Booster Gold: Man of Action (In more ways than one)
The Good: Just like last issue, this one is one long LONG string of hilarity fused into a lot of crazy action scenes. It represents the perfect balance that every good Booster Gold comic should be like. No offense to Dan Jurgens, but Griffnse to Dan Jurgens, but en and DeMatteis are pure genius at this.
I didn't notice the art difference last issue compared to the one before it, but it's much more noticeable this time, but in a good way. First thing that caught my eye? Blue Beetle's chipmunk looks a lot cooler.
Skeets developing human emotions and noticing it makes a nice serious(ish) monologue and to give you room to breathe after laughing so much.
The insane culmination of chaos feels almost like a climax in a Venture Brothers episode. There was so much fighting going on that was mostly used as a backdrop for the comedy.
(I swear to god, pun not intended) EVRY bit of dialogue between Booster and Estrogina is made of pure 24k gold. Absolutely hilarious.
Zamarons? Griffen amazes me sometimes with how many thing he can tie into this yet have it all seem like background things. They're part of thing too important to be simple references and yet not important enough to be crossovers.
The way Booster gets out of this mess is one of the greatest moments ever. HE CHEATS. BIG TIME. SO FUNNY. SO BRILLIANT.
I swear to god, Estrogina needs to come back. I know villains declaring they'll hunt you down forever is usually a cliche and become a joke, and time travel makes this fuzzier, but I think it's actually part of Griffen/DeMatties' genius. I think we'll see her again WAY down the line, when we least expect her.
The very ending. Such an epic facepalm moment.
The Bad: The setup for this issue feels very recycled from #32 (Griffen/DeMatties' first issue in this current run). Crazy aline babe in prison sees Gold and thinks "Oooh, handsome dumb blonde to play with." Granted, Estrogina takes Booster on a whole long trip, but it ends up basically where the other encounter did. They go in different directions but this one does start out with a significant bit of Deja-Vu.
In the end, very little actually happens. Booster and Beetle escape prison. Not much else. Just A LOT of jokes between Booster and Estrogina as she kidnaps/rescues him, which I think might grate the minds of some in reppetition. Personally I thought each scene has different jokes to it, keeping it fresh the whole time, but I can also see how others would see it less interesting.
In Conclusion: 4.5/5
I was originally going to go with a 3.5 due to the less-than-original feel this issue has, but the scene where Booster cheats to come out alive was so completely unexpectedly brilliant that gave it an extra 1 alone. I love how incredibly humorous this series has gotten without losing it's action or crazy time-travel premise. I also love the way everything keeps looping back around to where it began, plot-wise. Booster and Beetle just keep ending up in one huge distraction after another and it's a fantastic ride along the way.
