Red Lantern Starro draws ever closer to Earth. Can Blue Beetle live up to his destiny and stop the Conqueror?
Injustice 2 #66
Writer: Tom Taylor
Artist: Xermanico
Cover Artist: Tyler Kirkham
Cover Colors: Arif Prianto
Colorist: J. Nanjan
Letters: Wes Abbott
Publisher: DC Comics
What You Need to Know:
In his quest for revenge against the Green Lantern Corps, Atrocitus recruited Starro the Conqueror into the Red Lantern Corps. The threat of Red Lantern Starro was enough to catch the attention of the New God Metron. Metron hires the Bounty Hunter Lobo to recruit Blue Beetle as the Scarab is the only person capable of stopping the Conqueror. While the Titans, Green, & Red Lantern Corps go to war over Oa, Blue Beetle and Booster Gold pursue Starro on his journey to ravage Earth…
What You’ll Find Out:
As Red Lantern Starro continues his flight towards Earth, the best efforts of Blue Beetle amount to a mosquito attacking an Elephant. Not even getting Starro to acknowledge his presence. Booster noting how bad this is when you consider as a Red Lantern, he’s fueled by Rage and Blue Beetles best attack didn’t even slightly annoy him. Both of them know the Scarab is capable of stopping Starro but neither knows how. Booster suggests asking the Scarab itself but when Blue Beetle does he’s told “no”. The Scarab explaining he doesn’t want to end their bond. Blue Beetle states the obvious that if Starro makes it to Earth, their bond will be broken when he dies trying to stop him. Begrudgingly, the Scarab explains that they can’t actually defeat Starro together. That to defeat Starro the previous user would have to sacrifice their life to do so.
While Blue Beetle is greatly saddened by this, he prepares to sacrifice himself for the greater good. Giving Booster a final farewell as he soars to Starro’s body. The Scarab pleading for Blue Beetle to not make the sacrifice but still continuing when Jaime requests it. Without the Scarab, Jaime drafts helplessly into space. But Booster is tired of the death and gives Jaime his oxygen mask and ordering Skeets to take him to safety. Booster awaits his death when someone unexpected arrives…Ted Kord the original Blue Beetle.
Ted doesn’t fully know why he was brought here but explains he was brought back through time by another Booster Gold (possibly the one present last issue with the Legion of Superheroes). That once the future was set he found a sort of loophole to buy him a few more years. Though Ted admits it’s confusing time travel and that they, unfortunately, can’t change his death. But that he was allowed and should be there for Booster in the end. The two share one last handshake before Starro explodes. Consuming Booster in a flash of light.
Back on Oa, Jaime is awoken by Lobo, Iolande, and Skeets. Lobo being annoyed Jaime flew off on his own when he was supposed to be protecting him. Jaime, however, is only interested in what happened to Booster. Skeets is unable to outright say Booster is dead. But instead says that this is what he wanted. Jaime asks if they won and Hal responds that they did and gives him back the Scarab. But the victory is bittersweet as the chapter ends with the price of victory still weighing on them.
What Just Happened?
At long last, Starro has been defeated! Unfortunately, doing so claimed yet another victim in Injustice Booster Gold. It was sad seeing the quirky time traveler go but he had a truly heroic end. Although we do still have the other Booster Gold, one must wonder what his goals are in comparison to Injustice Boosters. Given Brainiac is being saved for the game in all likelihood, this means we will probably see more Titans and the Legion of Superheroes on the horizon.
Rating: 9.9/10
Final Thought: First off, I’m giving a special mention to the awesome two-page spread detailing how the previous Blue Beetle defeated Starro. It was a nice touch using the Blue Beetle emblem to hold the flashback while the golden negative space fits the Egyptian feel from that time period. Boosters death as Starro exploded in the background was another awesome, albeit more saddening, piece of art from this chapter.
On the negative side, I’m somewhat mixed on Ted Kords return. Thematically it was very fitting and I could see Alternate Booster bringing him back for Injustice Booster. But the explanation, like Time Travel, was a bit confusing. I’m not against it but it did kind of boiled down to a hand wave. It’s better than over-explaining but it was a bit confusing.
With the conclusion to the Green/Red Lantern War, I’d say it was a great arc overall. Probably the best overall arc with a slight lead on the Ra’s Al Ghul Arc. It showed how Injustice 2 can do new things while also expanding on and growing from previous entries and the original Injustice comic. Hal has finally returned to his old self as seen in Injustice 2, Sinestro got redemption through death, we got to see Lobo return after ages, and even got a setup for a future storyline as well as the storyline of the game. The ending itself was bittersweet but or Injustice, this is an improvement over their downward spirals. The heroes fought hard and won their (probably temporary) happy ending. Now to see how the Legion of Superheroes come into play.
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