Booster Gold #8 (1986)
by Dan Jurgens
It’s kind of surprising this two-parter is basically the only interaction Booster Gold ever has with the Legion, considering they’re instrumental to his origin story.
Also, this provides the final pieces of the puzzle that started with Booster Gold’s first story, so you might want to check that out first.
We begin in the 30th century, where a thousand year old time machine has been discovered.
It’s not a Time Bubble™, though (it’s not transparent!). This is the time machine of Rip Hunter, which was used by the would-be Booster Gold in the 25th century to travel back to the 20th century.
The reason why the Legion was summoned is that, inside the time machine, they found Brainiac 5’s force field belt.
The belt was in the past, but since Brainiac 5 is still wearing his belt it means it hasn’t been stolen yet… so this is a story about the Legion solving a crime that has both already happened AND that hasn’t happened yet. Time travel, everybody!
Even more confusingly, the Booster Gold part of the story is set BEFORE issue #1, specifically it starts immediately after he reaches the 20th century.
So THIS is actually the real origin story!
Early post-Crisis DC Comics was REALLY insistent on keeping a consistent timeline for their future, so the fact that there’s supposed to be a nuclear holocaust in the early 21st century is brought up A LOT in this series.
Which I find kind of hilarious: “Life as we know it will end within our lifetime, so let’s make sure that also happens in our superhero stories”.
Booster absolutely loves the 20th century, but he has a hard time understanding some of its customs.
He gets by thanks to a credit card he found in the time machine.
Booster Gold plans to make his debut as a superhero by saving the President and Vice-President from an assassination attempt. Although knowledge of the 20th century is incomplete, so he doesn’t know all the details.
The assassin is going to be Chiller, a shape-shifting supervillain hired by a corrupt Senator that has shown up as a Booster Gold villain in the previous issues.
But this is supposed to be a Legion review, so let’s check on their arrival.
Interesting choice of Legionnaires for the mission. Of course you need Brainiac 5 because we’re dealing with both time travel and the theft of his belt, and Chameleon Boy makes sense if they have to keep a low profile.
But why Ultra Boy, and more importantly: why is Cham the only member of the Espionage Squad on the mission? This would be PERFECT for them!
I can understand why they didn’t bring Sensor Girl… her identity was JUST revealed… but no Shrinking Violet, no Phantom Girl and no Invisible Kid?
Of course the Legion believes Booster came back in time to kill the President.
I’m more used to the Marvel way of handling Presidents, where they go out of their way to avoid identifying which President it is, but in the 80s DC used Reagan without such problems.
Then again, Marvel also used Reagan with similar clarity several times.
Also, does the Legion know whether the President is supposed to be assassinated today? Because they should still follow pre-Crisis rules about changing history being impossible.
It’s also a bit weird to have this plot applied to Reagan specifically, since he WAS wounded in an assassination attempt in 1981.
That one didn’t include a shapeshifter, though. At least not officially.
The Legion is so integral to Booster Gold’s history that his suit is directly integrated with the Brainiac 5 belt.
This one REALLY feels like Booster Gold’s first story, much more than issue #1; it also includes a rather detailed explanation of all his powers.
Weirdly enough, despite the fact that his force field is adapted from Brainiac 5’s belt… Brainy never used the field to throw back objects that fall into it.
The assassin is ready to kill the President, but Booster Gold accidentally saves him: by flying close enough he alerts both the Secret Service AND the Legion.
You probably saw it coming the second I mentioned a shapeshifting assassin, didn’t you?
That’s right: a good old-fashioned Misunderstanding Fight!
All while the assassin manages to get alone with his target.
That’s Booster Gold for you. Before he saves the day, he HAS to screw it up.
We’ll be right back to the conclusion after a word from our sponsor.
Comics Archeology is not sponsored. We are, however, accepting offers.
Booster Gold #9 (1986)
by Dan Jurgens
Chiller has a passable design, but he looks like he belongs to a completely different genre.
Booster Gold is a tougher target than the Legionnaires anticipated.
Booster Gold believes the Legionnaires are cops here to arrest him for stealing the time machine, and that’s not entirely inaccurate.
Still, Booster Gold literally began his career TODAY. He’s no match for Ultra Boy.
Ultra Boy would win WAY more battles if only he could shut up about his gimmick for five minutes.
We don’t often see Brainiac 5 trying to win a physical fight.
For a good reason.
While this is going on, who will save the President?
The REAL hero of this series: Skeets!!!
Too bad Booster Gold is losing his chance to be the hero.
The Legion is ready to take him back to the future, but hearing a signal from Skeets convinces them to help.
And Booster DOES end up saving the President.
It’s not over: Chiller calls some high-tech attack helicopters (!!!) and the Legion decides to show off.
Ultimately the Legion decides to allow Booster Gold to stay in the past, since him stealing the time machine and the Flight Ring is already part of THEIR past.
Booster will meet the Legion a few times in various crossovers, but I’m not aware of any other team-up. He’s fine with it: his for-profit attitude seriously crashes with the Legion’s ethos.
Once the Legion departs, he’s ready to announce his debut as the hero Goldstar.
But, true to form, he screws it up: he starts to introduce himself as Booster (his nickname from his football days), causing the President to name him Booster Gold.
Which is why the name Booster Gold is not supposed to make sense. Admittedly it does sound better than Goldstar.
Before we close off with the scores, a final word from our sponsor.
Comics Archeology is not sponsored. We are, however, getting tired of this joke.
Legion significance: 3/10
I still find it weird that the Legion is BARELY mentioned by Booster Gold. Possibly because the Legion timeline gets really confusing? But then again Booster Gold has entire series dedicated to his own timeline being screwed up.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really. Even the misunderstanding fight is justified.
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
WAY better than the first Booster Gold issue. In fact, it would’ve made more sense to have this one as the first story! My only complains are that the villains are underwhelming and that the naming screw-up would’ve been more understandable by having more reminders that he’s called “Booster”, which is not helped by the Legion constantly calling him Carter.
During the Legion’s retroboot era, Booster occasionally had near misses with Legion crossovers in his book: in one issue, he dropped in on Daxam just in time for Darkseid to have the planet reshaped. In another issue, he encountered the Emerald Empress.
Issue #43 showed him captured by the Legion, who haven’t met him yet. Chameleon Boy and Proty team up to interrogate him.
Timemaster Rip Hunter was shown reminiscing about his past, when as a child he practically grew up in Brainy’s lab, because his father, Booster, is going to someday be such a close friend of Brainy’s. Booster doesn’t know that someday his child will grow up to become his mentor, Rip, because that’s the kind of temporal mess that is Booster’s life.
I appreciate good continuity – the Legion appearance in these issues is specifically slotted into a mention in Legion # 27 (which is next on your Legion issues review list). Levitz is similarly smart about a Wanderers Legion guest shot in LSH # 49. And then there’s the Hex appearance in LSH # 23 which was seen from Hex’s perspective in his own book (issue 10, I think).