Grant Morrison became a fan favorite writer by tweaking threadbare superhero genre tropes to breathe new life into the JLA, Superman, and Batman mythos.

But before Damian Wayne or All-Star Superman or "Mageddon," Grant honed a talent for thinking outside the four-color corner box with often bizarre deconstructionist experimental comics like The Invisibles, Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, and The Doom Patrol. That last one was especially fitting, as the Doom Patrol had billed itself as "The World's Strangest Heroes" since it's earliest appearances in 1964.

Booster Gold would find out just how strange they were in Doom Patrol #29, released on this day in 1989. The Justice League International confronted Morrison's brand of psychedelic madness head-on after Mister Nobody and his Brotherhood of Dada displayed a stolen painting that eats people (and also happens to contain the Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse, "Extinction") under the Eiffel Tower and... well, see for yourself:

art by Richard Case, John Nyberg, Danny Vozzo, John E. Workman

Just another regular day on the job for Morrison's Doom Patrol.

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Not so long ago, Booster booster Fin called my attention to a comic I had long overlooked. It wasn't a missed Booster Gold appearance. Not quite, anyway.

Just see if this banter doesn't sound familiar:

art by David Williams and Kelsey Shannon

Those panels are from The Authority: The Lost Year, a series in which the Authority bounced from one alternate universe to another. (This was back in 2010, before the New 52 folded the Wildstorm Universe into the mainstream DCnU.)

Issues #8 and #9 were written by Grant Morrison, Keith Giffen, and J.M. DeMatteis and featured an alternate universe in which the local Authority looked and acted a lot like a particular, best-selling DC Comics team of the late 1980s.

The meta-textural take on the Justice League International by the JLI's original writing team is delightful, especially as contrasted with the modern, no-nonsense Authority concept (itself strongly reminiscent of the extreme 1990s love affair with "mature" sex and violence content).

As you can see, that's Blue Beetle in the role of the Authority's Midnighter (a Batman-like vigilante) and Booster Gold as Apollo (whose character is a riff on Superman — so fitting!) In their original continuity, Apollo and Midnighter are a homosexual couple, allowing the issue's writers to directly tackle the longstanding Boostle phenomenon 'shipping Blue and Gold into a romantic relationship.

I'm sorry I hadn't realized this book existed sooner. Thanks, Fin.

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Were you confused by the multiple universes seen in last month's Booster Gold: Futures End #1? What world did the A.R.G.U.S. Booster Gold come from? Does the pre-Flashpoint DCU still exist somewhere? DC might have some good news for you.

Yesterday, DC announced the coming of The Multiversity Guidebook #1.

THE MULTIVERSITY GUIDEBOOK #1
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by NICOLA SCOTT, GARY FRANK, KLAUS JANSON, CAMERON STEWART, DAN JURGENS, CHRIS SPROUSE, BEN OLIVER and others
On sale JANUARY 21 • 80 pg, FC, $7.99 US • RATED T

The guidebook to the greatest adventure in DC's history is here! With a detailed concordance featuring each of the 52 worlds in the Multiverse, a complete history of DC Comics' universe-shattering "Crisis" events, a map of all known existence, AND an action-packed dual adventure starring Kamandi of Earth-51 alongside the post-apocalyptic Atomic Knight Batman of Earth-17 and chibi Batman of Earth-42, this 80-page mountain of MULTIVERSITY madness cannot be missed!

The MULTIVERSITY GUIDEBOOK contains everything you ever wanted to know about DC's parallel worlds and their super-heroic inhabitants. Meet the Agents of W.O.N.D.E.R. The Light Brigade, the Super-Americans and the Love Syndicate! Meet the Accelerated Man, Aquaflash, BiOmac and more!

If you read the above solicitation closely, you couldn't miss that Dan Jurgens is credited on the book. That's no guarantee that we'll get Booster Gold, but given the events of Booster Gold: Futures End, it seems likely at least one Booster will be included in this 80-page giant.

You can find more information and the full slate of DC's January solicitations (including the news that Fire and Ice will be coming to Justice League 3000) at ComicBookResources.com.

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The last time Booster Gold didn't appear in a comic for a whole month was in 2006, an otherwise very busy year for our hero. In addition to the events of Infinite Crisis and 52, Booster Gold had time to make a cameo in another major event: Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers.

In Seven Soldiers: Bulleteer #3, Booster steals the scene in his one panel appearance as a presenter at the Zenith City Superhero Convention. That's right, Booster Gold was the Neal Patrick Harris of 2006. In fact, Booster's performance was so good that DC will collect it for a second time in Seven Soldiers of Victory Volume 2, scheduled for release today.

Even putting Booster Gold aside, the Seven Soldiers saga is pretty darn good. The story makes far more sense and is far more satisfying than Grant Morrison's more recent mega-event, Final Crisis. In many ways, this story is reminiscent of Morrison's best days on JLA, but with a more diverse cast and scope. Recommended.

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On this date in 1960, the United States of America defeated the Soviet Union at ice hockey for the first time ever on their way to the gold medal in the Winter Olympic Games. On this date in 1980, Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" won the first (and only) Grammy in the Best Disco Recording category. And on this date in 1990, Booster Gold did what he does best: helped Animal Man steal a time machine in Animal Man #22.

Preceding the events of Animal Man #22, Animal Man's family had been killed by assassins. Desperate to turn back the clock and save his wife and children, Animal Man reached out to fellow Justice Leaguer Booster Gold in order to enlist the aid of Rip Hunter, the Time Master. Booster arranges the meeting, but is critical of Animal Man's behavior. (This scene will be re-visited in Time Masters #4, published three weeks later.)

No doubt issue writer Grant Morrison was being intentionally ironic in having Booster Gold -- a hero with a questionable moral compass himself -- question "what kind of hero" Animal Man is for lying to Rip Hunter. A significant and recurring theme of Morrison's run on Animal Man was the value of comic book-style heroics and the over-simplified ethical values therein. Does Booster Gold have any right to criticize another hero? Does anyone?

It has never been revealed if Booster holds any animosity over being an accomplice in Animal Man's dishonest appropriation of Rip Hunter's time-backpack. Perhaps its no coincidence that these two characters who dress so similarly haven't shared an on-panel conversation since.

Despite Booster's brief appearance, Animal Man #22 is a journey through the emotional state of a very disturbed Buddy Baker and as such is part of a much larger narrative. The issue is recommended to fans willing to involve themselves in a meta-textual investigation of the nature of comics, but only if they are willing to read the issues that came before (several of which are referenced herein) and stick around for the long haul.

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