DCU Comic Book Reviews

BOOSTER GOLD #23

Day Of Death, Part III of IV

October 2009

Written by Dan Jurgens

Layouts by Dan Jurgens

Inks by Norm Rapmund

Cover by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund

Synopsis

Thanks to the death of the Titans, Black Beetle has created a new timelines in which the JLA have been killed.  At the Vaninishing Point, Rip Hunter catches a glimpse of this future.  In the past, Booster Gold stands among the fallen Titans.  Raven appears and demands to know what is going on.  Booster explains he is from the future.  Raven believes him.  Suddenly, Rip appears.  The three travel to the future.  There, via a disabled computer, they learn Raven’s father Trigon has taken over the Earth.  Meanwhile, Lex Luthor reports to Black Beetle that someone is hacking into the system.  Later, Rip, Raven, and Booster encounter the Resistance, led by Kyle Rayner and Zatanna.  They are led back to resistance headquarters, but when they realize they are being followed, booster decides to create a diversion.  And encounters Trigon. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

This wasn’t a bad issue, but overall I felt underwhelmed with the whole thing.  Unlike last month, in which the main plot dovetailed nicely into established DC continuity, this offering is a typical alternative future story that has been done numerous times before in various DC stories.  It is not that it is a bad idea, but it is an overused idea, such as the appearance of Kyle Rayner as the “hero who didn’t become a costumed hero but is still doing good.”  The other problem, I think, is that the character of Trigon is also overused, appearing recently in Titans as well as over the years in various other stories in Teen Titans.  So, to see Trigon take over the world is not an uncommon image and knowing he has failed before doesn’t make the threat here seem that difficult.  In fact, since we don’t even see Trigon take over the world, the threat doesn’t feel real at all.  It feels more like a plot device, one in which Booster will fix quickly (because hey its part three of the story).

One other thing I didn’t quite get.  It is established that you can’t really lie to Raven (when Booster explains he is from the future), so why in the world would she believe Booster’s claims that he is the greatest hero in the universe.  Is it because Booster believes it as well?  She says “I sense your words are true” so maybe it has more to do with what the speaker believes than anything else.  Or was her “seriously” just a reaction to this veiled comment that she could be next to date him?

Wasn’t this story about Batman?  Did Jurgens get off on a tangent or will this eventually find its way around again to where it started?

The cover features Blair Butler, a host of the segment “Fresh Ink” (which reviews comic books) on the G4 program Attack of the Show!  Wish I could offer more, but G4 is not a channel I regularly actually tune into watch, so I am clueless (insert joke here).  Anyway, I am guessing that DC didn’t create the shirt just for the cover.  I would bet the shirt is white and the image was added in later, although DC would be smart to get that shirt into stores, like right now.

Armor-Plated, Part 3 of 3:  Thoroughly Modern Maria

Written by Matthew Sturges

Art by Mike Norton and Norma Rapmund

Synopsis

After San Antonio has been attacked by robots, Paco tracks down the daughter of the creator of the robots.  When Paco is missing for several hours, Blue Beetle follows.  There, he learns the daughter is a robot and engineered the attacks to create a diversion to break her father out of jail so he can make her better.  She was built with emotions and now she wants them removed.  With the help of Brenda and Paco, Blue Beetle is able to defeat the robot.  Afterwards, Black Beetle appears and takes the robot, telling Blue Beetle he has a date.

Review

I am a little surprised the robot story wrapped up here; although I guess the page count for the three parts kinda make up a single issue, so it is not like it is a short story.  Maybe I am just used to six-part stories to fit the trade paperback, so I wasn’t expecting a resolution.  Even if it felt short, Struges did a great job with the story, showcasing the humor and the action while addressing the relationship between Brenda and Paco and continuing to drop hints about the scarab’s sudden thirst for blood.  In a way, the plot may have ended, but the story of the characters and the Blue Beetle continues. 

The appearance of the Black Beetle at the end of this issue will get many readers to wonder if there will be a team-up of the two features in the near future.  I am not quite sure how I feel about this.  One the one hand, I like the idea of connecting the features, but on the other hand this has the potential of being a train wreck as the writers attempt to get everything to mesh together.