Comic Related - The Gold Exchange

The Gold Exchange: Booster Gold #10

More than any other column since the start of The Gold Exchange, this one should be marked as SPOILER-INTENSIVE. If you haven't read Booster Gold #10 yet (and really, what's wrong with you?), you should not read this column until you've done so.

Seriously, go away. We're gonna ruin stuff. Big stuff.

...This is your last warning....

...For those of you still with us, the eleventh issue of Booster Gold (that's #10 thanks to that pesky Zero Hour crossover) brought the penultimate chapter in The "Blue & the Gold." With Ted Kord coming to the conclusion that he has to die in order to save all of time, a wayward scarab and the reveal that Booster's absent, morally-bankrupt father was not in fact the mastermind that the writers would have had us believe up until now, but has been possessed by Mr. Mind (you remember him, right? From 52?). One more of the "Coming Up in Booster Gold" teaser images was put into action as Booster was swallowed up by lots and lots of little Mr. Mind worms (although they weren't all as intelligent or dangerous as the big one).

We caught up with the usual suspects for a roundtable interview to discuss what the heck just happened here, and what kind of expectations we should have for the finale!

ComicRelated: The cover caption--you can almost hear the collective groan of "I knew it!" from Ted Kord fans the Internet 'round. Was that tease you guys or editorial?

Dan Jurgens: I'm going to assume it was Editorial, though I don't know for sure.

CR: So there's a new blackboard in Rip's lab--but it's in the skewed timeline. Do these teases mean anything to us, or do they belong to "Alternate Rip?" Is the lab sealed off and impervious to the outside shifts?

DJ: The blackboards are always loaded with meaning, regardless of timeline.

CR: Good stuff. Does this mean we'll be seeing Captain Atom/Monarch here in Booster Gold? What with the fans asking much the same question--why the hell would he have done what he did in the context of his character arc--and it seems like once upon a time, there was this dude who had an idea for Armageddon 2001...!

CR: Black Beetle's energy is black...is that Scarab-based, or something else? There ain't a ton of black energy floating around the DCU, it's pretty much limited to antimatter or magic...!

DJ: Yes, the black power is scarab based.

CR: Yes! Black power!

CR: Can I just say that whoever inserted the line, "I hate time-traveling Nazis!" deserves a raise?

DJ: More platitudes for the writing team of Johns and Katz. Or Katz and Johns, depending on who's buying lunch next. Take a bow, guys!

CR: Supernova/Mr. Mind appears to be spoon-feeding the "obvious answer" to Ted...and he's not a guy I'd trust with my life. While he and Rip appear to be in agreement on what needs to happen, why do I keep feeling like there really is something to be done?

DJ: Sometimes the right answers come from different sources.

CR: Ted's and Skeets' interactions here are great; Skeets really seeems to be imbued with a personality in the way he hasn't been since arguably the Giffen-DeMatteis run, or maybe even the first Booster ongoing. Was bringing that aspect of the history back important?

DJ: I think it added a lot of flavor to the book. When Booster and Beetle are together, Skeets becomes a third wheel. When it's just Booster and Skeets, however, the mechanical marvel's personality can emerge and shine.

CR: Safe to say we're not going to see him mangled and incorporated into, say, Rip's doorbell or some esoteric thing like that anytime soon, then?

DJ: Mangle Skeets? Never! I think he provides a very nice feel to the book and actually helps to humanize Booster.

CR: Supernova/Mind wants to force Booster to kill Ted, while Black Beetle wants to keep him alive to stop Jaime. Is this just typical villain in-fighting or is there a master plan at work here?

DJ: Two different master plans, one might think.

CR: Not TOO masterful on Mr. Mind's part, if all the heroes had to do to put a stop to it was to stomp on him!

DJ: He played his hand too early. He might be an evil genius but a terrible poker player.

CR: Maybe he could take lessons from Jonah Hex...! Anyway, the Mr. Mind reveal was one of the great "How did I not see that coming?" moments of the series--did we have a week number on that preview panel, waaay back in #1?

DJ: The guys orchestrated that in expert fashion. Never thought I'd see the day when Mr. Mind would be so...cool.

CR: You do realize that a lot of people have said that recently about Booster Gold, right? Brainy seemed alright with seeing Rip in his lab, once he figured out who was there. Why the punching? Couldn't they have asked?

DJ: I think the "we don't have much relative time" pretty much covers it. Brainy will have his say. Soon.

CR: And of course, we see now what most people expected when we saw the preview pages--it's Brainy's ring. Without a time sphere, though, how will he get back to try and retrieve his stuff?

DJ: Stay tuned!

CR: Speaking of the Legion folks, that's a VERY specific timing for the moment in LoSH history that we're jumping in to steal the time sphere. Was there a reason that time was chosen?

DJ: Yes. And the "stay tuned" moment applies.

CR: Is that timing something that Geoff did to tie into all his many and various Legion projects, or is this what you've had in the back of your head since the '80s run?

DJ: Probably safe to say that it's a bit of both. Booster's origin has always related to the LSH while Geoff's project will also set us up to delve into that further. Serendipity at work!

CR: Again, this is probably a "stay tuned" kind of question, but with Ted's shattered goggles and the blood on his face--shouldn't he have just about everything he needs to go back and send Bruce a Very Special Package from Checkmate?

DJ: An interesting possibility to consider.

CR: The sudden, violent death of Mr. Mind here sends me back to the sudden, violent death of Hank Henshaw in Superman #82. Are we ever truly rid of villains whose consciousness can just wander through the ether and plant themselves somewhere else?

DJ: It's tough. The only way to defeat these guys might be, perhaps, to get them to voluntarily change. Henshaw's motivations are really quite simple, or at least he thinks so. He thinks he wants his humanity back.

CR: Mr. Mind is just hungry to eat universes, though. That's a harder motivation to nullify! And this month, we learned that Booster is now important becuase he will "train the greatest of the Time Masters?" Between this and the solicit for Chuck Dixon's second issue that was released in between my questions here, is it safe to say that Booster Gold Year Two will see a more active assembling of a team for Rip?

DJ: I don't know that "team" is quite the right word to describe what's going to happen. I think he has to first solidify what's there and then move forward.

CR: And what, if any, relationship will the New Time Masters have with The Linear Men?

DJ: I see them as something distinctly different from the Linear Men. How is that possible? Once again, stay tuned.

CR: And that last page--it's somewhat hard to tell with everything that's going on--is that entropy eating away at the timeline as Beetle has accomplished his mission, is Booster fading from reality or is he being sucked in the wake of the time sphere?

DJ: See page one of Booster Gold #1,000,000 for the answer. If you can't wait thirty days, jump in a time sphere and buy it!