On Monday, I linked to a CBR interview with Dark Crisis writer Joshua Williamson. When I wrote that post, I didn't realize that Williamson had already tweeted Ethan Young's alternate cover for Dark Crisis #3 which features Blue and Gold:

No front-facing camera, Harley? Is that an iPhone 3?

That group is what CBR called the "Not Really" Justice League that Jon Kent will form in the wake of the Justice League's apparent death in Justice League #75. Williamson's tweet emphasizes "THERE IS NO JUSTICE LEAGUE." Given the League's history, that sounds especially ominous.

Longtime Booster boosters may recall that in the absence of a Justice League following the events of Infinite Crisis, Firehawk organized a new, self-proclaimed Justice League during the year-long 52. It lasted 18 pages before being defeated and disgraced... by Skeets.

See, a wormhole had opened in present-day Metropolis and a swarm of pirates had just descended on the city streets....
In hindsight, that probably should have been a job for Superman.

(Technically, that new League was thwarted by Skeets' corporeal body but not its consciousness, although that opens a whole 'nother can of unresolved worms about whether or not Skeets is truly sentient. But I digress.)

Of course, Firehawk's team didn't have a Booster Gold, much less two Blue Beetles. (And they presumably won't have to fight Skeets.) So maybe Superman Jr's team will have better luck against the all-consuming evil that effortlessly disintegrated Superman, Wonder Woman, and Martian Manhunter among others.

I wish the Not Really Justice League all the luck when Dark Crisis #3 drops this August. They're going to need it.

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I've got a few things I want to say about Generations Forged, but I'm waiting until it's been out for at least a week so that I don't accidentally spoil anything for anyone. To a lesser extent, the same goes for Future State: Suicide Squad #2 too.

While we pass the time, let's all reminisce about that time Booster Gold travelled back to the Old West to match his fingergun draw speed against DC's Western hero, Nighthawk (and his partner, Cinnamon), an event immortalized in this old-timey long exposure photograph:

It looks improvised, but Booster had to hold that pose for 20 seconds!

Okay, so that's not a hundred-year-old sepia-toned photo but a commission from the incomparable Doc Shaner for Booster art collector The Happy Sorceress, recently shared via Twitter.com.

Photo or drawing, I'm sure you agree that whatever it is, it's Boosterrific!

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You may have heard that there's something of a global health crisis ongoing right now. As someone with older parents, I find it a little scary, which makes it a fitting topic for Friday the 13th. What would make me feel better is a super hero who could stop a spreading disease dead in its tracks.

Which brings me to that time that Booster Gold single-handedly prevented a disease outbreak (with a little help from Skeets).

Of course, when pandemics strike the DC Universe, there's usually some super villain at work. That was definitely the case in the story "Dream of Terror" published in Booster Gold #17 (1987).

Dr. Pete Babich is biologist and eugenicist obsessed with solving the problems of social inequality. Like so many bad guys, Babich considers himself a hero who believes that he alone has "the courage to do what must be done." Specifically, he means releasing a virulent, globe-spanning disease that will kill everyone he considers to be "undesirable," by which he means "poor."

To initiate his class warfare, he enlists the help of the Teen Titan Hawk. Babich has misled Hawk into thinking that the disease won't kill outright, but will instead sterilize the population. For some reason, Hawk still thinks this is a good idea.

Babich's initial target? Mexicans. He might have gotten away with it, too, if the Russians hadn't gotten involved via their agent, the mercenary Cheshire. (This is an American comic, remember? With us, it's always Mexicans and Russians.)

Because of the Russians' attempt to steal Babich's creation to use for their own purposes, the evil doctor is exposed to his own disease. It works as advertised, destroying a certain undesirable human in a scene delightfully dripping with dramatic irony.

It would be tragedy if Babich's engineered plague went on to kill hundreds or thousands worldwide, but this being a comic book, that's not going to happen. Especially not with Booster Gold on the scene.

Everyone lives happily ever after!

I certainly don't mean to suggest that COVID-19 is the work of a super villain (or the Russians). I just find reassurance in stories about good, powerful people putting their own lives on the line to save us. In the DC Universe, they're called super heroes. In the real world, we call them health care professionals.

Stay safe, everybody. (Personally, I'll be spending the foreseeable future indoors reading comics, so it's not all bad.)

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Booster Gold has never been especially lucky in love. In fact, he's never been very lucky in anything at all. But his love affairs stand out as particularly star-crossed.

While Booster has had semi-stable relationships with actress Monica Lake and Firestorm's main squeeze, Firehawk, he's just as likely to be seen striking out. Justice League International fans may recall Booster made a fool of himself hitting on Justice League Europe liaison Catherine Cobert. Superboy fans might remember the embarrassing time Booster and Beetle both failed in their desperate attempts to pick up Superboy's fellow Raver Aura. But does anyone remember that time during Invasion! when Booster Gold struck out with Dove?

As seen in a flashback in Hawk & Dove Volume 3, #1 — released 27 years ago today! — Booster decided that the middle of an alien invasion of Earth was the right time to make a move on Dove. (The heart wants what the heart wants!) Both Dove and Hawk disagreed.

Awk-ward! For a Time Master, Booster Gold can have some pretty bad timing.

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I'm always particularly tickled when I see Booster Gold referenced outside the world of comic books. So you can imagine my amusement when I saw that Kissing Suzy Kolber, an Uproxx.com satellite site devoted to NFL football, had referenced Booster Gold (and Skeets!) in an article on superhero predictions for Super Bowl XLIX.

BOOSTER GOLD: I really gotta hand it to the Seahawks— their brand integration is top notch. I don't want to know how much the Mars company pays them for all that Skittles stuff. Gotta be boatloads of money. Plus, as a glory boy myself, I really, really dislike Pats fans. Skeets and I think the Hawks take it by 3.

Hard to doubt a pick made by a time-travelling quarterback. To read the predictions of other heroes, visit out kissingsuzykolber.com.

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