Justice League Generation Lost overview

Justice League Generation Lost continues to be a great read and everything we are NOT getting from the Booster Gold title right now and more interesting to me than Geoff Johns’ penned Brightest Day. Although the main Brightest Day weekly book is full of characters I like, I can’t really tell you what is going on in it after three issues. It just seems to meander from character to character check in with no real tie other than they are all back from the dead. Generation Lost has been the exact opposite in two issues it has laid out the plot and grouped our characters together with the common problem that Maxwell Lord is back from the dead. He has wiped out his presence of earth form everyone except Booster Gold, Captain Atom, Fire and Ice. Maxwell Lord has set about to discredit all of these heroes except for Booster Gold who needed no help in that department since no one but the reader takes him seriously. Maxwell Lord has made on giant mistake that has gotten Booster Gold fired up and will likely be Lord’s downfall. Lost might be over but Generation Lost has just begun so read on for a recap of issue one and some spoilers about issue two.

Issue one of Generation Lost found all the heroes in the DCU on high alert with the realization that Maxwell Lord and his mind control abilities are back among the living due to ending of Blackest Night and the return of the heroes of Brightest Day. While they mobilize their manhunt, the person with the biggest score to settle with Maxwell Lord, the one and only Booster Gold just wants to help. Unfortunately former friends like Power Girl have no time for Booster nor do they want to put up with his antics. This is a harsh blow to Booster who despite his reputation wants more than anything to bring his best friend Ted Kord’s killer to Justice. The writers use Booster’s bad reputation perfectly against him and set him to be an outcast among the other heroes but we know there is more to Booster than meets the eye.

Next we find a very shaken Tora Olafsdotter aka Ice still trying to recover from her death and resurrection and being turned in a zombie Black Lantern sent to destroy her love Guy Gardner. Ice has been ready to quit the hero business before and this has driven her even closer but a request from the one person she can’t turn down Fire has pulled her back into the fray. Fire and Captain Atom are on a joint mission between the army and checkmate in Yemen.  Fire wants someone she can trust that is not on the army’s payroll like Ice backing her up. Maxwell Lord has set these heroes up with a bomb that is set to go off in an underground cavern, which Captain Atom can absorb, but not without looking like they failed the mission.

Meanwhile Booster is determined to get Lord and tracks him to an old JLI embassy where the two have a dramatic confrontation on the murder of Ted Kord the second Blue Beetle. As the two argue on points of view of the murder, Lord reveals that he still considers himself friends with Booster and that it haunts him that he had to kill Ted. Lord claims he is still trying to save the world from the super powered beings as he has always done and this is the reason he was bought back from the dead to continue his work. Before Lord knocks Booster unconscious, our hero is able to put out a distress signal on the old JLI frequency. As Fire, Ice and Captain Atom reach ground zero of the battle and find a semi conscious Booster, Lord unleash a powerful psychic assault that mind whips everyone on the planet of his existence. Luckily our heroes are too close to the assault and their memory remains intact.

We pick up this issue with a disbelieving Superman who answered the JLI emergency call asking our heroes “Who is Maxwell Lord?” He has never heard of him and even when presented with the video of Wonder Woman saving his life by snapping Lord’s neck, all he sees is an image of Wonder Woman with a sword. Superman particularly lectures Booster Gold about the group’s “difficulties” and flies off to another emergency. These heroes' spotty reputations are being played against them brilliantly which makes a very compelling story that you can get behind right away unlike Brightest Day where I still don’t know what the plot is.

As the heroes fan out and try to convince the rest of the superhero community of Maxwell Lord’s existence they face brick wall after brick wall. The new Batman remembers Bruce bringing the JLI together (which if you’d just think about Grayson for a moment seems ludicrous). Bruce Wayne putting together that bunch as a team, I don’t think so. The new Dark Knight delivers the worst blow of all as he tells Booster that his best friend Ted Kord committed suicide. This is too much for Booster to take and I believe is the mistake that will lead to Maxwell Lord’s downfall.

Fire tries to jog Wonder Woman’s memory of killing Maxwell Lord only to be greeted with disdain since Wonder Woman believes she would remember killing someone especially a defenseless man. Fire fails to convince the Amazon who ignores her warning and then tells Fire she has been dismissed by Checkmate. Ice is faring no better with Guy Gardner who is still upset about the Black Lantern Ice trying to kill him. This is the one point I am unclear on, I was never sure whether that Black Lantern was the real Ice or not. Neither of the books (GL corps or this one) are very clear on that fact, and if it was it doesn’t seem to be following the Black Lantern rules. I remember Guy destroying that Black Lantern version of Ice and I thought if your Black Lantern version got killed you stayed dead. That’s at least that’s what I thought. It’s minor point but the only flaw I’ve seen in this story line so far so I thought it worth mentioning. I’m not really sure on the Black Lantern rules so this might not be a big deal.

We get a great page of our heroes turning to various allies who all don’t believe our crew, which just serves to solidify my support for these characters I love. I don’t believe Fire or Ice have ever been handled this well. Kudos to the artist for revising the dated 1980’s punk pop princess look of Fire with a new bodysuit, I’m not sure if this is what she has been wearing in the Checkmate book but it is definitely an upgrade. Ice is still in her familiar garb, which provides a nice contrast of the two. Giffen brilliantly uses jackass character Magog next to tell Captain Atom he has been replaced and is no longer needed in the army. Maxwell Lord goads Atom into attacking a General my appearing to be in his place, which further discredits our nuclear hero.

We are left with four heroes who are discredited with only them to turn to for help. Maxwell Lord didn’t in bother to mess with Booster since his reputation is already in shambles with the rest of the hero community. That cover story of still being a jackass to save the time stream his coming back to haunt Booster. However as Booster reveals the news that everyone thinks Ted Kord killed himself he attempts to rally his small troops despite Tora wanting to give up. One more member of the team has yet to be recruited and has his hands full with some OMACs at the end of the issue, Jaime Reyes the new Blue Beetle is in dire need of some help which should arrive next issue in our fabulous foursome. I’ve heard that a Rocket Red is in the future of this group and will defect and help out. Sounds compelling to me. This series is hitting all the right notes so far and continues to be the best Booster Gold book on the market right now. It is certainly more entertaining that Brightest Day to start with right now and I only wish that the main Justice League had such freedom of use of characters and was a compelling as this book already is. I’ll give both of the other books some time to develop but if you’re not reading this weekly Justice League Generation Lost, you need to jump on board now. You won’t regret it.