Faces of Evil
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a big fan of company wide events. For some titles the company wide event works, almost like it was planned, but for the larger majority, the company wide event gets shoe horned in a way that pulls the reader away from the story because of the “Hey, look what we’re doing!†style of writing. Fortunately, for Booster Gold the Faces of Evil event works only because there is time travel involved.
When we last saw Booster, he and his sister were trying to recover a ancient Egyptian knife that was somehow tied a major time flux. Booster ended up getting sucked into time warp and ended up in Europe during World War I.
I’ve always appreciated how DC was able to bring characters from different time periods into company wide events, and it did it again here by pitting Booster Gold against the German pilot Hans von Hammer, a.k.a. the Enemy Ace. Without Skeets it’s a wonder Booster is able to keep dates, events, and people in check, but he is able to remember who von Hammer is, while at the same time duping those around him into thinking he’s wearing an experimental American aircraft uniform.
Booster discovers he is behind enemy lines, when he befriends a fellow American soldier by the name of Cyrus. Unfortunately, von Hammer captures them both and takes them to a hidden castle deep in the mountains for interrogation. Booster eventually makes his escape with Cyrus in tow, thanks to von Hammer, who isn’t too keen on his fellow German’s treatment of prisoners of war.
The big shocker of a reveal doesn’t come in the portrayal of von Hammer as a kinder softer killing machine, but the fact that Cyrus’ full name is Cyrus Lord and he is indeed a descendant of Max Lord – the guy who killed Booster’s best friend of all time. This revelation does bring up the classic question of “if you could go back in time and kill Hitler, would you?â€Â Booster has been bounced through the time stream enough recently, that he knows no matter what he does, certain moments in time are fixed, so even if he did kill Max’s ancestor, there’s no guarantee Blue Beetle would still be alive, if and when he returns to the present.
The Egyptian knife does play a key role in this story, but unfortunately, Dan Jurgens ends up falling into the classic Quantum Leap situation, whereby when the story is finished, Booster jumps to somewhere else in time.
I also didn’t care for the way Jurgens wrote off the fantastic reveal and confrontation between Booster and Ralph Dibny. As Michelle and Skeets jump into the Time Sphere they release a chronal wave that erases Ralph’s short term memory. I would much rather have left that memory in place as it could have lead to some very interesting stories down the road, or at least made certain revelations that much more tragic as Booster and Ralph both live with the memory of how loved one’s lives could have been saved.
I will admit I have no idea who the villain that is revealed at the end of the issue is, but once again, it’s time travel, so anything and everything is up for grabs.
For some reason, this far into the game, Booster Gold seems to be losing some of its luster for me. I don’t know if it is because the current story line seems to be a retread of what we’ve seen before in other time traveling stories, or if it is something else, but if something doesn’t change soon, I foresee Booster Gold losing readers, which would be a real shame. Even with that revelation in mind, this issue wasn’t terrible. It was a good story that featured characters from DC’s past done in a way that made sense. Booster Gold #16, earns an above average 3 out of 5 Stars from me.
102/102
5 Comments
I think it’s the meandering nature of this arc, with stories that seem designed to show us eras that Jurgens likes rather than tell a story are Johns’ arcs did.
Maybe it’s me, but Jurgens’ writing is always a bit circular and bland.
I think you hit it on the head good sir.
My feedback is similar to Matthew’s.
I read this sentence: “For some reason, this far into the game, Booster Gold seems to be losing some of its luster for me.”
And I said to myself, it’s because it’s written by Jurgens. He may have created the character, but it took 20 years and Geoff Johns to make the character heroic – and relevant.
If the book is starting to look like a sub-par rerun of Quantum Leap, it’s because it is, and unfortunately, it’s all this guy is capable of doing. It’s only a matter of time before this book is gone, gone, gone.
“Cyrus’ full name is Cyrus Lord and he is indeed a descendant of Max Lord”
I believe the word you wanted to use was “ancestor”. Max would be the descendant.
I really enjoyed Enemy Ace. I am considering buying the trades of his other appearances. I heard they were pretty good. Has anyone read them?