If I write "Deathmetal" and "Bloodspot," you'd be forgiven for thinking I was just a bad typist.

One of the biggest talking points to emerge from last week's FanDome has been the upcoming Suicide Squad movie. Because its central tenant — belied by its title — requires the eradication of its members, the Suicide Squad has always been populated by lesser known villains from the fringe of the DC Universe. As Booster boosters have known for nearly a year, one of the characters in the upcoming film will be Blackguard, the villain Booster Gold fights on the cover of his very first appearance. Blackguard will be played by comedian Pete Davidson.

Another barely known Suicide Squad character who has been creating ripples in the fan press is Bloodsport. That's probably because Bloodsport is being played by Idris Elba. Like Blackguard, Bloodsport made his first appearance on the cover of a comic (Superman volume 2 #4, 1987). Also like Blackguard, he hasn't had a very illustrious career. Think of him as a deranged version of Rambo First Blood Part II who kills innocent people to protest how the American government treated Vietnam vets. It's not creator John Bryne's best work, and there's really not a lot of reason you should remember him.

Unless you have a head for Booster Gold trivia and remember the extremely Boosterrific JLA Incarnations #6, in which Booster Gold parodied the excessively violent, heavily muscled, tank-top and bandanna wearing Bloodsport. About the biggest change Booster made to Bloodsport's shtick was dropping the "r."

Blue Beetle and Booster Gold will always be the real Deathmetal and Bloodspot to me.

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If you missed your chance to pick up Dark Nights: Death Metal #3 at your Local Comic Shop two weeks ago, you get a second shot this week. Considering the heavy metal music theme, instead of a "second printing," we should probably call it a "re-release."

And while we're on the subject of Death Metal, let's look at your response to last week's poll.

Last week's poll question: Does the face in the crowd in Dark Night Death Metal Guidebook belong to Booster Gold? (32 votes)

That's about as close to an even split as I could have expected, and those responses are coming from people who love and watch for Booster Gold appearances. I guess that means that *was not* Booster Gold in Dark Nights: Death Metal Guidebook. Case closed?

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Earlier this week, Kat Calamia interviewed Aquaman fill-in writer Jordan Clark for GamesRadar or Newsarama or whatever they call themselves these days. Of particular interest to Booster boosters is the following exchange:

Nrama: You've only gotten your feet wet at DC, what other books would you like to work on in the future?

Clark: Oh wow, well anyone who knows me knows my undying love for Booster Gold, the greatest superhero of all time.

That is absolutely the right answer. Good luck with that, Jordan.

And while we're on the subject of things I crashed into while surfing the Internet, here's something I found on reddit.com under the heading "[Artwork] BLUE BEETLE & BOOSTER GOLD in the style of Dark Nights: Death Metal, by Fico Ossio":

Now *that* is some extreme justice!

Hey, DC, how about teaming up Jordan Clark and Fico Ossio on a Blue and Gold book? Pretty please? I'm already setting aside a $10 bill for that sucker. It's yours for the taking, DC. Come and get it.

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After Harley Quinn expressed her feelings last issue, I was expecting to see Booster Gold in yesterday's Harley Quinn #75, in which everyone taking up space in Harley's head helps her celebrate her birthday. But no. There's no sign of Booster Gold. Apparently Harley's love is as fickle as she is.

The closest we get to Booster in the "star-studded" series final issue is this t-shirt worn by Harley's west coast roommate, Becca.

Art by Sami Basri, Hi-Fi

Given that the series has been canceled and DC has yet to announce a replacement, the question becomes "Have we seen the last of #GoldieQuinn?" Only time will tell. (But we can hope.)

In related news, Booster may have skipped Harley's finale because he was trapped in a dungeon in another of yesterday's books, specifically Dark Nights Death Metal Guidebook. I say may because I'm not entirely sure myself.

Take a look at this panel and see what you think:

Art by Doug Mahnke, Jaime Mendoza, David Baron

It looks like *somebody* was in a hurry to get this panel done.

Is that Booster Gold? We saw the same crowd in Dark Nights Death Metal #3, and there aren't a whole bunch of characters it could be other than Booster Gold. Animal Man has angled goggles, Blue Beetle's hair is covered, and it definitely isn't Black Lightning.

So, you've seen the evidence. What's your vote? Booster or not?

This week's poll question: Does the face in the crowd in Dark Night Death Metal Guidebook belong to Booster Gold? Please visit the Boosterrific Polls page to view results for this week's poll.

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Booster booster Logan writes in to say

I spy with my little eye one Booster Gold in today's Dark Nights: Death Metal #3! My intuition nudged me to reserve a copy at my LCBS last week—I'm glad it looks to have paid off. :)

Trust that instinct, Logan! Booster is one of many, many characters in Dark Nights: Death Metal #3. In fact, his appearance in this story is that Greg Capullo-drawn panel Scott Snyder teased on Twitter back in June. So that's one mystery solved.

Go ahead and buy this issue to make Skeets happy, but don't expect to understand what's happening. I sure don't.

The issue references dozens of other comics published over the past two decades, challenging the recall of even hard-core continuity fans like me. There are four Batmen (Batmans?) in the first four story pages alone. Have I met them all before? (Wasn't Silver Surfer Batman one of those Legends of the Dark Knight action figures?)

Not even issue editor Marie Javins (who also happens to be one of the few to survive Monday's "bloodbath" of layoffs at Warner/DC) expects readers to be able to decipher who's doing what to whom here.

If I'm making up my own stories, Marie, I certainly don't need to be giving DC $5 for this.

According to the checklist in the back of the issue, there are — count 'em — twenty (!) *more* comics to go in this seven-issue mini-series. I guess I should praise DC's brevity for keeping it down to 24. It took 26 issues to list everyone in 1985's Who's Who, and there were only two Batmens back then. On the other hand, if this event is anything like what we've seen recently, the "end" of the story will only bleed into the next event series with twice as many issues and derivative characters again. Twenty three is a very small number compared to infinity and beyond!

Sorry, but I think I'll pass. My head-banging days are long behind me. I think I'll stick to the Wonder Comics imprint from now on.

Keep up the good work, Logan. If Booster appears in any more Death Metal issues, I'm counting on you to let me know!

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