Booster Gold appears two new books this week!

If you recall the end of Speed Force #5, Booster was the MC for the kickoff of the Symphonee Music Festival. What the reading audience knows — and Booster doesn't — is that Symphonee is actually a mind-control app that the Fiddler, Mad Mod, Music Meister, and Klarion the Witch Boy have built with the ultimate goal of... brainwashing teens for money? Okay, I admit, their ultimate goal still isn't quite clear.

Booster should have known better than to get involved in a business run by a bunch of super-villains. Therefore, it's up to Kid Flash to save the day in Speed Force #6 (preview online at AIPTComics.com):

It might be too late to cut and run, Booster. Do you think the general public is likely to forget that you already went on tv and announced you were a sponsor of this festival — with accompanying merchandise? Those "one-of-a-kind" Booster Gold Symphonee collectors cups are destined to turn up as evidence in a lawsuit and as punchlines on late night talk shows.

Elsewhere, in the backup story in Green Lantern #10, Booster and Skeets have a whole page to debate Booster's declining media exposure. No preview is available for this one, but you shouldn't need one once I tell you that it was drawn by Kevin Maguire!

Buy these issues and make Skeets happy.

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The Gold Beetle returns — as a prisoner of the Linear Men! — in this week's The Flash #7:

written by Simon Spurrier, art by Ramon Perez

Seven issues into this latest Flash volume, it's still a big mystery what's actually going on (thanks, decompression!), so I can't explain it to you. What I can say for sure is that the mysterious Linear Man codenamed "Inspector Pilgrim" talking to Max Mercury and Impulse claims he and the detained Gold Beetle are "kinda family."

While I'm inclined to believe that "Inspector Pilgrim" is yet another future version of Jai West (who smooched with Gold Beetle during the One Minute War), I suppose it's a possibility that Pilgrim has some relationship with Booster Gold or Blue Beetle.

Maybe one day we'll find out.

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Late last week, Booster booster J sent me a bunch of new sighting of old ads to update the list of Boosterrific Advertisements. However, one of his finds is this:

That house advertisement comes from Flashpoint Companion, a collection of promotional material — mostly cover art — supporting the Flashpoint event.

So far as I can determine, Flashpoint Companion was a digital only release originally published online in 2012 at read.dccomics.com. Although DC discontinued that subdomain URL in 2013, you can still read it free online via DC Infinite, Google Play, Apple Books, or Amazon (and probably many others).

Other than this two-page spread — essentially a glorified reading list — the only actual "story" inside the book is a two-page "The Origin of the Flash" written by Scott Beatty (which, according to his blog, scottbeatty.blogspot.com, was originally created as a Converse shoe promotion, probably sometime around 2008-2009, as I believe it was included in the DC Universe: Origins collection of the 2-page origins published in 2010 Never mind. It's not in there).

In fact, it's probably worth mentioning that all the art for this promo was pulled from other sources. The central image of Flash comes from an Andy Kubert drawn house ad at the end of 2010's The Flash Volume 3 #1 (as you can see at Flash fansite speedforce.org). The background behind the Flash (a callback to the sublime wraparound slipcase cover for the Crisis on Infinite Earths hardcover by George Perez and Alex Ross) was taken from Flashpoint #5 (also drawn by Kubert).

The crackle section with Booster and Professor Zoom are the covers of Booster Gold #45 by Dan Jurgens, Norm Rapmund, and Hi-Fi Designs and Flashpoint: Reverse Flash #1 by Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes.

I don't find print copies of this thing documented online in any of the usual places, but it's possible it has been overlooked given its slight content. Does anyone know if Flashpoint Companion was ever officially published (i.e., committed to paper)? Perhaps as an in-store giveaway?

As a general rule, I confine mention of digital-only content to here on the Boosterrific Blog and leave it out of the larger tracking Boosterrific Database, in large part because digital content is so ephemeral, even by comic book standards. Should I make an exception here given the ubiquity of the free copies floating around online ten years after its original release? Oh, the headaches of being an obsessive comic book chronicler!

Hearty thanks to J for your ongoing efforts to make Boosterrific better than ever.

UPDATE: J adds via email

A few years ago, DC had booklets advertising various characters, such as Batman 101 and JSA 101, where they'd print a list of essential stories, a some two-page origin stories, and comic covers.... In the "Justice League 201" booklet, they'd reprinted the Origin of Booster Gold from 52 #24. But unfortunately, it seems to no longer be available.

Like the Flashpoint Companion, I believe those also only existed digitally, and my bias against tracking digital media applies. For years, DC made those 2-page origins available for free on their website as part of their character guides; that content seems to have evaporated as well.

And that's why I prefer physical floppies: DC can't take the paper away from me (unless they back a moving truck up to my house).

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Don't let that headline mislead you; I'm not expecting to see Booster Gold in this week's The Flash #799. But as the issue preview now available at AIPTComics.com demonstrates, we will definitely be seeing Gold Beetle:

As I said a few weeks ago, I'm expecting we'll see Gold Beetle again on June 6 in The Flash's "extra-sized" final issue #800. (Don't worry, DC is restarting Flash with a whole new number one in September... because, um, the number one is cooler.)

What I was NOT expecting, and what I learned from reading the Flash #800 preview also already online at AIPTComics.com, is that the issue will feature an appearance by Booster Gold's long-lost second foe, Mindancer!

I can't wait to find out what she's been up to for the last 37 years!

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I've been really, really busy lately, so I haven't even made it to my Local Comic Shop in a week. Therefore, I wouldn't have known about this week's Gold Beetle appearance if not for Booster booster Marty. Thanks, Marty!

As you can see above, Gold Beetle and Wally West have their first meeting (from her perspective) in this week's Flash #798.

Of course, their first meeting from his perspective was in Flash #767, during which he was displaced in time and inhabiting Impulse's body in the 30th century. So their objectively chronological "present day" first encounter would be Flash #795. Confused yet?

One of these days I really need to devote more time to Gold Beetle, and that time might be soon. It sure looks like she'll be back for Flash #799, and no self-respecting heir to the legacy of Booster Gold would dare miss a milestone issue like #800....

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