A comiXologist recommends:
Convergence: Booster Gold #2

by: Harris Smith

Some superheroes are inspirational.  Superman, Wonder Woman, Thor- these are all characters who are larger than life, whom we could never be, but whom we can hold up as examples of the apex of heroism.  Other superheroes, meanwhile, are cathartic.  We can a part of ourselves in them, no matter how out of bounds their reactions to a dangerous world might be.  The hyper-vigilance of Batman or the unbridled rage of the Punisher- these are characters who may not enact our exact fantasies of finding empowerment in an overwhelming world, but who, as mortals who tussle with gods, give us as readers a vicarious experience, an implicit promise of, “You could do this, too.”

These two groups represent the bulk of superhero characters, but often even more interesting than either are the fringe cases, and few fringe cases have stood the test of time and developed more naturally than Booster Gold.  Created by Dan Jurgens and introduced in the mid-80’s, canonized in Keith Giffen and J.M DeMatteis’ Justice League, Booster was, for much of his career, a character who was neither inspiration nor cathartic, but rather something of a fraud, a disgraced athlete from the future who brought advanced technology back to the present to cash-in on the superhero game for profit.

In some respects, this makes Booster one of the most easily identifiable superheroes.  If Superman and Wonder Woman are the heroes we dream we could be, Booster Gold is the hero we probably would be, perhaps already even are: flawed, fallible, misunderstood.  He’s tormented less by dark inner demons than by shame and ego, wanting to be more but often falling short of expectations.

In recent years, Gold has been given the opportunity to become a real hero by traveling through time to right the wrongs of the past, the one caveat being that no one can know what kind of hero he’s become.  Convergence: Booster Gold continues this thread.  Issue 2 reunited him with the back-from-the-dead (sort of) Blue Beetle, Booster’s best friend from their Justice League days, in moments that are both joyous and bittersweet and that reveal the real humanity that can be captured by these larger-than-life characters when they are given the chance to do more than just punch a giant monster (not that there’s anything wrong with that), dealing instead with meaty, universal experiences.  Dan Jurgens, who also wrote this series, deserves a great deal of credit for shaping Booster through decades of growth and change, making him a better hero, but not so much better that we don’t still see a little bit of ourselves in him.

[Check out Convergence: Booster Gold #2 on comiXology]

Harris Smith is a Brooklyn-based comics and media professional. In addition to his role as a Senior Production Coordinator at comiXology, he edits several comics anthologies, including Jeans and Felony Comics, under the banner of Negative Pleasure Publications. He’s also the host of the weekly radio show Neagtive Pleasure on Newtown Radio.