Writers Block: Booster Gold Getting Character Development or Character Derailment? Part 4

Chuck Dixon:

I remember one of the complaints I heard was that Booster accepted that Michelle was back at the end of Johns/Katz run so his "I need to adjust to this" moment didn't fit. I think it does as it's one thing to think "hey you're alive" and another to realize that unlike Ted his sister is there to stay. Someone who's been absent for a far longer period as well. This was the first issue where he really gets to have fun. And I mean that in the sense that he doesn't have the baggage of Teds' death or his own confidence to battle throughout this arc. Although it deals with the usual seriousness of the cause and affect of changing the timeline there's a great sense of fun. Booster gets to play to his fanboy roots. Sadly we don't get to have a mention to the twins being from Gotham but you have to love them stealing the batmobile. It gives you a sense of what Rip meant when he said Michelle would make things easier for Booster. With her around he's grounded because he has do his job and look after her. 

Michelle doesn't have his skills in the field so while he's by no means an expert of time travel at this point he's still the only one with any experience to get them out of the mess. He has a sense of humor about his situation and even a few meaningful (if one sided) exchanges with the bats. From a meta standpoint there's something very fitting about Booster helping correct time by helping another time traveler steal from a museum.

Rick Remender:

RR has a lot of ambition, I'll give him that. For those not in the know his two parter was a sorta-kinda prelude/sequel to his All New Atom run. In those issues Ryan Choi fights Chronos (David Clinton) and meets up with a lady from his past now calling herself Lady Chronos. Jai was a former sweetheart of Ryans' that basically used her female wiles to manipulate men until she could gain ultimate power. She conquers all of time until Booster appears to take Ryan home. She vows that Michael Jon Carter will pay. The problem with his writing here is that he continues to write Booster as an expert in time travel. One that automatically accepts the rules of time travel despite his previous struggles with accepting it. He's shown teaching Michelle how to be a time master despite not really, uh, mastering it himself.

Booster in fact refers to himself as a Time Master directly when he promises Starro others will stop him. This raises the question of who he thinks will do it and how many Time Masters are they implying if the only ones besides Rip and him that we know about are Michelle, Daniel and Skeets. Only Skeets actually fits the role. I do like that Booster is smart, if a little reckless when pressed for time. He is cool under the worst sort of pressure (Starros trying to tap into his brain) and never wavers in his resolve. He shows real concern for Michelle, Rip and we get our first family interaction with Daniel joining the twins.

But RR seems so willing to morph his stint as a fill in into something epic that he oversteps his bounds to introduce the concept of Booster being a father to the hero. Something that's quickly forgotten once Booster talks to Skeets. I have to agree with Jurgens that if Booster did know he was going to be a father, he'd want to get more information. It's not a plot that should be explored with a fill in and is hard to place in canon.