Booster Gold (1986) #1
Where whether you want to slap him silly or coo over him can change literally from panel to panel.
Bulletpoints
This issue is good if you like:
Young authors/artists and the shenanigans they used to get away with
Pretty okay art, actually! And a very pretty protagonist!
—meaning Booster, obviously
Writing that fluctuates between funny, clever and— less so
The eighties. Oh my god, the eighties.
Having the repeated urge to slap a twenty-year-old around
Conversely, having the repeated urge to find him adorkable, too
The unbearably charming relationship between man and ‘bot
An overwrought cliffhanger!
This issue sucks if you’re looking for:
Any possible escape from Booster’s name or branding
See: Having the repeated urge to slap a twenty-year-old around
Any possible escape from the fact it was aggressively the eighties.
A particularly well-rendered supporting cast, absent Skeets
Giffen/DeMatteis-style characterization
Obligatory Disclaimers
—before we get to the main event.
I only got one vote, but that vote was to review this issue, the debut of the very inimitable Booster Gold. Twist my arm, why doncha!
My first disclaimer here is that I am not one of those people who feels the need to insult a character I love out of some kind of misplaced sense of irony or in an often flat-footed attempt to be funny. Or in some desperation to minimize my affection for the sake of an audience. I adore Booster, completely unironically; I think he’s a brilliant character not only from a writerly perspective, but from a human one, too. Sometimes despite his actual canon writers.
So if you’re here to see me roast him— well, probably I’m just gonna singe him around the edges, and only then because he definitely has it coming. (‘Cause loving a character doesn’t mean you don’t facepalm at them!)
And oh boy, he never has it coming again as often as he does in his first solo here. LOL!
Another disclaimer is that when it comes to Booster, you’re probably gonna see me lean more into the whole Watsonian vs. Doylist dual interpretations than I might otherwise, and that there will also be some Death of the Author perspectives, too. (No, that’s not a threat!) That’s because I think that Booster’s got such a good character arc pre-Flashpoint that it’s worth eyeballing him not only from the outside perspective and through several real-world filters, but to also take him on in the context of his backstory, world and choices on his side of the Fourth Wall, too. Which also lets me indulge in my love of psychology. Lucky you. -waggles eyebrows-
If you’re still here after all that— let’s go!
The Actual Review
Rather than opening on our gleaming hero, we open on a hapless comic book editor. For a cold open, you have to admit, that first box is clever! Where it’s so quiet, you can hear the sales figures drop. One thing I noticed from the beginning is that it seems Dan Jurgens views both his hero and his book with just a little bit of tongue-in-cheek humor and— not cynicism, I’d say, but a kind of detachment. Where Len Wein’s love of Ted Kord kinda sings off of the page, Dan absolutely nails the more disaffected, less-earnest invocation of the era of conspicuous and unapologetic capitalism here.
That’s not to say Dan never lets things get real and unpolished; even in this first issue, there are moments where you can see past the reflections. But you are sometimes left wondering how much he actually liked the main character he created at this point. Later, it becomes much more clear that he did or grew to, but here, you’re just not sure.
(Another caveat: If I spend a little more time poking at Dan’s head than I did at Len’s, it’s because I feel that Dan’s age — mid-twenties, not much older than Booster himself — really did inform a lot of how he wrote this book, in particular, and therefore how Booster turned out as a character. It’s definitely not an indictment; for some quick backstory, I met the JLI sometime around 2003, having followed Captain Marvel there, and I was twenty-three myself at that point. So my understanding of myself as a writer has evolved quite a lot since then — and my understanding of other writers! — but also my read of the characters I’ve loved all this time has, too.
There’s also a pretty good chance you’ll see me cross-comparing Booster’s and Beetle’s books, because they essentially ran concurrently, but were very, very different things in terms of tone and feel.)
I keep digressing, but that happens when you love a subject. Back to the book, though, our erstwhile editor Skip comes up an idea that can’t possibly backfire at all: Turning the golden boy himself into a comic book sensation.
And speaking of—
The first time we meet Booster, he’s talking about money. I can’t say he makes a good first impression, because he really kinda doesn’t, but I do have to allow that I was only six when this came out and it was well into the 2000s when I finally read it (being into the JLI first) and adults might have had a different perspective back then. Still, Dan had planned from the outset that Booster would be a proper hero, albeit a capitalistic, media savvy one. As he himself states in an interview in Comic Book Creator #34 (Spring 2024 issue):
“I was just coming off Sun Devils, and doing a convention in Dallas, and I sat down with Dick Giordano one morning for breakfast, and said I had this idea and it’s for this. This character who plays the celebrity angle and he does endorsements and all that. Dick said, ‘You mean a hero-for-hire.’ And I said, ‘No. Not a hero-for-hire. It’s someone who does the right thing, but he understands our media and our culture, and uses it to his advantage. But he still does the right thing.’ And Dick liked it so much, he essentially bought it on the spot, and we were off and running. And he said, ‘What’s his name?’ And I said, ‘Booster Gold.’”
(I definitely recommend the various TwoMorrows publications if you like these really deep dives into characters, creators and history. Especially if you happen to be a Fawcett Comics fan!)
Anyway, Dan doesn’t let any grass grow under his feet in establishing Booster’s commercialism, though he also hits the ground running by establishing that the golden boy is a bit of a fish out of water too. Saying someone’s album will go radium versus platinum. Then this little bit here:
Aside the really godawful writing of every woman so far — and we’re only on the fourth page!! — we’ve already established how aggressively the eighties this book is. The fast-talking financial negotiation, the corporate maneuvering, the talk of agents and points and other such bullshit; that does make Booster’s innocent idiomatic screw-ups a much-needed breath of fresh air. And speaking of a breath of fresh air—!
Skeets is, by far, the best supporting character we get in this book. Unlike everyone else, he knows better than to be taken in by Booster’s debatable charms. (I’d argue, I think accurately, that all of Booster’s genuine charm shows when he’s not trying.) Skeets, better than anyone, knows exactly what kind of Disaster Person he’s somehow ended up hitched to and yet pretty faithfully and obviously cares anyway, despite being a machine. He’s also, as you can see here and as you will continue to see in this book, taken it upon himself to half-parent this kid.
It actually makes a ton of sense to me from an in-universe contextual perspective that Booster is a disaster, in a lot of ways that are not immediately obvious here but become so quickly: Growing up in desperate poverty does a number on you, mentally. What most people think of as normal doesn’t actually apply when you’ve spent your whole remembered life wondering if you’re gonna be able to eat.
It makes his relentless pursuit of fortune not only understandable, but adds layers of heartache to it; you never actually get over it, growing up like that. Just given my own experiences with the same, it’ll be twenty years later and you’ll have a savings account with enough to keep you alive for six months of unemployment, and yet you’ll still wonder if you can justify buying four pounds of oranges. Even the thought of being thrown back into deep poverty will make you panic.
So when you get to Countdown to Infinite Crisis almost twenty years later, and Booster’s file lists him as vagrant— he didn’t learn how to survive in that ugly kind of situation in 2005. Probably he learned those kinds of survival skills long before he was even grown. Even then, you can imagine the damage that stint back in the hole did to him later when we’re getting into 52, which I’ll discuss more down the road.
On the heels of this, we meet the next two — and arguably last two — major supporting characters in Booster’s book, which would be Dirk Davis, who starts off with the personality of a used car salesman who somehow tricked himself into the big leagues, and Theresa “Trixie” Collins, who is the second best supporting character we get. (I don’t think Michelle’s honestly in this book long enough later to count.)
Dirk’s open sexism here contrasts pretty well with Booster’s kind of lack of. Booster’s steeping in it, it’s pervasive in this world he landed in, but you don’t really get any impression that he actually buys into it. It’s another one of those things I’m sort of wishing I could have dug around twenty-something Dan’s head about: There being some painful sexism in the narrative itself, which is where the author is responsible, but also a protagonist who kind of sidesteps it neatly. At least here, Booster isn’t really condescending to any woman in particular; his ridiculousness is kinda equal-opportunity.
He gets on the phone with Trixie to ask whether she’s gotten hold of the Justice League yet, which you can interpret as Booster being supremely self-confident or actually the total opposite, given he’s sure they’re gonna want him as a member. I’m gonna say, though, that this whole exchange positively screams ‘insecure as hell’ to me, with a liberal dose of ‘trying too hard’.
We don’t waste any time past that getting into another disaster, though: Namely speaking, a very red armored car-tank-thing crashing into Booster’s limo. Because those things obviously happen in Metropolis in the eighties.
Booster gives chase, though only after being cute — “Wowzer!” Oh my god, kid. — and Skeets is there to point out the obvious, but also to provide yet another correction. Given you can guess this kind of schooling has been going on since last August in-universe, Booster saying it’s beginning to get on his nerves is kind of funny.
Despite the bickering, though, Booster and Skeets do make a good team. They have a fun dynamic here that really only holds for this book: like I said before, Skeets kind of half-parenting a Disaster Person, and Booster chafing against it some, but mostly just accepting it. They don’t always work perfectly together, but they do consistently work well together, and it’s part of what I love this book for.
ANYWAY! Booster gets his ego stroked a little bit, and then the badguys spill out of their red reinforced car-tank-thing for a good ole fashioned superhero v. hencepeople brawl. What follows is some more of Booster and Skeets bantering, Skeets still trying to teach Booster modern idioms in the midst and ample evidence that Dan Jurgens is a leg man, given how he draws Booster’s so pretty—.
This bit here is where I actually just wheeze, though:
First, ‘hind’ absolutely does work and while Skeets is technically correct, I’m with Booster on this one. Plus, that’s just really damn cute. Second, that whole line about it being his favorite limo—
—yes, Booster, we all know that you’re currently super rich, you don’t need to keep bringing it up.
We get introduced to Blackguard; much like with Ted’s book, Booster’s rogues gallery is swiftly being rolled out in the first issue, the pace sort of breakneck and relentless, though in a genuinely entertaining fashion. Blackguard makes very clear from the outset that he also sees Booster as a brat — like, fair, my dude, since he really is at this point — and there’s a brief and cute exchange where it seems like Blackguard is speaking metaphorically and Booster’s probably answering genuinely:
Blackguard: I’m Blackguard, Squirt! And as of now, you’re a dead man!
Booster: Dead? I’m not even sick!
What ensues is the typical fast-paced, banter-filled superhero v. supervillain battle. I might need to start a tally for the number of times Dan draws his creation in some graceful, eye-candy fashion, because Dan doesn’t try to beef Booster up any; the man’s built like a thoroughbred. Or a fashion model. 🤣 Which works, I guess, since he literally makes at least some of his fortune on those good looks.
Anyway, we take a break in the midst to glance in on another nefarious ne’er-do-well, this time taking another tack by getting their hands on Booster’s fingerprints, showing that his enemies continue to line up around the block both in-person and elsewhere. Obviously there wasn’t any coordination between Dan and Len on their respective books, so the use of almost the exact same structure must have been common practice.
Back in the streets, though, Booster gets a little too ahead of himself and promptly gets a tire to the back right after declaring victory. I can’t say I’m sorry that Blackguard’s taking him down a few pegs, truthfully:
Booster finally acknowledges that Skeets was onto something in calling this guy dangerous, though he still is more worried about his reputation than getting pounded into paste by a dude swinging an actual glowing mace and using him as a wrecking ball for an innocent and unassuming mailbox.
Thankfully, Skeets is there to help provide our boy a second to get himself back together and into the fight:
Despite all my facepalming over Booster overestimating himself, though, I’d be a really bad fan of the man if I didn’t point out that he’s a pretty damn decent tactician in this book. Booster’s intelligence gets downplayed an awful amount later — and often entirely unfairly — but here in his first book, he’ll repeatedly show that he’s a quick thinker and he displays exactly the kind of talent in that regard that would have made him one of the best quarterbacks to play the game.
In this case, he riles Blackguard up and draws him further from the civilians, but then takes advantage of Blackguard’s annoyance and arrogance — and Blackguard’s perception of him as a young punk with more mouth than brains — and sets the villain up to bring that mace down on a randomly placed but wholly convenient power box.
With Blackguard out of the way, finally, we go look back in on Dirk, who is wheeling and dealing in his office and setting up stuff for later in the book. I’d like to pretend I’m interested in this, but I’m really not. Trixie continues to deal with sexism, though this time she also manages to bite back:
As an aside, I got another giggle at Skip — our editor from the first page — calling Dirk about doing a Booster comic and Dirk asking, “Comics? You mean they still print those?”
Back to Booster, who is flush with his victory and also gets to preen about saving some experimental thingamabob from STAR Labs (bringing up yet another parallel to Ted’s #1); he and Skeets are kinda teasing that Booster’s from the future when Trixie calls. Dirk has a plan that won’t backfire at all to get Booster more news-share, but the big thing Booster wants to know is whether Trixie’s gotten ahold of the JLA yet, because that for sure doesn’t come across as even a little bit desperate and insecure, nope.
Still, Booster lands to plenty of media fanfare:
His disingenuous ‘How was I supposed to know about these newshounds?’ is totally worthy of a swat across the chops, you gotta admit. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get a chance to even things up any before the book ends on yet another rogue showing up to possibly hand him his shiny derriere.
And thus ends this inaugural issue, this debut of Booster Gold.
Walter of Boosterrific rates this one as a perfect ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ issue. I’d more put it around three to three and a half myself, though I’m not going to actually rate these like that. I think the difference between our reads is that Walter seems to take it kind of as given and written, whereas I’m more digging into various aspects that probably weren’t even intended to be dug into originally. For example, Booster in context of later revelations in terms of his backstory, or actions he chooses now that become way more interesting glancing backwards at them.
I’m also viewing this book from the year 2025 and with my own children now pretty much exactly Booster’s age here, so that definitely factors into it. Hence my initial disclaimer that even if I might singe him at the edges, I do in fact love him lots and view him in this book with a gentleness and patience I might not have when I was still his age; he reminds me, in some ways, of myself back then. Also, in some ways, of either of my kids now.
Anyway, this book just taken at purely face value is okay. There are clever bits of writing in it, for sure. There are times where Dan’s inability to write women is very irritating. There are amateur moments galore, and some of those are charming and some are not. The art’s pretty damn okay considering the age and experience of the artist. It follows, structurally, the same kind of beat and intent as Ted Kord’s first issue, but unlike Ted’s, it’s lacking a lot of the genuine earnest affection for the title character.
Still, Booster is darling at points even here, Skeets is a national treasure, Trixie has potential that she never quite reaches, but is still a worthy secondary character and the elements of greatness are certainly here: I wouldn’t love Booster as much as I do if they weren’t.
The Final Tally
Urge to Slap Booster Silly: 4
Urge to Coo Over Booster: 3
Give Skeets a Medal: 3
Give Trixie a Medal: 3