We have inevitably arrived at the final Boosterrific.com blog post of the year. While I'm watching football, perhaps you'll enjoy revisiting these, the 5 most-read Boosterrific.com blog posts of 2021:

5. Wednesday, October 13: Old Friends Are the Best Friends
In which we welcome back Booster's first 20th-century friend, the original Goldstar, Theresa "Trixie" Collins to the pages of Blue and Gold #3!

4. Wednesday, June 16: This Day in History: Black and Gold
In which we take a look back at the time Booster Gold took Black Canary to Paris in Justice League Annual #1 (1987).

3. Tuesday, October 19: Coming Soon: Blue and Gold 6
In which we reveal the advance solicitation for Blue and Gold #6 with Blackguard on the cover. In hindsight, that cover was used on Blue and Gold #4. What will be the cover actually be on issue 6? I guess we'll find out on February 15, 2022.

2. Monday, April 26: The History of Blue and Gold, Part 1
In which we investigate how a comic book series first announced in 1988 took 33 years to actually reach readers. (This was the first in a three part series. Follow these links to Part 2 and the Dan Jurgens interview in Part 3.)

1. Tuesday, July 20: New Release: Blue and Gold 1
In which we celebrate the release of the long delayed debut of Booster Gold/Blue Beetle team-up book Blue and Gold #1! This was the highest hit count Boosterrific.com had received in a single day in the history of the site! (Second place isn't even close.) People sure do love them some Blue and Gold!

Here's to another Boosterrific year in 2022!

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Booster Gold has topped yet another CBR listicle, this time "10 Most Bizarre Alter Egos DC Heroes Have Used" by Scoot Allan.

Quoth the article:

1 Booster Gold Faked His Death And Disguised Himself As Supernova During 52

DC launched a weekly comic series called 52 following the events of Infinite Crisis that explored a year in the DC Universe without Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman. A mysterious new hero known as Supernova appeared in Metropolis that kicked off an ongoing mystery about the man behind the mask.

While many thought it was Superman, it turned out to actually be Booster Gold, who had faked his death in order to stop his corrupted robotic pal Skeets. What's really bizarre bout the Supernova identity is that it was also used by Booster Gold's ancestor Daniel Carter and then stolen by Booster Gold's father from the future, making it a multi-generational costumed alter ego.

First of all, let me say that if you have not yet read 52: why not? It's no accident that issue 15 made my list of the twelve best Booster Gold stories.

Secondly, the Supernova identity is more bizarre than even Scoot's two understated paragraphs imply. (Hint: it involves Superman pretending he's Batman.) For more information on the Silver Age comic book origins that inspired Supernova, I strongly encourage you read the July 2019 Boosterrific Blog post "Sunshine Supernova."

And thirdly, I'd say that Supernova isn't Booster Gold's most bizarre alter ego. That honor goes to Bloodspot.

JLA: Incarnations #6

Comic books are the best kind of weird.

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You know who's excited about next week's Blue and Gold comic? CBR.com, judging by the number of times Booster and Beetle have been included in recent listicles.

Here is my list of ten "top 10" Booster Gold lists from CBR.com released in the past month. And yes, I had more than 10 to choose from.

10. "10 Superheroes Who Wasted Their Potential" by David Harth
#1 Booster Gold Has Saved Time And Space But Is A Buffoon

9. "10 DC Heroes Who Don't Have Super Powers (But Get By On Gadgets)" by David Harth
#3 Booster Gold's Armor Gives Him All Kinds Of Powers

8. "10 Most Balanced DC Heroes, Ranked" by David Harth
#2 Booster Gold Wins In Spite Of Himself Because Of His Variety Of Skills

As you can see, Mr. Harth doesn't much care for Booster Gold. I assume he was forced to include Booster in his lists by his corporate overlords who require 2 pints of blood and/or a 10 point list every day.

7. "The 10 Most Villainous Things DC Heroes Ever Did" by Jerry Stanford
#5 Booster Gold Stole Everything He Used To Make His Costume

Sure, theft is bad. But DC once had an entire "event" series about heroes selling their souls to the devil.

6. "10 American Superheroes Who Should Receive An Anime Treatment" by Richard Keller
#10 Blue Beetle And Booster Gold Are Ripe For A Fish Out Of Water Anime

5. "Legends Of Tomorrow: 10 DC Characters Who Should Join The Team" by Derek Faraci
#10 Booster Gold Seems Like A No Brainer

4. "10 Characters That Still Need DC Showcase Animated Shorts" By Cole Albinder
#9 Booster Gold Should Get More Of The Spotlight He Craves

Who could argue with the premise that Booster Gold should be in all media all the time? Not me.

3. "The 10 Best Uses Of Time Travel In The Comics" by Derek Faraci
#10 Booster Gold Decides To Be Famous

That list doesn't go for the obvious choices. I respect that even when I disagree with it.

2. "10 Funny Comic Characters That Will Make You Laugh Out Loud" by Scoot Allan
#1 Booster Gold And Blue Beetle Were DC's Comedy Duo For Years

They still are!

And the number one list from CBR.com to feature Booster Gold in the past month is

1. "10 Things To Know About Blue and Gold Before Their Miniseries" by Richard Keller
#1 They're More Admired Than They Think

Don't read too much this weekend, everybody. You'll want your eyeballs well rested for Blue and Gold #1 coming to a Local Comic Shop near you this Tuesday, July 20!

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Everyone who's ever read a DC comic knows Booster Gold's best friend is Ted Kord, aka the Blue Beetle.

But Booster has another best friend, someone who has been there for him since the beginning: his sidekick Skeets!

Yet somehow we almost never see the three of them, Booster, Beetle, and Sheets together.

After a stray comment made last month by Booster booster Cort, I decided to pull from the Boosterrific database a list of all the times that Ted Kord and Skeets have appeared in the same comic with Booster Gold.

Here's that list:

1. Booster Gold #22

November 1987

2. Justice League America #71

February 1993

3. Justice League America #87

April 1994

4. Extreme Justice #1

February 1995

5. Extreme Justice #2

March 1995

6. Extreme Justice #3

April 1995

7. Extreme Justice #4

May 1995

8. Extreme Justice #14

March 1996

9. Extreme Justice #15

April 1996

10. Extreme Justice #16

May 1996

11. Extreme Justice #17

June 1996

12. Extreme Justice #18

July 1996

13. Justice League America #112

July 1996

14. Justice League Task Force #37

August 1996

15. Total Justice #1

October 1996

16. Total Justice #2

Early November 1996

17. Final Night #1

November 1996

18. Final Night #3

November 1996

19. Green Lantern #81

December 1996

20. Superboy and the Ravers #8

April 1997

21. JLA #38

February 2000

22. JLA: Our Worlds At War #1

September 2001

23. Superman: Day of Doom #1

January 2003

24. 52 #52

May 2007

25. Booster Gold #6

March 2008

26. Booster Gold #0

April 2008

27. Booster Gold #10

August 2008

28. Booster Gold #26

January 2010

29. Booster Gold #27

February 2010

30. Booster Gold #34

September 2010

31. Booster Gold #35

October 2010

32. Booster Gold #36

November 2010

33. Booster Gold #37

December 2010

34. Booster Gold #38

January 2011

35. DC Universe: Legacies #9

March 2011

Only 35 issues over 35 years! And Skeets and Beetle don't always appear in the same scenes in those 35 issues! Heck, Skeets doesn't meet with either of the other 2 in the first few issues of Extreme Justice! It's almost like Skeets and Blue Beetle only cross paths at the annual Justice League Christmas party.

As for the issues where all 3 do appear together, you might remember that for a while around the turn of the millennium, Skeets was incorporated into Booster's armor, which means Skeets literally came between Blue and Gold!

I'm not exactly saying there's any animosity between Booster's two BFFs. I'm just saying that it's pretty clear that Skeets prefers the company of Rip Hunter to Ted Kord.

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As webmaster of the Internet's premiere website dedicated solely to Booster Gold, I get several automated lists a week keeping me informed of Booster Gold references around the World Wide Web.

Some of these notifications are useful; others, less so. Automated bots and the rise of aggregator websites generally mean that I have a bunch of gibberish links to sort through each week. But they're not my least favorite return. That dishonor belongs to CBR.com listicles, especially when they're wrong.

Take, for example, "10 Superheroes With Siblings We All Forget About," which includes Booster Gold at number 6:

Seeing old news reports of her older brother being a big-time superhero in the 21st century, Michelle Carter decided to follow his path and become a hero herself. Calling herself Goldstar, Michelle's superhero career didn't last nearly as long as Booster's. After Booster's future suit was destroyed by Doomsday, he repurposed his sister's to build a new one.

That's wrong.

Goldstar's Jack Soo-created costume had nothing to do with Booster's post-Doomsday powersuits (most designed by tech wizard Ted Kord). Not only did Booster never show any hint of Goldstar's magnetism powers, that one-of-a-kind suit was seen destroyed during Michelle's fatal encounter with the Dimension X aliens in Booster Gold #22.

Another incorrect fact is reported in "10 DC Characters Who Have Never Actually Died," which lists Booster at 8:

He has faked his death before, but he's never actually died, which is a pretty big accomplishment for someone who has fought the kind of threats he has; whether it be against the enemies of the Justice League or saving the timestream, Booster Gold does one thing better than mostーsurvives.

That's also wrong, if only by technicalities.

An ill-fated confrontation on Mount Everest between Booster Gold and the villainous Devastator left our hero in such bad shape that the world's best surgeons couldn't save him. He was pronounced clinically dead in Justice League International #65.

Booster Gold cheated death in that situation thanks to the coincidental intervention of the Overmaster, who stopped everyone on the planet from dying until he was defeated, by which time Booster was safely strapped into new life-supporting armor designed by — guess who? — the Blue Beetle, Ted Kord.

But Beetle wasn't around to save Booster in 52 Week 15. Sure, there were some time-travel shenanigans in that story, but it's hard to argue that someone is "faking" death when you're looking at his actual corpse.

Which brings us to perhaps my least favorite of the recent listicles, "10 Unlikable DC Heroes You're Supposed To Root For," which once again puts Booster Gold at number 8.

He's also done quite a bit to mess up the DC timeline. As annoying as he is with pulling pranks and constantly searching to get paid from big sponsorships, he has also selfishly made small adjustments that had drastic effects on the universe.

That's... reasonably accurate, assuming you ignore the fact that Booster has always admitted to and cleaned up after his own mistakes.

From the beginning, Booster Gold was *designed* to be unlikable. That's pretty much the original point of the character: Could a flawed person in a flawed society still be a force for good? Booster Gold is Dan Jurgens' answer.

What's really wrong with this listicle is buried all the way at the end of the article. While I might personally argue with the inclusion of several of the other heroes on this highly subjective list, number one on the countdown is none other than Superman, declared unlikable for "being near perfect in his morals and his abilities." How could anyone with the compassion and drive to help advance mankind ethically be "unlikable"? Boring, maybe. Sometimes preachy and often square, sure. But even Booster Gold *likes* Superman!

Booster Gold #6

Make up your mind, CBR. If you hate on Booster for being too flawed and Superman for being too perfect, all you're saying is that you don't really like comic book super heroes. Around here, nothing could be more wrong than that.

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