Get The Casually Comics Re-Animator: The Eternal Lie Part 2 Variant or Tee - www.kickstarter.com/projects/cullenbunn/reanimator-the-eternal-lie-part-2?ref=2kx1ug Also tell me what would be a good gift for Batman :)
For me the weirdest thing about Booster Gold is the idea that in 500 years football will still be a big sport. Seriously? I just have real trouble seeing it.
Booster just proved why there is no shame in simply asking someone what kind of gift they want. I've been doing that for years and haven't destroyed a single timeline.
One of the more frustrating things about this story was that there was a story arc in Action Comics (written by Dan Jurgens, Booster Gold’s creator) which ended one month before “The Gift” began, in which Booster has to PREVENT Superman from changing the past. One month he’s sternly telling Clark not to be irresponsible with time travel, and the next month he’s… this.
This felt like a completely different character. One either damaged from the very beginning or a Booster that is just starting their career, and that doesn't work very well either. I go with an alternate universe Booster, not the one we know.
@@richmcgee434 The problem is that he has no grasp of characterization. When he writes previously made characters, he does not write them how they act in previous comics, he writes them how he assumes they act. His Batman feels like that dumb Twitter argument where people say "He is just some emotionless asshole beating up the mentally ill and forces traumatized kids into fighting crime" combined with his own mental struggles. He feels like Supergirl should be angry and pissed off about what happened to her planet, so in Woman of Tomorrow, she is a gruff alcoholic badass. Booster Gold was known for being a cocky dumbass, so Tom King writes him as a complete idiot.
@@That80sGuy1972 He's been getting better he even had a story arc one month before this comic where he scolded Superman for trying to Time Travel (From the creator of Booster Gold) but then we get this from Tom King who hated Booster Gold if I recall correctly
When I was deployed overseas, Tom King was a part of a DC Comics USO type tour and visited my base. I got to ask him who Booster Gold was to him. His answer was basically Booster is a screw up. It came across very much as he just read Booster’s wiki and nothing else.
That's disappointing. But then again, Tom King feels a lot like Bendis in that he doesn't seems to care about continuity. He has stories to tell and he goes for it. Problem is he doesn't establish his own head canon well enough so most of his writing always feels a bit off, like we missed something between the current continuity and his stories. Too bad, he is a good writer otherwise.
@@sebastienlentini2080 I absolutely love his Omega Men and Mister Miracle and Vision, in which he shows he can love and respect old stories. Vision was almost Busiek level in tying old continuity together and making sense of it while still telling a new and surprising story. I think the real problem here is the demands of an ongoing deadline and The Big Two constantly trying to both reinvent and reference their entire histories. King's run was uneven, to put it kindly, but I think editorial bears a lot of responsibility for there being three issues before a pre-designed event that are both world changing and disposable.
All I got from this was what I already knew: Tom King has issues that need to be addressed, and he's turned DC comics into his personal working through trauma.
I went from wanting to kick Booster in the balls to "this man needs legitimate help." Also the what if Bruce's parents were alive was done better in BTAS.
As a massive Booster fan who loves the development he’s received over the years this story made me really sad. It feels Tom King only had a passing knowledge of him and used him anyway
I think there are two things we should seriously consider: 1) That this was the setup for why Booster was getting treatment in Heroes in Crisis 2) That this whole adventure was in Booster's Head. Or, he truly was in another dimension- which is why psycho Bruce didn't disappear right away.
There was a story in Detective Comics #500 in which The Phantom Stranger takes Batman to a parallel Earth to prevent the death of that Earth’s Thomas and Martha Wayne. I remember it was done much better than the Booster Gold story. Another momentous thing about that issue - it contained Walter Gibson’s final story.
I love that story! It’s in one of the DC Blue Ribbon Digests I read when I was little that my dad gave to me. I think Sasha could make a great video out of it, especially if it gets compared to this.
Aye, I was thinking of it also. In it, the child Bruce Wayne sees a caped, masked figure rescue him and his parents from assault and death. Inspired, he begins training to become that world's first hero, Batman.
There's also Batman: Gotham Adventures #33, a DCAU tie-in comic where the Stranger shows a frustrated Bruce what life would have been like had his parents lived, only for the people he cares about now leading horrible lives and the city not in good shape while he becomes worse than his public persona. It's a far better story than this.
Replace Booster with Bat-Mite, and have Booster trying to stop him? Idk if that would work seeing that saving Bruce's parents would mean no Batman,and Bat-Mite is Batman's biggest fan. But a little thinking could have gone a long way with this one.
I love how Booster starts as a fake hero posing as a real hero, and then develops into a real hero that people think is a fake hero. Batman figures this out in the post-52 Booster series, and it's portrayed at the end of the Justice League Unlimited episode The Greatest Story Never Told (ssn1 ep7), ruclips.net/video/bwWpiFDxJ2E/видео.html
I think you're onto something with booster's mental state. This would be a much better story if they intentionally made Booster unwell from the beginning, and have it matter. I don't think King could write that story, but someone should Love the wig this week!
Speaking of DCAU riffs on Bruce's parents being alive BTAS had an episode where someone fabricated a world where his parents were alive that actually worked "Perchance to Dream". It really packed an emotional punch. From Bruce initially being completely unable to believe the reality was true to finally accepting the joy of seeing his parents alive and then having it all torn away from him in the end. It was such a gut punch and a great exploration of the scars losing his parents left on Bruce.
the tragedy wasn't that Bruce had to be Batman because without him Gotham would be in shambles. The tragedy was that life if his parents were alive would have been great but that reality cannot exist.
The Mad Hatter, but he forgot that reading in dreams is not the the same as reality, and this is where Bruce started to realize something was wrong. Batman was a separate person and doing all the Batman stuff so Bruce could just live a happy life without worries. He ended up confronting his alter ego when he realized "Batman" was the only other connection to the illusion. It really is a great episode and a better Bat-take on "For The Man Who Has Everything" than this thing.
Honestly, I've always seen this story as Booster trying to fix what he'd done to the timeline loads of times, and failing. So the opening scene in my head is a Booster who's seen the world fall apart a bunch of times already and is now just... running with it. Like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day after he'd done it awhile. I don't know if anyone shares this opinion, but I think it explains why Booster acts so unhinged throughout the story.
I agree with Sasha: If they established something like this up front, it could work. I mean, time travel has to be a bit of a mind screw after a while.
True story, a friend of mine had given me both this and later HiC as actual "Gifts" for my Birthday and Yule respectively. While I *know* their heart was in the right place..I never so desperately wanted to have my own time machine to go back and recommend they just get me socks instead.
This whole story feels like a fever dream. As for an actual good gift for Batman, something one of a kind with a sentimental attachment. Maybe a screen used Grey Ghost costume....though something more connected to his relationship with Catwoman would be better. Being a time traveler...maybe a piece of her costume from when they first met. Still have to watch out for the butterfly effect on that one. Knowing my luck, that'd end up killing Catwoman.
Man. This is the time Tom King was staring to worry me. Had he pulled off the wedding I would have forgiven him. But he proved he became a Jeoh Loeb... he's either awesome or horrible... and rarely anything in between.
@@Ichiyama22 Y'know, I was reading some Golden Age Action Comics from the late 40s the other day, which had Tommy Tomorrow stories as one of the regular features alongside Superman, Congo Bill and Vigilante. Tommy's not really a time traveller at all in that era, just a retro-scifi space patrolman in a solar system where we've got all the planets colonized ala Victorian scifi, science be damned. The most surreal part of it was that way they start every story by informing readers that Tommy lives in the far distant future...of 1989. Points for being optimistic, at least.
Ra's controls Eurasia? When was that his plan? They always make him a cartoon villain for some reason Also not my boy Duke... hasn't editorial hurt him enough
I've only read the Booster stories in "Future Lost," and of course, I've watched your videos on him. I'm far from being an expert on Booster. But, to me, character flaws are obviously part of the character design. And in the older stories at least, he also has some goodness in his heart that makes the flaws forgivable and even endearing. I don't think Tom King struck the right balance here. Just my two cents. Nice analytical wrap-up at the end; I'm always amazed at how well you digest a story and explain your take. Thanks for 600!
So, some parts of "The Gift" make a bit more sense if you'd been reading Batman's solo title for a while. A few years earlier, there had been a storyline called Endgame where the Joker created a virus that turned people into Joker zombies. He even developed special strains that could effect specific superheroes and infected the other members of the Justice League like Wonder Woman, Superman and The Flash so Batman couldn't call them for help. The presence of "Jokerized" citizens in this new timeline seems to indicate that something similar happened and Batman wasn't around to stop it, hence why so many heroes are dead. Being familiar with the Endgame storyline also makes Duke Thomas' fate a little more clear, as both of his parents became brain damaged by the Joker during that storyline and presumably, so did he in this timeline. I think the implication was supposed be that Hal was in the early stages of turning into a Joker zombie and that is why he killed himself. This would somewhat explain why Dick Grayson is trying to kill any superheroes that come into Gotham, since he has likely seen the damage Jokerized superhumans can do and wants to keep anyone else from becoming infected. (Your point still stands that it makes no sense for Dick to call himself Batman in this timeline.) The stuff about Catwoman becoming a serial killer in this timeline makes a little more sense (but also not) in the context of King's Batman run. During King's run, there was this ongoing storyline about Catwoman have supposedly gone over the edge and become a mass murderer at some point in the recent past so Selina's behavior in this story was likely a reference to that. It was eventually explained that several dozen terrorists destroyed the orphanage where Selina grew up, killing all the children inside, and so Catwoman tracked each of them down and subjected them to a vigilante execution. Which, I can see why a lot people in universe would be disturbed by that and not want Batman to associate with her anymore, but characters in the main Batman timeline talk about her like she is an unhinged killer like she is the Booster Gold timeline. And then it was reveled that Selina didn't kill anyone. Her childhood friend, Holly, who had gone to the same orphanage, killed those terrorists and Catwoman chose to take the fall. (Which just raises so many further questions 😑). This is pure speculation on my part, but I got the sense that King started out his Batman run not knowing where he was going to take the "Selina Kyle is a killer now" subplot and was making it up as he went along.
I feel like the core concept of "What if Bruce Wayne's Parents survived" is interesting and worth exploring but there's several changes I would've made: 1.Have Booster being in universe inspired by Flashpoint NOT the Black Mercy (Barry literally describes the retained memories of his mom in his childhood as A GIFT) 2. More logical connections to why what has changed has (The Waynes lose most of their fortune being extorted by corrupt officials, Harvey Dent becomes a corrupt/weak-willed pushover mayor, Dick becomes a gun toting ROBIN, Flass is the commissioner, etc.) 3. Show explicitly the deaths caused in Gotham as crime never was fought effectively - I'd have Booster legit run into the graves of some of his ancestors, and the graves of other Batfam supporting characters (Montoya, Gordon, Kate, just for starters) 4. Booster immediately starts feeling some deleterious effects of "Time sickness" as he's inadvertently erased himself from the timeline, Skeets has to kind of push him to the point Skeets undoes the events, not Booster in the end. 5. Have Booster have been really cocky about the plan- saying that Flash is an amateur at time travel anyway, needing to use the speedforce instead of a real time machine. (So this is implied to be an early iteration of Booster) 6. Skeets is the only one who gets to remember the whole thing. Skeets blows up his old self at the time of saving the Waynes and forces Booster back to the future- lying to him saying it was some sort of time anomaly backlash, theorizing that such overt alterations to the timeline are metaphysically impossible with their understanding of time travel. (Leave with the implication this is not the first time Booster has done something so boneheaded and Skeets has reversed it.)
Booster here is so out of character in the story makes me wonder if the writer actually knows who the character actually is or just write a brief Google description of him.
I tried Tom King's run of Batman...couldn't get past the first volume. It just didn't feel like Batman. Now, after learning how he wholely disregards the love for certain characters and writes in character assassinations (Wally West front and center here), I'm glad I dropped it.
I realized Tom King sucks at writing Batman relatively early on, when Batman had Alfred threaten an helpless Psycho Pirate at gunpoint to use his power to try to heal Gotham Girl. Batman would never have a plan involving threatening someone at gunpoint, he would never ask someone to threaten anyone at gunpoint, and he would never have Alfred, of all people, threaten anyone at gunpoint. His run is full of boring references no one cares about, and cheap gimmicks (I'm Bane, I'm Batman; Oh Cat, oh Bat; it was the ship, no it was the alley; Kiteman Hell Yeah; there was the war of jokes and riddles and it was so cool and I guess you had to be there but it was really something; let's reference the whole rogue gallery for the heck of it...). He's especially boring when he's self referencing.
There's a lot to be said about King's Batman, and I can't say much good about it. Personally I consider #36 and #37 one of the best Superman/Batman stories I've read, but that's the best thing I can say about the whole run. I think at the time I was more forgiving of the low points of the run because I was hyped for the wedding. Or maybe now that the wedding has passed I'm more critical of it. Hard to say.
King actually wrote a really good Hal story in his "Darkseid War" GL one-shot where Hal achieves, then rejects godhood. There's also a time-travel bit where he talks to himself as a boy - good stuff and not as trauma-focused as King tends to be. It was downright hopeful.
I have an idea on how to rewrite this story. What if instead of trying to save the parents, Booster trys to snag them out of the timeline to come to the wedding. He fails to do so, but he spooks them enough not to go down the alley. When he returns we could have a similar story, but it makes more sense
I'm convinced every Tom King batman story is just one of those ever worsening alternate lives he experienced while in the omega sanction.. Also, based off of his writing, you could make the argument that he doesn't like/ feels some kind of way about every superhero except for superman
Tom King: the most hit and miss comic book writer in the history of the medium. The same writer that gave us the Vision 12 issue mini series gave us Heroes in Crisis. He gave us Superman: Up in the Sky, and he gave us The Gift. Like a Targaryen, you don't know which way his coin has landed until you read the book.
Wow, you love Kings Batman? He nearly destroyed the character, they took him off early before he did any more damage & because everyone hated it, it was a horrendous run.
@@xthelegend89 It’s my most hated run, and it’s the run that got me to search for King online, before that I had never searched for any creator before, at the time I barely looked at who was writing the stories. I bought for the characters, not the writers, I would only remember a writer if I really liked the comic, like Geoff Johns. But about halfway through his run I started to hate this run so much that I had to search to see who this Tom King guy was, funnily enough I think it was this story “The Gift” that was the final straw that made me search, or “Knightmares”, whichever came first. It was after “Jokes & Riddles” anyway, I remember that, that was when I started to really dislike the run, that arc was terrible. But “The Gift” was just horrendous, I absolutely hated this story, it was completely nonsensical and I’ve no idea how the editors signed off on this drivel.
I hate what King did with Booster in this story. Honestly, I'm not very fond of how Booster has been handled in the past decade or so in general. I love his original run and the resurgence the character had with 52 and his second book in the 2000s, but the 2010s saw the character change to something almost irrecognizable at times. I really don't like it. At this point I feel not only fans but a lot of writers in DC only see him as a wacky lunatic verging on complete psychopath like in The Gift, and keeping making stories featuring this bizarro version of Booster, only further perpetuating this mischaracterization. It's similar to how I feel about Cassandra Cain, though in that case DC has been trying to make amends recently, it still doesn't make up for all the shit. As someone who started reading comics in the late 90s and had a lot of contact with 80s comics as well due to resellers and reprints, it feels like the more modern era of DC consists mainly of fucking up the characters I grew up loving (Wally West, Booster, Cass, the Titans as a group, etc) becaus they were legacy characters or "late" additions the dinosaurs running the company see as expendable.
This was the third worst Tom King story at DC for me. #1 be Heroes in Crisis (but then again it seems Editorial aka Dan DiDio is more to blame for that than King). But Batman #81? Yeah, that one just takes the cake as being worse than this. From the start of Bruce/Selina coming back from a mini vacation with the former thinking Alfred is safe (he's not) and then Damian getting freed by the entire Bat-Family (minus Ric and Stephanie) and then all of them jobbing to Thomas Wayne off-panel. Cause...
There was a Teen Titans Annual where Dick tells his story to Jericho. He says that by helping him bring his parents' killers to justice, Bruce saved Dick from becoming like Bruce. I believe Bruce has said this somewhere as well. He took Dick in to stop him from becoming like Bruce.
I feel like under Gunn, Booster of ALL characters would fit his style of not-exactly-well-adjusted but with a heart of gold and can get pretty emotional. I'm interested to see, even if he doesn't have any on-hands involvement
“The Gift” arc is indicative to the event comic HEROES IN CRISIS: trying to tackle mental health yet is grossly mishandle, mischaracterization, a lot of characters dying in grandiose way, and character assassination.
I'd managed to have forgotten reading The Gift... perhaps because it felt a little incomplete, as if I'd missed an issue somewhere along the way. In many ways it's precisely the alternative universe I enjoy, but for a lot of the reasons you highlight, it left me a little cold. Alongside Jurgens run, it's tonal differences felt like it was supposed to build to some turning point that it never reached. Still, it was something I read with a "thank god they didn't forget about Booster", a prayer I hope never ends.
Everyone wants to do their own For the Man who has Everything, even Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir. And yet this is probably the worst one with very little competition.
It's bizarre that Booster Gold spends so much of the comic in the dark alternate reality where all his friends are dead or crazy smiling and remarking about how cool the new timeline is.
Yeah, "The Gift" was the first sign that Tom King wasn't the infallible wunderkind that fans and DC Editorial was building him up to be... and yet it still didn't prepare us for how awful Heroes In Crisis would be...
I think a lot of Booster Gold stories, post Jurgens [still need to read the Geoff Johns stories, glad a tpb reprint seems to be happening, but would've loved an omnibus], have the problem of assuming egotistical heart-of-gold celebrity heroes are all morons when it comes down to it...I can't think of one bad story with those types of characters, where it doesn't come down to 'they act COMPLETELY out of character because they act way dumber than they're supposed to be'... I don't know why it happens, maybe the authors find it more funny, or maybe it's their way of giving the character karma, while accidentally turning them into a strawman of the character they once were in the process... But really, it felt like Booster was a lot more multidimensional in that first run I read, by Jurgens... The second hardcover really meandered near the end, and Millenium felt like it shot the entire storyline in the foot, with what it did to the supporting cast, and then Booster himself... But whether it's cartoons or comics, he's not an idiot. The man stole a bunch of superhero gear out of desperation, not stupidity. Let alone, he got away with it more or less. I don't know if it's the sort of himbo-flanderization that seems to happen a little recently to characters or if it's just the weird IQ drain that happens, but I really think that ends up being a key part of what brings these stories down a peg. But that's just my take, I hope the Geoff Johns post-52 run proves to be even better than I expect it to be, since I've heard great stuff about it. 😁
I think the most tragic part is that the whole 'what happens if bruces parents never die' idea is very well explored in the Batman/Superman comics. Also i have to admit. My love for booster comes entirely from JLU. They did him so damn well in the one episode they let him shine in, and i'll never forget it. He should be explored more often, because his entire existence explores what it means to be a super hero at its very foundation, because he doesnt really understand it. Kinda reminds me of Marvels Speedball.
Booster being dead inside because during one of the runs he's the guy that deals with all the time travel problems meaning he has seen everyone die a hundred times in a hundred ways only for it all to undone by him meaning he has an untold amout of trauma is an interesting point to take for time travelers stories. This story doesn't do it its focuses to much on the gross spectacle of "oh no batman gone" and gives of flashpoint paradox vibes in the worst way and doesnt focus on the self introspection or using Skeets as a means of bringing it up.
The DCAU adaptation of "For The Man Who Has Everything" is the only adaptation of Moore's work that he actually likes. It's the only one that has his name on it.
Have you ever considered covering the "Generation Lost" story? I know some people have regards about it but i think it's quite good and u could keep the booster gold theme while surfing on the blue beetle hype train
As...interesting...as this story sounds, the idea of Booster becoming kind of unhinged as a result of all the time travel is fascinating. However, I'm not sure I trust DC to explore this without making Booster irredeemable. I really love a lot of Tom KIng's work. SUPERMAN: UP IN THE SKY, OMEGA MEN, THE VISION are all, IMHO, top-shelf reads. I've read some of his BATMAN run and enjoyed it but this story feels reallt screwy. HEROES IN CRISIS would have been excellent as a story with creator-owned analog characters. As an actual "canon" DCU story, it does too much damage to characters that needs waving away by later editors and writers.
This story is unusual for me in a few ways but mostly in that I only read it once. Normally when dealing with a story more complicated than 'bad guy does bad thing good guy stops him' I'll read it a couple of times at least to make sure I've understood it and got from it everything that was there to be found. I didn't reread this because it infuriated me. I read each episode safe in the knowledge that by the end they would explain who this Booster was and why he was so different from the one I'd loved since the Beetle and Booster pairing in the JLE/JLI books all those decades ago. I'm still so pissed off by it I am breaking my usual rule and commenting before watching the video. I'm hoping you can explain this travesty in a way that'll let me put it behind me but I fear that is beyond even your considerable powers... (For those wondering, yes, I do realise how unhinged it is to be this annoyed by a story in a comic book but I feel this channel might be the only place I know where my rage may be not only accepted but actually normalish.)
A lot of people got mad about Booster in this, but I think Booster having kind of messed up, apathetic atittude towards death and time travel due to constantl seeing realities destroed and friends dying, is an interesting characterization. Like, him in Legends fo Tomorrow playing golf in the middle of Word War battlefield is exactly the same thing, it's just played for comedy instead of drama.
I loved the title and thumbnail,in my mind I thought this would simple narration of the story. I feel I would have enjoyed it if the explanation part was separated from the story narration part.
Comics trying to be Alan Moore comics are some of worst comics in existence. Whatever you feel about Moore and his work he understands the medium and is able to use it in a way few others can. There's, typically, a narrative depth that matters beyond the obvious high points. The Alan Moore movie adaptations are the most obvious version of this because they all miss the point. V for Vendetta just too obsessed with contemporary politics to get the point. I still haven't gotten over Bernie and Bernard's storyline missing from Watchmen. The less said about From Hell and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen the better. Even if the end result isn't a disaster you're still always looking at the worse version which you can't help but compare to the original. Of course not just a Moore problem but his stories tend to push boundaries in ways that are difficult to handle if you don't have his sensibilities and skills as an artist.
I'm fairly sure I've seen a story where Booster Gold actually tried to do that in his solo series and failed over and over again trying to overcome the "set point" in time, which was a part of his development as a character. But I think that Booster Gold is the Waverider now after I don't remember which crisis. Convergence, I believe. PS. Nevermind, it wasn't that, it was Batgirl, sorry. It was good though, yes.
Get The Casually Comics Re-Animator: The Eternal Lie Part 2 Variant or Tee -
www.kickstarter.com/projects/cullenbunn/reanimator-the-eternal-lie-part-2?ref=2kx1ug
Also tell me what would be a good gift for Batman :)
An experience. Bruce loves a good night out (barring no interruptions from the Rogue's Gallery.)
A writer other than Tom King to put Andrea Beaumont back into his life 🤔 Oh! I’m sorry that would be a gift for us 🖖🏾
For me the weirdest thing about Booster Gold is the idea that in 500 years football will still be a big sport. Seriously? I just have real trouble seeing it.
I’m 60 , I just hope it lasts through the end of my lifetime 🖖🏾
Perfect Batman gift: Mask of Zorro on Blu-Ray
Booster just proved why there is no shame in simply asking someone what kind of gift they want. I've been doing that for years and haven't destroyed a single timeline.
Book tokens are fine for everyone, I think.
Just give me the money, I'll get my own gift.
@@richmcgee434 Yeah, I’ll just buy myself a Time Machine and make my own timeline
Well, as far as you can remember anyway.
@@lughtube5596 That would have been a fun response for after Booster Gold tells them about what he did.
One of the more frustrating things about this story was that there was a story arc in Action Comics (written by Dan Jurgens, Booster Gold’s creator) which ended one month before “The Gift” began, in which Booster has to PREVENT Superman from changing the past. One month he’s sternly telling Clark not to be irresponsible with time travel, and the next month he’s… this.
This felt like a completely different character. One either damaged from the very beginning or a Booster that is just starting their career, and that doesn't work very well either. I go with an alternate universe Booster, not the one we know.
Tom King really isn't a very good writer, is he? And the editors that let him do this are just downright bad at their jobs.
it's inconsistencies with DCs storytelling.
@@richmcgee434 The problem is that he has no grasp of characterization. When he writes previously made characters, he does not write them how they act in previous comics, he writes them how he assumes they act. His Batman feels like that dumb Twitter argument where people say "He is just some emotionless asshole beating up the mentally ill and forces traumatized kids into fighting crime" combined with his own mental struggles. He feels like Supergirl should be angry and pissed off about what happened to her planet, so in Woman of Tomorrow, she is a gruff alcoholic badass. Booster Gold was known for being a cocky dumbass, so Tom King writes him as a complete idiot.
I loved that storyline, not just for Booster being the more mature character, but for showing how vulnerable Clark is.
This comic felt like it was written by someone who hates booster gold lol
I’m pretty sure the writer said that he does not have a positive view on booster gold
To be fair, it takes a lot of creative and mental gymnastics to turn a self-absorbed time bandit into a hero who isn't just pretending to be one.
...and Batman too.
@@That80sGuy1972 He's been getting better he even had a story arc one month before this comic where he scolded Superman for trying to Time Travel (From the creator of Booster Gold) but then we get this from Tom King who hated Booster Gold if I recall correctly
@@ThatRandomDude204 Kind of cool in making him sort of like a parent who says in subtext "Do as I say, not as I do".
When I was deployed overseas, Tom King was a part of a DC Comics USO type tour and visited my base. I got to ask him who Booster Gold was to him. His answer was basically Booster is a screw up. It came across very much as he just read Booster’s wiki and nothing else.
That's disappointing. But then again, Tom King feels a lot like Bendis in that he doesn't seems to care about continuity. He has stories to tell and he goes for it. Problem is he doesn't establish his own head canon well enough so most of his writing always feels a bit off, like we missed something between the current continuity and his stories. Too bad, he is a good writer otherwise.
@@sebastienlentini2080 I absolutely love his Omega Men and Mister Miracle and Vision, in which he shows he can love and respect old stories. Vision was almost Busiek level in tying old continuity together and making sense of it while still telling a new and surprising story. I think the real problem here is the demands of an ongoing deadline and The Big Two constantly trying to both reinvent and reference their entire histories. King's run was uneven, to put it kindly, but I think editorial bears a lot of responsibility for there being three issues before a pre-designed event that are both world changing and disposable.
All I got from this was what I already knew: Tom King has issues that need to be addressed, and he's turned DC comics into his personal working through trauma.
Well he tried but we all collectively boo'd him. Which is justified if you're sucking with Batman to the point mainline says fall you got it coming
It's a nicer way of saying he's an overrated hack, after Heroes in Crisis I do NOT understand what's the appeal.
DC can have Tom King after what he did to the Vision at Marvel.
@@thoomolong Correction: BOUNDLESS can have him.
@@thoomolong You mean make Vision good and interesting?
How does Hal have the will to kill himself? He doesn’t even know what will is.
More of a stubborness really
Seeing what happened when he found out, I guess he was better off not knowing.
@@Aki-kh2qe-StreetKidZZZHmm, six of one.
I went from wanting to kick Booster in the balls to "this man needs legitimate help." Also the what if Bruce's parents were alive was done better in BTAS.
Absolutely! The BTAS episode, Perchance to Dream handles this idea so much better.
"“I won’t live a lie, no matter how attractive you make it!” - a particularly poignant line, really, considering it was spoken by Kevin Conroy
Came to the comments looking for this.
Unfortunately that's what this story arc leads to.
Booster Gold is just the gift that keeps on giving.
As a massive Booster fan who loves the development he’s received over the years this story made me really sad. It feels Tom King only had a passing knowledge of him and used him anyway
I think there are two things we should seriously consider:
1) That this was the setup for why Booster was getting treatment in Heroes in Crisis
2) That this whole adventure was in Booster's Head. Or, he truly was in another dimension- which is why psycho Bruce didn't disappear right away.
Makes sense considering that Tom King also wrote Heroes in Crisis.
3) Tom King is a terrible writer.
There was a story in Detective Comics #500 in which The Phantom Stranger takes Batman to a parallel Earth to prevent the death of that Earth’s Thomas and Martha Wayne. I remember it was done much better than the Booster Gold story.
Another momentous thing about that issue - it contained Walter Gibson’s final story.
That's what I thought of when I saw the premise. It handled that ripple effect bit better despite having less time to do so imo
I love that story! It’s in one of the DC Blue Ribbon Digests I read when I was little that my dad gave to me. I think Sasha could make a great video out of it, especially if it gets compared to this.
Aye, I was thinking of it also. In it, the child Bruce Wayne sees a caped, masked figure rescue him and his parents from assault and death. Inspired, he begins training to become that world's first hero, Batman.
There's also Batman: Gotham Adventures #33, a DCAU tie-in comic where the Stranger shows a frustrated Bruce what life would have been like had his parents lived, only for the people he cares about now leading horrible lives and the city not in good shape while he becomes worse than his public persona. It's a far better story than this.
Come to think of it, Walter Gibson-- wasn't he a writer for the Shadow radio show and books? If so, cool!
This is an actual time where the quote "Why would Hal Jordan do this?" makes too much sense.
Even when she is gutting a bad story, she always sounds so cheerful. Also, that Green Lantern sequence earlier in the video was absolutely terrifying.
Sasha puts a lot more thought in to this review than Tom King put in to writing the original story.
@@GenghisDon1970
Is he really that bad?
@@thereseemstobeenanerror1219 Yeah, he kinda mean towards the characters he writes
This story was so bad, it actually made me mad reading it.
@@ExeErdna And people in real life.
The butterfly effect. Does that mean Ashton Kucher should play Booster Gold on the big screen?
That movie messed me up when I was younger lol
@@CasuallyComics the original ending is beautifully tragic and would have justified the rest of the movies badness, but then chickened out.
I actually am okay with this casting.
Replace Booster with Bat-Mite, and have Booster trying to stop him? Idk if that would work seeing that saving Bruce's parents would mean no Batman,and Bat-Mite is Batman's biggest fan. But a little thinking could have gone a long way with this one.
I love how Booster starts as a fake hero posing as a real hero, and then develops into a real hero that people think is a fake hero. Batman figures this out in the post-52 Booster series, and it's portrayed at the end of the Justice League Unlimited episode The Greatest Story Never Told (ssn1 ep7), ruclips.net/video/bwWpiFDxJ2E/видео.html
I think you're onto something with booster's mental state. This would be a much better story if they intentionally made Booster unwell from the beginning, and have it matter. I don't think King could write that story, but someone should
Love the wig this week!
Except he’s not crazy, but in this story he’s completely deranged, the story is so bad.
@InfamyOrDeath -__- yeah, and it's not even consistent with how deranged
Speaking of DCAU riffs on Bruce's parents being alive BTAS had an episode where someone fabricated a world where his parents were alive that actually worked "Perchance to Dream". It really packed an emotional punch. From Bruce initially being completely unable to believe the reality was true to finally accepting the joy of seeing his parents alive and then having it all torn away from him in the end. It was such a gut punch and a great exploration of the scars losing his parents left on Bruce.
the tragedy wasn't that Bruce had to be Batman because without him Gotham would be in shambles. The tragedy was that life if his parents were alive would have been great but that reality cannot exist.
That was precisely what I thought when they were trying do Batman seeing his origin undone and how it would effect it.
The Mad Hatter, but he forgot that reading in dreams is not the the same as reality, and this is where Bruce started to realize something was wrong. Batman was a separate person and doing all the Batman stuff so Bruce could just live a happy life without worries. He ended up confronting his alter ego when he realized "Batman" was the only other connection to the illusion. It really is a great episode and a better Bat-take on "For The Man Who Has Everything" than this thing.
Honestly, I've always seen this story as Booster trying to fix what he'd done to the timeline loads of times, and failing. So the opening scene in my head is a Booster who's seen the world fall apart a bunch of times already and is now just... running with it. Like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day after he'd done it awhile. I don't know if anyone shares this opinion, but I think it explains why Booster acts so unhinged throughout the story.
If this was out of continuity that would be fine, but it's not so it doesn't work
I agree with Sasha: If they established something like this up front, it could work. I mean, time travel has to be a bit of a mind screw after a while.
Fun fact about the DCAU version of For the Man Who Has Everything that is the only adaptation of Alan Moore's work that he said he liked.
True story, a friend of mine had given me both this and later HiC as actual "Gifts" for my Birthday and Yule respectively. While I *know* their heart was in the right place..I never so desperately wanted to have my own time machine to go back and recommend they just get me socks instead.
This whole story feels like a fever dream.
As for an actual good gift for Batman, something one of a kind with a sentimental attachment. Maybe a screen used Grey Ghost costume....though something more connected to his relationship with Catwoman would be better. Being a time traveler...maybe a piece of her costume from when they first met. Still have to watch out for the butterfly effect on that one. Knowing my luck, that'd end up killing Catwoman.
Man. This is the time Tom King was staring to worry me. Had he pulled off the wedding I would have forgiven him. But he proved he became a Jeoh Loeb... he's either awesome or horrible... and rarely anything in between.
Your Batman “NOOO” got me good 😂
Lol my favourite line in this to do as Batman was "you winked I saw you!!!"
I wonder if Future Man and Booster Gold ever crossed paths
Lol has anyone seen Futureman and Booster in a room together?
Only Lois knows for sure!
Maybe, they did have the same tailor.
I bet they go out for drinks with Tommy Tomorrow
@@Ichiyama22 Y'know, I was reading some Golden Age Action Comics from the late 40s the other day, which had Tommy Tomorrow stories as one of the regular features alongside Superman, Congo Bill and Vigilante. Tommy's not really a time traveller at all in that era, just a retro-scifi space patrolman in a solar system where we've got all the planets colonized ala Victorian scifi, science be damned. The most surreal part of it was that way they start every story by informing readers that Tommy lives in the far distant future...of 1989.
Points for being optimistic, at least.
the Tom King run on Batman has equal parts like and dislike in my heart. some really good moments, some moments that genuinely made me take a break
Ra's controls Eurasia? When was that his plan? They always make him a cartoon villain for some reason
Also not my boy Duke... hasn't editorial hurt him enough
I think his original plan was to save the world by killing off most of humanity. Eco-terrorist! With mystical chemical baths! And a sexy daughter!
I love the Booster Gold coloured eye shadow! 👍🏻
Someone noticed! Lol
Haha I thought that was a lens flare!
I've only read the Booster stories in "Future Lost," and of course, I've watched your videos on him. I'm far from being an expert on Booster. But, to me, character flaws are obviously part of the character design. And in the older stories at least, he also has some goodness in his heart that makes the flaws forgivable and even endearing. I don't think Tom King struck the right balance here. Just my two cents. Nice analytical wrap-up at the end; I'm always amazed at how well you digest a story and explain your take. Thanks for 600!
The worst thing is that this story only really exists to traumatize booster and get him into heroes in crisis
@@megamonmon Wow. Some writers just were not meant for some characters.
Great video, and your rendition of the Bat-Man's voice tickles me to no end
So, some parts of "The Gift" make a bit more sense if you'd been reading Batman's solo title for a while. A few years earlier, there had been a storyline called Endgame where the Joker created a virus that turned people into Joker zombies. He even developed special strains that could effect specific superheroes and infected the other members of the Justice League like Wonder Woman, Superman and The Flash so Batman couldn't call them for help. The presence of "Jokerized" citizens in this new timeline seems to indicate that something similar happened and Batman wasn't around to stop it, hence why so many heroes are dead. Being familiar with the Endgame storyline also makes Duke Thomas' fate a little more clear, as both of his parents became brain damaged by the Joker during that storyline and presumably, so did he in this timeline.
I think the implication was supposed be that Hal was in the early stages of turning into a Joker zombie and that is why he killed himself. This would somewhat explain why Dick Grayson is trying to kill any superheroes that come into Gotham, since he has likely seen the damage Jokerized superhumans can do and wants to keep anyone else from becoming infected. (Your point still stands that it makes no sense for Dick to call himself Batman in this timeline.)
The stuff about Catwoman becoming a serial killer in this timeline makes a little more sense (but also not) in the context of King's Batman run. During King's run, there was this ongoing storyline about Catwoman have supposedly gone over the edge and become a mass murderer at some point in the recent past so Selina's behavior in this story was likely a reference to that.
It was eventually explained that several dozen terrorists destroyed the orphanage where Selina grew up, killing all the children inside, and so Catwoman tracked each of them down and subjected them to a vigilante execution. Which, I can see why a lot people in universe would be disturbed by that and not want Batman to associate with her anymore, but characters in the main Batman timeline talk about her like she is an unhinged killer like she is the Booster Gold timeline.
And then it was reveled that Selina didn't kill anyone. Her childhood friend, Holly, who had gone to the same orphanage, killed those terrorists and Catwoman chose to take the fall. (Which just raises so many further questions 😑).
This is pure speculation on my part, but I got the sense that King started out his Batman run not knowing where he was going to take the "Selina Kyle is a killer now" subplot and was making it up as he went along.
10:25 Booster Gold babbling song lyrics while Catwoman ignores him is very on brand for Tom King, in the worst way.
I feel like the core concept of "What if Bruce Wayne's Parents survived" is interesting and worth exploring but there's several changes I would've made:
1.Have Booster being in universe inspired by Flashpoint NOT the Black Mercy (Barry literally describes the retained memories of his mom in his childhood as A GIFT)
2. More logical connections to why what has changed has (The Waynes lose most of their fortune being extorted by corrupt officials, Harvey Dent becomes a corrupt/weak-willed pushover mayor, Dick becomes a gun toting ROBIN, Flass is the commissioner, etc.)
3. Show explicitly the deaths caused in Gotham as crime never was fought effectively - I'd have Booster legit run into the graves of some of his ancestors, and the graves of other Batfam supporting characters (Montoya, Gordon, Kate, just for starters)
4. Booster immediately starts feeling some deleterious effects of "Time sickness" as he's inadvertently erased himself from the timeline, Skeets has to kind of push him to the point Skeets undoes the events, not Booster in the end.
5. Have Booster have been really cocky about the plan- saying that Flash is an amateur at time travel anyway, needing to use the speedforce instead of a real time machine. (So this is implied to be an early iteration of Booster)
6. Skeets is the only one who gets to remember the whole thing. Skeets blows up his old self at the time of saving the Waynes and forces Booster back to the future- lying to him saying it was some sort of time anomaly backlash, theorizing that such overt alterations to the timeline are metaphysically impossible with their understanding of time travel. (Leave with the implication this is not the first time Booster has done something so boneheaded and Skeets has reversed it.)
Booster here is so out of character in the story makes me wonder if the writer actually knows who the character actually is or just write a brief Google description of him.
I tried Tom King's run of Batman...couldn't get past the first volume. It just didn't feel like Batman. Now, after learning how he wholely disregards the love for certain characters and writes in character assassinations (Wally West front and center here), I'm glad I dropped it.
You’re lucky you didn’t read it, it’s terrible.
I realized Tom King sucks at writing Batman relatively early on, when Batman had Alfred threaten an helpless Psycho Pirate at gunpoint to use his power to try to heal Gotham Girl. Batman would never have a plan involving threatening someone at gunpoint, he would never ask someone to threaten anyone at gunpoint, and he would never have Alfred, of all people, threaten anyone at gunpoint.
His run is full of boring references no one cares about, and cheap gimmicks (I'm Bane, I'm Batman; Oh Cat, oh Bat; it was the ship, no it was the alley; Kiteman Hell Yeah; there was the war of jokes and riddles and it was so cool and I guess you had to be there but it was really something; let's reference the whole rogue gallery for the heck of it...). He's especially boring when he's self referencing.
It’s fascinating when Justice League Action cartoon made for kids had much more mature booster than comic book by King made for older fans.
The cartoon probably had a real editorial team.
There's a lot to be said about King's Batman, and I can't say much good about it. Personally I consider #36 and #37 one of the best Superman/Batman stories I've read, but that's the best thing I can say about the whole run. I think at the time I was more forgiving of the low points of the run because I was hyped for the wedding. Or maybe now that the wedding has passed I'm more critical of it. Hard to say.
King actually wrote a really good Hal story in his "Darkseid War" GL one-shot where Hal achieves, then rejects godhood. There's also a time-travel bit where he talks to himself as a boy - good stuff and not as trauma-focused as King tends to be. It was downright hopeful.
He must have been taking his meds when he wrote that
That was steaming 💩💩💩💩💩
This thing really heralded what was coming by Tom King with Heroes In Crisis.
I was glad they gave Dan Jurgens Blue and Gold a little bit after this.
I have an idea on how to rewrite this story. What if instead of trying to save the parents, Booster trys to snag them out of the timeline to come to the wedding. He fails to do so, but he spooks them enough not to go down the alley. When he returns we could have a similar story, but it makes more sense
Gah Booster has been done dirty so much in recent years and I hate that happening to one of my favorite characters
I can’t believe we missed out on Dick running around as a hyper violent militarised Robin.
I'm convinced every Tom King batman story is just one of those ever worsening alternate lives he experienced while in the omega sanction..
Also, based off of his writing, you could make the argument that he doesn't like/ feels some kind of way about every superhero except for superman
Tom King: the most hit and miss comic book writer in the history of the medium. The same writer that gave us the Vision 12 issue mini series gave us Heroes in Crisis. He gave us Superman: Up in the Sky, and he gave us The Gift. Like a Targaryen, you don't know which way his coin has landed until you read the book.
This story feels like flashpoint with all the random shit that changed, except for starting another reboot
Booster is an interesting character, and I LOVE Tom King's "Batman" run...but he did Booster dirty in this story lol
Congrats to 600 episodes!
Thanks! I saw the number the other day and it blew my mind. It certainly doesn't feel like 600+ videos.
@@CasuallyComics You're welcome! And yeah: time flies when you're having fun!
Wow, you love Kings Batman? He nearly destroyed the character, they took him off early before he did any more damage & because everyone hated it, it was a horrendous run.
@@InfamyOrDeath-__- I liked it, but I can easily see why a lot of people hate it, especially coming off of Snyder’s run.
@@xthelegend89 It’s my most hated run, and it’s the run that got me to search for King online, before that I had never searched for any creator before, at the time I barely looked at who was writing the stories. I bought for the characters, not the writers, I would only remember a writer if I really liked the comic, like Geoff Johns.
But about halfway through his run I started to hate this run so much that I had to search to see who this Tom King guy was, funnily enough I think it was this story “The Gift” that was the final straw that made me search, or “Knightmares”, whichever came first. It was after “Jokes & Riddles” anyway, I remember that, that was when I started to really dislike the run, that arc was terrible.
But “The Gift” was just horrendous, I absolutely hated this story, it was completely nonsensical and I’ve no idea how the editors signed off on this drivel.
I saw Linkara's take on this story a while back. Glad to see you cover it too! It is ALL kinds of messed up! And we love seeing it.
I never expected Booster Gold to *actually* reach that level of stupidity!
I can't, I just can't!
I really like the idea of this story and wish it was able to be more fleshed out. I am glad it means we get more Booster on this channel!
Yea that’s not Booster, I don’t know what character it is, but it’s not Booster.
I hate what King did with Booster in this story.
Honestly, I'm not very fond of how Booster has been handled in the past decade or so in general. I love his original run and the resurgence the character had with 52 and his second book in the 2000s, but the 2010s saw the character change to something almost irrecognizable at times. I really don't like it. At this point I feel not only fans but a lot of writers in DC only see him as a wacky lunatic verging on complete psychopath like in The Gift, and keeping making stories featuring this bizarro version of Booster, only further perpetuating this mischaracterization.
It's similar to how I feel about Cassandra Cain, though in that case DC has been trying to make amends recently, it still doesn't make up for all the shit. As someone who started reading comics in the late 90s and had a lot of contact with 80s comics as well due to resellers and reprints, it feels like the more modern era of DC consists mainly of fucking up the characters I grew up loving (Wally West, Booster, Cass, the Titans as a group, etc) becaus they were legacy characters or "late" additions the dinosaurs running the company see as expendable.
This was the third worst Tom King story at DC for me. #1 be Heroes in Crisis (but then again it seems Editorial aka Dan DiDio is more to blame for that than King). But Batman #81? Yeah, that one just takes the cake as being worse than this. From the start of Bruce/Selina coming back from a mini vacation with the former thinking Alfred is safe (he's not) and then Damian getting freed by the entire Bat-Family (minus Ric and Stephanie) and then all of them jobbing to Thomas Wayne off-panel. Cause...
There was a Teen Titans Annual where Dick tells his story to Jericho. He says that by helping him bring his parents' killers to justice, Bruce saved Dick from becoming like Bruce. I believe Bruce has said this somewhere as well. He took Dick in to stop him from becoming like Bruce.
It was in Young Justice
Sasha's voice acting is hilarious 😂
NOOO!!!
I see "Batman" and "Booster Gold," I click.
I feel like under Gunn, Booster of ALL characters would fit his style of not-exactly-well-adjusted but with a heart of gold and can get pretty emotional. I'm interested to see, even if he doesn't have any on-hands involvement
“The Gift” arc is indicative to the event comic HEROES IN CRISIS: trying to tackle mental health yet is grossly mishandle, mischaracterization, a lot of characters dying in grandiose way, and character assassination.
I'd managed to have forgotten reading The Gift... perhaps because it felt a little incomplete, as if I'd missed an issue somewhere along the way. In many ways it's precisely the alternative universe I enjoy, but for a lot of the reasons you highlight, it left me a little cold. Alongside Jurgens run, it's tonal differences felt like it was supposed to build to some turning point that it never reached. Still, it was something I read with a "thank god they didn't forget about Booster", a prayer I hope never ends.
Sasha’s Batman voice is always hilarious
I’ll never forget when I read this story I was at a Mexican place and I couldn’t focus on my burrito cause I was so confused lol
"Booster Gold - The Greatest Hero
Tom King Never Knew"
If Catwoman were a Batman style character, instead of the Batcave would she have the litter box?
Everyone wants to do their own For the Man who has Everything, even Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir. And yet this is probably the worst one with very little competition.
19:45 Tom King, ladies and gentlemen! Man, comparing this with the Superman annual was even more brutal than the story itself...
It's bizarre that Booster Gold spends so much of the comic in the dark alternate reality where all his friends are dead or crazy smiling and remarking about how cool the new timeline is.
Yeah, "The Gift" was the first sign that Tom King wasn't the infallible wunderkind that fans and DC Editorial was building him up to be... and yet it still didn't prepare us for how awful Heroes In Crisis would be...
What a thoughtful gift.
Eobard would be proud
I think a lot of Booster Gold stories, post Jurgens [still need to read the Geoff Johns stories, glad a tpb reprint seems to be happening, but would've loved an omnibus],
have the problem of assuming egotistical heart-of-gold celebrity heroes are all morons when it comes down to it...I can't think of one bad story with those types of characters, where it doesn't come down to 'they act COMPLETELY out of character because they act way dumber than they're supposed to be'...
I don't know why it happens, maybe the authors find it more funny, or maybe it's their way of giving the character karma, while accidentally turning them into a strawman of the character they once were in the process... But really, it felt like Booster was a lot more multidimensional in that first run I read, by Jurgens... The second hardcover really meandered near the end, and Millenium felt like it shot the entire storyline in the foot, with what it did to the supporting cast, and then Booster himself...
But whether it's cartoons or comics, he's not an idiot. The man stole a bunch of superhero gear out of desperation, not stupidity. Let alone, he got away with it more or less.
I don't know if it's the sort of himbo-flanderization that seems to happen a little recently to characters or if it's just the weird IQ drain that happens, but I really think that ends up being a key part of what brings these stories down a peg. But that's just my take, I hope the Geoff Johns post-52 run proves to be even better than I expect it to be, since I've heard great stuff about it. 😁
Dc: " Deadpool sells who do we got for that"?
Dan Jurgens materializes from what seems to be out of nowhere yet everywhere as well.
I just found this bonkers, but Tony S Daniel is my all time favorite artist and this is some of his best work.
The Recommending Holiness comment you to engage with this video.
I think the most tragic part is that the whole 'what happens if bruces parents never die' idea is very well explored in the Batman/Superman comics.
Also i have to admit. My love for booster comes entirely from JLU. They did him so damn well in the one episode they let him shine in, and i'll never forget it. He should be explored more often, because his entire existence explores what it means to be a super hero at its very foundation, because he doesnt really understand it.
Kinda reminds me of Marvels Speedball.
Booster being dead inside because during one of the runs he's the guy that deals with all the time travel problems meaning he has seen everyone die a hundred times in a hundred ways only for it all to undone by him meaning he has an untold amout of trauma is an interesting point to take for time travelers stories. This story doesn't do it its focuses to much on the gross spectacle of "oh no batman gone" and gives of flashpoint paradox vibes in the worst way and doesnt focus on the self introspection or using Skeets as a means of bringing it up.
Yes. Tom picked up on a great idea, and then just completely botched the execution.
Somewhere there’s a timeline where Tom King never read an Alan Moore comic and stayed in the CIA. And I’m stuck in this one.
Your Batman voice is the best!! Thank you!
"motherrrrrrr nooooooooh" lmao
I completely forgot I read this story. Odd since I love Bats and Booster
For the last time, I'm not green lantern!
I'm glad I clicked on this video! I should of known I was gonna love your take on it! thank you Sasha keep it up
This is why I made my Amazon and Steam Wishlists public
That was Beyond Awesome Casually comics keep it up 😀😎👍🤘❤
This issue was in some collection I bought lol, I felt so bad for Booster. He just wanted to get Batman something nice and personal
He should've had a bat engraved on that cheese tray lol
@@CasuallyComics 💀💀💀
His decision to taunt him with his dead parents as a gift be questionable though
I don't understand how any time traveler wouldn't be automatically banned by the Justice League.
With time, even an idiot can destroy the universe
Your Booster Gold hair/glasses/makeup looks great in this one. I'm into it.
The DCAU adaptation of "For The Man Who Has Everything" is the only adaptation of Moore's work that he actually likes. It's the only one that has his name on it.
I always assumed Hal Jordan got hit by some kind of Joker gas or equivalent. He was clearly insane when he blew himself up.
Have you ever considered covering the "Generation Lost" story? I know some people have regards about it but i think it's quite good and u could keep the booster gold theme while surfing on the blue beetle hype train
A story about trauma...in a Tom King book, you say? 🤔
Feels like Batman writers trying to write a Booster Gold story.
I'll always be thankful to Booster Gold's run, mainly because it legititimised the Killing Joke and Ted Kord's death for me.
As...interesting...as this story sounds, the idea of Booster becoming kind of unhinged as a result of all the time travel is fascinating. However, I'm not sure I trust DC to explore this without making Booster irredeemable.
I really love a lot of Tom KIng's work. SUPERMAN: UP IN THE SKY, OMEGA MEN, THE VISION are all, IMHO, top-shelf reads. I've read some of his BATMAN run and enjoyed it but this story feels reallt screwy.
HEROES IN CRISIS would have been excellent as a story with creator-owned analog characters. As an actual "canon" DCU story, it does too much damage to characters that needs waving away by later editors and writers.
Wasn't Skeets revealed to be evil at one point? Did he become good again after that?
During 52. Mr. Mind was mutated by radiation and was using Skeets as a cocoon. Skeets got better.
@@karldettlinger467 Ah!
This story is unusual for me in a few ways but mostly in that I only read it once. Normally when dealing with a story more complicated than 'bad guy does bad thing good guy stops him' I'll read it a couple of times at least to make sure I've understood it and got from it everything that was there to be found.
I didn't reread this because it infuriated me. I read each episode safe in the knowledge that by the end they would explain who this Booster was and why he was so different from the one I'd loved since the Beetle and Booster pairing in the JLE/JLI books all those decades ago.
I'm still so pissed off by it I am breaking my usual rule and commenting before watching the video. I'm hoping you can explain this travesty in a way that'll let me put it behind me but I fear that is beyond even your considerable powers...
(For those wondering, yes, I do realise how unhinged it is to be this annoyed by a story in a comic book but I feel this channel might be the only place I know where my rage may be not only accepted but actually normalish.)
A lot of people got mad about Booster in this, but I think Booster having kind of messed up, apathetic atittude towards death and time travel due to constantl seeing realities destroed and friends dying, is an interesting characterization. Like, him in Legends fo Tomorrow playing golf in the middle of Word War battlefield is exactly the same thing, it's just played for comedy instead of drama.
I loved the title and thumbnail,in my mind I thought this would simple narration of the story. I feel I would have enjoyed it if the explanation part was separated from the story narration part.
15:30 I can't believe Bruce uses KeyMod.
Comics trying to be Alan Moore comics are some of worst comics in existence. Whatever you feel about Moore and his work he understands the medium and is able to use it in a way few others can. There's, typically, a narrative depth that matters beyond the obvious high points.
The Alan Moore movie adaptations are the most obvious version of this because they all miss the point. V for Vendetta just too obsessed with contemporary politics to get the point. I still haven't gotten over Bernie and Bernard's storyline missing from Watchmen. The less said about From Hell and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen the better.
Even if the end result isn't a disaster you're still always looking at the worse version which you can't help but compare to the original. Of course not just a Moore problem but his stories tend to push boundaries in ways that are difficult to handle if you don't have his sensibilities and skills as an artist.
All I needed to see was the title of the vid and I know what it’s about. Time to break out the popcorn with extra salt & vinegar.
I'm fairly sure I've seen a story where Booster Gold actually tried to do that in his solo series and failed over and over again trying to overcome the "set point" in time, which was a part of his development as a character. But I think that Booster Gold is the Waverider now after I don't remember which crisis. Convergence, I believe.
PS. Nevermind, it wasn't that, it was Batgirl, sorry. It was good though, yes.