If you happened to pick up Wonder Woman #777 earlier this month, you may have recognized her gender-swapped Earth-11 counterpart, Wonder Man. What you may not have realized is that Wonder Man and Booster Gold have history. Sort of.

For the rest of that story, let's turn back the dial to Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer: Superwoman/Batwoman #1, the first appearance of Dane of Elysium, aka Wonder Man.

written by Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti; art by Kalman Andrasofszky, Kanila Tripp, John J. Hill

Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer: Superwoman/Batwoman was released in 2008 as a tie-in to the year-long Countdown (to Final Crisis) series, and it re-introduced readers to Earth-11, an alternate universe first visited in 2005's Batman/Superman #23 — though it wasn't called "Earth-11" at that time. The reconstitution of the DC Multiverse in the wake of Infinite Crisis wouldn't be revealed until roughly two years later at the conclusion of 52. (And they say the DC Multiverse is too confusing. Pfft!)

As you can see from these panels, Earth-11 shares much of the history of Earth-1, including familiar events of Identity Crisis (2004), Wonder Woman #219 (2005), and Amazons Attack! (2007).

All Booster Gold fans will remember Maxwell Lord's killing of Blue Beetle in the accurately titled Countdown to Infinite Crisis. Well, on Earth-11, those events played out somewhat differently.

The Maxine Lord executed by Wonder Man didn't kill the female Blue Beetle. She killed Beetle's best friend: Booster Gold.

Thus, in a way, Wonder Man avenged Booster Gold's death!

A guy like that can't be all bad.

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It's looking like a golden year for Booster boosters. In addition to our hero co-starring in Action Comics — another issue will be out this week! — we've also gotten several collectible figures.

First came the Previews Exclusive Funko Pop Blue Beetle and Booster Gold two-pack (sold in both standard and metallic variants). Those should now be available at your Local Comic Shop.

Then the much-discussed 12-inch Justice League Action arrived at Amazon.com. (Order yours today!)

But that's not all! In addition to these other fine collectibles, Wiz Kids Games' released Heroclix Booster Golden Organized Play prize support late last month. That's right, there are new Booster Gold themed Heroclix, including Skeets!

Booster is a reuse of the same sculpt from last year's World's Finest set. However, this is the first standalone Skeets sculpt in the Heroclix line (which has been making DC characters since 2002).

Booster and Skeets are officially available only through tournament play at authorized specialty shops, but you can probably find them for resale on eBay and other secondary markets.

I hope you all have room in your collections for all the good stuff coming our way!

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To no one's great surprise, the Most Viewed Post at Boosterrific.com in the past 12 months was the return of Booster Gold in his own, self-titled one-shot in September:

It was good to see so many people excited about Booster Gold: Futures End #1 after a several-year hiatus for our hero. I look forward to continuing that momentum with his two issue Convergence tie-in miniseries in 2015.

Thanks for a good 2014, Booster Boosters. Let's make 2015 shine!

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Continuing our count-down of Most Viewed Posts at Boosterrific.com in 2014, we'll discover that my investigation into the true identity of the Black Beetle got people talking.

The series ran for a week back in early September. You can follow these links to read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and most importantly, Your Guesses.

More to come tomorrow.

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I'll be away from my keyboard for the rest of the week, so once again I'm setting the site into low content mode and counting down the Most Viewed Posts of the past year.

The post coming in at number three on the countdown ran in March and showcases professional fan art!

This sketch was featured on Brett Booth's website, demonpuppy.blogspot.com, months before we discovered he'd be participating in September's Booster Gold: Futures End. Self-fulfilling prophecy, hmm?

More to come tomorrow.

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