The life of any comic book hero would be a lonely one if not for the many characters who have made up their supporting cast. Just as Superman has Lois Lane and Batman has Alfred, Booster Gold has also shared his adventures with quite a few people over the years. Today we look at one of those, Rani.

In the 30th century, when the evil god Darkseid will take over the planet Daxam in what will become known as "The Great Darkness Saga," time-traveller Booster Gold will do what he can to save innocent lives (in Booster Gold Volume 2, #32). Unfortunately for everyone, Booster is no match for an army of billions of super-powered Daxamites, and he manages to save the life of only one child, little orphan Rani.

With Rani's parents dead and her foster parents fallen victim to Darkseid's invasion, Booster has little choice but to take the poor girl home with him to 21st-century Arizona where she could be cared for by Booster's grown son, Rip Hunter, who Rani nicknamed "Boppy" after her own grandfather (Booster Gold #33). Hunter was concerned that Booster had damaged the space-time continuum by bringing Rani to the past, but Booster's twin sister, Michelle, refused to allow them to send the little girl back to a death sentence in the future (Booster Gold #34). Just like that, Rani became part of Booster's family.

Despite her young age, Rani has an advanced knowledge of technology (Booster Gold #35) and a drive to join the family business. In Booster Gold #38, she pilots a stolen time sphere to 1943 to confront Maxwell Lord's parents before he was born, and would later "borrow" Michelle's Goldstar costume (Booster Gold #39). In response, Michelle grounded her for two whole days.

Rani was mature for her age, but she would continue to be traumatized by her experiences on Daxam. For example, when Doctor Nishtikeit and his time-traveling Nazis attacked Hunter's Arizona home (in Booster Gold #41), Rani suffered a prolonged PTSD episode that only resolved when Booster returned to "rescue" her. She cried for the duration of Booster's 25th-century prison sentence (though that was only 10 minutes of her relative time) as seen in Booster Gold #42. So far as she is concerned, Booster is her new daddy, and he treats her like the daughter he never had.

In the last days before Flashpoint changed history and destroyed everyone's memories of the history of the world that was, Rani was fittingly last seen in Booster Gold #43 on 30th-century missing child poster.

"The Great Darkness Saga" is still in Booster Gold's future. Will Rani be there? Will Booster Gold save her? Only time will tell.

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Heroes in Crisis #7 arrives in your Local Comic Shop today, but it's already had a bit of controversy. The originally solicited, "unfinished," cover by Clay Mann was pulled back in December at the request of Tom King. It was replaced by this, the final cover by Mitch Gerads:

I have to say that I like this new cover much better, not the least because this one shows Booster Gold! (Sure, he's getting thrown around by Superman, but Superman throws everyone around. Jerk.)

You can find an issue preview online at DenOfGeek.com in which Blue Beetle and Batgirl have a conversation! (Brace yourself: Batgirl continues to be written like no incarnation of the character I've ever read before. Maybe she's the killer?)

Buy this issue and make Skeets happy!

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In a recent interview with SyFy Wire, Ngozi Ukazu revealed she almost had a job at DC writing for Blue and Gold.

SyFy: There's a rumor that one of the Big Two came knocking after your second huge Kickstarter. What happened with that?

Ukazu: It was actually DC Comics that came knocking and it just didn't work out. And that was fine. I think one reason it didn't work out is because I made a lot of demands. My attitude was like, "I don't have to work for you guys."

SyFy: Because you had a Kickstarter that just made $350,000.

Ukuzu: I'd love to write a Blue Beetle/Booster Gold epic. But if y'all don't want to collaborate, then we don't have to. I really like those comics but it just didn't work out.

Ukuzu has made quite a name for herself with her creator-owned, character-driven, award-winning Check Please! webcomic that follows the misadventures of a young gay man finding his way in the world of collegiate hockey. Given her oeuvre and her success at building a devoted audience, it would have been interesting to see what she might have created if DC had given her the green light. Could we have had an official, DC-sponsored Boostle?

Whatever her plans, we'll never know exactly how close DC came to signing on, nor should we read too much into the fact that DC was holding talks about a new Booster Gold comic. It happens all the time. For example, last year, writer Tony Lee, perhaps most strongly associated with Doctor Who comics, revealed via Twitter that he also had talks with DC sometime in the past decade about rebooting Booster. That obviously never happened either.

The takeaway is that DC is always exploring new avenues to merchandise their characters. Sooner or later, when the company feels that the idea and artists are right, Booster Gold will be back making monthly appearance on the racks of your Local Comic Shop.

You can read the whole Ukazu interview by Kamara Horne at SyFyWire.com.

UPDATE 2019-03-25: Ukazu confirmed the meeting and her plans via Twitter.

Who knows? Maybe she'll get a chance eventually.

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Roll into the weekend with some colorful fan art featuring our favorite duo:

You can see more work by Steph, aka SketchItBucket, on DeviantArt.com.

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DC released solicitations for June last week, and I'm sorry to say that the only Booster Gold appearance looks to be in the Injustice 2 Volume 6 hardcover collection reprinting Injustice 2 issues 31 through 36. We'll have to hope that Booster is just taking a well earned vacation after the conclusion to Heroes in Crisis and isn't being incarcerated for murder.

It remains possible that Booster will be seen in Brian Michael Bendis' Event Leviathan. Solicitation text describes it as "a mystery thriller that stretches across the DC Universe and touches every character from Batman to Superman to the Question to Talia al Ghul." That's not much to go on, but no one can deny that Booster Gold is certainly a character.

Speaking of Booster ensemble appearances, longtime Booster booster Morgenstern thinks he has spotted our hero in another recent issue of Superman written by Bendis. See this title page from Superman #9:

That's a pretty crowded picture. Here, let me zoom in.

Spot him yet? No? Let's get closer still.

Says Morgenstern: "On the Lower left, hidden by the word "HOUSE", next to Ted Kord, is someone who might be Booster Gold."

Is it? Could be. Maybe. I think we can all agree on one thing: Morgenstern has some great eyes!

Thanks, M. Maybe if you take a look at the rest of those DC Comics solicitations at Newsarama.com you'll have better luck spotting Gold than I did.

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