“A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere…

Before him I may think aloud.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson, as quoted in Booster Gold.

Of all the characters in the DC Universe, Booster Gold and Blue Beetle have been my favorites. Yeah, that may sound weird. People usually say Batman, Wonder Woman, or Superman or Aquaman… no, scratch that… nobody says Aquaman. That’d be ridiculous. But as pointed out in yesterday’s feature, I first took notice of this pair of BFF’s while reading one of my favorite childhood comics, Mr. Miracle, and I’ve pursued their exploits in Justice League International and the pages of other DC comics ever since.

It’s no secret that I’m not a huge Batman fan, and maybe that’s because I like Ted Kord’s version of that character archetype better. Both are millionaires relying on their own brilliance and technology over superpowers. But unlike Batman, Kord wasn’t a moody dick. On the contrary, among his peers he was probably the most liked character in the DC Universe. You could argue that he ultimately died because Batman couldn’t be bothered with his findings and Ted was too nice a guy to want to burden the rest of the Justice League with his theories on Max Lord. Booster, on the other hand, yeah he was a dick. At least that’s how he was perceived by most. But he grew into a better person, and Ted saw something in him, and thus was forged this unlikely and delightful friendship. Let’s kick it off with Booster.

The self-centered jock from the future turned time warrior, Michael Carter, aka Booster Gold would be a polarizing character if enough people actually gave a shit about him. Those that do either love to hate him or hate to love him. He’s a fun character because he’s an anti-hero and he’s exactly what you don’t expect. He’s both pathetic and heroic, and a general pain in the ass for the Justice League, and just when you think you can sum him up in a few unfavorable words, you find that he can be frustratingly more complex than that. All I know is I love this guy.

The DC Universe Classics version of Booster was available in two variants. I have the version of Booster that I prefer, but seeing as how the other one comes with a Skeets that opens up to reveal Mr. Mind, I really should pick that one up at some point. Booster’s portrait is a little hit and miss with me. Maybe a little too cartoony? I don’t know. Sometimes it bugs me, other times I’m perfectly happy with it. I do really dig the clear yellow goggles and the way his sculpted hair sticks up out of the top of his hood. The body makes use of a standard DCUC buck, but he does have his forcefield emitters sculpted into his hands, as well as his flight ring on his finger. I also really dig the sculpted high collar. Booster has a cavernous hole on his back, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

Booster features one of my favorite paint jobs among all the DCUC figures. The mix of metallic gold and blue is really gorgeous and there isn’t much slop or bleeding to speak of. The only downside here is that his copyright stamps are painted black and smacked right onto his gold ass, so the lettering stands out pretty sharply.

Of course, you can’t have Booster without Skeets, and that’s where the big hole in his back comes into play. Skeets is sculpted along with a translucent yellow effect piece that allows him to hover over Booster’s left shoulder. I think I would have preferred the connecting piece to be completely clear and not yellow, but all in all, the effect works really well.

Moving on to Blue Beetle. I love this guy, and I’ll never forgive DC for allowing just about every other character that dies in the DCU to come back to life except for poor Ted Kord. Ok, so he comes back temporarily, but we’ll get to that tomorrow. Anyway, Blue Beetle is one slam-dunk of a figure. The head sculpt is fantastic and just like Booster, I love the use of the clear yellow goggles here and the powerful slightly cleft chin. Of course, setting the portrait aside, Ted was a pretty easy figure to do, since he also uses a standard DCUC buck with a painted costume. The paintwork utilizes two shades of blue and heavy black outline is crisp and fits the costume perfectly.

The only new sculpting on the body involves his belt and FUNCTIONAL holster, which holds his gun. Wow, do I love Blue Beetle’s gun. It’s pure retro sci-fi love that looks like a combination of a 50′s hairdryer and power drill.

Both figures feature the same standard DCUC articulation, with just one exception. The arms have ball joints in the shoulders, hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the wrists and biceps. The legs have the usual DCUC style hinge, hinges in the knees and ankles, and swivels in the thighs. They each have the ab crunch hinge in the torso and ball jointed necks. What’s the exception? Booster can swivel at the waist, whereas Blue Beetle cannot.

And there ya go, two of my favorite DCUC figures based on two of my favorite DC characters. Besides my genuine love of these guys as individuals, it’s the magic and tragedy of their friendship that elevates them to an even higher level in my eyes. Like I said earlier, it never seemed fair that just about every other character that dies in the DC Universe gets to brush themselves off and come back, while Ted Kord remains in the ash heap. It was something that Booster could never get over, and that was really something ironic for a character that was viewed by everyone but Ted as a self-centered narcissist. Maybe it all strikes a chord in me because I’ve been there, I’ve lost a best friend before, and while time is said to heal all wounds, it’s something that never truly goes away. From Mr. Miracle and Barda to Blue Beetle and Booster, I’ll wrap this whole thing up tomorrow as I spend my weekend reading three TPBs of Booster Gold!

Today I’m kicking off a three-part set of features with a look at a pair of older DC Universe Classics figures. Follow me on this one, it’ll all be connected. I tend to get my share of strange looks when I tell people that Mr. Miracle was one of my favorite comics as a kid. He’s not exactly an A-lister in the DC roster. It was even an unlikely choice for me, as I just stumbled upon his books at the local used book shop and my dad bought me a stack of them. I also owe it to Mr. Miracle for getting me back into comics in 1989 with the return of his ongoing series (and introducing me to Booster Gold and Ted Kord, but more on that tomorrow). What sucked me in wasn’t necessarily Mr. Miracle as a superhero, but rather the whole New Gods tie in and the backstory between Scott Free, Big Barda, Darkseid and Apokolips. I thought it was epic stuff, and the book was packed with great humor as Scott and Barda tried to build a new suburban life on Earth and no one would leave them in peace.

As a result, Mr. Miracle was actually the very first DCUC figure I ever bought, and it became the slippery slope that led to my addiction to the line. He was quite the pegwarmer, and one day I encountered an entire wall of them in the action figure aisle at one of the big box stores. Leave it to me to be overjoyed by a figure that nobody else wanted. I tend to be funny that way. I couldn’t help feel bad for Scott. First he gets traded to Apokolips in one of the most poorly conceived peace deals ever and now he’s made to suffer the shame of pegwarming. The dude just can’t cut a break.

The DCUC version of Mr. Miracle gets by with a pretty standard buck and a few tweaks and bobs to the sculpt to make him unique. Actually, he’s got a crazy about of circuit-style detail sculpted on the soles of his boots. He’s sporting a rather seriously pissed-off head sculpt, which might not have been an optimum choice for the character. He also sports one of my favorite capes in all the DCUC line. It doesn’t drag on the ground, it has a bitchin’ oversized fastener in the front, and he’s got that great high collar that gives him a regal countenance.

The colors on the other hand? Well, I always thought red, yellow and green were an interesting choice of color palate. Or at least they would have been if you’re Captain Bolivia. In fairness, I think Miracle’s deco works better on the pages of the comics than in figure form, and even then it depends on who’s doing the colors. Still, he’s one distinctive looking figure. He does have some strange shadowing on his inner thighs that makes it look as if a bomb exploded between his legs!

I don’t usually expect accessories with my DCUC figures, but Mr. Miracle is one of the few that actually came with some stuff. You get a set of manacles for him to escape from, and he also came with a set of his signature Aero Discs, which peg into his feet. The sculpting on all three of these pieces is extremely well done. It’s almost a shame that there’s so much detail in the bottoms of the Aero Discs, since you can’t see it when they’re plugged into the figure’s feet.

And that brings us to Big Barda. The lovely Mrs. Miracle if you will. She was available in two versions: Helmeted and Sans Helmet. I have the later, but one of these days I’ll pick up the one with the helmet. In order to accept DCUC Barda into your heart, you need to lay aside a pretty glaring issue of scale. As one of Darkseid’s Furies, in the comics Barda was huge (hence the name!), much bigger than her husband, and so she falls into the trap of uniform scaled figures that DCUC often fell into. It should probably bother me more than it does, but somehow I’m able to look past it.

I’m pretty fond of the headsculpt on Barda. She’s attractive and looks a tad angry. The sculpt seems a little soft by today’s standards, but it’s not bad at all. I also appreciate that the hair is sculpted back a bit so as not to inhibit her head movement too much. Barda’s armor is reproduced with a very cool scale texture sculpted right onto the figure, and the top and bottom bronze plate. You could certainly argue that she should have been bulkier. The super thin arms don’t really reflect her character, but I’m guessing Mattel was faced with the dilemma of making her either too feminine or too butch.

Both figures feature the same DCUC style articulation. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders, hinged at the elbows, and have swivels in the biceps and wrists. The legs have the usual universal hinge joint, hinges in the knees and ankles, and swivels in the thighs. They have ab crunches in their torsos and their necks are ball jointed. The only difference is that Barda’s armor skirt sadly renders her hip articulation rather useless.

And that’s Mr. and Mrs. Miracle. These two figures have a special place in my heart among the 150 or so DCUC style figures on my shelves. Every time I look at my DCUC display, my eyes are drawn back to this pair that started it all. Tomorrow, I’ll be back to check out another pair of older DCUC figures, who happen to be based on two of my favorite DC characters of all time, and as already mentioned, were introduced to me in the pages of Mr. Miracles own book.