Hey, kids! Today's your first second chance to buy November's Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Infinite Crisis #1 one-shot, as it is included in Tales form the Dark Multiverse hardcover collection. Better late than never.

Speaking of reprints, if you're the sort of person who reads comic book related news sites — either for fun or because you run a website devoted to a comic book character who only sporadically appears as a background character in other books and you're always looking for new content — you may have heard that today's Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #3 went to a second printing two weeks before the issue was ever released!

Believe it or not, that post-Final Order Cut-off/pre-New Release sellout happened because DC failed to mention in the solicitations provided to the stores that a certain super-popular character appears in it.

That character is sadly NOT Booster Gold.

Per DC's February 11 press release at dccomics.com:

The debut of Punchline, the Joker’s deadly new henchperson, has led to pre-on sale sellouts of both Batman #89 and Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #3—and now, DC announces that these issues, both written by James Tynion IV—are rushing back to press for second printings!

Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #3’s second printing covers the confrontation between Lex Luthor and The Joker, with help from Punchline and Mercy, as the conflict between the forces of Perpetua and the Batman Who Laughs reaches the boiling point. Written by Tynion IV with art by Steve Epting, this issue will arrive in stores with a recolored version of its original cover by Epting.

The second printings of Batman #89 and Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #3 will both be published on March 4. If the comics aren’t already on your pull lists, contact your local comic book shop and let them know you’re looking for these issues to be added!

For the record, no one knew this milked cash cow "Punchline" character would be in these two books until DC announced it... on February 7. Hint to DC: if you want people to buy your comics in the specialty shops dedicated to your product, maybe you should tell us about them before those stores have to place their orders from you. Otherwise, you're kind of shooting yourself in the foot. You won't make a single penny on the two or more (or much more) times cover price I'll now be paying for a first edition printing of a new Booster Gold comic book, so you end up losing money and angering fans. That's good business, he says sarcastically.

Sigh. Oh, well. I guess it's just one last thing I can blame on newly ex-publisher Dan "don't let the door hit you on the way out" DiDio. (Double sigh. Now who am I going to blame for everything I don't like about DC Comics?)

If you can find it for a reasonable price, buy this issue and make Skeets happy.

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Friday afternoon, The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that DC finally plans to release their comprehensive Rebirth continuity in 2020. That's a mere 9 years after they threw out decades of character development in a bid to boost sales.

"We're starting to figure out how continuity works," [DC Comics co-publisher Dan] DiDio said about the process, noting that reboots and complicated retcons are what happens when "things stop making sense."

I'm glad that DiDio, who has overseen DC Comics' output since 2004, has finally realized the value of continuity to the types of stories that his company sells. Better late than never, I guess.

Anyway, I'm sure that what you want to know, as a visitor to a Booster Gold fan site, is "how will this affect Booster Gold?" The answer looks to be: Pretty significantly.

DiDio made the announcement at the "DC Nation" panel of this past weekend's New York Comic Convention accompanied with an illustrated graphic. Bleeding Cool spent most of the weekend pouring over the visible bits of that timeline. I can't make out anything, but Rich Johnston seems to think it restores most of the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity as the third generation of DC heroes.

If that is to be believed, it looks like Booster Gold's history once again includes his joining the original "Bwah-ha-ha" Justice League International alongside Blue Beetle. Also restored: Infinite Crisis and Justice League: Generation Lost. Is there time for 52 to have happened in there somewhere? One can only hope.

Will any of this ever make it to print? Will the short-lived New 52 continuity be abandoned? How can Convergence be shoehorned into this new chronology? Who knows. Maybe we'll find out after Doomsday Clock finally ticks down in December.

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The latest issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine is out just in time for Comic Con and includes Chancellor Agard's interview with Tom King about many things, but especially his plans for Heroes in Crisis:

EW: Based on the cover, it looks like Booster Gold and Harley Quinn will play a big role in Heroes in Crisis. Why did you pick those two characters?

King: They're the two stars of the book along with the Trinity. I do this comic called Mister Miracle, which I really like. The way Mister Miracle started was me going to [co-publisher] Dan DiDio and asking him, "I want to do something amazing with a character, but you have to give me some room to do some stuff, and you pick the character." He picked Mister Miracle and that's how that started. It's unoriginal, but I wanted to repeat that success. So when I came up with this Heroes in Crisis idea, I went back to Dan and said, "Can we do this again? Give me two heroes, I’m going to put them through the ringer and at the end we’re going redefine them to be central to the DCU, pillars of this universe." And the two he gave me were Booster Gold and Harley Quinn. I think they're perfect because they’re almost two sides of the same coin. They're both, like, these manic dreamers who have made huge mistakes and come back from them. They're kind of these survivors.

I'm not sure I like the idea of Tom King "redefining" Booster Gold, but "pillar of this universe" sounds nice.

You can read the rest of the interview online at EW.com or in the magazine on newstands now. Heroes in Crisis will be in comic shops everywhere on September 26.

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The closest thing to Booster Gold news coming out of New York Comic Con this past weekend was included in this report of the "Sunday Conversation" panel with Dan DiDio and Keith Giffen (among others) as reported by Joe Glass for BleedingCool.com:

A fan says he'd love to see Seven Soldiers of Victory book, another says Booster Gold, another with Secret Six. Someone says Ambush Bug (Giffen: "No.")

So Booster was a no-show at NYCC, but he's not so underrepresented at all conventions.

This is George Pooley (with his "best mate") at the MCM Manchester Comic Con in the UK back in July:

See? Blue and Gold were in the house!

Thanks to George for sharing. Keep up the good cosplaying, men.

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The latest thing to be reborn at DC Comics is Direct Currents, their free in-house advertising periodical. I found issue number 1 in my Local Comic Shop this week. Booster Gold isn't inside, but his little buddy is!

"The Further Adventures of DC Co-Pub Dan DiDio", Direct Currents #1 (2017), page 16

Yup, that's definitely Skeets, among the "hidden items" like Aquaman's trident and Green Lantern's power battery in the corner of Dan DiDio's office playset. (What's that you say? They're not very hidden? Perhaps you expect too much from a free advertising periodical.)

Although it's not listed among the hidden items in the office, I have to think that's Rip Hunter's whiteboard there behind Doll DiDio. Why Rip might be doodling Batman's head is anybody's guess, but I have to assume that its because his old foe The Eraser will be appearing in the next wave of Rebirth titles. It could happen.

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