I try to ignore CBR most of the time. (Are they primarily an entertainment tabloid with a little comic book news or a clickbait farm? Both?) But every once in a while they get my eyeballs, as they did with this article titled "The Justice League's Silliest Member Almost Took Down a Classic Team by Himself" by Nabeel Gaber.

The article is a recap of the events of Justice League #4, which is indubitably the best of the best Booster Gold comics ever. And for the most part, it's actually very positive. But it's not entirely accurate.

I might personally quibble with the description of the Royal Flush Gang as "a classic team" — the "team" is based on a costume gimmick and all the original members are dead, so isn't that a bit like saying that "classic" Gwar is still touring? — but my real complaint comes from this:

It's also significant that Booster Gold and Blue Beetle, two of the goofiest members of the Justice League, were the ones to defeat Ace. Even though these two worked well together in a comedic context, they were also a formidable fighting team.

What Gaber fails to make clear is that Justice League #4 is the *first* team-up between Booster Gold and Blue Beetle. Neither one was ever "goofy" without the other; all the comedy would come later. At the time, this was just powerhouse Booster Gold proving he could work with a team, something that had not been clear in his solo appearances to date.

The "Blue and Gold" paring actually begins in Justice League International #8's "Moving Day," which is the first time the two characters were featured away from the team. (Justice League became Justice League International with issue #7.) The humor developed naturally out of the relationship between the two JLI members who shared the unusual superhero problem of having lost great personal wealth. Comedy is just tragedy plus time.

It's nice that CBR can help modern readers enjoy the great comics of yesteryear. (Justice League #4 came out on May 5, 1987, thirty-four years ago!) But, c'mon. Booster Gold is hardly the Justice League's "silliest" member. Plastic Man is.

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DC released solicitations for May 2021 at the tail end of last week, and there's not much in there to excite Booster boosters.

The only overt mention of Booster Gold (and Dan Jurgens) is this one:

DC COMICS: GENERATIONS HC
written by DAN JURGENS, ANDY SCHMIDT, and ROBERT VENDITTI
art by IVAN REIS, BRYAN HITCH, YANICK PAQUETTE, JOHN ROMITA JR., KEVIN NOWLAN, DOUG BRAITHWAITE, RAGS MORALES, EMANUELA LUPACCINO, and others
cover by IVAN REIS and JOE PRADO
ON SALE June 8, 2021
$29.99 US · 184 PAGES
ISBN: 978-1-77951-009-9

In these tales, a threat of cosmic proportions to DC’s newest (and oldest) universe compels one of the most unusual groups of heroes ever assembled to take on the most mysterious foe they have ever encountered. Join the original Batman, Kamandi, Starfire, Sinestro, Booster Gold, Dr. Light, Steel, and Sinestro in their quest to save the universe before time runs out…
Collects Generations Shattered #1, Generations Forged #1, and the story “Generations Fractured” from Detective Comics #1027.

Of course, by June, we'll all have read everything in that.

We've also already seen all of Booster's appearances in the solicited Tales from the DC Dark Multiverse II hardcover collection (also due on June 8), which will reprint Booster's participation in Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Wonder Woman: War of the Gods #1 (and the very tiny cameo from Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Flashpoint #1).

(And while we're here, I should probably add that the solicitations also omit any hint about the future of Gold Beetle, who goes unmentioned in the tease for Flash #770.)

So where will Booster be seen next? Your guess is as good as mine.

A full list of solicitations can be found at CBR.com.

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As webmaster of the Internet's premiere website dedicated solely to Booster Gold, I get several automated lists a week keeping me informed of Booster Gold references around the World Wide Web.

Some of these notifications are useful; others, less so. Automated bots and the rise of aggregator websites generally mean that I have a bunch of gibberish links to sort through each week. But they're not my least favorite return. That dishonor belongs to CBR.com listicles, especially when they're wrong.

Take, for example, "10 Superheroes With Siblings We All Forget About," which includes Booster Gold at number 6:

Seeing old news reports of her older brother being a big-time superhero in the 21st century, Michelle Carter decided to follow his path and become a hero herself. Calling herself Goldstar, Michelle's superhero career didn't last nearly as long as Booster's. After Booster's future suit was destroyed by Doomsday, he repurposed his sister's to build a new one.

That's wrong.

Goldstar's Jack Soo-created costume had nothing to do with Booster's post-Doomsday powersuits (most designed by tech wizard Ted Kord). Not only did Booster never show any hint of Goldstar's magnetism powers, that one-of-a-kind suit was seen destroyed during Michelle's fatal encounter with the Dimension X aliens in Booster Gold #22.

Another incorrect fact is reported in "10 DC Characters Who Have Never Actually Died," which lists Booster at 8:

He has faked his death before, but he's never actually died, which is a pretty big accomplishment for someone who has fought the kind of threats he has; whether it be against the enemies of the Justice League or saving the timestream, Booster Gold does one thing better than mostーsurvives.

That's also wrong, if only by technicalities.

An ill-fated confrontation on Mount Everest between Booster Gold and the villainous Devastator left our hero in such bad shape that the world's best surgeons couldn't save him. He was pronounced clinically dead in Justice League International #65.

Booster Gold cheated death in that situation thanks to the coincidental intervention of the Overmaster, who stopped everyone on the planet from dying until he was defeated, by which time Booster was safely strapped into new life-supporting armor designed by — guess who? — the Blue Beetle, Ted Kord.

But Beetle wasn't around to save Booster in 52 Week 15. Sure, there were some time-travel shenanigans in that story, but it's hard to argue that someone is "faking" death when you're looking at his actual corpse.

Which brings us to perhaps my least favorite of the recent listicles, "10 Unlikable DC Heroes You're Supposed To Root For," which once again puts Booster Gold at number 8.

He’s also done quite a bit to mess up the DC timeline. As annoying as he is with pulling pranks and constantly searching to get paid from big sponsorships, he has also selfishly made small adjustments that had drastic effects on the universe.

That's... reasonably accurate, assuming you ignore the fact that Booster has always admitted to and cleaned up after his own mistakes.

From the beginning, Booster Gold was *designed* to be unlikable. That's pretty much the original point of the character: Could a flawed person in a flawed society still be a force for good? Booster Gold is Dan Jurgens' answer.

What's really wrong with this listicle is buried all the way at the end of the article. While I might personally argue with the inclusion of several of the other heroes on this highly subjective list, number one on the countdown is none other than Superman, declared unlikable for "being near perfect in his morals and his abilities." How could anyone with the compassion and drive to help advance mankind ethically be "unlikable"? Boring, maybe. Sometimes preachy and often square, sure. But even Booster Gold *likes* Superman!

Booster Gold #6

Make up your mind, CBR. If you hate on Booster for being too flawed and Superman for being too perfect, all you're saying is that you don't really like comic book super heroes. Around here, nothing could be more wrong than that.

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The Greatest Hero The World Has Never Heard Of makes his triumphant return to the world of Dark Nights: Death Metal with this week's issue 6.

If you've got a really high definition monitor and a magnifying glass, you might have spotted our hero in the background of a panel in the issue preview available online at CBR.com, but Booster gets to play a bigger part later in the issue: He delivers a whole line of dialog!

But that's not the only place you'll see Booster this week. He also gets a cameo on the first page of Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Crisis on Infinite Earths (which should really be called Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Last Days of the Justice Society, but I digress). You can see Booster in CBR.com's preview of *that* issue.

(Oops. That panel might be something of a spoiler for last year's Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Infinite Crisis, if you haven't read that — and I don't blame you if you haven't. These What If? Dark Multiverse one-shots are starting to stack up. How many unhappy endings does one company need?)

And lest you think that you'd have to pick up one of these two issues to get a Booster Gold cameo appearance this week, think again. Booster is appearing in all the DC books this week in the house ad for Generations: Shattered #1. Here's the important bit:

(click the image above to link to the full ad)

That's a lot of Gold!

Buy any book from DC this week and make Skeets happy.

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When DC released the solicitation for today's DC's Very Merry Multiverse holiday anthology back in September, they completely failed to tell us that it contains a story featuring the greatest restaurant manager the world has never known!

"Twas the Night" is a short story taking place in the Planet Krypton restaurant of the Kingdom Come continuity of Earth-22 which is not to be confused with the Planet Krypton restaurant of the mainstream DCU as seen in The Kingdom. (And they say comic books are too convoluted. Pshaw!)

The 8-page story was written by Brittany Holzherr, the associate editor for both "The Gift" and Heroes in Crisis. My opinions of those stories are well known, but I'm not holding them against Holzherr, who seems to have learned all the right lessons: once again she's working with some great artists in Todd Nauck, Hi-Fi, Andworld Designs!

There's a preview of the anthology's first story (Harley Quinn in "It's a Horrible Life") online at CBR.com, but do yourself a favor and just buy this very Boosterrific issue anyway. You'll make Skeets — and yourself — merry indeed.

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