A Quick New Comic Day Post:

Just wanted to give a few notes in prep for my in-depth reviews in the coming days. I read these a little faster than usual - I try to savor them - so I'll have to take a little more time.

JL:GL was a transitional issue, and I thought a necessary one after the events of the previous. Positioning the pieces, a little character development, etc. Also, I LOVED the way that they bookended it with Booster's monologue and flashbacks.

Max Lord's explanation was a total cop-out. Clearly he's manipulating them (again), and I find it difficult to believe that they're doing anything other than exactly what he wants them to do.

Booster Gold 34 had me worried for the first several pages. Keith Giffen needs to stick to breakdowns if he must draw anything at all. I would have skipped it had the artwork looked like that the whole issue. Thank GOD that was not the case. I nearly stopped reading in disgust. I would rip the fact that Michelle doesn't look a thing like her prior appearances, but I would have to rip the fact too that NOBODY looked like ANYONE that they were supposed to, except perhaps for Skeets.

Rip Hunter looked like a caveman, Rani looked like a boy, and everything was too cartoonish. Booster looked like five or six different versions of himself.

Luckily, the majority of the issue was Chris Batista, and a solid effort from him.

I sincerely hope that we don't see this again. It's the kind of garbage that will hurt a book's numbers, and I don't want Booster Gold to go anywhere. If something negative happens to Booster Gold Volume 2 before Dan Jurgens can take it back, I will point to this specific instance of Keith Giffen artwork as the reason.

If anyone knows editor Mike Siglain's e-mail, make sure he knows how terrible the first and last 2-3 pages of this issue look. You better believe I will be talking about this in my review.


/rant.

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!