What goes around comes around
Time travel. I used to think stories that involved time travel were a hoot and holler as they tended to be a lot of fun as the hero would stumble through time paradoxes, try to keep from meeting himself, and generally screwing around with history. Booster Gold has been time trippin’ for the last 16 issues, so one would think the latest installment would be full of goodness. You’d think that wouldn’t you?
I’m sure there is an endgame in sight for Booster Gold, we just don’t know what it is yet. For several issues, Booster has been jumping through time uncontrollably ala Scott Bakula, as he tries to figure out what a mysterious Egyptian knife is being used for.  Booster Gold #17, find Booster appearing in a very familiar place – issue #4 to be exact, the moment where he discovered his father was the new Supernova, and where Barry Allen gets struck by lightning to become the Flash. While trying to not interfere with his past self and Supernova, and trying to prevent Chronos from stealing a bunch of clocks, he does bump into the mysterious chronal energy being who has kidnapped Goldstar.
The mystery guest is only interested in one thing — getting the knife from Booster.  It seems that he needed to steal the knife from three different time periods in order to do something to the beginning at the beginning of time. What that is, we won’t discover until the next issue, but I would bet it has nothing to do with Final Crisis. Still, that part of the mystery is a good one, and while I’m sure the answer will shock and amaze us all (we’ve already had to doozies thrown at us so far; the first being Supernova’s reveal, and the other being Rip Hunter’s true origin).
The portion of the issue that grew rather tiresome was Booster once again appearing during a key moment in a heroes origin. With Barry Allen newly resurrected status in the DCU, his guest appearance, and origin story, seem fitting, but I wish it was handled more like the Guy Gardner story from a while ago. It’s not that I don’t like Booster using his mind to trick Barry Allen to get back to the lab in time to be struck by lightning, and it’s not that I don’t like Booster Gold being the most important hero in the DCU; I just think Dan Jurgens should stretch his legs a little more and do something a little more daring.
That being said, the ending of this issue is going to have serious repercussions for future Booster stories, as future Booster decides the only way he’s going to solve the mystery is to team up with past Booster. Yep, two Boosters for the price of one. I’m sure Booster’s son Rip Hunter will end up lecturing ad nauseam about screwing up the timeline, but if the duo don’t win, Hunter may find himself never being born.
As far as the Origins and Omens backup story goes, it’s hinted that Booster will have some role to play in Blackest Night. Until that story finally arrives though, we won’t know if this backup story is one that we really need to pay attention to, or if DC is just pulling our chain trying to get us to buy into an issue that might somehow give a clue to the big picture. It’s nothing more than a retelling of how Booster and his sister came to be the time traveling heroes we know and love today. Considering we’ve seen Booster’s origin story told at least three different times in the last five years, my bet is this is nothing more than page filler.
Is my interest in time traveling stories waning? I don’t think so, as I really enjoy the concept of hopping through time. I think what I’m craving is a smart, well thought out, time travel story that keeps me on the edge of my seat. While Booster Gold #17 was good, it just didn’t have the Ka-Pow! factor, which ultimately causes the issue to tumble to a 2.5 Star rating. Here’s hoping the conclusion to this four issue arc brings it everything together into a fantastic moment.
3 Comments
The stories are sucking because Dan Jurgens is writing them.
It took other writers to make his character entertaining and, eventually, relevant. Jurgens created the character, tries to take the ball handed to him by writers who knew his character better than he does, and instead of running with it, trips at every step.
This book will be gone before issue 30.
Wait, this book is still being put out??
It completely fell off my radar after Johns left.
I kind of agree with Dave. The first few issues of this book were awesome, but the last several have felt like nothing more than variation upon a theme. The Elongated Man and Batman crossover issues felt self-indulgent, and the balance of characterization has been off ever since Michelle entered the picture.
It’s a weird fate for such a good book, and strange to say that the character’s creator has ruined it. :)