These days, the DC Universe seems to be chock full of secret organizations of dubious morality. There's nothing new about that. In fact, Booster Gold's 1985 nemeses, the 1000, was a rebirth of the 100, which originally debuted in 1970.

Of course, the 1000 did have something none of the other clandestine organizations have had: a Director of Death!

The Director was a typical power-mad dictator wanna-be who had a mad-on against Booster Gold. By making Booster's first archenemy a corrupt politician desperate for more power, was Dan Jurgens drawing an intentional contrast against Booster's origins as a corrupted athlete desperate for attention?

I put the question to Jurgens himself.

Somewhat, but not entirely.

If I'd gotten too close to Booster, it might have seemed too "one note".

So the actual difference worked well. The Director craved power whereas Booster simply wanted fame and money. I think one of the attractive things about Booster is that a simple desire for recognition and wealth is really easy to relate to.

The Director could have been the head of any number of evil organizations. As a follow-up question, I asked Jurgens whether it was determined the Director and the 100 would be Booster's first foes before or after it was decided that one of the organization's oldest foes, Thorn, would be Booster Gold's first guest star?

That was actually decided before the firm idea of adding Thorn.

I always thought the idea of Thorn fighting the new 100 and having the numbers to go with each one she took down was cool. Though I always wondered why they didn't just add more guys to replace the fallen.

There you have it. It takes a Director to have a direction.

Thanks again to Dan Jurgens, whose Booster Gold #1 hit newsstands 30 years ago today.

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It's a time-honored tradition: To get some respect, the new kid on the block has to prove his chops to an established hero. The two DC characters to debut in their own title in the decade before Booster Gold, Black Lightning and Firestorm, had their first DCU team-up with Superman. Booster Gold would encounter Superman, too. But Superman wasn't Booster's first team-up. That honor went to Thorn.

You remember Thorn, right? Whenever Rose Forrest fell asleep, her alternate personality came alive and fought crime. (The first rule of Rose and Thorn is don't talk about Rose and Thorn.)

Thorn specifically focused her wrath on the 100, a criminal organization responsible for her father's death. Moderately successful, she eventually teamed up with (who else?) Superman before fading into the background of DC's shared universe.

So why did every other DC character get a career booster from Superman, but Booster Gold had to settle for Thorn? I asked Dan Jurgens that question.

First of all, I found her to be an amazingly interesting character.

Plus, since [Rose and Thorn] hadn't appeared in such a long time, it was fairly easy to adjust the character a bit. Tweak the costume, etc. Tailor it to Booster a bit more, that kind of thing.

I also asked Jurgens why he didn't include a cameo for the 100's other major nemesis, Black Lightning.

We actually talked about it a bit but realized that we had Thorn already and were going to have Superman showing up quite soon, with the [Legion of Super-Heroes] soon after. We didn't want it to become a full time guest star series.

And there you have it.

Thanks to Dan Jurgens for answering "just one more follow-up question" over and over again.

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Does the fact that we haven't seen Skeets in the New 52 Universe still get you down? Well, there's always Smallville:Season 11!

It's always been up to you, Skeets!

Our favorite chrome companion is left all alone to save the multiverse from Lex Luthor and the Yellow Lantern Corps in the latest chapter released online. Skeets won't let us down!

The digital chapters of Smallville: Chaos can be bought online now at Comixology.com. Every three chapters will be combined into a floppy issue for sale at your Local Comic Shop starting next month.

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Booster Gold may be M.I.A. in the DCnU and at conventions, but you'll still find him in Smallville: Chaos.

Thanks, but we already knew that, Mr. Luthor.

You can find digital chapters Smallville: Chaos at Comixology.com now for 99¢ (Chapter 9 will be released this Friday). Your Local Comic Shop will be selling chapters 7-9 as one issue, Smallville Season 11: Chaos, this October.

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Smallville: Chaos #3 came out last week, in which we find that Lex Luthor doesn't think any more highly of Booster Gold than Lois Lane did.

Smallville: Chaos #1. Writer: Bryan Q. Miller, Art: Daniel HDR, Colors: Carrie Strachan

Poor Ted Kord and Micheal Holt. Why is everybody so down on them for hiring the World's Greatest Hero?

This issue is available online at Comixology.com now for 99¢. The printed edition collecting the first 3 digital installments as Smallville Season 11: Chaos #1 should be coming to your Local Comic Shop on August 13, 2014 with a cover price of $3.99. (If you delay buying this until the collected edition comes out, you'll pay an extra dollar! So what are you waiting for?)

Each of the 3 digital installment of Smallville: Chaos to date has referenced or included Booster Gold. With 9 more chapters to go, can writer Bryan Q. Miller keep up this pace? We sure hope so.

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