The fourth issue of DC's self-promotional magazine, DC Nation, was released this week. A six-page article by Andrew Marino titled "The Sanctuary Files" is devoted to revealing "real-life" psychoanalyst John Foster Elliott's profiles of key characters of the upcoming Heroes in Crisis mini-series. Naturally, Booster Gold was included.

PSYCHOTHERAPY ASSESSMENT: Michael suffers from generalized anxiety, the "poser" syndrome, mainly because he is...just that. He has little respect for the law or the rights of others and believes that he is entitled to act because the end justifies the means. Yet he still has compassion for others and seeks to redeem himself, primarily through shortcuts that often fail. Michael needs to work on his morality, respecting the rights of others and accepting his limitations. Like most narcissists, he operates on double standards and is truly afraid of genuine intimacy.

NOTES: Axis I ICD F411 Sociopathic and narcissistic traits

I'm no expert on psychology like Mr. Elliott, so I had to look up the last bit of his assessment notes. As defined by the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, "Axis I" is the classification for almost all psychological diagnostic categories of mental disorders. "ICD" is shorthand for the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases system, in which "F411" identifies "Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)."

According to the National Institute of Mental Health website:

"People with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) display excessive anxiety or worry, most days for at least 6 months, about a number of things such as personal health, work, social interactions, and everyday routine life circumstances. The fear and anxiety can cause significant problems in areas of their life, such as social interactions, school, and work."

Symptoms for at least six months? Wow. Tom King has really f'd up our hero.

Booster Gold has certainly always exhibited sociopathic and narcissistic traits — that's what we love best about him! — but in recent years he had matured beyond his early days as a "poser." I guess DC's "Rebirth" is about taking everyone back to their roots, but I sure hope that doesn't mean we're going to have to rehash Millennium again. Or Extreme Justice.

You can read Elliott's diagnosis of other heroes, including how damaged Superman really is, in DC Nation #4 for free on Comixology.com. And, of course, you can find Heroes in Crisis #1 for sale in your Local Comic Shop on September 26.

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"DC Nation" used to be a weekly column in DC comics. Now, it's a once-a-month promotional magazine. Issue #2 came out last Wednesday, and it featured this ad for Heroes In Crisis.

Which THREE of these characters will be accused of murder?

Which TWO of these characters will be murdered?

Which ONE of these characters will be revealed as a murderer?

The characters we get to choose from are Arsenal, Atom, Beast Boy, Booster Gold, Catwoman, Cyborg, Damage, Deathstroke, Flash (Wally West), Green Arrow, Harley Quinn, John Constantine, Kyle Rayner, Lex Luthor, Mr. Terrific, Nightwing, Poison Ivy, Red Robin, Riddler. Superman, and Wonder Woman.

I'm not sure how surprising this is supposed to be. Two of the three accused (Booster and Harley Quinn) were revealed in the initial series announcement. Several of these are already known murderers. So the biggest question might be who's going to die?

Our fingers are crossed, Booster Gold.

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Those of you who attentively watched the DC Nation block on Cartoon Network this past weekend hopefully caught the Booster Gold reference in the Thunder and Lightning short. For those that blinked and missed it, here it is again:

Now we just need DC to get this into our grocery stores. Hopefully Sugar Bear won't find cause for litigation over the similarity with his longstanding Post Golden Crisps cereal.

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This Sunday may see the biggest football game in America, but neither Baltimore Ravens' quarterback Joe Flacco nor San Francisco 49ers' quarterback Colin Kaepernick has ever thrown a pass to save the universe....

52 Week 52

...much less an entire multi-verse!

Since the Big Game isn't until Sunday, you might want to check out DC Nation on Cartoon Network tomorrow morning at 10AM EST to pass the time. There will be a new Thunder & Lightning short, "Under the Weather," that Comics Alliance tells us will include a Booster Gold product placement! (Thanks to Morgenstern for reminding those of us who like to sleep in on Saturdays to set our DVRs.)

Enjoy the game, everybody.

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Cartoon Network's animated Green Lantern cartoon debuted last week. Several promotions for the upcoming "DC Nation" block of cartoons ran during the show. Eagle-eyed viewers may have spotted a certain golden-garbed figure and his 25th-century sidekick among the many DC heroes. Unfortunately, Booster and Skeets weren't seen in any of the cartoons previewed (their appearance was actually lifted from the cover of Booster Gold #40 by Pat Ollife), but it's good to see them included nonetheless.

A video recording of the broadcast commercial can be seen in this YouTube video uploaded by tdubois01. (Morgenstern notes that Booster is at about the 6 second mark.) Hopefully DC will release a better copy of the commercial soon so that the world can get a good view of the greatest hero (and sidekick) that no one has ever heard of.

UPDATE 11/15/2011: DCEntertainmentTV has uploaded the whole video in better quality here.

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