In comic books, heroes arrive in the nick of time to restore the status quo. That's generally what you want when a crime is being committed. But what if the problem is the status quo itself?

That's why the first Earth Day was organized on April 22, 1970 (as any environmentally conscious time-traveler could tell you).

Most of us have only one Earth, and all things being equal, it has treated us pretty well so far. The least we can do is try to keep it the kind of planet our heroes would be proud to call home.

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On January 9, 1969, during a ceremony in which he received the Miami Touchdown Club's F.A.M.E. (Football Awards Miami Edition) Award for the Most Outstanding Professional Football Player of 1968, quarterback Joe Namath of the New York Jets was confronted by an aggressive Baltimore Colts fan. In response to the taunting, Namath guaranteed a Jets victory in the upcoming Super Bowl III.

It became the guarantee heard around the world.

Smart money at the time was that the Colts, representing the established National Football League (whose teams had won the previous two Super Bowls decisively), would handily beat the Jets of the upstart American Football League. No less than famous oddsmaker Jimmy the Greek had predicted the Colts would win by more than two touchdowns.

Therefore, Namath's guarantee, widely reported by the Miami Herald, was generally ignored or ridiculed.

As you may have heard, when the game was played on January 12, the Jets not only covered the 17-point spread, they won outright, proving that the AFL was legitimate football and paving the way for the Super Bowl to become America's biggest sports spectacle. As Namath left the field that day, "The Guarantee" became legend...

...the sort of legend that time-traveling, 20th-century hero-worshiping, former-football-players (with problematic gambling histories) probably find irresistible.

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I've got a few things I want to say about Generations Forged, but I'm waiting until it's been out for at least a week so that I don't accidentally spoil anything for anyone. To a lesser extent, the same goes for Future State: Suicide Squad #2 too.

While we pass the time, let's all reminisce about that time Booster Gold travelled back to the Old West to match his fingergun draw speed against DC's Western hero, Nighthawk (and his partner, Cinnamon), an event immortalized in this old-timey long exposure photograph:

It looks improvised, but Booster had to hold that pose for 20 seconds!

Okay, so that's not a hundred-year-old sepia-toned photo but a commission from the incomparable Doc Shaner for Booster art collector The Happy Sorceress, recently shared via Twitter.com.

Photo or drawing, I'm sure you agree that whatever it is, it's Boosterrific!

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On this day in 1978, a gang of criminals broke into JFK Airport in New York City and stole nearly six million dollars in cash and jewelry from a Lufthansa cargo terminal in a crime that would make a comic book super villain proud.

The audacity of the crime (and the bloody aftermath) have made it legendary. Several movies have been made about the heist and its fallout, including the critically- and audience-acclaimed Goodfellas.

Nearly a dozen people are believed to have been involved in the planning and execution of the crime, but only one was ever convicted for his direct involvement in the robbery. Very little of the money and jewels were ever recovered.

It would be easy for an investigator with access to all of time and space to track down a few robbers and recover the stolen goods, but just because something is easy doesn't always mean it should be done. What if the robbery needed to happen as one event in a series of dominoes leading to a better future? In service to a greater good, could you stand mute to a crime when you knew your silence would result in someone else's death?

Those are the sort of quandaries facing an ethical time traveler. That's got to be a hard thing to live with, even for a Time Master.

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It might be hard for modern audiences to imagine, but in the late 1980s, "Iron" Mike Tyson was considered invincible. He had never lost a fight. His bouts averaged barely more than 3 rounds. He usually had his opponent knocked out before the end of the first round. Then came Buster Douglas.

Douglas was a heavy underdog when the two heavyweight boxers met on February 11, 1990. Casino oddsmakers had Tyson a 42/1 favorite, meaning a $42 bet earned only $1. However, if Douglas was to pull off the upset, a $1,000 bet on Douglas would pay out $37,000. Too bad that could never happen.

Except it did.

It's been said that the unexpected and improbable Douglas victory was the biggest payout for a boxing match in history, making it a perfectly safe bet for a time-traveling sports fan looking to make a quick buck. Someone like Booster Gold.

Hmm. A sports gambler using time-travel to his own advantage? Someone should make a movie about that.

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