Booster Gold #1000000 Review

"Holding Back the Years"
Written by Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz
Art by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund

Seems like just yesterday we were at issue 9 but here we are now. It seems like such a shame that this title is probably going to get canceled with the departure of Katz and Johns but at least this title will make one awesome trade. It seems a shame that they leave this title after they introduced an awesome new direction to this title. At this point it is clear that Batman knows all, even though Gog is going around healing people and making miracles occur [hint hint towards the next review in this triple header] Batman is somehow aware of what occurs in alternate timeline and again thanks to Morrison he probably knows thanks to some monster Meth, the kind that bull rhinos use when they want to get up there which is very classy. It makes sense after everything Booster went through that he is sick and tired of being a great hero and not getting any R-E-S-P-E-C-T [find out what it means to me] but luckily Batman is there to give him the right peep talk to keep him in the game. This makes sense on so many levels because Batman is in the same situation as Booster where you do the greatest heroic deeds yet at the end of the day no one really knows you exist and no one knows whether you are legit or not. Batman is the ideal choice to talk Booster through this. The dialog was really nice. The ending was pretty balling as well, it is nice that the superhero gets a break every now and then instead of going through the Daredevil route which is one continuous put down [seriously that guy is f-ed in the a for life]. I am not sure how to feel on Rip being Booster's son, serious curveball there. It was a good idea to save the reveal until Booster matured enough to the point where you could see it but if they had pulled this stunt a bit earlier it would have been a total miss [wonder who the mom is though]. The epilogue is always nice and I would be more excited about it but knowing that Johns and Katz won't be there to see this title through. Lastly the chalkboard makes an appearance, that thing is a great little preview of things to come. I really like that chalkboard and think it should get its own book, seriously high brow stuff here people. While I really did like this issue it certainly did lack a certain sense of being a definitive Booster Gold story. The way I saw it these first two arcs while enjoyable seem to be a stepping stone to that great story which is on its way but sadly we won't get that great story and instead settle here. It isn't bad but this is a fun comic and a good story don't get me wrong, it just isn't anything spectacular but is fundamentally solid and enjoyable all the way around.

Art: BALLIN
Overall: GET IT

Jam Session

Howdy, I figure its finally time to dust off the shelf and actually handout the awards that our blog has so prominently displaced on the side for so long. [Note these awards reflect only the opinion of the OAO and do not reflect the views of Sports God or Viacom or any variation of the parent company] [[Double note the fans in the Boston Garden have very nice voices, I enjoyed their rendition of "Na Na Na, Hey hey hey, Goodbye"

The following comics have qualified for the best award that this blog is qualified to handout by the state of Kentucky and the Democratic Republic of the Congo:

Action Comics 866: Geoff Johns continues to be DC's franchise revivers as he takes old concept and makes them cool. Here he kicks off the Brianic arc and from the way he started its looking to be good, this goes without saying but having Superman look like Christopher Reeve helps, a lot.

Booster Gold 10: Another title penned by Geoff Johns, Booster Gold continues to ride the wave and move up through the DC heircharchy. This title is now standing on its last legs since Johns and Katz which makes this a last hurrah kind of effort. Sporting spider-man-esque [not enough hyphens] dialog this title is a fun title featuring great characters as well as a healthy dose of DCU history.

Moon Knight: This title is one of Marvels more underground titles. It features many main characters because the main character has multiple personalities. This title has intense action and deals with the darker side of superheoring. The art style helps convey the gritty feel of this comic. Though unintentional this comic may have won best moment for Moon Knight's creative method of defeating the villain, let's just say Newton would approve.

And the Rated R superstar is.....................................................................................................................

Booster Gold

This was a tightly contested race between Johns and Johns and Johns managed to pull it out. Action Comics will probably win next time when the story starts to pick up but Booster right now was the better issue. The dialog in this title has been awesome and features the breakout character of 2008 Skeets whose heroism and one liners are the stuff of legends. He alone managed to steal the show. Though having a weak ending the journey there was entertaining to let that slip. Johns has a fantastic way of weaving all the plotlines together and here he manges to go back all the way to 52 and weave those plotlines into this title. This was a monster issue and congratulations to it winning the Adam Copeland Award of Excellence.



Now it's time for the equally prestigious Rusty Venture Award. This is a new award meant to recognize the beauty of failure [the worst comic]. This title shows the "Beautiful sublime failure" that can be achieved through perseverance and commitment to anything and everything but excellence. So here are the nominees for the title that is worst than David Stern's mic skills:

Skarr Son of Hulk: Featuring sketchy art that won't allow you to recognzie or make anything out and also less than compelling dialog this title truly excels where others fail to fail. It is too early to condemn the whole series [got to wait two more issues, the countdown is on] but this issue makes a case for the Rusty Venture Award that is hard to ignore.

Titans 3: Judd "You Can't Read Me!!" Winick is back to form as he continues his pointless run on Titans. Sporting some bad dialog and a terrible premise this title is officially qualified to be condemned seeing it is 3 issues in. This title has consistently been down or up there depending on your views and hopefully it will lock up the award this time.

Amazing Spider-Man 562: With this title shipping three times a month it is nominated 3 times a month. This title isn't bad but due to the One More Day storyline Marvel has basically stated that Peter is not allowed to grow as a character and will forever be stuck as a single bachelor who can't get ahead no matter what. Due to that this title is going nowhere [more so than any comic] andthis franchise has fallen from flagship to third string.

And the Rusty Venture Failure is.........................................................................................................

Titans 3

This title excels because it does what the other two nominees cannot do, it fails [or succeeds] to justify why it should exist. There is really no reason for these Titans to come together logically. Skarr had Planet Hulk, Amazing Spider-Man has 561 issues some of which were at one point or another Rated R worthy [its true I swear] but Titans excels on having no logical basis to exist what-so-ever but manages to raise the bar even more failing to live up to any expectations that a poor child might have had. If you want to read something that has the word Titans in it read Teen Titans not this. This title is a class act and it truly shows beautiful sublime failure like no other.

Booster Gold #10 Review

Written by Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz
Art and cover by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund


With Game 4 being a complete joke I decided to knock out a review. Booster Gold is a C-List superhero looking to break into the upper tier of DC. With 52 and Johns guiding him it appears that he is going to make it. In this arc Booster has just saved Ted but altered the timeline beyond recognition and are now dealing with the after effects. The broken timeline itself is pretty awesome because Infinite Crisis, the Sincestro Corp War, and Superboy Prime all happened causing shit to be fucked up for real. Booster is fighting his dad who is leading a rag tag group of villains who are actually lead by Mr. Mind. This story is a continuation of 52 which I have not read past 23 but one day I will. The story has plenty of comedic moments all coming from Skeets. The dialog is awesome and I'm a fan of the comicbookish art. I didn't like how Ted is seemingly dead again because what the hell was the point then, it seems like a disappointment. The issue ends on a cliff hanger with Booster seemingly phasing out of time as well as Ted dying. Hopefully in the finale Johns and Katz can wrap it all up.

Art: BALLIN
Overall: GET IT

Booster Gold #8 Review

Blue and Gold (Chapter 3- Freedom Fighters)
Writer: Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz
Art: Dan Jurgens

Summary:
Booster Introduces the issue with the cardinal rule of time travel- don't mess with the past. He says that messing with the past can drastically mess with the future. We see Booster, Ted, Hawkman, and Green Arrow making their way to the Resistance hideout. Booster and Birdman's personalities quarrel for a while. They go to the hideout and see that it is made up of Wild Dog, Anthro, and Pantha. Ted says that they are so dead. We meet all of the characters, and Hawkman has the plan to take Ted's jet, which is undetectable from OMACs, and fly right into Max Lord's castle. Booster thinks the idea is crazy because Max has a secret weapon- Superman. We see Max Lord telling Superman to kill, but he can't. He says he will eventually break him, and have full control over him. We go to Rip, Daniel, and the reporter. Rip says that they found Ted's chronal residue at the end of time, so that is where they are going. Daniel and the Reporter don't want to go. We go to the bad guys. Some of them want to get rid of Rip, but Black Beetle says killing Booster is the primary goal. Supernova says that they must get rid of Booster before he realizes his true destiny. Supernova says kill Rip, save Daniel and the girl because they need to mate. Supernova gets this gorilla to destroy Rip's lab. Back to the ship. They are going about, and Booster still thinks its a bad idea. All of a sudden, Superman missles into the ship and kidnaps Anthro. They break into the castle and Hawkman makes a lot of noise. They get confronted by the cronies. This one chick stabs Arrow with a dart, and he turns into an OMAC. He kills Hawkman. Wild Dog starts firing away, killing Pantha. He does this because Max Lord has taken control of him. He eventually kills himself. Max shoots Ted in the arm, and wants to know all about time travel. Booster takes Ted and runs. All of a sudden, Superman comes back into the fray. Ted activates a boom tube, and they end up in the decomissioned HQ of the Justice League. They decide that they need a large number of people to take down Max. Booster says that they should get the old Justice League International back together.

Comments:
That was a really good issue. Finally we see the plot unfolding for this title. We started off with a bunch of stories, but now we see a well constructed plot being put together. I enjoyed the different characters in this issue. Wild Dog was great, always wanting to shoot his gun and stuff. Someone should give him his own title. Katz and Johns did a good job showing the disunity in the group members, and how it eventually led to their downfall. They did it in a way where it didn't hurt Booster and Ted, but just heightened their resolve. Max is a serious little fucker. He will do anything to be in control. The bad guys are really good here. Supernova is a serious bad dude. I am looking forward to seeing his role in this picture. I liked the end when Booster wanted to get the old gang back together. We didn't know exactly what happened to them, so it was safe to assume that they were still around. Now they are going to be brought into the picture. Dan Jurgens dishes out some good art.

GET IT

Booster Gold #7 Review

Blue and Gold (Chapter 2)- O.M.A.C'd
Writer: Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz
Art: Dan Jurgens

Summary:
We start the issue with Rip, Daniel, and the reporter. Rip wants Daniel to put on the Supernova uniform, because he thinks Booster is going to destroy the universe. We go to Booster and Beetle, who are on the run OMACs are chasing them down, but Beetle takes them out with his ship. They get on the ship, but the OMACs are about to break through. Kord does some Jedi mind tricks, fooling the OMACs into thinking that Blue and Gold are one of them. We go to Max Lord, and we learn that Kyle Rayner is dead. He figures out that Blue and Gold are still alive. They go to London. They crawl around through some sewers until they get to Catherine. She drops a bombshell and says that the world is in war with Max Lord and OMACS. They are knocking out all the heroes and some villains. Batman is missing. Superman is a heel. We go to Carter, who is chilling out in the dinosaur days. We see the future Blue Beetle, "The Black Beetle", telling Carter that the others have gathered. We go back to our heroes. Catherine is an OMAC. They brawl for a while until Green Arrow takes her out. Green Arrow and Hawkman make up the Resistance. We have Black Beetle and Supernova walking to a meeting with the Time Stealers.

Comments:
That was a solid issue. Johns and Katz do a good job with the plot development, but not so much on the characters. I liked how everything is pretty much unraveling on the Earth. The hopeless situation should help Booster come out like a champ. I liked how the future Blue Beetle went heel. That is a lot better. I like how there are 2 groups established- the Resistance and the Time Stealers. They can feud for a little while. I don't know where the OMACs will come in. Will they attack the Time Stealers too? I don't feel like Booster or Kord really shined in this issue, but the plot carried it. The art is pretty good.

Verdict:
SKIM IT

Booster Gold #0 Review

Written by: Geoff Johns, Jeff Katz
Art by: Dan Jurgens, Norm Rapmund

Synopsis: It seems like just yesterday that we were at issue #6 but now here we are at 0. The next arch is about the Zero Hour crossover that took place back in the day and how Booster saved the world without no one knowing. We got Booster, Ted Kord, and the various other Blue Beetles chilling in the time machine. The future Blue Beetle points at Ted and tells him he is supposed to dead. The Blue Beetles and Booster are sitting there talking when they spot Parallax and his minion who have just taken out the old Justice League (Superman had hair back then old). After an awkward pause Jamie asks if they saw us. One wisecrack later they are being attacked but manage to fend them off and land in Booster's time. It just so happens they land right when Booster's dad is telling him to throw the game against Ohio State (who went on to make the national championship game and get beaten down again). Booster decides to not stop himself from throwing the game but chooses to save his sister in the near future (just not now). They need a new time machine so they go back to the superhero museum to steal Rip's time machine again (thank you time travel). All of a sudden they get attacked by the security robot cops featuring Skeets. They escape and manage to go to their respective times. Booster and Ted are deciding what to eat and notice that Rip's lab is trashed and oh, an army of OMACs are coming to kick some ass.

Comments: Booster Gold is another title that comes from Johns. For those of you who don't know him (shame) he is the writer who is basically been carrying DC for the past couple of years. Johns and Katz work well together and it shows by how spot on the dialog is. It is quality stuff. Another thing is how Johns and Katz manage to just leave clues to where the title is going like the hint that Mr. Mind's spawn will probably be a big villain in the near future. This issue did leave a lot to be desired though. The problem with time travel is that it is very difficult to not leave plot holes and I'm sure that will eventually catch up. I am intrigued by the motives of the 25th century Blue Beetle and also how Booster will save his sister. This issue was so slow though that it almost gets a skim it, almost but it is worth the wisecracks alone so this issue earns a

GET IT