Booster Gold #9

They're getting the BAND back together! I have to admit that this is the issue that I have been salivating for, for quite some time. Just look at this cover...



*sigh*

There's J'onn! And Scott, and Bea and Tora and Guy and Ted and Booster! Oh, and Batman and Dr. Light too. The GOOD Dr. Light. Be still my heart.

We begin with a very pithy summing up of Max Lord's motivation in all of this. I still miss the REAL Max, but I have to admit that this is quite succinct. BadMax of course feels that he is perfectly justified in everything that he has done, including brainwashing Superman, and kidnapping Dr. Light and using her for a perpetual energy source.

Meanwhile, Beetle and Booster are searching the decrepit ruins of the Batcave for any trace of Batman. They don't find him, but they HAVE managed to get their little paws on a Mother Box. Booster has a sudden unexplained pain in his side, which I feel will probably be significant later on, and Beetle is still bleeding daintily from his shoulder. He really should do something about that. Booster is still trying to convince himself that Rip is wrong and that he CAN save Ted and make everything right. Poor poor Booster.

The Boys then stage a rather spectacular rescue of Mr. Miracle, although I have to admit that Scott was doing a bang-up job all on his own. It IS Scott too, in all of his multi-colored Kirby glory. At the same time, we cut to Fire and Guy standing around in the snow as Ice tries to convince her people to help them out against EvilMax. Just let me say that Dan Jurgens draws a really pretty Fire and Guy. Fire as usual, is still giving Guy a hard time, these two just can't seem to help themselves. This time however, it's obvious that Guy's not really in the mood to bicker, he reveals that thanks to EvilMax and some other stuff going on, that Hal, John and Kyle are dead, while the Green Lantern Corps is in a pretty pickle, and he's running out of power. Bea, for a change actually shuts up and they even have a tender little moment.

Then Beetle, Booster and Scott show up.



Woohoo! Ted's not dead! Neither is Booster, but nobody seems to really care. This actually surprised me a little bit, since in the Omac series, Booster and Bea had seemed to be getting rather close. THEN, it occured to me, that that never happened in this altered reality, and that it may have just surprised Booster as well. We learn that Scott is sorry about Hal, John and Kyle, and Guy is sorry about Barda. Damn. Barda is STILL dead. And it was Guy who found Ice, not the Birds of Prey.

At this point, Ice comes out, but it doesn't look good, since her people turned her down. Guy of all people points out that they are the Justice League, which startles both Ted and Booster, who assume that since Guy Gardner is giving a pep talk, that perhaps Hell HAS frozen over.

Rip, Daniel and Whatshername are still bopping around looking for either Booster or the Bad Guys, and not really getting much of anywhere. They do discover the Bad Guy's Lair however, and discover that the Bad Guy's seem to have a fixation on Booster...which doesn't look good at all. I have to say that Rip is looking awfully cranky lately. Oh, and the JLI go and rescue J'onn off of that wall thingie, where Alex had imprisoned him during the whole Infinite Crises thing, which is referred to, along with old Superman and Superbrat Prime, and it is starting to get a little bit confusing as to WHAT stories are still in this altered reality, and which ones are not. I will say this, you have to do a bit of thinking when you are reading this book.

J'onn by the way is pissed. REALLy pissed. And who can blame him? So off they all go, and attack EvilMax is a really gorgeous splash page. It doesn't bother Max in the least, he points out that at least now he doesn't have to hunt them all down individually. There is a fair amount of snarky banter and some nice fights. EvilMax and J'onn square off, Max trying to use Superman to fry J'onn, and J'onn trying to free Superman. They're busy busting people out of the Omac suits, and Ice frees Kimiyo, and discovers to her horror that EvilMax had murdered Kimiyo's children. Oh that Max. I know that being Evil can be fun, but this is going Too Far! Then Guess Who shows up.



Way to go, Booster!

Then Booster, Beetle and Batman take off for the control room, so that Booster can shut the whole bloody thing down. It helps to have gone through all this in another reality! Oh, and Dr. Light fries EvilMax. Quite handily. And then she offers to fry the REST of them. The rest of Max's evil cronies surrender very quickly. Superman is crying, because of all the stuff that EvilMax did, which included killing Lois. I did notice that neither Superman nor Batman was yelling at Dr. Light for taking down Max in THIS reality.

It's all starting to get a bit out of hand, and I get the impression that Booster is starting to panic just a bit. Now he's got to figure out a way to save Lois and everyone else, and he needs Rip, and he needs time to think...but he's not going to GET that time, because some Very Bad People show up on the last page.

And now I've got to wait another whole month to find out what happens!

But this is good stuff. Very very good stuff.