If you ever manage to save the Universe, I suspect you'd include it on your resume.

Last week's poll question: Which no-longer-in-continuity Booster Gold adventure would you most want to see restored to DCnU continuity? (50 votes)

Today's poll was inspired by the first U.S. Presidential debate of the season held last night. If you didn't see it don't worry; you didn't miss any Booster Gold appearances. But seriously, that leads us to today's important poll question.

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Eleven years ago today, DC released JLA: Incarnations, an anthology mini-series focused on telling the "untold" stories set a various points in the prior history of the Justice League. Most of the fun and frustration of this series was in seeing how writer John Ostrander would mangle characterization and history in order to squeeze his new stories into pre-existing continuity. Issue #6, published 11 years ago today, was no exception.

This issue contains two stories set about 7 years apart, and both stories generously feature Booster Gold. Booster and Blue Beetle are the protagonists in the issue's lead story, "Buddies." The pair invent the villainous identities of Bloodspot and Deathmetal in order to sneak into the rogue nation of Bialya. As entertaining as the story is, at times almost everything seems to be an anachronism. Errors stretch from DC Universe chronological impossibilities (Mister Miracle's inclusion in events would have been impossible in the time period) to real-world industry conventions (the ultra-violent "grim and gritty" comics that would feature characters with ridiculous names "Bloodspot" and "Deathmetal" wouldn't be published for several years after the era in which this story was set). Even the relationship between the protagonists is blatantly misrepresented (Booster Gold should be playing straight to Blue Beetle's zany ideas, not the other way around).

The other story, "Authority," doesn't do much better. "Authority" details the untold and much-needed story of the dissolution of Extreme Justice, mostly from the point of view of team leader Captain Atom. Booster naturally plays a part in this story as well, although artist Eric Battle doesn't seem to realize that Booster wore more than one costume between the founding of the Justice League International and the conclusion of the Extreme Justice debacle. Again, Ostrander doesn't let history get in his way, as he, like Geoff Johns in the more recent retcon seen in Justice League International Annual, ignores that the United Nations washed its hands of the JLI long before the end of the team. As we all know, DC's writers never let facts get in the way of telling their stories.

That's not to say these stories aren't enjoyable, because they are. Objectively, they are entertaining reads that add to our knowledge of the period they represent. Subjectively, however, they don't quite live up (or in Extreme Justice's case, down) to the era that inspired them. Without hesitation, I recommend reading the issue, but like any story of historical fiction, I'll leave leave it up to the reader to decide how much truth they contain.

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Yesterday, DC promoted their Halloween event, er, I mean their "Multi-Faceted DC Comics Super-Villain Campaign" with a graphic clearly showing pre-Flashpoint costumes and characters. DC has had over a year to plan and promote the New 52, so why aren't they promoting their reimagined universe this holiday season? Is this a hint that DC isn't committed to the New 52, or just another example of a fractured company with no cohesive strategy?

Booster booster Russ Burlingame asks much the same question in his recent article for ComicBook.com, "Is DC Comics Running Away From Their Own New 52 Philosophy?"

With The Question appearing in both Justice League and Multiversity, though, one has to wonder whether Justice League writer Geoff Johns might have some designs on the Multiverse himself, especially given that Booster Gold saw an alternate-reality or future version of himself in the recent, Johns-penned Justice League International Annual #1. If that's the same Question, as opposed to two worlds' versions of a similar character like the Blue Beetle we see in Multiversity, it could raise some eyebrows—and some serious questions (no pun intended).

While none of DC's recent questionable behavior clearly indicates that we'll see Skeets, Michelle, and Rip Hunter anytime soon, we can at least keep hope alive.

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I can't emphasize enough how popular pics of females cosplaying as Booster Gold are here at Boosterrific. Call it pandering if you like, but here's another one:

This sultry lady is NoOfCourseNot. She cosplayed as Booster Gold during Portland, Oregon's Wonder Northwest this past May. She was kind enough to put the pics (like this one, titled "Chillen like a villain," taken by her friend Jade) up on her account at Deviant Art. If you like pretty ladies dressed as anime characters, you might want to take a look.

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The Boosterrific Forum will be closed until further notice to conserve bandwidth. I'm having problems with leeching from spambots that I will have to solve before it costs me any more money. I'm hoping that since no one has posted in the Forum for over 2 weeks and no Booster Gold comics are being published anymore, this shutdown won't pose too much of a problem for anyone.

For those of you who don't know how the internet works, this website is allotted a fixed data transfer amount per month. This is measured by the amount of data sent between the web server and the computer you are reading this on. Right now, I'm throwing away bandwidth to automated spam scripts that aren't using my data in any positive way. Since the host of Boosterrific.com is monitoring and charging me for that bandwidth usage, I have to find a way to stop or reduce the waste. The Forum will remain shut down until I code an effective solution for the problem (timetable unknown). Sorry.

To distract you from that unhappy news, I present to you with no commercial interruptions "Time Traveling Hero", a poem by Alex Tisdale.

In bright fettered darkness;
If ever you need me...
Lost deep in the timestream—
That is where I will be.
Past, present, and future—
There is so much to see!
But I must keep going,
To maintain that you're free.

You can find more of writer/illustrator Tisdale's work on his Wordpress or his Tumblr blogs.

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