You probably already have your Halloween costume ready, but just as a reminder, dressing as Booster Gold is always an option.

The above unidentified Booster Gold cosplayer was photographed by Michael Foster at DragonCon 2021. If that's you, let me know so that I can give you credit.

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Booster Gold has topped yet another CBR listicle, this time "10 Most Bizarre Alter Egos DC Heroes Have Used" by Scoot Allan.

Quoth the article:

1 Booster Gold Faked His Death And Disguised Himself As Supernova During 52

DC launched a weekly comic series called 52 following the events of Infinite Crisis that explored a year in the DC Universe without Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman. A mysterious new hero known as Supernova appeared in Metropolis that kicked off an ongoing mystery about the man behind the mask.

While many thought it was Superman, it turned out to actually be Booster Gold, who had faked his death in order to stop his corrupted robotic pal Skeets. What's really bizarre bout the Supernova identity is that it was also used by Booster Gold's ancestor Daniel Carter and then stolen by Booster Gold's father from the future, making it a multi-generational costumed alter ego.

First of all, let me say that if you have not yet read 52: why not? It's no accident that issue 15 made my list of the twelve best Booster Gold stories.

Secondly, the Supernova identity is more bizarre than even Scoot's two understated paragraphs imply. (Hint: it involves Superman pretending he's Batman.) For more information on the Silver Age comic book origins that inspired Supernova, I strongly encourage you read the July 2019 Boosterrific Blog post "Sunshine Supernova."

And thirdly, I'd say that Supernova isn't Booster Gold's most bizarre alter ego. That honor goes to Bloodspot.

JLA: Incarnations #6

Comic books are the best kind of weird.

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One of the casualties of the 1992 "Death of Superman" story, other than Superman, was Booster Gold's original costume. Destroyed by Doomsday, Booster's power-suit was soon replaced by a series of ungainly, lesser armors which became mandatory when Booster lost his arm in a battle with Devastator.

Booster was understandably bummed by the tech downgrade. You would be too, if you had to wear this:

Words by Ivan Velez Jr., Art by Rio, Branch, Burton, Leigh, and Loughridge

(Imagine being forced to use an iPhone 2 now that you're used to your iPhone 8. *shudder*)

Fortunately for our hero, his best pal, Ted Kord, worked diligently at developing better and better suits of armor. The best armor Ted would ever devise debuted on this day in 1995 in the pages of Extreme Justice #10:

Kord's "Mark X" armor was based on a pre-existing alien technology stolen by the Wonder Twins. When Ted reverse-engineered it for Booster's use, he incorporated Skeets' AI for its onboard operating system.

Though the suit made its first appearance in Extreme Justice #10, Booster wouldn't actually put it on until after his arm was replaced with cybernetics courtesy of the villainous Monarch in Extreme Justice #14. (It's a long story.) He also wouldn't wear it for very long. It was destroyed a year later.

And I think we're all okay with that.

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If you have been waiting for physical copies of Injustice 2 instead of buying them as they are released digitally each week on Comixology.com (only 99¢ per chapter!), you may be unaware that our hero has recently made a small change to his costume. And it looks pretty darn good.

Injustice 2 Chapter Fifty-Eight, art by Bruno Redondo, Juan Albarran, J. Nanjan

Check out that jacket! And it's got a collar! *swoon*

You'll be able to pick up the hard copy of this and Chapter Fifty Seven when they come to your Local Comic Shop on July 18 as Injustice 2 #30.

Thanks to Jeremy R! Hudson for spreading the fashionable news on Twitter.

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I received two emails over the weekend pointing out potential holes in the Boosterrific.com database. Thank you both so much for trying to make this website better.

Logan's email pointed me to Superman/Batman Secret Files 2003. I checked my back issues, and sure enough, there was Booster. Now the Boosterrific database is more complete than ever!

The other issue isn't quite so clear. Here's the original email from José:

Hi, I would like to ask if costumes count as appearances, like number 12 of JL 3001, where there is no appearance of Booster, but the costume does. Now, if they do, I would like to add Guy Gardner #18-21, appearing a prototype of the Booster costume.

José is talking about the power armor that Guy Gardner wore for the brief time in 1994 between the loss of his Qwardian power ring and the development of his Vuldarian shape-changing powers. That armor was designed by Ted Kord with the intention of using it to replace the power suit that Booster Gold lost to Doomsday.

Guy Gardner: Warrior #18 by Chuck Dixon, Mitch Byrd, Dan Davis, Stuart Chaifetz, Albert DeGuzman

While I certainly can see where José is coming from, I'm not sure I should be tracking these. As a rule, I always track Booster Gold appearances when he is seen on panel in a comic. Those include comics that clearly show Booster's costumes whether he is wearing them or not. (The only on-panel Booster Gold "appearances" I intentionally don't track are when he is mentioned in dialog between other characters when he doesn't actually appear in the book.) Therefore, the question here is whether Guy Gardner's armor really ever belonged to or can be identified as belonging to Booster Gold.

Evidence to support José's case can be found in Justice League America #80 when Beetle says Booster's bulky Mark II armor is based on the Rocket Red armor. Beetle says the same thing about Gardner's armor, but that doesn't make them the same armor. In Guy Gardner: Warrior #18 Beetle himself calls this suit a glitchy prototype, and there is no visual evidence in any comic book that Booster Gold ever wore it.

So is José right? Should I be tracking this costume? What do you think?

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