DCU Comic Book Reviews

BOOSTER GOLD #16

Reality Lost, Part Two

March 2009

Written by Dan Jurgens

Layouts by Dan Jurgens

Inks by Norm Rapmund

Cover by Dan Jurgens And Norm Rapmund

Synopsis

Booster Gold has been transported to World War I, where he is immediately attacked by Hans von Hammer (aka Enemy Ace) and captured by an American soldier who thinks he is German.  Elsewhere, Goldstar searches for her brother, but the time sphere can get a lock on when he is.  Meanwhile, Booster Gold convinces the soldier is an American as well.  He then learns they are behind enemy lines, with Enemy Ace coming after them.  Booster uses his Legion ring to shoot down the plane.  Enemy Ace crashes.  However, he is unhurt and armed.  Enemy Ace takes Booster and the soldier hostage.  He takes them to a nearby castle where they are put into dungeon.  The American soldier is then tortured to learn American secrets.  Booster Gold stops it, but is then target as the next one to be tortured.  Later, Enemy Ace, who no longer wants innocent blood on his hands, helps Booster to escape.  He takes the soldier to an American hospital.  There Booster learns he just saved Cyrus Lord, ancestor to Max Lord.  Just then Booster disappears into time.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

I liked this issue and I thought it was well-done single issue story that still managed to fit into the larger context of storyarc that Jurgens is trying to tell.  I wish comic books would adopt this style of storytelling (telling one-in-done stories but still keeping a larger mythology to the book) more often.  My only complaint is that this is a somber issue.  I have said before in other reviews that the key to this book is to keep it light and frothy.  This issue is the opposite.  Don’t get me wrong, I liked it for a change of pace and the characterization of Enemy Ace was chilling.  But if this is the tone that Jurgens is angling for, I am uncertain if this series can last. 

Who the hell is Enemy Ace?  It is a little odd to see Enemy Ace on the cover, a character that has not been seen in this series until this issue.  Granted, it works within the context of the story, but not part of the “Faces of Evil” thingy.  This is the one character featured on the cover that had me scratching my head.  I kinda recognized the name, but couldn’t quite place it.  I think the problem is that Enemy Ace, while a bad guy, is not a particular bad guy in the world of Booster Gold.  Enemy Ace starred in a number of stories of the years, all of them related to the big World Wars.  But nothing related to Booster.  It would have been nicer to have a Booster Gold enemy rather than just a guest star for this issue. 

I didn’t particularly like the ending when the identity of the other soldier was revealed.  It is just kinda there.  It didn’t work for me.  I don’t know, it just felt obvious, like Jurgens added in there because he needed a kicker to the story, not because it logical flowed from the events in the issue or the overall story.  I hate twists that are twists so for the sake of a twist.

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