Dan Jurgens recently spoke to Russ Burlingame about the 25th anniversary of the release of Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Preay. Booster Gold played no role in that series, yet according to Jurgens, he sort of does.

Burlingame: It feels like, even though this is a very stand-alone book, the Waverider stuff plays into the bigger theme of the Linear Men at that time in the books, which is, "Do something, you jerks."

Jurgens: Right. It's weird, I think I probably didn't realize it at the time, but I look back at this now, and realize that what I was doing, I should say, was assembling a group of characters that I created that would function in that world. I think Jim Starlin did a great job of this. When he was doing Captain Marvel, when he was doing Warlock, he created all these characters. They became very much a part of his writing language, and his visual language. All that stuff existed to the extent that it was Jim Starlin-world. Now we see that times 5,000 on the screen. I think what I was doing was a lot of the same thing, which is I said that I have all these characters that interact and they make sense to me. They don't just have to interact once in November of 1992 and then we never see them again. We can use them to address different ideas and different topics.

They became very much a part of -- this is going to sound real egotistical, and I don't want it to-- it becomes part of like "Jurgensverse," as far as I was approaching Superman a little bit. It made sense to me. Whereas at that time, it might have been [convenience], I look back on it now a little differently. It made sense in a lot of different ways. These are the characters I wanted to continue to explore, and there was no reason they had to interact once and then not interact again.

Burlingame: And a lot of these characters and ideas you would continue to work with all the way up through the mid-2000s with your Booster Gold run.

Jurgens: Also, if you look at Waverider, which was a co-creation with Archie Goodwin, you have all these things that fit together and work. think it's a group of concepts that have been probably under-used by DC. I think there's a lot more than could have been done with it, and fortunately that stuff is still out there, so there's a lot more that can be done with it. I think concepts like the Linear Men, like Vanishing Point, and all that stuff, I think that's the kind of thing that has a place in comics. I think there's some cool things there that can still be exploited, still be used.

There's a lot to unpack in just those few paragraphs, and that's only a tiny snippet of the interview. (By all means, read the whole thing on ComicBook.com.)

The most important thing there, obviously, is that we should be calling Jurgens' oeuvre "The Jurgensverse," and that all the characters in it always were, and always will be, connected. That somewhere in 2019, Trixie Collins could pass Mitchell Anderson in the produce aisle of their local supermarket and give him advice on the best way to pick out a grapefruit, that thought makes me very happy.

It's also worth noting that Jurgens believes that Time Masters and their story-telling conceit of policing history remains an untapped source for future stories in the DCrU. That should be encouraging to fans of Booster (and Jurgens' work), as it means that the possibility still exists to revisit the characters and concepts (and unanswered mysteries) of Booster Gold Volume 2.

Here's to the future!

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Here we go again.

Heroes in Crisis isn't even over yet, and Booster Gold is already being included as a possible victim of the next round of DC's version of Russian Roulette.

This is the house ad that ran in this week's DC's Year of the Villain Special advertising for August's upcoming relaunch of Batman/Superman. As you can see, our hero, Booster Gold, is included among the list of possibilities to become the newest threat to the DC Universe in August's relaunch of Superman/Batman Batman/Superman.

The series writer, Joshua Williamson, spoke about the upcoming series with The Hollywood Reporter.

"We discover, through the Batman Who Laughs series that the Batman Who Laughs have been working on this massive plan since Metal. What it is is, he has sleeper agents throughout the [DC Universe]. They’ve been infected, and they’re slowly turning into the worst versions of themselves," Williamson teased. "Some of them know they're changing, some don't. Some aren't aware it's kind of like a Jekyll and Hyde situation where they're not aware of [what] the other side is doing.

I can't say as I'm particularly enthusiastic about this, but I think it's more the timing than the concept. What with Metal, Doomsday Clock, Heroes in Crisis, Leviathan, "Year of the Villain," etc., it's starting to feel like villains having the upper hand is the rule, not the exception, in the modern DCnU. A little sunlight, some *joy*, some *fun* would do everyone some good. Why bother being a hero anymore if it's never anything but murder and sadness? No one likes to always be in crisis.

In other words, why so serious, DC?

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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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Heroes in Crisis #7 arrives in your Local Comic Shop today, but it's already had a bit of controversy. The originally solicited, "unfinished," cover by Clay Mann was pulled back in December at the request of Tom King. It was replaced by this, the final cover by Mitch Gerads:

I have to say that I like this new cover much better, not the least because this one shows Booster Gold! (Sure, he's getting thrown around by Superman, but Superman throws everyone around. Jerk.)

You can find an issue preview online at DenOfGeek.com in which Blue Beetle and Batgirl have a conversation! (Brace yourself: Batgirl continues to be written like no incarnation of the character I've ever read before. Maybe she's the killer?)

Buy this issue and make Skeets happy!

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DC released solicitations for June last week, and I'm sorry to say that the only Booster Gold appearance looks to be in the Injustice 2 Volume 6 hardcover collection reprinting Injustice 2 issues 31 through 36. We'll have to hope that Booster is just taking a well earned vacation after the conclusion to Heroes in Crisis and isn't being incarcerated for murder.

It remains possible that Booster will be seen in Brian Michael Bendis' Event Leviathan. Solicitation text describes it as "a mystery thriller that stretches across the DC Universe and touches every character from Batman to Superman to the Question to Talia al Ghul." That's not much to go on, but no one can deny that Booster Gold is certainly a character.

Speaking of Booster ensemble appearances, longtime Booster booster Morgenstern thinks he has spotted our hero in another recent issue of Superman written by Bendis. See this title page from Superman #9:

That's a pretty crowded picture. Here, let me zoom in.

Spot him yet? No? Let's get closer still.

Says Morgenstern: "On the Lower left, hidden by the word "HOUSE", next to Ted Kord, is someone who might be Booster Gold."

Is it? Could be. Maybe. I think we can all agree on one thing: Morgenstern has some great eyes!

Thanks, M. Maybe if you take a look at the rest of those DC Comics solicitations at Newsarama.com you'll have better luck spotting Gold than I did.

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