Booster Gold has gone through one of the strangest transformations of any character in comic book history. Originally conceived as a character based in the same ideals of the new corporate America of the 1980s, the character went through a few minor changes before getting to a major one. His original series was short-lived, lasting just over two years in real-time, managing 25 issues before its end. The character was first introduced to the Justice League as a new character in the post-Legends universe, but he soon became the main character in the series, using the series as a kind of buddy comedy with another series refugee, the Blue Beetle. Despite some occasionally deeper moments, this continued until 52 came out. This series threw everything that we knew about the character aside and gave him new meaning.
As one of the major protagonists of this groundbreaking series, he was often the underlying element which glued the series together, and the mystery surrounding his appearances was even more perplexing until the final issue was dedicated primarily to him. In this issue it was revealed that he was not really who we had thought he was, rather that he was in fact the father of Rip Hunter, and a time traveler in his own merit. Together they would save the multiverse by maintaining the time stream. What had been known as a goofy character now took on a more serious tone, with his goofy nature even been alluded to as a misinformation to throw off the trail of any one trying to get to Rip. Protecting the time stream from its enemies was important, and focusing on the grandfather paradox of time travel logic, to kill Booster was to kill Rip.
This carried on through his second series, focused primarily on time travel, but with the introduction of the new 52, this character was gone. Booster was once again a weak hero, thrown into the spotlight as a leader of the new Justice League International, a hero really incapable of leading and one who was seen as pliable to the interests of his overseers. This continued through the short run of this series (12 issues) as he struggled with the role that he was not prepared for. This might have not changed if it were not for the release of the annual for this series before it was canceled. This changed everything as an older Booster was seen visiting the one from the new 52, and finally after another two years, we finally get some answers as to what this appearance meant.
The end result is pretty entertaining, especially for those that enjoy either time travel or the problems that result from complex continuity issues. To say much more about this issue would be to take away a lot of the fun of it, but it was a good read which did what a good comic story should, not only tying up some loose ends, but also unraveling a lot more than it just answered. A lot of the Futures End story lines have been focused on a broken future only five years away and have seemed to be dissociated with one another, but in this case, the story has bigger implications not only for Futures End but also the DC universe as a whole.
Story: Dan Jurgens Art: Various
Story: 8.2 Art: 8.0 Overall: 8.2 Recommendation: Read
