Booster Gold #22

Well, I have to say that this series has been really hit or miss for me lately. Last issue was pretty good, but the issues before that really weren't my cup of tea. The fact that Deathstroke the Terminator is on the cover of this book gives me some hope that this will be a great read. The writer(as well as penciller)for this comic is Dan Jurgens. Oh yeah, this is one of those Second Feature comics as well. However, the second feature stars the Blue Beetle, who I really don't care for. So, I'm not going to bother reading that story, meaning if you're looking for a Blue Beetle review, you're out of luck!

-We open this comic with the Black Beetle meeting with his mysterious master. Beetle tells his master that he failed to kill Dick Grayson in the Batcave due to Booster Gold's unexpected interference. Beetle's master decides to send him to a different point in time to kill Dick.

-Meanwhile, Rip Hunter tracks Booster down and tells him he has to travel to the past to stop Beetle from killing Dick. Rip pinpoints that Dick is going to die at the hands of Ravager and Deathstroke during Deathstroke's initial meeting with the Teen Titans... On a side note, not all that long ago, I managed to get my hands on that very comic, New Teen Titans #2, Deathstroke's first appearance, so I'm quite very well versed in that particular story...

-Booster heads into the past and assists Cyborg against Ravager. Booster and Cyborg manage to defeat Ravager, but Deathstroke and Black Beetle arrive on the scene to rescue Ravager.

-Booster and Cyborg meet up with the rest of the Titans at the hotel they were staying at and prepare for Ravager, Deathstroke and Beetle's forthcoming attack. The trio of villains arrive and a good old fashion donnybrook breaks out. The heroes appear to have everything well in hand until Black Beetle manages to super-charge Ravager. With Ravager's powers boosted, the villains take the advantage, and Deathstroke unleashes a volley of grenades which appears to kill the heroes. This issue ends with Deathstroke, Ravager and Black Beetle celebrating a job well done.

-Other Developments: While trying to figure out who the Black Beetle is working for, Rip Hunter discovers some spy devices on his time equipment. Rip tries to disable the intruding devices, but is caught in an explosion and left laying on the ground.

This was yet another satisfying comic. This issue started off slowly enough, but once Dan got the story and the action really moving, I was hooked. So it seems Booster has failed(again!). I'm going to guess that Raven(who was conspicuously absent from this battle)arrived at some point and caused the villains to believe they had killed the heroes when in reality they had failed. The other option is that Booster really did fail and that he really did die, and since this was only the second part of a 4 part storyline, that just doesn't seem very likely!

I've got to hand it to Dan, he did a great job with the story and his pencils were also pretty sweet to boot. He faithfully recreated the events from New Teen Titans #2, even managing to keep some of the original dialogue. All in all, this was a very good comic and for a score I'll go with an 8 1/2 out of 10. It's always fun to see Deathstroke beating the hell out of people, and this comic book gave me that in spades.