Booster Gold
Volume 2, Issue 37
Cover Date: December 2010
Release Date: October 13, 2010
Cover Price: $2.99
Guide Price: $3.00 (as of 2011)
Estimated Issue Sales: 17,806
"The Big Meoww!"
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SPOILER WARNING: The following page may contain story spoilers. Read at your own risk.
ARTISTS
Writers: J. M. DeMatteis, Keith Giffen
Penciller: Chris Batista
Inker: Rich Perrotta
Colorist: Hi-Fi Designs
Letterer: Sal Cipriano
Editors: Michael Carlin, Rachel Gluckstern
Cover Artists: Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway
CHARACTERS & SETTINGS
heroes: Blue Beetle II, Booster Gold
villain: Estrogina
supporting: Skeets II
Settings: 20th-century New York, NY, USA; 20th-century Starlag, DCU, Vega star system; 20th-century New York, NY, USA
ISSUE SUMMARY
Cover Description: Booster Gold and Estrogina are assaulted by tentacles. For the second time in three months, tentacles appear on the cover of Booster Gold but nowhere inside the issue.
Brief Synopsis: Booster Gold must save himself and an enchanted Blue Beetle from Starlag and Estrogina.
Costume Worn: MARK I.v2 power-suit
Issue Notes: Despite (or perhaps because of) the change in editors this month, inker Rich Perrotta's name is misspelled in the issue credits.
This story has been reprinted in the following issue:
Booster Gold: Past Imperfect (2011)
ISSUE ANNOTATIONS
Page 1, panel 1
Booster Gold and Blue Beetle (transformed into a chipmunk in the previous issue) are among the prisoners on Starlag witnessing the jail break by Estrogina. Blue Beetle has an unusually long tail for a chipmunk, though this may be partially explained by a change in artists from the previous issue.
Page 3, panel 2
Estrogina essentially kidnaps Booster Gold for sex. There been a lot of overt references to sex in the pages of Booster Gold lately. Super hero genre comic books are traditionally filled with subtle sexual references (codpieces, over-sized breasts, skin-tight costumes for both genders), but rarer are the references to sexual practices or politics. The preponderance of this theme is not necessarily out of place in a comic book featuring Booster Gold, who by his very nature is a character designed to explore more mature themes than, say, Superman. The change is especially noticeable as Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis, writers who have a history of making light of mature -- and occasionally taboo -- themes, have taken over a series that was largely devoid of any sexual situations during its first two-and-a-half years of publication.
Page 5, panel 1
For the second time in two issues, we are presented with an entire page filled with Skeets' internal dialogue. If this page had appeared in the original volume of Booster Gold, these narrative balloons would have been thought balloons. For a little robot sidekick, Skeets is becoming remarkably introspective.
Page 9, panel 1
Estrogina claims an army of Zamaron pirates, implying that she herself is Zamaron. Zamarons are an alien race of females related to the Green Lantern Corps' Oans, but have a warrior philosophy not dissimilar to the Amazons of Earth. Zamarons have traditionally been blue, not yellow. (Many fans have pointed out that the pirates appear to be Sklarians as seen in Bronze Age adventures of the Legion of Super-Heroes, though they were pink, not yellow. So the mystery of Estrogina's crew persists.)
Page 9, panel 2
Booster Gold crosses himself, placing his hand sequentially against his head, chest, shoulder, right shoulder, and left shoulder before bringing his hands together in prayer. This gesture is a blessing commonly associated with orthodox Christian religious services. In the past, Booster has shown little interest in religious beliefs. In this case he is probably drawing on every little bit of help he can get, divine or otherwise, even if his convictions are weak. (This is roughly equivalent to a scientist who will throw a pinch of salt over his shoulder, "just in case.")
Page 11, panel 4
The question of how characters can stand in space and yet talk (as seen in the two preceding issues) is explained by Estrogina as an "atmosphere pocket." Better late explanation than never.
Page 13, panel 1
Even Booster has had enough of all the sex jokes! (Why do I get the feeling that Booster's sentiment in this panel will be echoed by many of this issue's readers who were entranced by Geoff Johns but become fed up with Giffen and DeMatteis?)
Page 13, panel 4
Blue Beetle first discovers that he has a bad heart in 2002's Birds of Prey #39.
Page 14, panel 1
HAIR CLUB FOR HEROES: After commenting on Booster's thinning hair in the previous panel, Blue Beetle suggests that Booster use some "spray-on hair in a can." Inventory/pitchman Ron Popeil debuted his Great Looking Hair Formula (also known as hair in a can) in the early 1990s (initially filing a patent application for the product in December 1992).
Page 15, panel 2
Booster Gold quit the Justice League to form the Conglomerate in 1990. Booster would return to the League in April 1992.
Page 20, panel 4
Make note: according to Blue Beetle, Booster Gold's secret talent is musical farts. (Sex and fart jokes? Even the humor on Hee Haw wasn't this lowbrow!)
Page 21, panel 4
Estrogina's "blathering" is a quote from the 1982 movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, written by Nicholas Meyer. The lines were spoken by the title character who was himself paraphrasing the 1851 novel Moby Dick, written by Herman Melville.
ISSUE REVIEW
Boosterrific Review: I've read this issue three times, and I'm still not sure if I like it. Maybe the gag of Booster stuck in the past having slapstick adventures with Ted Kord is growing a little long in the tooth after 3 consecutive issues (and counting!). Maybe the issue felt like re-reading jokes from Giffen's and DeMatteis' run on Marvel's 2005 Defenders mini-series. Maybe these trips into DC's recent history have become too much effort in nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake. In any event, rather than being excited to read Booster's latest exploits, this issue just made me feel tired.
Boosterrific Rating: Gold Standard.
Average Fan Rating: (7 votes)
Good issue, I thought they were sklarian pirates as well, who definitely have yellow skin (remember Kono of the legion of super heroes). Zamarrons have variously been portrayed as having pink skin and more recently blue skin. I am really surprised about this series and enjoy it a lot.
This is stale beyond belief. Booster is in two other comics in interesting tales...and gets stuck with a juvenile plot where the humor is backfiring badly. It also shows no sign of ending. Anyone else miss Dan Jurgens?
This wasn't a bad issue, and I actually thought it was pretty funny (in literature, it's VERY hard for something to make me laugh, and this is the first Giffen/DeMatteis BG book that achieved this). I was COMPLETELY turned off by the end, when Ted brought up getting this book AGAIN. At this point, it's been enjoyable to see Blue and Gold again, but I REALLY want this to just end and move on. If there weren't such a strong DCU storyline involving Booster Gold like there is with Generation Lost, these stories would be better received. But I think a lot of people want to get this book back on the main road and less comical shenanigans.
Lately this stretched storyline with Ted just feel like padding while the purpose (to find something to stop Max) has been all but forgotten. Really it reads as if it's desperate to get laughs to jokes that with a few exceptions, really aren't that funny. Especially when a lot of them have to do with someone telling the hero that their opinions don't matter because their going to be sexually assaulted anyway. Skeets still doesn't seem to have the right voice and Ted comes off in a negative light. A truly disappointing read.
I really liked this issue, there was a great use of time travel when Booster went forward a little, asked Ted how he got out, and then went back knowing everything would be fine, my one gripe though is, I thought Zamarons were blue? (though like humans, maybe its a racial skintone)
This issue (nor any of the G&D issues so far) have been to my tastes. It is not to say that they are bad, and they have broken the rut that set in at the end of Jurgens run, but I haven't really enjoyed them. I am anxiously awaiting the end of this sidetracked caper and for the writers to embark on a more disciplined story. For all of my complaining, BG sales remain steady (if in decline) and the blogosphere in genernal offers positive reviews. Read at your own risk I guess.
This is still part of the "search for evidence of Max in the past" arc, right, so what happened to the search? My critique in capsule form: frustrating issue, don't bother reading it. Out of topic: Wasn't issue 37 supposed to have a Maguire cover? The one with Booster with a girl in his arms flying from an explosion? I saw that cover in the DC Comics site for months, so what's with the Dan Jurgens cover?
[Advance solicitation images have to be approved months in advance. I suspect that new editor Mike Carlin did not like the solicited cover so he had it changed. The solicited cover may show up at a later date in a more appropriate issue, or it may not. (Or maybe tentacles help sales.) -- Boosterrific.]
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