Booster Gold/ The Flintstones Special #1
Written by Mark Russell
Pencils by Rick Leonardi
Inks by Scott Hanna
Colours by Steve Buccellato
Back up written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner
Back up art by Pier Brito
Reviewed by Lorna Maltman ( maltmanlorna@gmail.com)
Booster Gold is my favourite superhero character – not a sentence you hear every day, but it means that when I see a comic title beginning with Booster, I have to check it out, because they are few and far between. Booster Gold is primarily a comedic character and he has a very distinctive and wacky sense of humour and Russell captures this, but not consistently, in the story.
Furthermore, if you were looking forward to the Flintstone aspect of this crossover, because Russel is doing a great job on the Flintstones, this crossover is one-sided towards Booster with the Flintstones feeling like side characters at best. This does not mean this is a bad story, Russell does tell a fun and engaging time travel story, where Booster travels to Bedrock to stop an alien invasion in the 25th century and of course Booster screws everything up instantly and Booster’s interactions with other time travellers is where the comedy really hits. The art by Leonardi is best described as a slightly more cartoonish DC house style, which works well for the story, but at no point does it blow me away with amazing spreads.
The backup of the Jetsons by Palmiotti and Conner does a great job setting up the future series, as in eight pages it gives us the personalities of the main characters, and it does make me want to read them in the future series. It touches on a sensitive topic of end of life care, but it is handled with care whilst injecting humour at the right moments. The art by Brito captures a future of flying cars and holograms brilliantly with Sinclair’s bright colours.
Verdict:
Give it a shot. This is a light hearted, fun, time travelling story with decent art and, if you are a fan of Booster Gold as a character, it is definitely worth picking up but it is not a must read.
