Are you old enough to remember what it was like to have Booster Gold regularly appearing in his own comic book series? If so, you probably remember reading Booster Gold #28.

In that issue, the reader is treated to scenes that take place in

• 1990, the unfortunate events leading to the creation of Cyborg Superman;
• 1993, the year Coast City was destroyed;
• 2010, the "present" day; and
• 2083, the future of experimental time travel Project Slipshift.

Not pictured is 2020, where we are now, exactly one decade since the release of that issue.

I didn't include it on my list of great Booster Gold comics, but in many ways, this is an ideal issue for any new fans interested in Booster's adventures and who are not yet indoctrinated into his (and DC's) history.

Everything is in here: Skeets, Rip Hunter, Michelle, Superman, the Justice League, time travel shenanigans, and of course, the Royal Flush Gang.

Booster will be back in the saddle again sooner or later. He could do much worse than the likes of Booster Gold #28.

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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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Continuing Monday's discussion of who I would put in Booster Gold's rogues gallery: Booster Gold is unique among DC's heroes because his "secret" identity is also heroic. Booster hides his job as multiverse-spanning Time Master behind his public persona of glory-hogging Justice Leaguer. That means that he needs two sets of rogues, one to oppose each role.

When considering who I would include in either set of Booster's foes, I focused on characters who thematically matched Booster's personality, history, skills, and ideals. I generally gave extra weight to characters Booster has some experience with in the past, but I didn't let that get in the way of two who have never appeared in the same comic as our hero but make great foils to contrast Booster's greatest flaws.

Presented in alphabetical order, these are my top six suggestions to comprise the Rogues Gallery of Booster Gold, time-traveling member of the Justice League.

Broderick, Duela Dent, Maxwell Lord, Royal Flush Gang, Sportsmaster, T.O. Morrow

Broderick. Most super villains are obsessed with their heroes, and who has more cause to hate Bootser Gold than a federal agent from the future who pursed criminal Michael Jon "Booster" Carter into the present and got stuck here? Watching Booster rise to fame and fortune while he was locked away from friends and family... that sounds to me like a good reason to hold a grudge.

Duela Dent, aka The Joker's Daughter. In many ways, Duela is the anti-Micheal Jon Carter. Just as Booster models himself after the 20th-century heroes he idolized, she is obsessed with villains and has gone out of her way to associate herself with them in a desperate need for acceptance and validation. I think she would be ideal for an ongoing character study of Booster's more questionable psychological and ethical motivations. (While the New 52 has made Duela darker, I don't see why Rebirth couldn't mover her closer to her multiverse-spanning pre-Flashpoint origins.)

Maxwell Lord. Corporate raider, employer, rival, murderer, manipulator: for so many reasons, Max should be Booster's arch nemesis in any timeline.

Royal Flush Gang. Booster's first Justice League foes are a visual symbol of Booster's greatest mistake: the gamble that nearly ruined his life. They'll always be associated with Booster Gold, and they always should be.

Sportsmaster: Stop me if this sounds familiar: Lawrence "Crusher" Crock was a brilliant athlete who cheated at football and turned to theft. Just as Duela darkly reflects Booster's psychology, Sportsmaster is a cautionary tale about his actual life choices. What do you do when confronted with someone who has made all the same choices as you did but turned out wrong? Sportsmaster could be Booster's own reclamation project.

T.O. Morrow. Best known as the father of the Red Tornado, T.O. Morrow invented a television that allowed him to see into the future and use its technology to lead a life of crime and triumph over the Justice League itself. Not only has Morrow tangentially crossed paths with Booster on many occasions over the years, he is capable of understanding Booster's "past" and using it against him to gain leverage in his criminal enterprises going forward.

Those are my top picks. Who have I missed? Who would you have chosen instead?

We'll discuss my choices for villains to battle Booster Gold in his more important (and far less public) role as a Time Master next week.

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Superman is to Brainiac as Booster Gold is to whom? If it's true that you can define a man by the quality of his enemies, Booster Gold must be a pretty great guy. He simply doesn't have that many enemies.

Royal Flush Gang, Black Beetle, mid-life crises — it's hard to believe that Booster Gold's stable of foes is so limited after 30 years of fighting crime. I asked character creator Dan Jurgens why none of Booster's early foes like Blackguard, Mindancer, Chiller, or Mister Twister ever returned to bedevil Booster Gold.

I think that has more to do with his book coming to an end than anything.

Look, villains rarely catch on the first time they appear. It often takes 3-plus appearances before they actually become a real part of a hero's rogues gallery. I think a couple of them had some potential. A couple others are obviously weak.

Had volume 1 run, say, 100 issues, they would have appeared again and been developed.

I believe Jurgens. In addition to Booster, Jurgens can lay claim to creating Cyborg Superman and Doomsday. The man knows a thing or two about creating memorable villains. He just needs a chance to attach one to Booster Gold.

Thank you, Dan Jurgens, for filling in the gaps in the history of Booster Gold.

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I'm sure most fans remember their first encounter with their favorite hero. I remember when I first saw the cover to Booster Gold, Vol. 1, #1 back in 1985. The author of the Super Fan articles at imstillakid.com remembers his first encounter with Booster Gold too:

I had started collecting the retooled Justice League title in 1987 from the first issue of this new series. In the fourth issue, weasely businessman Maxwell Lord found his way into the JL's headquarters and immediately demands Booster Gold's inclusion on the team. Having no familiarity with the character whatsoever (this was long before the halcyon days of the Internet to look things up), I thought "who's this nerd"?

Visit imstillakid.com to read more and see panels from Booster's classic first encounter with the Royal Flush Gang in Justice League #4.

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