Videos by ComicBook.com
The issue gives us the final fate of the pre-Flashpoint Booster Gold, along with so much more, and led directly into the events of the universe-altering Convergence #8.
Jurgens joined ComicBook.com to talk about the issue.
Reminder: This is a SPOILER-HEAVY interview. If you haven’t yet read Convergence: Booster Gold #2 yet, go buy a copy and read along with us.
Videos by ComicBook.com
I’ve always had a couple of thoughts in mind for Booster’s fate. This is the one that worked.
It seemed a natural evolution. And, because this was an older Booster Gold, there are still a huge number of stories left to tell that would have existed between the end of Time Masters and the events of Convergence: Booster Gold #2.
So if this is Zero Hour-era Ted, the A.R.G.U.S. suit is an unambiguous improvement over what Booster was wearing at the time. Where’s THAT guy in all of this?
Think of it as an off screen adventure!
What was the importance of having Ted play such a visible role in this issue — and why not promote him a little bit in the run-up?
I don’t think it would have been possible to do a Booster Gold story that didn’t feature Ted somehow. It’s simply a necessity, you know?
They deserve to be together and, just as important, fans deserved to see them together.
It seems from his “That’s what the L stands for” that Booster (henceforth, New 52 Booster is just Booster and Older Booster will be Booster Classic) doesn’t really know the backstory to all of his gear. Is that related to his not having had a museum display to explain what it was?
As was hinted at in issue #1, there’s a little more to the New 52 Booster’s origin than we saw with the original’s. That includes a little more mystery about just what/where/how the Legion flight ring came from.
This is the first time we’ve seen this Booster go up against the Legion of Super-Heroes, of course, but in both volumes of the Booster Gold monthly, there were showdowns with the Legion of Super-Heroes where they demanded to know where the ring came from. With the setup of Convergence being that heroes had to fight heroes, was that just an obvious pit stop to make along Booster’s flight path?
I think it was an obvious element for two reasons.
One, as you mentioned, because we were going to have a heroes vs. heroes situation.
Two, because it was an important part of Booster’s past. I felt it was an element worth revisiting.
This is also the first time he’s ever encountered Superboy in ANY of those stories due to post-Crisis changes. Was that fun to write?
Huge fun.
I was always a major Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes fan. They made for a fabulously imaginative combination. I’d have been an idiot not to play with that and get it on the page.
This is the only Convergence title where the Domes never dropped in its pages. What went into the decision to set this before the start of the Convergence series proper?
I’ve said before that if you go back to the Booster Gold: Five Years Later issue, it really functioned a bit as Convergence #00. Most people thought Booster was moving through time, when, in reality, he was moving from city to city on Telos.
That story happened before the domes dropped.
Convergence: Booster Gold #1 and #2 pick up shortly after that and also take place before the domes go down. It’s easy to do since Booster can move from city to city.
Given his admiration for Booster Classic and what he now knows, what are the odds that Booster will seek out Ted in the main reality at some point now?
That’s a New 52 story waiting to be told.
That’s a great question.
It really does feature the maturity a person gains through life. This older Booster has a much better handle on life and the meaning of time travel than his younger self did.
One of the constants in Booster’s past is his recklessness with time travel. That’s part of who he is. I mean, stealing a time bubble to go into the past to be a hero? C’mon.
It seems like what we see with Booster here is kind of a slow-motion unfolding of what happened to the JSA during Zero Hour (and then again in Earth-2 Metropolis during Convergence).Was that something that crossed your mind during the writing?
I did. In fact, I really tried to avoid that. Overall, I think I did, as there are obvious differences.
If Booster Classic has “clarity” on what’s going on with Convergence, does that suggest that he’s lived through a version of this story at this point in his history?
No. I think the clarity may come from the fact that he’s traveled through time enough that he knows about it. It’s possible he traveled beyond it and learned of it.
Another little oddity: Has ’90s Ted never met Rip? I would have guessed that around the time the Len Wein series was being published and Booster was on the stands, Kord and S.T.A.R. Labs (where Jack Soo and Rip Hunter often were around then) would have crossed paths at some point.
I think of things characters being slightly different at this point– from somewhat different eras.
…And what the hell ever happened to Jack Soo?
Yeah! What DID ever happen to Jack Soo?
Rip says he “needs” Booster Classic, but then the trade-off here seems to be that his dad is only alive in the most tenuous sense, given the changes made to his personality along with his body. Is there a story there, in terms of how that family fits back together, do you think?
There is a fascinatingly deep, rich story relating to Booster and his family. This involves not only the past, but their future.
And if so, do we ever get to find out who Rip’s mom is?
It’s certainly a story I’d like to tell at some point.
Do you have an idea how Booster Classic ended up working with A.R.G.U.S., or is that just a mystery of the New 52 era?
Yes, I have a definitive idea. It really has to involve the notion of that particular Booster crossing over from the pre-Flashpoint universe to the New 52 Universe.
Booster had some lines in these last two issues along the lines of, “The things I’ve seen, the things I’ve done…”There are a number of stories that would have taken place, one of which would have led to the A.R.G.U.S. suit.
Rip was concerned with the moment and what was about to happen with Telos. Booster– now Waverider– was looking at the bigger picture.
Do you have any longer-term plans for Waverider? Maybe in the time travel-friendly Batman Beyond?
Hmm…
Seriously, I think there are a couple of obvious and really fun places to go with this new Waverider. Certainly something I want to address.
Just a technical question — what’s the deal with Matthew Ryder in the New 52 universe?
Another good question and another story waiting to be told!
Related Posts
-
The Man of Steel is doomed in Superman #19.
