The Internet's premier Booster Gold reporter, Russ Burlingame, is writing another book, this time an oral history of DC's Legends of Tomorrow television show.

Now, I've always been a little ambivalent about Legends. I watched a few episodes the first season because it had a "Rip Hunter" in it, but when I discovered Legends' take on characters in the pages of DC Comics (especially "Rip Hunter") was a bad match for my headcanon, I lost interest quickly.

That said, Booster Gold did appear in the series' final episode, and any oral history of the television show will have to cover how Booster was introduced just in time for the show to get canceled. I could definitely read more about how all involved felt about that.

I asked Russ what else Booster Gold fans should expect, and he said:

I already talked to Dan Park (who wrote the BG backup comic [Earth-Prime: Legends of Tomorrow #3]) and to some folks about the direct influence of Time Masters: Vanishing Point and Booster Gold #5 (which seems to have clearly been the emphasis for the episode "The Fixed Point"). So while Booster isn't a huge presence in the book, he's definitely a bigger presence than you would expect from a Legends book.

That's good enough for me.

If you'd like to join me in helping Russ, you can pre-order a copy of his book at Kickstarter.com.

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The Booster Gold News Of The Week is the tweet at the bottom of this short thread:

You know that tweet was shocking because it was covered by ComicBook.com, CBR.com, BleedingCool.com, ScreenRant.com, Looper.com, WeGotThisCovered.com, and for some reason, GQ.com, among many, many others, now including Boosterrific.com.

First of all, I'm not sure we can trust anything we read on Twitter these days. But supposing this tweeter is the real DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn, I think we have to assume all those people beating down his door are the angry fans of WB's Legends of Tomorrow, which was canceled before Donald Faison's Booster Gold could be redeemed. (He gets only one appearance, and sells out all the protagonists to the Time Police? What a dick!)

Frankly, I don't care whether those vocal Booster Gold proponents want more Faison, or want "The Greatest Story Never Told"'s Green Lantern, or want an Extreme Justice live-action movie (please, please, please!). More Booster Gold in any form is alright with me.

C'mon, James. Give the people what they want. Obviously, they have great taste.

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Two months ago, we learned how DC's Legends of Tomorrow executive producers Phil Klemmer and showrunner Keto Shimizu got DC to agree to allow Booster Gold to finally appear on their show.

Late last week, we learned why.

In response to fans questions on Twitter, Shimizu herself tweeted:

DC was in our corner trying to help our chances of renewal. They and WB wanted us to survive. We were asked for a new character to "excite" the audience, and attract more viewers. We requested Booster and DC agreed. It was all in an attempt to save the show.

That's right: they were counting on Booster Gold to help save them. And Booster failed.

As a Booster Gold fan, I should probably point out if you want to stir up public support, it would definitely help to actually tell us in advance to tune in to see our hero. (Early notices only teased a fallen hero whose "golden years are in the rearview mirror.") It's also really hard to boost week-over-week ratings if a character appears only in the season finale. (Booster's episode, "Knocked Up, Knocked Down," had the second-smallest audience of the season; the next-to-last episode was the smallest, meaning Booster actually did bring it up somewhat, and I certainly would have watched the following week if there had been one.)

That said, failure is kind of Booster's story, right? His heart is always in the right place, but he often overestimates his own abilities while underestimating the consequences, sometimes making a bad situation worse. Sometimes much worse. Cancellation worse.

However, Booster Gold's most sterling quality is that he is no quitter. After ruining the day, he'll dust himself off, take ownership of what he did wrong, and set out to make it right. It's the prototypical hero's journey. Everyone loves a redemption story.

And that's why I'm now strongly hoping that Legends of Tomorrow does find a way to return to the screen, at least long enough to give its fans the ending they deserve. We can all rest assured that Booster Gold will continue working behind the scenes until he has helped all those who need rescuing. Because that's what real heroes do.

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I've seen tomorrow's Free Comic Book Day Dark Crisis Special Edition #0 — well, technically, according to the indicia, it's the Dark Crisis #0 FCBD Special Edition 2022 (suggesting that there will be another one in 2023?) — and I can personally attest that Booster Gold is in it.

I had previously griped about Booster's cut-and-paste inclusion in this two-page spread, but I can now attest that our hero appears in a second, more significant panel (along with some guy whose name rhymes with "glue needle"). But showing *that* panel would be spoilers, so you'll just have to take my word for it. At least until you get to your Local Comic Shop and participate in the weekend's festivities.

And while you're in your Local Comic Shop, perhaps you'll consider picking up Earth-Prime #3, which includes an unexpected Legends of Tomorrow Booster Gold story that fleshes out what Booster was up to between the scenes of the series finale, "Knocked Up, Knocked Down."

I've seen the episode and I've read the comic, and I'm *still* not sure I understand what's going on. But at least the comic hints at the relationship between Booster and the Legends of Tomorrow version of Skeets. It's complicated, but also kind of sweet. Kind of.

Get either of these books and make Skeets happy!

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The CW has finally ended the suspense by dropping the axe on DC's Legends of Tomorrow after seven seasons. You can read more details in "'DC's Legends of Tomorrow' Canceled at the CW" at Variety.com, but what this means for Booster boosters is that we are unlikely to be seeing Donald Faison reprise as Booster Gold.

(Could he show up in The Flash? Or could WB decide to continue the Legends story on HBO Max at a later date? Who knows. Television executives are unstable people; they could do *anything*. The point here is that there won't be an eighth season on CW this fall.)

This marks the second time that Booster Gold has appeared in a live-action television show, and the second time that the show has ended shortly thereafter. Eleven years ago, Booster had a guest starring appearance in "Booster," the 18th of 22 episodes in the 10th and final season of CW's Smallville. The biggest difference between the two situations is that it had been announced a year in advance that the tenth season would be Smallville's last, giving the series the opportunity to build to a fitting finale. No such luck for Legends, which will end with all of its characters in jail for crimes against history. (Anyone else having Seinfled flashbacks?)

It's starting to look like Booster Gold is becoming the Pariah of the live-action DC Universe: doomed to arrive in a new Earth just as is it consumed by the great darkness. Frankly, since each television series is a derivation of the one, true DC continuity now known as Earth-0, maybe it's fitting that secret Time Master Booster Gold arrives in the nick of time to prune these alternate Earths.

It's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it. Gotta make room for new shows somehow.

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