Last Wednesday, CBR.com ran Jeffrey Renaud's interview with Dan Jurgens about the Booster Gold appearance in Superman's Action Comics #993. The interview included the following tidbit from Jurgens:

It's kind of weird in a way, because if you go all the way back to Booster Gold, Volume One, Superman was a part of Booster's origin story. Right about then, John Byrne came to DC to reboot Superman, and we had to do some surgery to the book so it fit what John was doing.

I still have the unused pages from the book, which are still waiting for the Booster Gold hardcover so they can see print. No. That is not a hint. Uh-uh. Not at all. Nope.

Superman was supposed to be in Booster Gold #1?!

I probably shouldn't be too surprised. For those of you who don't know, Booster's origins, as originally conceived, were tied to the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Silver/Bronze Age Superman mythos. Booster was supposed to have stolen his equipment from the Superman Museum (not the Space Museum). His force field belt would have belonged to the original Braniac, his costume would have been made from Lex Luthor's power armor, and his Legion Flight Ring would have been Superboy's. That would certainly have given an extra edge to the Booster Gold/Superman rivalry.

I have to wonder, did any of that make it into the script or pencils of Booster Gold #1 before Byrne's post-Crisis plans to streamline Superman continuity? Even if Superman only made a cameo appearance in the book, it still would have been his first post-Crisis appearance as well as the first time Jurgens drew Superman. What a treat!

Hey, DC! Give us that book already!

(Thanks to Damian Damex for ensuring I saw this particular bit of news.)

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Friday the Canadian newspaper The Star broke the news that Jeff Lemire would be taking over Justice League of America when the team moves to Canada.

That news inspired Booster Gold fans everywhere to ask, "if Booster Gold is really Canadian in the DCnU, will he be joining the team?" The answer is no. (And not just because Booster isn't Canadian.)

Jeffrey Renaud of ComicBookResources.com put the question directly to Jeff Lemire:

CBR: I think the only other Canadian character that's been introduced into the New 52 is Booster Gold. Again, I know you are sworn to secrecy on the roster but does Booster play a role in your book?

Lemire: No plans for Booster. I wish I could talk about my roster because it's my dream team -- a couple of other cosmic characters and some current, fairly major characters will be part of the team.

Geez. Booster can't catch a break, can he?

For the record, still no evidence has ever been introduced in canon to contradict Booster Gold's American citizenship as established in Booster Gold Volume 1. Even ComicBookResources.com admitted as much in their countdown of the Top 10 Canadian Heroes. Given that Booster has made exactly 3 comic appearances in the past year and has nothing on the horizon, it doesn't look like there will be any change to that status in the foreseeable future.

Read the rest of the interview with Lemire here. Thanks to Herbert Fung for being the first to email me on vacation and tell me about this breaking story.

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See if this doesn't give you something to look forward to in the new year:

CBR: The last couple of seasons, you've brought The Legion of Super-Heroes and the Justice Society to "Smallville" in episodes you've written. Now it's Booster Gold and Blue Beetle. You're just picking off your favorite guys, aren't you?

Geoff Johns: Yes. I love the Blue Beetle. We introduced [this version of the character] back during "Infinite Crisis." I always like the chemistry between him and Booster, so when I was going to do this episode, I wanted to do those two together and I think the story that we came up works really well. It's very Booster 1.0, meaning he's in the early stages of his career as a hero -- and is pretty self-serving.

CBR: Can you shed any light on what we'll see storywise in the Blue Beetle/Booster Gold episode of "Smallville?"

Geoff Johns: You'll see Beetle's origin, Booster first meeting Clark and Lois and maybe a cameo by someone from Kord Industries.

The above questions and answers are from an interview of Geoff Johns by Comic Book Resources' staff writer Jeffrey Renaud. The article, part two of two, was posted Christmas Eve on CBR.com.

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Jeffrey Renaud at CBR.com has posted interview with new Booster Gold scribes Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis. Face it: if they interview half as well as they write, you're in for a swell time. Read it here.

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