Have you ever been endangered by supervillains and monsters?
Do robots, wizards, and aliens constantly berate you and your neighborhood?
Is the Justice League not picking up your calls?
Blue Beetle and Booster Gold can help you!
That’s right, folks! Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, everyone’s favorite Charlton Comics acquisition and the greatest hero you’ve never heard of, are back and ready to save the world one miniseries at a time. With DC Comics (and Booster Gold) creator extraordinaire Dan Jurgens at the helm, what more could a fan ask for? So, let’s cut the chatter and dig into the premiere issue of Blue and Gold to see what Ted and Booster are up to this time.
The comic opens up with Booster’s current get rich quick scheme: live streaming his superhero antics. In one of the most in-character portrayals of Booster Gold, he’s decided to go full Twitch streamer (with whatever the DC Universe equivalent of Twitch is) and reminds his viewers to smash that subscribe button, like, comment and donate. Unfortunately, no amount of liking or subscribing will save BG from his own overconfidence and a bug robot from an attacking alien craft takes him down. This causes Skeets, BG’s robot sidekick, to cut the livestream and look for the only person who can help Booster in his hour of need: Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle. Ted is currently across town visiting his father’s gravesite. He’s lamenting the bad luck he’s recently had (see Tom Taylor’s Suicide Squad run), and not really up to any superheroing when Skeets shows up. He even suggests that the little robot find someone else like the Justice League to come to the rescue but the problem there is that the Justice League is currently inside the ship Booster was attacking, so Beetle is truly his only hope.
Can Ted get to Booster in time? Yes, or else this miniseries would be very short. To Booster’s trolling viewers this looks like the end but Beetle swoops in to save BG from the bug robot by overloading it with info and Blue Beetle and Booster Gold ride again. The two exchange quips and one-liners in the Bug (Ted’s flying machine) while the stream is down and get a bit distracted doing so. They don’t notice the alien laser cannon pointed at them and firing but they’re able to beam out of there in time to continue searching for the JL on the alien ship. Beetle’s pretty upset about losing his only ship, with Booster not knowing that he’s not rich at the moment and can’t build another one.
They find the Justice League chained and ray shielded and realize that they don’t have enough time to quip because the alien ship is going to warp, taking them trillions of lightyears away from Earth. I’d say that this was where the two got serious and come up with a genius plan to break out the JL, but this IS Blue Beetle and Booster Gold we’re talking about. Booster turns the livestream back on and they run out to kick some alien butt like they were Butch and Sundance in Bolivia. Fortunately, they’re luckier than Butch and Sundance but while they’re able to get a few licks in, Booster gets trapped in an alien cable trap and Beetle has to make a strategic withdrawal. Beetle “bugs out” into the ship’s crawl space to figure out what to do next. What can he do with less than two minutes until the ship warps out? With the help of Skeets, he hacks into the ship, shuts down the robots and frees the Justice League, saving the day!
We flash forward to just after the day has been saved, and Booster and Beetle are on a rooftop with the League, just out of earshot of their conversation. BB and BG think that this display of heroism makes them a sure thing for League membership and the League even thanks them for freeing the team and helping. The League unfortunately for Booster, only asks Blue Beetle to join the team because Booster is Booster. ‘Nuff said. Ted communicates to the team that Blue and Gold are a package deal so it’s either both or neither of them. The League takes door number two leaving Beetle to catch up with Booster later and some silent regret about the situation. Ted explains that the League didn’t want either of them leaving Booster to say screw it and they decide that they should do their own thing. They decide to call it Blue Beetle and Booster Gold: Heroes for Hir… I mean Blue and Gold Restoration, or maybe it’s Gold and Blue… The issue comes to an end with our heroes focusing on the future and the aliens from today’s adventure swearing revenge on the two and promising to conquer earth.
Without telling tales out of school, this was a really fun issue. From start to finish, Blue and Gold #1 is an action-packed enjoyable romp starring everyone’s favorite Justice League International alumni. While I’m a casual Blue Beetle and Booster Gold fan, I’ve noticed that their usage and appearances have been sparse and not totally in-line with what the characters are about. This book hits all the right spots, giving each character justice and their due time in the spotlight. Booster Gold is still the lovable shyster working his next get rich quick scheme while still trying to be a hero and Blue Beetle is still the straight man with a sense of humor about the whole situation. Both are written nicely in-character, which is refreshing.
The story itself is fairly simple but leaves room for possibilities for the rest of the series as well as being a really digestible opening issue. Longtime fans get a new book with their favorite characters while new fans aren’t bogged down with a whole lot of backstory. Jurgens reintroduces us to the team in a quick and easy way and moves along with the story. The whole “alien invasion meets the underdogs who save the A-listers streamed live on the DCU-Twitch” story is a fun introduction to the series and gives us some great comedic moments with our heroes as well as some pretty great artwork by Ryan Sook. What else can I say other than Booster is Booster and Ted is Ted and Blue and Gold is some of the most enjoyment you’ll get out of a comic.
Dan Jurgens delivers on the promise of a fun story, writing these characters like he never left. When I got the chance to interview him (check that out here), Dan said, “it would be a fun, bouncy read and that comics need more of it” and I couldn’t be happier to say that he made good on that sentiment. (Was there really any doubt?) At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this comic was fun with energetic and comedic writing, amazing art (seriously Ryan Sook brings his A-game), and a bunch of little details and Easter eggs for long time fans (both Guy Gardner and Bibbo Bibbowski tune into Booster’s stream). Blue and Gold #1 makes for a lively comic that both DC fans and comic fans at large can kick back, relax and have a good time reading. I’m really looking forward to the rest of this series and I’m ecstatic to have the team of Dan Jurgens and Ryan Sook tackling it.
Verdict: 8/10 Buddy Cop Duos
