The second issue of Blue and Gold features our lovable haphazard heroes in the middle of a heist gone wrong. The mission, stopping the baddies from pillaging Kord Industries valuable and mostly-secret technology.
Of course, Booster Gold sees yet another opportunity to live-stream his so-called heroism while Blue Beetle, is trying to salvage technology being stolen from his own company.
A little backstory, in this new-yet-altered universe, Ted Kord inherits the company following the demise of his father. However, as these stories are now taking place in the ageless Omniverse (go google it, I’m not going to try to explain DC’s latest alterations), Ted is forced out of his own company due to the rest of the board simply voting him out. Tough times indeed.
Ted is voted out as he pitches the idea of funding Booster Gold and Blue Beetle as “neighborhood heroes” who take care of the problems the Justice League or other “big hitters” won’t do.
This issue deals mostly with Ted Kord and his frustrations with having to reign in an overzealous Booster from making one mistake after another. What I enjoy most, is how many of these interactions take place while, in costume, walk around city streets among us ordinary citizens. They get shouted at, asked for autographs, and even selfies. It feels very grounded to see these two do this, while most other heroes will fly or meet in some secret base.
While some may feel the final pages were a bit over the top, but I found it to have some very interesting callbacks to the original Justice League International. Booster decides not to wait for Ted, and states during a press conference he plans on forming “Blue and Gold Restoration Services” as storefront, visible heroes who are present for people in need. Even better, the services are free. Oops, he probably should have waited for Ted to give him the bad news.
The artwork with the cheesy grin and finger point from Booster is phenomenal. Big kudos to Ryan Sook. He evokes the comical style of the JLI of old. Speaking of which, anyone who read the JLI should recognize history repeating itself. Remember the antics of one Maxwell Lord? Setting up a “neighborhood heroes” company?
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