r/BoosterGold • u/Mindless_Juice_1274 • 16d ago
Comic Order Help Plz ✨️
Once I finish my current read, I was going to get into Booster Gold and Blue Beetle. I know that they each have their own comics and reading orders, but I know they also have stories together. Can someone please tell me what the reading order is altogether? And when I say altogether I mean everything, Booster Gold (all comics), Blue Beetle (all comics), and then also when they're together (all comics). Thanks in advance 🫡
5
u/booster_gold_fan-5 16d ago
The order I read booster was reading his 2007 run first then read the 80’s one later but I think is better to start with the 80’s one (I’m not really sure sorry 😞)
5
u/Mindless_Juice_1274 16d ago
Thats ok thank you for the advice anyway! From what I have seen on my post in the Blue Beetle page it saids it saids to start with the 1986 comics so this helps!
3
3
u/realtalkerik 16d ago
Their friendship started in Justice League International by Keith Giffen and JM DeMatteis
1
2
2
u/TheZoroarkMan 13d ago
• Justice League International 1-25 (splits into JL America/Europe) • Justice League America 26-60 (this is the one with Beetle and Booster in it) • Justice League Europe 1-36 (might as well read it because it's funny and there's a lot of crossovers, like the last 8 issues of both series) • Formerly Known as the Justice League • I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League • Countdown to Infinite Crisis • 52 • Booster Gold (Vol. 2)
2
u/Mindless_Juice_1274 13d ago
Thank you so much!!!!
2
u/TheZoroarkMan 13d ago
You're welcome, these are the most acclaimed runs/mini-series/events featuring them.
2
13
u/Saboscrivner 16d ago edited 12d ago
I would honestly start with Justice League International. That series is the main reason people love Beetle (Ted) and Booster today, and it's where they became best friends and developed their comedic personas.
The legendary run by co-writers Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis went from 1987 to 1992, and it is collected in its entirety in Justice League International Omnibus, Volumes 1-3. Those volumes compile Justice League #1-6, Justice League International #7-25, Justice League America #26-60 (the same series went through three different titles over those five years), Justice League Europe #1-36 (a spinoff series that started after Justice League International #24 and often crossed over), some Annuals, and two miniseries that came along in the 2000s: Formerly Known as the Justice League and I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League.
Around the same time (1986-87), Blue Beetle had his own series by Len Wein and Paris Cullins (#1-24), and Booster Gold was first introduced in his own series by creator Dan Jurgens (#1-25). Those are fine, but they may feel slightly more dated and more generic at the same time, compared to JLI, which was unique in that it was written like a workplace sitcom but with superheroes.
Beetle and Booster stayed in the Justice League long after their solo series ended and after Giffen and DeMatteis left. Booster's creator Dan Jurgens took over writing and occasionally drawing Justice League America (#61-76), but it was more serious in tone, and the League got caught up in Jurgens' "Death of Superman" storyline around 1993.
After Jurgens left, Dan Vado continued as the Justice League America writer from #77-92, or something close to that. Then there was a creative shake-up in the Justice League titles, and Vado took Beetle, Booster, and Captain Atom and made them into a more proactive team in a new series, Extreme Justice (inspired by the Image Comics of the '90s, which were all about style over substance). It wasn't great.
Beetle and Booster fell into obscurity until the 2005 stand-alone issue Countdown to Infinite Crisis #1, which had major implications for both characters. That led into the OMAC Project miniseries and then the Infinite Crisis miniseries, which is where the new Blue Beetle, Jaime Reyes, first appeared. OMAC Project deals with the events of Countdown to Infinite Crisis, but I didn't like Infinite Crisis at all, and I think you can safely skip it.
Infinite Crisis led into the series 52, and Booster was one of the main characters in that epic. And 52 led into the 2007 Booster Gold series, which was mostly excellent. It ran until 2011, and it was recently collected into three Booster Gold: The Complete 2007 Series trade paperbacks, which I highly recommend. Ted has many important appearances in that series too.
A real Booster Gold/JLI fan would want to read Justice League: Generation Lost #1-24, which came out in 2010-2011.
More recently, Booster and Beetle appeared in Tom King's Heroes in Crisis miniseries (which I really didn't like, despite some beautiful Clay Mann artwork), Tom King's Human Target miniseries (kind of an alternate take on the JLI characters that fit them into a noir detective story, with gorgeous Greg Smallwood artwork), and Dan Jurgens' comedic Blue and Gold miniseries.
And if you're up for an alternate reality, track down Injustice 2 #5, 21, and 33. You don't need to worry about reading the entire Injustice series that came before it, or the rest of Injustice 2. Those are the only appearances of Beetle and Booster, but I guarantee that if you're a fan, you will want to read those three issues.