Booster Gold #4

Booster Gold #4
Cover Date: May 1986
Creative Team: Dan Jurgens (Writer and Pencils)/Mike De Carlo (Inks)/Augustin Mas (Letterer)/Nansi Hoolahan (Colors)/Janice Race (Editor)

Last Time: Booster and Skeets located the base of the 1000, the super-gang that's had been causing them headaches for the past few issues, and decided to storm it...which ended with Booster get strapped to a contraption lifted directly from a James Bond film.

Summary

That laser is still about to kill Booster and Blackguard, but not before some more talking, as Mindancer and the Director taunt Booster who responds by telling them to, “Stop the gallows humor, Mindancer! It lacks class!” She responds by turning up the power of the laser.

Fortunately for Booster, Thorn has finally entered the 1000's base, and with all of the guards dead thanks to Mindancer burning out their brains last issue, she’s able to make it to the room where Booster is being held rather quickly, because using a “smoke thorn” to momentarily block the laser, and then an “acid thorn” to break Booster’s shackles. That means that it’s time for a final battle against Mindancer and the Director.

But first, it's time for some supporting character development as Trixie talks about Booster with her aunt, and then wonders what Booster’s real origin is. She is going to be sooooooooooo disappointed.

Back to the fight! Mindancer takes control of Blackguard, as well as that android from last issue, to even up the sides against Booster, Thorn and Skeets. As is tradition in these sorts of fights, they all pair off and get to fighting, even as the laser is still on and destroying parts of the room. Blackguard gets taken out first because, well, Booster has already beaten him twice, and he’s been further slowed by the fact that he’s trying to resist Mindancer’s mind control, allowing Skeets to defeat him for good by luring him into the path of that laser.

Skeets and Booster then team-up to defeat the android, and they take a bit of time to discuss who Thorn is. Skeets tells Booster that she’s a minor hero that once teamed up with (pre-Crisis) Lois Lane to fight the 100, a gang that eventually evolved into the 1000, and that she’s made a couple of appearances since then. Booster thinks she looks familiar for some reason.

Booster then turns his power levels to 11, and blows up the android. They then turn to defusing the laser, as, if they don’t act quickly, it will destroy the control panel, and therefore never turn off. That seems like a really bad design.

While this is going on, Thorn and Mindancer are having a fight of their own, that ends when Thorn manages to rip off Mindancer’s mask and wig to reveal that she has a skull for a face, and, in a panic, Mindancer runs away.That was abrupt.

Blaze Comics! This subplot is continuing for whatever reason! The editor forces Fake!Marv Wolfman and Fake!George Perez to stop working on Fake!Teen Titans and draw the new Booster Gold comic instead.

In the underground bunker, Thorn also decides to flee, and Booster keeps thinking about how familiar she looks.

Later, Booster has to do a little plothole maintenance in an interview with the press, as this story took place in Metropolis, home of Superman, and featured a giant underground base directly under the city that Superman really should have been able to detect with one of his many, many powers. Booster states that the 1000 lined it with lead so that Superman couldn’t see into it. And, uh, I guess Superman didn’t really question why there was an enormous slab of lead buried deep underground.

Goldstar, Inc.! Senator Ballard sends in his most deadly weapons! The IRS! Because Booster has never paid any taxes ever! To be continued!

Continuity!

-The Thorn and Mindancer subplots are never going to come up against in this comic. So, whatever it was that Booster found so familiar about Thorn is going to remain a mystery.

Review

Well, at least we're done with the 1000 for a bit. That makes everything a bit better.

Beyond that, this entire issue is mainly one long fight scene, which isn't exactly the strong suit of this character. Also, it's kind of a clunky fight scene, with the Thorn showing up and not really adding much to the plot other than bailing out Booster, and then Blackguard and the Director's android seemingly just being there to make sure that there were an equal number of characters on each side of the fight.

Also, I still have no fucking what the 1000's masterplan is after four issues. I guess it's to conquer the world, but I have no idea how they intend to accomplish any of that, especially if they can't even defeat Metropolis' second-best super-hero, and I feel like this entire story has boiled down to Booster Gold fighting some guys for no particularly good reason.

In terms of subplots, the Blaze Comics crew get a bit more development, but only because I get the feeling like Dan Jurgens feels like making a few in-jokes about DC Comics. The bigger problem is that this and the cliffhanger about Booster's unpaid income taxes are really the only parts of this book to touch on the idea that Booster is supposed to be a different sort of hero, rather than just a generic guy with a super-suit. That hasn't really been all that well-developed over the first story arc of the book, and the results is a pretty generic comic book up to this point. It's not bad by any means, Jurgens is a good enough writer and artist to make sure that even this relatively uninspired story still reads well and looks nice, but I can't but feel like there should be more here.