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.

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: brian michael bendis comicbook.com hollywoodreporter.com interviews newsarama.com nicola scott russ burlingame

Here we go again.

Heroes in Crisis isn't even over yet, and Booster Gold is already being included as a possible victim of the next round of DC's version of Russian Roulette.

This is the house ad that ran in this week's DC's Year of the Villain Special advertising for August's upcoming relaunch of Batman/Superman. As you can see, our hero, Booster Gold, is included among the list of possibilities to become the newest threat to the DC Universe in August's relaunch of Superman/Batman Batman/Superman.

The series writer, Joshua Williamson, spoke about the upcoming series with The Hollywood Reporter.

"We discover, through the Batman Who Laughs series that the Batman Who Laughs have been working on this massive plan since Metal. What it is is, he has sleeper agents throughout the [DC Universe]. They've been infected, and they're slowly turning into the worst versions of themselves," Williamson teased. "Some of them know they're changing, some don't. Some aren't aware it's kind of like a Jekyll and Hyde situation where they're not aware of [what] the other side is doing.

I can't say as I'm particularly enthusiastic about this, but I think it's more the timing than the concept. What with Metal, Doomsday Clock, Heroes in Crisis, Leviathan, "Year of the Villain," etc., it's starting to feel like villains having the upper hand is the rule, not the exception, in the modern DCnU. A little sunlight, some *joy*, some *fun* would do everyone some good. Why bother being a hero anymore if it's never anything but murder and sadness? No one likes to always be in crisis.

In other words, why so serious, DC?

Comments (5) | Add a Comment | Tags: batman hollywoodreporter.com joshua williamson secret six superman

As seen recently on Twitter:

Hmm. All of his projects since 2011 are "dead"? Yet Stentz "liked" the reply comment about Booster Gold? What does that mean for his Booster Gold screenplay?

In case you were unaware, Zack Stentz is the writer of the Booster Gold movie script commissioned in 2016 by and delivered in 2017 to Flash producer Greg Berlanti. Berlanti announced as recently as May 2018 that he wants to direct it.

Despite all that good news, Booster Gold: The Movie has never received any official announcement through Warner Bros, the parent company of DC Comics and the studio behind every DC movie to date. And today's tweet from the screenwriter implies that if the script isn't dead, it's at least being rewritten.

So what's the takeaway here?

If I were to venture a guess, I'd say it's not dead yet, just moving really, really slowly. Given that the upcoming DC Universe streaming service is going to need lots of new content to justify the $8/month subscription cost — which is why Berlanti has lately been working on Titans and Stargirl television series — it seems likely that any Berlanti-helmed Booster Gold project still working its way through channels would also have that destination in mind. Because that streaming service doesn't exist yet (beta testing has been announced to start sometime this month), it may be some time before Stentz's Booster Gold script, or any other, makes it into production.

And, of course, if Warner Bros does decide they want to move ahead with a Booster Gold movie for the big screen, The Hollywood Reporter speculates that Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn is available, assuming he wants to helm a movie about a celebrity looking for redemption for past misdeeds.

To know for sure if or when we might ever see Stentz's script or any Booster Gold project become a reality, we'd need a Time Sphere. Since that's even less likely than seeing a Booster Gold movie, I guess we'll just have to wait and see what we see.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: greg berlanti hollywoodreporter.com james gunn movies stargirl teen titans twitter.com uncledjay zack stentz

DC Comics announced a new comic series on Wednesday via a press release. Mainstream media sites which usually ignore comic books, such as Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter, and Newsweek, decided the announcement was newsworthy.

What could make this series such a big deal? Perhaps because Booster Gold is invlovled.

Per the original press release at DCComics.com:

(June 13, 2018 — Burbank, CA) There's a crisis headed toward DC's greatest heroes, but it isn't coming from outer space or another dimension—this time, the threat is homegrown. DC proudly presents a new seven-issue miniseries debuting in September by Tom King and his BATMAN collaborator/artist Clay Mann, titled HEROES IN CRISIS.

A former counterterrorism operations officer with the CIA, [Tom] King's bestselling, critically acclaimed comics—including THE SHERIFF OF BABYLON, THE OMEGA MEN, BATMAN, MISTER MIRACLE—have often grappled with war and conflict, and a hero's struggle to put their war and their trauma behind them. This new series will explore similar themes against the backdrop of a murder mystery involving Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn, Booster Gold, and the rest of the World's Greatest Super Heroes.

Boy, doesn't that sound exciting? Booster Gold working with DC's heaviest hitters solving a mystery? It's a Booster Gold fan's dream come true!

But not so fast! Yesterday, Newsarama revealed what appears to be the issue's upcoming solicitation text. The solicitation casts the story in a slightly different light that might *not* be everything a Booster booster could hope for.

Per the "Heroes in Crisis" fact sheet:

There's a new kind of crisis facing the heroes of the DC Universe, ripped from the real-world headlines by C.I.A.-operative-turned-comics-writer Tom King: How does a superhero handle PTSD? Welcome to Sanctuary, an ultra-secret hospital for superheroes who've been traumatized by crime-fighting and cosmic combat. But something goes inexplicably wrong when many patients wind up dead, with two well known operators as the prime suspects: Harley Quinn and Booster Gold! It's up to the DC Trinity of Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman to investigate — but can they get the job done in the face of overwhelming opposition?

Apparently Booster Gold has a new archnemesis, and his name is Tom King.

Arrgh. Murder! Death! Kill! What kind of "community-building" story about overcoming PTSD could be built upon the death of all the patients who sought help?

Before I work myself further into a frenzy over this, let me remind me that advance solicitations for King's stories tend to vary widely from what actually sees print. The solicitations for Batman #45 is a prime example.

Per the original solicitation for that issue:

"THE TRAVELERS" part one! Booster Gold has come to Gotham City, and he's enlisting Batman and Catwoman to go on a time-traveling mission to rescue...Booster Gold! It seems a younger Booster Gold has gone back in time to kidnap an even younger version of himself, and to rescue his own past, Booster must pursue both of his previous incarnations through Batman's history to find out what is going on. The start of a new story that will sow the seeds for a whole new epic to come....

As we now know, when that story was eventually published as "The Gift," it looked almost nothing like what was promoted outside the inclusion of Booster Gold and Batman. Maybe Heroes in Crisis will be something like that. Maybe Booster Gold will be the detective that solves the crime and saves the day.

Or maybe Booster will be the same as the last time we saw King write him: a short-sighted idiot who enabled a mass homicide.

My hopes are not high.

Everyone can decide for themselves if King redeems his poor treatment of Booster Gold when the first issue of Heroes in Crisis is released on September 26.

Comments (4) | Add a Comment | Tags: clay mann dccomics.com ew.com heroes in crisis hollywoodreporter.com newsarama.com newsweek.com tom king

Coming in second on our year-end hit parade was the Boosterrific.com post on May 13 confirming that the long rumored Booster Gold movie finally had a writer.

Said Greg Berlanti (to the Hollywood Reporter):

I'm attached to a few films [at Warner Bros.] now, and one, Booster Gold, is a DC property. Zack Stentz, who wrote an episode of Flash last year, just got the job, so he's writing the script now. I'd probably direct that, or I would want to.

We haven't heard much since, but that's how the movie business works. We'll keep watching and waiting.

The countdown wraps up on Friday with the most visited post of the year.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: greg berlanti hollywoodreporter.com recap zack stentz