Booster Gold #8

Booster Gold #8
Cover Date: September 1986
Creative Team: Dan Jurgens (Writer and Pencils)/Mike De Carlo (Inks)/Gene D'Angelo (Colors)/Augustin Mas (Letterer)/Alan Gold (Editor)

Summary

It’s the year 2986! Chameleon Boy, Brainiac 5 and Ultra Boy, Legionnaires for life, get called down to the Time Institute to be shown a time machine and a portion of Brainiac 5’s force field belt, both of which had apparently been buried since 1985. Even more oddly, it appears the time machine only made one trip, from 2462 to 1985, which syncs up with the robbery made by Michael Jon Carter. What this is means is that, somehow, a piece of the force field belt that Brainiac won’t even invent until the 30^th century ended being buried for 1000 years. The Legionnaires decide to go back in time to investigate this paradox.

In 1985, Booster and Skeets first arrive in this time period from the 25^th century, and go on a walk through Metropolis to take a quick look at the past. Apparently, Booster does not know how cash, red lights, or a bunch of other things work. "Cash? I'm not familiar with that term?"

They eventually get themselves a room at a hotel using a credit card that Booster also stole from the future, and talk about how Booster has a plan to save the president and vice-president from an assassination attempt that, according to history, is due to take place the next day, which will make his name as a hero.

Underground, the Director, leader of the 1000, lays out his assassination plan. He’s hired a guy named Chiller who has shape-shifting powers. Chiller is to kidnap both men, kill them, leave Vice-President Bush’s body out in the open, and then disguise himself as Reagan. Then, he’ll let Senator Ballard arrange a fake rescue attempt, making it seem more plausible when Reagan appoints Ballard as his new VP, and then resigns, making Ballard the President of the United States. Chiller then shows off his acid powers by killing a random goon, much to the Director’s annoyance.  After Chiller leaves, the Director reveals that he really is Senator Ballard, and this is all just a very roundabout way of getting him into the White House.

The Legionnaires arrive in the past, and wonder if Booster’s plan isn’t to kill Reagan for some reason, and decide they have to stop him.

Back at the hotel, Booster puts on the finishing touches to his costume, and then heads off to save the president.

But Chiller is a step ahead of everyone, as he has already taken the form of a Secret Service Agent to get close to the president.

They all converge at the press conference, where the Legionnaires, not trusting Booster at all, start attacking him on sight and Booster, having no knowledge of the Legion, fights back, allowing Chiller to get away with both President Reagan and Vice-President Bush in the confusion. To be continued!

Continuity!

-This story takes place prior to Booster Gold #1.

-As this issue takes place in 1985, the president and vice-president are Reagan and Bush at their Iran-Contra height!

-Booster makes a reference to the nuclear wasteland of the 21st century because, at the time, Western hero Jonah Hex was starring in a book set in that era.

Review

Yeah, that's right, the Director was Senator Ballard all along! Which somehow makes him even less menacing from before, because this means instead of getting soundly defeated by Booster once, he's had his ass-kicked twice, and given that this issue is set in the past, and Ballard was still only a senator in Booster Gold #1, that means he's going to fuck this up too.

But that's not the real point of this story. Instead, it's concerned with bringing in more guest stars, and trying to flesh out Booster's origin a bit more. Remember, this was 1986, when the Legion were considered something that could boost sales on another title, not just a lead anchor weighing other comics down.

I do think that Booster is portrayed a bit too ignorant about the 20th century, though. After all, it doesn't really make all that much sense that Booster wouldn't understand the concept of paper currency, especially when he's able to deflect questions about his credit card not expiring until 1998 by glibly telling a hotel concierge that he's "got great credit."

It's also not great that this is the second issue in a row that has Booster fighting with other heroes. Granted, heroes fighting other heroes as part of a misunderstanding is a staple of team-up stories, but that's why you generally space out stories like that so that they don't happen every episode. 


This isn't really a bad comic, but the last thing that this series needed after a two-part story that featured Booster getting his ass kicked by a disdainful superhero with bits of Booster's origin story shoehorned in was a two-part story that was about the same.