You may have heard that there's something of a global health crisis ongoing right now. As someone with older parents, I find it a little scary, which makes it a fitting topic for Friday the 13th. What would make me feel better is a super hero who could stop a spreading disease dead in its tracks.

Which brings me to that time that Booster Gold single-handedly prevented a disease outbreak (with a little help from Skeets).

Of course, when pandemics strike the DC Universe, there's usually some super villain at work. That was definitely the case in the story "Dream of Terror" published in Booster Gold #17 (1987).

Dr. Pete Babich is biologist and eugenicist obsessed with solving the problems of social inequality. Like so many bad guys, Babich considers himself a hero who believes that he alone has "the courage to do what must be done." Specifically, he means releasing a virulent, globe-spanning disease that will kill everyone he considers to be "undesirable," by which he means "poor."

To initiate his class warfare, he enlists the help of the Teen Titan Hawk. Babich has misled Hawk into thinking that the disease won't kill outright, but will instead sterilize the population. For some reason, Hawk still thinks this is a good idea.

Babich's initial target? Mexicans. He might have gotten away with it, too, if the Russians hadn't gotten involved via their agent, the mercenary Cheshire. (This is an American comic, remember? With us, it's always Mexicans and Russians.)

Because of the Russians' attempt to steal Babich's creation to use for their own purposes, the evil doctor is exposed to his own disease. It works as advertised, destroying a certain undesirable human in a scene delightfully dripping with dramatic irony.

It would be tragedy if Babich's engineered plague went on to kill hundreds or thousands worldwide, but this being a comic book, that's not going to happen. Especially not with Booster Gold on the scene.

Everyone lives happily ever after!

I certainly don't mean to suggest that COVID-19 is the work of a super villain (or the Russians). I just find reassurance in stories about good, powerful people putting their own lives on the line to save us. In the DC Universe, they're called super heroes. In the real world, we call them health care professionals.

Stay safe, everybody. (Personally, I'll be spending the foreseeable future indoors reading comics, so it's not all bad.)

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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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One of the responses to my list of my Booster Gold's rogues gallery posts last week came from Boosterfett:

One big glaring omission-- The 100! They were instrumental in fleshing out our hero's early motivations and if they were updated, could be a major contender for that evil organization that could be the Hydra to Michael's Captain America!

Without a doubt, the 1000 was integral to the development of Booster Gold. They were the first criminal organization he fought as a 20th-century hero. It was their planned assassination of Ronald Reagan that introduced Booster Gold to the public. Nearly half of Booster's original run was devoted to the 1000's attempts to destroy our hero.

But no, I didn't include them in my rogues gallery. I didn't include them specifically because Booster isn't the biggest Thorn in their side.

from "Death House Honeymoon," Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane #105 (1970)

The 1000 debuted as the 100, "The Centipede of Crime," in Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane #105. Star Daily Planet reporter Clark Kent described them as "hoods [who] have a finger in every racket" in Metropolis. In other words, they were too big for even Superman to snuff out.

When Metropolis police detective Phil Forrest was murdered by a 100 assassin, the trauma was too much for his daughter, Rose. Her psyche was split into two personalities. After that, each night Rose became Thorn, a hardened vigilante with only one enemy: The 100.

from "Nightmare Alley", Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane #130 (1973)

Thorn's crusade continued through the next three years of Lois Lane comics until the trail of the 100 grew cold in issue #130 (1973). As Thorn moved further into the background of the DCU, Thorn's father remained unavenged. The 100, however, would have a second act.

from "Black Lightning", Black Lightning #1 (1977)

Enter Black Lightning. Four years after Thorn lost their trail, Jefferson Pierce would run afoul of 100 associate Tobias Whale in Black Lightning #1 (1977). Black Lightning locked horns with the Whale for 8 of his 11 issues, and their feud continued in various appearances across the DCU even after the infamous DC Implosion of 1979. The 100 didn't care for the attention that the Whale brought them, and they eventually parted ways with their former associate, paving the way for their rebirth.

from "Death Ransom", World's Finest Comics #257 (1979)

When the 100 reemerged as the high-tech 1000 in Booster Gold Volume 1, #1 in 1985, their oldest foe reappeared with them. Booster Gold was the star of the series, but both Rose Forrest and Thorn joined his early supporting cast. (In this way, even Booster's first enemy "borrowed" heavily from pre-Crisis on Infinite Earth DC continuity.) Together and apart, they opposed the Director's nefarious plans for world domination through almost a full year's worth of comics.

from "Crash", Booster Gold #4 (1986)

Like Tobias Whale before him, the 1000's leader, the Director of Death, would become obsessed with one hero. Unlike Tobias, Director's obsession was largely one-sided. (Booster Gold was largely indifferent to the Director's goals and was content to ignore him until he turned to kidnapping his staff. ) The Director eventually died in the pursuit of his obsession. The 1000 died with him, and Booster Gold hasn't given them a second thought since.

Not so, Thorn.

The 100 survived the Director's death, and they remain Thorn's driving motivation. She has been seen continuing her crusade against them in appearances in the Showcase anthology of the middle 1990s and Birds of Prey issues in the 2000s.

from "Hero Hunters Part 4: She Rides the Eye of a Hurricane", Birds of Prey #79 (2005)

Yes, the 1000 could be updated to bedevil Booster Gold once more, but why should they when they're still locked in a life-and-death struggle with another hero even more deserving of their hatred. For nearly a half century, the 100(0) has been Thorn's Lex Luthor, and she has been their Superman. For that reason, any incarnation of the 100 belongs in her rogues gallery, not Booster Gold's.

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Friday, I gave you my personal picks to Booster Gold's public Rogues Gallery. But who should Booster be fighting in his "secret" identity?

Presented in alphabetical order, these are my top six suggestions to comprise the Rogues Gallery of Booster Gold, Time Master.

Black Beetle, Chronos (Walker Gabriel), Lady Chronos, Mr. Mind, Monarch, Weapons Master

Black Beetle. Whoever he is, Black Beetle has consistently been a thorn in Booster Gold's side since our hero's earliest adventures as Rip Hunter's time-traveling associate. Few villains have caused Booster such emotional distress or been such a threat to the time-space continuum. For those reasons alone, Black Beetle should be considered Booster's most dangerous foe.

Chronos II. A time-traveling thief with strong opposition to the Linear Men and his own city outside of time, Walker Gabriel makes a great candidate for long-running anti-hero who could work at odds to Booster Gold's directives to maintain an ideal history of the DCU. Who knows, given enough time, they could even learn to admit a grudging respect for one another's work.

Lady Chronos. Booster Gold needs a femme fatale working at cross paths to test both his abilities and his resolve. In her previous encounters with Booster Gold, Lady Chronos teased our hero with a glimpse of more relationship to come. Let the sparks fly! (Adding Gabriel to this dynamic could be even better: multiple Chronoses and Booster Gold all working to "fix" the same problem in their own way with their own motivations and ethics and romantic entanglements. Yeah, I'd read that.)

Mr. Mind. No villain has appeared in more issues with Booster Gold than the Venusian worm who has so bedeviled Captain Marvel. That association should continue, as it seems highly improbable that the devious Mind would ever forgive Booster for thwarting his universe-dominating plans — in multiple timelines!

Monarch. The alternate-universe Nathaniel Adam, normally associated with Captain Atom, may be the most unlikely name on my list, but keep in mind that his history is also interwoven with Booster Gold — who once foiled Monarch's plans only through an accident of his genetic history — and Waverider and the Linear Men. (And Booster's long association with Atom should probably allow him some crossover in foes. After all, the uber-militaristic Captain Atom is just as all-American as uber-capitalistic Booster Gold.) In his many iterations throughout the multiverse, Monarch has been incredibly powerful and hell-bent on universal domination, and no Time Master should ignore him. (Honestly, I'd put Monarch on this list if for no other reason than to see if Booster could "correct" the twist ending of Armageddon 2001.)

Weapons Master. He's not generally recognized as being in the same league as Mr. Mind or Monarch, but any recurring time-traveling foe of the Justice League should cause concern for anyone. More importantly, Weapons Master travels through time and steals history's greatest weapons to use against his foes, which means that he and Booster Gold think a lot alike. It would be fun to see the two of them matching wits across spacetime.

Those are my top picks. Do you agree? Who did I leave out?

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