Review Shooter: Booster Gold 44

Being a time-traveler has its perks. You get to see the world, you get to see how the world is and how the world will be. Being a comic-book time-traveler however has some downsides. The fact that you can’t change many events so even if you are the hero the world needs, you can’t stop a flood from killing thousands or an evil entity from destroying millions, because thems the rules.

What’s worse though is when you play by the rules, and the other team doesn’t. In the case of Flashpoint, someone has messed with history, and would be heroes are at war with each other while others don’t carry the same face. Lucky for us though, Booster Gold is here!

As DC’s resident time-traveler, it makes sense that Booster’s existence wouldn’t be altered by the events leading up to Flashpoint. And if you are keeping track at home, would make him the 3rd character aware of the alternate timeline. A fair share of the issue is dedicated to setting up how Booster figures out that something’s rotten in the state of Denmark. Really, the entire issue kind of revolves around that, not much else plot wise except for some backstory.

Now the back story is where things start to get iffy for me. Yes, Booster Gold is a Flashpoint tie-in, nowadays tie-ins are more the norms than the exception. It only makes sense that an event of this scale, would pull in characters from other books. The problem is that this tie-in needs a minor relationship to Booster’s last tie-in, which ended about 6 months ago. Well to be fair, the actual event, The Return of Bruce Wayne, ended but the tie-in went on a bit longer.

Again, being a tie-in isn’t my problem, but the fact that there have been two story arcs (and one of them was major) in-between Return and Flashpoint in the comic just asks the reader to remember too far back. I know its a minor complaint to most, but it does seem to just drive home the point when a comic goes from event tie-in to event tie-in.

As I said, aside from that, really nothing else happens in the comic. Sure, we find out that the US gov’t is deathly afraid of Aquaman and the Atlaneteans. And they have several high-stake offensive weapons at the ready, which they use against Booster to little effect, but that’s about it. If nothing else, this book comes off a bit more comical than I think it was intended to. And yes, I realize the irony in saying a Booster Gold comic isn’t taking itself too serious.

I just felt with the stakes as high as they are and the situation as grim as its being set-up to be, that it felt odd to go with humor. Anyhow, the book ends on a cliffhanger which would have been more impressive if the character wasn’t already running rampage throughout the DC universe proper.

This is generally the part of the review where I share a favorite piece of art with you, but to be honest nothing really stuck out to me. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the art in the book, but felt it was really just good. It accomplishes what it needs to, and that’s really all you can ever ask for.

New Reader Accessibility: 3 Yes, my biggest complaint about the book is that its a tie-in related to a tie-in, which means technically you should be familiar with the events associated with the book. But it does a fairly decent job of explaining itself when needed. I only say that because the book does set up a mystery for Booster to discover so you discover it along with him. Not only that but you get a 2 page origin in here as well. So it does give you a lot of content.

Recommendation: Avoid It Unless you really want to read a Flashpoint tie-in this story really doesn’t do much nor does it add to the main storyline yet.