WRITER: Dan Jurgens
PENCILER(s): Dan Jurgens
INKER(s): Norm Rapmund
COLORS: Hi-Fi Colours
LETTERS: Sal Cipriano

CHARACTERS: Booster Gold (Michael Jon Carter); Skeets; Rip Hunter; Black Beetle; Batman (Dick Grayson)

PLOT:
Booster Gold is in Coast City, lamenting the forced anonymity of the title of "greatest hero history will never know" as he rescues an elevator full of civilians from a burning building. Alas, no one can know that the supposedly bumbling egotistical buffoon known as Michael Jon Carter is actually on the "right path" as Rip Hunter would say. The only person to ever catch on to Booster's ulterior life-path was Batman who caught Booster as he tried in vain to save Barbara Gordon from being shot and paralyzed by the Joker. But Batman is dead and for the integrity of the timeline to stay intact Booster is forbidden from attempting to alter that fact.

After saving all of the civilians (and letting all the credit go to Green Lantern), Booster is summoned to the Time Lab by his time traveling mentor Rip Hunter. No one knows the dangers of time travel like the acclaimed "time master" himself Rip Hunter. At any point, an enemy might learn your identity and travel back in time and snuff you out of existence by terminating one of your ancestors. That's why Rip Hunter has gone to such great lengths to conceal his true identity. And it's also the reason why he decides to send Booster to the Bat-Cave to retrieve the photo evidence Batman had of him. Batman may have been trustworthy but now that he's gone there's no telling what could become of those pictures. The World's Greatest Detective also had some of the World's Worst Enemies and if one of them were to come across the photos of Booster trying to save Barbara Gordon, his time traveling career (not to mention life) could be at stake.

Arriving at the Bat-Cave, Booster makes a b-line for the photographs when he is spotted by the new Batman, Dick Grayson. Grayson attacks Booster, calling him a "shallow fraud" and ordering him out of the Bat-Cave until Booster is forced to reveal his true mission. It's at this point in time that the Black Beetle arrives, surprised to find Booster Gold in the Bat-Cave he nonetheless makes an attack on both men. The Beetle, a time stealer from an unknown time or location of origin, plans on eliminating the presence of the Batman from the timeline. Now that Bruce Wayne is dead that puts Dick Grayson as his top priority.

When the two heroes put up a fight, Black Beetle retreats to plot a new plan of attack. After he vanishes, Dick Grayson demands to know what's going on. But before Booster can elaborate on the situation, he realizes that Grayson is no longer there. Looking behind him he finds that Jason Todd is not the only Robin to have a memorial in the cave any longer. It appears as though the Beetle has already gone back in time and changed things. Now Dick Grayson was in fact the first Robin to fall in the line of duty and Booster Gold is the only person who can fix it!

WRITER: Matthew Sturges
PENCILER(s): Mike Norton
INKER(s): Norm Rapmund
COLORS: Sal Cipriano
LETTERS: Guy Major

CHARACTERS: Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes); Dr. Alan Von Neuman Jr.; Brenda Del Vecchio; Paco

PLOT:
Jaime is enjoying another fine meal at El Diablo with his friends Brenda and Paco despite that fact that each of them is trying to avoid the elephant in the room - Brenda and Paco's recent breakup. Before he can barely register everything going on, Jaime ends up in a three hour long tussle with a giant robot named Thinko! bent on destroying El Paso. When the dust settles however, Blue Beetle is the victor and the town is safe - despite his suit's unnerving request to detonate the machine using a minor nuclear device. It's only afterwards that Brenda and Paco discover that this isn't the first time Thinko! has tried to decimate the city. Under the guise of news reporters, Brenda and Jaime decide to track down Thinko!'s creator.

They find instead the creator's son - a man named Dr. Alan Von Neuman Jr. Von Neuman is very forthcoming in the interview, his one condition being that neither of them bother his long suffering daughter whom he claims has nothing to do with it. He himself claims innocence as well - stating that if he were to launch a robotic army it would be using his own design - Unimate, the Ultimate Thinking Machine. It seems hardly a coincidence then the next day when Jaime and Paco suddenly find themselves swarmed by a legion of Unimate machines!