Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Booster Gold: Futures End #1
DC Comics
Jurgens, Moritat, Rapmund, Conrad, Lightle, Thompson, Irwin, Frenz, Hanna, Booth & Kalisz
Booster Gold returns with a one-shot tied in with the Futures End, 3D cover gimmick that DC is running this month. Dan Jurgens and an army of artists bring back the character that Jurgens created to plenty of familiar sites in this comic. While the comic feels like a scattershot at times the book reads fairly well as a man lost in time. If this is a teaser for Booster's own series I would say it works well. If you are fan of the character then this book is perfect for you, but if you are new to the character then you might find the book too limiting with background information. This is a good read.
Booster is basically lost. Well, that's not entirely true. He's lost at times but he's more time traveling out of control. As Booster makes jump after jump he finds that the universes aren't always the same. This, interestingly enough, could tie-in to what Grant Morrison is doing in his Multiversity books. In that regard, if this does tie-in, then this comic book is essential and is fantastic. Overall, the spirit of the book is to showcase Booster's sphere of influence as he drops in and out of various timelines. This allows the reader to really get to know Booster but it doesn't provide much in the way of grounding him to someone or something.
The best part of this book is that it doesn't limit itself to the New 52 universe. I wasn't expecting that and I am very glad it breaks through to other incarnations of what DC's rich history has to offer. Some of the scenes and characters are very pleasant surprises and the art teams seem to have been brought on to play with characters they are very, very familiar with.
When you see ten plus names on artwork you generally have a mess, specifically on inks. This is not the case at all here. Jurgens gives a page or two to an art team for specific reasons that have to do with setting and character selection. Rather than spoiling the fun I will just say that you really need to think outside of the normal character box going into this comic book. The style presents Booster the same for each scene but the settings have very different looks to them. For example, one team plays such a tribute to Kirby that you'd probably wish the entire book to that idea and ran with it. Overall, the artwork is consistent and true to what makes Booster such a unique character.
Booster Gold has had his own ongoing before. It was a good comic book. He's got a large following. There is no reason why this couldn't be given a try again. Perhaps DC isn't ready to break down the New 52 barrier in an ongoing series the way it was done here for this one-shot. However, this comic reads too much like a tease if this doesn't get tied to something in the works or out there now. I enjoyed this book but I think a new reader to the character might be a little lost as to what the character's purpose is. Give it a try. Hopefully there will be more of this coming down the pipe.
3.5 out of 5 Geek Goggles
