Booster Gold #10 Review

BOOSTER GOLD #10
Written by Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz
Art by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund

Mr. Mind takes control of Booster's dad! Okay, now that I've spoiled the hell out of this issue, you have no reason not to read the rest of the review. Oh, and Ted Kord dies, again, just in case you want to skip spoilers.

I have to say, I've been a little rough on Booster Gold since around issue six. The title took a serious change in tone from the humour driven plots to a serious "grim and gritty" future tale that sucked the humour from the book for me. Add in I wasn't the biggest Ted Kord fan (didn't hate him, just no mad gushing over his return like other fans) and I was really starting to lose interest in an otherwise great title.

This issue changed all that. Skeets is back and "shitting" all over Maximillion, literally, while tossing around some great lines. How Johns and Katz have managed to keep the true star out of this book for so long will remain a mystery to me.

Skeets wasn't the only one making with the funnies. Even Mister Miracle and Ted were throwing some one-liners around. Loved the, "I hate time travelling nazis", scene.

The crux of this issue seems to revolve around Booster fading from existence after having messed with time once too often. The time sphere the Ultra-Humanite destroyed last issue was the original time sphere Booster used to come back in time. With it destroyed, the current Booster was pulling a Back to the Future fade out every once in a while during his fight with his "father".

Yes, Booster's father isn't quite himself. It seems Mr. Mind, in his larva state post-52 (or is that pre-52? He did go back in time, but it does take place after 52...my head hurts.), is inside Booster's dad's head, literally, pulling his strings. I loved this scene and it finally makes sense how Booster's drunken loser of a dad is leading a time travelling super-villain team. Didn't see the Mr. Mind reveal coming at all and that made it all the better.

In the end, the true hero, Skeets, is the one to save the day by sending some feedback into Booster's dad's ear, causing Mr. Mind so much pain he was forced to try and escape. Booster blasts him as he's leaving the ear, taking his father's ear off in the process. Mr. Mind managed to survive, but only until Ted could walk over and squash him like a bug. Well, he's already a bug, so it's not "like" a bug, but just squashing him. You know what I mean.

After seeing Booster fading out and getting an update from Skeets, Ted takes action the only way he knows how - by killing himself to fix time. I'm not sure how this worked, as Ted would have to die back at the hands of Maxwell Lord in Infinite Crisis, not in the current broken timeline, but the Black Beetle, who reveals himself as Jaime Reyes' "greatest enemy", does his best to try and stop Ted from fixing things. I wonder if Black Beetle will show up in the future in the Blue Beetle book. He makes claims that Jaime killed someone, most likely a girlfriend or wife, close to the Black Beetle and Mr. Mind promised him Jaime would never become Blue Beetle as long as Ted doesn't go back.

Verdict - Must Read. It seemed like more happened in this issue than the last four or five issues combined. It had action, comedy, major reveals and was just a joy to read.

Related Posts