Booster Gold
Volume 2, Issue 21
Cover Date: August 2009
Release Date: June 10, 2009
Cover Price: $3.99
Guide Price: $4.00 (as of 2011)
Estimated Issue Sales: 22,213
"Day of Death, Part I of IV"
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SPOILER WARNING: The following page may contain story spoilers. Read at your own risk.
ARTISTS
Writer: Dan Jurgens
Penciller: Dan Jurgens
Inker: Norm Rapmund
Colorist: Hi-Fi Designs
Letterer: Sal Cipriano
Editor: Michael Siglain
Cover Artists: Dan Jurgens, Norm Rapmund
CHARACTERS & SETTINGS
heroes: Booster Gold, Nightwing II, Rip Hunter
villain: Black Beetle
supporting: Skeets II
Settings: 21st-century Coast City, DCU, USA; 21st-century Gotham City, DCU, USA; 21st-century Rip Hunter's AZ Lab, DCU, USA
ISSUE SUMMARY
Cover Description: Booster Gold is grappled by Batman in the Batcave.
Brief Synopsis: Booster Gold unwittingly finds himself in trouble when trying to recover some important documents from Batman.
Costume Worn: MARK I.v2 power-suit
Issue Notes: Beginning with this issue, the price of Booster Gold, Vol. 2, jumps from $2.99 to $3.99. In order to offset this price increase, each issue will now include a back up story featuring Blue Beetle III. (The last time a Booster Gold series suffered a price increase in Booster Gold, Vol. 1, #23, the series was canceled 2 issues later.)
This story has been reprinted in the following issue:
Booster Gold: Day of Death (2010)
ISSUE ANNOTATIONS
Page 6, panel 1
POWER UP: "Your suit's fiberweave circuitry is being taxed to its limit," Skeets warns Booster Gold that his rescue of citizens from a towering inferno in Coast City. The weight of an elevator can vary widely, but the high-rise passenger elevator that Booster appears to be holding likely has a weight limit approaching 2 tons when fully loaded. Estimating a weight of less than 700 lbs. for the elevator's 4 adult passengers would indicate that the total weight is something less than a full load. Therefore, Booster would appear to be able to fly while carrying approximately 1 ton of weight.
Page 7, panel 4
Coast City is the home town and base of operations of Green Lantern Hal Jordan. The city, once razed to the ground by the villainous Mongul, has risen again, just like Jordan himself.
Page 8, panel 6
Booster reveals that he is aware of the death of Batman. It is not revealed when Booster obtained this information.
Page 9, panel 1
Seen from afar, the design of Rip Hunter's Arizona laboratory shares a striking similarity with the architecture found at Vanishing Point, the city at the end of time seen earlier in this issue.
Page 9, panel 2
SCHOOL'S IN: Hunter's laboratory may be a mess, but at least he has time to keep up with his cryptic chalkboard scribbling. ("The Superman of 2965," Superman's descendant Klar Ken T-5477, first appeared in Superman #181 in 1965. Did Rip Hunter travel forward in time to meet Klar Ken T-5477, or did he travel back in time to pick up a mint copy of Superman for his comic book collection?)
Page 9, panel 5
Booster compares Rip Hunter to Obi Wan Kinobi, the Star Wars Jedi Knight who mentored both Luke Sywalker and Darth Vader. While Booster no doubt prefers to think of himself as the heroic Skywalker, his technologically-supplemented powers probably have more in common with the villainous Vader.
Page 11, panel 1
Once again, Booster Gold is in Batman's Batcave beneath stately Wayne Manor. Here Booster references Jaime Reyes, the current Blue Beetle, who has his own story elsewhere in this issue. (Booster's involvement in the creation of the current Blue Beetle can be found in more detail in Infinite Crisis #5.)
Page 12, panel 1
A "man cave" is a slang term for any place that a man retreats to be alone and do the things that he most enjoys. The Batcave certainly qualifies as a man cave.
Page 15, panel 5
Booster is caught in the Batcave by Batman himself. Or at least the acting Batman, Dick Grayson, formerly Nightwing. This is among the first appearances of Dick Grayson since reassuming the role of Batman following Final Crisis, as Batman #687 and Batman and Robin #1 were both published in the same month.
Page 16, panel 3
See Booster Gold, Vol. 2, #5, for details of Booster's encounter with Barbara Gordon and the Joker.
Page 20, panel 4
SPOILER WARNING!: Reveal
ISSUE REVIEW
Boosterrific Review: Beginning with this issue, Booster Gold drastically increases in price by 33%, taking on a back-up feature to justify the change. While this does mean two stories in each issue, it also results in a decreased page-count for the Booster Gold story in each book (dropping from 22 to 20 pages). This is good news for well-funded readers who prefer variety, bad news for readers on a limited budget who specifically enjoy the adventures of Booster Gold. Though the threat of falling sales is very real, if this issue is any indication, Booster Gold need not worry about losing an audience due to declining story value.
The premise of the story is intriguing as it builds on established series continuity. Booster Gold is introduced to the new Batman, and events are set in motion that will define the four part "Day of Death" story arc. For the first time in awhile, this issue reestablishes Booster firmly in his place in standard DC Universe continuity, a significant action following Booster's recent alternate history time travel occurring during the paradigm-shifting events of Final Crisis. (Perchance Batman was included in this particular story to boost sales of this precipitous issue to a rabid Batman fan base.) This comic is a solid first step in a new chapter for Booster Gold.
Boosterrific Rating: Worth Its Weight In Gold.
Average Fan Rating: (3 votes)
A lot of fun to be had in this issue. This was the first time we really got to see what Black Beetle was like when he's not pretending to be some minion for the Time Stealers. This also starts some very interesting moments between Black Beetle and Rip Hunter. While it's been alluded that Rips' an action hero in his own right we've never really seen him operate on his own until now. The interaction between Dick Grayson and Booster was perfect. There are a lot of hints through the art and speech how different Dick is from Bruce. Booster clearly has a longing for someone to understand him that helps him take that final step.
This issue became PERFECT for me during the Grayson/Booster confrontation. It's obvious from the start that Dick thinks Booster is a useless idiot...UNTILL Booster reveals the photos of his attempts to save Barbara Gordon. Once Dick realizes Booster was tried to save babs, suddenly he's all buddy-buddy. Perfect.
And so the more expensive and shortened adventures of Booster Gold begin....I'm not as high on this issue as Boosterrific is. While I enjoyed the scene in Coast City and the scene where Booster shares his frustrations with Skeets, there really was not much going on in this issue. While the scene with Dick Grayson was interesting, I have to say I am a little sick of the Black Beetle. Doesn't Booster have any other bad guys?
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