Tales of the Human Target is due to arrive in your Local Comic Shop next week, on August 23. Tales is an anthology book, with stories featuring Guy Gardner, Fire, and Booster Gold. According to Newsarama @ gamesradar.com, Booster Gold was chosen because that's who Kevin Maguire wanted to draw. I'm very much okay with that.

That Newsarama article hyperlinked above is an interview between Grant DeAmitt and Tom King about a whole bunch of Human Target-related stuff. Importantly for Booster boosters, it includes an on-the-record discussion about why King keeps putting a dumbed-down version of Booster Gold in his stories:

Nrama: Okay, moving on, the next character that's in Tales is Booster Gold.

King: My favorite character in comics. I love writing him.

Nrama: Oh yeah?

King: I tell Dan Jurgens all the time, 'thank you for creating this character.' Even if I write him a little differently than Dan would write him, because Dan writes him a little smarter than I write him. I write him a little more goofy. But I love that sort of goofiness of him.

Nrama: Is that what attracts you to the character? The goofiness?

King: There are two things that attract me. Number one, I write these tragic, sad things. I never get to write funny. I love writing funny. I love comedy. It's a chance to get into that. And yeah, there's this like, don't tell anybody this, but I base him kind of on Futurama, on Zapp Brannigan and Kiff. You know how Skeets is his partner who, like, loves him and hates him at the same time? I love that.

I also love — this is the thing I got from Jurgens. What Jurgens understands about this character is, that in the end, Booster does the right thing and doesn't get credit for it. He's the superhero who's like, yes, he first thinks of himself. Yes, he first thinks of money. Yes, he's a goofball. But at the end of the day, he's really a really good person. He really is self-sacrificial. But just because of all that other bravado stuff, nobody gets to see that part of it. He's one of the nicest, best heroes in the DC Universe. Everyone assumes that because he's a goofball, he's not good. And I love that about him.

Nrama: So in the beginning of Tales, when he has that monologue about being just like Superman, he's actually right? He's closer to Superman than we give him credit for.

King: People forget that in 52, the big DC event, he was the Superman for a time. A character called Supernova. So again, you read that and you're laughing at him, but there is something in him that's just a little Superman.

The craziest part about Booster is that he had the stupidest plan in the world. He's like, I'm going to go into the past. I'm going to steal a bunch of tech and go back and be a superhero. And then he actually did it! He executed the stupidest plan, and it worked! There's something Brave and Bold about that.

Futurama? Really?

That said, all jokes — and my personal appreciation for King's ouevre — aside, I don't want to discourage anyone from enjoying Booster Gold for whatever reason they find to enjoy him, even if their reason isn't mine.

Live and let Booster Gold.

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: gamesradar.com grant deamitt human target interviews kevin maguire newsarama tom king

DC solicitations are out for August, and by my current count, Booster boosters can expect to see our hero make an appearance in at least 10 upcoming books (including reprints). That's a lot!

As we've already covered, Booster will be in August's Tales of the Human Target one-shot as well as several Dark Crisis issues.

And while we knew that Booster would be on the cover of the first issue of DC vs. Vampires: All-Out War, we are just now learning that he'll be on the 1:25 variant edition of the second issue by James Stokoe:

If you didn't know, "1:25 variant" means that for every 25 copies of the book your Local Comic Shop orders with the standard or regular variant covers, they'll get exactly one of those. The general rule of thumb in comic collecting is that you should generally expect to "pay the ratio" for these sorts of incentive variant covers: you pay approximately $25 for 1 copy at your LCS. In today's market, that's like, 5 gallons of gas!

These 1:25 covers will obviously be in limited supply, so if you want this (or any incentive variant — so named because the publisher is using it to create an incentive to buyers to purchase more copies than they might be otherwise initially inclined to order), I recommend you negotiate with your LCS ahead of time to try and strike a deal that will be worthwhile to both of you.

On the other hand, the collected edition of Blue and Gold is due on September 27 for a comparatively meager $19.99. And while I'm sure you already have all the individual issues, won't it be nice to have them all bound under one cover?

You can find all the August solicitations at GamesRadar.com. Spend wisely, Booster boosters.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: blue and gold dark crisis dc vs vampires gamesradar.com human target james stokoe newsarama solicitations

DC Comics' July 2022 solicitations are due out today, but Michael Doran of Newsarama@GamesRadar has already broken some Booster Gold news, specifically that our hero is going to start hunting vampires this summer.

cover art by Alan Quah

DC vs. Vampires: All-Out War #1 is a new six-issue "all-you-can-eat buffet of grindhouse mayhem" limited series beginning in July that serves as a companion series to the main DC vs. Vampire series, following the companion one-shots DC vs Vampires: Hunters in May and DC vs Vampires: Killers in June.

"One of the last secret, underground human cities is facing total annihilation and its leader - John Constantine - must plan a suicide mission to assassinate a key lieutenant in the vampire empire!" reads DC's description. "Against unreal odds and with an unlikely team including Booster Gold, Deathstroke, and Mary Marvel, does the Hellblazer have one more trick up his sleeve?"

DC vs. Vampires: All-Out War will be written by Matthew Rosenberg and Alex Paknadel with "monochromatic" black-and-white (!) art by Pasquale Qualano.

It's always cool that Booster Gold gets more spotlight, but if the main DC vs. Vampires mini-series is any guide, most of these characters are just going to die very gruesome deaths at the hands of other fallen heroes. If vampires can turn the likes of Wonder Woman and Superman, I don't much care for Booster Gold's chances. (How did he not see this coming?)

Will Booster be seen anywhere else in the DCU in July, perhaps in a book that isn't so... bloodthirsty? I'll certainly be checking GamesRadar.com for updates later today.

UPDATE LATER TODAY: Whoo, boy, it looks like DC really doesn't know what direction it wants to take its properties this summer. An endless series of Dark Crises, Flashpoints, and multiverses of Superman and mechs and vampires and knights and children.... Maybe I'm just getting too old for this.

On the up side, Booster Gold does appear on the solicited cover for Superman: Son of Kal-El #13 by Travis Moore.

The issue is teased to introduce the television Arrowverse's Dreamer to the DCU (whatever that means anymore), so when it arrives in your Local Comic Shop on July 12, expect it to be a big seller to television watchers who also buy comic books... all 15 of them.

Now get off my lawn.

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: alan quah dc vs vampires gamesradar.com michael doran newsarama pasquale qualano soliciations

Two pieces of news today that are probably each worthy of their own post. But since they both came from the ghost of Newsarama at GamesRadar.com, I'm combining them into this one post.

Thing 1: "Booster Gold: Inside the social media superhero who was 35 years ahead of his time" by Vaneta Rogers is a retrospective of what Booster Gold has meant to the writers who have crafted his adventures.

Rogers' oral history includes interviews with Dan Jurgens, Keith Giffen, J.M. Dematteis, and Jeff Katz, all ow whom clearly have a great deal of respect for the character they helped craft.

In fact, Giffen said that, when he and co-writer J.M. DeMatteis were told by editor Andy Helfer they had to use Booster Gold in their new Justice League run in 1987, it was this 'things-never-go-right' element that defined Booster.

"I'll be honest: I had no idea what to do with the character when we first had him," Giffen said. "Booster really didn't gel in my mind until he had the first 'bwa-ha-ha' moment and Beetle was laughing at him. I knew then that this character is going to know life's frustrations and is going to get knocked down a lot, but is always going to get back up again."

That's just a taste of the insight the piece provides into what has made Booster Gold so durable for the past three-plus decades. Good work, Vaneta.

Thing 2: "New DC Human Target is a 12-issue 'whodunit'" by Micheal Doran is essentially a sales piece to encourage fans to buy the upcoming Human Target series featuring the Justice League International.

The report lays out the basic premise of the series and quotes writer Tom King telling us how this is going to be just like every other prestige mini-series he's written for DC in the past half decade. But the important part for Booster boosters is the news about the variant covers.

The [Trevor] Hairsine and [Danny] Miki #1 and #2 variants connect to form the cover of a 'Whodunit' board game. The back cover features a pin-up calendar, "leaning into the mid-century feel of the comic," says DC.

When placed side by side, those variant covers will look like this:

Mid-century? No. Boosterrific? Very.

Comments (2) | Add a Comment | Tags: covers danny miki gamesradar.com human target keith giffen micheal doran newsarama tom king trevor hairsine vaneta rogers

I've been a grouch all week, but it's not all bad news in the world. I mean, DC Fandome version 2.0 is set for tomorrow, and DC is promising us 24 hours of free comics. That's not nothing.

And if Booster Gold fans want even more comic books, you should know that on Wednesday, Newsarama/GamesRadar broke the news that Booster Gold would be appearing in Generations: Shattered #1 in January.

(I said that like you didn't already know it, but you probably did. So many people got in touch to share that Newsarama article, I must have been the last to know. Thanks for keeping me informed, everybody!)

Judging from the article, Generations: Shattered looks to be a $10 anthology book collecting some of the pieces of DC's abandoned "5G" event. The official solicitation hasn't been revealed — and might not be revealed for a while considering that Newsarama says it's coming in January and DC hasn't even released its December solicitations. But we do know that Dan Jurgens is listed as one of the writers, and we did get this look at the sweet cover by Ivan Reis and Joe Prado.

Pay close attention:

Booster hasn't had that shaded star on his costume since Booster Gold #8 in 1986! Could that be an accident? I think not.

Dare we hope that Generations: Shattered will actually revisit Booster's original post-Crisis on Infinite Earths chronology for the first time since... ever? Remember, back in 1986, Booster was living the lifestyle of the rich and famous. Ah, the good old days!

Maybe this wasn't such a bad week after all. #CorporateCrusader #BringBackTrixie

Comments (4) | Add a Comment | Tags: 2020 conventions covers dan jurgens dc fandome gamesrader.com generations ivan reis joe prado newsarama.com solicitations