Booster Gold, Vol. 5: The Tomorrow Memory

Booster Gold (2007)

by Dan Jurgens, Norm Rapmund (Illustrator)

After fighting Black Lantern and former Blue Beetle Ted Kord, Booster Gold finds himself lost in time, struggling to save his sister Goldstar from imminent death. However, when Booster Gold rescues his sister from the timestream - he soon realizes that the sister he saved is not the same girl he remembers.

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Fantasy

160 pages, Paperback

First published December 7, 2010

About the author

Dan Jurgens is an American comic book writer and artist. He is known for his work on the DC comic book storyline "The Death of Superman" and for creating characters such as Doomsday, Hank Henshaw, and Booster Gold. Jurgens had a lengthy run on the Superman comic books including The Adventures of Superman, Superman vol. 2 and Action Comics. At Marvel, Jurgens worked on series such as Captain America, The Sensational Spider-Man and was the writer on Thor for six years. He also had a brief run as writer and artist on Solar for Valiant Comics in 1995.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blackest Night crossover!
I know some of you guys hate that one but it's a personal favorite of mine. And in this volume, Booster has to deal with Evil Dead Ted as he rises from the grave with the help of a Black Lantern ring.



Michelle shows up in the past, and she couldn't have picked a worse place to land. Coast City right before it gets wiped off the map.
Rip sends Booster and Skeets back to make sure everything happens to ensure Cyborg Superman turns Coast City to ash and to stop another unknown time traveler from trying to stop the destruction. Things get complicated when he runs into Michelle and the man she loves.
As they tend to do with time travel, and Booster has some serious doubts as to what his mission should actually be.



I will admit that the rules of time travel in this are iffy...at best.
I am completely on board with time being solidified and certain events needing to take place. I am not, however, sold on Rip's claim that you can't change the past but you can change the future. What's the future? Whose future? That makes no sense.
Neither Rip nor Booster is part of the timeline that they are currently working in, so when Rip acts as though the early 2000s are REAL TIME, everything before that is somehow solidified time, and the future is up for grabs (ish), I can't help but think this wasn't very well thought out.
Then again.
It's a Booster Gold comic, Anne.
Shut up and go with it.

Recommended for fans of Booster & Skeets.

[Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Booster Gold. *sigh* I wish I cared more. Reading this volume so as not to miss Blackest Night, but why am I rooting for the Blue Beetle? The dead is so much more interesting.

Go Black! Woo, Woo!

It's not bad, but I'm out of my League. Get it? League? JLA? Oh nevermind...

[Tomás Sendarrubias García · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una de las cosas más curiosas que permite una colección tan llena de viajes en el tiempo como es Booster Gold es que el autor puede revisitar grandes momentos de la historia del universo en el que está trabajando, en este caso el Universo DC, y aún más, en este último tomo de la colección con Dan Jurgens como guionista, este se va a revisitar a sí mismo. Y es que La Memoria del Mañana va a estar ambientado en uno de los momentos más dramáticos del Universo DC, escrito por el propio Jurgens: la destrucción de Coast City.

Recordemos: hace muchos años, Dan Jurgens estaba al frente de la franquicia de Superman, y llevó a cabo una acción que le hizo aparecer incluso en las noticias: Superman moría enfrentándose al villano Juicio Final. Y tras la muerte de Superman, Jurgens sería el principal artífice de El Reinado de los Superhombres, con cuatro posibles "supermanes": Acero, Superboy, el Erradicador y el Superman Cyborg, que terminaba siendo un asesino psicópata nacido de la adaptación por parte de Jurgens del origen de los Cuatro Fantásticos, y que aliado con Mongul, va a protagonizar la destrucción de Coast City y la muerte de todos sus habitantes. Esta acción tendría implicaciones en la historia de DC, pues sería el evento que terminaría enloqueciendo a Hal Jordan y le terminaría convirtiendo en Parallax... Pero eso es otra historia.

El caso es que ahora Booster Gold debe viajar al momento previo a la destrucción de Coast City... para asegurarse de que la ciudad es destruida, pues una agencia de viajeros en el tiempo pretende evitarlo, pero para la cohesión y estabilidad del propio tiempo, la destrucción de Coast City debe tener lugar, lo que situará a Booster en una muy incómoda situación, ya que por un lado ansía salvar Coast City, pero ha aprendido lo importante que es que la línea temporal no sufra reveses...

Y con esta trama de "autohomenaje", Jurgens se despidió de Booster Gold, al que le quedaban pocos números antes de que la ola de Flashpoint lo cambiase todo... Y lo iba a hacer en manos de los escritores que, con permiso de Jurgens, que al final había sido el creador del personaje, más importancia tuvieron en la historia de Booster Gold... sí, Keith Giffen y JM DeMatteis, los creadores de la Liga de la Justicia Internacional. En fin, Jurgens crea una historia entretenida, llena de referencias y fácil de leer, y personalmente, me gusta mucho.

[Wing Kee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid fun nostalgia heavy read.

World: The art is great, Dan Jurgens has a distinct style and it fits Booster. The world building is solid. It's more light...well not really but it's more calling to the past this time round and with the Blackest Night link it was a trip down memory lane. Good stuff.

Story: Blackest Night was done well and it all the feels and the end was fitting. The Coast City stuff was also very well paced but still fairly cliché and par for the course for a time travel story. The end did give us the feels with Rip.

Characters: Booster is good. He's come a long way and his dilemma is and has been done but it's still very good. The Ted stuff was just the feels. Michelle was solid and seeing her again is great. Then Rip who is brilliant and the mystery helper which was yes!

A good solid and sage read down memory lane.

Onward to the next book!

[Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

While subject to the law of dismissing returns, and not quite as fun or exciting as previous volumes, this is still a fun read. Booster is a charismatic leading man, and his odd couple partnership with Rip Hunter is always entertaining. The book also manages to shoehorn in quite organically the Black Lantern crossover, with a wicked Dead Ted proving very entertaining. I love the little glimpses into DC history, this time the destruction of Coast City.
The book may be a little light for some, but it’s always entertaining and the art is always fantastic.
Recommended.

[John Yelverton · Rating 5 out of 5]

More fantastic tales from Booster Gold and his time hopping experiences.

[James Rodrigues · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprisingly enough, the strongest part of this volume was the Blackest Night crossover. It dealt with Booster's mourning for his best friend while faced with a desecration of Ted Kord's corpse courtesy of a Black Lantern ring, and was thoroughly effective. The Coast City story felt like the story was retreading old ground, as Booster's knowledge that such a massive event cannot be changed collides with his determination in the moment to save people from such a horrific event. The volume regains its footing in the end, in a more enclosed tale which offers hope through this job that can feel hopeless at times.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for Blackest Night and Jurgens really gets to the heart of what made that event work. Using Ted Kord to torment Booster is sad and evil. Then another trip back into time is made even wilder with the inclusion of Booster's sister and the...when. Its very good. Without spoilers, the timing makes it very interesting and its a good look at what makes a hero. The familial drama is getting more intriguing. Overall, a very good read.

[Martin Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

The problem Jurgens’ run as writer has is that although the plots are fun, thematically it largely just circles back round to ground already covered in the initial Johns/Katz run.

[John Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty poignant even without a thorough understanding of DC events.

[Keegan Schueler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun crossover and some random story moments that cover dc history.

[Eddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read as individual issues via DC Infinite.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dan Jurgens leaves the character he created (a new writing team has since come on) with a very entertaining final volume. Jurgens does well what view science fiction writers do. He handles time travel, and time travel paradoxes well, and he does not pretend that time is something that can be played with. Booster aka Michael Carter grows up yet more in this volume understanding what he has to due to maintain the time stream, and yet feeling burdened and frustrated when it costs the lives of innocents. In addition, Jurgens wraps up just about every plot thread he created before he headed off to a spin off time travel series.

[Jeffrey Jelmeland · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories just keep getting better and better. Prior to reading these collections my only exposure to Booster was random appearances in other books, and he was always such a horrid, third class hero that I never paid him any real attention. Now that he has his own series and is doing the Time Cop thing the character has really matured, to the point where he is close to becoming one of my favorite heroes. This volume was the best yet, and I can hardly wait to see how things unfold in the next one. Well worth the read, and one that I suspect I will return to from time to time in the future.

[J.R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a good time travel story and there's a good one here. I haven't come across many graphic novels that really make you stop and think. What if I could change the past? Should we? Do things happen because they need to or because we make them? The situation in Coast City is very well put together, it just feels so tragic as you're seeing everything unfold in greater detail than before. Recommended.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Blackest Night finds Booster Gold battling his deceased friend Blue Beetle, in a great tie-in to the main GL storyline. Following this, Dan Jurgens hangs up his pen to send Goldstar home and allow the Bwahahaha writers to take over. Glad I left the book along with Jurgens!

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blackest Night affects Booster deeply when his dead best friend comes back to life. Booster also has to watch 7 million people die in Coast City, and make sure it happens. An emotional trip for the character, and a good read.

[James Bowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid volume, with one of the better Blackest Night tie-ins, and one of the tougher comic-historical scenarios that Booster's had to deal with. Plus some good moments with Booster and Rip Hunter. (B+)

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

After getting my heands on all but what may have been the best trade of this series I have decided, I like Booster Gold, I really like him.