As Booster booster Rob Snow alerted me, after months of Booster Gold references, we actually get to see our hero on panel in this weeks' Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville #5!

Is it just me, or is it starting to feel like none of the New 52 continuity applies anymore? I feel like I opened a comic book to find Bobby Ewing taking a shower. (If you don't get that reference, kids, you're on the wrong website. Your homework is to go watch something from back when television was good, specifically the 1985 Dallas season 9 episode, "Blast from the Past.")

The events of this series have some really weird, life-threatening things happening, things that it would seem would not go unnoticed by a particular Man of Steel. Things like several gristly murders and much destruction of property. Makes me wonder why the story's setting is Smallville and not a suburb of Gotham, where these sorts of things wouldn't attract so much attention amidst the psycho clowns and sewer-dwelling crocodile-men.

The solicitation text for next month's mini-series final issue teases "the fate of Smallville itself hangs in the balance!" After reading issue 5, I can believe it.

Buy this issue and make Skeets happy.

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Today marks the negative 419th birthday of Jon Michael "Booster" Carter, born this day in the year 2442.

For most of the past decade, I've been accompanying my annual Booster Gold birthday wishes with the same pic of a Booster Gold cake based on the opening splash page from Booster Gold volume 1, #3.

That image first appeared on the the Internet sometime about 2008 and, according to The Oklahoman, is the work of Annette Price, co-owner (then and now) of Speeding Bullet Comics in Norman, OK.

As you might expect, the Internet has come a long way since 2008. Back in the day, photos had to be small to fit easily through all the tubes. One terabyte hard drives were only just becoming commercially available in 2008. But tubes and storage space are much, much bigger now — The Cloud! — so we can use bigger pictures on our giant monitors. Isn't living in the future great?

All of which means that it is finally time to retire my tiny cake picture and replace it with...

...

...

... a large cake picture!

Yes, that's the same photo, now embiggened through the use of modern "artificial intelligence" algorithms and ready for re-use for many more birthdays to come.

Congratulations, Booster!

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Yeah, yeah, DC's 'Twas the Mite Before Christmas has finally given us a Booster Gold in a full Santa suit.

But for my money, the best (and most extreme) Booster Gold Christmas panel is still this one:

Justice League Task Force #37 (1996)

What can I say? I just prefer a classic Christmas.

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Comics publishers are always looking for new (cheaper) artists. In 1988, DC had the bright idea of testing new talent with "Bonus Books," full stories inserted inside established titles.

One of those Bonus Books, the story "Raising the Roof," appeared in Justice League International #18. While the writing and art might feel a little off DC's usual model, the story still contains my favorite page in the entire issue:

Batman "executes" his master house plan? That's a pretty good punchline.

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After many, many months, there's finally a Booster Gold sighting in the monthly DC solicitations for March. In fact, there's a plethora of them.

First up, there's March's issue of Blue Beetle, which even features our hero alongside many of his Justice League International teammates on the cover:

BLUE BEETLE #7
Written by JOSH TRUJILLO
Art by ADRIAN GUTIERREZ, CULLY HAMNER, JEFF LEMIRE, and HOWARD PORTER
Cover by ADRIAN GUTIERREZ
Spanish-language cover by ADRIAN GUTIERREZ
Variant cover by KEVIN MAGUIRE
$3.99 US, Variant $4.99 US (card stock), On Sale March 5
In order to get Ted Kord back on his feet, Jaime will need to work with Booster Gold! Can this Blue and Gold pairing help their friend, or are Ted’s superheroing days over?

And, as if that wasn't enough, DC is also giving us a new collection of Booster Gold volume 2!

BOOSTER GOLD: THE COMPLETE 2007 SERIES BOOK ONE
Written by GEOFF JOHNS, JEFF KATZ, RICK REMENDER, and CHUCK DIXON
Art by DAN JURGENS, NORM RAPMUND, PAT OLLIFFE, and JERRY ORDWAY
Cover by DAN JURGENS and NORM RAPMUND
$29.99 US, 400 pages, Softcover, ISBN: 978-1-77952-723-3, On Sale April 23
Presenting the greatest, most popular, most beloved, and did we say popular, superhero of all time: Booster Gold!
...Or so he hopes to be thought of one day. As the time-traveling hero gets caught up in the madness of changing histories, fighting Time Stealers, and trying to undo the death of his bestie, Blue Beetle, he will learn the hard way
that twisting time too far may just cause it to snap! Collects Booster Gold #0-14 and #1,000,000.

Given that this Book One collects 15 issues, and there are functionally 49 total issues in volume 2, I think we can expect at least two more books to come.

Knowing those are coming is a pretty good early Christmas present.

But wait! There's more

Among the many reprint collections in the monthly solicitations (which include a new printing of 52 Volume One with a very Boosterrific cover), DC has announced a first-time-in-print collection of the WEBTOONs.com Batman: Wayne Family Adventures Volume Four... with Booster Gold and Skeets on the cover!

BATMAN: WAYNE FAMILY ADVENTURES VOLUME FOUR
Written by CRC PAYNE
Art by STARBITE
Cover by VASCO GEORGIEV
$14.99 US, 208 pages, Softcover, ISBN: 978-1-77952-691-5, On Sale May 7
Season two of the smash-hit WEBTOON series continues here! When your superhero life is just as busy as your personal life, there’s never a dull moment in the Bat-Family. Bruce Wayne’s young heroes are still learning to fight and live side by side, but they always have each other’s backs.
Collecting episodes 71-116 of the massively popular WEBTOON series, optimized for a brand-new reading experience in print!

Maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but so far as I'm aware, Booster has never appeared in Wayne Family Adventures. I mean, I haven't been reading it, and Googling gives no indication that Booster has ever been there. But it's not impossible. For that price, I'm willing to buy the 6-by-9-inch trade and find out myself.

You can read all the solicitations at AIPTComics.com. Here's to 2024!

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