Booster Gold #7

Booster Gold #7
Cover Date: August 1987
Creative Team: Dan Jurgens (Writer and Pencils)/Mike De Carlo (Inks)/Augustin Mas (Letterer)/Gene D'Angelo (Colors)/Alan Gold (Editor)

Last time: Superman and Booster Gold finally met, and Superman made it clear how much he disliked Booster. Then they were kidnapped by aliens.

Summary

On another planet, an alien king named “Lord Galeb”, brings Superman, Booster Gold, Skeets, Jason and that alien they rescued last time to his throne, and then charges them all with treason.  Booster asks how they could have committed treason if they don’t even know who any of these people are. But the alien they rescued, who is really named Ranzee, explains that the treason charges are true, as he had hoped to overthrow Galeb. Still, Booster has no interest in going down for treason, and rushes to stop Galeb, only to be shut down by Galeb’s wife, who knocks everyone out with magic.

Goldstar, Inc.! The comics guys are back and are as uninteresting as ever! Also, Dirk has decided that it’s time for some brand extension, and hires a scientist named Dr. Soo to build a new battlesuit to be worn by a woman who can act as Booster’s sidekick.

On the alien planet, Ranzee explains that he is a freedom fighter looking to take down Galeb’s brutal regime, which has already killed his family. Booster is ready to sign up for revolutionary duty, but Superman wants more information before they do anything. Booster and Superman argue about whether to intervene, and Skeets takes Superman’s side.

At Goldstar, Dirk is enjoying the Booster Gold comic when he gets a call from some kidnappers who inform him that they have taken his daughter.Dirk, you see, is man with a particular set of skills, but they are mainly related to public relations, and of no help in rescuing his daughter, so he broods at his desk.

Superman and Booster are still arguing when Yaleb comes back and announces that the heroes are free to go, and that Ranzee is to be executed. Booster, having had enough, attacks, only to be stopped by Superman, who thinks they shouldn’t interfere. They get into a fight and, well, Booster in horribly overmatched. He gets his ass kicked over and over because his supersuit isn't really much threat to the most powerful hero ever, Superman asks if Booster is really ready to effect regime change despite knowing nothing about the situation, and Booster evidently is. In the meantime, Galeb has told Skeets some shocking exposition, and rushes off to knock out Booster before he does something stupid.

Booster asks Skeets why it did that to him, and Skeets explains that Ranzee is a liar, and is just trying to seize the throne from the rightful ruler. Booster decides to accept this new information on faith, and agrees to leave the planet. Ranzee, I guess, is still going to get executed, which no other character seems to have much of a problem with.

Back on Earth, Superman talks to Lois, who explains that Booster might not be a great hero, but he is new and exciting. Well, let's not go crazy, I mean, the sales figures on Booster Gold probably weren't that high.  Superman then asks Skeets if, based on his historical files, Booster is even supposed to be in this time period, and Skeets admits that he is, although the records don’t say much about what it is that Booster is supposed to do. Skeets hasn’t told Booster this, though, because the bot doesn’t want to open that can of worms. Superman, frustrated because that means he can’t just send Booster back to the future, tells Skeets to keep Booster out of his way. The end!

 

Continuity!

-This Superman is still the pre-Crisis, pre-John Byrne reboot version, as shown by the fact that this Lois Lane has black hair rather than reddish-brown hair, which was one of the odder changes John Byrne made to the Superman mythos.

Review

I have to give credit to Dan Jurgens for taking a two-issue story guest-starring Superman, and using it to repeatedly show how deeply, deeply flawed Booster is as a hero. In this story, he has his rather embarrassing origin revealed, gets kidnapped by an alien civilization, gets the crap kicked out of him by Superman, and then gets sent home as a failure.

That said, the conclusion feels more than a little rushed. Skeets has an offscreen conversation with Galeb, and then he just tells Booster what the reality of the situation is, and Booster just kind of accepts it without asking for any proof. In fact, Ranzee never really does much of anything to prove that he's the sort of villainous usurper that Galeb claims him to be.

I'm all for ambiguity, but since the end of this issue features Superman and Booster just leaving and allowing Ranzee to get executed, it probably could have used some demonstration of Ranzee's true nature rather than just Skeets talking Booster into letting Ranzee get sent to the gallows. It feels like this was a normal two-parter, but then Jurgens felt pressure to cram Booster's origin into the first part, meaning there wasn't enough space in this issue for a proper conclusion.

But hey, that aside, it's a decent enough story, showing how Booster is different from a hero like Superman, and not wrapping things up too neatly, as Superman still doesn't like Booster by the end of the story, and only tolerates him because of a concern for history.