DCU Comic Book Reviews

BOOSTER GOLD #19

Reality Lost, Epilogue

June 2009

Written by Dan Jurgens

Layouts by Dan Jurgens

Inks by Norm Rapmund

Cover by Dan Jurgens And Norm Rapmund

Synopsis

Several years ago, Rip Hunter completes a mission than makes sure Koriand’r (aka Starfie) is where she supposed to be.  Once he is certain she is safe, Rip attempts to return home, but finds he is unable.  Rip wonders what Booster has done.  Elsewhere, Booster Gold is literally talking to himself.  He used a previous of himself to alter history to make sure the scarab is where it needs to be when Blue Beetle finds it.  Now, Booster needs to return himself back to the timeline.  At the Vanishing Point, GoldStar watches all of the events that occurred during her “death.”  Skeets tries to tell her that reliving those moments is not good for her.  She disagrees.  She then disables Skeets and decides to leave.  Meanwhile, the two Boosters return to the Vanishing Point.  Booster learns her sister has disappeared, but he doesn’t know when.  Booster then returns himself to the past and then back to Rip’s lab to bring him back from his mission.  

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

For an issue that is largely useless and not necessary, it was still an entertaining read.  I gotta give credit to Jurgens in writing two characters of Booster Gold that are distinctly different from each other (and easily recognizable without the visual clue of the ripped costume).  Just based on the way they act and talk and conduct themselves, it is easy to tell the older, more experienced Booster, which is amazing given how little time has passed between the time periods of the two Boosters.  Moreover, I think it is a credit to this series that Booster Gold has changed so much in a short period of time in a natural, organic way.  Having said that, however, the Booster talking to himself sequence didn’t really accomplish much in terms of the story or the plot.  The scene more or less seems to be taking up space.  Actually, I would say the majority of this issue is just marking space, save for the scenes with GoldStar and her decision to follow the advice of REO Speedwagon and take it on the run.  I really think Jurgens needed to find a way to get those scenes into the previous issue, condense Booster’s return to Rip’s lab, and maybe concentrate the issue on Rip’s mission to keep Starfire on the right path.  Overall, for what Jurgens wanted to accomplish, I think the issue is too long, but despite that, I did enjoy the conversation between Booster and himself so just for that, I think it was worth it. 

I am unfamiliar with the history of Starfire, so I am not sure if the events in the first few pages are part of DC publication history or part of DC universe history or both.  Those scenes felt fresh and alive and I would’ve liked to have seen more.  As I have said before with this title, I think it works best when Booster Gold is playing timecop with DC continuity.  In the “Reality Lost” story, the main story was the search for the daggers with DC continuity only coming into play on occasion.  To me, I think the mission needs to fix DC continuity rather than the fix of continuity as a by-product of the mission. 

I liked the ending with Rip’s incredulous response to Booster fixing time on his own.  It just goes to show you that no matter how much one changes, many will see you as they always did.

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