Showcase Presents Booster Gold Vol. 1
Friday, August 13th, 2010
I’m having a lot of fun reading the black ‘n’ white collections of DC books, so on a whim I snapped this one up in Kinokuniya. All I have to go on where Booster is concerned is what little of the ‘bwahaha’ JLI era I have read and his actions in the prelude to Infinite Crisis, where he embezzled funds from Blue Beetle and then goes hat in hand to Max Lord to beg. Pretty low trough for him there. Afterwards there was 52, with a more repentant Booster trying to make amends, but not before a disastrous publicity stunt.
Now he’s a hero out of time, more so than before, whose heroic acts are not noticed by anyone as he secretly tries to fix events that have occured in the timestream. Dan Jurgens has returned to his solo title, so I thought it would be fun to see what the 80s book he wrote would be like.
I was pleasantly surprised. It’s witty, smart, there’s an ongoing subplot with Booster trying to upstage Superman in his own city and the timetravelling huckster is pretty damn heroic! Yes he is challenged by other heroes, including Supes and the Legion, of being a thief and a crook trying to hide his past, but as Booster points out, he came to the present to try and be a better person. He is sincere in his attempts to make amends, just not above making a couple of dollars here and there…..ok a couple of million.
Also Jurgens had already introduced something that I thought Giffen only came up with in the Formerly Known As… series, namely that Booster is not above flirting with, shall we say, more mature ladies. Apparently in the future age differences are not as big a taboo. Although when we finally see his future Gotham hometown, it’s not a world away from Judge Dredd’s Megacity 1. Occasional derivative notes aside, I thought this was an entertaining and surprising book.
Now to the sad news. Jurgens sets Booster up with a warm supporting cast, including Dirk Davis, his daughter, tech assistant Jack Soo and Goldstar PA Trixie Collins. Dirk, Trixie and Booster even had an unrealized love triangle brewing. Then there is a sudden switch in tone of the books. I would trace it first to a disastrous encounter with the aliens of Dimension X (after finishing Showcase Teen Titans vol 2 the other week it was a surprise to see them again so soon). Then John Byrne portrayed Booster in a very unflattering way during a brief two-parter. The final nail in the coffin was that bloody Manhunter crossover, which tore through the supporting cast, as of course one of them had to be a traitor.
Here’s what annoys me. My impression of Booster until now was that he was a huckster loser. I’m bothered because it seems the character has been pidgeon-holed as too silly due to his association with the JLI. I think there still is decent mileage in the idea of a self-proclaimed ‘capitalist superhero’, which Jurgens did a good job of exploring.
Perhaps some took his rivalry with Superman too seriously? It’s a shame, because this is a great book. I’m looking forward to reading his new adventures under Jurgens. And did I imagine it, or did he end the book with a Vonnegut quote?












