Booster Gold (1986-1988) #18

Booster Gold (1986)

by Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway (Cover Art), Gene D'Angelo (Colorist)

Enjoy this great comic from DC’s digital archive!

23 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 6, 1987

About the author

Dan Jurgens is an American comic book writer and artist. He is known for his work on the DC comic book storyline "The Death of Superman" and for creating characters such as Doomsday, Hank Henshaw, and Booster Gold. Jurgens had a lengthy run on the Superman comic books including The Adventures of Superman, Superman vol. 2 and Action Comics. At Marvel, Jurgens worked on series such as Captain America, The Sensational Spider-Man and was the writer on Thor for six years. He also had a brief run as writer and artist on Solar for Valiant Comics in 1995.

Reviews

[Cybernex007]

This was an enjoyable tale that really reinforces booster’s destiny to be a hero in this time. We follow the Fed Broderick, he was the guy who was trying to get booster executed in the future, and it turns out he hitched a ride to the past on the time platform same as booster and everyone else. But he landed a few months later and in a different city.

We get to see his past with booster before they even meet. Where he used to watch booster play football and even admired him, until booster was exposed for the illegal gambling and Broderick felt betrayed. The. It wouldn’t be until booster stole the Time Machine and then came back to the future, would they cross paths again. Now following booster and being stuck in the past, Broderick is having a much harder time. Because he is part of law enforcement there is a lot he is not willing to do, and will only do illegal acts for the bare minimum of survival and to complete his mission: execute booster gold. His first indirect contact with booster in this world was actually from a cologne ad, which infuriated Broderick as he only sees a charlatan, not a hero. So he steals a few clothes to blend in and hops a train to metropolis.

I also appreciate how much commentary from the future Broderick brings with him to the past. We got to see Rip and Jack’s observations of the future, but Broderick has a completely different outlook that booster doesn’t express. He is surprised when seeing how precious materials like water and gas are used for things like washing clothes and driving cars and wants to scream at people about how much they are wasting.

Broderick eventually makes his way to metropolis and finds himself outside of booster’s mansion…waiting for booster to show himself. When booster does leave he is heading to a social event, so he doesn’t have his suit or blasters on him, only his flight ring. Luckily this issue started with booster doing a bit of training without his suit. This ended up turning into a fight for survival with a training robot Jack built, with a major flaw that if its antenna is broken it’s uncontrollable. So when booster locked eyes with Broderick across the street, pulling out his blaster ready to execute booster, he immediately jumps into a defensive position and uses a hub cap as a make shift weapon and then lures Broderick away from any other people. They end up getting into an alley fight and Broderick gets the upper hand, as they are arguing about if booster is meant to be in this time and if he is doing the right thing they hear a gunshot from down the street as a liquor store is being robbed. Booster appeals to the cops sense of Justice and runs off to be a hero, as he knows he won’t shoot booster in the back especially when he is putting other people’s lives before his. Even without his super suit, booster is able to sneak into the liquor store and take out some of the goons, then with an assist from Broderick they are able to end the situation completely. By the end of this issue Broderick realizes that maybe booster is supposed to be here, and he can’t be the one to pull the trigger and kill booster. But he is also too prideful to ask for help and leaves to find his own way. Geez we can’t just keep dropping people from the future on this time period to find their own way. I really wonder what is going to happen to Broderick.