Yes, that banner up there says "one page at a time," but today you're getting two!

In 1989, a three-part story written by Cary Bates in Captain Atom #26 , #27, and #28 that more-or-less resolved the messiest parts of the backstory of why Captain Atom lied to the Justice League about his personal history.

(Turns out the adventures of the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Captain Atom were just a government cover story to disguise how Atom was really blackmailed into participating in the weapons test that gave him his powers by a criminal conspiracy of Vietnam vets in a plot stolen directly from Lethal Weapon. Like I said, it's messy.)

Anyway, the point here is that Booster Gold was one of the three Leaguers who confronted the good Captain with evidence of his mounting lies. Since Booster played a significant role in only the first two chapters of this story, appearing only on the first page of the third, I figured I might as well present my favorite pages from those two issues at the same time.

First is Captain Atom #26. As my favorite page, I could have chosen a sequence earlier in the book in which Booster, Blue Beetle, and Mister Miracle clasp hands then go undercover... by wearing sunglasses. But for full-page goodness, I'm going with page 22, in which a thief from the future living under an assumed name unironically demands "no more secrets"!

Yeah, the posed figures are stiff, but I'm enamored by the layout. Note how the top of the page is a separate panel presenting an establishing shot of the city skyline, and the tail on Booster's speech balloon acts like a pointer showing where they are, as well as allowing Booster to speak first despite being in the center of the page. I assume the balloons were all created by letterer Carrie Spiegel on top of Pat Broderick's art. Well done.

In the very next issue, Captain Atom #27, my favorite page is also based mostly on what Booster has to say. Despite never having been seen wearing a deerstalker cap or skis, our hero is suddenly an amateur detective and an expert skier!

And he flies faster than the Blue Beetle's bug? Oh, Booster, is there anything you can't do?

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Cort Carpenter has dedicated himself to compiling the World's Best Booster Gold Sketchbook. And it just keeps getting better!

Take a gander at these seven newest additions:

Heather Antos

Russ Braun

Kerry Callen

Mike Choi

Travis Mercer

Rachel Ordway

Joshua "Sway" Swaby

By my count, that's 106 different commissions Cort has now shared with us over the years. I'm sure I speak for Booster boosters everywhere when I say we sure like looking at them.

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An assortment of small news items about recent events here at Boosterrific.com:

1. Thanks once again to Jake J for pointing out that the Boosterrific Database was missing several reprint collections, most recently Elseworlds: Justice League Volumes One, Two, and Three. Thanks for all your help, Jake J (who has emailed reminds me that he is NOT Jake. Sorry!).

2. While trying to make sense of the timeline in "Roses Are Red, Androids Are Blue" in DC's How to Lose a Guy Gardner in 10 Days, I stumbled across a previously undocumented one-panel Booster Gold appearance in JLA #119. Every time I think I've found them all, another appearance turns up. I love it!

3. If you didn't know it, a new, 2nd edition of the 2019 25th Anniversary Zero Hour: Crisis in Time Omnibus was released this week. I haven't seen it yet, but it is advertised as collecting "every chapter in the groundbreaking saga in chronological order." Does this 2nd edition include Booster Gold #0? (To the best of my knowledge, the 2019 edition did not.) If anyone can confirm or deny, please let me know.

4. Last week DC announced that their comics will once again be released on Wednesdays instead of Tuesdays beginning in July. When that happens, I'll be moving New Release updates to Wednesdays more consistently, just as I used to do. So don't say I didn't warn you.

5. To whomever reached out via the Boosterrific Contact form and asked "is it possible to anonymously submit in this contact": I cannot respond to your request because you didn't include a reply-to address, but the answer is mostly "yes." I do get to see the IP address that generated the request (which is necessary as an anti-spam measure), so if I look into that, I can approximate where you were in the world when you sent it. But otherwise, yeah, pretty vague.

6. If you haven't noticed, I created some more ads for the top of the pages during some recent downtime. You can see all of them on the Boosterrific Ads page. (I do tag them all internally as ads, so if you have an ad-blocker running, you may need to disable it to see them.)

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Booster booster Rob Snow points us to the interview of Josh Trujillo, writer of next week's Keith Giffen-inspired Blue Beetle #7, by David Brooke for AIPTComics.com.

AIPT: Blue Beetle #7 features Booster Gold. On a scale of one to 10, how fun is it to write Booster?!

Josh Trujillo: Umm, like a 12 on that scale? Booster is one of the most ridiculous and perfect good boys in comics. He has such an incredible hook and SO MANY good stories! A huge ego and also a huge heart for his friends! I really can't get enough of him.

It took a lot of restraint not to let him completely take over the book, but this story is about Jaime's journey in helping save his mentor and friend, our beloved Ted Kord. And Booster is there helping him every step of the way.

AIPT: This is a time travel issue. How hard is it to avoid retcons?

JT: I'll leave that for the wiki editors to answer!

In all seriousness, I pored over so many comics to find openings/moments that wouldn't directly conflict with the work Keith and his collaborators did. But the simple fact is that this is a time travel story, so try not to get too stuck in the details and just enjoy the ride. Let the continuity cops deal with the mess Booster and Jaime are making (and they will!)

As a fan of huge egos and Time Masters, let me go on the record and say that I am not enthusiastic about anyone making a mess of established continuity. But this sounds like fun, so I'll allow it. This time.

Blue Beetle #7 features art by Natacha Bustos, Howard Porter, Cully Hamner, Scott Kolins, with a Booster Gold cover by Adrian Gutierrez. Look for the issue on shelves (in English and Spanish editions) March 5.

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The "2nd Anniversary Issue" Justice League International #24 sees the League holding a membership drive, which sets the stage for a generational clash between Leagues old and... well, immature.

I side with Booster. For all his faults, he's never foul-mouthed.

I've always liked this issue a lot. On re-read, I still do, even the running gag of Beetle being aggressively inappropriate with Wonder Woman (and Booster trying to restrain him). It's only tolerable because everyone knows Wonder Woman could squeeze Beetle into a roach motel if she wanted to. (Poor Diana. She must have to deal with this every day.) Show some respect, boys; you're supposed to be heroes.

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