Comic Book Review: Booster Gold #6

Booster Gold has rocketed its way up to the top of The Revolution’s list of favorite titles. Johns and Katz continue to impress The Revolution with each and every issue. Booster Gold #6 is going to be a huge issue as we get to see Booster Gold team up with three different version of the Blue Beetle in order to go and rescue my boy, Ted Kord. This issue should be a blast to read. Let’s go on and do this review for Booster Gold #6.

Creative Team
Writers: Geoff Johns & Jeff Katz
Artists: Dan Jurgens & Norm Rapmund

Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8.5 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: We begin with the Blue Beetle from the future telling Booster that they must save Ted Kord or else the Unkown Champions of Time will never come to pass. Skeets tells Booster to go save his friend. Rip Hunter urges Booster to not help the Blue Beetles. That this all going to be a terrible mistake. That the time stream surrounding Ted’s death is solidified time. The Blue Beetle from the future retorts that he has technology from the 27th century in his time sphere that allows them to make solidified time malleable.

We see the three Blue Beetles and Booster Gold in the time sphere travelling through the time stream. The original Blue Beetle, Dan Garrett, tells Booster that he is stunned that Ted never used the powers of the Blue Beetle scarab. Booster responds that Ted thought the scarab was dangerous. Booster gives a quick re-cap of Ted Kord and his origin and his career with the JLA. Booster says that Ted was a true hero who you could always count on no matter what the situation. The Blue Beetle from the future interrupts the conversation and tells them to get ready. That they have arrived at the proper point in the time stream.

We cut to Daniel and Rose at Daniel’s house. Daniel is putting the moves on Rose, but she isn’t that impressed. Rose doesn’t believe Daniel’s claims that he is Booster Gold. Suddenly, Rip Hunter appears on the scene. Rip steps out of his time sphere holding a Booster Gold costume in one hand and a Supernova costume in the other hand. Rip tells Daniel that he will have to put his love life on hold indefinitely. Rip says that the dawn of the Carter family’s heroic legacy starts right now.

We shift back to sixteen months ago with the events of Countdown to Infinite Crisis where Blue Beetle discovered what Maxwell Lord was really up to with Brother Eye. We see our three Blue Beetles and Booster Gold bust onto the scene just before Maxwell Lord can kill Ted Kord.

Lord calls for his security guards. Checkmate soldiers then flood the room. And with that we have a good old fashioned brawl. Lord then summons an OMAC as well. Booster gets hit badly. While he lies on the floor, he sees the same events play before his eyes that led to Ted’s death. Max goes through the same speech. Then as Max pulls the trigger of his gun, Booster suddenly summons the strength to throw himself in between Ted and the bullet. The bullet blasts through Booster’s goggles. Ted Kord totally snaps and open up a huge can of whoop ass on Maxwell Lord.

We then see that the other three Blue Beetles have used the combined powers of their scarabs to immobilize the OMAC. The Blue Beetle from the future then sends all of Lord’s files to Batman. That Batman will learn of the OMAC project and things will continue on as they should have.

We cut to Booster Gold and the four Blue Beetles in the time sphere travelling through the time stream. Booster is thrilled that the plan actually worked. The new Blue Beetle wonders why he is still here if Ted is now alive. The Blue Beetle from the future answers that in order for history to be preserved that the world must continue to believe that Ted Kord is dead. That since Ted never used the scarab as the Blue Beetle that Jamie still retains possession of the scarab.

The future Blue Beetle then says that Booster Gold and Blue Beetle are now the two greatest heroes that the world will never know. End of issue.

Comments
The Good: Awesome! Since I’m a Ted Kord fan, obviously I loved Booster Gold #6. So, that may have made me a bit bias toward giving this issue a high score. I am thrilled that my boy Ted Kord is back and better than ever. This is exactly how it should be.

I always hated Ted’s death. I thought he went out like a bitch. And I never liked the idea to kill off Ted just to replace him with a new Blue Beetle. By killing off Ted just to make way for a new Blue Beetle immediately made me dislike the new Blue Beetle. That is even despite the fact that the new version of the Blue Beetle was a hermano and that I firmly believe that we desperately need more of mi gente in the world of comic books.

The explanation of how our heroes were able to save Ted Kord while still allowing Jamie to remain as one of the Blue Beetles was pulled off perfectly. And this was a wise move. There is more than enough room for Ted and Jamie. Their personalities are completely different. Their powers are totally different. And this move by DC completely proves my point that you can introduce minority characters without pissing all over established heroes at the same time.

With Ted once again alive and operating as the Blue Beetle, my resentment and dislike of Jamie has seriously decreased. And that is what DC should want. When a new title is struggling to post good sales numbers like Blue Beetle has been why would you set him up for failure by completely turning off a large number of fans by slaughtering Ted in a blind rush to establish a minority super hero. And you would think that I would be the exact audience that DC is trying to target with the new Blue Beetle. Yet, the approach they took totally turned me off of Jamie’s character.

Johns and Katz did an impressive job with Ted’s character in this issue. I never thought that Ted was a joke. I hated it when he was reduced to nothing more than a punch line. Ted was a great Charlton Comics hero. Johns and Katz manage to impress upon the reader what a true hero Ted is. That Ted has the heart of a lion and never gives up no matter what the odds are that he faces. Ted comes across like a total stud in this issue. It is so cool to see Ted getting his much deserved respect.

I really dig the idea of having Booster and Ted operate as a tag team as the greatest heroes that the world has never known. Booster has been through so much ever since 52. Booster has sacrificed his personal life, his ego and his ultimate desire of being a proud member of the JLA all for doing the right thing and protecting the time stream. It is only fair that Booster finally get some nice to happen in his life. If Booster is going to be a hero that the world will never know about then at least he deserves to have his best friends at his side. It is nice to see Booster finally experiencing some happiness.

Booster Gold #6 was a well paced issue. We get treated to an enjoyable blend of action and drama. The issue moves briskly but never feels rushed. The plotting on Booster Gold continues to be impressive. And that is no surprise since Johns is a master plotter and can craft the foundation for many long term complex story arcs. The story arcs and different plotlines fit seamless together on this title.

Katz whips up some more of his strong dialogue. I am really enjoying Katz’s excellent sense of humor. Katz is a wonderful pairing with Johns that keeps this issue from getting too dark and gruesome like many of Johns’ titles usually get. Katz wastes no time generating some excellent chemistry between Booster and Ted. Even a reader unfamiliar with Booster and Ted’s friendship immediately understands the strong bond that the two men share.

Katz continues to make sure that all the various characters are nicely fleshed out. Booster, Ted and Rip all have wonderfully developed characters. Such strong character work helps to make this title one of the better comic books on the market.

The action scenes were all well done. It was neat seeing the various Blue Beetles working together as a team. It was also sweet to see Ted kicking ass on Maxwell Lord. That was so satisfying.

I’m quite curious to see what is going on with Rip Hunter. On the surface, it appears that Rip was incorrect about Booster not being able to save Ted. Or was Rip right all along and we simply haven’t noticed what the terrible occurrence has sprouted due to Ted being saved from death.

The scene with Rip appearing at Daniel Carter’s house was intriguing. Rip is standing there with a Booster Gold costume and a Supernova costume and tells Daniel that his family’s heroic legacy begins now. Rip has a decidedly sinister look on his face in this scene. Johns and Katz are doing a good job making the reader completely unsure about Rip’s intentions. At this point you just don’t know if Booster can trust Rip or not.

It also appears that Rip is recruiting Daniel to be his new flunky. It shall be interesting to see if Rip ends up having Daniel square off against Booster and Ted.

Jurgens serves up plenty more solid artwork. His style of art is definitely an excellent match for this title.

The Bad: I just can’t shake this bad feeling that Ted is merely being brought back temporarily to only be killed off in short order.

Overall: Booster Gold #6 was another fantastic read. Johns and Katz have quickly made this title by far one of the better reads on the market. This title has it all. Quality plotting and pacing. Strong dialogue and character development. In addition to fast paced action and a fun sense of adventure. I would certainly recommend giving Booster Gold a try.