In the future, Booster Gold might one day marry a blonde, but he's had his share of other love interests in the past. Before Godiva and Gladys, before Firehawk and Blair Butler and Trixie Collins, there was Monica Lake. And she was a real piece of work befitting the Corporate Crusader.

Monica was a career-driven actress who only loved men who could, ahem, boost her career. She tolerated Booster's bad fashion sense, lame jokes, and camera-hogging tendencies only for the reflected glory it brought her. This did not endear her to anyone, including Booster.

Their relationship lasted for the first year-and-a-half of Booster Gold's superheroic career before Booster finally showed her the door. (Literally.)

Of course, the cliche of the "difficult" actress doing whatever was required to get to the top is nothing new. One actress in particular during Hollywood's Golden Age had a similar name and a terrible reputation. I had to know if Booster's Monica might have been based on a real person, so I naturally asked creator Dan Jurgens just that.

Not really, no. I always liked the way the name "Veronica Lake" rolled off the tongue. It had a great sound, so I went with "Monica". But that's where the similarity ended.

It has been said that The Blue Dahlia screenwriter Raymond Chandler disliked Veronica Lake so much, he nicknamed her "Moronica Lake." But if Jurgens says he didn't copy that on purpose, I believe him.

As always, thanks to Dan Jurgens.

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