I was recently asked whether we would ever see Rani again. I think that's a pretty good question.

For those who don't know or don't remember, Rani was a supporting character in later issues of Booster Gold Volume 2. Displaced from her natural era (the 30th century), she was taken in by Booster Gold who treated her as family. That makes Booster something of a surrogate father to the young girl. Rani was still a member of Booster's family when the events of Flashpoint changed the DCU. She hasn't been seen or mentioned since.

Now Infinite Frontier has restored all previously existing chronologies into an infinite DC Multiverse, Rani certainly exists somewhere. But it remains an open question whether readers will ever see her in the pages of an ongoing comic again. In other words, will we ever learn what became of Booster Gold's young ward?

Obviously, I can't predict the future, but past experience leads me to believe that Rani's story may never be told. Comic book supporting characters rarely follow the heroes they support from title to title. Artist turnover is high in the world of comic book publication. New storytellers often want to tell their own story, not continue the story of a previous teller. So even if Booster Gold gets another chance at the spotlight, it's unlikely that Rani will follow him (unless Rani's creators, Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis, are the ones telling that story, and even then it's no guarantee that they would want to retread old ground).

Which is not to say that it's impossible. Creators like Roy Thomas, Grant Morrison, James Robinson, and Geoff Johns have made careers out of breathing new life into long forgotten characters. Who's to say that someone won't pick up the loose threads of Rani's story and run with them?

I sure hope so, Rani. You can't ignore family forever, can you?

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The life of any comic book hero would be a lonely one if not for the many characters who have made up their supporting cast. Just as Superman has Lois Lane and Batman has Alfred, Booster Gold has also shared his adventures with quite a few people over the years. Today we look at one of those, Rani.

In the 30th century, when the evil god Darkseid will take over the planet Daxam in what will become known as "The Great Darkness Saga," time-traveller Booster Gold will do what he can to save innocent lives (in Booster Gold Volume 2, #32). Unfortunately for everyone, Booster is no match for an army of billions of super-powered Daxamites, and he manages to save the life of only one child, little orphan Rani.

With Rani's parents dead and her foster parents fallen victim to Darkseid's invasion, Booster has little choice but to take the poor girl home with him to 21st-century Arizona where she could be cared for by Booster's grown son, Rip Hunter, who Rani nicknamed "Boppy" after her own grandfather (Booster Gold #33). Hunter was concerned that Booster had damaged the space-time continuum by bringing Rani to the past, but Booster's twin sister, Michelle, refused to allow them to send the little girl back to a death sentence in the future (Booster Gold #34). Just like that, Rani became part of Booster's family.

Despite her young age, Rani has an advanced knowledge of technology (Booster Gold #35) and a drive to join the family business. In Booster Gold #38, she pilots a stolen time sphere to 1943 to confront Maxwell Lord's parents before he was born, and would later "borrow" Michelle's Goldstar costume (Booster Gold #39). In response, Michelle grounded her for two whole days.

Rani was mature for her age, but she would continue to be traumatized by her experiences on Daxam. For example, when Doctor Nishtikeit and his time-traveling Nazis attacked Hunter's Arizona home (in Booster Gold #41), Rani suffered a prolonged PTSD episode that only resolved when Booster returned to "rescue" her. She cried for the duration of Booster's 25th-century prison sentence (though that was only 10 minutes of her relative time) as seen in Booster Gold #42. So far as she is concerned, Booster is her new daddy, and he treats her like the daughter he never had.

In the last days before Flashpoint changed history and destroyed everyone's memories of the history of the world that was, Rani was fittingly last seen in Booster Gold #43 on 30th-century missing child poster.

"The Great Darkness Saga" is still in Booster Gold's future. Will Rani be there? Will Booster Gold save her? Only time will tell.

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In case you missed it, the movie Justice League is opening this week. In cross promotion of the event, Entertainment Weekly's Darren Franich interviewed Justice League International co-creator J.M. DeMatteis.

EW: How did the specific tone of Justice League International develop?

JMD: No one ever said to me when we started, "Oh, we're doing Funny Justice League." It just evolved naturally. The more we went along, the more we realized that what we had on our hands was a superhero sitcom. But we never set out to do that. The minute you sit down and think, "I'm going to be funny," you're probably screwed.

Around the same time, I was writing "Kraven’s Last Hunt," which is as dark a Spider-Man story as has ever been written. I wasn’t thinking, "Now I'm doing this in clever contrast, we are answering the grim and gritty stories with our version of light and happy!" We just followed the characters. Keith [Giffen] would write the plots and set up these situations, I would start writing the dialogue, and the characters would start talking to each other. Beetle and Booster really created that team, not us.

Shh! Don't let Booster hear you say that. He'll get a big head!

You can read the whole interview at EW.com. (And you can see Justice League in theaters Friday.)

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I don't see a lot of Booster Gold fan art that includes Michelle Carter, much less Rani.

Being a Time Master must be hard work! Booster looks like he's coming down with a cold (not to mention that he has two left feet!).

Today's picture comes to us by way of Monster3x, who seems to be really attached to Rani. You can see more Rani in her gallery at DeviantArt.com.

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Eyz of Geek Life (and a Solid Gold member of the Booster Gold Fan Club) reminds us that no matter how much we may miss our Booster Gold title of yesteryear, our favorite supporting cast is alive and well, safe in our back issues boxes.

Ah, Rani. We barely knew you. Literally. Who was that kid?

(Click on the picture or the link above to find a larger copy of the image at Eyz's site.)

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