JL:GL #2 - Moving the pieces

After last week, I was really excited to see where this next issue would go. I'm not sure what it was that I expected for number two, though I do think that this is the type of issue that had to go here. The events of last issue were BIG and a little crazy, and the four clearly need to absorb them in their own way. Anyway, onward and upward!

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The Cover

I thought that the cover was especially appropriate - Maxwell Lord positioning pieces on a chessboard. On one side - our heroes from the story (minus Booster, plus The Blue Beetle). On the other, some of the folks that didn't believe them - Guy Gardner, Wonder Woman, and Batman.

A few of the discrepancies as far as character drawing is concerned still exist. Ice just sort of looks a little pudgy, Fire's shirt still has that low cut to it. I mean, I'm totally aware of how they've been drawn in the past, but can't we look into the book that the cover is for and see how they're being drawn currently?

Regardless, I like this cover MUCH better than last week's, if only for the fact that there's no "Jim Carrey as Booster Gold" on it. Max's bloody nose as he's controlling his pieces foreshadows the trickery he'll employ upon Captain Atom later in the issue. The opposing pieces indicate the friction between the characters who know and those who don't.

I was also excited at first glance to see the Blue Beetle on there - I was hoping they'd bring him in on this.

I've seen the alternate cover and I like that quite a bit; it reminds me of the zero issue of "Blackest Night." Nonetheless, it highlights each hero in their own element.

The Story So Far

This is really sort of an aftermath/position-the-pieces sort of story. As a fan of LOST, I sort of know how those go. It was pretty appropriate for where we were.

Essentially everyone that the four are close to don't believe that Max Lord ever existed. Some think that they're outright crazy, or as our friend Booster said, "cheese and crackers." No matter what evidence they see of Max Lord, something mentally blocks the truth and replaces it with another fact. Lex Luthor hijacked Brother Eye. Bruce Wayne reformed the Justice League. And, most shockingly, Ted Kord killed himself.

I have to think that the last one was an especially deliberate move on Lord's part. It was a clear shot at Booster Gold; his loyalty for Ted goes a long way and Max had to know how he'd react. That the entire superhero community would believe that Ted truly committed suicide is something that any friend could not stand for. I'm continue to be touched a little by Booster's feelings for his old friend.

Captain Atom intends to check in with his superiors and give a full report as to what has occurred - and then Max gets him. That's the interesting thing about Max. He doesn't really need to be anywhere near you to attack you. Captain Atom thought he saw Max - it was really an illusion - and attacked him. In actuality, he was attacking his superior officer.

Back at HQ, the heroes discuss these recent events. Fire has been dismissed from Checkmate. Ice doesn't want in anymore. Booster is angry about the world's perception of Ted. Finaly, Fire flies off on her own - I can't help but wonder how many times the characters will branch off from the group in this - and the rest go in search of a unique signal picked up by Skeets. What do they find? Jamie Reyes under attack by a bunch of OMACS!

Dun dun dunnnnnnn!

So what have we learned? Well, earlier in this issue, Skeets theorizes that their exclusion was simply because they were in the eye of the storm, so to speak. I favor this theory, too, if only because I can't imagine one single logical reason why he would intentionally allow four individuals to retain their memories when he's gone to so much trouble to make EVERYONE forget.

What was good

- I enjoyed the page of reactions to our quartet's questions about Max, asking them if they hadn't gone crazy. Especially PG's "Did Booster put you up to this?"

- The interlude with Captain Atom really drove home the fact of how dangerous Max truly is. He can really screw with you when he wants to, and he doesn't need to be anywhere nearby.

- OMACs! Blue Beetle!

- Another solid cliffhanger! I think that BB is the one who is most likely to believe any of them. He knows that Booster has time travel experience and therefore some wild true stories; also, if it wasn't for Booster he wouldn't even have the scarab...

- Skeets did his best to be a unifying force for the team. I like that.

What was "ehhhhhh..."

- I'm not sure why we need to clearly see Fire and Ice's nipples under their costumes. Don't get me wrong, I REALLY like boobs. A LOT. Still, It's a little over the top. Are these two always cold or something? I mean, Fire is already practically naked in her fire form. Again, just a little over the top, that's all I'm saying.

- This issue was either about sitting and talking or sudden action. While this does allow the reader to deflate from the last a little, I found it a little disjointed.

New Questions!

- Are we going to see Max's new attempt at his old goal, or is there a new driving force in his pursuits?

- Why are there OMACS - has Max rehabilitated Brother Eye, or found a backup system, or... what? Leftovers? I thought they were all gone...

-Why just discredit the fearsome foursome? If he could make EVERYONE forget, why can't he just make four people forget now, after the fact?

- How big a role will Blue Beetle have? As I said, I think he is the most likely to believe any of them about Max Lord, especially due to his relationship with Booster. The negative part of that is that other heroes are probably not as likely to believe Jamie. Again, especially due to his relationship with Booster.

Another solid issue, I thought. I'd appreciate something more fast paced for the next one, but I also recognize the need to slow down for an issue in order to keep the pacing of the series where it needs to be.

New Comic Book Day!

Grabbed the new JL:GL today; review up soon.

I didn't feel like springing $7.99 for the One-In-Ten cover, which in a lot of ways I prefer to the other cover. That said, the common one appears to be improved from the last despite a few character inaccuracies yet again. I'm getting ahead of myself, though.

I'm finding this to be a lot of fun so far, and if I can get my hands on Time Masters #1 once it comes out (I WILL get my hands on it), I'll probably go through that miniseries as well.

Having reflected, I'm pretty happy with the direction that Booster is going, and the first issue of this new series really exceeded expectations. Here's hoping it holds up!

Also, a question for anyone reading this: I was re-reading the "Day of Death" story arc in Booster Gold and realized that the Black Beetle storyline is just hanging there. Will Dan hit on it in Time Masters? Will Bwa-ha and Ha-ha resolve it in their books? He was around for too much of the run to go away. Perhaps I'd know more if it was July and we had Time Masters!

Justice League: Generation Lost #1

Here we go with the new bi-weekly series from DC. I'm excited for anything that features Booster Gold in a prominent role, and in my opinion, this one doesn't disappoint. So, let's dig in to the first issue!

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The Cover

Ok, I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of this cover. Don't get me wrong - in terms of artistry, I think it is fairly well done. So what's wrong with it? Well, first, Booster doesn't even LOOK like Booster. He looks somewhat deformed, or perhaps like something out of Dragon Ball Z. His hair is pointing up strangely and his face is shaped totally wrong. Fire and Ice look a little off as well. Actually, Fire's costume is completely incorrectly drawn. Her top does NOT have a plunging neckline like that - don't believe me? Go ahead and look at the rest of the book!

Ice's outfit is a little wrong, too. This is more nitpickey, but the white area that comes up her legs shouldn't end by her crotch, it should go up towards her halter top further. Also, aren't her lips usually blue?

However, Captain Atom looks pretty sweet, and Max Lord looks rather devious. Obviously the cover is centered around him (given that this is his return and all) and for the most part they did a good job getting that across. Still, a lot of him is obscured by Captain Atom. I think that if the characters were drawn a little more correctly, this would be a pretty solid cover. Luckily, the cover doesn't hold a candle to the rest of this book.

The Story In General...

I liked the story. The plot was great, and I especially enjoyed the quote on the end splash page: "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he doesn't exist." The ending REALLY left me wanting more. I'm getting ahead of myself, though... Let's step back.

The Booster material really worked; it was true to the character and enjoyable all around. As for the rest, it was clear to me that Fire, Ice, and Captain Atom were doing... something. The whats and the whys of their actions were, to me, totally unclear. Compared to Booster, their material felt a little rushed. Now I'll never complain about a big spotlight on our futuristic hero, but for the grand military scale of the others' operation, I have no idea what they were setting out to accomplish. In hindsight, it was clearly some sort of underground Max Lord hideout. I just think it was poorly explained.

So anyway, in the midst of this, Booster is thinking through the Max Lord situation. I loved his determination whilst considering the information despite Skeets' Debbie-Downer role. "...but BATMAN already..." "but didn't BATMAN..." He drew his own conclusion based upon his own knowledge of Max Lord. I will always root for a situation where Booster acts in a way that his fellow supers wouldn't expect him to. This all set up my favorite scene - the JLI Embassy.

Max blindsides Booster, Booster manages to call the JLI (pretty slick of them to still carry those - nostalgia or a little bit of caring for one another?), and they arrive just in time for Max's psychic explosion.

Now from a realism standpoint, I have no idea how Max lost all that blood and still managed to look so dapper and in control on the last page. I know that he had one or two IV bags of blood hooked up, but that really seemed like a lot.

Anyway, for whatever reason (by accident or by design?), the JLI members present are the only ones who remember that Max ever existed. Until Superman said "Who's Max Lord?" I didn't understand the significance of Fire's conversation about Operation Land Lord.

Finally, we end with a great quote, the one I began the article with - and it was quite appropriate. We all know that Maxwell is evil. He killed Ted Kord. He hacked Brother Eye and bent it to its will, creating the OMACs - his personal secret army specially designed for combating Metas. Equate him with the devil? Sure, why not? Now he can operate in secrecy, pulling strings, moving pieces all over the board.

As Superman said, "He's the only one who ever got close to defeating us all."

Wow. This going to be a great book. A LOT happened here in what really felt like a short amount of time, and this truly sucked me in. I can't wait to see how this plays out.

What was good:

- Good plot, great cliffhanger ending that left me wanting more.

- Great story for Booster Gold. Even though he got his butt kicked (can't blame him - what kind of coward attacks someone in the back?), he outsmarted Batman and Skeets and found out exactly where Maxwell was. Potentially, if he hadn't, he and the other three wouldn't have been immune... depending on the reason that they were immune, of course.

- I liked Captain Atom's little heroic move with the bomb even if I thought the scene setting it up was a little unclear. He didn't have much to do after exploding though.

- Nice villainous plot by Maxwell - amplifying his psychic power to make EVERYONE on the planet forget that he exists. Crazy.

- Booster's desire to get more active than he was allowed to be in the search for Max is just another sign of how far he has come. While much of this is likely motivated by his desire to avenge Ted, the inner fire is great to see continued even though good ol' Dan Jurgens isn't writing anymore.

- Did you ever think that we'd have THREE TITLES at one time where Booster had a starring or solid co-starring role? It's amazing! I hope it translates into book sales for the main title. I really enjoyed both that I've read thus far as well.

What was "Ehhhh...":

- This wasn't something I hated, but man, Power Girl is a BITCH.

- The cover. I just didn't like it.

- How many ways and places will we have Booster's power suit deactivated just to complicate things for him? It's almost too convenient a plot device. "Hmm, how can we make sure that Max can hit him?" "OOO! EMP Device!" This is in the same week where Booster, in his solo title, was stuck on Daxam due to suit damage.

- What was Max Lord doing hiding a bomb in the middle of the Saudi desert? Maybe I'll have to re-read that part, but I truly don't get the point. Was there once a lab or something of his out there?

What questions I have - feel free to respond to these in the comments:

- Were the four from the JLI ALLOWED to remember, or was it an accident? If it was planned, is he going to toy with them? Does he disrespect him that much? Or is this massive dramatic irony - we know that they're still looking, but he won't? Seems awfully careless of him.

- What is Max Lord planning? This is obviously what we'll find out in the future.

- Does anyone believe for a minute that he is truly haunted by shooting Blue Beetle? I didn't.

- Time will tell, but I wonder how much we'll see this quartet truly working together and how much we'll see them completely at odds.

- Is Dr. Fate (his artifact was revealed at the end of this BG #32) going to play a role in Time Masters, Booster Gold, JL:GL, or some combination of the two?

Wrapping It Up:

In the future, I hope to be able to begin some theories about what we'll have happen. They'll all be wrong, but it'll be fun to talk about. Right now, I'd like to let the story play out for another issue or two and go from there.

Have a Boosterrific day!

Booster Gold #32: The New Direction.

Ok, so I'll try to set a standard for my review format in this one. We'll see how it evolves. This issue is what I was waiting for, and I'm doing this before JL:GL because, story-wise, it comes first.

Finally, the "SPOILER ALERT" goes without saying!

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The Cover

Pretty typical Booster stuff here. Can't really complain about it... serves as sort of a re-introduction for the character, which I suppose makes sense given the "new beginning" aspect of this book. I've never been a fan of speech bubbles on a comic book cover, even when I was little, so that's a turn-off. The thing that concerned me on first glance, though was the tag: "Giffen and DeMatteis reunite to bring the bwa-ha-ha back to Booster Gold."

I thought that, while the issue 1-31 stories were more serious in tone than the old JLI stuff, there was still a lot of levity. I know that the Bwa-Ha-Ha is the KG/JMD brand of stuff as far as this goes, but it still made me worry that it'd be too far. Enough of that for now. Let's move on.

General Thoughts:

With Booster's time traveling, it's always a treat to open up and see where they'll throw you in. I enjoyed this beginning simply because you're immediately thrust into a crisis situation. I thought the "Come with me..." line was hysterical...flipping over onto a big splash page of red beams "WAKA-TOOM"-ing down onto the planet. This is big stuff that he's in the middle of, though the girl talking about how she has to pee was an interesting contrast.

The credits on the second page of the splash had me again a little worried... apologizing to Dan Jurgens for soiling his creation yet again. Ok, since they brought it up... I already said that was a concern of mine and thankfully, it was unfounded. There's a LOT of dialog in this story, and some is a little ridiculous, but it is truly balanced out with the Booster that I've come to enjoy reading about in the Volume 2 run.

I like the art, but sometimes characters facial expressions don't seem to match what's going on. I'm guessing that this is going to get more in sync as we go here.

It took WAY too long for Skeets to come in. I like the little droid, especially his interactions with Booster. Always have. As a guy from the future, as a guy whose peers regard him with some disdain, the little guy is really his only friend. Speaking of which, I wonder what Rip was doing to him? Just some diagnostics? Something new? We'll see, I guess. Could be nothing at all.

What I Liked

- The balance of humor and seriousness was good.

- Something about Booster's "son-of-a-bitch" when he saw Max Lord alive and well was great. Just really seemed to sum it all up. What else can you say?

- His immediate turn-around from self-doubt to outward confidence when Rani asked if she was going to die too.

- The story was well-paced, a nice transitional issue.

- I wonder how Ekron feels about that eye? He sure was sore about it in 52.

- I liked how Booster was a very in-control foil to the confused and bewildered 31st-centry-ers.

- When Skeets did come in... well, it was exactly why I like Skeets. I can just picture him schmoozing with the hybrid.

- These guys still know how to write good Booster, even with how many changes he's undergone. I like that they maintained the seriousness, the doubt, the bravado, the charm, but...

What Was "Ehhh"

- Booster's self-doubt after the Emerald Empress killed all those people was good, yet it felt a little forced. A page ago, Booster was zooming around and reliving his football days. Now he's on the opposite end of the spectrum. Don't get me wrong, I like the human side of Booster, but he's a little bipolar in this book.

- Since when did Booster have the technical know-how to repair his time-travel circuitry? Maybe I missed that somewhere.

- I was ready to see the Emerald Empress pull out some Clear Eyes eyedrops on her splash page. Reminded me of Ben Stein.

- The Eye jokes made sense in EE's dialog, given the slightly nutsy nature of the villain and her attachment to the Eye of Ekron, but I felt a little "been there, done that" due to Brother Eye's forms of conversation..

- SO much dialog!

Overall

I REALLY liked this. This will not be a bad direction for our boy from the future. I'm especially excited to see how this will bump up against Generation Lost. While the I definitely found some negatives in the +/- section, I really see the positives as outweighing any negatives by a long shot. This is going to be a fun ride.

Stay tuned for more - there'll be a new JL:GL before you know it, and I still haven't posted the first one! This is going to be fun.

First!

In this space, over the coming year, I'll be reviewing each issue of Justice League: Generation Lost as it comes out. If I find some time, I'll also be reviewing each month of Booster Gold: Vol. 2. Finally, if this catches on, I'll continue even as the bi-weekly series ends.

If I really get ambitious, I'll start digging in to the new "Time Masters" series. Depends on my mood.

Just as a little introduction for myself, prior to my life as The Greatest Blogger You've Never Heard Of (you could also call me Major Idiot), I was just a regular guy. While growing up, I had the typical interest in comics and super heroes, but somewhere along the way, I lost that. Then, searching for a way to get back in to comics, I came across Booster Gold.

I was still in diapers during the first run of his series, but in looking at some comics, I stumbled across Booster and Skeets. There was something that interested me about him, something that made me want to learn more.

So I did.

Anyway, that brings me to now. I was incredibly curious waiting for the new writing team to start. On the one hand, KG and JDeM could probably be credited with keeping Booster in the eye of the comic reader through their work on the Justice League. On the other hand, especially after reading 52 and the new stuff, I was concerned that it'd be too much "Bwa-ha-ha," as everyone so lovingly calls it, and not enough of the person that Booster has developed in to.

In any case, was I disappointed? Happy? Well, I decided to start a blog, if that gives you any indication. I suppose you'll simply have to find out when I make my next post!