When you have a DC character who can travel through time at a whim, what better cartoon family to meet than the Flintstones? Well, I suppose you could say the Jetson family, but Booster is already from the future. A future, it turns out, that is surprisingly dystopian. Most of Earth's animals, including bats and cats, have been extinct for years, only one police officer is on patrol in Gotham City, and a background joke touts that the air is only "mildly toxic." Worst of all, the area where Batman's parents were killed has been turned into a cheesy tourist attraction, in one of the best jokes in the comic.
You might be wondering, how is Booster Gold going to fix any of this? Will he use his time-traveling skills to save the planet? Actually, he pretty much just lives a normal life, only springing into action when aliens invade and kill the one police officer. Going back in time to solve the problem coincidentally takes him to Bedrock, where he meets up with Fred Flintstone to help. It's a little too convenient, but I can excuse it in this case.
Fittingly, the true villain of the story simply turns out to be a time paradox. When Booster traveled back in time to find out the cause of the invasion, he killed their messenger of peace, Gorax. The issue is very funny, and it has a lot of jokes about time, naturally. Some highlights include other time residents being stationed in some very deadly places and the shenanigans that result from someone from a technologically advanced future ending up in the cave era.
The backup story features an eight-page teaser for an upcoming Jetsons reboot, led by the current creative team behind Harley Quinn. It's fairly short, so I don't have too much to say about it, but I already like the new twist that they're putting on standard concepts in the show. Similar to Mark Russell's work, it seems like a series that will put as much focus on current issues through a satirical lens. It bodes well for the future of DC's Hanna-Barbara line-up.
Booster Gold/The Flintstones Annual #1 is written by Mark Russell, drawn by Rick Leonardi, inked by Scott Hanna, colored by Steve Buccellato, and lettered by Dave Sharpe. The Jetsons backup, "Eternal Upgrade", is written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner, drawn by Pier Brito, colored by Alex Sinclair, and lettered by Michael Heisler. You can find it at your local comic book shop.
Zachary Krishef is an evil genius. Do not question his knowledge of Saturday Night Live trivia or Harry Potter books.
