Blue and Gold #3 – Dan Jurgens, Writer; Cully Hamner, Artist; Chris Sotomayor, Colorist
Ray – 8.5/10
Ray: Cully Hamner steps in for Ryan Sook this month, meaning the art quality should stay sky high. But this isn’t a fun issue for Booster and Beetle—especially not Booster, who sees his plans for a big livestream on move-in day fall flat when the rent for their new offices hasn’t shown up. He’s embarrassed in front of his millions of fans and can’t get Ted on the line—because Ted is depressed, broke, and working on ill-advised projects in his lab. Oh, and then there’s the evil alien princess who has declared Earth her territory, landed on the planet, and immediately declared war on the UN. She’s tearing apart New York, and Booster’s battle against her isn’t going particularly well, One of the things I really enjoy about this series is the constant little insights from the followers as they watch the battle, complete with comments that are very realistic for your average internet troll.
Ted eventually does show up, in a car rather than the Bug, and deploys a new weapon that seemingly kills the villain—much to Booster’s shock and horror. This is obviously a fake-out, but it also raises an interesting question—what does this team look like if Ted is unable to be the stable one? The partnership is spiraling, and they get bailed out by a surprisingly figure from Booster’s past. This series does have a lot of comedy and banter, but it’s also aiming for something different—it reminds me a lot of a lighter version of shows like Bojack Horseman, that peel back the layers on the concept of the “Hapless loser” comic relief. Both Booster and Beetle have been through rough times, but they’ve rarely been the spotlight of their own books in recent years. That gives Jurgens, who created one and defined the other, the chance to give them their most grown-up story yet.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
