Boosterrific Note: the following was sent to me in response to my April 10 post asking for Booster Gold fans to write in and tell us a bit about themselves.

Everyone, meet Jordan.

Thank you so much for this website and for this unique gathering of fandom around our favorite time-traveling hero. I stumbled across your website maybe 5-6 years ago and have regularly visited and enjoyed the updates on Booster appearances (not to mention digging deep into the listings of past Booster appearances for my own collecting purposes). I may not be a regular commenter, but I thoroughly appreciate this website and all you do.

I encountered Booster Gold for the first time at what was, in retrospect, a rather dark moment in the character's history. I began collecting comics around 2003-04, mostly Marvel at first. My initial foray into DC Comics was to check out their big event comic at the time, Identity Crisis. As a monthly murder mystery, I was on the edge of my seat, though in retrospect, it ended up being excessively dark and kicked off an unfortunate dismantling of the Justice League International-era characters. But at the time it did a great job of hooking me with hints of old stories and minor characters and the rich history of the DC Universe.

But it was the follow-up, Countdown to Infinite Crisis, that would help pave the way for me to become a lifelong Booster booster. Being relatively unfamiliar with either him or Blue Beetle, it helped introduce me to both characters and their brilliant friendship. Though it ended in tragedy, I became instantly enamored with the emotional journey of Booster Gold from down on-his-luck minor hero, to his heroic rescue of Ted in the middle chapter and then his sidelining injury before Ted's death. I knew I wanted to know more about this time traveling hero's past adventures hinted at in this issue, as well as how he would respond to the death of his best friend and what would come next.

I began to hunt down issues of Booster Gold's original series as well as the Giffen-DeMatteis-Maguire Justice League while following Booster's trajectory through OMAC Project (his scenes each issue were the primary reason I bought that series), Infinite Crisis and 52. In 52 I was devastated by his death and thrilled by his return and that final issue is still one of my favorite Booster Gold victories. Even better though was the launch of a new Booster Gold series and a new status quo as the Great Hero You've Never Heard Of. His character arc from failure and criminal to time-traveling runaway to self-promoting braggart to comical jokester to washed-up has been and all the way back around to noble and self-sacrificing hero is one of the greatest hero's journeys ever told. I largely check-out of DC with the New 52 relaunch and see relatively little on the shelves today that interests me, but that just means I have more spending money to use tracking down back issues featuring Booster Gold.

My favorite Booster moment would have to be in Vol. 2 #1 as he is invited to join the newly reformed Justice League of America and to his horror sees his membership certificate transform into a death certificate for Hal Jordan. That moment when he pauses you can feel the weight of his decision, but it passes quickly as he pastes a smile on his face and jovially turns down membership and plays the egotist, all for the sake of protecting his friends and fellow heroes. He will never receive a thank you or the accolades he deserves, but that's okay because he knows he is doing the right thing, even if it privately frustrates him, as shown in the very next panel. He is noble and self-sacrificing and willing to do the right thing, even at great personal cost. That may be a departure from his original status quo, but even in those old issues you can see that same heroism shine through as Dan Jurgens developed in Booster as he learned and grew and matured. That to me is what makes Booster Gold one of the best.

Thank you, Jordan.

If anyone else would like to share and/or self-promote, please drop me a line through the Boosterrific.com Contact Portal or directly at walter(at)boosterrific.com.

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Long ago in a galaxy far, far removed from COVID-19, DC Comics released a comic book called Year of the Villain Hell Arisen #3.

What DC failed to mention when retailers were making their orders two months in advance was that this new book would introduce the first on-panel appearance of the Joker's new henchman, someone called Punchline. And because far too many people think a smiling homicidal maniac is cool, Year of the Villain Hell Arisen #3 sold out in most stores before it even hit shelves.

It just so happens that book also contains an appearance by Booster Gold, which means that many Booster Gold completists now have a hole in their collection. (Not me, though. I know a guy and pulled a few strings. I may not have rights to a first-born son anymore, but sometimes that's the price you have to pay.)

Anyway. If you missed that book, DC gave you a second chance when they reprinted it in March. However, that run (of over 11,000 books) also sold out. So here comes printing number three.

I sure do like that gray on this third edition. It reminds me of the time that Quentin Tarantino had scenes in Kill Bill: Volume 1 processed in black and white to abstract some violence. Martin Scorsese used a similar trick when he desaturated the climax of Taxi Driver. (True story: with no new comics to read, I've watched 56 movies in the past three months.)

The only way to make that cover better might be to put Booster Gold on it. That just might convince me to give away rights to my second-born as well.

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from Justice League Task Force #13 (1994), aka the one where Booster Gold dies

In honor of Memorial Day, let us pause for a sober moment of remembrance for all of the super heroes, both imagined and real, who have given their lives so that we may continue to enjoy our comic books and related websites.

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