Booster Gold on Smallville: A Review!

I don't post reviews here often enough.  But over the weekend was the event that was "Booster Gold Shows Up On Smallville."  There was much rejoicing.  My non-comics best friend came over.  I wore my Booster Gold t-shirt.  We made a night of it.  Becuase how else are we ever going to see B-list (okay, C-list) superheroes in live action, if not for Smallville?

I've always taken Smallville for what it is: a coming-of-age soap opera with all its trappings.  I never really was a fan of it until I got roped into it by my friend, who faithfully watched the show from its beginning.  I just couldn't reconcile the differences with continuity (the first example being how young Clark's parents are, the second being all these random superheroes originating in Smallville.)  Anyway, when Smallville became the C-List Cameo Show a few seasons ago, and I heard the name "Maxwell Lord" uttered by my friend, I got drafted in.  After giving her a DC Universe education, that is.

Geoff Johns wrote last week's Booster Gold episode, which instilled a little bit of confidence in me that one of my all-time favorite characters would be handled well.  He did, after all, write a great run on Booster's solo book, which I rank as some of my favorite comic stories.

Well, I can't say I was overwhelmed by this episode, but I was just happy to see Booster Gold in live action.

The Visuals:  I'm a nitpicker, and though the costume was shiny in the right places, it was lacking in others.  This being Smallville, it was of course, leather, so I can forgive that, becuase every superhero costume on Smallville is leather.  But I don't like fake abs.  And no shiny gold pants = sadness.  But it was a design I could live with.

Except for the awkward hanging crotch protector thingy.  I honestly can't live with that.

I'm a big nitpicker for hair, I will admit to that.  And Booster's hair was all wrong: it was just frosted blonde on the top, not all blonde, so the back of his head was brown.  And his hair was just too short.  For one of the DCU's most amazingest hair-dos, you've got to try harder to do it justice.

The Acting: Eric Martsolf played Booster more like his "52" incarnation: cocky, brash, self-promoting, and kind of a jerk.  But a jerk with a heart of gold!  I kind of prefer the screws-up-all-the-time-despite-hist-best-efforts Booster, but Martsolf played the ham quite well, and both my friend and I were entertained.  And thanks to Geoff Johns, in the end of the episode we got to hear Booster talk about his insecurities, which I think is a big part of the character.

The Writing: Okay, I'm not a big Jaime Reyes fan.  Not only did he start out as the replacement to Ted Kord, but I don't like the whole prisoner-of-the-scarab schtick.  That's just too angsty for me, and it always seems like Jaime would fit better in the Marvel universe than the DC one.  I prefer the plucky, industrious, corporate inventor Ted Kord Blue Beetle.  Sorry, I just ain't letting go of Ted.

That being said, I actually liked Jaime Reyes here, which is saying a lot.  He worked in the context of the Smallville universe: Geoff Johns, proving he is a master of things that make you go "awww, poor kid," (or known by the high-falutin' term, "character identification") shows Jaime being picked on by his peers involving a can of shaken soda, and just when you think things are looking up, a lovely girl comes over and hands him her can.  Which then explodes in his face, proving the girl was in on it.  Ouch.

Then the scarab escapes from Kord Industries and bonds with him, and things go downhill from there.  Jaime comes to Booster for help, and in typical Booster fashion he brushes him off.  Jaime (this time fully enclosed within the scarab armor and unable to control it) comes back to assassinate Booster.  The resulting climax highlights both Jaime's need to control the scarab, and Booster's realization that he's a failure of a superhero.  All of this plays out under the watchful eye of Clark Kent, who previously gave Booster his pearls of wisdom about a suit not making you a superhero, and Booster tells this to Jaime, and Jaime regains control of the suit.  He then decides he'll keep the scarab and go on to fight evil with it.  (Leading right into the Blue Beetle solo TV series...perhaps...)  They seemed to depower Booster a bit, and though I kept yelling at the TV to "Use your force field, Booster!  Use your force field!" he never did, so all he had on hand were his wrist blasters and Legion flight ring.

Right before the climax, my mother wandered into the room and after the usual questions, "Who's that guy?" which of course prompted the most cogent explanation of Booster Gold to date from myself: "It's Booster Gold, Ma.  I like him because he's shiny!  Look, I have his shirt!"  And then we had to field all the Smallville-related questions about why there's the S-symbol but no one calls Clark Kent "Superman" and how come he's wearing a red leather jacket instead of a cape, and is that blonde girl supposed to be Lois Lane?  Momma Liss = John Q. Public's view of superheroes.  And kind of a vocal one.  Anyway, she liked Jaime.  "Oh, that poor kid!" was the verdict on Jaime.

There's also the typical intrigue of "is Booster good or isn't he?!  Is he trying to take Clark's place?!" that is another staple of Smallville cameo episodes.  The same was true of Ted Kord: "who is this guy working for?"

By the way.

I forgot to mention Ted Kord was in this episode.

EXCITEMENT!

I think I was more excited to see Ted Kord than I was Booster Gold.  For one, the casting was dead on.  Tell me this guy doesn't look like Ted:

Go ahead: tell me this guy doesn't look like Ted Kord and I will HIT you.

Not only that, but he seemed EXACTLY like the Ted Kord from Batman: The Brave and the Bold.  Which made me insanely happy for some reason, to see that B:TB&TB is having an influence on someone as mighty as Geoff Johns.  Hopes that it might be renewed anyone?  Maybe?  Please?  For those not familiar with Blue Beetle's appearances on B:TB&TB, he's quite a bit more serious than the Ted of the Bwa-ha-ha JLI days, and he's intelligent, dedicated, competent, and shown as the genius industrialist that he is.  Which is one aspect of his character that often falls by the wayside: people forget he invented a whole ton of gadgets.  Just like Batman.  Only better.  Like a gravity-defying airship that'll beat out a pansy Bat-Plane anyday.

There were no silly bwa-ha-ha moments here at all, becuase not only is Smallville is a pretty dark universe, but in this incarnation, Ted and Booster don't know each other.

I know, right?!  It's like...sacrilege!  But if they had known each other, then Ted would've vouched for Booster's reputation, and the plot would've flown right out the window.  But Ted was here, he had a sizable role, and that made me happy, and he was onscreen enough for me to annoy my friend by shouting, "OMG IT'S TED KORD!" about every thirty seconds or so.  And the best part is: Ted didn't die.  No one did.  See?  Good stories can be written where all the characters live!

Everything tied up rather nicely, with Booster taking on a mentorship role to Jaime (much like in the comics) and Ted and Booster had a chance to meet each other.  Diehard Smallville fans (like my friend) were excited becuase it was the first episode where Clark used a telephone booth to change into his "costume," such as it is.  I can't say I was that excited about that, only becuase I can't believe that there are phone booths in big cities anymore, but I like the nostalgia it evinces.

The verdict: It made me happy.  It made my friend happy.  We ended the night watching the Booster Gold episode from Justice League Unlimited to make up for the lack of Skeets in the episode.  Skeet's voice could be heard on Booster's little earpiece, but we didn't see him, and he wasn't sarcastic enough.  No problem, though: JLU cartoon to the rescue!

Momma Liss's verdict: "This isn't Superman!"  Truer words were never said.

If Ted Kord comes back to life and gets a solo series, I want this guy drawing him

It's pretty rare when I find art so good that I'd actually print it out and hang it on my wall.  But this. is. gorgeous.

Everything works in this piece: the composition, the inking, the coloring, the perspective.  It all dovetails so nicely together, and I love to see this much skill applied so effortlessly to a piece of art.  It's the kind of piece that's done so well that the techniques become invisible and I can't even analyze it.  If I could understand a quarter of what's going on in this piece technique-wise, I'd be happy.

The icing on the cake?  It's a drawing of Ted Kord.

The artist is Miketron2000, the DeviantArt alias of Mike Norton.  The colors were provided by Keiran Oats.  Mr. Norton is currently doing the art for the new Young Justice series for DC, and his website is here.

Dragon*Con 2010 With Booster Gold and Blue Beetle!

Dragon*Con was last weekend.  And look who showed up!

It's Blue Beetle with not one, but two Booster Golds!  One must be back from the future doing some super secret reconnaissance that he can't tell Ted about.

Ted gave up on Booster and decided to hide behind Babs and Kate Cane.  Are Blue and Gold having one of their little lover's quarrels again?  Well, it didn't stop them from fighting crime together.

And who's that on the right?  Black Canary, straight from the JLI!  Luckily, Guy Gardner was wayyy on the other side of the group.

It's a shame B'wana Beast had to show up and knee Booster in his shiny leg, though.  I wonder what he said to him to prompt that sort of reaction.  Ouch!

But the best part about Dragon*Con?  Krypto showed up!

Much thanks goes to Frank, who suggested the idea to me, and to the Irredeemable Shag, who was the one who attended Dragon*Con and took these great photos!  Don't forget to stop by Shag's blogs, ONCE UPON A GEEK, and FIRESTORM FAN!

And make sure to stop by Frank's blog, The Idol-Head of Diabolu, to check out the awesome Martian Manhunter cosplayer!

It was all fun and games until...oh noes!  Krypto got attacked by some horrible Kryptonite-bearing fleas!  Where's Luthor?!  This must be his doing!

75 Favorite Moments in DC History: Number 52

52. Blue Beetle and Booster Gold steal J'onn's cookies (Martian Manhunter #24, 2000.)

I wasn't a huge fan of the Martian Manhunter series, but there was one bright spot in those thirty-six issues that almost makes up for it.

In Martian Manhunter #24, we take a trip back in time to the Justice League International days, and as usual, the michevious Blue and Gold are up to something:

The amazing thing is, I had no idea who Beetle, Booster, Maxwell Lord, Fire, Ice, OR Guy Gardner were when I read this issue, and I still thought it was funny.  Even this Maxwell Lord guy was amusing to me and I wanted to know more about him.  I had only sought it out to satiate my Martian Manhunter fandom, and had yet to read any Justice League International titles.  Now, of course, this all makes a whole lot more sense.

Obviously, this must translate well to new readers, because I sent the above panel to my non-comics-reading-but-Smallville-watching-friend and she found their "impish grins" amusing.

This is also the reason why "Choco Addiction," along with fire, is listed as a weakness on J'onn's DC Wikia page.  Recently, it seems, they went back to referring to "Chocos" as "Oreos," which I like.

And where are you going to ever find another Guy Gardner panel like this?  Muahaha.

And nor does seeing exchanges like this ever get old in my mind:

Martian Manhunter #24 could very easily have been an issue of JLI.  One minor quibble is that Ostrander made Booster the instigator and Beetle the somewhat-unwilling participant who realized they'd gone too far, and really the roles should've been reversed.  But, hey, it's good fun nonetheless, and  I like a good laugh from my comics every now and then.  Actually, more than every now and then.

I'm hoping that that little teaser image of a JLI banner shown in DC's editor column last week means an eventual return to the good ol' JLI days.  Wouldn't that be nice?

Oh, and one more.  I couldn't help adding this one in:

That's the Maxwell Lord I miss!

75 Favorite Moments in DC History: Number 60

60.  Ted Kord makes a tough decision (Booster Gold #10, Collected in Booster Gold: Volume 2, Blue and Gold, 2008.)

There's one thing I really like in stories: movies, novels, comics, and so on.

Drama.

Not DRAMA, but Drama.  In my mind, there's a difference.  DRAMA is all about perception, e.g. "My life sucks because my father won't let me to the prom unless my older sister goes and she has no date!  So now you're supposed to sympathize with me becuase I'm telling you to sympathize with me!"*  Whereas capital-D Drama is "My life sucks because I just found out the evil overlord of the entire galaxy--who just cut off my hand, no less!--is my father!  And now I don't know what to do!"**

Drama!

Say what you want about Geoff Johns.  I'm nowhere near being his number one fan, but for the most part, he does know how to tell a good story.  (Even if he changes the past to suit his storytelling needs, i.e. casual retconning.  But we'll ignore that for now.)  Geoff Johns understands Drama.  He's got a pretty good sense of plot and pacing, but really what I think he excels at (at least in his run on Booster Gold), is the character drama, or in this case, melodrama.  And when it's done right, I like a good melodrama.  I find it cathartic.

The first two volumes (or first twelve issues, depending on how you like to count), even right up the last panel of the last page, are chock-full of Drama(!).  Johns has a way of magnifying concepts to the point where they become these gigantic, overarching themes reaching (pre-prequel) George Lucas monomythic levels of collective subconscious identification.  In other words, if another writer had written this book, it would've been about friendship.  With Johns behind the wheel it becomes Friendship.  That's right: Geoff Johns's sole superpower is the ability to turn an ordinary noun into a proper one.

The motif of Friendship, more specifically, Best Friendship, has been distilled to its purest form and peppered throughout the book at every plot point, every major decision, every important dialogue, every symbol.  Geoff Johns has read up on screenwriting, and it shows.  In a good way, that is.  When Geoff Johns is given a theme, he can do great things with it, otherwise his writing is just above-average.  (i.e. Blackest Night.  Was it really about anything?)

The premise is simple: how far would you go to save your best friend from dying?  Most of us have had best friends (I hope, at least.  Best friends are wonderful things!), so almost everyone can relate to this, and if you've lost a best friend for whatever reason, even more so.  So, because of all this Dramatic storytelling, you realize how important Friendship is between Booster Gold and Blue Beetle, and you realize how far Booster will go to save his friend.  Heck, you even realize what close friends Booster and Skeets are, and you really start to get fond of that little robot.  (Especially when he duels another security droid--more on that later.)

Through a series of events that come to critical mass in issue #10, you'll know that Blue and Gold's Friendship came at a price, and then you'll finally come to a realization right before Ted Kord does, but before Booster has any inkling of what's been decided.  (So you know your dramatic irony as well, Mr. Johns.  Well played, Mr. Johns.  Well played.)  And, just like Hitchcock's proverbial bomb underneath the table, you know how it's going to end:

I love his parting line.

That, my friends, is Drama.

You're a swell guy, Ted.  You better come back soon.

*The premise of Ten Things I Hate About You.  Frankly, I didn't care much about the heroine's so-called life-shattering predicament.

**If you need me to tell you what movie this is from, you are banished from this blog forever.  Banished, I tell you!!

Ted Kord, Not Only Merely Dead, But Really Most Sincerely Dead, or Why I Don't Like You, Jaime Reyes

I was reading the lastest issue of Booster Gold last night, which took us on another nostalgia trip back to the Blue & Gold years:

(Enlarge and read the note by the asterisk down by the bottom, by the way.  It makes me like DeMatteis all the more.)

It finally hit me why the JLI writers Giffen and DeMatteis were moved to this book.  I don't know where Juergens is at the moment, but I miss him here, even though I enjoy the JLI antics.  It's gotta feel weird to be taken off the character whom you created.  But that's an issue for another day.

I can't help but feel Booster Gold is becoming--and I can't find the right word for this but I know one exists--just a few crumbs given to the Ted Kord fans to make us stop asking for his return to regular continuity.  I'm sure this is what the DC Editors would say to me if I asked about Ted Kord coming back: "Well, we're not bringing him back, but we'll let you have Time Travel stories, so shut up already."

Now, to this day (which is all of a year's worth of serious comic book reading...a long time, I know) I can't figure out why DC decided to kill off Ted Kord and replace him with Jaime Reyes.  I dont't know why they killed off Ronnie Raymond and replaced him wth Jason Rusch, either, or why the Dibneys were killed off.  There are some things I just don't get and I'm going to chalk them up to editors picking named out of a hat, because that's the only logic I can find in all of this character-killing-off and screwing-with-a-formula-that-works.

All the hopes I had of Ted Kord coming back were dashed by news that a live action Blue Beetle TV show is in the works.  That's it.  That's the death knell for Ted Kord.  Becuase once you get the kids hooked on one incarnation of a character, you're never going back to the previous owner of the mantle.  It started out with Jaime's frequent guest appearances in Batman: The Brave and the Bold.  Jaime seems like he would really appeal to kids under twelve, since he's all beetle-y and scarab-y and technology-y and can do all kinds of cool things.  But try as I might (okay, I didn't really try that hard.  Actually, I didn't try at all) I just can't seem to like the guy.

Here's the main reason why I don't like him, and is also the reason I don't believe he fits in the DC universe:

1.  Jaime Reyes didn't choose to be a superhero.

Choosing to be a hero, for me, is the most important critera for my liking or disliking a superhero.  Why?  Well, if you're doing something because you have no choice in the matter, is there really any point in doing it at all?  Besides, what's more heroic: doing it becuase you have to, or because you want to?

But, Liss!  You might be saying, you like The Martian Manhunter!  And he was transported to Earth against his will!  Well, invisible hypothetical sidekick, though J'onn J'onzz's situation was beyond his control, his choosing to be a hero was not.  To me, DC represents the ideal of making the most of a tough situation, and instead of choosing just to survive, characters choose to help other people out.  Characters who are chosen to be heroes water down the concept of sacrifice and doing good with one's life and amount to nothing more than automatons.  When Jaime was tapped by the scarab to be the next Blue Beetle, there was no mistake that he would become a superhero.  It was predestined.

This also takes away another fundamental aspect of superheorics and altruism.  For, if there's a choice, that means that that choice can also lead to evil and selfishness.  The same man (or alien) could use his or her powers for personal gain just as easily as he or she uses them for the greater good.  How many times are villains created as twisted mirror images of heroes...people whose lives went awry for whatever reason and chose the path of evil?  It's a lot easier to be bad than good, and evil is a lot more glamorous, as any Star Wars fan can tell you, so when someone chooses to devote their life to saving the world, I think that's a pretty weighty choice that takes some devotion.  Many villains could have been heroes if they were selfless enough, and some, in fact, were heroes at one point, and when life gave them a raw deal, they chose to give up rather than to move on.  (i.e. Two-Face being the prime example of this.)

Did Jaime Reyes ever face that kind of choice, even as a side thought?  No.  The scarab chose him and there was no separating from it.  Not only that, but it literally tells him what to do, like a futuristic version of Jiminy Cricket, only with the power to kill him instead of just giving him a guilt trip if he chooses poorly.

Which brings me to the second reason I don't like Jaime Reyes and that's the big a-word: Angst.  He's stuck with this mystical scarab thing literally in his body, telling him what to do.  Occasionally it goes awry and makes him act violent.  Oh the angst!  Oh, the metaphors for the dangers of overdependence on technology!  He has no choice whether or not to be a hero!  He has to do the right thing!  Oh, it's so tragic!

Let me tell you what's tragic: some guy's whole planet getting burnt up by his own twin brother.  Or getting acid thrown in your face because you choose to prosecute a mobster.  Or trying to commit suicide because you were the only good man left in a wicked city and angels wouldn't give you a break and let you into the afterlife so now you're stuck living forever.  Or your parents getting gunned down by some random mugger after you went to the movies.  If the best example of tragedy in the 21st century is a teenager who's literally attached to his iPod, then I have no hope for ths century.

The third reason I that I think Jaime is "too cool" with all the technological wizardry that the scarab can perform.  The fourth reason is that he looks to much like a bug, and bugs scare me, and the fifth reason is that his nose disappears when he's in costume.  It makes no sense and it really bothers me!  And don't tell me it's just because he face turns black and it's an effect of lighting, because when he's drawn in profile, you can clearly see that he has no nose.  I don't know why, but it just really pisses me off.

So, anyway, that's my angry diatribe against Jaime Reyes.  I'm sorry if you're a fan of his.  But I don't know where DC's priorities are and what exactly their reasons were in creating him.  I don't know what they're saying about life and the human condition by the fact that a mystical beetle can attach itself to your back and make you do stuff.  To me, it says nothing.