Last week's biography of Trixie Collins led to some discussion of whether she might be Booster Gold's wife and Rip Hunter's mother. Frankly, I can only guess.

Time Masters: Vanishing Point was infuriatingly vague on any details about the identity of Booster's wife. Here's a run down on the info we did get:

1. She is Caucasian.

2. She has blond hair.

3. That's it.

So who is she? Who will Michael "Booster" Carter one day love and trust enough to reveal all his secrets to? Who would join him in his sworn duty to save time itself from any and all threats?

Could it be Trixie Collins, his former secretary and conscience introduced in Booster Gold Volume 1? (She's a natural red-head, but that's what hair dye is for.)

Could it be Sondra Crain, a time-cop working for a future United States government to "fix" time in Booster Gold Volume 2? (She and Booster crossed paths only briefly during the destruction of Coast City, but she did convince him to try to save the world.)

Could it be Alexandra Gianopoulos, the Greek heiress that Booster met in the Flashpoint timeline shortly after the conclusion of Vanishing Point? (She might have died, but when has death ever stopped true love?)

Could it be Godiva, his flirtatious teammate from Justice League International, Volume 3? (Their team didn't exist until after the events of Vanishing Point, but time travel is inherently non-linear.)

Or could it be someone we haven't met yet (or maybe even someone else we have)? What do you think?

This week's poll question: Who was Booster Gold's wife in Time Master: Vanishing Point? Please visit the Boosterrific Polls page to view results for this week's poll.

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Max Lord is the big "winner" receiving a clear majority of the vote, so I feel comfortable declaring him Booster Gold's arch nemesis, Rebirth continuity be damned!

Last week's poll question: Which villain do you consider to be Booster Gold's arch-enemy? (47 votes)

(If you voted "someone else," who did you have in mind? Dirk Davis?)

While we're on the subject of villains, someone has been making Booster Gold's life miserable recently in the pages of Heroes in Crisis. (We all agree Booster is innocent, right? Right.) The identity of the real culprit has been the subject of much debate recently as the series nears its halfway point.

One popular Internet theory is that the real villain is Skeets. This is mostly based on one panel in Batman #50 that remains unexplained. The link between these two stories is writer Tom King. Could he have been dropping Heroes in Crisis clues in Batman? I doubt it. I just can't believe that he'd crib so blatantly from 52.

The manager of my Local Comic Shop thinks that the mastermind behind the murders is Psycho Pirate. For those who don't know, Psycho Pirate — a character with key ties to the biggest crisis, Crisis on Infinite Earths — has the ability to manipulate emotions, a power that fits well into a story advertised as being about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. (For what it's worth, PP is also in the aforementioned panel with Skeets in Batman #50. But then so was the Joker. Joker can't be behind all this, can he?)

Personally, I've decided that there aren't really any murders in Heroes in Crisis. I think it's all just one ongoing computer simulation designed to.... Well, I'm not sure what it's designed to do. Unfortunately, no one can be told what the matrix is. We'll all have to see it for ourselves.

If you need some evidence to support your pet theory, Vaneta Rogers put together a list of the clues at Newsarama.com. Take a look and see if you can't solve these crimes before Booster Gold does.

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What does it take to make a villain a hero's arch-enemy? If it's familiarity, then the villains vying for Booster Gold's most-hated award must be one of these:

Royal Flush Gang and Jonar Jon Carter (aka Supernova III): These long-time foes are tied with 7 encounters each.

The Director (The 1000): The Director was certainly the most dominant of Booster's early villains, racking up 8 encounters before his untimely demise.

Black Beetle: The villain with the most central role in Booster Gold's second volume, Black Beetle crossed paths with our hero 12 times with hints of more to come. Unfortunately, his story will probably remain forever untold thanks to Flashpoint and the arrival of the New 52.

Mr. Mind: Mister Mind has a surprisingly high count of 19 encounters with Booster Gold, a statistic increased both by his tendency to masquerade undetected as Booster's allies and his role in the weekly 52 title.

Maxwell Lord IV: Few characters have such frequently recurring roles in Booster's adventures as Max Lord, who has amassed a total of 65 encounters with our hero to date. Sure, most of those appearances were in supporting roles for the Justice League International (and all of those appearances take place outside modern Rebirth DCnU continuity), but nothing makes for a better antagonist than a former friend and mentor gone bad.

Now that you've seen the numbers, what do you say? Which villain deserves the title of Booster Gold's arch-nemesis?

This week's poll question: Which villain do you consider to be Booster Gold's arch-enemy? Please visit the Boosterrific Polls page to view results for this week's poll.

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To say Booster Gold fans aren't enthusiastic about what they've seen from Heroes in Crisis #1 is an understatement. That's understandable. It's hard to get up for a series that starts with our hero being accused of mass murder.

Last week's poll question: What is your reaction to Heroes in Crisis #1? (73 votes)

Thinking out loud here: Maybe mainstream American super hero comics — where all problems are traditionally solved with a healthy application of direct and overwhelming violence — isn't the right medium to be addressing the "ripped from the headlines" cultural dilemma of mental health and mass shootings. I've been reading DC comics for decades, and I'd suggest that they lack the vocabulary for a nuanced discussion about balancing responsibility and forgiveness.

In the context of a world where a Justice League exists to stop local bank robbers and intergalactic conquering starfish alike, how could something like the Sanctuary massacre ever happen? If Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman can't prevent this kind of humanitarian disaster, what hope do any of the rest of us have?

The DC Universe: every bit as terrible as the real world!

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Upon first read, I thought I was okay with Heroes in Crisis #1. Yes, it is heavy on atmosphere and light on story, but after Tom King's criminal misuse of Booster Gold in "The Gift", I decided that this was at least somewhat more respectful of my hero (even as it spits in the eye of the entire DC "Rebirth" initiative).

Then I read what ScreenRant.com and IGN.com and ComicBook.com had to say about it. (Warning: links contains spoilers.)

Now I'm wondering if perhaps my worst fears about this series weren't fearful enough. Since so many people seem to think that writer Tom King is some kind of literary genius — an opinion I have not shared since I read Batman, Volume 4 #1 — might Heroes in Crisis poison Booster Gold for the general public in the same sort of way that Marvel's revelation that Hank Pym was a mentally addled wife beater tarnished that once great character? *Gulp*

But maybe I'm overreacting. Maybe I'm just overprotective of my favorite character. Call me Chicken Little.

Am I alone? Let's find out.

This week's poll question: What is your reaction to Heroes in Crisis #1? Please visit the Boosterrific Polls page to view results for this week's poll.

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