Booster Gold appears in exactly two pages of Secret Origins #41, and since the Trickster is the perfect villain to close out our April Fools week, let's see both of 'em:

Apparently Trickster and Wile E. Coyote get their toys from the same supplier. Maybe it's time for a Booster Gold / Road Runner team up.

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Do you remember that my favorite page in Justice League International #24 was Booster and Beetle behaving badly at a super-hero gathering?

If so, then you can probably already guess which page is my favorite in Hawk and Dove #1.

These panels are a flashback to events behind the scenes of Invasion! Book Two, which means this party actually takes place before that one. So if Booster seems comparatively immature here, don't worry; he grows up fast.

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In addition to being the final issue of Justice League International volume 1 (next issue the team will be downsized to just Justice League America), Justice League International #25 is also the first book-length team-up between Booster Gold and Blue Beetle. Historic!

My favorite page comes early, which is probably not a surprise to those of you who know that Ty Templeton is one of my favorite artists. He only drew the intro and outro pages of this issue (over Keith Giffen's layouts), with the rest handled by Mike McKone (also over Giffen).

But it's not just the art I love; almost every panel on page 3 has its own punchline!

Despite the early (and often) jokes, the main plot of this team-up issue is a vampire hunt that turns into an overt criticism of Western consumer culture which, in Twilight Zone style, questions who the real monsters are on plane Earth. As Booster and Beetle (and the reader) will eventually realize, it just might be our heroes.

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Yes, that banner up there says "one page at a time," but today you're getting two!

In 1989, a three-part story written by Cary Bates in Captain Atom #26 , #27, and #28 that more-or-less resolved the messiest parts of the backstory of why Captain Atom lied to the Justice League about his personal history.

(Turns out the adventures of the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Captain Atom were just a government cover story to disguise how Atom was really blackmailed into participating in the weapons test that gave him his powers by a criminal conspiracy of Vietnam vets in a plot stolen directly from Lethal Weapon. Like I said, it's messy.)

Anyway, the point here is that Booster Gold was one of the three Leaguers who confronted the good Captain with evidence of his mounting lies. Since Booster played a significant role in only the first two chapters of this story, appearing only on the first page of the third, I figured I might as well present my favorite pages from those two issues at the same time.

First is Captain Atom #26. As my favorite page, I could have chosen a sequence earlier in the book in which Booster, Blue Beetle, and Mister Miracle clasp hands then go undercover... by wearing sunglasses. But for full-page goodness, I'm going with page 22, in which a thief from the future living under an assumed name unironically demands "no more secrets"!

Yeah, the posed figures are stiff, but I'm enamored by the layout. Note how the top of the page is a separate panel presenting an establishing shot of the city skyline, and the tail on Booster's speech balloon acts like a pointer showing where they are, as well as allowing Booster to speak first despite being in the center of the page. I assume the balloons were all created by letterer Carrie Spiegel on top of Pat Broderick's art. Well done.

In the very next issue, Captain Atom #27, my favorite page is also based mostly on what Booster has to say. Despite never having been seen wearing a deerstalker cap or skis, our hero is suddenly an amateur detective and an expert skier!

And he flies faster than the Blue Beetle's bug? Oh, Booster, is there anything you can't do?

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The "2nd Anniversary Issue" Justice League International #24 sees the League holding a membership drive, which sets the stage for a generational clash between Leagues old and... well, immature.

I side with Booster. For all his faults, he's never foul-mouthed.

I've always liked this issue a lot. On re-read, I still do, even the running gag of Beetle being aggressively inappropriate with Wonder Woman (and Booster trying to restrain him). It's only tolerable because everyone knows Wonder Woman could squeeze Beetle into a roach motel if she wanted to. (Poor Diana. She must have to deal with this every day.) Show some respect, boys; you're supposed to be heroes.

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