Now available at your Local Comic Shop:

Batman Beyond Volume 8: The Eradication Agenda collects the final 8 issues of the recently-canceled Batman Beyond series, including the excellent 2-part "Canceled by Yesterday" story written by Booster Gold creator Dan Jurgens.

If you missed that the first time around, you'll be pleased to encounter it in this reprint paperback.

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I said at the start of the week that I wanted to talk about Generations Forged, so if you haven't read that yet (or for that matter Generations Shattered or Dark Knights: Death Metal ), beware that spoilers follow.

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You've been warned.

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You know from cover (and timing) of Generations Shattered, this story takes place in the DC Omniverse created in the wake of Dark Nights: Death Metal.

Dark Nights: Death Metal #7, January 2021

As if the Omniverse wasn't a big enough concept to take in, it only gets bigger. ("Infinity is just so big that, by comparison, bigness itself looks really titchy," explainsthe Hitchhikers Guide the Galaxy.)

At the end of Generations Forged, as Waverider returns the Batman of 1939 (abducted by Kamandi in Detective Comics #1000) to his native time, he introduces us to another concept:

Generations Forged #1, February 2021

Waverider goes on to imply that the Batman of 1939 will continue fighting into the modern day, that the Batmen of all publishing ages (Golden, Silver, Modern) are the same character (who may or may not have memories of all of his adventures.)

While the Omniverse just increases the size of the bucket for potential story settings, the Linearverse is a radical revision to understanding DC Comics' publishing history.

For GamesRadar.com, Michael Doran has already written several articles on the implications of this revelation, each quoting Generations Forged architect Dan Jurgens on his intent with this new Linearverse.

"It's fair to say that what we built here, the Linearverse, is its own universe that can fit into the larger context of DC's Omniverse," explains Jurgens. "It's a place where some unique and individual stories can be told."

Jurgens himself admits that this is an imperfect solution to an artificial problem. Comic book fans have always struggled with reconciling how Dick Grayson could be a boy in 1940 and still a young man in 2020 or how both Superboy and Superman could each have co-existing adventures for most of 80 years. These are only "problems" when trying to reconcile the lives of fictional characters with the passage of nonfictional time, but they are problems that fans have nonetheless tried to resolve for as long as we've been reading and relating to new monthly comics.

I don't mean to suggest that I think the Linearverse is necessarily any worse than any other attempt at reconciling the impossible. From my restricted point of view as the chronicler of the adventures of multiversal time-traveler Booster Gold, I've always attempted to to harmonize the many incarnations of Booster Gold onto a single entity, albeit an occasionally fractured and splintered one. That's no so different from what happens in the Linearverse.

So, to finally get to the serious question I referenced in my post title, what I want to know is whether the adventure told in Generations Shattered and Generations Forged happened to a Booster Gold in a previously existing continuity or not? The rules as explained for the new Linearverse would seem to suggest it happened to all known Boosters while at the same time happening to none of them, or maybe only those that exist inside a Linearverse that reflects the sum of all other universes.

For reasons I can't quite express, I don't find any of these options entirely satisfying (thought that may not be surprising coming from someone who obsessively tracks super hero minutia for a hobby).

Perhaps there is no definitive answer to my question, at least not yet. As GameRadar reports,

"There are all sorts of stories and adventures worth exploring in the Linearverse," Jurgens concludes. "If readers like what they've seen, react well to the concept, and ask for more, it might just happen."

Like so much else, maybe the answer to my question will only become clearer with time.

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I'll let you in on a little secret: I wasn't always a huge Booster Gold fan.

Which is not to say that I didn't consider myself fortunate to have first met Booster Gold in 1985, when I found his debut appearance in Booster Gold Volume 1 #1 sitting on the magazine rack at my local convenience store.

Even at a young age, I had seen enough Super Friends episodes to recognize that Booster Gold was lampooning traditional superhero ethos and consumer culture in a way I immediately found equally engaging and endearing. At the same time, I was still impressionable enough that if anyone had sold Flakies cereal, I would have begged my parents to buy a box.

I was devastated when his comics were canceled, but it would take another twenty years before I would call Booster Gold my favorite comic book character. The truth is that my first love in comics was Captain Carrot, the cosmic carrot-chewing leader of DC Comics' Amazing Zoo Crew.

The Zoo Crew's adventures were overloaded with smile-inducing puns, and the pop culture references read like a long-form Mad Magazine segments. I read and re-read each issue until its cover fell off. I spent years rebuilding my collection with better copies. I think I currently own the entire series in triplicate.

It's entirely possible that Captain Carrot would still be my favorite comic book character if DC hadn't canceled the Zoo Crew in 1983. Even then it took years before I was willing to let another character take his place at the top of my personal pantheon. After reading a lot of books from a lot of companies, I decided that my second love in comics was a key member appearing in Justice League International. However, that wasn't Booster Gold but Batman.

Specifically, I loved the Batman still more driven detective than deified super hero. I spent summers watching syndicated reruns of Batman's 1960s television series, and I grew up respecting his innate ability to solve riddles and escape deathtraps with nothing more than his honed mind.

As the 80s and 90s progressed, I bought every Batman comic I could afford. I watched Batman grow increasingly grimdark as he relied evermore on his wealth at the expense of his wits. Ironically, this made him more popular than ever with the reading public. Like any jealous lover, I did not appreciate my hero growing away from me. (And yes, I'm aware that my emotional, nostalgic bias for "the Batman I first met" is its own set of problems, but are ex-lovers ever rational?) Which brings us back to Booster.

About the time that I decided that Batman and I should just be friends, Booster Gold was returning to the limelight with a tragic turn in Countdown to Infinite Crisis. Despite never being my favorite hero, I'd been following Booster's adventures for years, even through the wasteland of Extreme Justice and the lean years that followed.

Booster's subsequent rise from the ashes in 52 finally made me realize how truly unique he was. I couldn't name another character who had survived such a long journey from origin to the triumph of saving a multiverse. With that realization, Boosterrific.com was born.

I now gladly call Booster Gold my favorite character, and I'm grateful he was willing to wait for me to come around. I assume that eventually, everyone will eventually realize Michael Jon Carter's greatness. Time has always been on Booster Gold's side.

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I've already covered Booster Gold's appearance in the upcoming Generations Forged (due February 23), but that's not the only BG appearance included in DC's February solicitation as provided by GamesRadar.com.

First up is the collected edition of Booster's recent guest-starring role in Batman Beyond #47, #48, and #49:

BATMAN BEYOND VOL. 8: THE ERADICATION AGENDA TP
written by DAN JURGENS art by SEAN CHEN, SEAN PARSON, PAUL PELLETIER, and NORM RAPMUND
In the final volume of Batman Beyond, Batman and Batman Beyond meet at least, with Booster Gold caught in the middle! But first, Terry McGinnis forges an uneasy alliance with Damian Wayne in order to stop Mr. Zero and his radical faction from turning Gotham City into an ice-covered hellscape. To set things right, Batman, Damian, and Batwoman Beyond must declare war on the League of Assassins! And one more thing: Inque returns, posing as Batman and wreaking havoc in Gotham City! Collects Batman Beyond #43-50.
On sale March 16, 2021

But that's not all!

FLASHPOINT: THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OMNIBUS HC
written by GEOFF JOHNS, SCOTT SNYDER, JEFF LEMIRE, JAMES ROBINSON, BRIAN AZZARELLO, DAN JURGENS, PETER MILLIGAN, JIMMY PALMIOTTI, ADAM GLASS, DAN ABNETT, and others art by ANDY KUBERT, FRANCIS MANAPUL, DAN JURGENS, EDUARDO RISSO, MIKEL JANíN, BEN OLIVER, SCOTT KOLINS, RAGS MORALES, and others The event that reshaped the DC Universe, now collected in its entirety in one massive omnibus edition! Barry Allen works for the Central City Police Department, where he's solved numerous criminal cases. As the Flash, he protects the innocent and battles evil. He is the Fastest Man Alive! Or he was...
Barry Allen wakes up to a world that is not his own. A place where his mother was never killed...and the Flash never existed. This altered universe is on the brink of a cataclysmic war. No human has ever wielded the Green Lantern's light, and no one has ever heard of Superman. Batman has as much blood on his hands as his enemies do, and America's last hope is Cyborg. Powerless and alone, Barry Allen desperately tries to hold on to his memories of the reality that once was. If there is any hope of setting things right, he must convince this world's strange, dangerous heroes to help him fix what was broken.
This omnibus collects Flashpoint #1-5, Booster Gold #44-47, The Flash #9-12, Flashpoint: Reverse-Flash #1, Flashpoint: Abin Sur the Green Lantern #1-3, Flashpoint: Emperor Aquaman #1-3, Flashpoint: Batman Knight of Vengeance #1-3, Flashpoint: Citizen Cold #1-3, Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint #1-3, Flashpoint: Deadman and the Flying Graysons #1-3, Flashpoint: Deathstroke and the Curse of the Ravager #1-3, Flashpoint: Lois Lane and the Resistance #1-3, Flashpoint: The Outsider #1-3, Flashpoint: Secret Seven #1-3, Flashpoint: The Canterbury Cricket #1, Flashpoint: Wonder Woman and the Furies #1-3, Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost #1-3, Flashpoint: Project Superman #1-3, Flashpoint: Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown #1-3, Flashpoint: Green Arrow Industries #1, Flashpoint: Grodd of War #1, Flashpoint: Hal Jordan #1-3, Flashpoint: The Legion of Doom #1-3.
On sale April 20, 2021 | $150.00 | 1,504 PAGES

Whew! That's a lot of comics in one book. I recommend reading it at a table. If you try to read it in your lap, you might lose circulation in your legs.

And, since we were very recently on the subject, I should mention that BleedingCool.com has uncovered that a new edition of Bizarro Comics is coming in the summer:

BIZARRO COMICS THE DELUXE EDITION
Comic icons come together to tell the strange and wonderful tales of BIZARRO! The tales of Superman's twisted doppelganger, BIZARRO, are collected in this brilliant deluxe edition format! Follow along as Bizarro decides to publish his own comics from BIZARRO COMICS HC #1 and through the strange and wonderful tales told in BIZARRO WORLD!
On sale June 22, 2021

(Bleeding Cool also alerts us to an upcoming 10th Anniversary collection for the New 52 relaunch due in August, but so far it looks like it will just be a select few titles and will not include Booster Gold's Justice League International. I'll be sure to let you know if that changes.)

Obviously none of those are new Booster Gold appearances, but I'm sure many of these books will introduce Booster to new audiences, and that's a good thing, too.

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In the eternal search for Booster Gold cameo appearances, I made the mistake of flipping through Dark Nights: Death Metal The Multiverse Who Laughs #1. WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO READ A COMIC ABOUT BELOVED PET SIDEKICKS EATING PEOPLE? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, DC? Damn it, there should be a warning on the cover.

Fortunately, Batman Beyond #49 is a delightful antidote for most of the drek that DC is publishing these days.

Thank you, Dan Jurgens, et al.

A preview of the issue is online at CBR.com, but you don't need it. Go buy this issue and make Skeets happy. Sir.

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