Waid made up for his transgressions by writing for Booster a rousing call to action. Booster delivered the following speech to the Justice League at the foot of Mount Everest in Justice League Task Force #14 (seen at left).
While that's no "Saint Crispin's Day" speech, it is pretty good for a comic book. It's also not the only thing for which Booster Gold fans have to thank Mark Waid. Waid was the editor of Secret Origins #35, and wrote the informative article "Secrets Behind the Origins" detailing Booster Gold's unused pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths origin (where he stole not from the Space Museum but the Superman Museum!).
Thanks, Mark Waid. Boosterrific.com wishes you a Happy Birthday!
Morgenstern posted on Mar. 21, 2012 at 10:10 AM
The art doesn't even look that bad on this one pic..for Extreme Justice. I mean it is till far from good, but much better than what else I saw of that title.
Also..uh speaking as someone who is not from the Colonies, that speech would have left me rather confused than roused, at least the first part. Than again..at least Aquaman was not singing.
Grimmy posted on Mar. 21, 2012 at 11:07 AM
Happy birthday Mark, thank you for not putting Booster in "Kingdom Come".
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Mar. 21, 2012 at 2:58 PM
Morgenstern: That image is from JUSTICE LEAGUE TASK FORCE #14 and is by Sal Velluto and Jeff Albrecht. Their art is pretty good, mainly because they have some knowledge of how to lay out panels. The art by Marc Campos is much worse in the regular JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA title and would be even worse in EXTREME JUSTICE, which wouldn't start its run for about 6 more months later.
Grimmy: Booster is mentioned but not seen in KINGDOM COME #1 as the manager of Planet Krypton. We finally meet him in that role in KINGDOM COME THE KINGDOM: PLANET KRYPTON #1. Both of those books, obviously, were written by Mark Waid.
Grimmy posted on Mar. 21, 2012 at 3:49 PM
Boosterrific, you mean "The Kingdom" #1? Same Earth22 universe, different series. Sorry, my OCD is kicking in today.
My "thank you" was sincere, the 4 issue "Kingdom Come" series is too dark a place for Booster IMHO. I should correct myself tho, that series was Alex Ross's baby and Mark Waid was teamed with him due to his strong familiarity with the history of DC superheroes.
I haven't read any of "The Kingdom" books.
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Mar. 21, 2012 at 5:20 PM
Oops. Yes, I had the name wrong. I knew better. Can I blame a typo?
If you really want to get into a discussion about sharing credit for KINGDOM COME, you have to mention Alan Moore. KC was clearly based on the unpublished Alan Moore proposal TWILIGHT OF THE SUPERHEROES. (Those unfamiliar can find a basic summary of that story on Wikipedia.) Yes, it is the art of Alex Ross that really made KINGDOM COME a smash hit, but the story shares too many elements with TWILIGHT to for me to comfortably give sole credit to Ross and Waid. (I don't mean to suggest that DC didn't have the right to rework the proposal. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't: I'm in no position to adjudicate that decision. However, if we can't mention WATCHMEN without giving credit to the Charlton characters as it seems everyone has to do all the time now, it seems that KINGDOM COME shouldn't be discussed without crediting the TWILIGHT proposal.)
Grimmy posted on Mar. 21, 2012 at 6:23 PM
Yep I completely agree, sorry I forgot the TWILIGHT connection. Can I blame old age?
I was referring to the KINGDOM COME Wiki entry to refresh my memory on that series development. And YES Alan Moore is GREAT. I especially enjoyed his ABC books.
Russ Burlingame posted on Mar. 22, 2012 at 4:36 PM
You know, there's someone ELSE with a Booster Gold connection who had a birthday yesterday, too...!
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Mar. 22, 2012 at 10:56 PM
Happy belated birthday, Russ! When it's your 50th birthday, I'll run a spotlight column on you!
The Irredeemable Shag posted on Mar. 26, 2012 at 11:19 PM
Happy Belated Birthday to Mark Waid! He's phenomenal! His Flash run is still my favorite of the speedsters series.
So let me get this right... Booster was killed by one of the Overmaster's henchmen? Overmaster?!?? Seriously? The guy Justice League Detroit beat? That's like losing to some guy that was defeated by the Inferior Five.
Next you'll tell me Booster was killed by someone pathetic like Giganta. Oh wait...
The Irredeemable Shag