Your periodic reminder that the world is not fair:

Justice League 3000 was cancelled in 2015, just as DC was entering the Rebirth era and restoring much of the history that the New 52 had abruptly jettisoned. As the name suggests, Justice League 3000 took place in the distant future of the DCU, and perhaps the company was more interested in looking backward at the time.

Or maybe the obstacle was then-publisher Dan DiDio, who rather famously treated the entire Justice League International era roster with something approaching open disdain. It's hard to imagine DiDio okaying DeMatteis's return to the characters for more than a few issues at at time.

(In fairness, it should be mentioned that DeMatteis is hardly the only artist to be denied access to Booster in the past decade. You may remember that DC also shot down Booster book proposals by Tony Lee and Ngozi Ukazu.)

Will things be different in 2021? If the hints that Blue and Gold will be back at work in the DCU after Infinite Frontier have any veracity, I sure hope so.

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Last week on Twitter, Bats-Marvelous drew our attention to this unused concept sketch from Howard Porter for the Booster Gold and Blue Beetle in Justice League 3000:

Booster may be missing his trademark star, but otherwise, it looks pretty good to me. I especially like the hood, which simultaneously plays with Booster's public profile (what celebrity doesn't try to hide from the press in a hoodie?) and simulates the high collar. Clever, @MrHowardPorter. Clever.

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Booster booster Logan wrote me last week to ask if I'd seen the latest (and final) issue of Justice League 3001. He wanted to know if I'd seen this:

That sure looks like Booster Gold's body in the rubble beside Ice. However, it doesn't make any sense for Booster to be there.

Booster and his pal, Blue Beetle, disappeared from the series after the evil Lady Styx took over the universe in issue #7. The climactic battle, which Booster didn't participate in, took place on Paradise Island, a secret location Booster couldn't have reached. So how could that be him on the ground?

My theory is that's not Booster, but the body of the evil clone of Wildfire of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Wildfire also has a star on his chest, and appears throughout the issue. (You can see him at the bottom center of the cover above.) I suspect that the issue inker or colorist saw Wildfire's body on the ground surrounded by the reincarnated JLI and mistakenly detailed it as Booster Gold.

I reached out on Twitter to issue writer J.M. DeMatteis to ask if he'd intended to show a dead Booster Gold. This was his response:

So there we have it. It may look like Booster Gold's costume, but it's not Booster Gold.

Whew.

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Great news! Both Booster Gold and Blue Beetle play a small role in Justice League 3001 TP Vol 1 Deja Vu All Over Again, available at your Local Comic Shop today.

Blue and Gold have a small role in Justice League 3000 #14. They also play a very small role in Justice League 3001 #3. Both of those stories are included in this trade.

Ok, so maybe Booster and Beetle appearances in these issues are very, very tiny — fine, let's call them cameo appearances — but surely you agree that some Blue and Gold is better than none.

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No title in recent memory has been as unpredictable as Justice League 3001. The title is the personal playground of Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis, and there are a whole bunch of players in their sandbox, all moving in apparently random directions. Even the covers tend to be something other than what you might expect.

The cover on the left is the cover to issue 6 that was solicited two months ago. The cover on the right is the cover you'll see at your Local Comic Shop today. If you take a good look at it, you'll see Booster Gold's legs on the upper left behind the creators' names. That makes it pretty likely we'll be seeing Booster in this book.

If you'd like to try before you buy, find a preview of the issue alongside an interview with Keith Giffen at Comicosity.com.

UPDATE 2015-11-28: No, there is no Booster Gold inside, only on the cover. The Booster-drought continues unabated.

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