Shakespeare is facepalming from that pun.
Adventures In The DC Universe #8
DC Comics (November, 1997)
Blue Beetle & Booster Gold: “Well, Here’s Another Fine Mess You’ve Gotten Us Into!”
The Question: “Face-Off”
WRITER: Steve Vance
PENCILER: John DeLaney
INKER: Ron Boyd
COLORIST: Bob LeRose
LETTERERS: Bob Lappan (story 1) and Tim Harkins (story 2)
ASSISTANT EDITOR: Frank Berrios
EDITOR: KC Carlson
Booster Gold and Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) take a job raising a submarine sunken in Hub Bay’s harbor. They stop to rescue a woman from robots who go after them, but the woman is a shapeshifter who tries to kill the heroes. While they manage to escape, so does she. While that’s going on Superman raises the sub, which means the boys end up taking a whole lot less money to clean the sub off. And then they’re bathed in sludge.
The Question runs into her next, except it’s not a her, but our old pal Cypher (remember him?). Winston McKinney and his assistant Gad are also in town trying to take over yet another radios station and trying to recruit Vic Sage (secretly the Question), who refuses. Instead he investigates the hero battle to see if there are ties to an illegal chemical waste dumping. Cypher still wants to kill Booster and Beetle, opting to blow up the plant and a good chunk of Hub City. The Question intervenes, stopping the bomb although this is how the boys were hit with that sludge. Cypher manages to escape the Question as well.
What they got right: It’s a fun story as Booster and Ted play off each other well (whatever one may think of how they were being written around this time…I’m not into the goofball extremes some writers had them as at the time) and the Question isn’t the conspiracy theorist nut here that he became in the show. Also, more with Cypher and McKinney. Are they connected somehow?
What they got wrong: What’s Vic’s problem with superheroes? He kind of is one, but the only reason he stopped the bomb was to save Hub City and is dismissive of the sludge hoping it would convince them to stay away from Hub City. And why was this two separate stories? It could have been one continuing tale. The only difference between the two was the letterer.
Recommendation: Another fun story, continuing the subplot exclusive to this series. (I don’t think Cypher or McKinney were seen outside of this series despite this one taking place in the DCU proper instead of the DCAU. You’ll see in the annuals why it’s here though.) Worth taking a look at.
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