Booster Gold #9

Booster Gold #9
Cover Date: October 1986
Creative Team: Dan Jurgens (Writer and Pencils)/Mike De Carlo (Inks)/John Constanza (Letterer)/Gere D'Angelo (Colors)/Alan Gold and Barbara Randall (Editors)

Last Time: Brainiac 5 discovered that Booster Gold, a 20th century hero, had somehow gotten ahold of Brianiac 5's trademark forcefield belt and Legion Flight Ring, and decided to lead a couple of Legionnaires back in time to investigate. This lead to President Reagan and Vice President Bush getting kidnapped, of course.

Summary

The Legion and Booster are still fighting, and Booster manages to get away by shocking Chameleon Boy with his powers, and then flying the hell out of there. But Ultra Boy pursues him and starting smacking Booster around.

In a limousine, Chiller reveals his evil plans to Reagan and Bush, who realize that this probably is not a good situation for them to be in.

Booster eventually catches on that Ultra Boy can only use one power at a time, and decks him with a right hook while he’s not using his invincibility power, before escaping from Brainiac when their force-field belts essentially cancel each other out.

At a nearby cliff, Chiller takes Reagan and Bush out of the car to execute them, and tells them most of how the plan is going to work for no particularly good reason. But Skeets stops him, and manages to delay the execution of Team Reaganomics.

Over Metropolis, the Legionnaires have decided that it might be worth it to talk to Booster. They know who he really is, and that he stole his uniform from the future, revealing that they are, in fact, from an even more distant future. They accuse him of trying to kill the president which he denies, as, after all, without Reagan, his mindless consumerism would be out of style. Skeets radios in that it has found Reagan, and the heroes decide to try and stop Chiller together.

And, just as Chiller is about to kill Reagan, Booster swoops in to save him. Oh, sure, history has been saved...but at what cost? Are we sure that the administration of the villainous Senator Ballard would have been that much worse than the end of the Reagan administration? I mean, yes, Ballard is very evil, but, then again, established American foreign policy at the time involved funding death squads and spending billions on space lasers.  Fortunately,  Chiller has a backup plan! Unfortunately, that plan is only calling in a couple choppers full of goons from the 1000, and they’re able to do nothing except get blown up by the heroes in short order, but at least it pads the story out.

Chiller, irritated that he has failed, teleports away and swears vengeance. Brainiac 5 reveals that, although he’s not entirely happy about it, history says that Booster was never brought back to the 25^th century to pay for the cool crime of stealing, and, what’s more, Brainiac has to leave behind his force-field belt and flight ring so that they can end up in the Space Museum so that Booster can steal them in the future to become Booster Gold. If they don’t, they’d fracture time itself, and Legion continuity has enough problems as it is. Having tied up these plot holes, the Legionnaires return to their time.

In the past, Booster has decided that he’d like his new hero name to be “Goldstar”, but, as luck would have it, he mumbles during his introductory press conference with President Reagan, and ends up with the name of Booster Gold instead.

And that brings us back to the present, where Booster is shooting a cologne commercial with Monica Lake, while Trixie looks on in jealousy, and Dirk worries about his still-kidnapped daughter.

 

Elsewhere, the Director has a new plan for revenge against Booster! He’s found the writer and artist of the Booster Gold comic, and intends to scan their brains for information about Booster Gold and his associate before killing them! This time, he assures us, he will have his revenge! I mean, yes, his last three schemes have been complete failures, but killing the ersatz versions of Marv Wolfman and George Perez? How could that fail? To be continued!

Continuity!

-If you really care about Legion continuity, and, in that case, I feel so much sympathy for you, then note that this appears to be the very final Legion story in pre-Crisis continuity. A couple of months after this issue, the Cosmic Boy mini-series came out, launching the first of many, many retcons that would eventually swallow the Legion whole.

Review

For whatever reason, Dan Jurgens thought that Booster should spend four issues in a row separated from the rest of his supporting cast and teaming up with other heroes that could barely disguise their contempt for him. This was probably not the best pacing for a new series.

This issue is fine for what it is. It explains how Booster emerged into the public consciousness, and how he ended up with the name of "Booster Gold." Granted, neither of those are particularly interesting revelations, although senile Reagan is always fun. 

Also, the Director...the fucking Director. We're nine issues into the series, and the Director has already had Booster kick his ass three times. And yet, he's coming back for more! I have no idea why Jurgens thought that the Director should be the overarching villain of the first year of this comic. The Director isn't really a good foil for Booster, he's just a rather generic ranting and raving villain.

You know, this issue was fine. Not great, not terrible, just fine. And, believe me, in 1986, that was pretty fucking good for a DC Comic book.