Buy Pile Report: Booster Gold

Yes, of all the great titles this week, the early buy pile report this week is "Booster Gold #1."

Why Booster, you ask? Because I just read it and have not been this excited over a first issue since "Justice Society #1," and that title hasn't disappointed yet. Not coincidentally, both were written by Geoff Johns.

If you are even the least bit fond of Booster or the Justice League International era, RUN out and start picking up this book. Even if you don't like the character, though, if you like alternate universe stories like Marvel's "Exiles" you should also start reading.

The premise of the book, which was already pretty clear before the release, is simply that time is broken, and Booster and Rip Hunter have to go from wormhole to wormhole healing moments in history, before a yet-to-be named Bad Guy can get to those moments and exploit them. All the while, Booster is going to have to bite the bullet and try and work without grabbing any attention for himself. Booster, of all people.

If that black-and-white synopsis doesn't grab you, though, I'll tell you that this book is written with about as much natural feeling humor as you will find in any book on the market today -- at least that's how the first issue was written, let's not get ahead of ourselves, of course.

To give you a for instance, there was THIS from Rip Hunter on how time became broken: "Everything in history predating the re-creation of the multiverse has gone malleable. Thanks mostly to Mr. Mind and that Kryptonian Boy's Tantrums, which I still find ridiculous to believe. Punching History. PLEASE."

On top of all that, it seems Johns and partner Jeff Katz are writing this as one big love letter to the Justice League International days, which, if you are a fan of that era, you will love.

The big reveal on the last page of the issue? That Booster is doing all this, in return for eventually getting to break the rules and change history and save Ted Kord. Of course, probably by the time he gets to that point, he will have learned the importance of not changing history and he will wimp out and we will get no Ted. Still, it's a nice and believable premise.

What I would love to see is, if around the 24th or 36th issue they do save Ted -- I would love it if Ted takes Rip's place on these missions from there on out. Booster would be the new time-traveling wiz, while Ted is the one needing to learn. That is simply one fanboy's wish, though, it more than likely won't come to pass.

I got a little wordy with you here, I'm sorry, I'm excited, this book is looking like a new fixture in my buy pile.