Lazy bloggers all around the Internet are using the New Year as an opportunity to create clickbait lists of previous posts.

As it happens, I'm no better than they are.

So here, for your nostalgic end-of-year reading enjoyment (and my self-serving need for blogging content), I present the 5 most-read Boosterrific.com blog posts of 2023:

5. Monday, September 25: Fall Housekeeping
In which we celebrate the 1,000th and 1,001st books including a Booster Gold appearance added to the Boosterrific.com Database. As I type this, we're now up to 1,012. The more Booster Gold, the better!

4. Friday, September 8: My Favorite Pages: Suicide Squad 13
In which we review Booster Gold being awesome (and taunting both Blue Beetle and Superman with it) on Suicide Squad, Volume 1, #13, page 3.

3. Friday, August 18: Go See Blue Beetle
In which we encourage people to go see the best Booster Gold-adjacent film to hit theaters in 2023, Blue Beetle. (Curmudgeonly shut-in that I am, I did not follow my own advice until recently. I've seen it now. It's fine, certainly better than the average DC superhero movie. It would go on to make $129 million against a budget of $104 million, which also seems fine to me. But every DC movie is a failure if it makes less than a billion these days.)

2. Monday, April 3: A Hard Day's Night
In which we tease how The Flash #795 retconned the important bits of Heroes in Crisis, meaning that we can all now and forevermore ignore that HiC happened.

1. Tuesday, January 31: Giving Thanks for Hollywood 2023 Edition
In which we interrupted our regular posting schedule to share the news that James Gunn announced that one day Booster Gold might actually get one of those television shows Hollywood has been promising us for over a decade. I'm sure this time they really mean it. At least I'm pretty sure they did at the time. January 2023 was a whole year ago! Who knows what ripple effects were created behind the scenes by the ensuing months-long strikes of both the writers and actors guilds? I mean, to know what the future of entertainment holds, you'd have to be some sort of time-traveler. And that's just crazy talk.

Here's to another Boosterrific year in 2024!

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I was recently perusing some back issues of Amazing Heroes magazine. I've previously reported on their disparaging review of Booster Gold's debut issue, but I found something else that Booster boosters might find interesting.

That something, as reported in Amazing Heroes #188, 1991, is Andy Mangels' "Backstage" column recap of an unfilmed 1990 Justice League movie script. Read on and you'll see why.

The Justice League of America

January 25, 1990 - James Cappe and David Arnott, teleplay; Jeff Freilich, James Cappe, and David Amott, story.

Planned for a two-hour telefilm, the Justice League script went thru four rewrites before the current plans were scrapped. Magnum Productions was working on the film for Lorimar, and was hampered by the use of so few characters. With Green Lantern, Flash, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman optioned, no references or usage of these characters would be allowed.

The story begins as Lord Industries is excavating an Egyptian cavern in Tibet. Professor David Cambell (and assistant Andy Helfer) uncover a dark helmet which, unbeknownst to them, houses the spirit of the Lord of Chaos. Meanwhile, on "A world a lot like our own ... only different," we meet the Oreo-loving Martian Manhunter stopping a crime and a pushy Booster Gold at Max Lord's museum-wing opening where the aforementioned helmet is about to be stolen. Despite Booster and scientist Ted Kord's "help," the helmet is spirited away. When the newly revived Lord of Chaos kidnaps Cambell and begins creating worldwide havoc, Maxwell Lord uses his friendship with the president to put together a force of vigilantes to protect the U.S.

He recruits the Martian Manhunter and Booster Gold, the actress/models Fire and Ice, Ted Kord's new identity of the Blue Beetle, and the altruistic-to-a-fault super-escape-artist Mr. Miracle and his pal Oberon (over objections from Miracle's wife, Barda). The newly christened Justice League of America soon faces their first trial... interviewing Mrs. Cambell.

Then, at a stop to gas up Blue Beetle's bug, the JLA gets in a fight with the Chaos-maddened Chicago Cubs. Despite Booster's affirmation that they "don't need their powers. It's the Cubs. These guys haven't won in 1100 years," the JLA gets fouled out and lets the Cubs escape.

Next, the League is off to the United Nations, where a terrorist has a bomb strapped to his chest. Fire, Ice, and Mr. Miracle enter the U.N. building while Beetle coordinates from the Bug, Booster protects the crowd outside with his force field, and Manhunter enters from the roof. Once most of the terrorists have been neutralized, Manhunter uses his shapechanging abilities to get Booster Gold close enough to stop the bomb-wearing madman. Police chief Stanley Marvel (wink wink, nudge nudge) begrudgingly thanks the team for their semi-efficient rescue, but the thanks is only short-lived as the Lord of Order reveals himself and escapes.

In Beetle's bug, the JLA searches for Chaos's hideout, where he's stashed the great minds and leaders of the world. They find the hideout in Arizona, but only as all of the nuclear missiles in the world are fired, aimed at each country's enemies, and more than a few allies. As Blue Beetle works on a way to upload a missile deflection system to broadcast from the Earth's communication satellites, the rest of the team forces their way into Chaos's mountain stronghold.

While Booster and Manhunter search for Dr. Cambell, Fire and Ice engage guards and Mr. Miracle defies deadly death traps to find the Chaos helmet ... only to find it's a fake. Eventually, all our heroes face off against Chaos and defeat him, but he has the last laugh; though Beetle's deflected most of the missiles, Chaos transports the JLA into the middle of Times Square, the target for the sole surviving nuclear missile.

There in the midst of New York, the League has a desperate battle with Chaos, finally defeating him once and for all. And although the New Yorkers don't much appreciate the team, the rest of the world does. The JLA is on its way.

Maybe I'm wearying of the comic antics of my once second-favorite super-team, but the Justice League is growing tired. The film keeps the same kind of attitude toward its heroes as the comic (some dialogue seems to have been lifted directly from the comics' pages), a kind of hipper-than-thou slapstick which is less funny than overused. While viewers of the film might find it refreshing and new, readers of the comic will find it's same-old same-old.

Fire and Ice are a little less like Lucy and Ethel, while the Martian Manhunter is somewhat less dispassionate-though just as Oreo-loving. Mr. Miracle is portrayed as a naive goof who is as trusting and philanthropic as an old lady. Barda's revelation of her pregnancy halfway through the script is barely referred to again, although Oberon is as obnoxious as ever. Ditto Maxwell Lord, whose powers are hinted at late in the script.

Blue Beetle is relatively unchanged, and actually has some of the best lines ( especially one where he finds a surprise stress-test for his body armor), but his relationship with Booster Gold is ruined. You see, in this script, Booster Gold is spelled G-u-y G-a-r-d-n-e-r. Booster, a mildly obnoxious and scheming character in the current JLA, here becomes a groping, bragging, swaggering jerk whose recklessness and attitude are more a hindrance to the team than a help. Apparently, without the use of the real Guy Gardner, the scripters felt they had to have one supremely obnoxious putz in the group, and Booster was available.

Despite my criticisms, the Justice League of America script in this form would be a tremendous hit in this age of Married with Children, Roseanne, Cheers, and similar sitcoms. It's sarcastic enough, the characters are neanderthal enough, the women are pretty enough, and the script fairly screams for a laugh track. A dark JLA a la Flash, Superboy, or Batman woμldn't work at all, so the writers have taken the correct measures to find their hit.

Late-breaking news finds a DC source relating that the show may not be as dead as previously thought. In today's Hollywood, comics are again being perceived as a hot item, and DC's characters being on the forefront of that list. Now it's up to the Blue and Gold guys to fight it out with the Justice League guys to see who gets which rights first.

If you're especially immersed in Justice League lore, you may know that the Justice League did finally in 1997 get a made-for-television movie. It was loosely based on the late-era International League, with featured roles for "B.B. DaCosta" Fire and "Tori Olafsdotter" Ice. It was incredibly bad with worse special effects, and Booster Gold thankfully played no part.

Thirty-two years later, Booster still hasn't appeared in a live-action movie. Hopefully when he does, he'll be recognizable as the Corporate Crusader we all know and love.

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Tony wrote in to alert me that Booster Gold has just appeared in "Texts From Superheroes." I didn't know what that was, but it is apparently a parody website (textsfromsuperheroes.com). And yeah, that's where you'll find Booster Gold this week. And maybe the only place for weeks to come.

DC released their December 2023 solicitations last week; you can read them at AIPTComics.com. If you do, you won't find any sign of Booster Gold.

This marks a whole year since there's been any advance sign of an in-story Booster Gold comic appearance. That's a long time.

To be fair, just because Booster isn't seen in solicitations doesn't mean that he won't appear in any comics. For example, he's made unexpected 2023 cameo appearances in Superman: The Space Age, DC's Legion of Bloom, and Harley Quinn, among others.

I'm no big fan of surprises — I like to know in advance where I'm going to be spending my money — but surprise Booster is better than no Booster.

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Since Gold Beetle is a Booster Gold legacy character, I'm sure Booster boosters everywhere will want to know that AIPTComics.com previews reveal that she's in this week's The Flash #796.

But I can't talk about it. Not yet.

You'll recall that just last week, I mentioned that The Flash #795 ended with a big reveal related to Heroes in Crisis. Well, it seems that in this week's book, Gold Beetle tells us what she's done and how.

Even though I've got a bone to pick about this particular revelation — why can't we all just agree that Heroes in Crisis never happened? — I'm not going to talk about it yet. I'm not even going to link to the preview because it definitely counts as spoiler territory (even though Heroes in Crisis came out four years ago!).

At the very least, I should read the whole story before I form a solid opinion about it. For all I know, by the end of the "One-Minute War" storyline, time travel shenanigans will have rewritten history (again). It certainly wouldn't be the first time a Flash has changed history.

Maybe this time, they can finally excise Heroes in Crisis from all continuities. That would be nice.

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During my weekly visit to my Local Comic Shop, the store's newest employee waved me over. "You're the Booster Gold guy, aren't you?" she asked. I confirmed that I was. "Tell me," she said, "what did you think about Booster Gold dating Harley Quinn?"

I assume it was this week's Harley Quinn 30th Anniversary Special that prompted her question. (Booster's not in that, by the way. DC doesn't like to put Booster in anniversary issues, presumably because they don't want him stealing the spotlight. They didn't even give him his own anniversary comic when he turned 30, you know. Not that I'm jealous. I'm sure they'll do right by our boy when he turns 40 in 4 years, right? Right?)

Anyway, in answer to the original question, what I said back in 2020 was

On the one hand, if Booster and Harley were real people and not comic book characters, they'd deserve the same chance at happiness as everyone else. Regardless of the fact that she was trying to kill him as recently as a year ago, the pair would still have the right to seek happy, fulfilling romantic relationships regardless of their past history or public opinion. Whatever anyone outside the relationship (read: me) thinks about the suitability of the pairing of a jock from the future and a psychopath's gun moll should be irrelevant to that relationship.

On the other hand, neither Harley nor Booster is a real person. They are comic book characters who have become widely recognized by fans for being in decades-long relationships with other members of their same sex. Booster's relationship with BFF and fellow hero Blue Beetle has always been intimate but canonically platonic, yet the dastardly damsels Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy have chosen a more physical relationship. (As is the norm in American popular entertainment, the good guys have to play it straight while the femme fatales enjoy "forbidden" love.) Is it a coincidence that these two standard-bearers of non-traditional relationships were chosen to enter into a gender-conforming heterosexual relationship by publishers, editors, writers, and artists who should be aware of the characters' metatextual associations? I find that hard to believe.

That still pretty much sums up my feelings, especially in the wake of the aforementioned 30th Anniversary Special, which goes way out of its way to lean into the Harley/Ivy romantic/sexual relationship.

That said, my opinion about the issue really isn't that important. But I can think of someone's whose is. (Hint: his initials are "DJ.") I'll have more to say about that in a future post.

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