The Internet buzz this weekend was all about DC's post-Future State solicitations coming this March. It looks like we're down to 20 titles in its shared DC Universe, which is a far cry from 52. But maybe less is more. DC certainly wants us to think so.

Anyway, the big news for Booster Gold fans is that our hero is featured on the cover of DC's tentpole March title: Infinite Frontier #0.

cover art by Dan Jurgens and Mikel Janin

Isn't that cover a beaut? (Thanks to Rob for making sure I saw it.)

HollywoodReporter.com confirms that Infinite Frontier is a one-shot, but most of the characters on its cover appear in one or more of the 19 other titles in the publisher's solicitations on GamesRadar.com. Conspicuously absent is any hint of where we might next see Blue Beetle and Booster Gold. (There are several reprint collections that will include Booster cameos — more on those later — but nothing new.)

Will Infinite Frontier be Blue and Gold's only appearance in this new DC Universe? (DC doesn't want to call it a reboot, but if it talks like a reboot....) Has their comic not yet been announced? Will they be playing a supporting role in someone else's comic? Or are they on that cover just because Dan Jurgens drew it?

Come to think of it, Jurgens' name isn't mentioned anywhere else in the solicitations, either. Batman Beyond was canceled, and Nightwing has been passed to the very capable hands of Tom Taylor. So what will Jurgens be up to? So far, mum's the word.

I hate to speculate about such things, but it sure would be nice to see Jurgens working on Booster Gold full time again.

Comments (5) | Add a Comment | Tags: blue beetle dan jurgens gamesradar.com hollywoodreporter.com infinite frontier mikel janin rob snow solicitations

On October 7, 2019, I wrote (based on news from HollywoodReporter.com):

"DC finally plans to release their comprehensive Rebirth continuity in 2020. That's a mere 9 years after they threw out decades of character development in a bid to boost sales."

Well, guess what DC's plans are for 2021?

"It now appears as though DC's comic book line could be abandoning the idea of a single, shared continuity in favor of a multiverse / metaverse / omniverse model in which each individual comic will have its own story to tell, without much concern for what's going on in other titles across the publishing line."

So says Russ Burlingame at ComicBook.com. This merry-go-round is starting to make me dizzy.

Burlingame's report is based on a post from BleedingCool.com, which qualifies DC's plan thusly:

But what the DC Omniverse will mean is greater creative freedom, less interference by editors (or publishers), and no one saying "you can't use that character, they died in City of Bane/got lost in a Dark Dimension/went evil and currently approaching Gotham, slowly, with all her plants."

Longtime readers of Boosterrific.com know that I consider "continuity" to be a synonym for "character development." If DC fractures their Universe into an Omniverse, instead of having one dynamically developing Booster Gold character with a single continuity threading through many stories, there will be an infinite number of Booster Golds, each with his own continuity of appearances. That doesn't sound very simple to me. Unless they intend for there to be one static Booster Gold character who never learns anything or does anything new. I can't wait to spend money monthly on that.

But this plan would save DC Comics the cost of paying salaries to all those editors. I wonder how much longer until they can get robots to draw the panels?

Comments (3) | Add a Comment | Tags: bleedingcool.com comicbook.com continuity hollywoodreporter.com rumors russ burlingame

Friday afternoon, The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that DC finally plans to release their comprehensive Rebirth continuity in 2020. That's a mere 9 years after they threw out decades of character development in a bid to boost sales.

"We're starting to figure out how continuity works," [DC Comics co-publisher Dan] DiDio said about the process, noting that reboots and complicated retcons are what happens when "things stop making sense."

I'm glad that DiDio, who has overseen DC Comics' output since 2004, has finally realized the value of continuity to the types of stories that his company sells. Better late than never, I guess.

Anyway, I'm sure that what you want to know, as a visitor to a Booster Gold fan site, is "how will this affect Booster Gold?" The answer looks to be: Pretty significantly.

DiDio made the announcement at the "DC Nation" panel of this past weekend's New York Comic Convention accompanied with an illustrated graphic. Bleeding Cool spent most of the weekend pouring over the visible bits of that timeline. I can't make out anything, but Rich Johnston seems to think it restores most of the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity as the third generation of DC heroes.

If that is to be believed, it looks like Booster Gold's history once again includes his joining the original "Bwah-ha-ha" Justice League International alongside Blue Beetle. Also restored: Infinite Crisis and Justice League: Generation Lost. Is there time for 52 to have happened in there somewhere? One can only hope.

Will any of this ever make it to print? Will the short-lived New 52 continuity be abandoned? How can Convergence be shoehorned into this new chronology? Who knows. Maybe we'll find out after Doomsday Clock finally ticks down in December.

Comments (2) | Add a Comment | Tags: 2019 bleedingcool.com continuity conventions dan didio hollywoodreporter.com new york comic con rich johnston

Last weekend, CW president Mark Pedowitz spoke to reporters about his network's plans following the conclusion to Arrow at the end of the 2019-20 season, and he hinted that the replacement show is likely to also take place in the DC Comics-inspired "Arrowverse."

As the Hollywood Reporter reported, Pedowitz said

"There is another property we're looking at for the following season."

As you might expect, that vague tease has sent DC fandom into a bit of a tizzy as everyone developed their own pet theory for what he could have in mind and what they'd like to see. Sites like CinemaBlend.com and CBR have suggested a bunch of possibilities, from Nightwing to the JSA. One name that comes up pretty consistently is, as you might expect, Booster Gold.

Booster seems as good a guess as anything. Arrow executive producer/writer/director Greg Berlanti has tried in the past to get a Booster Gold project off the ground. Last we heard, Booster was still in the works as a movie project at Warner Bros, but who knows?

Maybe this is Booster's opportunity. Maybe it isn't. There are a bunch of deserving DC Comics properties that remain chronically underexposed to mainstream audiences. Who will the lucky winner be? Keep watching the CW to find out.

Comments (4) | Add a Comment | Tags: arrow cbr.com cw greg berlanti hollywoodreporter.com mark pedowitz movies television

I thought Booster Gold's appearance in a DCeased one-shot would be the biggest news of the week, especially as it looks like Booster was excluded from the comics spinning-off from Heroes in Crisis (per Hollywood Reporter). I was wrong.

Over on ComicBook.com, Russ Burlingame has interviewed writer Brian Michael Bendis about his plans for a new Millennium mini-series that will reintroduce readers to DC's future continuity on the way to launching new Legion of Super-Heroes stories. That news would be welcome enough without the bonus announcement that Space Museum security guard Michael Jon Carter will be playing a role in Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium issue 2.

Burlingame: It's funny, seeing Booster becoming part of a building block to the Legion, since he has sparred with them a few times about his stolen Legion ring!

Bendis: Speaking of which, the Booster Gold chapter is drawn by Nicola Scott, if you need another reason to buy this. I love Nicola's work so much, but she's one of my closest friend's closest collaborators. She works with Greg Rucka so closely that I never thought I'd get a chance to do something, and we did this thing together. It's just, on a personal level, one of my great moments as a comics creator that I got to do this with Nicola.

Burlingame: I won't lie: at either San Diego or New York last year, I spoke with her briefly and we ended up talking about how much she wanted to draw Booster.

Bendis: That happened a few times on this project. I don't want to speak for the other creators, but I had accidentally said, "Hey, I think you'd be perfect for (blank)." And they go, "That's my favorite thing, I can't believe you're asking!" It happened quite a few times on this project. I get excited, because I know for the few pages they're drawing, it's going to be among the best pages of their whole careers, because they think this might be the only chance they get to do it. Nicola's Booster pages reek with the feeling of, "Oh, my God, I finally got to draw Booster Gold."

DC has already released a few pages from the issue (visible at Newsarama.com). I'm in no position to judge whether they are the best of Scott's whole career, but they are pretty darn Boosterrific.

Judging from those panels, it sure looks like DC will be allowing Bendis to roll back Booster's New 52 origin and realigning his "past" with his pre-Flashpoint beginnings. Super sweet.

For more information about the upcoming series and to read the rest of the interview, visit ComicBook.com. Expect the book to arrive in your Local Comic Shop this September.

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