Superman Kingdom of Zod Special

Cover Description: This book has multiple covers; none features Booster Gold.

Brief Synopsis: The Super Force defends the Earth against Zod's time-displaced Kryptonian army.

Booster Gold's role in this story:
Featured (Booster Gold plays a prominent role)

Costume Worn: MARK I.v2 power-suit

Issue Notes: Appearance confirmed by Rob Snow.

Story Notes: This issue provides detailed credits only for the main story but groups all creatives together for each of the four epilogues. Since Booster Gold appears in only two of these epilogues, credits for the other epilogues have been excluded from Boosterrific.com as per the policies of this site.

Page 4, panel 11
Booster Gold is seen in a flashback to the events of Action Comics #1100.

Page 10, panel 1
"Booster Gold to the rescue!" Let's recap how Booster Gold got here. As an experienced time traveler, he volunteered to investigate an alternate universe on behalf of the Justice League (DC All In Special #1) but was captured by Darkseid's corrupted Legion of Super-Heroes before being rescued by Superboy-Prime and Superman (Superman #29) and immediately triggering the King Omega Tournament (DC K.O. #1) as the vessel for Darkseid himself. Emerging victorious from the tournament, Superman sacrificed himself to resurrect all the fallen heroes including Booster, and Booster returned the favor by traveling back in time to Smallville (Action Comics #1096) in the hope that Superboy could locate his time-lost future self. That worked only to result in Booster Gold and his companions returning to the present day in the midst of Zod's attack (Action Comics #1102) where Booster's time machine was stolen (Superman Unlimited #16) and used by a younger Zod to attack again (Superman #42). So, yes, Booster might share some responsibility here.

Page 10, panel 3
HIS STORY: "I was the future's greatest athlete." Booster might be exaggerating a little. As his sidekick Skeets explained to Superman during their first meeting in Booster Gold #6, "experts proclaimed him one of the greatest quarterbacks ever to play the game; an athlete of tremendous capabilities and infinite potential." So yes, he was certainly among the best. But Booster has rarely lacked self-confidence.

Page 11, panel 1
Booster Gold might be a great athlete, but he has chosen to leap into action alongside Superman and multiple Superboys, all of whom can move considerably faster than the speed of sound,...

Page 12, panel 3
POWER UP: ...while being chased by Zod and Ursa, who are using heat vision that travels at the speed of light. Presumably it's his impenetrable force field keeping him alive.

Page 16, panel 4
Lena Luthor creates a time travel vortex that draws time-anomalies in the vicinity back to "where they started" with no memory of events since their displacement. The vortex appears to only affect Zod and his army of Kryptonians (native to still-whole Krypton), Superboy (native to "Many Years Ago"), and Booster Gold (native to the 25th century). When this string of events began in DC All In Special #1, Booster was contemplating retiring to the future. Has he changed his mind, or does he just want to keep all his memories of being captured and tortured over the past several years?

Page 16, panel 5
Booster Gold is pulled from the vortex by Supergirl. Given that the original Supergirl died during Crisis on Infinite-Earths #7 and Booster Gold is famously the first character introduced to the post-Crisis DC Universe, these two heroes have not had a great many overlapping adventures. In fact, their first on-panel meeting after Kara Zor-El was reintroduced to the DCU in 2004 was in Secret Six #36, released only a few months before Flashpoint once again scrambled the history of the DCU.

Page 22, panel 1
Booster speaks with Mary Marvel in front of Steel, Natasha Irons, and Lana Lang. This is Booster's first on-panel appearance with Lang, who has been Clark Kent's childhood friend since Superboy #10 in 1950 and Steel's wife since Summer of Superman Special #1.

Page 24, panel 3
Booster fawns over Tomorrow Man, suggesting that he does not know (or remember) that Jonathan Kent is the man under the mask. Booster first appeared on panel with Jonathan in Action Comics #1000 and later worked alongside him during the Dark Crisis and Absolute Power events.

Page 24, panel 4
SCHOOL'S IN: After making a reference to Rip Hunter's chalkboard (last seen in 2022's Flashpoint Beyond #5), Booster suggests Tomorrow Man change his costume, advice he'll take in future issues of Superman Unlimited.

Page 24, panel 5
Booster wonders aloud if Tomorrow Man is a Daxamite. Booster has a history with Daxamites, having visited the planet Daxam and rescued the orphan Rani in Booster Gold #32.

Page 27, panel 5
Although Booster tries to help a disturbed Superboy come to terms with his knowledge of future events, Martian Manhunter arrives to solve the problem, allowing Booster to return Superboy to the past.

Page 28, panel 4
Booster's comment about a person with knowledge of the future being a "robot following a program" is particularly interesting considering that his sidekick is a robot with considerable knowledge of the future.