I don't read Batman, so I missed it when Batman #72 came out back in June and finally answered a question we had about Batman #50.

You remember Batman #50, right? That's the one that was supposed to end with a wedding, but instead ended with Bane standing around with his pals. And Skeets.

art by Mikel Janin, June Chung, Clayton Cowles

What was Skeets doing in a room full of villains? According to Batman #72, he was just another discarded tool.

art by David Finch, Jordie Bellaire, Clayton Cowles

The "you" in the above text is Bane. So it's really Bane's fault that Booster Gold was a total idiot in Batman #45. I guess.

So Bane is so smart he knew how Booster's meddling with history would ruin the world in exactly the way that he needed it to? And he knew that Booster would go out of his way to tell Batman what he experienced in the pocket universe that his idiocy created?

And while we're on the topic, if Skeets' only purpose was to depress Bruce Wayne, why did Bane bother to recover Skeets after Batman #47?

Guh. Whatever, Tom King. Whatever.

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Here's something I missed in the run up to Comic-Con: a teaser poster for DC's Year of the Villain event!

You probably can't see him, but Booster Gold is in there, right between Flash and Wonder Woman!

This ad was released online in July and appeared in all DC imprint comics published this week. (Does anyone recognize the artist? Drawn by Nick Bradshaw, inked by Cully Hamner, and colored by Hi-Fi Designs.) It specifically teases the first storyline in the upcoming Batman/Superman #1.

Booster's inclusion here shouldn't come as a surprise, as he had already been linked to the issue in May's DC's Year of the Villain Special. I guess we'll have to buy Batman/Superman #1 — in stores August 28 — to find out if Booster is truly among the "Secret Six" victims of the Batman Who Laughs.

In very related news, Jonathan Reichman pointed out that this week DC announced six new series to tie directly into the Batman/Superman series and four (and counting) Tales from the Dark Multiverse one-shots. One of those stories hints bad things for our hero.

Per the press release from DCComics.com:

TALES FROM THE DARK MULTIVERSE: INFINITE CRISIS #1
Writer James Tynion IV (Justice League, Justice League Dark) and artists Aaron Lopresti (Wonder Woman) and Matt Ryan (Damage) team up with cover artist Lee Weeks for this dark turn on DC’s mega-event Infinite Crisis. The destruction of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, the rise of Alexander Luthor and Superboy-Prime, and the rebirth of the Multiverse all began with Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle. Kord saw it all coming and died with secrets that could have saved the world. But in the Dark Multiverse, Blue Beetle survives, and with the death of Maxwell Lord by his hand, Ted sets off events that irreversibly alter the lives of not only the Justice League, but also his best friend, Booster Gold. In trying to prevent a crisis, Blue Beetle becomes the crisis, and the Dark Multiverse will never be the same.

Thanks for warning us that was coming, Jonathan. Let's see if we learn more when DC releases November solicitations (probably next week).

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As mentioned last week, you'll find Booster Gold in today's Batman: Last Knight on Earth #2, at least in a very small cameo. If you want more Booster, you can also pick up the hardcover Injustice 2 Volume 6 for $24.99.

Included in this final collection are Injustice 2 #31 through #33. Be forewarned, things do not go well for our hero in Tom Taylor's video-game inspired universe. However, our hero makes his final adventure as satisfyingly poignant as it is entertaining. Plus, he gets a cool jacket as a parting gift.

And while we're on the subject of new releases, Rob Snow reports that DC is planning a collection of Conglomerate stories reprinted from Justice League Quarterly. Per the preorder link he found at Amazon.com:

For the first time since its original publication, Keith Giffen's Justice League Quarterly brings a quirky and unique take on the Justice League!

Introducing the Conglomerate, a new super-team assembled by Booster Gold! Booster's new pals and gals are Maxi-Man, Praxis, Gypsy, Echo, Vapor and Reverb, but pretty soon Booster's got to wonder if their industry backers want them to be heroes...or corporate puppets.

Collects stories from Justice League Quarterly #1-4.

The book hasn't yet been announced by DC, but that doesn't mean it's not coming. Rob spotted the upcoming Booster Gold collection on Amazon about a month before DC announced that, too. You've preordered yours already, right?

Thanks to Rob for finding those links for us. (Seriously, man, I swear I looked.)

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San Diego Comic Con was this past weekend, and it would have been the perfect time for DC Comics to leverage Booster Gold's recent starring role in Heroes in Crisis into some new material. So what, if anything, did we learn about Booster Gold this year? Not much.

Let us count the ways.

1. Tom King continues to miss the point of how bad Heroes in Crisis was.

At the show, Tom King was awarded the 2019 Best Writer Eisner Award for Batman, Mister Miracle, Heroes in Crisis, Swamp Thing Winter Special. Congratulations to him. As much as I complain about his writing, he seems like a decent guy. But please, Tom, never write Booster Gold again, especially since you don't seem to understand (or maybe, to accept) the weaknesses in your stories as published.

Per Newsarama.com's coverage of the Tom King panel:

"I loved [HiC]," said King. "I think killing Wally was a tough pill for people to swallow." ... King says Wally did not actually murder anyone, and to him, Wally is the hero of Heroes In Crisis.

I really don't mean to rip the band-aid off the nightmare that was Heroes in Crisis (unquestionably the worst comic series I've read in the past 12 months), but if King is going to be rewarded for mischaracterization in pursuit of whatever it was he thinks he was doing in that story, I can't keep quiet.

Wally may not be a "villain" in a traditional comic-book-morality sense, but who tried to cover up an accident by framing other heroes? Who stole from his "friends"? Who took steps to reveal the secret identities of the Justice League to the public? Who was planning to commit murder of his future self? That would be the villain of the piece: Wally West.

The moral of Heroes in Crisis isn't that sometimes bad things happen to good people; it's.... Hell, I still don't know what the moral is, but I'm sure it isn't "if you're having a bad day, go ahead and frame your friends for murder."

Meanwhile, who was it that fought to find the truth despite a public manhunt against him? And who turned his friends for support when he needed help most? And who managed to avoid the worst possible outcome? That would be the hero of the story: Booster Gold.

Maybe the moral is that real heroes don't get the credit they deserve for their bravery, determination, and compassion. Yeah, maybe that's it.

2. Booster Gold will make at least a cameo appearance in Batman: Last Knight on Earth #2.

The Blot wasn't at Comic Con this year, but he did spot our hero in Twitter.com coverage of the DC Black Label panel featuring artwork for the coming book. See if you've got better eyes than The Blot. (I don't.)

That's kind of small. Here's the half with Booster.

Need a little more? Ok, here he is standing in front of... Evil Star, maybe?

You'll find Batman: Last Knight on Earth #2, with art by Greg Capullo, in your Local Comic Shop next week.

3. You can read all of Booster Gold volume 1 on the DC All Access mobile app.

Okay, fine. This wasn't actually announced at SDCC, but it should have been.

This news about the DC Comics All Access App actually came to my inbox this weekend by way of an update from Bob Rossetto, who originally alerted us to the app's Gold deficiency back in September 2018. I'm very pleased that DC has finally fixed that oversight and made Booster more widely available to new audiences. Hooray!

Thanks to Blot and Bob both.

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Booster boosters know that much of Booster's origin was based on elements of Superman's Silver Age continuity (as covered on several pages of this site, including the Boosterrific! Blog post from December 4, 2015. But just because Booster became a successful hero in his own right didn't mean he was done "borrowing" from costumes and powers from Superman 's history.

Yes, I'm talking about Supernova.

Introduced in 52 Week 8 (2006), mysterious Metropolis hero Supernova's secret identity stumped even veteran reporter Clark Kent. Few at the time guessed that underneath his mask, Supernova was really the disgraced hero Booster Gold using the powers of flight and teleportation.

How did he do it? His teleportation was a clever manipulation of the Kryptonian Phantom Zone projector technology invented by Jor-El, Superman's father (first seen in Adventure Comics #283, 1961). And he flew by way of Booster's own 30th-century Legion Flight Ring, which in pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity had originally been Superboy's (first seen in Adventure Comics #329, 1965).

The best part is even the concept of Supernova as one-hero-disguised-as-another was a nod to something Superman once did.

cover art by Neal Adams

First seen in World's Finest Comics #178, 1968, the "Nova" persona was adopted by Superman as a way to continue fighting crime following an unfortunate encounter with an alien invader that left him powerless.

Nova used Batman's utility belt as his inspiration to create a costume with its own powers. Amusingly enough, this included a cape created by Leonardo da Vinci that Superman had picked up during an earlier time-traveling adventure. (In fact, Superman and Leonardo da Vinci had worked together as recently as the previous issue!)

The Nova personality was used only for a few misadventures, including a villainous turn against Batman and the triumphant defeat of a criminal mastermind. The costume was eventually shelved as Superman returned to his former costumed identity.

World's Finest Comics #180, by Cary Bates, Ross Andru, Mike Esposito, Ben Oda

Every Nova adventure took place in one of DC's infamous "imaginary" stories, but that doesn't make them any less influential. Booster Gold may be a thief, but at least he steals from the World's Finest!

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