This Christmas Eve, spend some time with your friends. Specifically, I mean Blue Beetle and Booster Gold and especially Skeets:

Artist Matthew Miller, aka CapybaralINK, has titled this piece "Smuggies Blue Beetle and Booster Gold." You can find more of his work at DeviantArt.com and on Facebook.

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For almost 20 years, DC Comics has been struggling with the success of Kingdom Come. While the events of that series have now been shuffled off to an alternate Earth (thank you, return of the Multiverse!), for awhile it appeared that Kingdom Come represented the future of the regular DCU. The 1998 mini-series event, The Kindgom, changed that.

The Kingdom followed a band of heroes from the future as they traveled back in time to prevent the events of Kingdom Come. Frankly, its stories were not very good, perhaps doomed by their inevitable comparison to Kingdom Come itself. Though most remember The Kingdom for its introduction of Hypertime, there's a better reason for Booster Gold fans to remember it: Planet Krypton.

The late 90s were a fallow period for the Corporate Crusader, and in this issue he returned to his roots as an up-an-coming businessman. Semi-retired from super-heroics, he's working to make a theme-restaurant celebrating Justice League memorabilia, Planet Krypton, a success. It's quintessential Booster Gold, supported by a healthy dose of writer Mark Waid's extensive knowledge of DC Universe history.

(Footnote: Despite Booster's best plans, Planet Krypton wouldn't last long. But then, it wasn't designed to. It turns out that Booster had a silent partner, someone named Rip Hunter, who had the restaurant built because it was centered on a unique position between timelines. It'd be another seven years before Booster and Rip Hunter teamed up again in the pages of 52.)

Planet Krypton is mostly concerned with the angst of a runaway bride named Rose and a tangential relationship with the "bigger" Kingdom storyline, but Booster Gold is the star here, a bright spot amid the rest of The Kingdom's muddled drek.

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Everyone say "Happy Birthday" to Adam Beechen, longtime writer of DC Animated Universe comics.

Beechen hasn't written many Booster Gold stories, but he did feature our favorite hero in 2004's Justice League Unlimited #2, where a fresh-face Booster Gold learned to let Superman cheat at cards. (Talk about role reversal!)

Thanks, Adam!

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First Booster Gold showed up on the cover of Futures End #25, despite appearing nowhere in the book. Then he was on the cover of last week's Smallville: Continuity #1 without participating in that issue. Now, DC has announced that March will be "Movie Cover" theme month, including this cover featured on Buzzfeed.com:

Can you see the little Blue and Gold and Fire and Ice sitting on the Hall of Justice between Beetlejuice's Deadman's legs? That's the variant cover by Joe Quinones. The regular cover gives no hint that the classic JLI are around, but perhaps the solicitation does:

JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #40
Written by J.M. DeMATTEIS
Art by ANDRES GUINALDO and WALDEN WONG
Cover by GUILLEM MARCH
MOVIE POSTER Variant cover by JOE QUINONES

They've been to the edge of time and back again, but now the arcane forces with which they've fought will make one last attempt at eradicating the Justice League Dark from existence. Major changes are in store as the team faces its final fate!

Will those "major changes" include an appearance by the JLI? Doubtful, but I guess we'll find out for sure on March 25. Thanks to Swingin' Around for the spot.

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"Up in Smoke" is a tragedy, not a comedy, when you're talking about comic books.

Last week's poll question: Which comedy duo's stylings do Blue and Gold most remind you of? (32 votes)

The holidays are here, and they fall on a Thursday this year. So the poll is moving to Fridays until after New Years. (Fridays used to be the regular poll days, so this might familiar to long-time visitors.)

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