Broken Frontier

Charging out from the pages of 52 comes the return of Booster Gold, and this time he’s about to become the greatest hero the world has never known.

One of the better stories to spin out of the pages of DC’s weekly series 52 was the continuing saga of Michael Jon Carter. Of course he is better known as Booster Gold, and now our star struck hero is back in his own series and being forced into the unwanted role of time cop under the guidance of Rip Hunter.

What makes this scenario interesting is how the implications of an unstable time stream will affect the existence of every single hero on the planet, including Booster himself. Now many of these problems have been reverberating throughout the DCU ever since the events of Infinite Crisis, and Rip Hunter believes that the addition of Booster to his team will tip the scales into his favor. Of course Booster objects to the idea, since he’s scheming to become a member of the Justice League once again. Only a strange occurrence (regarding Hal Jordan’s fate) forces Booster to accept the role Rip wants him to play out, albeit reluctantly.

This new role for Booster Gold in the DCU was cooked up by the writing team of Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz, and I think it looks to be shaping up into a barn burner of an idea. The guys manage to briefly rehash Booster’s origin and then pick up plot threads established in 52 and fine tune them here for the express purposes of advancing the mythos of the character. Booster appears to be refined and fresh once more, and he may even be more relevant in terms of the current turbulent times facing the DCU.

Another surprising move sees the return of artist Dan Jurgens to a character he helped to shape more than two decades earlier. This time though, Dan handles the breakdowns and Norm Rapmund does the actual finishes. I have said before that I am not in favor of this type of role for artists handling breakdowns and finishes because the work often appears to be uneven. Here though everything looks great on every single page and there are several pulse pounding panels to help make this first issue attractive to new readers.

For my tastes, this first issue had all the key ingredients necessary for a repeat read next issue. I liked the engaging premise, the long stretches of meaningful dialogue and the combined talents of Johns, Katz, Jurgens and Rapmund. I think it’s also great to see this character get a second chance at life after becoming interesting again during the opening stages of 52. I am curious to know what’s in store for Booster in the coming months ahead, but I am sure a ton of time travel will result of it. So long live the greatest hero the world has never known.