Booster Gold #10

Blue & Gold part five: Mind Games.

At times I'm critical of this series. The plots are good, but the pacing needs much improvement. That's a problem easy enough to solve, but since this book is written with an eye towards the collections I don't think that's gonna happen.

Given that, I enjoyed this issue. It was decent. Wasn't great, but it had some nice twists and some good moments.

Rip Hunter and Booster's ancestors are desperate to replace the time sphere that Booster stole to get back to the 21st century, or would steal cause he stole it again a few weeks before he would steal it the first time. Booster, Beetle and the JLI are fighting it out against the Time Stealers on Brother Eye. The fight is retty much a stalemate, though the JLI initially seem to have the upper hand. Booster is disappearing out of the time stream because the time sphere thing hasn't quite been resolved. The action continues until it's revealed that Booster's dad, presumeably the head of the Time Stealers, isn't quite who he seems. The big reveal this issue *SPOILER* is that Mister Mind, last seen at the end of 52, is controlling Booster's dad. HA! Okay, that's cool. We're then treated to daddy-o puking up Mister Mind's offspring on top of Booster before getting shot out of daddy-o's head and squished. Blue Beetle, after witnessing Fire getting killed by the Black Beetle, realizes that his life isn't worth all the death and destruction that results from being saved. He takes off back in time, oddly along with the Black Beetle and the issue ends with the time line whiting out with the conclusion to come in Booster Gold #1,000,000.

Honestly, as this arc moves towards its conclusion, I'm enjoying it a lot more. We're finally getting to the point. Everyone here has their moment. Skeets taking a shit on Maximillian, Booster bringing his A game and kicking his dad's ass, Rip Hunter knocking out Brainiac 5 in the 31st century...it's nice. There is one moment towards the end with Blue Beetle saying his goodbyes to Booster that seemed vaguely...homoerotic. I mean it could have just been me, but I half expected Blue Beetle to stick his tongue down Booster's throat.

While I should really re-read the entire arc (if not the whole series), it's all seemed like a giant detour. I should honestly reserve final judgement until the final part next month, but I think this series has dallied too long. It's time Johns and Katz drive this series forward and made good on the promise of the first issue.