I'm mildly surprised that I don't think I bought this new off the racks, but like most Beetle and Booster revivals, it gets so close but isn't quite what I wanted. Close, though! From 2015,
Justice League #3000 #12, "Another Fine Mess" Plot by Keith Giffen, script by J. M. DeMatteis, art by Howard Porter.
Blue Beetle and Booster Gold return...in the 31st century? On the prison-planet Takron-Galtos? The guys were found in cryogenic pods, but have no idea how they got there, with the last thing they remember a suprise party for Ralph (Elongated Man) Dibny and getting yelled at by Max Lord. Local law Sheriff Tariq tells the boys to stick close to the home base, so of course they immediately take off, since Beetle thinks he might still have gear stashed between a Kord office. (But...if they're on Takron-Galtos, why is there a Kord office? Because in
JL3000 continuity,
Takron-Galtos was earth all along! In
Legion continuities, T-G was always a separate prison planet.)
Further complicating matters, an overweight prisoner wearing one of Beetle's costumes, isn't thrilled to see somebody wearing "his" suit. Sure enough, Beetle discovers somebody did get into his stuff, both helping themselves to it and modifying the tech. He thinks they'll be able to use the Bug to either get back to their own time, or maybe at least a better planet; but they get attacked by the faux-Beetle, wearing a Doc Ock-like harness. Booster wants to bail, Beetle refuses, wanting his stuff back; and for good measure there are a ton of mutated rats down there...to be continued!
Booster doesn't appear to have his flight ring or force-field, which makes me suspicious that he was a clone or something. This series also appeared to build primarily off Giffen and DeMatteis's own work; namely
I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League. Where that puts this in continuity is anybody's guess; although I suspect Giffen and DeMatteis didn't love the notion of Max Lord shooting Beetle in the head. I'm not 100% sure they ever get around to explaining how the guys got there though; they also had a vengeance-craved Lois Lane running around as well...And the title "
Another Fine Mess" was used back in
Justice League Europe #3, but of course was a classic
Laurel and Hardy short.
Everything I could find online claims they weren't clones, just refugees from the Pre-Phew52 universe. I'm not sure it matters now since everything's been rebooted a couple times over, but it could still be in continuity since everything is now with the return of the multiverse.
ReplyDeletePersonally I think they just let Giffin do whatever he wanted because ot probably felt the series wouldn't last long anyways, probably didn't matter in-continuity at the time, and it was way to keep him busy & happy so he'd work on Phew52 crap after he was done, as he did.
Don't really have a good reason why I never picked this series up since it was written by Giffin, love me some Howard Porter art, & it featured Ted & Booster so prominently. I guess the stink of it being a Phew52 production was too much for me.