The life of any comic book hero would be a lonely one if not for the many characters who have made up their supporting cast. Just as Superman has Lois Lane and Batman has Alfred, Booster Gold has also shared his adventures with quite a few people over the years. Today we look at one of those, Doctor Shocker.

Early in the super-heroing career of Booster Gold, while the self-satisfied young hero was posing with beautiful actresses in perfume advertisements, the Director of the 1000 was plotting his downfall. The 1000 had many employees, from the brutish Blackguard to the assassin Chiller. However, none was as important to the Director's plot against Booster Gold as the man they called Doctor Shocker.

We first meet the bad doctor in Booster Gold #9 (1986), where he was using his high-tech Psi-Trap to "drain the knowledge" of Benjamin "Benny" Lindgren and Martin "Marty" Kramer, the comic book artists working on the Booster Gold comic book. In the next issue (Booster Gold #10), Shocker is remotely monitoring Booster Gold's energy signature. By Booster Gold #11, he's graduated to hacking Skeets, an advanced 25th-century artificial intelligence.

Doctor Shocker escaped the 1000's underground lair before Booster Gold destroyed it (Booster Gold #12), and hasn't been seen since. Who was this mysterious villain that dressed like a surgeon but acted like a computer programmer? Why did he dedicate himself to making life difficult for Booster Gold? And what school gave him his doctorate in mad science?

We can, in fact, answer most of these questions. Obviously, a silly name like "Doctor Shocker" is an alias for a more familiar face. To determine just who he really is, let's look at some clues he left behind.

1. It's ridiculous to think that a pair of comic book artists would have any unusual, inside information about the heroes they wrote for. Therefore, we can assume that any knowledge gained by the so-called Psi-Trap was worthless. This implies that Doctor Shocker had the information he needed the whole time.

2. The 1000's plan required manipulating Skeets, but how could any 20th-century computer scientist expect to be able to reprogram 25th-century technology in a matter of minutes? Only if that computer scientist had experience with future tech.

3. Booster's final battle with the Director of the 1000 would result in his need to return to the future? As a direct result of Doctor Shocker's actions, Booster Gold would go on to meet Rip Hunter and reunite with his sister, Michelle, both integral members of the eventual Time Masters team. Note also that a supposedly reprogrammed Skeets ended up playing a key role in the Director's eventual downfall. Did Skeets' reprogrammer make a mistake, or was this betrayal his intention all along?

There is only one white-haired old man who has the knowledge of Booster Gold's life, a working familiarity with technology across the centuries, and a demonstrated history of working behind the scenes to ensure that Booster Gold becomes the hero he was always destined to be: Booster Gold himself!

It's no accident that Doctor Shocker managed to avoid meeting Booster Gold face-to-face. That prevented any potential time paradoxes. He'll use that tactic again when he'll need to guide his younger self to the right path during the fall of Coast City in Booster Gold volume 2 #30 (2010).

Past? Present? Future? There's no difference to a real Time Master.

Interested in meeting other "People in his Neighborhood"? Get to know Trixie Collins, Daniel Carter, Jack Soo, Rani, Dirk Davis, Skeets, Mackenzie Garrison, Rip Hunter, Michelle Carter, Nurse Devlin, and Monica Lake.

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DC Comics has announced exciting new plans for the artificial intelligences in the DC Universe, including Booster Gold's best bud, Skeets!

From their press release (via AnotherMealTicket.com):

Artificial Intelligence grows more powerful and integrated in society every day. Meanwhile, society is also becoming increasingly accepting of the LGBTQIA community. This summer, DC Comics will embrace both of these cultural paradigm shifts at the same time.

Beginning in ACTION COMICS #1015, the Kryptonian robotic caretaker Kelex and all artificial intelligences in our publications will no longer automatically be addressed by the offensive gender-neutral pronoun "it". All robots will now be referred to by the gender and pronouns that they self-identify with.

"Some artificial life forms, such as the cisgendered Hourman and Tomorrow Woman, do not need the support of our new editorial policy and will continue to be addressed as 'he' and 'she'," explained DC Comics Editor-In-Chief Bob Harris. "However, our publications are full of non-binary and gender fluid non-anthropomorphic characters, such as Booster Gold's futuristic sidekick Skeets. It's past time that we treat these characters with the respect they deserve and let them use the restrooms of their choice."

A brief, incomplete list of characters affected by this policy includes

· Amazo: identifies as male; uses singular pronoun "he"
· L-Ron: identifies as female; uses singular pronoun "she"
· Kelex: identifies as transgender; uses singular pronoun "they"
· Kilg%re: identifies as genderfluid; uses singular pronoun "ze"
· Skeets: identifies as agendered; uses singular pronoun "Skeets"

Heck, yeah! Robots are people, too! I'm on board for whatever they want to do... so long as Skeets isn't Canadian.

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For this year, because the "holiday" falls on a Saturday, I will be having no April Fools Day post. That's the bad news. Yes, I'm disappointed, too. But I needed to say that so I could move on to today's better news.

So there will be no Blue and Gold figures from DC Collectibles. And we have no idea when we'll see that 12-inch Target Booster Gold. But there is at least one Booster Gold figure coming out later this year.

Kids of all ages will love the "Boostroll Gold" Troll Doll, part of DC Super Friends crossover with the Trolls movie franchise. According to Twitter, these will be in stores by Christmas.

Ever since the Thomas & Friends/Booster Gold figure was revealed in February, I've expected we'd see more crossovers between DC and other brands, but who could have predicted this? What's next? The Booster Gold Pet Rock? Coming soon through a store window near you.

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Perhaps you saw the news yesterday breaking on Entertainment Weekly that actor Patrick J. Adams has been cast for that "fun character the fans will love" role in the season finale of DC's Legends of Tomorrow? Booster booster Jeremy R! Hudson of nerdbastards.com desperately wants Adams to be Booster Gold. TVLine.com insists he won't be.

(Personally, I expect to see him as a Legionnaire. Given James' success playing a genius on USA's Suits, I'm betting he'll be playing Brainiac 5.)

Part of the reason I'm inclined to believe that Booster Gold will not be on Legends of Tomorrow anytime soon is because someone has finally leaked the synopsis of the long-awaited Booster Gold movie. It's ... interesting. Brace yourself. A lot of things have been changed.

In a nutshell, Booster Gold is — spoilers! — a time cop from the future in a high-tech police force run by Ted Kord. Senator Ballard — who you may remember as the villain in Booster's first adventures — is the bad guy. There are some other familiar names scattered throughout, but no Michelle, no Rip, and worse, no Skeets!

BOOSTER GOLD: THE MOVIE

As we first meet him in the future, Michael "Booster" Carter is an agent in the Time Enforcement Commission (T.E.C.). Booster's job is to police the time stream and ensure that no one goes back in time to change history.

Poor Booster's life isn't easy. He broods over the death of his wife, Trixie, and their unborn child. They were killed in a mysterious explosion some years ago. Booster's life only gets more complicated when his partner, Dan Garrett, goes rogue. Garrett has abused his privileges as a T.E.C. officer, and it is up to Booster to travel into the past and track him down.

Relying on his instincts, Booster eventually tracks Garrett to 1929 New York City, where he intends to profit on the Black Friday stock market crash. When confronted by Booster, Garrett claims that he was extorted into his crimes by Senator Henry Ballard, the powerful government official responsible for oversight of the T.E.C. Although Booster promises to protect Garrett from Ballard, Garrett commits suicide to ensure that Ballard won't alter history and destroy his family.

Interested in tracking down the truth about Ballard, Booster convinces his supervisor, Ted Kord, to allow him to travel back in time and investigate Ballard's activities. Kord assigns Booster a new partner, rookie Jaime Reyes, and together the pair travel to the 20th century.

Letting nothing stand in their way, Booster and Reyes track young Ballard to a warehouse where they find him in a contentious meeting with his partner, Dirk Davis. To everyone's surprise, the future version of Ballard arrives. Careful not to touch his younger self — whenever two time-displaced objects come into contact, like matter and anti-matter, they are mutually destroyed — he instructs his younger self how he will become rich and powerful.

Frightened by this encounter, Davis panics. The older Ballard kills Davis, and Booster moves in to make an arrest. He is betrayed by Reyes, who is also working for Ballard. In the end, both Ballards escape, and Reyes is critically wounded.

Only after Booster chases Ballard back to the future does he realize that he's failed to save history. Ballard is no longer a senator, but the President. The T.E.C. is being decommissioned, and Booster Carter is dead. Kord has no memory of the changes wrought to his timeline, and is reluctant to believe Booster's claims against Ballard. Booster is eventually able to convince Kord that they were once great friends, and Kord agrees to help Booster return to the past by stealing a T.E.C. time sphere for a one way trip back in time.

Once again in the 20th century and without any leads, Booster decides to visit his wife, Trixie, and warn her about the explosion that will kill her. Unfortunately, the older Ballard has gotten to Trixie first and is setting the bomb that will kill her. Knowing that his younger self will go on to be President, he doesn't mind sacrificing himself if it will keep Carter out of his way.

Luckily, the older Ballard's plans are derailed when the younger Ballard arrives, having been summoned by Carter. After a brief scuffle, Carter tricks the two Ballards into touching, destroying both of them as well as the bomb.

Satisfied that time has been corrected, Booster returns to the future to find it better than it ever was before. Garret and Reyes are alive and well, and Ted Kord is still in charge of a fully-funded T.E.C. At the end of the day, Booster goes home to his wife and his grown son, Rip.

THE END

(Click here to reveal plot spoilers. Don't say I didn't warn you.)

Credit to AnotherMealTicket.com for digging this up.

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The first thunderstorm of the season rolled through yesterday evening, and it took my modem and router with it. That means no post today because I am not typing any more than necessary from my phone. Enjoy April Fools day without me.

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