Like my favorite super hero, I'm planning to start the year watching my alma mater play football. In the meantime, I present for your nostalgic enjoyment the 5 most-read Boosterrific.com blog posts of 2020, presented in ascending order of hits:

5. Monday, April 6: This Day in History: Without Great Power
In which we revisited Booster Gold's participation in Justice League Europe #50, his first taste of superheroic action after losing his powersuit to Doomsday. Say what you will about his motivations, but Booster Gold's got guts.

4. Friday, March 13: That Time Booster Gold Defeated a Disease
In which we took at look at the events of Booster Gold Volume 1 #17 in light of the pandemic that was sweeping the globe. Conclusion: an impenetrable force field is better than a vaccine.

3. Monday, October 26: The Strong and Silent Type
In which I improved Superman & Batman Magazine #8 by cutting out most panels that don't include Booster Gold. Sorry, I couldn't do anything about that bulky 1990s power suit.

2. Monday, November 9: Two of a Kind: Shattered and Forged
In which we clear up the confusion surrounding DC's announcements of Generations: Shattered and Generations: Future State comic books. Hint: they're the same book. Or, at least we think they are. We'll be more certain when we finally have the book in our hands next week.

1. Friday, December 18: The Best of Booster Gold: Action Comics 995
In which we conclude our year-long series of the 12 best Booster Gold comics. (Maybe those clickbait comic book listicle sites are onto something.)

Let's make 2021 another Boosterrific year!

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Because Booster Gold is a comic book character, Boosterrific.com is usually pretty much alone in its field reporting on his copious public appearances. If Booster was a real person, there would be, like, hundreds of sites stumbling over one another to repost paparazzi photos of him eating a burrito while headed to the gym wearing sweatpants in a desperate ploy to seduce your valuable click.

I might be a niche site, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to use those other sites' playbook! I'm the Internet, too, guys.

On October 4, former Justice League International artist Kevin Maguire tweeted an image promoting social distancing that he created in an intentional homage to his own 1987 cover to Justice League #1.

On October 7, former comics news website that now specializes in clickbait listicles, CBR.com, reposted the image with only the bare details necessary to inform the uninitiated of its visual significance without adding any significant commentary. (Shame on me. That was snarky. CBR doesn't deserve to be made fun of like that. To be fair, there must be plenty of people encountering the image for the first time who are unaware of the JL cover. "CBR: the best comics website for people who don't read comics!")

On October 8, the comics gossip tabloid that Booster Gold creator Dan Jurgens recently called "disreputable," BleedingCool.com, also reposted the image. They went a step further than their click competitor and added a gallery of other images Maguire has drawn that also homage the aforementioned Justice League #1 cover. Reputable or not, that seems like at least some value added in return for your click.

Now, on October 9, I will repost the same image because, like the other sites, I don't really have anything better to post. And I'm adding nothing of value other than the unenlightening observation that my doing the same thing as everyone else does nothing to advance the human condition in any meaningful way. And heck, I'm not even getting paid. (#nihilismnow!)

Hopefully, if you saw the following image on Twitter or CBR or Bleeding Cool, you'll still enjoy seeing it again as much as I do. Personally, I never get tired of Maguire's art.

No, sir, Mr. Gardner.

Footnote: I'm a little surprised I haven't yet seen Maguire's image posted at the former Newsarama, but it seems they've been too busy posting bigger news to resort to reposting social media pics. Check out their latest "feature" piece, "Marvel characters who have wielded Captain America's shield." (Double shame on me. There's always the weekend.)

UPDATE 2020-10-09: ComicBook.com is getting in on the action! Hi, Russ!

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DC has been doing their part in COVID-19 pandemic messaging by including "social distancing" PSAs in their comics and shipping posters to comic shops. It's an admirable incentive to get important information to superhero fans, but I think their choice of spokespersons could use some improvement.

One poster features Superman and Wonder Woman playing tug o' war. As much as I admire their wisdom, they aren't the pair I would pick to pose for an anti-virus PSA. He's invulnerable and she's immortal. Their unique talents are better used preventing authoritarian armies from trampling peaceful protesters than preaching to the public about the dangers of airborne pestilence particles.

Another poster tries again with Batman and Robin. Two of the things that Batman is most famous for are 1) not being much of a hugger, and 2) never wearing a mask over his mouth. He might the world's greatest detective, but a reclusive man who dresses like a mouth-breathing flying rat is probably not the guy we need leading the charge of a public education campaign.

While I applaud all those heroes' good intentions, I think if you want to sell people on the importance of maintaining a six-foot halo to impair the spread of communicable disease, the spokespersons you need should be both vulnerable and relatable. And a healthy sense of humor would certainly help their delivery.

Hmm. Do we know any heroes who fit that bill? You bet we do!

Art by Kevin Maguire via Antonio Perianes at comicartfans.com, template by DC Comics

Fixed it for you, DC.

Do what Booster and Beetle say. They've only got your best interest at heart.

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Today I present to you my single favorite Booster Gold panel.

As much as I love the work of Kevin Maguire and Adam Hughes, it's not from Booster's Justice League tryout or KooeyKooeyKooey any other Justice League International comic. It's not by Aaron Lopresti, who drew many truly inspirational moments for our hero in 52 and Generation Lost, including his triumphs over Mister Mind and Max Lord. Nor is it a page from the pen of Booster's prolific creator, Dan Jurgens, though he has crafted so many other memorable Boosterrific moments in the past three-and-a-half decades.

It doesn't even have Blue Beetle or Skeets in it.

No, my favorite Booster Gold panel comes from a most unlikely source, a comic that few people have read since it was released in the middle of the Chromium Age of the 1990s. It was a time after Doomsday had killed destroyed Booster's original technology and our hero had lost much of his previous power and personal identity. (Clothes, after all, do make the man.)

Here's the panel, from the eleventh page of Extreme Justice #12, released November 14, 1995:

Oh, how that gets me every time.

The artists for this piece are Tom Morgan, Ken Branch, and Lee Loughridge, with a lettering assist by Kevin Cunningham. I've always had a soft spot for profiles, and I have notebooks filled with doodles of similar poses. I can't tell you how many gnashed teeth I've drawn in my life. I think it's exceptional how tight the close-up is while still including everything you need to know about the person whose personal space we have violated. Considering that the previous panel is a full body shot, Morgan could have been lazy, but he doesn't skimp the details. The character's iconic blue star seen relegated to the shoulder pad — a literal chip on his shoulder — may be the best part!

But the real reason I love that panel is the writing by the late Robert Washington III and its literary allusion to Tik-Tok, the Clockwork Man of Oz, a mechanical servant/warrior incapable of independent thought or action without the mechanical assistance of its friends. The comparison to Tik-Tok reveals Booster at his most human: a wounded warrior who struggles under the weight of his own heroic expectations and biological frailties. Doubt personified.

Probably because I first encountered it at just the right time in my life, but it has become embedded in my consciousness. I think of this panel often, probably several times a year when I'm feeling worn down by my responsibilities or illness or just life in general. (I probably don't need to tell you, 2020 has been a real test so far.) Somehow, knowing that Booster Gold has experienced the same feelings brightens my outlook. If he found a way to keep going, there's still hope for the rest of us. (I have to believe that won't require entrusting my body to an alternate-universe would-be world conqueror, but a man's got to do what a man's got to do.)

So anyway, maybe it's not the best drawn or the most illuminating or aggrandizing Booster Gold panel, but it's my personal favorite.

What's yours?

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Since today is the first New Comics Day without comics in the history of New Comics Days, you're probably looking to get your Booster Gold fix somewhere else. How about Youtube?

First, Booster booster Eskana lets us know that our hero — as played by Ali G — appears briefly in the latest Honest Trailers take on "Justice League: The Snyder Cut".

Meanwhile, friend of the blog Michael Foster has spotted Booster Gold in a musical montage of Phil Cho's fan created "Earth-27 Heroes". (Start looking at the 50 second mark, right after Fire and Ice.)

And that's not all! According to CDN, the YouTube series Death Battle has promised in their latest video to next feature a Cable vs Booster Gold match-up. If you want to keep tabs on when that might drop, you can find their videos here.

Thanks for the notifications. And if anyone else spots Booster somewhere in the wild, please let me know.

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