Booster Gold #8 (Volume 1)

Booster has met Superman and had his origins revealed. Well part of it there's still the matter of how he became known to the public. Plus Superman wasn't the only hero that wanted to know his intentions. Especially since Boosters' origins involve a paradox.

OLDER SPOILERS AHEAD



Title: "Time Bridge Chapter 1"


Legion members Ultra Boy, Brainiac 5 and Chameleon Boy find a buried time sphere. Since it has remains of Brainys' force field belt they have to figure out how it could exist in the past. I never had much interest in the Legion of Superheroes and since there are so many members I don't really want to learn more about them. (Keep in mind I previously kept track of the X-Men and the Summers family. I'm not up for more of that.) From what I've seen the only one I really like is Brainy which works out fine since Booster is linked to him. Speaking of the lead character this story actually takes place before the first issue as it shows Booster arriving in the past. This is the telling of how he made it big as a hero, a sort of expanded origin story if you will. Donning his "suit" (it's not in the state we know it now) he tests it out before deciding to explore the past.

Watching Booster look around the strange new world around him with wonder filled eyes is a treat. The scenes with Skeets and him going around the city are pure fun. It's the sort of thing I don't want to spoil for Booster fans that haven't read this series. I don't know how anyone can't be charmed by Booster after seeing these pages. Anyway, after taking in his new home it's time to set up shop and that starts with the help of the credit card taken from the museum. So yeah, that's still theft but Booster plans on repaying the card holder after he makes it big. First they have to get his heroic image set up then find a way to stop the assassination attempt on the President and Vice Presidents' lives.

Who's behind this plot? The Director of course, he hired the shape shifting Chiller to do the deed. The plan being for him to change into the President after the murders and set Senator Ballard up as his VP. Then resign and have Ballard step up as the commander and chief. This is where we get the big reveal of Ballard being the Director. It makes sense but at the same time who else could it be? No one else would really make sense. In and out of his persona Ballard has caused trouble for Booster. We get the reason for his fury here but at the same time he wasn't built up enough. He's mainly been the guy pulling the strings and will continue to do so for awhile. Booster doesn't interact with him too much which kind of takes away from him being a great foil for him. There's just not as much to work with as someone like Max Lord. That's not to say Jurgens doesn't do some cool things with him, in fact I suspect he could have been bigger than he was but the Director never quite makes it that far.

The Legion go looking for Booster and come to the conclusion that because he's a wanted criminal he might be the assassin gunning for the president. This as you can image causes some confusion because the Legion member closest to the president is Chameleon Boy, a shapeshifter. Oh the president is Reagan and the VP is Bush, so yeah this is a bit dated. The fight with the three Legion members against Booster is actually pretty fun. We end with Booster trapped and the assassin driving the president further away.

The sections with the Legion looking for Booster were the ones that I wanted to skip through. Partly because I'm not that interested in them and partly because they explain the obvious. Or things that the others already know so the audience can pick up information. Like Chameleon Boy explaining that he doesn't need to use a device to disguise his looks since he's a shapeshifter. Did he think they would forget he just changed one panel ago and Ultra Boy said it unnerved him? Didn't they know that the assassin was a shapeshifter? Booster knew that. Granted they guessed the connection and admitted their history expert wasn't around. I felt this was better done that #7, likely because it had more charm. I also like that Jurgens took a different route with the Legion members being here strictly to get answers and then to stop what they think will be a possible assassination. After the more emotionally charged encounter with Superman it's a nice change of pace for a superhero brawl.


Say What?: "Rip Hunter, the co-called Time Master." No one gives Rip any respect.

August 20th was when Booster arrived in the past? I could have sworn it said one of the past issues took place in April which is not two months later. Winick had the scandal take place in September.

Booster claims they spent almost a month in the time stream. It was already confirmed that it was only a one way trip from the 25th century to the past. With no food or bathroom I take this to mean the time sphere acted like the Supernova suit allowing him to live without needing to sleep, eat or relieve himself.

The world had to be rebuilt after the events in Hex something that will be teased in this title a little more but becomes a focus in Time Masters.

The Team of Tomorrow should always be the nickname of time travelers.

Questions Raised?: How did Booster know what kind of alien Chameleon Boy is?