Booster Gold #1,000,000
Awwww...I can't believe this is the last issue by Geoff Johns and J Katz. But they certainly go out with a blaze of glory. I believe that there are going to be two issues by Chuck Dixon, and after that, it is anybody' guess. I've loved this book from the very start, and I hope...I really really hope, that they can maintain the excellence.
As you all recall, time was all messed up because of Booster's rescue of Ted Kord. Ted of course, does the heroic thing, and sacrifices himself to save the time stream and the lives of his fellow JLIers...which is of course, exactly the sort of thing that Ted Kord WOULD do.
*sniff*
The effect of Ted's sacrifice however, has sent Booster and Skeets tumbling through space and time, until, highly confused, they show up in the far distant future, where they are confronted by the spectacle of ...Peter Platinum! Peter it turns out, is a ridiculously over-the-top charicature of Booster, a "Hero" of the future, who has taken Booster as his role-model, but improved upon his example. He berates poor Booster when he shows up and starts yammering about how fabulous he (Peter) is, how much he really hates the adoring crowds, and generally shows us all what an ass he is. Booster is properly horrified and revolted...as much as he may have sometimes pandered to the crowd, his heart at least, was in the right place.
Fortunately, Rip Hunter shows up in the Time Sphere, and picks up Booster and Skeets, while leaving Peter Platinum a little example of his high regard. Heh. It has all been the very last straw for Booster however, and once again, he quits. The next day, he ends up in Las Vegas, STILL in high dudgeon, when, wouldn't you know it, he comes across the Royal Flush Gang, robbing a casino. With an audible sigh, Booster starts fighting the gang, when he's suddenly "rescued" by none other than Green Lantern and Green Arrow. Since it is Hal and Ollie, they DO have to make jerks of themselves about it. Booster has had about all he can take, when he gets a sudden message from Batman of all people, and he is out of there.
Booster shows up at the Batcave, in a pretty foul mood, and who can blame him. He's about to stomp off in a huff, when Batman shows him a bunch of photographs, that leave him stunned. They turn out to be pictures of him fighting the Joker, from when he went into the past and tried to rescue Barbara Gordon! In typical Batman fashion, Bruce found the photos, and kept them, all these years. He didn't tell anyone, because when Booster first showed up, he was younger and wearing a different uniform. So he waited...until he grew up.
That...that is SUCH a Batman-like thing to do! For the second time this week, I'm actually liking Batman. Who'd a'thunk?
Feeling a bit better about himself, Booster flies off to find Rip, and to tell him that he's back in. Rip is busy writing enigmatic clues on his chalkboard again. Azrael fans should be rejoicing! And a possible hint about the Blackets Night. And Ralph! And Booster receives one of the biggest shocks of his life, when his dead sister Michelle shows up, alive and kicking!
Booster if flabberghasted of course. Rip explains that he figured out a way to pull her out just before the explosion killed her. When Booster wonders why Rip was able to save Michelle but not Ted, he explains that since Michelle was also from the future, the rules were different. Things in the past are SET in the past, but the future is malleable...or something. I don't think that Booster cares. After all the crap he's gone through, something has finally gone right.
Oh Rip! Suddenly you just got a whole lot more interesting! I can't WAIT to find out who his mother is!
And that's how the Carter family came to found the Time Hunters. Booster and Michelle go off to Paris for lunch, and Skeets wears a beret. Oh, and a mysterious dark figure with a scarab, breaks into Kord Industries. Uh oh.
As is his wont, Geoff Johns leaves us with some intriguing hints about future storylines. I know that MY appetite has been whetted!
posted by SallyP @ 8:31 AM
7 Comments:
See? In the hands of a writer who DOESN'T fall back on the cheap-and-easy route of depicting him as a paranoid psycho (I blame Frank Miller), Bats is actually a decent man and noble hero! :-)
I still can't say I have much love for Batman. This scene was very nice and I'm glad he's giving Booster credit where credit is due, but I don't think it excuses the fact that Bats was a jerk to him before. In fact, it makes it seem all that much worse to me, because he was a jerk even knowing that there was something more to Booster all along.
Here's what I didn't quite understand about the whole "changing the past" thing, though. When Rip used saving Batgirl as an example of the past being concrete or whatever, Booster literally couldn't save her, no matter how hard he tried. Therefore you'd think that a similar thing would have happened with Ted -- Booster would have tried to stop him from being shot, and just failed over and over and over again. Yet he was able to save him. It just screwed with the timestream. To me that implies that Ted's death really isn't set in stone at all; that somehow, there's a way to make it work.
Ah, but it has to be put to rest for now. I love this book even though I really wish DC would stop teasing us with Ted, and I'm thrilled to see Michelle back! And I wanna know who Rip's mama is.
That was one of the finest comics I've read in a very long time. It was perfect.
Only one man could have packed more squee into one issue, and that's John Rogers (and he already did).
It WAS a nice finale. And yes, I am quite curious as to who could possibly be Rip's mother.
Sea, you're right of course. You always are.
Duskdog, you raise a very valid point about Ted's death. Like you, I wish they'd just stop screwing around and figure out another way to resurrect Ted. AND Max, while they're at it. I still like Max, dammit!
I kind of figured the Black Beetle had some sort of device (courtesy of one of the other Time Stealers) that enabled them to save Ted, despite his death supposedly being inevitable, while knowing full well it would cause the cascade effect of Max Lord conquering the world.
So if Booster and Rip could get ahold of that gizmo, they could save Babs, but you'd get another disastrous future somehow as a result, as a consequence of changing something that's not supposed to be changed.
Time travel gives me such a headache.
Also, when Batman's talking about letting the world think you're crazy, he's got a finger up next to his skull, like he's tapping himself on the side of the head. Is he thinking of himself as an example? Where people think he's nuts, and he uses that to his advantage?
Batman is definitely saying that, Calvin.
So yeah, Johns leaves with the furthest possible numbering on the comic. Historians in the far future will think he did all issues from 0-1,000,000. And he leaves the next writer(s) with a number of interesting possibilities.
New Time Masters, someone with a familiar laugh breaking into the Bug Cave, Rip's true parentage, and of course, the four panel preview (which I hope becomes a mainstay if the series keeps going - it'd be funny if outgoing writers actually threw curveballs at incoming ones).
It's up to them not to drop the ball.
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