"My life has changed in so many ways over the past decade" is something I could say every 10 years. In 2009, I was reading new Booster Gold comic books and watching Attack of the Show on G4. None of those things exist anymore.

Fortunately, I don't have to rely on my memory to recall those golden days because I still have my copy of Booster Gold Volume 2, #23, released 10 years ago today.

For those of you too young to remember, Blair Butler reviewed comic books in her "Fresh Ink" segment on Attack of the Show. She had been very positive about Booster's second series, and DC Comics thought she would make the perfect spokesperson for Booster's fan club. I couldn't agree more.

Butler described how she earned this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to Laura Hudson of ComicsAlliance.com shortly after Comic-Con International on July 29, 2009:

ComicsAlliance: So, how did the whole "Booster Gold" cover with DC come about?

Blair Butler: I actually got a call from Dan DiDio who said he had a crazy idea for an upcoming issue of "Booster Gold." Basically – and forgive me, because my memory sucks and I'm still recovering from Comic-Con – I recall that he said DC wanted to do a cover that sort of stood out for #23, and having a photo cover with a Booster fan was the main idea. It seemed oddly appropriate, since Booster is a bit of an attention hog. I think he'd not-so-secretly love the idea of having a lady-fan on the cover of his book. And, honestly, I was incredibly humbled that DC would ask me to don the Blue and Gold fan colors. I've loved comics since I had to stand on a stool to reach the quarter-bins at my local comic shop, so it's pretty awesome to get to be part of a DC comic.

CA: So what exactly makes you Booster Gold's biggest fan?

BB: Well, first, let me just admit that there are some massive Booster fans out there who really dwarf me – the folks who run the Boosterrific site, the guys at Project Fanboy, and the folks in the DC forums. They're all so passionate that it's really awe-inspiring and humbling. But let's settle this now: The real #1 fan would be Skeets or Blue Beetle. And I think Ted wins. However, if this were the mid-80s, Trixie Collins would totally be on the cover, rockin' some awesome 80s shoulder-pads.

I think the people who love Booster really respond to the fact that even though he's a shameless self-promoter, at the end of the day, he's a good, decent, heroic person at the core. Plus, when you live in LA, there's no more fitting superhero than Booster. I mean, the guy saves a crashing plane and does product placement. So Hollywood.

CA: We all know that you're going to be on the cover of "Booster Gold" now, but are you going to make an appearance inside the book as well?

BB: Straight from Dan Jurgens' mouth, I'll play a "slight role." Honestly, having anything to do with the comic is an honor.

That "slight role" was a romantic one. Butler went on a few dates with Booster, joining a list that includes movie star Monica Lake and the super hero Firehawk. An honor indeed!

Butler has since moved from writing for television to writing movies, but I'm sure she's still reading and enjoying Booster Gold comic books.

Meanwhile, Comics Alliance has been defunct since 2017. DC Comics closed their forums in 2016. G4 went off the air in 2014. Project Fanboy dissolved in 2013. Booster Gold Volume 2 was canceled in 2011. But Boosterrific.com is still here (feeling very, very old).

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Even before the New 52 came along and rewrote DC history, the days of Extreme Justice were already being largely ignored. And why not? Unlike the so-called Justice League Detroit, which in its quest to be topical had introduced some new characters that struck a chord with their audience that continue to resonate into the present (as evidenced in the recent Dial H for Hero #4), the Extreme Justice squad mostly spent their time looking very mid-90s Xtreme and understandably aged about as poorly as everything else in the oversaturated Chromium Age.

That lack of fan engagement made it xtra unusual that Booster Gold and the Extreme Justice team would make a cameo flashback appearance fighting Brainwave in Green Lantern #152, released on this day in 2002.

Brainwave hadn't been seen much since his Infinity, Inc. series was canceled in the late 80s, so the audience may have needed a recap of his history, even if that history included a "Justice League" team that most would rather forget.

To put the six year gap between Extreme Justice #18 and Green Lantern #152 into a contemporary perspective, consider that six years ago, Booster Gold was appearing as an amnesiac guest star in All-Star Western #19. That feels like centuries ago!

My, how time flies.

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With the latest Superman event, "Leviathan," now unfolding in your Local Comic Shop, it's interesting to look back at another Superman event story with a curious connection to real history.

The JLA: Our Worlds At War one-shot, released 18 years ago today, was a middle chapter in the 2001 Superman "Out Worlds At War" crossover event. Booster Gold plays only a very brief role in the event as he, Blue Beetle, Guy Gardner, and Rocket Red fight to defend Russia from an alien invasion. This is Booster's only appearance in the entire comic:

art by Garney, Morales, Horie, Horie, and Starkings

(Don't worry, Booster. Guy get's better.)

It isn't the inclusion of the Justice League International that makes this issue a historic curiosity.

As mentioned, the issue's story details a surprise attack by a malignant force that opposes everything Superman stands for. To frame the magnitude and severity of this invasion, writer Jeph Loeb uses the words of United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to draw a direct, overt connection to a real tragedy in American history, specifically the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor 60 years earlier.

The irony here is that although this issue, with its focus on surprise attacks against America, was released on July 5, it has a cover date of September 2001.

And now you know the rest of the story.

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On this day in 1988, Booster Gold made the cover of Time magazine.

Starman #1 (June 1988) by Stern, Lyle, Smith, Ferriter

It might be hard for modern audiences to believe, but for most of the 20th century, the cover of Time magazine was among the most prestigious pieces of real estate for notable newsmakers. In other words, if you made the cover of Time magazine, you had arrived.

Even if you had already appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone.

Animal Man #1 (May 1988) by Morrison, Truog, Hazelwood, Wood

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It is a cliche in superhero comic books that characters die and then get better. The trope was well established by the time Superman's funeral ignited the general public's imagination, but ever since 1992, you simply aren't a real super hero until you've returned from "the other side" at least once.

Booster Gold joined that not-so-elusive club on this day in 1994 between the panels of Justice League Task Force #13.

At the time, the Justice League had been fractured into three groups with incompatible philosophies about what constituted "justice." Wonder Woman's "international" faction was most in line with the historic methods of the team as the strong arm of traditional, established political authorities. Martian Manhunter's task force was also aligned with the United Nations, though it preferred less direct means of diffusing problems. Captain Atom, on the other hand, championed more unconventional and forceful means of "extreme" justice, fighting fire with fire, so to speak.

These internal differences were exacerbated by the threat of the alien Overmaster, who had returned to Earth (after a previous encounter with the Justice League a decade earlier) in order to eradicate humanity. He had the power to do it, too. The dysfunctional Justice Leagues America, International, and Task Force have to put aside their differences to stop him. The crossover event, titled "Judgement Day," reads better than many of DC's official "Crisis"s.

Usually, comic book deaths are used as a cheap trick to ramp up the stakes, tug at the heartstrings, or inflate the threat posed by the bad guy. Booster was lucky. He died in a good story that respected established characterization. Specifically, his death was a side-effect of his overconfidence that history couldn't ever be changed, a misunderstanding with tragic consequences.

Of course, that wouldn't mean much unless Booster recovered to learn from his mistake. Spoiler alert: he did.

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