Tom King is up to his old tricks in today's Human Target #1. Someone has tried to kill Lex Luthor, and who are the usual suspects? Hint:

Art by Greg Smallwood

I wonder which character will need a rehabilitation mini-series this time?

Booster Gold's arm is on the standard cover, and his legs are on the variant. Buy either one and make Skeets happy!

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DC Comics January solicitations came out Friday and gave us our first look at Blue and Gold #6:

BLUE AND GOLD #6
story by DAN JURGENS
art & cover by RYAN SOOK
Peacemaker variant cover by SIMONE DI MEO
ON SALE January 18 · $3.99 US

Booster and Beetle are lost in space! After a disastrous first day on their new jobs as hero business owners and operators, the duo has found themselves kidnapped and stranded on an alien world. Who's to blame? Well, the Omnizon of course! Welcome to her home planet, Br'Honn, where a battle to the death between friends is just another Tuesday!

Um, are we not going to mention that's Blackguard on the cover?

And second question, will that Peacemaker variant cover have anything to do with the content of the issue, or will it be like The Suicide Squad variant for issue 2 that could only possibly have confused and/or disappointed unwary bait-and-switched readers who bought the issue expecting a blood-spattered orgy of cynical ultraviolence only to find the bromantic antics of Blue Beetle and Booster Gold inside instead? (Asking for a friend.)

Also in the January solicitations is Human Target #4, which has Blue Beetle on the cover. The solicitation is vague, but wherever Beetle is, Booster can't be too far behind. Will he be in this? I guess we'll find out for sure on January 25.

You can find all of DC's January solicitations on gamesradar.com.

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Two pieces of news today that are probably each worthy of their own post. But since they both came from the ghost of Newsarama at GamesRadar.com, I'm combining them into this one post.

Thing 1: "Booster Gold: Inside the social media superhero who was 35 years ahead of his time" by Vaneta Rogers is a retrospective of what Booster Gold has meant to the writers who have crafted his adventures.

Rogers' oral history includes interviews with Dan Jurgens, Keith Giffen, J.M. Dematteis, and Jeff Katz, all ow whom clearly have a great deal of respect for the character they helped craft.

In fact, Giffen said that, when he and co-writer J.M. DeMatteis were told by editor Andy Helfer they had to use Booster Gold in their new Justice League run in 1987, it was this 'things-never-go-right' element that defined Booster.

"I'll be honest: I had no idea what to do with the character when we first had him," Giffen said. "Booster really didn't gel in my mind until he had the first 'bwa-ha-ha' moment and Beetle was laughing at him. I knew then that this character is going to know life's frustrations and is going to get knocked down a lot, but is always going to get back up again."

That's just a taste of the insight the piece provides into what has made Booster Gold so durable for the past three-plus decades. Good work, Vaneta.

Thing 2: "New DC Human Target is a 12-issue 'whodunit'" by Micheal Doran is essentially a sales piece to encourage fans to buy the upcoming Human Target series featuring the Justice League International.

The report lays out the basic premise of the series and quotes writer Tom King telling us how this is going to be just like every other prestige mini-series he's written for DC in the past half decade. But the important part for Booster boosters is the news about the variant covers.

The [Trevor] Hairsine and [Danny] Miki #1 and #2 variants connect to form the cover of a 'Whodunit' board game. The back cover features a pin-up calendar, "leaning into the mid-century feel of the comic," says DC.

When placed side by side, those variant covers will look like this:

Mid-century? No. Boosterrific? Very.

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The full slate of DC December solicitations came to us over the weekend, and it looks like Booster Gold fans will have something new to read.

BLUE & GOLD #5
Written by DAN JURGENS
Art and cover by RYAN SOOK
ON SALE December 21
Blue and Gold Restoration is open for business! Only issue is, our duo is falling apart while their waiting room is packed to the brim with mostly illegitimate problems. Now Omnizon, self-appointed ruler of Earth, is here to sentence Booster and Beetle to death for disobeying her royal rule of the land. It'll take a friend from the future to save their present and prevent a PR nightmare that could close their operation for good!

If that teased, death-defying cover is any indication, it sure looks like our "friend from the future" is none other than Rip Hunter, Time Master! Hooray!

Also coming in December:

HUMAN TARGET #3
Written by TOM KING
Art and cover by GREG SMALLWOOD
ON SALE December 28
Christopher Chance is a man on a deadline and working to solve a crime that might be unsolvable. Despite his better judgment, he's falling for his lead suspect, and her violent ex-boyfriend isn't happy about it. Oh, and that ex? He's a Green Lantern.

I don't have any idea what Booster Gold has to do with this series, and I remain completely unenthusiastic about Tom King putting words in Booster's mouth again. (Keep your hands off my hero, Tom!) But I can't be mad at Greg Smallwood's cover. I promise to try to reserve judgement until I get it in my hands this December.

You can find a complete list of solicitations, including the previously discussed One-Star Squadron, at gamesradar.com.

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On Friday, comic book writer Tom King (@TomKingTK) tweeted this image accompanied by the text "Announcement incoming.":

Those arms belong to, from top to bottom, Martian Manhunter, Rocket Red*, Blue Beetle, and Fire. Naturally, this made a lot of people excited at the teased prospect of new comic adventures of the Justice League International.

Of course, that's not what Tom was teasing.

He was baiting the hook with the JLI for a different property he revealed later that same day:

Who can be mad about a bait-and-switch that leads to art this great? (Those new arms belong to Booster Gold, Guy Gardner, Batman, Ice, and G'nort.)

If you didn't know, Christopher "Human Target" Chance has been in the DC Universe since 1972 but is far more famous outside comic books. In addition to recent guest appearances on Arrow, Chance has had his own television series twice (!). Being a TV star probably explains why he and Booster Gold have never crossed paths.

Frankly, the espionage antics of Human Target are a perfect fit for King's storytelling strengths, and any project that keeps King far away from Booster Gold is a project I can support. In fact, I promise to buy a copy of the first issue... but only if they keep that amazing Smallwood cover.

* That Rocket Red arm design belongs to the armor of Maks Chazov, who was never a member of any line-up of any Justice League, international or otherwise. Chazov worked for the pre-New 52 United Nations-sponsored incarnation of Checkmate. But it wouldn't be the JLI without a representative Rocket Red, and all the Reds who appeared on a JLI roster are dead. I guess you can't bring every dead hero back to life.

UPDATE 2021-07-12: Shawn dropped by the comments to point out that Greg Smallwood has posted process and reference pics of the cover's development on Twitter.com. He includes an interior pic of the JLI, and it is glorious.

Yep. Definitely buying that.

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