Broken Frontier

Guest writer Keith Giffen takes on a character familiar to him from the Justice League of America days of the 1980s and his storyline in 52. The premise behind the story is a thrill seeking Booster Gold elects to travel to the 1950s, inspired by the stereotypes of Happy Days, and looking for something “cool.” As is usually the case with time travel, he finds himself in the 1950s alright, but on the site of rocket testing. Soviet scientist Sergei Pushkin is working for a top secret unofficial US agency on manned spaceflight several years before the Gagarin launch. Pushkin is a spy however, and Task Force X, a precursor to the Suicide Squad led by Frank Rock is trying to trap him. Making sure history isn't altered, Booster gets involved to ensure spaceflight doesn't arrive too soon.

As a plot, this issue is pretty thin on conflict. I am a space buff, and love the intrigue of the US/Soviet space race politics, Von Braun, scientists, military applications, all of it, so this should have been a natural. Throw in some early origins of the Justice League, Sergeant Rock and the rest, and the recipe is there for a glorious tale. Unfortunately, it is a lot of cool information lacking any real conflict. Giffen gets the setting and details right, but nothing for the reader to get attached to either in the characters or the plot. It might be the fatal weakness of time travel tales, that not too much can change history, and so the time traveler must necessarily be handicapped in his actions, but others have done it better than this.

As usual, Giffen injects an appropriate amount of humor into his script, so it reads well, and is an entertaining issue in the moment, but it leaves the reader flat unfortunately. The lighthearted banter between Booster and Rip Hunter reminded me of the Blue and Gold days of his partnership with Blue Beetle Ted Kord. I am guessing this was mostly a fill in issue, as I am not a regular reader of the Booster Gold title. It will be interesting for fans of Suicide Squad and the old JLI, but other than that, is forgettable.

Pat Olliffe's artwork is up to his usual standard. It is a classic superhero tale, and his classic style is well suited to it. Even though it is set in the 1950s, the glossy paper and computer coloring doesn't provide it with much of a “period piece” feel. The Jurgens cover gave me hope of something truly intriguing, as anything bearing the Hammer and Sickle of the Soviet Union automatically piques my interest. Unfortunately, to judge this book by its cover would be overestimating it.