DCU Comic Book Reviews

BOOSTER GOLD #0

Blue & Gold, Chapter 1:  The Secret Origin Of Booster Gold

April 2008

Written by Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz

Layouts by Dan Jurgens

Inks by Norm Rapmund

Cover by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund

Synopsis

Booster Gold has just saved his best friend, Blue Beetle, from being killed by Max Lord, with a little help from other Blue Beetles from past, present, and future.  As they travel through time in Rip Hunter’s time sphere, they encounter Parallax and Extant, a time-traveling duo who tried to remake the world.  Parallax and Extant attempt to stop the time sphere, but the team of Blue & Gold is able to make their get away.  However, at the last minute Extant sends them to the 25th Century.  There, they learn the time sphere no longer works.  Booster Gold, however, knows of time sphere that will work:  the one he used to travel back in time.  They break into the museum to steal the time sphere.  They are attacked by OMACs, but they are able to get away.  On the return trip, the other Blue Beetles are sent back to their time.  Later, Booster Gold and Blue Beetle return to Rip Hunter’s laboratory, where they are overrun by OMACs looking to terminate the Blue & Gold.      

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

“We’re five grown men dressed in bright colors inside a clear plastic bubble set against a rainbow background.  They saw us.”

Back in 1994, the Zero Hour crossover was written and pencilled by Dan Jurgens, the current penciller for this book.  Since he is also credited as the original creator of Booster Gold, this issue must have been an odd blast of the past for him.  For me, since I wasn’t reading comics back in the early 90s, the issue was less of a Zero Hour tie-in (as it has been referred to) and more of just part of the ongoing adventures of the new book, albeit numbered oddly.  In one sense, this was an enjoyable issue with a great look at the origin of Booster Gold (revisiting a character’s origins was part of the Zero Hour crossover), especially coming right after the look in the previous issue of his relationship with Ted.  The frustrating part is that the book doesn’t really move the story along.  Rather, the characters spin their wheels in place until the final couple of pages.  Think about it; if you remove the first 18 or so pages you really wouldn’t be missing much from the narrative flow:  they save Ted, the other Blue Beetles go home, the Blue & Gold are harassed by OMACs, presumably because of the mess they created when they saved Ted to begin with.  Everything else up to then is just Johns, Katz, and Jurgens having fun with Zero Hour with the cameo from Parallax and Extant (the original villains, in case you didn’t know) and the origin of Booster Gold.  That is not to say the issue was a fun read, but it lacks substance to the main story of this book.