In the comments of my blog post about the single greatest Booster Gold comic ever written (Justice League #4), there was some discussion about when exactly Booster's comic book portrayals turned from fun-loving but competent crime fighter (as portrayed in his own original series) to bumbling moron (as portrayed in 52 and just about everywhere since).

The timing of that change can be narrowed to shortly after the dawn of the 21st-century. No so coincidentally, that's about the same time that Blue Beetle's character also got an overhaul before coming to a very gory end.

Blue Beetle, who during the JLI years always played the fool in the original Blue and Gold dynamic, lost his sense of humor for his inclusion in the 1999 L.A.W. (Living Assault Weapons) mini-series reuniting the former Charlton Comics characters. For a few years following, he appeared much more prominently in DC Comics than his best friend, notably in issues of Birds of Prey, where he was diagnosed with a weak heart and semi-retired from heroics. This allowed his more serious demeanor a chance to take root with readers and editors alike.

I'd always assumed that was why, when Beetle and Booster were reunited in 2003's Formerly Known as the Justice League, the comedy roles of the two super buddies were swapped. However, when I put that question to JLI writer J.M. DeMatteis on Twitter last week, he revealed a different reason.

Whatever you think of the change, you have to admit that "just because" is as good a reason as Beetle and Booster ever had for any of their hijinx.

And now you know the rest of the story. (Thanks to Ariel for inspiring this topic.)

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Booster Gold gets his hands on a karaoke microphone in Harley Quinn #70 to sing

When I was lost, you took my hand
When life was gray, you made it grand
When I was damned, you knew the deal
When my heard was sand, you made it steel

I'll call you babe, and you call me boo
I'll love you strong, and you love me true!
Until the end of the world, I love you!

Don't be surprised if you don't recognize the song. It's not real. It was created by issue writer Sam Humphries specifically for the occasion ("to pass legal"). But he didn't create it without inspiration.

According Humphries himself (@samhumphries on Twitter.com), the song was inspired by "For Crying Out Loud," written by Jim Steinman and performed by Meat Loaf on his 1977 epic operatic album, Bat Out of Hell.

I've always thought of Booster as more of a U2 fan, but who am I to tell a Justice Leaguer what to sing.

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I mentioned on Monday that I had been looking for something else on Twitter when I found that enamel pin. That something was some art of Booster Gold in an anime/Freakazoid!-sort of style. I did finally find what I was looking for:

Turns out that's not an official DC release but a very polished piece of fan art by self-taught artist @Jokeb0i. If you're interested, those panels culminated in a gif punchline you can see at ask-jokeboi.tumblr.com/.

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I saw a pic on Twitter of Blue Beetle and Booster Gold in a very cartoon style (like you might find in one of DC's recent line of DC Kids productions), and quite by accident I discovered this starry-eyed pin:

This beauty, created by zara (@snailpng on Twitter), is for sale at BigCool.BigCartel.com. If you like that, know that the artist has more Blue and Gold art as Zeewa on DeviantArt.com.

I never did find what I was looking for, but I'm very happy with what I found.

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Here's something we don't see often enough: Skeets' solo fan art!

That sidekick-sized sketch card was created by Robert Demers, who you can find on both Deviant Art and Twitter as RobDemersArt.

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