Justice League America #56 was released on September 17, 1991, thirty years ago next week. Its mawkish story takes place in the middle of the too-long "Breakdowns" event marking the denouement of the United Nations-sponsored Justice League International era.

This chapter focuses on the forsaken Leaguers struggling to adapt to life without a league. Among them, Fire and Ice struggle to join a modeling agency, and Blue Beetle finds that his poor physical health will prevent him from joining the Booster Gold-led Conglomerate. There aren't a lot of "bwah-ha-ha" moments here.

No matter how you look at it, "Breakdowns" was not a particularly good story, and this wasn't a particularly good issue. As much as we want them to be, not all comics can be masterpieces.

But this comic book is worth a look back today if for no other reason than for its cover by Chris Sprouse and Bruce D. Patterson. As pretty as it was at the time, it was made more poignant by events that transpired almost exactly ten years after the issue's publication.

#NeverForget

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Two weeks after delaying Blue and Gold #2 with no notice, DC has finally admitted to supply chain issues causing slippage in publication dates. Per Chris Arrant's report at GamesRadar.com/Newsarama:

DC has now revised the release dates for 28 upcoming single issues, along with five collected editions. Although this is the initial list, DC's spokesperson says the company does "expect further shifts in the future. DC will communicate these moves clearly and quickly."

Two of those 28 issues are Blue and Gold. Issue 2 is now scheduled for September 7, and the release of issue 3 has been postponed to September 28. Given the language of DC's notice, I won't be surprised if those dates don't slip as well.

(Not appearing on that list of 28 issues are Infinite Frontier #5 or Teen Titans Academy #6, both of which were originally announced to be available this week but failed to make that date. So are those books slipping for other reasons? Or is the problem already worse than DC wants us to think it is?)

I'm prepared to be tolerant, DC. Just keep us posted, ok? As any marriage counsellor will tell you, communication is key.

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Childhood is a time of learning about the world around you and preparing you for the future. But what if your childhood won't happen for another few centuries and your future is in the past? That's the case for time-traveling hero Booster Gold, whose 25th-century upbringing may not have prepared him for 21st-century life.

HEALTHCARE: In the 2460s, Michael "Booster" Carter's mother will be diagnosed with a fatal degenerative disease that can only be treated in a specialized zero gravity facility on the moon. Certainly, such an operation is beyond the reach of 21st-century science, but it will present Booster with a problem all too familiar to present-day Americans: where to get the money to pay for it?

Secret Origins #35

It's more than a little disappointing that life-saving healthcare will remain beyond the reach of too many even 400 years from now. Booster's solution will change his life not for the better, however, the lesson he will learn and a sympathetic understanding of the problems facing citizens in all eras will be an asset for the hero he will eventually become.

TRANSPORTATION: For about as long as there have been automobiles, prognisticators have been predicting that they will one-day fly. And they're right. By the 25th century, even school busses will take to the air.

Booster Gold #15

When Booster Gold debuted in Metropolis, he had super strength and an invulnerable force field. Yet ordinary 16-year-olds had a power he didn't: the ability to drive an eathbound car. No wonder his first 20th-century vehicle was a chauffeured limousine!

HOLIDAYS: If, like Charlie Brown, you think that Christmas has gone too commercial in the 21st century, you probably don't want to see how they celebrate the holiday in the year 2462.

Booster Gold #15

Each December, Booster Gold must feel right at home no matter what century he's in.

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This holiday, I give you not the Christmas you asked for but the Christmas you deserve.

Justice League Task Force #37 (1996)

Merry Christmas, everyone. Drink up.

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If you read Detective Comics #1027 back in September, you might remember its last page:

When I saw that last panel, I thought, "what the heck is Generations: Future State?" The answer wasn't immediately clear because DC was keeping its plans to itself.

We eventually learned that Future State is going to be a two-month alternate-Earth event interrupting whatever it is that passes for continuity in the DC Rebirth Universe. But how would this new title connect to Dan Jurgens' Generations comic which we'd already heard solicited as Generations: Shattered? (Or was Generations: Shattered a different book altogether? How many Generations books were there going to be?)

Despite what we may have guessed, according to Newsarama Senior Editor Chris Arrant, they aren't related at all.

"Originally, we were going to touch on what's coming with Future State," Dan Jurgens, one of Generations' writer/artists told Newsarama. "We're detouring from that a bit to focus more on our own story."

In other words, for readers under the impression that Generations: Future State #1 (as mentioned in Detective Comics #1027) on September 15 and Generations: Shattered #1 announced by DC on September 9 are two distinct projects, they are not. They are one and the same. The one-shot was renamed from 'Future State #1' to 'Shattered #1' sometimes in between its September 9 announcement and whenever Detective Comics #1027 went to the printers prior to that. DC has also seemingly made the editorial decision to remove any story connection between Generations and Shattered.

The 'Generations' story will play out next in January 5's Generations: Shattered, and then continue in February with Generations: Forged.

Whew, 2020 has been a mess, hasn't it? Thanks to Newsarama for finally setting that record straight and untangling all those names and projects. (I recommend that you read the full article at at Gamesradar.com for all the details.)

Personally, I'm glad that the two events are unlinked. Future State sounds like it's going to be a lot, and I still suffer a little PTSD from trying to keep up with all those Convergence mini-series back in 2015.

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