• Reviews

• All
• Music
• DVDs
• Live
• Cinema
• TV
• Books
• Comic Books
• Video Games

May 31, 2011 DC Comics By Kyle Lemmon

After only being on store shelves for a just over 48 hours, DC announced that the Flashpoint tie-in, Booster Gold #44, was officially sold out and going back to press. The second printing will be available in June. This is a great sign that DCU’s “greatest hero you’ve never heard of” is starting to get some well-earned recognition. He will be featured quite heavily in the Flashpoint event and hopefully that will lead readers back to his series. The first few volumes of Jurgens revisiting his 1986 creation were excellent and it’s nice to see him back pulling double duty on art and writing for the series. Of course, finisher Norm Rapmund is no slouch and Hi-Fi’s colors have a vibrancy, too.

Issue #44 follows Michael Jon Carter and Skeets as they are tossed into Flashpoint‘s disorienting universe. Things are definitely not going so well in this issue: Booster’s Justice League pals are missing and the government is after him, believing he’s an Atlantean. (As readers of Flashpoint know, Aquaman’s legion already sunk much of Europe, killing millions. The military fears Booster is an attack on U.S. soil.)

The plot is fairly quick and fun, except for when Jurgens stops dead in his tracks to retell Gold’s origin story yet again. Does he really need to do that in the age of Google? I understand that many Flashpoint readers will be new to the underappreciated time cop’s duties since 52, but they could easily look that stuff up on Wikipedia or pick up a few back issues if they’re really interested in following the series in the future. Anyway, that’s a somewhat minor problem. A bigger one is that this issue is over much too soon. OK, that’s not an actual complaint. Jurgens’ return to this book makes Geoff Johns’ Flashpoint #1 look even worse in comparison. As far as I’m concerned, this is the true beginning of Flashpoint. It’s not a classic issue you will continue to think about after putting it down, but it sure entertains while you read it.

Hopefully the new issues of Flashpoint give us some deeper mysteries to chew on and discuss. Jurgens injected some cool action into the overarching through-line. I just wish Jurgens added some more intrigue. [Spoiler] That upcoming fight between a military-controlled Doomsday and Booster Gold will be fun, especially considering their bad blood from past DC events. [Spoiler] (www.dccomics.com)

Author rating: 7/10