I feel like I say this every year, but now at your Local Comic Shop:

This softcover reprints the hardcover DC Comics: Generations, which was itself a reprint of Generations: Shattered and Generations: Forged. If you've been waiting to read these issues until DC knocked $10 off the price, your day has come!

By the way, in the very recent Justice League 2022 Annual #1 — yeah, it's an awkward name, but at least it doesn't have any colons in it, so... progress? — Batman recognized an accidentally time-displaced O.M.A.C. when the rest of the Justice League didn't. Says Batman:

words by Brian Michael Bendis; art by Sanford Greene, Matt Herms, Josh Reed

Is this evidence that the Batman who was plucked from the past for Generations is the same Batman now a member of the modern day Justice League? I choose to think so. (I don't know how, but time travel can do weird things to continuity.)

It sure seems like DC Comics: Generations has become must-read material for DC continuity wonks. Get it while it's hot!

And while you're at your Local Comic Shop, if you're interested in following Booster's appearances in Human Target, know that he gets a name drop in this week's issue 5. It's only this one panel:

words by Tom King; art by Greg Smallwood, Clayton Cowles

Speaking of continuity, I can't say I care for the rest of this issue's events and characterizations. But, hey, Greg Smallwood's art always delivers!

Enjoy your shopping!

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You know most CBR.com listicles just annoy me, but every once in a while, they say something I agree with.

For example, take "DC Comics: 10 Sidekicks Who Need To Break Away From Their Mentor" by Derek Faraci.

8. Skeets Plays Second Fiddle To A Goofball

Of all the sidekicks in comics, Skeets may get the least respect. A super-intelligent robot that holds all of human history up to the 25th century in its databanks, Skeets works alongside Booster Gold to help the hero from the future become the greatest hero of today. But Skeets only shows up when Booster bothers to turn him on. When Booster was a member of the Justice League International, he boxed up his sidekick up and left him in storage, which is just plain rude. With its smarts, its lasers, and its sense of humor, Skeets is more than ready to branch out and do its own thing.

Yes! In Skeets' case, striking out on its own might even seem like *less* work.

Booster Gold #37

If you're paying attention, DC: yes, I would buy a Skeets solo comic.

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Web-surfing Booster boosters might have noticed an article at ScreenRant.com this week titled "Batman's Still Keeping His Saddest Secret From The Justice League" in which Tristan Benns writes about events from Blue and Gold #1.

(Spoiler Warning: If you still haven't read Blue and Gold, be aware that spoilers follow. But, c'mon. You're reading a Booster Gold blog, and the book came out three weeks ago. Please try to keep up.)

As I was saying, per ScreenRant.com:

Pretty much every member of the team berates Gold behind his back, except for Batman – the hero that fans and Leaguers would expect to like Booster the least....

It’s not entirely clear whether Booster’s status as master of time has been restored in Infinite Frontier, but Batman’s silence when the rest of the League rejects Booster speaks volumes, as does the knowing look he gives the Blue Beetle.

Sure, I noticed Batman's silent treatment, and I agree it speaks volumes. But to decipher what's going on here, it might be helpful to clarify Batman's historical relationship with Booster Gold.

Contrary to what might be presumed given his famously dour personality, Batman has always been among Booster's earliest supporters. In fact, Booster even made The Batman smile with his performance during his original audition for Justice League membership in Justice League #4 (1987):

Batman and Booster as written by Keith Giffen and J.M DeMatteis

Two decades later, in the pages of in the pages of Booster Gold #1,000,000 (2008), The World's Greatest Detective would reveal another reason he had always stood up for Booster: he knew Booster would become a Time Master before Booster ever did.

Batman and Booster as written by Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz

The events of Flashpoint changed much of the history of the DC Universe, but Batman was among the least affected, and his staunch support of Booster Gold was still on display in Justice League International #1 (2011). So it should come as no surprise that Batman would remain among Booster's allies in the Infinite Frontier-era Blue & Gold, even if he and Ted Kord are the only ones.

Knowing all that, if there's anything to be read into Batman's silence in Blue and Gold, it's that Booster is definitely still a Time Master, and Batman still knows all about it.

Batman and Beetle (about Booster) as written by Dan Jurgens

Footnote: "Pretty much every member of the team... except for Batman" is a very correct description of the scene in Blue and Gold because while Batman stays silent, one other Leaguer actually speaks up in defense of Booster Gold. That hero is Black Canary, who not coincidentally is the only other current team member who was present at Booster's debut in the aforementioned Justice League #4. (You can see her blond hair behind Captain Marvel in the panels above.) Old school is the best school.

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Now available at your Local Comic Shop:

Batman Beyond Volume 8: The Eradication Agenda collects the final 8 issues of the recently-canceled Batman Beyond series, including the excellent 2-part "Canceled by Yesterday" story written by Booster Gold creator Dan Jurgens.

If you missed that the first time around, you'll be pleased to encounter it in this reprint paperback.

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I said at the start of the week that I wanted to talk about Generations Forged, so if you haven't read that yet (or for that matter Generations Shattered or Dark Knights: Death Metal ), beware that spoilers follow.

...

...

You've been warned.

...

You know from cover (and timing) of Generations Shattered, this story takes place in the DC Omniverse created in the wake of Dark Nights: Death Metal.

Dark Nights: Death Metal #7, January 2021

As if the Omniverse wasn't a big enough concept to take in, it only gets bigger. ("Infinity is just so big that, by comparison, bigness itself looks really titchy," explainsthe Hitchhikers Guide the Galaxy.)

At the end of Generations Forged, as Waverider returns the Batman of 1939 (abducted by Kamandi in Detective Comics #1000) to his native time, he introduces us to another concept:

Generations Forged #1, February 2021

Waverider goes on to imply that the Batman of 1939 will continue fighting into the modern day, that the Batmen of all publishing ages (Golden, Silver, Modern) are the same character (who may or may not have memories of all of his adventures.)

While the Omniverse just increases the size of the bucket for potential story settings, the Linearverse is a radical revision to understanding DC Comics' publishing history.

For GamesRadar.com, Michael Doran has already written several articles on the implications of this revelation, each quoting Generations Forged architect Dan Jurgens on his intent with this new Linearverse.

"It's fair to say that what we built here, the Linearverse, is its own universe that can fit into the larger context of DC's Omniverse," explains Jurgens. "It's a place where some unique and individual stories can be told."

Jurgens himself admits that this is an imperfect solution to an artificial problem. Comic book fans have always struggled with reconciling how Dick Grayson could be a boy in 1940 and still a young man in 2020 or how both Superboy and Superman could each have co-existing adventures for most of 80 years. These are only "problems" when trying to reconcile the lives of fictional characters with the passage of nonfictional time, but they are problems that fans have nonetheless tried to resolve for as long as we've been reading and relating to new monthly comics.

I don't mean to suggest that I think the Linearverse is necessarily any worse than any other attempt at reconciling the impossible. From my restricted point of view as the chronicler of the adventures of multiversal time-traveler Booster Gold, I've always attempted to to harmonize the many incarnations of Booster Gold onto a single entity, albeit an occasionally fractured and splintered one. That's no so different from what happens in the Linearverse.

So, to finally get to the serious question I referenced in my post title, what I want to know is whether the adventure told in Generations Shattered and Generations Forged happened to a Booster Gold in a previously existing continuity or not? The rules as explained for the new Linearverse would seem to suggest it happened to all known Boosters while at the same time happening to none of them, or maybe only those that exist inside a Linearverse that reflects the sum of all other universes.

For reasons I can't quite express, I don't find any of these options entirely satisfying (thought that may not be surprising coming from someone who obsessively tracks super hero minutia for a hobby).

Perhaps there is no definitive answer to my question, at least not yet. As GameRadar reports,

"There are all sorts of stories and adventures worth exploring in the Linearverse," Jurgens concludes. "If readers like what they've seen, react well to the concept, and ask for more, it might just happen."

Like so much else, maybe the answer to my question will only become clearer with time.

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