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The Gold Exchange: Booster Gold #13

This month's Booster Gold #13 was the first-ever Booster Gold solo comic issue which was neither written nor penciled by character creator (and frequent Gold Exchange guest) Dan Jurgens, so we're going to be doing something a little different here at Gold Exchange HQ this month.. After initial difficulty getting hold of this month's Booster Gold fill-in team, we had foregone the usual Q&A format to do more of a running commentary on the issue. Later, I was able to add in quotes from guest writer Rick Remender, but have left the column as originally published, only with additions. I'm going to avoid spoilers, so the "commentary" nature of this book means that if you don't own it, you're essentially S.O.L. Sorry, folks, but I'm not going to alienate myself from DC by providing a panel-by-panel plot summary.

All in all, I'd say that while a two-issue, fill-in arc by a writer who has no experience with the character is not an ideal situation for any book coming off the loss of its superstar talent, Remender and Olliffe pull this issue off pretty well. It wasn't as well-crafted as Chuck Dixon's issues, but was probably a bit more enjoyable, as Remender's plot is full of action and doesn't keep the reader completely in the dark as to what's coming in the second issue. Additionally while the characterization isn't quite perfect compared to what we saw in the last couple of issues from Dixon, it's easy to overlook that because we don't have the big chunks of exposition that distracted from Dixon's story by recapping Michelle's and Booster's relationship, after she'd already been reintroduced in the last Johns/Katz issue.

It's not by accident, either, as Remender had some great things to say about the Johns/Katz run. "It was an exploration of what Johns and Katz had set up," Remender said when asked about Booster's sudden commitment to Rip Hunter's methods, which he had doubted during the first two arcs but emphatically explains to his sister here. "Just natural stuff that grew from reading their amazingly imaginative run. I didn't want to be lazy and rest on what had already been setup so I tried to delve into it a bit."

Issue 13 opens on a splash-page where the "new-look" General Zod, as seen in the recent Johns/Donner story, is socking Superman. "The Zod thing was just a cool moment to have an incongruity that needed fixing," Remender said. "To illustrate that there is a destiny to things and not even Superman can change it... but it's Booster's job to set it right. It was just a nice stage to get the point across and reaffirm Boosters mission." It's a nice splash page (Olliffe's art looks nicer here than it has in a while, and while he's no Dan Jurgens, inks by Jerry Ordway-who has a long and great history working with Jurgens, not least of which was Zero Hour, and an even longer and greater history drawing Superman-make the issue feel a little more like home), although it serves no plot function so one wonders if it's just traditionalism on Remender's part; most comics, after all, begin with a splash page.

The errand Booster and Michelle are running on the first few pages seems potentially very interesting. It's the kind of thing that could easily be "an excuse to get them out of the office," so that the plot can develop between Starro and Rip, but it could also develop into something much bigger, depending on Jurgens' intent. It's hard to know, with a two-issue fill-in arc that takes place just before a new writer comes aboard, how much of the book is throwaway and how much of it was Jurgens saying, "Can you please make sure that you mention X, Y and Z in the issues?" The pedestrian involved seems unlikely to show up again, but she's got a fairly distinct appearance and so the notion that she's somehow "touched" by Rip lends itself, in my opinion, to the idea that we might see her again. Otherwise I think many readers are left with the same concerns that Michelle has about the mission.

As the story develops, it's interesting to see that Remender has chosen to use the blackboard. "It plays a role in this story and the future," Remender said. "When and where remains to be seen." Whether it will be in Booster's own title, or another book altogether, is hard to say, as Remender also indicated that there may be another story that this arc will eventually tie into. Either way, I think the use of the blackboard is a great signal from a fill-in writer, indicating that he's read the book and really knows what works for the fans. All in all, it's a microcosm of what I liked about this issue, which is that while you know most fill-in arcs will be "disposable," Remender has taken pains in this issue to match the tone and tenor of Booster Gold. This is a good thing, of course, since the Dixon fill-in arc and the Jurgens fill-in arc connect to each other on either side of this one, and it's entirely likely that unless sales are strong on these two issues and/or fans are vocal about their affection for numbers 13 and 14, this arc will never see the insides of a collected edition. The downside is that usually the blackboard is covered with a ton of clues, some red herrings and a lot of stuff that's obscure enough that it only really makes sense in hindsight. Between the story's brevity and the fact that Remender hasn't been involved in the creation of one before, this one seems (so far) to be pretty on-the-nose, and more or less only speaks to Starro's plans for the arc. I'd have liked to have seen Starro channeling some of Rip's esoteric knowledge for one or two enticing distractions on there, but that's a personal taste as much as anything else.

There's a historical precedent in Booster Gold that when the need arises for a new Time Sphere, it's kind of magically there...and that precedent continues here. It's not a big deal, as it was explained Rip was working on a second anyway...and Remender gets a few easy laughs out of the rickety condition of the work-in-progress Time Sphere. An interesting question that may be answered in the second issue is just what's going on with Skeets. In the first arc, the little guy was pretty well-equipped. He managed to stay focused and functional despite the anomalies and helped Booster track them through history. He does that here, too, except that when things actually change in the past, it doesn't just throw him for a loop-he stops functioning altogether and falls to the ground sparking and stammering. I don't know if that's inconsistent characterization or just a fear that Skeets' knowledge of the timestream could be too much of a deus ex machina device, but it'll be interesting to see if these discrepancies are ever explained.

I will say that, in the "historical anomaly" page where Booster sees a Starro-dominated world, most people will likely notice and chuckle at the Starro-dominated Mount Rushmore. Myself, the highlight of the page is on the monitor at the bottom left, where Olliffe has given us a delightful little image of a Starro-possessed Tom Cruise jumping up and down on Starr-Oprah's couch.

Asked whether that was his or Olliffe's, Remender said: "I did script it. I was thinking up moments in history and it seemed like a ridiculous moment to show."

I like the fact that, when Daniel explains to us where the Starro came from, there's a potentially-specific reference there-a Starro attack in Paris, after all, seems kind of arbitrary until you remember that when Giffen, DeMatteis and Bart Sears were doing Justice League Europe, there was an attack on the JLI Embassy in Paris where Starro took over most of the team. The timing of the invasion has no relevance whatsoever to the actual plot, but it's nice to see Remender making the effort to tie so many little bits of DC history into this issue. Remender said, "It was from a JLE arc I really enjoyed. That's part of the fun of Booster, all the winks to various eras of DCU continuity. I had a great time building the story around that stuff."

It was also nice to see that the colorists remembered that Daniel's new Supernova suit had a black background, not white; his brief appearance in costume threw me for a second, until I remembered that's how the suit had been portrayed. I think it'll be a nice effect in the long run, as Jurgens has a long history of making black or mostly-black costumes look good on the page (think The Return of Superman, Argent from Teen Titans or even Extant).

[As an aside, I did ask Remender about the reappearance of Rip Hunter's Time Master costume, which hasn't appeared since the end of Booster's first arc. He explained, "Once Starro took over Rip he'd have lead him to the suit and any other weaponry at his disposal, so it made sense."]

Another nice little bit of attention to detail follows when Extant and Lady Extant from the recently-defunct All-New Atom appear in the book. Given that she had only appeared the one other time (to my knowledge) and it was in a book that was already doomed by then, it was nice to see that DC is giving her a chance, rather than letting the character fall into disuse. Not surprisingly, former All-New Atom writer Remender says that her appearance here is actually part of a grander plan. "There was a much bigger story unfolding in my Atom arc that was cut," he explained. "Booster and The Chronos' both played a big role in it. This story helps set up some of what will happen when we find the right time and place to tell that story. This is a self-contained two parter with a bit of seeding for the future."

With a little luck, we'll see Choi pop up in Teen Titans or even Justice League of America while Ray Palmer is doing his thing in James Robinson's Justice League. One does wonder how someone like Starro will ever decide NOT to go with time travelers again after this story, given the potential, but one only wonders that for a short time because there's a much more interesting bit of dialog regarding Michelle's upcoming role during "dark times" to come for Booster. Hmm...!

What's interesting, too, is the suggestion that they know Booster's future. If so, one might ask, doesn't that mean that they can see themselves losing this fight? Not according to Remender. "The timelines are splintering always," the writer said. "What seems like a certain future might change a moment later or stay the same till that time. Time masters need to stay on their toes, the future is always changing while changing anything behind you is tricky or impossible. The present is a perspective based thing, I think Rip has a "universal time" system to figure out what is truly the present, which is basically ongoing continuity time."

The final sequence, setting us up for next issue, sees a world full of strong, dumb villains possessed by Starro. Two pages in, Booster has already taken Grodd and Chemo out of the mix, but that final panel seems ominous (of course, the panel where he was being swallowed up by a mountain of Mr. Mind's worms seemed ominous, too, until he fried them instantly with his force field). The final twist of the issue is surprising-it's nothing new to readers, but given that Rip long ago decided that it's not good for Booster to know too much about his own future, you have to wonder how the boss-man will react when he comes out of his stupor and Starro has blown the lid off of one of the big secrets of Booster's future.

Jeez! One might ask when you look at that final panel, will Booster ever stop being COVERED in tiny villains? Wasn't Mr. Mind enough? Remender laughed it off: "HA, well, hopefully the end result will be different enough to prove satisfactory," he said. "There was something really creepy and sinister about a pool of Starro spores that folks dipped their kids in, I had to do it."

A final note--frankly, I wonder if that final revelation (which brings to mind the questions "when" and "with whom?") has anything to do with the young lady that Booster and Michelle rescued at the top of the issue. Hmm...!