Booster Gold #2: Leggo My Ego

Booster v. Sinestro

Time travel adventures are going to be a pretty hot item over the next couple of years. Legion of Super-heroes are bouncing all around time, Journeyman is scoring high on NBC, and Booster Gold and Rip Hunter are tripping through the time stream. The debut issue was an awesome smack in the face that made me want to follow the adventures of Rip, Booster, and Skeets. As I swim through my growing pile of issues not yet read, issue #2 floated to the surface. Did Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz hit another ball out of the ballpark? Will Blue Beetle be resurrected? And what is up with Supernova?

Trouble is brewing in the Time Sphere. While Booster has some success in making one correction to the timeline, he isn’t willing to continue the adventure until Rip promises they will save Blue Beetle from his untimely demise. Rip does make that promise, so it looks like we’ll see a Blue Beetle Booster Gold team-up before we hit issue #12.

The big problem that needs fixing in this issue is that of the Greatest Green Lantern of Them All. Last issue Booster was given a death certificate for Hal Jordan, but strange things are afoot at the Circle K, because in the blink of an eye, the certificate changes to say the greatest Green Lantern is Guy Gardner.

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History begins to change before their eyes, and it is revealed Sinestro meets Guy decades before Guy became a member of the Corps. Guy later dies from a yellow plague, and without Guy around, the Sinestro Corps is able to take over the universe.

If you aren’t reading the Sinestro Corps War over in the pages of Green Lantern, you’re going to be a bit lost, and you are also missing out on a really good series that isn’t getting the play it should from DC. For those of you who are reading Sinestro Corps War, this little reveal by Skeets might be a bit of a spoiler, but since that moment hasn’t happened yet, there’s certainly something to look forward to…providing Sinestro doesn’t meet Guy too early.

Booster and Skeets make the jump, while Rip goes time diving to investigate anomalies 80 years in the past.

Blue Beetle has been mentioned several times in two issues in addition to that interesting coming attractions panel that showed all the Blue Beetles assisting in Ted’s rescue. While everyone is making their time jumps, Johns and Katz send the reader back to 1939 to tell the origin of Dan Garrett as the Blue Beetle in the Charlton revamp. There is a bit of a problem with the continuity here. While Blue Beetle was introduced in 1939, in Fox Comics’ Mystery Men Comics #1, it wasn’t until 1966 (after Fox Comics sold the character to Charlton Comics) that Dan Garrett was retconned as an archeologist who finds the stone, instead of a rookie police officer. It’s a little nit-picky I know, but that little it of history could be valuable in the future.

Way back in the day, Guy Gardner was kicking it in Pasadena, hoping to head to the Rose Bowl. He’s a little upset by something, and doesn’t appear to be the loud mouth braggart that we have all come to know and love. While the writers have done a good job of identifying the dates events occur, they left out the date of this event. The only clue given is the game day ticket Guy is holding features the University of Michigan taking on the University of Washington. A quick check of the Wiki reveals Washington and Michigan have met up several times – 1978, 1981, 1992, and 1993. I know, there goes that nit-picking again, but the info may be important in the future. I prefer to think this event happens in 1978, but that’s just me. Before Booster and Skeets can investigate, Sinestro enters the picture.

Apparently Supernova told Sinestro about Guy’s Green Lantern gig, and Sinestro wants to find out what makes Guy the greatest of them all. Luckily before the fateful meet up can occur, Booster body tackles Sinestro, and the two battle it out in the skies above Pasadena and even do some damage to the Rose Bowl itself. While all this is going on Sinestro and Booster exchange quite a bit of dialogue. None of it is really important, except that Sinestro is quite the chatty fellow.

And that is what gives Booster his grand idea for the issue. Instead of battling it out, Booster goes for flattery.

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Yeah, and Sinestro is just stupid enough to believe all the BS Booster is dishing up, buying it hook, line and sinker. Of course in all the hamming it up, Booster may have made one slight mistake.

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Sinestro heads back to Koruger, which gives Booster a chance to find out what is up with the Moody Guy Gardner.

Meanwhile, Rip travels through the time stream clicking his way through the decades. It is really cool to watch the sequences playing out behind the time traveler, as they represent special moments in DC history. I especially like the Dr. Thirteen panel that takes place after the Architecture and Mortality series, where the team complains about the Architects’ (presumably the writers of the DCU) unwillingness to give the really obscure and lesser characters a chance instead favoring the “popular fellows” like Booster Gold, Renee Montoya, Animal Man, John Fox (ha!), Sasha Bordeaux and Mr. Terrific. Rip is looking for the source of the anomaly, and it looks like he’s found it.

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Booster ends up hanging out with Guy in a bar and the two begin to talk about what troubles them the most. For Guy it is his mother giving him a hard time over coming to see his dirt bag father who is dying. Booster says he wishes his father had asked to see him before he died, and that is enough for Guy to pick up a phone and get on the next flight back home.

And with that, the time hole closes and Booster and Skeets are back aboard the Time Sphere. It is only then that Skeets tells Booster that had Guy not gone home to see his father, Guy would have been the closest to Abin Sur’s crash site and would have been made the first Green Lantern of Earth. Oh boy, if Booster and Guy don’t get along now, wait until Guy finds out Booster is responsible for Guy being the number two guy in the GLC.

Also at that moment, Guy Gardner’s death certificate morphs into something new – the death certificate of Superman! Does this mean we are going to travel to the Death of Superman line next?

We don’t have a chance to find out at Rip’s battered and beaten body smacks into the Time Sphere. Before Booster can react, Supernova flies by, gives a wave, and vanishes into the time stream, ending up in the old west. There he disguises himself and hires himself a gunslinger to help him kill a couple of pesky varmints.

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The space station Rip encounters doesn’t look like the Monitor satellite, but knowing the Monitors are trying to fix time in their own way, it wouldn’t surprise me if one of them is hidden beneath Supernova’s mask.

The Good

• A very special Guy/Michael moment
• Sinestro twirling his mustache
• Booster giving Sinestro the idea for the Sinestro Corps
• The time stream images

The Bad

• Not a big fan of mopey lonely Guy
• Quantum Leap moments may get old after a while

I was hooked from the very first page of issue #1, and after rereading this issue for the third time, that feeling of “oh wow” is still strong. While the Quantum Leap idea of fixing holes in the time stream may get old before too long, I’m still a fan for now. The writers continue to write Booster as that smart character that everyone doesn’t get – one who is able to figure out a solution to nearly any problem. With the Jonah Hex sighting, I’m more than excited to see what happens in issue #3. For keeping the story going strong, I’m giving Booster Gold #2 4.5 out of 5 Stars.

Parting Shot
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