Guy Gardner

Not only do I feel like I got hit by a bus — feels like it backed over me and did it again.

Booster Gold

Uh-oh. The merry midgets of murderville are back.

Previously: The UN Head of Intelligence, Andre Biggs, sought to form a new incarnation of the Justice League using sanctioned international superheroes with known public identities. He put Booster Gold in charge of his manufactured group, but the JLI were forced to retreat from their first mission in disarray. They had been investigating the first of four “Signal Men”, gigantic statue like robots scattered around the work. They split into smaller groups to investigate the caverns beneath each robot, but each team was over run by the rock-creatures what maintained the cavern’s equipment. Meanwhile, Green Lantern Guy Gardner was rendered unconscious by the passenger of a starship which appears to be linked to the giants.

Booster Gold and the Batman are the last to fall against the rock creatures who immobilise them in an energy-dampening rock casing. Guy Gardner awakes on the alien space ship and begins hunting for this attacker. He stumbles upon a control room where images of each of the captured League teams are being displayed. The same alien attacks Guy again, but he is alert enough to dodge its attacks. However, the attackers power is too great for Guy. Half-way through their fight the alien adapts to Guy’s language and introduces itself as Peraxxus. It tells Guy that “Your world is ripe for exploitation” and uses Guy’s memories of Earth to explore the planet’s potential.

Andre Biggs and Emerson Esposito survey the remains of the Hall of Justice, but they are powerless to help their new team. Sensors are detecting energy emissions from the four-giants, but Biggs is unable to contact Booster’s team. Meanwhile Peraxxus has teleported with the helpless Guy Gardner to the cavern beneath the Peruvian giant. He then teleports the rest of the helpless JLI to that cavern. Peraxxus tells the JLI that he is only interested in Earth’s mineral wealth. The Signal Men were not his invention, but he hacked the technology and now uses them as a guide to worlds worthy of exploitation. They also give him the means to deconstruct a planet.

The rock-like covering holding Booster’s team dampens their powers. Together they keep Peraxxus talking long enough for one of Godvia’s hair tendrils to worm its way through the material holding Batman and get to the laser torch in his utility belt. The laser has no problem cutting through the rock layer once it is freed. The JLI spring free and rush Peraxxus, but their valiant effort is to naught. His energy axe stuns each of them in turn, giving Peraxxus the space he needs to reach his machines. He starts the deconstruction process and then teleports back to his ship. Massive energies erupt from each of the Signal Men, tearing the ground around them to pieces and accelerating the rubble into space.

• Before mankind emerged, an advanced race of unnamed aliens seeded Earth with four sentinels, the Signal Men, which were designed to monitor the development of sentient life. The sentinels have the power to destroy a planet, break it into pieces, if they determine that planet was a threat to their creators.
• Peraxxus discovered a set of Signal Men on an unknown planet decades ago. He hacked their technology and followed their signals from world-to-world. The Signal Men’s ability to destroy a world would be used by Peraxxus to break a world down into its component parts. The usable minerals and biological chemicals would be filtered out and sold on the interstellar market.

International Exchange

The International Exchange is a monthly interview column that discusses Dan Jurgens current work on Booster Gold/JLI. This month’s responses include:

On Batman staying-on-point:

Batman does not deviate from the subject at hand. I always look at it this way: If Batman was playing on the company softball team in the most casual of leagues, he’s the one who’d slide into second base, spikes high, in order to break up the double play. Even if the person covering the base was 35-year-old soccer mom just trying to enjoy some time outside.

On Godvia’s reactions in this issue:

Godiva would seem to be clearly outclassed by the others around her. At least on the surface. Beyond that, and beyond her more immediate reactions, I think there’s depth that we need to see a bit of here and there. She’s going to be an important presence on this team.

Peraxxus’s Speech

Tip of the hat to Boosterrific for spotting that the alien language used by Peraxxus is actually Comiccraft’s Gobbledygook font using as a simple substitution cypher. See their annotations for translations of each panel.

Sales

My Thoughts

Surveying the Internets

Poet Mase (IGN):

The plot progresses steadily, and there are several short patches of action to keep things moving along. The logic of events precipitating the action seems contrived at times, but Jurgens’ afternoon cartoon style of presentation makes complaining about the inconsistencies seem silly.

A Comic Book Blog:

In previous reviews the book has always entertained with it’s old school plot, but interest is starting to fall. Dan Jurgens is still teething when it comes to the humour but it strikes the right balance here.

Nicole D’Andria (Player Affinity)

Peraxxus’s methods for destroying the Earth and his plan to savage resources may not be an exact copy of Galactus’s, but Perxxus is so obviously related to Marvel’s character that I’m surprised they have not filed suit for copyright infringement.

Matthew Peterson (Major Spoilers)

It’s not even as though this is a bad comic book, it’s just a dull one, even with some lovely art by Aaron Lopresti. The female Leaguers especially look good, which makes the complete lack of anything for them to do eve more of a shame.

Minhquan Nguyen (WCBR)

it’d be nice to see the team actually show their competence for once. Getting beat around for practically four issues straight (Guy got KO’ed last time, awakes here, and confronts Peraxxus, only to get knocked down again in two pages) doesn’t exactly encourage you to place much “faith” in the team, as Emerson insists.

The Verdicts

Nothing to annotate.