Because Booster Gold is a comic book character, Boosterrific.com is usually pretty much alone in its field reporting on his copious public appearances. If Booster was a real person, there would be, like, hundreds of sites stumbling over one another to repost paparazzi photos of him eating a burrito while headed to the gym wearing sweatpants in a desperate ploy to seduce your valuable click.

I might be a niche site, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to use those other sites' playbook! I'm the Internet, too, guys.

On October 4, former Justice League International artist Kevin Maguire tweeted an image promoting social distancing that he created in an intentional homage to his own 1987 cover to Justice League #1.

On October 7, former comics news website that now specializes in clickbait listicles, CBR.com, reposted the image with only the bare details necessary to inform the uninitiated of its visual significance without adding any significant commentary. (Shame on me. That was snarky. CBR doesn't deserve to be made fun of like that. To be fair, there must be plenty of people encountering the image for the first time who are unaware of the JL cover. "CBR: the best comics website for people who don't read comics!")

On October 8, the comics gossip tabloid that Booster Gold creator Dan Jurgens recently called "disreputable," BleedingCool.com, also reposted the image. They went a step further than their click competitor and added a gallery of other images Maguire has drawn that also homage the aforementioned Justice League #1 cover. Reputable or not, that seems like at least some value added in return for your click.

Now, on October 9, I will repost the same image because, like the other sites, I don't really have anything better to post. And I'm adding nothing of value other than the unenlightening observation that my doing the same thing as everyone else does nothing to advance the human condition in any meaningful way. And heck, I'm not even getting paid. (#nihilismnow!)

Hopefully, if you saw the following image on Twitter or CBR or Bleeding Cool, you'll still enjoy seeing it again as much as I do. Personally, I never get tired of Maguire's art.

No, sir, Mr. Gardner.

Footnote: I'm a little surprised I haven't yet seen Maguire's image posted at the former Newsarama, but it seems they've been too busy posting bigger news to resort to reposting social media pics. Check out their latest "feature" piece, "Marvel characters who have wielded Captain America's shield." (Double shame on me. There's always the weekend.)

UPDATE 2020-10-09: ComicBook.com is getting in on the action! Hi, Russ!

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Some time back, Drake tweeted:

I can speak only for myself, but I *do* still love floppies, largely because in my mind, that's what a comic book *is*.

I agree that the writing is on the wall for single issue floppies and that the future of the comics lies in an inevitable shift to more consumer-friendly mass market trade collections. However, once upon a time, buying single issues at a newsstand was the only way to follow the adventures of your favorite hero. You were soon conditioned that if you missed an issue, there wasn't going to be a second chance. If you wanted to read comics, a weekly trip to the store was the only way to do it.

For example, Booster Gold Volume 1, first released in 1986, was out of print for decades, and children of the 80s had no reason to believe it ever would be seen again. A full-color reprint only arrived in the past year, and I just got my hand on the second half, Booster Gold: Future Lost, last week.

Now available at a fine retailer near you!

Comic book retailing has changed a lot since your drugstore's spinner rack, but until the publishers finally throw in the towel, I think I'll stick to my singles. It may be more expensive, more labor intensive, and more often than not, an inferior reading experience, but at least I still get to look at all that great comic cover art.

No matter what anyone else tells you, we do buy them for the pictures.

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On Monday, I wondered if the solicitation for Generations: Shattered meant that Booster Gold was going to make a previously unannounced appearance in yesterday's Detective Comics #1027 anthology.

The answer is yes. Kind of.

Words by Dan Jurgens, art by Kevin Nowlan, Hi-Fi, Andworld Design

First of all: The return of "Buster" Gold, a running joke as old as Booster Gold himself! (See page 2, panel 3 of Booster Gold Volume 1, #1!)

Second of all: Is that Skeets on Kamandi's arm? Kevin Nowlan may be the issue's credited artist, but boy howdy does that look like a Dan Jurgens circa 1992 design.

This story, "Generations: Fractured," has a very Zero Hour feel to it. I'm not sure whether that's intentional or coincidental, as Dan Jurgens did write and draw Zero Hour, after all.

We're told at the end of the story that it will be continued in Generations: Future State #1, but I have no idea what that will be. BleedingCool.com suggests that it is a series (mini- or otherwise) that Dan Jurgens will presumably be writing in 2021. However, on Twitter Jurgens seemed to have a bone to pick with some of Bleeding Cool's reporting, so whatever the truth is here is anyone's guess.

Just let me go on the record saying: Hey, DC, please, please, please publish a series by Dan Jurgens featuring Booster Gold and time shenanigans! I even promise not to complain about the cover price.

UPDATE 2020-09-17: BleedingCool has revealed a teaser poster for Future State coming January and February 2021. Which is slightly more than we knew before.

Looks like we'll see more in DC solicitations next month.

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When I walked into my Local Comic Shop and asked for Booster Gold: Future Lost, the guy behind the counter said, "No offense to Booster Gold, but who's going to pay $40 for that?" I would hope a lot of people.

Since I didn't manage to get a copy myself yet — not the fault of the guy behind the counter; his DC distributor has been shipping late — here instead I present a couple of pics of the book (beside last year's first volume, Booster Gold: The Big Fall) shared on Twitter.com by Cort Carpenter:

Oh, I've never been so eager to part with $40!

When you make your trip to a fine comics retailer near you for your copy, you may also want to take a look at Strange Adventures #5. Booster doesn't show up in person, but he does get a name drop from series star Adam Strange:

Art by Mitch Gerads, fightin' words by Tom King

Golly, that Tom King really doesn't care much for Booster Gold, does he?

Buy Booster Gold: Future Lost and make Skeets happy.

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DC's self-contained convention was this past weekend, and while it was a smorgasbord for fans of super hero movies, television, and video games, there really wasn't much news about DC's plans for comic books. And since Booster Gold doesn't exist in any current movies, television, or video games, our hero was nowhere to be found.

The closest we got to Booster was this Easter Egg spotted by the eagle-eyed Ouoya (@Ouoya on Twitter.com) in the Suicide Squad Versus The Justice League video game trailer:

Suicide Squad Versus The Justice League is set in the same continuity as Rocksteady Studios' Batman: Arkham series of games. Blaze Comics appeared in Gotham City in Batman: Arkham Origins (2013) and Batman: Arkham Knight (2015).

It's good to know that Blaze is still doing well enough to have a storefront in Metropolis, but you're going to have to wait a while to see it for yourself. Suicide Squad Versus The Justice League isn't scheduled to be released before August 2022.

So maybe that's not the Booster Gold bonanza Booster boosters might have been hoping for, but it's not nothing. And since FanDome was split into two weeks with most of the comics-related content pushed to September 12, we may still hear more about Booster yet.

Thanks for bringing that screenshot to our attention, Ouoya.

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