A few days ago, Booster booster CDN pointed out in the Boosterrific Forum that Vaneta Rogers at Newsarama.com had included Booster Gold in an article regarding speculating on the upcoming "Trinity War" event.

With Booster being one of Johns' favorite characters (he launched the character's most recent solo title), and the Booster of the future knowing so much about the Justice League, the chances are good that the man in gold will show up at some point. And when Booster's around, heroics ensue.

Elsewhere, both comichype.com and popcults.com give Booster glowing reviews for his visit with Jonah Hex in All-Star Western #19.

Given such a long period of inactivity for Booster Gold following his disappearance in Justice League International Annual last year, there sure seems to be a lot of people talking about our hero these days. That's some good news indeed!

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Justin Gray must feel pretty loved right now. He was interviewed by both Russ Burlingame at ComicBook.com and Newsarama.com last week about All-Star Western #19.

Vanetta Rogers interviewed both Gray and his co-writer, Jimmy Palmiotti, for Newsarama.com. The focus of the interview is very much on Palmiotti and Gray's plans for the future of the series (which has been losing more than 500 readers each month for some time now, currently down to under 17,000 per month and fast approaching cancellation). But there was still some room for some Booster news.

Newsarama: How did All-Star Western end up being the spot where Booster Gold would return to DC Comics?

Justin Gray: We needed to shake things up. Booster is the only time traveler operating currently in the New 52, and his story is that of a man hurtling through time for reasons unknown. He's not fully aware of the reasons behind this and so it felt like a great opportunity to pair him with Jonah Hex in a way that would get people talking about All-Star Western.

Palmiotti: We constantly like to keep All-Star Western on the cutting edge story-wise and loaded with ideas that we think really challenge the characters. Getting to be the book that reintroduces Booster again was even cooler for us. Once again we get a chance to turn more people onto the book, and that is a win-win situation for us on all counts. The crew at DC and our editors have been working long and hard on making this happen for us and we think we have a story that lives up to any hype we might have out there.

Meanwhile, at the New Look ComicBook.com Russ Burlingame resurrected his "Gold Exchange" column to put some questions to Gray, who genuinely appears to be a big Booster Gold fan.

ComicBook.com: There are few characters more entwined with the DC Universe than Booster, at least as he's been depicted in the recent past. His future is totally dependent on the "history" that unfolds in our titles every month. Hex is at the other end of the spectrum; his life would be only minimally impacted if Superman never had his coming-out party. Do you think that makes an exploration through time with these two particular characters even more interesting than the average mismatched duo?

Gray: Hex takes everything as it comes with an angry scowl and hand on his gun approach. I think any time you put characters together that are dissimilar, with very pronounced view points, methods and ideologies that you're going to have a good time.

A lot of times you have such similarities in characters that they become swappable costumes. I believe Booster being around Hex actually makes him more heroic in ways that would be overlooked and sometimes overshadowed by standing in a crowd with other heroes. He is essentially the only pure hero in the book at this time.

In both interviews, Gray sidesteps questions of how Booster got to the past and where he will be going next. It looks like readers will have to pick up All-Star Western #20 next month for more answers!

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First David Zavimbe quit the Justice League International after Batwing #12. Now DC tells us he'll be quitting Batman Incorporated altogether in Batwing #19, released today.

So the question isn't whether Batman will be replacing Zavimbe as Batwing, but who Batman will be replacing Zavimbe with. In an interview with Vanetta Rogers at Newsarama.com, writer Jimmy Palmiotti described the new Batwing:

This new Batwing will be a character more people will relate to...or more likely wish they were. We are approaching this with the feeling of "what if Batman picked me as the next Batman" kind of feel. There is joy, chaos, over the top action and adventure and a lot of romance.

Working from clues dropped by Palmiotti and his co-creator Justin Gray, Keith Callbeck handicapped the identity of the new Batwing at Comicosity.com. Callbeck gives Booster Gold 250 to 1 odds to be the new Batwing. (Terry McGinnis is the favorite, at 5 to 1.)

We all know that Booster knows a thing or two about playing the odds, but we'll have to pick up Batwing #19 to see if he's the winner of this competition.

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Last night at midnight, Cartoon Network debuted the Robot Chicken DC Comics Special. The shot of Booster Gold versus Solomon Grundy that appeared in last month's episode trailer was seen in the episode, and Booster put in an additional appearance in the group shot at the end.

Teammates Ice and Firestorm each had lines, but poor Booster didn't have any dialogue. At least we were warned. On Friday, Vaneta Rogers of Newsarama.com posted an interview with Robot Chicken writer Kevin Shinick that included this paragraph:

"And I actually did a Booster Gold voice, but he got cut," [Shinick] said. "But we put the deleted scenes on the DVDs, so people will get to see that."

If we want to see 5 seconds of talking action figure Booster Gold, it looks like we'll have to buy a $15.00 DVD. Or visit PropJosh on YouTube for free.

Thanks to MetalWoman for warning us about Booster's cut scene on Friday afternoon in the Boosterrific.com Forum.

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Last week, Newsarama.com ran "BATWING Goes Global for JLI, Back to Africa for ZERO MONTH," an interview between Vaneta Rogers and Judd Winick. Included in that article was a quote about Winick's hopes for Batwing #12.

Nrama: Fans of your work on Justice League International are looking forward to you writing some of those characters again. How was it for you to return to them in the New 52?

Winick: Oh, it was a blast. I wish it was longer. I had 20 pages to do a lot. I wanted Booster to talk more, you know? So I could write him! I could have done 60 pages on these guys.

But it was really fun to get back to those guys for just a little bit. Just a little bit. I loved doing that entire run. It was fun for me when they announced that Batwing had joined the JLI. I'm sorry to see the book go. But it immediately opened the door for this. I said, "Oh! Can they come play over here? Please?"

I had this idea about this big old fight in Africa, and I thought they could come along. I knew it would be great. And I really enjoyed writing it.

That's what issue #12 is. It's one of those big superhero issues where it actually feels right. You know? You only get to do it now and again where it feels right and makes sense, and doesn't feel like an overload — a whole, big old superhero dogpile. That's what we have for issue #12. It's good fun.

While Winick may have intended Batwing #12 to be a "big old fight," the issue as published feels more like a bait and switch. Yes, Winick sets the scene for a battle royal by establishing bad-blood (and international intrigue!) between the combatants before maneuvering them into their respective corners. But just as the opening bell is rung, the broadcast edits the match for time and cuts straight to the finale. How disappointing!

The issue is all pre-fight and post-fight, with nothing in between. If I only wanted to know who won the fight, I could skip watching the bout and read the headlines in tomorrow's newspaper. Even that would be a waste of time here, since there's never any doubt that the forces of good will ultimately triumph over the forces of evil in mainstream comic books. If we're not paying to see the fight, what are we buying with our $3.00 admission ticket?

To be fair to Winick, he is just part of the team of creative personnel and editors responsible for the finished product. Perhaps penciller Marcus To forgot to include the panels with the real action. Throughout the issue, it's unclear how one panel is supposed to lead to the next; maybe To doesn't understand that sequential art is similar to film making in how it's supposed to tell a story. Or maybe issue editor Harvey Richards decided that showing the widespread combat this issue was theoretically centered around would be too graphic for the desired teen audience. This wouldn't be the first issue of the New 52 that DC Editorial had damaged its published product with enigmatic decision-making.

Whatever the reason, this issue ultimately feels like 5-10 pages were left on the cutting room floor. Winick did deliver big in the 26-issue Justice League: Generation Lost, where he had plenty of space to develop his story into a semi-satisfying finale (that thanks to DC's post-Flashpoint market strategy will never have its necessary follow-up). This begs the question of whether it is even possible to deliver an epic plot in the modern 20-page comic book that promotes digitally-aided pin-up art over old-fashioned plot narrative. If Batwing #12 is any indication, the answer is "no."

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