Today Booster Gold makes his first appearance in the DCU since August 2012 in the pages of All-Star Western #19. Earlier this week, Brian Truitt of USA Today interviewed issue co-writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray.

"We're going to see Booster thinking on his feet," [Palmiotti] says. "He's pressed into a situation right away in the book that is a lot bigger than he can handle, and Jonah has a firm grasp of what's going on and Booster is coming into it and trying to figure out not only why he's there and what he's doing there but also solve what's been dumped on him."

This is neither Booster's first trip to the Old West nor his first meeting with Jonah Hex. Dialogue in the issue preview subtly implies that Booster's previous drunken meeting with Hex in Booster Gold, volume 2, #3 is still in continuity! Hooray!

You can read a preview of the issue yourself at ComicBook.com, where Russell Burlingame will soon be running a variation of his "Gold Exchange" column with co-writer Justin Gray.

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Several of us comic book bloggers put our heads together in an attempt to find ways to promote comics outside of our typical specialties. The goal was to present books that don't sell especially well but are still well worth reading. I set out to find some comics that were selling worse than Booster Gold that I enjoyed, so I could join the fun. There were plenty of great books to choose from, but being a longtime DC man, I couldn't let the opportunity pass to promote another time-traveling DC hero: Jonah Hex.

Hex has received a lot attention recently for his box office bomb. This is a terrible slight to a terrific character who is appearing regularly in a fantastic series. Hex's current comic, Jonah Hex, Volume 2, is, like Hex himself, a throwback to an earlier era. His comic books are frequently self-contained stories instead of the modern ongoing soap-opera of diamond chronology. Usually, you can pick up just one issue and be entertained by all the shooting and questionable morality of a prime-time television show.

If you are unfamiliar with Hex, you may be surprised that the comic book character is pretty much the prototypical Western anti-hero. (Hex is a man abused by life who has turned his cynical, sociopathic world-view into a unique way of life as a bounty hunter. No magic involved!) That might sound boring and cliched, but there's something quintessential American about the concept: just ask Clint Eastwood or John Wayne. Hex often does the right things for the right reasons, but he also does a lot of wrong things for money or sheer orneriness. This sort of questionable morality, key to the Western genre, is also the core to Hex's character.

As much as I enjoy John Ford and Sergio Leone movies, I've never really been a fan of comic book Westerns. Unlike DC's war comics, the typical DC Western always seemed too clean, their morality too well-defined. That has never been the case for Hex, who has been slugging through a moral morass as gray as his Confederate uniform since his earliest appearances. Jonah Hex is a monster, and he can not and will not hide who he is. His stories are dark and bloody. And there are never any winners, including Hex himself.

Thanks in no small part to its timeless themes, the many adventures of Jonah Hex easily rank among the greatest Western genre stories ever published by DC Comics (rivaling perhaps only Preacher). From his earliest origins as a ruthless bounty hunter in All-Star Western and Weird Western Tales to his reluctant flight into the future of the DCU in Hex (where he came face-to-face with his own stuffed corpse), the character has been consistently entertaining. His writers have made an effort to frequently subvert the mythology of Hex in favor of telling the timeless stories of greed, vengeance, murder, and justice synonymous with the legends of the Old West.

Jonah Hex, Volume 2, as written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, continues this tradition of using Hex as a centerpiece to frame hard-nosed stories of an American psyche as scarred as the protagonist's face. Pick up a copy and you'll be probing the depths of humanity's dark soul (as drawn DC's finest artists -- a trip through Hell never looked so good). Unlike anyone who crosses Hex, you're sure to have a damned good time.

Interested in reading more? Good!
Check out the lesser-known titles reviewed in these other blogs and "Read Them, Too!":

Adam Strange at It's A Dan's World
American Vampire at Doom Patrol
Astro City at Speed Force
Booster Gold [!] and Zatanna at Red Tornado's Path
Essential Man-Thing at Firestorm Fan
Forgetless at Girls Gone Geek
Franklin Richards digests at Once Upon a Geek
Glamourpuss at Being Carter Hall
Peter David's Hulk at Fortress of Baileytude
Scott Pilgrim at Toyriffic
Son of Tomahawk and Thor the Mighty Avenger at Aquaman Shrine
Spelljammer at HeroPress
Spire Christian Comics at Mail It To Team-Up
Strange Science Fantasy at Siskoid's Blog of Geekery
R.E.B.E.L.S. at Indigo Tribe
The Unwritten at K-Squared Ramblings
Welcome to Tranquility at Girls Gone Geek

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While we're on the subject of how Keith Giffen destroys series, I decided to go looking for another letter column that I remembered once being especially critical of Keith Giffen's art. From 1986's Hex #18 (the final issue):

While most editors wouldn't print so much negative press in their letter columns, maybe because Hex was being canceled, or maybe because he had received a 3-to-1 ration of anti-Giffen letters, writer/editor Michael Fleisher filled the series final letter column with responses to Giffen's art. Nearly a quarter of a century later, and it doesn't seem that the reading public's opinion has much changed.

Have a happy Labor Day/Dragon*Con Weekend, everybody!

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Understatement warning: Jonah Hex is not doing well at the box office. Disappointing? Yes. Surprising? No.

So the question becomes how will this affect DC movie properties going forward? Remember that DC recently pulled the plug on their animated features line after poor performances. How many more straws can the camel hold after Hex? Could this render the live action Blue Beetle stillborn? Does this dash any chance for a Booster Gold movie in our lifetimes? At least The Movie Blog says there is still hope. Our fingers are crossed.

On an unrelated note, please be aware that database revisions are underway here at Boosterrific.com that may result in some occasionally bizarre or downright broken pages in the immediate future. Don't Panic.

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When a blogger has nothing else to do, he makes a list post. I don't know why, but I'm not going to fight nature on this. Instead, I'll make a list of lists that include Booster Gold.

1. iFanboy.com presents a list of the 5 worst Giffen-era JLI fashion moments. All things being equal, Booster's 80s fashion was considerably better than his 90s fashion, which included bolo ties and cutoff sweatshirts. Ugh.
2. egotvonline.com provides a list of 10 obscure DC movie-ready properties that should have been adapted prior to Jonah Hex. I love Elongated Man as much as any other Gingold drinker, but I'm not sure that America is quite ready for his wiggling nose.
3. mytopdozen.com proposes the 12 best dc comics characters who can fly. Seriously. I include this list because its very existence makes me giggle. Thank you internet.

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