What happens when Booster Gold, Fire, and Flash go for dinner together? I'm glad you asked....

Yes, Wally, that is the Tattooed Man.

"When Titans Date" was created by Mark Waid, Ty Templeton, and Karl Kesel for the fourth story in the Justice League Quarterly #10 anthology.

I loved it when it was first published in 1993, and I love it even more now. It works on so many levels. On its surface, it's a situation comedy. Dig a little deeper, and it's an exploration of its characters' insecurities. Will Ted ever find love? Is Booster losing his best friend to a *gulp* girl? Can Wally relax long enough to enjoy a meal? How does Bea deal with constant sexual harassment from jerks like that bald guy in the red jacket?

Track down a copy of Justice League Quarterly #10 — the one with an angry Booster Gold on its cover! — and find out how this story ends.

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After I asked last Monday about what your Booster Gold shrines looked like, Aaron Hale got in touch with me via Facebook. His office is like a museum for Booster Gold original art!

Check out these pics of some of his framed pieces. (Click any for a larger image.)

Dan Jurgens splash page from Booster Gold #10

Mark Waid and JG Jones signed issue and cover art from 52 Week 15

Marc Campos art from Justice League America #90

Aaron Lopresti signed cover art (with corrections) from Justice League International #1

Kevin Maguire commissions with Justice League International #8

Wow.

Just wow.

Aaron, I bow down to you. Thanks so much for sharing.

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In celebration of the 30th anniversary of the first appearance of Booster Gold, I've spent the year asking Dan Jurgens questions about Booster Gold's earliest adventures. Today I conclude this year-long column with two final questions about Booster's powers.

In the pages of Secret Origins #35 (1989), Mark Waid pointed out that all of Booster's original powers and abilities were based on equipment found in Superman's pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths adventures, including Superboy's Legion flight-ring, Brainiac's force-field, and Lex Luthor's power suit. Most of those original powers are still part of Booster's ability set today, except for the Mass Dispersal Force, originally based on Jor-El's Phantom Zone Projector.

Being able to dematerialize and rematerialize matter at will is a pretty significant power. I asked Jurgens why it faded into the land of forgotten powers so quickly.

People seemed to have a hard time grasping what it was.

On top of that, I'd had a conversation with a couple of people at DC who thought it seems a bit too "magical". So, with that in mind, we dropped it.

On the other hand, one of the most enduring components of Booster's power set didn't have any clear antecedent: his Booster Shots ray blasts.

What could have inspired Jurgens to give Booster ranged gauntlet attacks? And perhaps more importantly, which came first, the power or the "pun"-ny name?

Good question!

The name really did come first in that case. I had been scrawling ideas in a note bad -- just sort of an idea matrix, if you will -- and wrote down "Booster Shots".

Once I did that, I simply had to find a way to use it!

There you have it. (And yes, I did save that one for last because Jurgens said it was a good question. Hooray, me.)

Thank you, Dan Jurgens. I've really enjoyed quizzing you on thirty-year-old trivia.

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For almost 20 years, DC Comics has been struggling with the success of Kingdom Come. While the events of that series have now been shuffled off to an alternate Earth (thank you, return of the Multiverse!), for awhile it appeared that Kingdom Come represented the future of the regular DCU. The 1998 mini-series event, The Kindgom, changed that.

The Kingdom followed a band of heroes from the future as they traveled back in time to prevent the events of Kingdom Come. Frankly, its stories were not very good, perhaps doomed by their inevitable comparison to Kingdom Come itself. Though most remember The Kingdom for its introduction of Hypertime, there's a better reason for Booster Gold fans to remember it: Planet Krypton.

The late 90s were a fallow period for the Corporate Crusader, and in this issue he returned to his roots as an up-an-coming businessman. Semi-retired from super-heroics, he's working to make a theme-restaurant celebrating Justice League memorabilia, Planet Krypton, a success. It's quintessential Booster Gold, supported by a healthy dose of writer Mark Waid's extensive knowledge of DC Universe history.

(Footnote: Despite Booster's best plans, Planet Krypton wouldn't last long. But then, it wasn't designed to. It turns out that Booster had a silent partner, someone named Rip Hunter, who had the restaurant built because it was centered on a unique position between timelines. It'd be another seven years before Booster and Rip Hunter teamed up again in the pages of 52.)

Planet Krypton is mostly concerned with the angst of a runaway bride named Rose and a tangential relationship with the "bigger" Kingdom storyline, but Booster Gold is the star here, a bright spot amid the rest of The Kingdom's muddled drek.

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Shortly after being ambushed by Devastator in 1994's Justice League America #89, Booster Gold was pronounced dead in Justice League Task Force #13. A decade later in 52 Week 15, Booster Gold was killed (again!) following a jealous struggle with Supernova. It seems that no supervillain wants Booster Gold dead as much as Mark Waid, the author of both comic books.

Waid made up for his transgressions by writing for Booster a rousing call to action. Booster delivered the following speech to the Justice League at the foot of Mount Everest in Justice League Task Force #14 (seen at left).

It's fourth and goal... and the fate of the world rests on this drive.

There's five and a half miles of mountain between us and the end of the world...

...so I'd suggest we get a move on.

While that's no "Saint Crispin's Day" speech, it is pretty good for a comic book. It's also not the only thing for which Booster Gold fans have to thank Mark Waid. Waid was the editor of Secret Origins #35, and wrote the informative article "Secrets Behind the Origins" detailing Booster Gold's unused pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths origin (where he stole not from the Space Museum but the Superman Museum!).

Thanks, Mark Waid. Boosterrific.com wishes you a Happy Birthday!

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