Booster Gold #18
The story that began with Chuck Dixon's fill-in issues eight months ago, has finally drawn to a close with this week's release of Booster Gold #18 by Dan Jurgens, Norm Rapmund and the folks at Hi-Fi Color. And, like the conclusive chapters to both "52 Pick-Up" and "Blue & Gold," the first two arcs of the series, the final part of "Paradise Lost" draws a lot of pieces together and ultimately ties back to previous stories nicely. Jurgens' earlier promises that readers who have been reading for a while, would enjoy the revelation of our energy-based villain- and while clever fans had been reading solicitations ahead and assuming that he was Chronos (who actually appeared in the series recently during the Rick Remender fill-in story that had nothing to do with this arc), his actual identity was a little more logical and much more satisfying.
And while the mystery villain was always intended to be revealed just as he was in this issue, Jurgens revealed that it is true that Chronos was intended to play a role in the story. The writer/artist says that his presence in solicitations for this issue was "Just a matter of crossed wires based on an original plan to have Chronos in the issue for a bit. When we retooled 17 to make room for "Origins and Omens" we had to change plans for 18 as well."
There's a lot going on in this issue, with three different threads playing out; the "younger Booster" that we met at the end of issue 17 takes off in one direction, with "our" Booster going off in another and Goldstar joining the villain at Vanishing Point along with Skeets. Where Rip Hunter is during all this is anyone's guess, although there's always the speculation that he could be off someplace with the Linear Men, former residents of Vanishing Point, who were already referenced by Hunter earlier in the series as having been locked up, with the implication being that he was the one responsible for it.
While Booster steals a semifunctional time sphere from some old villains to take back 4,500 years to Ancient Egypt and track down the origins of the chronal-energy-infused knife that kickstarted the story in Booster Gold #11, the other Booster tracked Goldstar, the mystery villain and the missing time sphere to Vanishing Point for what turned out to be the issue's big reveal.
In probably the most interesting bit of time-travel voodoo yet to take place in the series, it turns out that the "time knife," which had served such an important purpose in the DC Universe long before Booster became aware of it, was actually infused with energy by the Blue Beetle Scarab, shunted back through time by the battle at the end of "Blue & Gold." It is because of this that Blue Beetle exists to begin with, as that's apparently how the Scarab ended up in ancient Egypt. As to where the Scarab actually originated, if Ted only found it because Ted later lost it... well, Jurgens says all will become (more) clear. "There will be more on that next issue," Jurgens says, "but this story came down to the ironic fact that Booster ensured the existence of both Max Lord and Ted Kord/Blue Beetle. By extension, he ensured the fact that Max would one day murder Ted."
As the issue draws to a close with the villain (apparently) slain, the impact of his encounter with Goldstar seems to be driving the next issue. Faced with the reality that she "should" be dead, and that her continued existence is a fluke of the rules of time, she's not happy about it. Jurgens explains, "It's that, "I'm only alive because you my brother happens to hang out with a time traveler?' sort of reaction. In addition, Michelle has bought into the notion that time shouldn't be changed, yet here she is." How she'll come to cope with it, and whether she'll convince Rip Hunter that she should return to where she came from, should be interesting to see play out.
The conflicts that ordinarily come from time travel are just kind of a part of this title, and will be for the foreseeable future, Jurgens says. "Let's face it, time travel is the setting for this book. It's as much a part of Booster Gold as Gotham City is for Batman. The trick is not to be repetitive and we'll work hard to avoid that."
Certainly there's a good chunk of fandom that would have liked to see him proven wrong at the end of "Blue & Gold," showing that it would be okay to bring someone back from the dead and therefore rescue Ted Kord, as opposed to now, where it seems that such a revelation might be a threat to Michelle. But Hunter is certainly not infallible. "Simply put, Rip Hunter is a Time Master. Booster is the apprentice. Think of them as Obi-Wan and Luke, which is rather odd considering Booster is Rip's father," Jurgens explains. "That doesn't mean Rip isn't capable of making mistakes but it offers the proper prespective in how to view characters. There is a scene in The Brave and the Bold #23 (totally shameless plug) in which Rip tells Booster there is a lot of stuff he isn't yet ready to know. Kind of that, "You can't handle the truth!' speech."
And while "Reality Lost" is officially over, the issue has a kind of random ending- the two Boosters are still flying around together, wrapping up a few final loose ends while Goldstar sits sobbing at Vanishing Point. Asked whether these things would resolve themselves between the panels, or whether we'd start again from here when issue 19 hits the stands, Jurgens answers, "Next issue kicks off only minutes after the end of issue #18. Of course, in this book, minutes could mean just about anything!... Just kiddin'."Continue your read!
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Russell Burlingame is a journalist and columnist living and working in New York City. In high school, Russell interviewed Elliot S. Maggin for a review of the Kingdom Come novelization, and since then has worked consistently in and around the comics industry. He interned for Wizard magazine, and has freelanced for Wizard and Newsarama, in addition to a number of non-comics publications, Russell is currently working on a graphic novel based on Cap'n Internet, the comic strip that ran in his college newspaper; and a graphic biography of folk singer Phil Ochs with artist Marion Vitus.
Currently, in addition to his freelance work and his comics projects, Russell writes a number of columns for ComicRelated, including Conscientious Sequentials, The Gold Exchange, What's Perhappenin', Closing Statements, Reflecting 'Pool and To See or Not To See. Russell also takes point on the Hot Shot of the Week feature.
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