Like every month, Dan Jurgens joined us here on Blog@ to discuss the most recent issue of Booster Gold. This month’s issue, #24, featured the “rise of the Black Beetle,” and saw resolution to the apparent premature deaths of the Teen Titans at the hands of Deathstroke and the original Ravager way back in Deathstroke’s first appearance.
Building toward the battle in the Batcave next month that will start to put things into motion implicating the man behind the Black Beetle mask (and scarabs), Booster Gold #24 was an action-packed issue filled with dramatic images and a few nice twists, including a great moment for Kyle Rayner fans.
Join us back here in three short weeks, as The Gold Exchange gets back on schedule!
Blog@Newsarama: Is Booster just like everyone else, where in all of these variant timelines there are variant Boosters? Or is our guy more insulated from chronal change? I ask because often, everyone thinks he’s dead in these situations and part of me wonders if maybe he is.
Dan Jurgens: I think it depends on the timeline. The closer the timeline to our own reality, the more likely it is to have its own version of Booster. We have seen other Boosters in various timelines. My general take on this particular timeline is that it developed without its own Booster Gold because he would have been gone from “the departure point.”
Blog@: Did you have input into the red, infinity-signed narrative boxes used for Rip Hunter? Since he has no superhero logo, I just wonder how those came about.
DJ: Those showed up very early during our first year of publication!
Blog@: Given that Kyle had superhero girlfriends, a mysterious, super-spy father and about 30 total pages of “normal” life, what did you draw on for his characterization here?
DJ: I always thought of Kyle as being a bit rash. It’s worth noting that this Kyle had never become Green Lantern so his life experiences were wildly different from the one we’re more familiar with.
Blog@: And how’d he end up with Zatanna? Was it just like when Ganthet found him? The population dwindled and Zee goes, “You shall have to do?”
DJ: Without getting into specifics, I’d say it was something like that. I figured it would be a fun combination!
Blog@: Rip and Black Beetle have the same nose in their side-by-side panels; should we be worried about Booster’s son going bad? On that same token, it doesn’t seem like Rip, if he were Black Beetle, would need a dude in a lab coat to do his science-stuff for him.
DJ: True enough. Rip is quite capable of handling all that science stuff on his own.
Blog@: Black Beetle and LUTHOR are teamed up in this reality? Dude, Black Beetle needs to examine his intimacy issues. This guy just always has to be in a couple!
DJ: Black Beetle is more of a puppet master. For him there is no such thing as a team-up of equals– only lackeys who generally do what he needs to have done.
Blog@: Even more than Ollie always being a revolutionary in these alternate timelines, I love Luthor’s reaction to Queen in this issue–”No wonder the opposition was never totally crushed.” What’s that say about Ollie’s rep in the DCU?
DJ: I’d say his reputation lives up to the various versions of Ollie Queen over the years.
Blog@: Another Black Beetle question (and observation): He looks like Dan Garrett for a panel when Rip blasts him. Is that just a trick of the eye…is it a hint…or is it maybe just the costume reverting to a “simpler” form for a minute under stress when the scarab takes a hit?
DJ: More of a special effect as a result of the blast.
Blog@: Is it safe to assume the red scarab won’t just evaporate next issue, when the series of elaborate changes to the timeline that created it are unraveled?
DJ: Keee-rect.
Blog@: Where’d the design for Kyle’s GL suit in this issue come from? It’s slightly different from any one I can think of.
DJ: Just something I dreamed up. Like all GL suits, it works off the general design of the costume while being a bit more individual.
Blog@: Seeing Kyle and Zee about to battle Trigon for the future of this doomed alternate timeline brings to mind the heroes and villains who dove into walls of antimatter during Crisis on Infinite Earths and Zero Hour. Is there something appealing about heroic sacrifice for a lost cause in the superhero genre?
DJ: Appealing? I’m not sure. Defining? Yes. Those are the attributes the embody heroism.
Blog@: I love the whole football metaphor–up to an including fixing the game. Did that just come to you, or has that been waiting for an opportune time to come out of Booster’s mouth for a while?
DJ: I have SO been waiting to use that line. Like, for a year. I finally got the chance!
Blog@: Since the trend these days is to make Deathstroke pretty much godlike in combat, what went into the decision to have Booster beat him off-panel? Was it a storytelling or a space concern?
DJ: A couple of points here:
One, I tried to make my portrayal of Deathstroke as accurate as possible with regards to his original appearance. He was not so godlike then.
Two, Booster has power blasters and a force field. Given the level at which Deathstroke fought in those days, I think we were safe in having it occur off panel. The story wasn’t the fight but what happened after the fight.
Blog@: So…since Raven has seen the anomaly, did that reality actually manifest itself in the illusion she showed Ravager?
DJ: Yes. If I understand your question correctly, my answer would be that it all ties together and fits quite neatly into that issue of Teen Titans.
Blog@: And in other self-fulfilling prophecy questions–did Booster’s advice inadvertently resolve Dick’s “Who should be my Robin?” question years before it ever came up?
DJ: In issue #25 we make it quite clear that–oh! Wait! That isn’t out yet!
Ask me then!
September 24th, 2009 at 12:30 am
Is it safe to assume that Rip used his mind-wipey beam on Raven before the gang left? Because otherwise she’d know about Booster before he even arrived from the future.
September 24th, 2009 at 9:36 am
I think back in the first issue (or else in last month’s Gold Exchange) it was implied that the mind-wipey beam wouldn’t work on her and that Rip was just trusting her to understand the stakes. I’ll double-check with Dan, though.
September 24th, 2009 at 9:49 am
From Dan Jurgens: “Semi-safe assumption. I think Booster is comfortable with a few people knowing the future and Raven might fit into that. If you look at her overall level of concern regarding Trigon and the feeling (at the time of TT #2) that there was far more to her than meets the eye, it’s reasonable to assume that Booster might not have to erase the slate.”
September 24th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Also on the Raven thing, I’m pretty sure Booster made it sound like he was still posing his “sell out” facade on her and Rip said that Booster was exaggerating on his skill. So while Raven would remember what they did she wouldn’t assume that Boosters’ role was that big or know that he wasn’t just there for the ride.
Rip/Black Beetle: I never got the impression that they were the same person but I definitely think that those panels were there for a reason. Most likely to show that Rip has finally met his match as a master planner. In this arc “Joshua” came the closest to killing him, plays the long game (waiting 10 years to get his players in place to get the second scarab), and throughly manipulates everyone. Even when the Time Stealers were a step a head Rip was still working on doing his part. Here he’s completely blindsided for the first time.
Based on past interviews I’d have to say that Black Beetle is a new character but there’s a connection. One that Booster obviously sees in the Origins and Omens sneak peek.
If Booster referring to Damian affected Dicks’ choice with Tim I do wonder if this is going to tie in with what’s going on with the Red Robin a little. Given his stronger bonds to the bat clan I find the idea fascinating.
Yes I loved the football nod too.