Tag: Mister Miracle

Credits: Written byKeith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis, pencils by Chris Batista (JLI sequence) and Keith Giffen (present day sequence), inks Rich Perrotto, lettered by Sal Cipriano, coloured by Hi-Fi, edited by assistant Rex Ogle and editor Mike “wanna see a photo of my new daughter” Siglain.

Synopsis: Rip Hunter pressures Booster into dealing with Rani, the little girl he saved from Darkseid’s 31st Century invasion of Daxam, but Michelle, Booster sister, chastises him for his neglect and goes to talk to Rani. Booster returns to the past to search for more evidence of Maxwell Lord’s existence (after his failure in Booster Gold #33). He runs straight into his best-friend Ted Kord (alias the now deceased Blue Beetle). Ted, not knowing that this isn’t “his” version of Booster, drags him along on a repo job for the Vatican’s Order of the Archangel. They’ve lost a knock-off copy of the Book of Destiny and Ted has lied to Father Carlo to get the job. Beetle and Booster then drag Mister Miracle and Big Barda into the case and get them to trace the thief using their Mother Box. The four of them Boom Tube follow it to an enchanted/mediaeval world inhabited by fire-breathing dragons and evil wizards. One of these wizards, the unimpressively named “Hieronymous, The Under-Achiever”, had arranged for the Book to be stolen and is trying to use it to rule his world. Booster and co. head toward’s Hieronymous’s castle, but they are met by a hail of arrows and a horde of castle guards.

Continuity/Commentary:

• Booster tells Rip that he’s not ready to have children without realising that Rip is his grown-up son from the future.
• Beetle and Booster use to have a sideline as superpowered repo-men. Their first cast was repossessing a stolen tanks in JLI Annual #2. This story must take place sometime after that.
• The Order of the Archangel is a secret arm of the Roman Catholic Church charged with the collecting and containing of “dangerous relics” – (it’s the Vatican’s Area 51). Their leader is Father Carlo. The Order’s fortress is located on the Swiss-Italian border which means they should be in spitting distance of Checkmate Castle.
• Several hundred years ago a Tibetan scholar got enough of a glimpse of the Book of Destiny to write his own knock-off version. It’s only a faint shadow of the original, but is still extremely potent and dangerous. In the DCU Destiny is of the Endless (as in Neal Gaiman’s Sandman, Death, and co.). His book an accurate and true account of everything.
• Big Barda is tougher than a fire breathing dragon.
• I’m not sure if this is a specific magical world that the heroes have teleported to, but there are legions of these things floating around the edge of the DC Universe. Hieronymous claims to have gone to Nug-Yeb University. Nug and Yeb are , according to Wikipedia, two of the Great Old Ones -  “the Twin Blasphemies” – from Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Nug is Cthulhu’s daddy.
• Rani is a daxamite. That means she has a fatal vulnerable to lead and will have kryptonian level superpowers if exposed to yellow sunlight. Rip should be aware of this, but it could explain why she was playing with his blackboard last issue.

Comments: This isn’t really part of the hunt for Maxwell Lord, but it sure is a great excuse for a lost JLI story. The art duties for this issue are starkly split between Keith Giffen and Chris Batista. Giffen always had a very angular style and a love for simple 3×3 grids so his present-day sequence is instantly identifiable. It serves as a nice comparison to the “slicker” look of Batista’s JLI era sequence. Rani’s presence in the book allows for some fun with Booster commenting on being a parent when he doesn’t actually know that Rip is his son. However, the majority of this issue is an old fashioned JLI Formula No 7 (throw our heroes into a random alien/parallel/enchanted world) plus No 3 (a repo job). The repo job angle was always a great excuse to get our valiant heroes involved with whatever caper the majority of the adventure was meant  to be about. It still works and it’s still great. We’ve been drip fed appearances of Beetle and Booster since the JLI closed shop, but we haven’t had many appearances of them with Mister Miracle and Big Barda which is what makes this issue special.