DC Comics has taken the unusual tact of pitting its potential audience against itself in whittling down pitches for upcoming books with its current "Round Robin" tournament.

If you are unaware, DC has revealed 16 different comic book concepts by 16 different art teams. These concepts were set in paired brackets, and fans are asked to vote for their favorite in each pairing. After four rounds, the winning pitch is promised a series. There's one big problem with this plan:

None of these concepts include Booster Gold.

One round has already been completed. You can find details and concept art for the potential books still in the tournament at community.dcuniverseinfinite.com.

Go ahead and vote for the ones you like. (The Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle soldiers on, but Justice League Pets has already been eliminated, and I can't bring myself to care about the rest.) I offer my congratulations to whoever wins. But don't be surprised if I keep a firm hold on my purse strings until such time as Booster Gold reappears in the DC Universe.

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DC released barely any new comics this week, at least none with Booster Gold in them. However, they did re-release a collected edition of their 1996 four-issue event mini-series, Final Night.

In this story, the star-devouring Sun Eater has devoured Earth's star, and the heroes of the DC Universe do what they can to prevent the complete collapse of civilization. It's kind of a dark story.

If you weren't around to read it the first time around, here's Booster Gold's entire contribution to the event:

Final Night #1

Final Night #3

And that's it. Not even a line of dialogue! The "Extreme Justice"-era was a lean time for our hero. (I'm sure he was very busy behind the scenes.)

Booster Gold's involvement aside, the mini-series is better known as the first step on the road to redeeming fallen hero Hal Jordan. It's also the event that kick-starts the infamous electric Superman Red/Superman Blue era. (Is it just a coincidence this collection is being released a week before DC launches the new Superman: Red and Blue title next week? I think not!)

It's not a bad story, and if you're not familiar, give it a look. At the very least, you're going to want to know what "really" happened before you read the inevitable Tales of the Dark Multiverse version.

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The future is here!

If Booster Gold's appearance on Dan Jurgens' cover of this week's Infinite Frontier #0 wasn't enough to get you to buy the issue, how about if I tell you that our hero also makes a surprise cameo appearance on the pages within?

art by John Timms, Alex Sinclair

Sadly, that is the totality of Booster's participation in this issue. Still, that's an infinite amount more Booster than most of the other books on the shelves of your Local Comic Shop.

Buy this issue (for that sweet cover) and make Skeets happy.

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This past Friday, Kat Calamia interviewed writer Joshua Williamson for the ghost of Newsarama at GamesRadar.com. Williamson is the brains behind Infinite Frontier #0, the issue launching the post-Death Metal DCU.

There's actually a lot of useful information in the interview to those curious about where the DCU is headed, but the important part for Booster boosters is this exchange:

Newsarama: There are a ton of characters that appear on the main cover. Some characters that stand out, in particular, are President Superman, Alan Scott, Jade, Obsidian, and Blue Beetle. You mentioned James is writing an Alan Scott-centered chapter of Infinite Frontier #0. Do the others I mentioned have a role in Infinite Frontier, and/or the DCU going forward?

Williamson: Blue Beetle only has a very small scene in this, but that's partially because of him having a role in something else later on in the year. Like we wanted the cover to represent not just this one issue, but also some of the stuff that's coming in DC for 2021 and because of Blue Beetle and Booster Gold and some of their roles later is why we put them on the cover.

Be still my beating heart! DC has only been promising us a Blue and Gold team-up book since at least the letter column of Justice League International #25 in April 1989! Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me for 30 years... well, what's another year going to hurt?

Maybe 2021 is finally our lucky year!

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Over the weekend, Rob Snow wrote in to say

There was an intriguing teaser dropped on Bleeding Cool about Future States Gold Beetle.
Any clue?

Nothing concrete, but I like where your head is, Rob.

The teaser Rob mentions was in the article "91 Rumours, Gossip, Teases About DC Comics Future State for 2021." Number 90 on that list is

Who is... Gold Beetle in Future State?

I wish I knew. DC Comics has had Blue Beetles, Red Beetles, and Black Beetles, so there's no reason to think that Gold Beetle has anything to do with Booster Gold. But it might.

At this point, I should point out that there is no evidence in any of DC's promotional material to date that this Gold Beetle even exists (or will exist), much less that it has anything to do with the future of everyone's favorite comedic crime-fighting team. Adjust your hopes for a previously unannounced Booster Gold appearance in any of the next two months' worth of DC comics accordingly.

Booster's next know appearance is on the cover of Infinite Frontier in March. If anyone spots our hero in any of the Future State comics before then, please let us know.

UPDATE 2021-01-15: Mystery solved! Booster booster Shawn Baston notes that Gold Beetle is on the cover of April's Flash #769. More on that later.

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