At Last, some comics reviews:- Booster Gold #42 & JL: Generation Lost #21

Ok, I know, I know, they are both DC titles, but what can I say? I love DC,  always have; the only other comics I felt any connection to as a kid were assorted 2000ad titles, their US (four colour)reprints and Judge Dredd spin offs, while the only Marvels I ever bought were incomplete instalments of stories, randomly picked out of the frustratingly tangled web of  interconnected  Spiderman & X-men comics, which I quickly found were at lot easier to follow in the British editions, shortly before deciding to not bother with them at all. I was also very fond of Viz, Electric Soup & The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, from around the age of 13 and until the market became flooded with a slew of instantly forgettable(despite the graphic and tasteless depictions of heinous shit they usually contained) "Adult Humour" magazines that began to appear across the UK, giving us all the chance to rediscover dear old  Frederic Wertham's POV, refracted through the  lens of the UK tabloid machine, but I digress......

Spoilers Below!




Booster Gold #42 & JL:Generation Lost #21

JL:GL #21
Judd Winick (Writer0
Fernando Dagnino & Raul Fernandez (Art)

I've decided to review these two comics together, basically because BG #42 has me wondering how JL:GL # 21 would be this week, were Keith Giffin still on writing duties for both books. I think the problems of having Booster appear in both titles concurrently were apparent at the outset, and could have been the catalyst for Giffen's sudden departure. To enjoy both, I need to switch to extreme suspension of disbelief mode and look at it as though both storylines are happening somewhere in the same year, rather than concurrently. Thanks to the time travel factor, this is a lot easier than it would be usually for me, as despite being a lazy, unpunctual, slovenly and inconsistent individual here on Earth Prime, I'm something of a stickler for continuity in my comics.
   JL:GL#20 ended up with Max Lord ventilating a Blue Beetle's skull for the second time, and so, for most of this issue we were led on a tour of the other character's reactions to the apparent death of Jaime Reyes. From the death inspired passion, ahem, igniting between Beatriz LaCosta(Fire) and Gavril Ivanovich(Rocket Red), to the reflections of Nathaniel Adams(Captain Atom)  on his loss of humanity, as Tora Olafsdotter(Ice) brought a candle to his dark night of the soul by reflecting that he will always be there to protect humanity as a result of the accident that gave him his powers; a thought which comforts her. As ever, Booster Gold had the trusty, but sarky,  flying robot, Skeets, as his wise counsel, uging him not to beat himself up over letting Maxwell Lord take away another of his closest friends, while reflecting on the overall damage Lord had done since his resurrection  in Blackest Night #8. All of this made for a genuinely affecting requiem; that is, until Jaime stood up on the last page declaring he has a plan to beat Lord once and for all. Now, I'm sure there are many who cheered as they reached this page, but  I was not among them. When DC promised to close the 'revolving door' around the infinite deaths and resurrections in their comics, I took it to mean we wouldn't be seeing any more deaths followed by resurrections within 6 months to 2 years. Having a character shot in the brain, only to be brought back  by the life support system in his weaponizsd bio-suit is a renege on that promise; the fact that it happened over two issues, before the character had a chance to have a funeral does not make the 'death' exempt in my view. Although I generally enjoy this series, sometimes I get the feeling Judd Winick has simply been treading water, providing plenty of consequence free dialogue and giving . Of course, another way of looking at it is Jaime's apparent death was necessary to finding out what's going on with Lord, as his attempts to separate him from the sentient Scarab(which makes him Blue Beetle) may have afforded them some leverage into the war machine the enemy is operating from. Despite the misleading premise of the issue, it was an interesting read, while good art, character development and banter continue to make this a title I would most likely stick with beyond the limited run of 24 issues.

Booster Gold #42


Keith Giffen, J.M Matteis(Absolutely able writers)
Chris Batista & Pat Oliffe(also amazingly able as artists)

 In Booster Gold #42, we catch up with Booster in the 25th Century as he continues the five year sentence imposed on him for stealing the time-bubble and powered suit that transformed Michael Jon Carter, shamed foootball  player , into Booster  Gold, cocky hero in the first place. His cellmate, 'The Perforated Man', after some totally transparent build up, turns out to be an older, diseased and insane version of Booster himself, who appears to be twisted and insane as a result of his constant time travelling.  There follows a neat little twist on the myths and theories of what would happen if time travelling versions of the same person share the same space in time as the two Booster's go at it with each other, each punch landing them in a different time zone, from the dinosaur era via Paris 1600, etc,  to a cliffhanger on the surface of our dying sun. It becomes clear that Rip Hunter has set this event up on purpose, though since we know that Rip is actually Booster's son and his father is alive and well(as seen in Time Masters:Vanishing Point #6 last month) we have to assume that The Perforated Man is an anomaly of some kind, possibly arising from DC's upcoming alternate future crossover event,  Flashpoint, which will see the entire DC Universe change beyond all reason and recognition, leaving one or two good guys to save the day, much like every other comics event really, but let's not moan before we've seen issue 1, at least! Chris Batistas art is nicely done, reminding me of Carlos Pacheco, with a little beautiful simplicity similar to  Francis Manapul's recent Flash output; and the Perforated Man/Old Booster reminds me of one of the Furies of Apokolips, I think its the slightly kinky(or kinkier than usual) head and face mask! I'm enjoying the narrative device here, that's a twist on the old 'Dead Man Tells His Tale In Flashback',  since Booster couldn't possibly be dead as he has returned to Rip's Lab, yet  still seems in genuine peril in the story he's telling, leaving us to wonder how they got out of it, and if the right Booster made it back alive! Anyway, I liked this as much as any past Booster Gold comics, and although I'm looking forward to the return of Dan Jurgens(who is never very far away from this 80's creation of his while at DC), I'll miss Matteiss and Giffen on the title. Maybe I'll seek out their Metal Men(which ran as a back up in Giffens Doom Patrol)when they wrap up here, providing the next couple of issues don't finally reveal them as the tired old hack writers they actually are, "Bwah, hah, hah, hah,"*


*See Justice League International/Europe, out now in TPB, folks!