DCU Comic Book Reviews

BOOSTER GOLD #24

Day Of Death, Epilogue

November 2009

Written by Dan Jurgens

Layouts by Dan Jurgens

Inks by Norm Rapmund

Cover by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund

Synopsis

In the year 2020, Trigon rules Earth.  It is a future that shouldn’t exist.  Booster Gold has arrived at this time in an attempt to change the timeline.  Booster attacks Trigon, who easily defeats him.  But at the request of Black Beetle, who orchestrated the changed timeline, wants Booster Gold kept alive.  Elsewhere, Rip Hunter and Raven convince Earth’s resistance to help him defeat Trigon.  Meanwhile, Black Beetle tortures Booster to find the location of the time sphere.  When Booster doesn’t talk, Beetle leaves the torture in the hand of Lex Luthor.  However, Luthor sets Booster free, hoping Booster will find a way to defeat Trigon.  Booster calls Skeets and Raven teleports the resistance to their location.  There they find a hidden chamber that contains artifacts from fallen heroes.  They are able to get inside.  And then the trap is sprung.  Luthor was working with Black Beetle all the time.  Black Beetle needed to get inside the chamber so he could grab a red scarab.  He then disappears.  Booster, Hunter, and Raven then return to the time sphere, return to the moment that caused Trigon’s ascension, and restore the timeline the way it was meant to be. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Maybe I missed something, but the entire trip to the future and the world controlled by Trigon seemed like a complete and utter waste of time.  If all Booster had to do was to go back to Ravager’s attack on the Titans and change what happened, why didn’t he do that in the first place?  And don’t tell me that they needed to go to the future so the Black Beetle could get his hands on the red scarab.  You could do that anytime, anywhere.  It is not dependent on future events where Trigon rules the world.  And even if it was, it has nothing to do with the Titans or Ravager.  Don’t forget, Raven was from the original timeline, so they pulled her from the present, to the future for a useless encounter with Trigon, and then back to the present to deal with Ravager.  As perhaps you can tell, this issue did not sit well with me, at all.  Well maybe not that harshly.  There were a few things I liked, such as the way Luthor and Black Beetle used Booster to get what they wanted, and the way Kyle once more came into possession of the green power ring, but ultimately there was no reason for any of this take place.  We could’ve easily gone from the screw up with Ravager to finding to Raven to impersonating Deathstroke and skipped the entire sequence of the future Trigon.  And if Jurgens did all that simply for the red scarab, perhaps he needed to rethink where he was going to put it and how Black Beetle was going to get his hands on it.  There had to be a better way.  

Black And Blue, Part 1 of 2

Written by Matthew Sturges

Art by Mike Norton and Norma Rapmund

Synopsis

The Reyes family, along with Paco and Brenda, spend a day at the Big Bend National Park.  They are confronted by the Black Beetle, who claims on this day in history, he will die.  Jaime transforms in Blue Beetle and the two fight each other.  Black Beetle is able to get the upper hand.  When he tries to steal the scarab, Blue Beetle fights back.  With anger.  With the scarab telling him to kill.

Review

This was another terrific installment.  I love the Mr. T experiment and Sturges writes a nice family dynamic with the Reyes’. I also like the way Sturges keeps building on the recent reboot of the scarab (see the ending to Blue Beetle) and how it is more aggressive than before.  It plays well to the confrontation with Black Beetle.  I ma curious to see what happens next and, indeed, why Black Beetle made an appearance at the particular point. 

When Black Beetle first confessed that he was Hector there was a part of me that was actually annoyed.  I thought it was a stupid mistake.  Then when he revealed it was just part of a ruse, I had to commend Sturges for a well done fake out.  Because of what happened to Nadia and the way Hector left the book, it was entirely plausible Hector would become a villain to fight against Jaime.

I could have sworn Black Beetle and blue Beetle crossed paths before, making the claim that this is the first time they met incorrect.  However, I can’t be certain.  I could just be confusing other stories where Black Beetle made an appearance in the background but never actually made contact with Jaime.