To borrow another quote from Tom King's interview with Russ Burlingame exclusive to The Gold Exchange The Boosterrific Edition book:

Booster puts up a lot of shields — he's got forcefields; it's a good metaphor — but he puts up a lot of shields around himself, and some of those shields hide a lot of depth.

I couldn't agree more with that. If there's anything that Booster Gold is known for, it's his over-the-top confidence, but that confidence is often just an act, a projection of how Booster *wants* people to see him.

Rarely is the difference between Booster's private and public persona more visible than in my favorite page from Booster Gold volume 1 #9, the scene in which Michael Jon "Booster" Carter officially becomes Booster Gold.

Golly, I miss thought balloons in comics.

That "At least it's... different!" really sums up another key aspect of Booster's personality: his determination to make the best of every situation (even when he's responsible for making the current situation so bad).

He might be a time traveler, but Booster Gold is always looking forward.

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You know, for someone who says I don't like Tom King's work, I somehow dedicate a lot of space on this blog to him. What can I say? The guy's just kind of hard to ignore, especially when he tweets things like this:

That's the book cover under the dust jacket of the Human Target Volume 1 hardcover coming our way September 27. Yeah, we've seen that art before — it was created by Greg Smallwood for the interior of Human Target #1. But it's still Boosterrific no matter how many times we see it.

While I'm on the topic, this would seem to be a great time to mention that Russ Burlingame has an exclusive interview with Tom King in The Gold Exchange: The Boosterrific Deluxe Edition. With Russ's permission, I'm quoting starting from page 594 here:

Burlingame: You said earlier that you write Booster "wrong." That feels like a healthy way of internalizing audience feedback, just to crack the joke and say "I know 30% of everyone reading this are going to bitch, and that's fine."

King: I mean, I say "right" and "wrong," but I wouldn't change the way that I write. I just wrote Booster for Human Target, and I loved how those pages turned out. Yeah, my Booster's a little goofier and a little sillier, and I know it's not going to please everyone, but it's my job to make the best product I can, and that's the best product I see.

If I'm just trying to write the way everyone wants me to write, then I'll write crappy. I know it's going to turn out worse if I try to do it the other way.

My general opinion is that there are a lot of superheroes who are super-competent and super good in the DC Universe, and it's nice to have one who's not that way. It's what makes him interesting and funny. It's nice to have a guy who can make jokes, and that when you read him, it can make you laugh. That's what I like about Booster; he's not like all the other superheroes.

To me, it's the difference between what Iron Man was up until Robert Downey, Jr. and what he is now. He was just a generic, boring guy, and yeah, he had alcoholism, but that was basically it. And then Robert Downey, Jr. came along, and it was like, "What if we made this guy so arrogant it was funny?" And then we're like, "Oh, yeah. Now he's a [effing] great character."

Burlingame: In Human Target, it isn't just Booster, but the entire Justice League International. Do you approach Booster a little differently as part of that unit?

King: I knew I was taking the Keith Giffen/JLI version as opposed to the Dan Jurgens, more heroic version. I wanted to make sure I had it down, so I talked to Dan about it and he was like, "Well, Booster is a guy who doesn't mind making money off being a superhero," so I wanted to make a thing where he was making money off being a superhero, so I put Booster's Bagels in there.

I just started to put captions back in my writing. I haven't used captions since The Vision, so that's like seven years without captions. The whole point of Human Target is, he goes through each JLI member and kind of cuts to the core of them at some point and says why they're awesome, or what's at their heart. So it gave me a chance, using Chance's voice, to say what I love about the character.

So Booster is Booster. And "Yeah, Booster's a joke, but aren't they all? At least this one's funny" is I think his great Booster line.

We can agree on that, at least. Booster Gold *is* funny.

Thanks for the interview (and the book), Russ!

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Don't worry, there are no spoilers for Blue and Gold #8 in today's post, but I can't say the same for the following link to ComicBook.com!

Now that you've been appropriately warned, here's the link to ComicBook.com where Russ Burlingame has a recap of how it took DC thirteen years (!) to finally tell us who the Black Beetle was:

The original plan to reveal the Black Beetle's true identity, was to do it in Booster Gold #25. The mystery proved so intriguing to readers, and the story for #25 was already so full, that Jurgens and DC opted to put it off until a planned double-sized story in Booster Gold #50. Unfortunately for Booster fans, Flashpoint happened, and the series ended with Booster Gold #47 in 2011 as part of the line-wide "The New 52" reboot. This is the villain's first significant appearance since.

To add a little extra salt to that wound, I will remind you that Booster Gold #47 was actually the 49th issue for the title. In addition to the 47 conventionally sequential-numbered issues, there were also 0 and 1,000,000 issues as well. So we could have had the reveal in a double-sized 50th issue number 48 if DC had let the series go on for just one more month.

And while we're on the topic of salty wounds, can we even be sure that the Black Beetle we got in Blue and Gold was the same character who put together the villainous Time Stealers in Booster Gold Volume 2 #7? As Russ points out, DC History is not what it used to be.

Honestly, I was so angry that the New 52 reboot truncated the continuity of my favorite characters that I strongly considered swearing off DC Comics entirely. (I meant it, too. As several ex-friends can tell you, I'm the sort of guy who can hold a grudge forever. It's not healthy.)

Several reboots and rebirths later, I still don't buy as many DC comics as I used to, but I have happily bought multiple copies of each issue of Blue and Gold with no regrets, no matter who they say Black Beetle is. I feel that's been money well spent, and I'd be glad to give DC more if they decide they want to do it again.

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If you're a regular reader of this blog, that means you're a Booster Gold fan and probably already aware of Russ Burlingame's online "Gold Exchange" columns recently collected into a book (now available on Amazon.com).

Well, considering that Booster Gold made his Arrowverse television debut last month, Burlingame has decided that the time is ripe for another book, this one specifically for CW fans who don't yet know much about The Greatest Hero They'd Never Previously Heard Of.

From Burlingame's announcement at getrevue.com

By coincidence, just days after The Gold Exchange paperback became a reality, The CW revealed that Donald Faison was set to play a new time-traveling hero on DC's Legends of Tomorrow, and the description...well, it sounded a lot like Booster.

I quickly realized that fans of the show would want to know more about the character — after all, this was the first major DC character added to the series in years, and in that time, the show had taken on a wildly different personality of its own.

So tonight, as the world gets to see Booster Gold come to live-action for only the second time on TV, I'm announcing A Legend in His Own Time: The Fast-Forward Guide to the Greatest Hero You've Never Heard Of. Available as a paperback and ebook in July, A Legend In His Own Time is a condensed and annotated version of The Gold Exchange, trimming much of what the TV audience would consider the fat and providing some additional context for Booster and his history.

I've recruited Booster Gold superfan Kevin Allen to help wrangle the 600 or so pages of total Booster content I have down to something that can be quickly and inexpensively distributed, so fans can breeze through it before Legends hopefully returns in the fall.

Burlingame is already taking pre-orders for the book on JosieBook.com. Can any Booster Gold library really be complete without it?

P.S. — While we're on the subject of Burlingame's personal cottage industry of writing Booster Gold companions, we should also touch on the Gold Exchange special edition hardcover he announced last September. That book still hasn't shipped, but only for the very good reason that Russ has been waiting for Blue and Gold to end its 8-issue run so he can include interviews about it — and the reveal of the Black Beetle's identity — as well. I think we can all agree that's worth waiting for.

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You all know I'm not much for the rumor mill, but when the CW announced to Entertainment Weekly on Wednesday that actor Donald Fiason (most famous as a lead in the long-running Scrubs) will be joining the cast of DC's Legends of Tomorrow, they described his character thusly:

"The Legends first encounter this character at a different phase of his career whose golden years are in the rearview mirror. He is good guy deep down; his ego is looking for a boost that only fame, fortune, and glory can provide. While he claims to have been recruited to work for a mysterious time organization, he wasn't offered much of a choice in the matter. As an unauthorized time traveler with high-profile aspirations, he developed a mischievous streak and cuts a few corners along the way to achieving his dreams. He knows all about the Legends of Tomorrow and finds them inspiring because they are the kind of heroes who started at the ground floor, as opposed to inheriting their powers from an alien planet, a spider bite, or wealthy parents. But the big question is whether his respect for the team is going to be able to help the Legends out of hot water or get them into hotter water!"

If that sounds a lot like a description of one Michael Jon "Booster" Carter to you, know that you're not alone. I've seen several entertainment websites draw the same conclusion, and even the Internet's foremost Booster Gold reporter, Russ Burlingame, reports on the speculation at ComicBook.com.

So, will Faison be playing Booster Gold? Or are the producers of DC's Legends of Tomorrow teasing us? I guess we'll all find out when the finale airs on March 2.

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