Agnew's Mind He's got a long journey ahead of him.

DC University: Booster Gold

    by Mike Agnew Jr.

Ahhh...Booster Gold....the T.O. of the superhero world.  Well, let's not be that mean but you will see why I made the correlation.

Picture, if you will, the 25th Century.  For the non-math majors out there, that is 4 centuries away or 400 years into the future.  Thanks to technology, life has become a lot more livable.  Most of the super-heros you know and love have died off, but they are still remembered by their descendants.   In fact, there is a museum that honors their memory.  This museum has different collectibles like batarangs, ice ray guns, and even statues of the original Justice League.

Now, for a quick background.  Michael Jon Carter was born in Gotham City in the 25th century.  He and his twin sister, Michelle, never knew their dad, a degenerate gambler, since he had left them after gambling away the families savings.  Nice.   Michael was a gifted sports star and even got a scholarship to Gotham University for football.  He became the star of the team and was even nicknamed "Booster" after his amazing speed on the field.  Re-enter his degenerate dad looking to leach off of his son's newfound fame.  To make ends meet Michael worked the night shift at the Metropolis Space Museum which had a lot of the items described above.  He spent most of his time studying the displays and became a bit obsessed with some of the heroes, especially those of the 20th centruy... how convienient.  One night his oh-so-helpful father pressures Mike into throwing a game so he can make a bet and capitalize on it.  This plan backfires and soon Mike becomes an outcast of the sports community and loses his scholarship.  Basically, he goes into a Jack bender and decides to escape.  He swipes a Legion flight ring and a force field belt from the displays at the museum.  He and his secutiry robot pa , Skeets, hop in Rip Hunter's Time Machine (also on display) and travel back to the 1980s... because we all know that is where people from the future vacation to.

So, now Booster is back in the 80s with the hopes of becoming a superhero named Goldstar.  At one point, he saves the President Ronald Reagan's life and, when he goes to introduce himself, slips up and says "Booster Gold".

I always liked Booster Gold because he is constantly in a state of flux... is he in it for the fame and glory? Or is he in it to be a real superhero?  Wherever he goes, comedy is sure to follow.  There is a running joke in the DC universe where people call him "Buster" instead of "Booster".  The banter between him and Skeets is also usually very funny.  He hangs out with a lot of the B level characters like Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) and Elongated Man, like they are dorm room buddies.  This becomes even more enjoyable when he is face ot face with one of the A-listers like Batman or Superman because he will always mumble his words, regret everything he said, then walk away wondering how foolish he had looked.

One more important point I want to make is that Booster isn't always a push over or marketing whore.  He has played some very key roles at big moments in DC's history.  My favorite example is Doomsday, the guy who "killed" Superman.  When Doomsday first showed up, climbing out the ground, Booster was the first to face him and, I have to say lasted longer, than Superman.  Clark was off-world on some mission and was racing home once he heard the news.  But it was Booster leading the charge and holding the line.  He ended up getting his butt handed to him but if he had not been there Superman's parents, Martha and Jonathan, probably would have been killed as well.

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Booster had a episode all his own on Justice League Unlimited named "The Greatest Story Never Told"; the perfect title.

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Most recently the Booster Gold line of comics has been started again, this time with our Hero as kind of time line librarian.  He attempts to go back and "set right which once went wrong" but fails horribly.  If you have not read The Killing Joke yet, you should.  It's one of the best events in DC History.  Well, Booster tries to go back and stop the Joker.  You will have to read to see what happens when he does.

DC University : The Spectre

    by Mike Agnew Jr.

Characters of the DC Universe fall into several categories: aliens, magicians, demons, time-travelers, etc. The Spectre falls into a very specific category only one other character shares (as far as I know). To be honest I just found this out in one of the recent comics I read.  The other interesting point here is that comic book characters develop just like the stories.  They grow and change and even have revelations from time to time.  The Spectre is the perfect example of this because he has a few origins, many of them conflicting.   This occurs a lot when writers want to resurrect stories and characters from the past.  They sit around and try to think up some way to bring some minor character back into the picture and usually get scrutinized for it.  But I digress, time to meet the Spectre.

He is the wrath of God incarnate. See I told you, whole new category. Let's jump into the back story...the original back story. God is good. Devil builds up an army. The Devil revolts against God. Devil loses. God smites him. Yay God. As the story goes the Spectre was one of the angels that revolted with the devil but later repented. God punishes the Spectre by sending him to earth deal out judgment, which he carries out in a very poetic and sometimes completely misguided way.  For instance, in the case of the pending execution of a wrongfully convicted man. His death sentence was commuted to life in prison after the Spectre threatened to kill the entire population of the state of New York in retribution, arguing that if the execution was carried out, the "people of the state of New York" would become guilty of murder in his eyes.  For those of you who have read the bible or just the cliff notes, the angel of death that killed all the first born sons of Egypt....the Spectre....at least according to the DCU.

To balance this wrathiness, the Spectre has always been paired with a human host.  Someone to say, "Hey you know wiping out New York is not such a good idea."  You end up with a buddy system that makes situations very intense and confrontational as an internal debate ensues.  Jim Corrigan, a murdered cop who decided to reject the afterlife, assumed the role of the Spectre for a very long time.  He is the version of the Spectre we see as part of the JSA(Justice Society of America, a 1950's style Justice League).  Later on his soul found rest and for a while the Spectre was on his own.  At one point he was tricked into thinking that all the magic elements in the world were evil and had to pass judgment on them.  I would say a good 50-60% of all magic characters were killed off in the chaos that was the Day of Vengeance.  Soon the role was passed to one of my favorite characters, the late (at the time) Hal Jordan. After the Green Lantern went a little nuts and tried to rewrite the universe....yes...that's right.  He eventually let his guard down and was killed by the Justice League (see Zero Hour). Hal was a cool host for the Spectre because he argued with the ridiculous totalitarian logic of the Spectre on almost every occasion.

To really get a feel for the Spectre you have to read all the big events, Infinite Crisis, Day of Vengence, Identity Crisis...there are a few more but the names escape me.

At one point he was labeled as too powerful but the writers of DC.  How is Superman going to beat the Wrath of God?  By punching him?  So eventually they gave him the weakness of blind justice and absolute power.  When you read a Spectre story there will always be a point where you put down the book and figure out what side you would be on; what you would tell the Spectre.  Then you hope it plays out that way.

I like the Spectre.  He's mid-level character but definitely one of the good ones.

Read: Books of Magic; Day of Vengeance; Crisis on Infinite Earths; Zero Hour