More than 3 million people are watching Arrow each week, not a far cry from the numbers that Smallville was pulling in its final season. Given that the CW approved a full season of episodes, it would seem that the network is happy. But the only question that matters is how Booster Gold fans feel about the show.

Last week's poll question: How have episodes of Arrow influenced your expectations for a Booster Gold television show from the same producers? (40 votes)

Arrow has changed a lot while adapting Green Arrow for television. Some modifications are to be expected as the character moves away from his source material, but it's not like characters don't change over time even in their native comic book format. Even Booster Gold has changed a little since his 1985 debut.

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My favorite part of running Boosterrific.com is discovering things I've never seen before in comics that I thought I knew. For example, just this week Ariel Justel dropped by the Boosterrific Facebook page to point out something I must have missed in my two dozen or so readings of Booster Gold, Volume 1, #6:

That's Thor walking through Metropolis' Centennial Park in the background of page 2, panel 1! I thought I had looked pretty hard at these pages, but I never realized that the little blue blob was Marvel Comics' Mjonir-toting God of Thunder until I broke out a magnifying glass to confirm Ariel's sighting.

What other Easter eggs has Dan Jurgens hidden in the original series that I'd never spotted before? Now I have a whole new reason to read my Booster Gold comics! Thanks, Ariel.

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If you missed it, the big news from DC yesterday was the announcement that Justice League of America, the title that Geoff Johns has teased will feature the eventual return of Booster Gold to DCnU continuity, will hit stands in February alongside its own spin-offs, Katana and Vibe. Russ Burlingame has the info on the Booster Gold-Andrew Kreisberg-Vibe connection at ComicBook.com.

To ensure that this Justice League book -- featuring a team without a Flash, Superman, or Wonder Woman much like the now-cancelled Justice League International -- is a sales success, DC plans to cheat the market. In addition to the standard cover, the book will be published with 52 variant covers: one for each state in the union, plus the territories of the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. That's a total of 53 covers. Fifty-three! I pause here for emphasis.

Let's be frank: the purpose of variant covers is to promote sales via an artificial scarcity. If an issue has a variant cover printed in limited quantities, some collectors will buy an extra copy for the sake of maintaining a comprehensive collection. Some speculators will seek out the variants hoping that their relative scarcity will lead to a long-term increase in value. Whatever your opinion on the morality of this marketing strategy, it cannot be denied that variant covers do increase sales.

Is DC genuinely hoping that completists or speculators out there will try to acquire all 53 covers? Of course they are. By allowing retailers to order each of the 52 variants as a separate issue, the company is obviously hoping that each direct market retailer spends a small fortune trying to acquire at least a few of each cover to appease those collectors and speculators.

(It seems to me that DC is specifically targeting the direct market with this stunt. I've never seen any evidence that variant covers increase sales of digital editions, where "collecting" and "speculating" have little meaning.)

There must be a limit to the variant cover sales response, and I would expect it to be something less than 53. Consider that if you were to buy one of each at cover price, the total at the register will be $211.47 before tax. That's a lot of cash for just one issue. Compare that to the hardcover 52 Omnibus due out next week that will reprint all 52 issues of 2007's 52 series. Unlike the stack of variant covers for Justice League of America #1, the 52 comics included in the $150 Omnibus will at least tell a complete story.

There is no word yet whether Booster Gold will be seen in the series' first issue. If he is, I might consider buying 53 copies. But only if he is.

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The Irredeemable Shag! of FirestormFan.com brings our attention to the following fan art of the never-before-seen team-up between Jason Rusch and Booster Gold.

This version of Booster appears to have a solid gold torso, and no gauntlets (or legs), but I still like it more than the official DCnU costume. I'm a sucker for the high collar.

This was drawn by Brazilian artist Rodrigo Martins dos Santos. You can find a lot of his comic-inspired pin-up art at DeviantArt.com, where he posts as adagadegelo.

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Earlier this week DC Entertainment announced that they had partnered with Kia Motors America to create five one-of-a-kind customized cars featuring Justice League characters. The press release announced that these "radical machines" were created utilizing Jim Lee's Justice League designs in order to promote DC's "We Can Be Heroes" charity campaign. "We Can Be Heroes" supports of Horn of Africa hunger relief. The cars will be auctioned off later this year with proceeds going to the campaign.

When I hear "Justice League character" and "radical machine," I think "Boostermobile." However, given that DC's latest custom vehicles are destined for a charity auction, it's understandable that our favorite Corporate Crusader would be reluctant to donate his beloved Boostermobile to any cause that didn't profit Booster Gold.

These cars were unveiled Tuesday at the 2012 SEMA trade show in Las Vegas. While I gotta admit that a car show seems a good place to show off some sweet customized cars, SEMA shows are not open to the general public. If the goal of these cars was really to "raise awareness" of your campaign, DC, maybe you should try just driving them down the street instead.

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