ComicsBeat.com writer John Seven calls our attention to something I didn't know existed. From his article, "70 Out-of-the-Way Songs About DC Superheroes":

The Corps – Booster Gold
When Booster Gold first appeared in 1986, I thought the character was dumb. And I've never totally warmed up to him, but certain appearances — Heroes In Crisis, for instance — have made the character more palatable for me. Anyhow, this song gets bonus points for mentioning Blue Beetle a couple times as it goes over the Booster Gold story. The album also features songs about Wonder Woman, Supergirl, the Rann-Thanagar War, Identity Crisis, and more. Buy it [on Amazon] or stream it on Spotify.

I find it hard to trust the opinion of anyone who actually liked the characterizations in Heroes in Crisis, but any punk song with a Skeets reference is good by me. Parents, beware that the album contains explicit lyrics.

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DC Comics released solicitations for November 2017 earlier this week. If you don't already have it in digital or floppy form, you'll soon have a third chance to see Booster's final, one-panel cameo appearance in Smallville continuity courtesy of the aptly-titled Smallville Season Eleven Volume 9: Continuity. That looks like about our only chance to see our hero in November. My question is "Why?"

Let's look at the bigger picture. Based on available numbers assembled by ComcisBeat.com and ComicChron.com, DC Universe titles have seen hard copy periodical sales fall by more than 21% over the past decade (and more than 42% since Rebirth's initial bump). Trade collections prop those numbers up slightly (adding 2% in either case), but not nearly enough to cover the full difference. Do digital sales make up that shortfall, or it simply a case that fewer people care to read DCnU titles these days? I certainly don't, and the primary reason is the continued absence of one particular character. (Hint, hint.)

DC doesn't exactly look to be taking that bad news lying down. Looking at solicitations, you'll see several new DCnU comics coming in November featuring lesser-known heroes. Black Lightning shines again in Black Lightning: Cold Dead Hands. The Demon is back in The Demon:Hell on Earth. Zatanna reappears in Mystik U. Even Batman's latest (and most lazily-named) protege, The Signal, is getting some love with Batman and the Signal.

While it is a good idea to inject new characters into the publishing line up, all of those are mini-series. You'd almost think DC was afraid of commitment. (Why wouldn't they be? Even death is impermanent in the DCU.) However, the company seems equally unwilling to drop the hammer on underperforming ongoing titles to make room for new ones.

In June (the most recent month for which numbers are available) the company had 3 ongoing titles that undersold the lowest selling issue of Booster Gold volume 2 (Booster Gold #43 in 2011). New Superman and Blue Beetle had June issues very near DC's pre-Flashpoint cancellation threshold. The worst performing of the three, Cyborg, is doing worse than its pre-Rebirth numbers, and it was trending below the old threshold then! Judging by November solicitations, all of these will continue into November with no cancellation, taking up valuable opportunities for titles with a chance to spark interest in new readers.

I don't mean to suggest that returning Booster Gold to action would reverse any of those negative sales trends for the company, but I do suggest it couldn't hurt. At worst, Booster Gold can outsell Cyborg! I can name at least one reader who would be picking up more DCnU books if Booster Gold was around.

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ComicsBeat.com has the exclusive preview of today's The Flash #21, and you don't have to look to hard to find a cameo appearance by the sidekick of the future, Skeets!

This is hardly the first time we've seen Skeets' outer shell among the artifacts stored in the JLA trophy room. One version or another has been in the Watchtower since JLA Secret Files & Origins #2 in 1998. We saw a similar image in Justice League of America, volume 2, #7 in 2006.

However, this is the first time we've seen the Justice League Unlimited version of Skeets in the regular DCnU. Is this multiverse crossover a side effect of Convergence, Rebirth, or just an artist who likes the JLU look? Who cares? It's Skeets!

Thanks to Benni Beard for pointing out this easter egg!

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Seattle, Washington, played host to the annual Emerald City Comicon this past weekend. Fortunately for us, Comics Beat writer Todd Allen attended the "DC Comics: The New 52" panel on Friday, and liveblogged this bit of Q&A between an audience member and the panel:

Q: What happened to Booster Gold?

A: Stay tuned.

"Stay tuned"? That's an official response from the DC representatives? As reporter Kiel Phegley explains at Comic Book Resources:

A frequent joke within the room was when the panel would respond with a purposeful "Stay tuned" to fan questions as if to indicate that, yes, their picks for more revivals were on the way. Queries that earned a "stay tuned" included the possibility of an "Earth 2" spinoff series, a return of Booster Gold and a series for the Atom.

Well, that is more encouraging! I guess if we want to find out more, we'll just have to stay tuned.

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Comicsbeat.com finally released their number crunching for DC October sales last week, and it looks pretty much like what I expected. Of interest are the annual sales comparisons for Booster Gold:

• Sales down 10.2% over 6 months ago;
• Sales down 17.6% over 1 year ago;
• Sales down 40.5% over 2 years ago.

These declines are pretty much in line with the other mid-tier DC books. So surprise, surprise, despite the doom and gloom numbers I keep harping over, Booster Gold is about exactly where we should expect it to be. Booster fans can breathe easier!

Diamond has yet to release the sales numbers for Booster Gold for November, but I think I can probably venture a pretty good guess about where they will be. November wasn't a great month for DC sales in general, especially when compared to last year when DC offered the Blackest Night ring promotion. So I expect the sales slide to continue to about 17,025 issues. We'll see what we see when the real numbers arrive.

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