When I go into my Local Comic Shop today to pick up Wonder Twins #3, there's something else I'll be taking a look at.

For the second week in a row, DC is releasing a reprint of an event story that contains some Booster Gold. In fact, Booster has very important role in The Death and Return of Superman Omnibus. He named Doomsday.

Justice League America #69 (1992)

But perhaps you already own one of the previous Death of Superman reprints? Well, DC has given you another reason to buy this one. Says Dan Jurgens on Twitter.com:

It's good to know that these omnibuses are reprinting the comics as they were originally intended to be read. That's cool, DC. Good for you.

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If you're headed to your Local Comic Shop today (perhaps looking for Young Justice #4 like me!), there is one new-ish Booster Gold appearance you could take home: Final Crisis DC Essential Edition.

That said, if you're considering buying this because you're a Booster Gold collector, I can't really recommend that you do that. Booster makes a cameo appearance in only a couple of panels of that entire crossover. Only one of those is reprinted here. In fact, here it is.

Now, if you're considering buying this because you are looking for a good read, I can't really recommend that you do that, either. Final Crisis is not DC's best crisis. It's far from Grant Morrison's best work, either. If you weren't around to read this when it was released in 2008, there are plenty of other, better comics that you could read instead.

In other words, reading Final Crisis in 2019 is the DC Comics-fan equivalent of a drug addict shooting up from someone else's discarded needle only because he desperately needs another fix. Just say no.

(Full disclosure: Despite having a run of over 350 consecutive issues of Detective Comics going, I stopped buying it when Final Crisis came along. I really didn't enjoy that story or how it handled Batman.)

(Supplemental disclosure: Detective Comics #1000 is the first issue of that title I have purchased since 2009. I enjoyed most of it except the story that leads directly into Detective Comics #1001. So it very well might be the last issue of Detective Comics that I buy until issue #2000 comes along in 2099.)

DC has a whole line of Essential Editions in the pipeline. If you like event stories, the superior Infinite Crisis DC Essential Edition will be along in July. If you like Morrison, his JLA New World Order DC Essential Edition came out last month, and his Batman Black Glove Saga DC Essential Edition will be along in in June.

In other words, there are plenty of great stories out there. Read some of them, but don't waste your time on this.

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Multiple people reached out to me in the past two days to alert me that Booster Gold got a shout out in Naomi #1. Check it out:

Naomi #1 (2019), words by Brian Michael Bendis and David F. Walker, art by Jamal Campell, letters by Josh Reed

Naomi is set in Port Oswego, the DCU version of "flyover country" where appearances by superheroes are few and far between. The implication in the dialog is that Booster Gold and Blue Devil are among the least celebrated heroes, the bottom of the barrel. That's cool. It means Booster Gold's secret identity is working!

You can pick up Naomi #1 now wherever fine comic books are sold.

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Logan Peterson has called me out on my failure to mention that in addition to Heroes in Crisis #3, Booster Gold also appeared last week in two additional comics!

First was Aquaman/Justice League: Drowned Earth Special #1, where our hero can bee seen among the Leaguers admiring the new Aquaman statue.

Second, Booster is barely visible on the dance floor in the story "The Birds of Christmas Past, Present, and Future" in DC Nuclear Winter Special #1.

As you can see, both were cameo appearances rather than the starring role Booster has in HiC, but any Booster is good Booster! Thanks, Logan.

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DC Nuclear Winter Special #1 will be coming to your Local Comic Shop later this week. It will be an anthology that includes a story about Rip Hunter being trapped in a post-apocalyptic future with a malfunctioning time sphere. The writer for that story is Mark Russell.

Russell — who ranks high among my favorite writers — was recently interviewed by Ernie Estrella for SyFy Wire in which he hinted that he'd like another shot at writing Booster Gold.

Russell has also written backup Superman stories, and has Harley Quinn #56 due out in December. He is inching closer to writing a DCU title regularly. His next project is to establish The Wonder Twins as a part of Brian Michael Bendis' Wonder Comics imprint in February of 2019. As for Rip Hunter, Russell had so much fun but had to leave much of it on the cutting room floor, similar to writing the Booster Gold / Flintstones crossover.

"What I would like to do someday is write a Booster Gold - Rip Hunter crossover that involves a time sphere, that expands on the two stories that I didn't get to tell in their totality," Russell openly pitched. If fans are lucky enough, Rip's future looks gold.

I could never be that lucky, so I hope that some other Booster booster is. I need more Booster Gold & Son stories in my life!

You can read more of the interview and see a preview of the DC Nuclear Winter Special at SyFy.com.

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