We're still learning about what DC's summer crossover Dark Crisis event will be. We've seen pictures of Booster Gold in June's Dark Crisis #1 and Young Justice: Dark Crisis #1, but thanks to aipt.com, we can now be pretty sure he'll be making at least a cameo appearance in May's Dark Crisis #0 Free Comic Book Day Special Edition:

art by Jim Cheung

You'll note that Booster Gold is included in the Brad Meltzer-era group and not the Giffen/DeMatteis-era Justice League International group. I can only assume that's because Booster was not on Kevin Maguire's 1987 cover of Justice League #1 (because he wasn't on the team yet).

But not only was he not a member of the 2006 relaunch, he also wasn't on the Ed Benes / Maria Benes / Alex Sinclair 2006 cover of Justice League of America #1. At least not at first.

See, these are the two "standard" covers of Justice League of America #1 which were distributed equally:

You can see for yourself that Booster Gold isn't on either one. However, he *was* on the solicited cover, which included many differences from what eventually appeared on comic shop racks:

The solicited art was finally used on the second printing of that issue. If I were the guessing sort, I'd assume that when creating the art for Dark Crisis #0, artist Cheung had access to the solicitation image, and that's why Booster ended up where he ended up in the gallery pic above.

Or maybe Dark Crisis is changing the DC Multiverse (again) and now Booster was a active member during that era of the league.

Either way, Dark Crisis #0 will be in your Local Comic Shop this Free Comic Book Day, Saturday, May 7.

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Blech. I don't know who the characters in this week's Human Target #6 are, but they're certainly no members of any Justice League International that I've ever met before! So let's forget all about them and instead give our attention to a creator who has a better handle on our favorite characters, someone who helped make them our favorite characters in the first place.

Artist Kevin Maguire tweeted this image last week in honor of the Justice League International's 35th anniversary. The drawing has made the rounds of the World Wide Web a time or two already, but it's just too Boosterrific for me not to repost here.

"Now that the JLI 35th anniversary passed, I got to thinking what they might look like now and I think they MIGHT look something like this...#JLI #JusticeLeague" —@maguirekevin, Twitter.com, March 8, 2002

I especially love how good Booster Gold looks with white hair and wrinkles. Our hero is far to vain to let a little thing like time dull *his* looks. (It probably helps that his brush with Chronal Leprosy in the 25th century left him practically immortal. [See Booster Gold volume 2 #43 for details.])

Let's not wait so long before our next reunion, old pals.

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DC released its annual winter holiday anthology this week, 'Tis the Season to be Freezin'. While I liked it fine — I'm especially tickled by the title — I still prefer DC Universe Holiday Special and its JLA Watchtower office Christmas party, released on this date in 2008.

"Party Animal," words by Alan Burnett, art by Kevin Maguire

Bust a move, Booster.

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I do not have Blue and Gold #4 in my hand yet, but DC Comics' exclusive direct-market partner, Lunar Distribution, expects it to ship this week for a November 16 release, and I'm going to take them at their word.

DC feels so confident, in fact, that they've already released a sneak peek of the book to Comic-Watch.com. It's a cute couple of pages of Blue and Gold being interviewed by their adoring press, but the best part is

"Art, Present Day" by Ryan Sook, "Art, Blue Beetle's Sequence" by Kevin Maguire, and — most importantly — "Art, Booster Gold's Sequence" by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund?! It's a Justice League International and Booster Gold Volume 2 reunion! That alone should be worth the wait.

Buy this issue and make Skeets (and Buggles) happy!

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I really could use a good start to my week this week, so let's look at some professionally-made Booster Gold fan art to get us in the right mood!

First is a piece that Kevin Maguire created and sold for $500 on gumroad.com:

And second is this one posted by Mike McKone to Twitter.com:

Oh, yeah. I'm feeling it now. Maybe this week will be better than just good. Thanks, Booster!

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