In addition to being the final issue of Justice League International volume 1 (next issue the team will be downsized to just Justice League America), Justice League International #25 is also the first book-length team-up between Booster Gold and Blue Beetle. Historic!

My favorite page comes early, which is probably not a surprise to those of you who know that Ty Templeton is one of my favorite artists. He only drew the intro and outro pages of this issue (over Keith Giffen's layouts), with the rest handled by Mike McKone (also over Giffen).

But it's not just the art I love; almost every panel on page 3 has its own punchline!

Despite the early (and often) jokes, the main plot of this team-up issue is a vampire hunt that turns into an overt criticism of Western consumer culture which, in Twilight Zone style, questions who the real monsters are on plane Earth. As Booster and Beetle (and the reader) will eventually realize, it just might be our heroes.

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Yes, that banner up there says "one page at a time," but today you're getting two!

In 1989, a three-part story written by Cary Bates in Captain Atom #26 , #27, and #28 that more-or-less resolved the messiest parts of the backstory of why Captain Atom lied to the Justice League about his personal history.

(Turns out the adventures of the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Captain Atom were just a government cover story to disguise how Atom was really blackmailed into participating in the weapons test that gave him his powers by a criminal conspiracy of Vietnam vets in a plot stolen directly from Lethal Weapon. Like I said, it's messy.)

Anyway, the point here is that Booster Gold was one of the three Leaguers who confronted the good Captain with evidence of his mounting lies. Since Booster played a significant role in only the first two chapters of this story, appearing only on the first page of the third, I figured I might as well present my favorite pages from those two issues at the same time.

First is Captain Atom #26. As my favorite page, I could have chosen a sequence earlier in the book in which Booster, Blue Beetle, and Mister Miracle clasp hands then go undercover... by wearing sunglasses. But for full-page goodness, I'm going with page 22, in which a thief from the future living under an assumed name unironically demands "no more secrets"!

Yeah, the posed figures are stiff, but I'm enamored by the layout. Note how the top of the page is a separate panel presenting an establishing shot of the city skyline, and the tail on Booster's speech balloon acts like a pointer showing where they are, as well as allowing Booster to speak first despite being in the center of the page. I assume the balloons were all created by letterer Carrie Spiegel on top of Pat Broderick's art. Well done.

In the very next issue, Captain Atom #27, my favorite page is also based mostly on what Booster has to say. Despite never having been seen wearing a deerstalker cap or skis, our hero is suddenly an amateur detective and an expert skier!

And he flies faster than the Blue Beetle's bug? Oh, Booster, is there anything you can't do?

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The "2nd Anniversary Issue" Justice League International #24 sees the League holding a membership drive, which sets the stage for a generational clash between Leagues old and... well, immature.

I side with Booster. For all his faults, he's never foul-mouthed.

I've always liked this issue a lot. On re-read, I still do, even the running gag of Beetle being aggressively inappropriate with Wonder Woman (and Booster trying to restrain him). It's only tolerable because everyone knows Wonder Woman could squeeze Beetle into a roach motel if she wanted to. (Poor Diana. She must have to deal with this every day.) Show some respect, boys; you're supposed to be heroes.

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The Invasion! crossovers continue in Justice League International #23, in which the League finds themselves tasked with disarming potentially deadly alien technology in the South Pacific. Granted, it's not a glamorous job, but somebody's got to do it.

And it does give Booster Gold a chance at a well-earned beach vacation.

I love this page mostly for the single panel of Booster making sandcastles, but I also find it interesting to be reminded that in the early years, Fire couldn't fly. Although it will still be several issues before she will "green flame on" on-panel (in Justice League America #28), the trigger for that power upgrade occurs in this very issue.

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Good news, Booster boosters! Booster Gold does appear in a DC Comic this week. Can you guess which one?

Hint: it's not the concluding issue of the DC Universe-spanning Titans Beast World event mini-series. Nor, despite having shown up in recent issues of the regular series, is he in the Batman/Superman: World's Finest 2024 Annual.

Nope, Booster Gold's appearance is in the one-shot DC Power 2024, a anthology of ten stories that, as the cover blurb explains, celebrates "Black excellence across the DCU" timed to coincide with the start of Black History Month.

To be fair to white-bread Booster, he isn't exactly crashing the Black Power party. In the entire issue, he's only seen in the above one-panel flashback to Bloodwynd's first appearance in Justice League America #61, which did, indeed, prominently feature Booster Gold. So at least it's an historically accurate cameo appearance.

As I've said many times before, I love DC's current strategy of holiday-themed anthologies because they give us readers the opportunity revisit the oft-overlooked, lesser known characters of the DC Universe like Bloodwynd. And, this time, to a much lesser extent, Booster Gold. Hooray!

Despite Booster only having a very small cameo appearance, consider buying this issue and making Skeets happy.

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