Monday, July 26, 2010

Rayboy's Review: Time Masters:Vanishing Point #1


I don't have a bad review for DC Comics new Time Masters: Vanishing Point #1, but I can't actually praise it overmuch either and that's too bad.

Time Masters: Vanishing Point #1 (of 6) begins with Rip Hunter and Booster Gold joining forces with Superman and Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) so that the four of them can participate in their portion of the developing "Return of Batman" event. Yeah, right!

You see Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund left Booster's monthly series behind a few months ago, and since they've opted to move on to greener pastures, one has to wonder why the scenery looks so familiar. Since the lead characters from an established monthly have also brought along Booster's robot pal, Skeets, it beggars the question: Why the hell was this mini-series necessary in the first place? The answer is very simple to grasp: "cash grab".

The whole point of the Booster Gold monthly was that Booster is the unheralded guardian of the time stream within the DCU, so why take the creative team and the cast away from what was a decently popular monthly series, only to create a mini-series that participates in another titles unfolding major event? No. I don't get it either and neither will you!

I was actually a fan of Booster Gold, and the announcement that Jurgens & Rapmund were bailing out left me cold on continuing with the monthly and admittedly I've picked this book up primarily to fill the void. Nothing against new & current Booster Gold creators, Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis, but no thanks. Yuck-yuck!

Look if - like me - you were a fan of Booster's book, then you're probably going to like these issues, plus you get to see Superman, Green Lantern and Batman (and it's not like those top tier heroes are overexposed or anything). Still, why DC decided to spin this adventure off into its own little mini baffles the mind. I doubt that this book will tie in to the "Bat-Return" to a great extent, but it won't really offend any Booster loyalists, so I'm only guardedly recommending it!

2 comments:

Mark said...

I've actually found the Giffen/DeMatties run to be much more "fun". I love the plot twist they threw in recently with a little girl Booster brings back from the future to save.

Giffen is hit and miss with me, but I like his view of Booster. Jurgens does good stuff, but he never really does anything spectacular either. I felt that a lot of issues of Booster last year felt like they were just spinning their wheels.

Chuck Wells said...

Mark, for me the innovative use that the Booster Gold series managed by playing fast & loose with the endless string of "events" within the greater DCU is what appealed to me. Jurgens & Rapmund alos make a nice art team on Booster, and while Giffen/DeMatteis merit attention in their own right; they tend to play up humor to the exclusion of most everything else. Basically they've "been there - done that" to me.