Few things are as important to a comic book super hero as his or her costume. The look of a character should hopefully immediately convey everything that a new reader needs to know about that character. That's why last week's brouhaha over Wonder Woman's new duds is more than some temporary media circus: it's an important window into America's association with the character of Wonder Woman. It would seem that most of us don't care for the new appearance, likely because it does not invoke what we expect from the character (which as I understand it is actually a part of Straczynski's story). Whether the design is temporary or not, it reveals our biases about what we expect of one of DC's most iconic heroes.

While Booster Gold is not as popular or as iconic as Wonder Woman, can this situation teach us any lesson about Booster's costume? Booster's look has passed through many permutations over the years only to return (more or less) to the original design just in time for the character's great renaissance. Is this a coincidence? Did Dan Jurgens strike gold (so to speak) on his first try? Or was it always the collar holding Booster back from widespread recognition?

Hmmm. There may be something to that collar business; we'll have to see what Martian Manhunter has to say about that.

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