feeling.

Is the Future Beetle on the up and up? Can he be trusted? Did saving Ted screw up the Time Stream? What is Rip going to do? What about Dan? What about Jaime? I guess we'll get some answers in next months Booster Gold #0, which is a (slightly) late addition to the Zero Hour mini-series. THIS should be...dare I say it...GOLD!




Look! It's TED! And he's not a ghost, or Everyman, or a clone, or a flashback!