Booster Gold #20

Booster Gold #20
Cover Date: September 1987
Creative Team: Dan Jurgens (Writer and Pencils)/Arne Starr (Inks)/Steve Haynie (Letterer)/Gene D'Angelo (Colors)/Barbara Randall (editor)

Summary

Booster Gold is blind! BLIND! Also, he’s been drained of color. Why? Because the Rainbow Rider has a bunch of crazy light-related powers that allowed him to do both of those things.

Booster feels around the rooftop where he had fought Rider, and finds Skeets, who has been encased in black light…somehow. Booster scrapes it off, and Skeets turns back on, though he too has been drained of color. Skeets, who can still see, maneuvers Booster around as our hero wonders if he’ll ever regain his sight. Well, given that Booster isn’t Daredevil, and he doesn't have the sort of powers that work without sight, I'm going to guess that he does.

Booster lands at the BoosterHaus, and Dr. Soo does some examining. It turns out that Rainbow Rider’s light blast at the end of last issue blew out Booster’s retinas, but there’s no permanent damage, so Booster’s sight should return…eventually. Dr. Soo also reminds Booster that Soo is not a medical doctor, and Booster should really see one. But hey, he does manage to restore Booster Gold to glorious Technicolor, so Soo is at least somewhat useful.

As usual, Dirk has some bad news. That insurance agent from last issue who wanted to hire Booster has decided to hold a press conference to announce that, in fact, he had hired Booster, even though Booster was dead set against it, as he was worried about the public fallout. Booster calls the insurance agent who tells Booster that he doesn’t really care what Booster thinks.

Still, Booster realizes that the only way to deal with all of this bad press is to get the paintings back…but he’s still blind. Dirk suggests that Trixie go out in the Goldstar suit, though she objects. It turns out to be a moot point as the suit has been stolen…

…by Michelle, who takes it for a spin while still on a roadtrip. But then she gets stunned by a laser gun shot from those two suspicious-looking kids from last issue, who turn out to be aliens. They abduct her, as they are evil aliens, and that is what they do.

Rainbow Rider has decided to take his plan to the next level, and threatens to burn down the Metropolis Art Institute unless Morris is delivered to him. Booster arrives to stop him, using Skeets as a sort of guide robot. But as Booster couldn’t quite handle Rider when he was sighted, and quickly loses track of the Rider in the museum. Skeets then scans Morris’ paintings, and reveals to Booster that Rainbow Rider must have this grudge because Morris stole his designs. Rider appears to explain to Booster that it doesn’t matter, as no court of law would rule for him, and the only way to get justice is to beat on Morris for a while.

They start fighting again, and Rider accidentally starts a fire, and Booster guilts him into saving the paintings from the fire, because Rainbow Rider was once an artist. They work together to get the paintings out, and Rider finally proves that Morris ripped him off by showing his original side-by-side with Morris’ reproduction. Booster celebrates a job well done, but has one more thing to do…

…He confronts the insurance agent in his office and announces that he’s fired because Booster just bought the entire company in order to have this moment of revenge.

Also, the aliens are planning on using Michelle for…something. To be continued!

Continuity!

-Michelle took the Goldstar suit with her when she Booster in Booster Gold #16. Booster kind of shitty security.

-House ad for the new version of the Doom Patrol. This would be the version of the Doom Patrol where Erik Larson got his start, and was so awful that DC just gave the book to Grant Morrison and let him do whatever he wanted, because it seemed like a lost cause at that point.

Review

Booster gets beaten up by the Rainbow Raider again! And then essentially defeats Rainbow Rider by talking at him! Kind of a let-down of an ending.

I mean, it would be one thing if Booster had to overcome his handicap, but he didn't. He was blind, and it made him even less capable of beating a guy who had already defeated Booster last issue. That's probably realistic, but it isn't very exciting.

Come to think of it, all the blindness does is delay the fight scene at the end, especially since Booster gets his sight back by next issue. 

And, for that matter, Rainbow Raider, to the best of my knowledge, has never really been portrayed sympathetically enough to earn a two-issue story where he rights a wrong from his past. He's the Rainbow Raider. He wears a ridiculous costume out of frustration that his color-blindness has made it impossible for him to become a successful artist. I mean, it's hard to turn that into a redemption story, and for that matter, it's hard to say that Rainbow Raider has really been all that vindicated. Granted, Morris stole his designed, but seeing as Raider's problem was that he couldn't get the colors right, and Morris' designs are colored, so it could be said that, even without Morris, Raider wouldn't have been a successful artist anyway, because he wouldn't have been able to overcome his handicap. Then again, I'm probably overthinking this, as any story featuring the Rainbow Raider as its main villain really isn't going to be able to stand up to scrutiny.

But why the hell make a two-parter about the Rainbow Raider into one of the more serious stories that this comic has ever done? Booster's blindness isn't played for laughs, which is a fair thing to do, but, again, a story that has the Rainbow Raider in it is going to be inherently capable of any gravitas. Hell, the cover says "Blinded by the Rainbow Raider". You can't even say that sentence out loud without cracking a smile!

I did like the last scene, however, as it shows that, at heart, Booster is capable of being a very petty person, and as that's one of his distinguishing characteristics, showing that off is a fine way to end an issue.