DCU Comic Book Reviews

BOOSTER GOLD #11

Vicious Cycle, Part One

October 2008

Written by Chuck DIxon

Layouts by Dan Jurgens

Inks by Norm Rapmund

Cover by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund

Synopsis

In Gotham, the Killer Moth is in the middle of robbing the museum when Batman and Robin to foil the attempt.  Nearby, Wiley Dalbert tries to grab the loot, but is stopped by Batgirl.  When she takes an amulet and smashes it, however, she begins to erase herself and the Dynamic Duo from history.  Meanwhile, Rip Hunter recognizes the change in history and tells Booster Gold they need to restore the correct timeline.  So, Booster takes over the role of Killer Moth, successfully completing the robbery while making sure the amulet remains intact.  Booster than realizes that Wiley is a time traveler as well.  When Booster gets back to the Time Sphere, Rip tells him that history has still changed.  Now, Killer Moth is in charge of Gotham.  Rip tells Booster he is going to have to go back and take the place of Batman.  However, when they get to the batcave.  Alfred is waiting for them, brandishing a gun, in which he shoots Rip.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

The cliffhanger with Rip getting shot is the type of ending we know will be resolved within the first few pages of the next issue.  It has nothing to do with the rest of the story, or indeed the shifting timeline caused by the museum robbery.  You can remove that moment in this issue and you can see it has no impact on anything else going on with the plot.  It seems to exist solely to provide the cliffhanger (and perhaps even a little bit of shock value) that will get the reader to come back for more. 

Anyway, I liked this issue.  It doesn’t have the same humor that Johns and Katz brought to the story, but it does have the lightness and fun.  I liked the way Dixon fiddles with the time stream, showing how Booster’s competence in the robbery changed the history, and creditability (street cred) of Killer Moth and for Gotham.  I also liked the little touches that were added to the shifts in history, such as Gordon with the eye patch (which makes me wonder if that was the writer or the artist that added that touch).

The appearance of Goldstar in this issue seems almost incidental to the story.  I am willing to bet that when Dixon originally wrote this story, he did not write Goldstar into the story.  Her role seems to be nothing more than spout a few lines here and there, which Booster could’ve easily said.  But Johns and Katz, in their last issue, added Goldstar to the cast, so Dixon (or maybe the editors) had to find a way to shoehorn her in.  Of course, we’ll know for certain next month since Goldstar would make a great next to Booster’s Batman. 

The original Wiley story, as the editor box states, was in Detective Comics, issues #714 and #715 (waaay back in October 1997), written by (who else?) Chuck Dixon.