I get a kick out of seeing Booster Gold referenced in places I don't expect. Although I know that our hero was the greatest football prospect of all time, that doesn't appear to be common knowledge even among people who claim to understand the game, which makes it extra amusing to see Booster pop-up in a football conversation.

Writes Jarrett Bailey in a March 20 article for USA Today's Touchdown Wire ("49ers need to fully embrace a rebuild and trade Brock Purdy"):

Purdy has never been the one credited for their success. He's never been the Batman or Superman of the Justice League-[esque] rosters the 49ers put on the field every Sunday over the last number of years. At best, he's been Green Lantern -- scrambling around, making things happen off-platform. and getting the ball to one of his several All-World playmakers. At worst, he's been Booster Gold -- the butt of several jokes and not looked at as a serious threat from the quarterback position. Rather, being seen as the trailer being pulled by this massive truck.

Hey, if we're picking teams, I'll take Booster Gold over Green Lantern any day. Green Lantern never played quarterback. (Although, honestly, I'd much rather have a Green Lantern on my football team than a Batman. Batman is famously not a team player.)

I have a hard time believing that the target audience of a USA Today sports column has any idea who Booster Gold is, but I certainly appreciate our oft-underestimated hero getting an outside-of-comics shout out.

Comments (3) | Add a Comment | Tags: brock purdy football jarrett bailey touchdownwire.usatoday.com

It's been so long since Booster Gold appeared in a monthly DC Comics solicitation that I've forgotten how I used to format these posts, but since Booster is actually on the cover of a comic book for the first time since October.... No, wait. Scratch that. He's on three covers for the same book:

CVR A CIAN TORMEY

CVR B JORGE FORNES CARD STOCK VAR

CVR D FERNANDO BLANCO CARD STOCK VAR

And, for good measure, there's also a Gold Beetle cover:

CVR C NATHAN SZERDY CARD STOCK VAR

JUSTICE LEAGUE: DARK TOMORROW SPECIAL #1
Written by MARK WAID and MARC GUGGENHEIM
Art and cover by CIAN TORMEY
Variant cover by JORGE FORNES, NATHAN SZERDY, FERNANDO BLANCO
$5.99 US, 48 pages, Variant $5.99 US (card stock), on sale 7/30/25

In the wake of the We Are Yesterday crossover epic, a mysterious Quantum Quorum has emerged… stalked by a lethal enemy that takes no prisoners. The League deputizes a rag tag group of time displaced heroes like Batman Beyond, Gold Beetle, and Helena Wayne to fill the void left behind by the Time Masters and save the quorum from the mysterious threat that’s picking off time-travelers one by one. These Legends of Tomorrow are the only ones standing in the way of this cascading chronal Armageddon with the past, present, and future teetering on the brink in this oversized special leading to the next big DC All In event!

Believe it or not, it has never happened that Booster has appeared on three standard-order variants for the same issue, so I have some re-coding to do before the Boosterrific Database can handle displaying this once-in-four-decades scenario. Whether you decide to buy all the covers or just one, it's still nice for Booster boosters to have something to look forward to for a change.

You can read the complete list of coming attractions for DC Comics' July 2025 at AIPTComics.com. Thanks to all who made sure I saw these.

Comments (9) | Add a Comment | Tags: aiptcomics.com gold beetle justice league dark tomorrow solicitations

It's been a wild week for Booster Gold fans with Booster making an appearance in one book and Skeets in another.

I'll save my thoughts on Summer of Superman Special #1 for a later post, in part because I want to put some space between now and then because what I have to say about it would definitely count as "spoilers." (Hint: I'm even more frustrated than I was before.)

Skeets' appearance in Challengers of the Unknown Volume 5, #5, on the other hand, well, it can't count as a spoiler because there's nothing to spoil. See for yourself: here it is, panel 1 of page 20 (of 22 in the issue):

That's it. That's Skeets' only appearance in the issue. It's Skeets' only appearance in the whole mini-series.

Story wise, original Challenger Rocky Davis has just been attacked (killed?) by longtime Challengers foe Ultivac just as the new Justice League Unlimited Watchtower explodes. And then... Skeets?

It has to mean something, right? The artists (Sean Izaakse, Amancay Nahuelpan) didn't just decide to place a random, obscure sidekick there that the writer (Christopher Cantwell) didn't ask for and the editors (Chris Rosa, Paul Kaminski) didn't catch. But the story gives no clue what this means other than to suggest that time travel might be involved. Or is it a metaphysical representation of life after death? Or maybe, since we're talking about the past, is it all a dream state? It's all punishingly vague.

Can we grasp at straws? It doesn't make any sense for Rocky to be thinking about Skeets because so far as we know, the pair have never even met. (Skeets was deactivated at the only time Rocky Davis and Booster Gold joined forces on panel in 1992's Eclipso: The Darkness Within #2). Skeets is 25th century (or better) technology with no connection to Ultivac (who was the robot villain of the second published Challengers of the Unknown adventure in Showcase #7 in 1957!). Skeets does not have telepathy and cannot independently time travel without the aid of Rip Hunter's technology. So far as readers are aware, Skeets has been lost somewhere in the Multiverse with (or without) Booster Gold since last year's DC All In Special. (And, although I said I wasn't going to talk about Summer of Superman Special, if the events there are what they appear to be, how could Skeets exist in the 20th century at all?) So what in creation is Booster Gold's robot sidekick doing here?

Maybe it's not Skeets? Maybe it's one of Skeet's outdated exterior casings, such as used to be kept in the previous Justice League watchtower's trophy room (in JLA Secreat Files #2 and Justice League of America Volume 2, #7). In the New 52 era, Skeets was one of a kind, but that was not so before or since; maybe what appears to be Skeets here is just another 25th-century BX9 Security Robot? For all I know, this could be the return of Mr. Mind doing the same Skeets cosplay he wore in the pages of 52.

Or Proty. Yeah, sure, why not. It could be Proty. That would make as much sense as it being Skeets.

According to multiple new sources and despite being solicited as a 6-issue mini-series, Challengers of the Unknown has been canceled after 5 issues, so we're not likely to learn anytime soon why Skeets was here. If anyone does ever turn up a clue, let us know.

Comments (3) | Add a Comment | Tags: challengers of the unknown new releases skeets

"You might want to change the counter."

So reads the email sent to me by Booster booster Bob. Bob's a longtime friend of the Boosterrific Blog, and he even gave us a shout out at the end of his recent YouTube video post about the schizophrenic nature of Geoff John's Rip Hunter. (Bob summarizes the problem with that characterization as "Good people don't kidnap children." Hear, hear, Bob!)

But the point of Bob's email yesterday had nothing to do with Rip Hunter. It was about Booster Gold's return to comic books.

Specifically, Bob was the first to tell me that Booster Gold will be making an appearance in today's one-shot anthology Summer of Superman Special #1.

I suppose I should have seen this coming. According to Matt Morrison's review of the issue at SuperHeroHype.com: "Finally, Joshua Williamson uses the last chapter to explore the cause of Validus becoming displaced in time. This final story ties into the larger story of DC All-In and the fate of the Legion following Dark Crisis." That does indeed sound Booster-adjacent.

Before you get your hopes up too high about the inevitable Booster Gold renaissance, know that Booster's role in this issue is actually pretty limited. (It's essentially little more than a reminder that DC hasn't forgotten about what they did to our time-travelling hero.) But the bright side is that, yeah, it definitely counts as an in-continuity appearance, and yeah, it does reset the missing-in-action counter (after reaching 196 days). These days we'll take what we can get!

So buy this book and make Skeets (who is *not* in this issue) happy. (UPDATE: As SLW points out in the comments, Skeets *does* put in a cameo appearance in this week's Challengers of the Unknown #5.)

Thanks for keeping an eye out for us, Bob!

Comments (9) | Add a Comment | Tags: all in bob rossetto joshua williamson matt morrison new releases skeets superherohype.com superman

Hey! Look at who's coming to your Local Comic Shop tomorrow!

Officially the "Cover D Clayton Crain Card Stock Variant"

Wait, that's Flash? Then why is he dressed like Booster Gold? Come on, he even has a collar!

And come to think of it, why was Wally West wearing gold sneakers with stars in the first issue? Did Booster somehow influence the fashions of the Absolute Universe?

Anyway, sorry. False alarm. (UPDATE: Actually, you might want to read tomorrow's post.)

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: absolute flash