Booster Gold #13

Booster Gold #13
Cover Date:  February 1987
Creative Team: Dan Jurgens (Writer and Pencils)/Gary Martin (Inks)/Bob Lappan (Letterer)/Gene D'Angelo (Colors)/Barbara Randall (Editor)

Previously...

Booster finally, finally, finally defeated the Director for good. Finally.

Summary

Dirk has some bad news…Booster’s going to die! Trixie and Dr. Soo are confused, because Booster was in rough shape at the end of last issue, but he wasn’t mortally wounded or anything. Dirk explains that Booster is sick and getting sicker, and the doctors don’t know why. Redirecting the conversation slightly, Dr. Soo asks what Booster’s whole deal is anyway, since he’s been examining the super-suit that Booster wears, and it’s way beyond the science of the time. Trixie hesitantly admits that Booster, and his suit, came from the future, which allows Dr. Soo to figure out that the problem is that Booster isn't properly immunized against the pathogens of this time period, and that must be what’s killing him.

In the hospital, it’s a Legends crossover! The people have been turned against heroes, and so a crowd has gathered outside of the hospital where Booster is recuperating to protest…I’m not quite sure, presumably they’re protesting the fact that Booster hasn’t quite died yet.  A nurse complains to Booster that he cares more about publicity and money than being a hero. Well, maybe, but the man is dying. This really isn't the time to pile on.

Dr. Soo, Trixie and Dirk arrive at the hospital just in time for the crowd to finally just start storming to Booster’s room to speed up his terminal illness. But Dr. Soo has a plan! He’s finally finished that super-suit that Dirk asked him to make for a potential female sidekick for Booster, and someone could put it on to rescue him. But it will only fit Trixie, and she’s not entirely thrilled with either superheroics or wearing a skintight uniform. Still, it’s either that or Booster ends up getting murdered, so she acquiesces and saves him.

On top of a nearby building, Trixie gives Booster his suit back, although it’s still out of power, and his Legion Flight Ring, which will at least let him fly. Booster tells her that she looks “Boosterific in skins!”  She points out that he’s wearing a backless hospital gown. Anyway, they’ve come up with a plan to save Booster! First stop, they need access to his personal plane because…I’m not clear why, since both he and Trixie can fly on their own.

Still, I guess they want to travel in comfort, but get stopped by the police because the president outlawed heroic activities in an earlier issue of the Legends Crossover, and that somehow means that Booster isn’t allowed to use his plane for any purposes...or something.

In response to this inconvenience, Booster beats up the cops and he and his friends fly away on the plane.

On board, Dr. Soo reveals that he still can’t get Skeets to turn back on, but figures they might be able to repair him…in the FUTURE! Speaking of which, since they’re all planning on a daytrip to the 25^th century to cure his illness and perform some maintenance on his suit and Skeets, Booster feels he has to explain his origin.

Michael Jon Carter was a college quarterback who would have made millions in the pros, but the NFL’s anti-trust exemption has apparently lasted for centuries, meaning that he had to stay in college for another year, where he couldn’t get paid. So he turned to gambling to make some money, but got caught and was blackballed from football. He then started working at a museum, and stole the supersuit and a time machine to become a hero in the past. The upshot is that, in the future, people aren’t going to be terribly happy to see him.

Dirk, Trixie and Dr. Soo, who hadn’t heard Booster’s full origin story before, are stunned into silence, because they had figured that Booster's origin was less super-felonious. 

They eventually touch down in front of the house of Rip Hunter, Time Master, who has just so happened to build a working time machine….in fact, it’s appears to be the very same time machine that Booster would later steal 500 years in the future. Dirk stays behind to manage Booster’s affairs while the rest venture to the year 2462, where everything is mildly futuristic! Trixie is amazed at where her life has taken her.

Booster decides to run off and see his mother and sister, only to find that his mother died soon after he left, and that he’s a wanted man! To be continued!

 

Continuity!

-Rip Hunter is essentially the biggest name in time travel when in the DC Universe. He was originally created in the Silver Age, debuting in 1959, and had a solo series in the first half of the '60s before sliding into irrelevance. This Rip Hunter, however, is the post-Crisis model, and he's just starting out on his career, having not even made a successful time jump yet.

-The Legends crossover continues in this issue.

Review

This story feels like it was a decent enough story that just had the misfortune of having a crossover dropped on top of it. For example, it doesn't really make all that much sense for a mob to be protesting Booster in the hospital, especially since Booster isn't really doing anything except dying. Or the cops stopping Booster from using his company plane.

Also, the story doesn't quite sell that Booster is all that sick, especially since he seems up to punching out cops at a moment's notice.

Still, going to the future was always inevitable given Booster's origin, and this isn't the worst set up for some time travel. I'm not sure that the story really needed a three-page recap of Booster's origin, especially since the original origin had been given in Booster Gold #6, which came out seven months before this comic. Of course, since the rest of this story turns on Booster's origin, it makes some sense to recap it in some detail.

Beyond that, it's an issue that really just sets up the story, and the action pieces in this issue are really more perfunctory more than anything else.