Rip Hunter, Booster Gold and company may be spending two or three books a month looking for Maxwell Lord, but in Wednesday’s Time Masters: Vanishing Point #2 by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund, all they were looking for was one another. Following the destruction of Vanishing Point in the series’ first issue, the father-son time-traveling team (along with their teammates Superman and Green Lantern) were separated by a chronal blast that also threw the four back to Pytharia, the homeworld of Claw the Unconquered and Starfire (no, not that one—read the book). Dan Jurgens sat down, as he has every month since Booster Gold #6, to talk about the events of the day.

The Gold Exchange: I like the framing device of using Older Booster and Younger Rip as a setup for the Younger Booster/Older Rip story. Is that something that’ll continue through the mini?

Dan Jurgens: Yeah. It gives some insight into the Booster/Rip relationship and also helps provide some important pieces of the back story. I think it also serves to make them both more human while also elevating Booster.

GX: And will we be likely to see something in that future that’s relevant to plot in the present?

DJ: Yes. Though maybe not the main spine of the story. Items of interest and importance will be there.

GX: So I’ve abandoned any theory that Daniel is involved with the Time Stealers in exchange for my original idea that he’s tied into a mystery player, possibly the Linear Men. Is at least one character lying about knowing what caused the destruction of Vanishing Point, or is there a player who’s unrelated to either the Time Stealers or Daniel in play?

DJ: Hmm… you aren’t leaving me much room to maneuver. I’m trying to play this with a sense of mystery so all I can is…stay tuned. There’s a surprise or two down the road.

GX: I want to congratulate you for actually featuring a tentacle monster in your book, after having one on the front! I talked with Marc DeMatteis this week about the fact that this week’s Booster Gold featured one on the cover but not actually in the book, and that this month’s solicitation for October’s Booster Gold also shows a tentacle monster (that time with a cover drawn by you instead of Kevin Maguire as previously)…he had no real explanation for why tentacles apparently make good images for covers. Do you?

DJ: Ha! Not sure what the situation in BG is, but I like to have cover images that directly relate to the story inside. I can’t speak for anyone else but I think slimy, squiggly, wiggly tentacles are rather cool.

GX: It’s interesting – A site at http://www.brokenfrontier.com/lowdown/p/detail/across-the-dc-universe-week-5 features a few “classic covers,” and side-by-side are Claw the Unconquered and this version of Starfire. What made these characters so appealing for the story, or is it just as simple as being old DC characters on a far-off and rarely-seen world?

DJ: Every character has a level of worth and I think this was a chance to play with something a little different than what we normally see. It’s also a way to bond the characters a bit. Claw is interesting due to the mix of sword and sorcery; Starfire also has the science angle thrown in. That will be a them over the next issue or two.

GX: Any chance that this is finally Booster and Rip moving into the Multiverse? With neither Rip nor Skeets recognizing where they are this issue, I have to wonder about Rip’s question: Are they even on Earth(-1)?

DJ: Good question! Let’s just say that Rip and Booster obviously have an awareness of the multiverse that most other characters lack. It’s certainly something we can touch on.

GX: That said, “52″ got a lot of credit not just for reinventing characters like Booster Gold, but for reintroducing the public to long-forgotten characters. Is that a goal with your work on Booster/Time Masters as well?

DJ: In part, yes. In this case I think we have some potentially fun characters to play around with for a bit. Reintroducing them into the DCU by having them interact with Superman and the gang might be something with longer term potential. If not, well, we still get an entertaining story out of it.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 29th, 2010 at 3:20 pm and is filed under News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.