The greatest movie ever made, Back to the Future, was released on this day in 1985, which makes this as good a time as any for me to run this BttF-inspired fan art I drew in 2011 to mark the end of Booster Gold Volume 2.

It was almost 20 years between Booster Gold volumes 1 and 2. It's only been 7 since the second volume was canceled for the New 52 relaunch, but it feels like so much longer. The future can't get here soon enough! (Maybe we need to get our hero a Delorean.)

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Booster boosters know that much of Booster's origin was based on elements of Superman's Silver Age continuity (as covered on several pages of this site, including the Boosterrific! Blog post from December 4, 2015. But just because Booster became a successful hero in his own right didn't mean he was done "borrowing" from costumes and powers from Superman 's history.

Yes, I'm talking about Supernova.

Introduced in 52 Week 8 (2006), mysterious Metropolis hero Supernova's secret identity stumped even veteran reporter Clark Kent. Few at the time guessed that underneath his mask, Supernova was really the disgraced hero Booster Gold using the powers of flight and teleportation.

How did he do it? His teleportation was a clever manipulation of the Kryptonian Phantom Zone projector technology invented by Jor-El, Superman's father (first seen in Adventure Comics #283, 1961). And he flew by way of Booster's own 30th-century Legion Flight Ring, which in pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity had originally been Superboy's (first seen in Adventure Comics #329, 1965).

The best part is even the concept of Supernova as one-hero-disguised-as-another was a nod to something Superman once did.

cover art by Neal Adams

First seen in World's Finest Comics #178, 1968, the "Nova" persona was adopted by Superman as a way to continue fighting crime following an unfortunate encounter with an alien invader that left him powerless.

Nova used Batman's utility belt as his inspiration to create a costume with its own powers. Amusingly enough, this included a cape created by Leonardo da Vinci that Superman had picked up during an earlier time-traveling adventure. (In fact, Superman and Leonardo da Vinci had worked together as recently as the previous issue!)

The Nova personality was used only for a few misadventures, including a villainous turn against Batman and the triumphant defeat of a criminal mastermind. The costume was eventually shelved as Superman returned to his former costumed identity.

World's Finest Comics #180, by Cary Bates, Ross Andru, Mike Esposito, Ben Oda

Every Nova adventure took place in one of DC's infamous "imaginary" stories, but that doesn't make them any less influential. Booster Gold may be a thief, but at least he steals from the World's Finest!

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On this day in 1988, Booster Gold made the cover of Time magazine.

Starman #1 (June 1988) by Stern, Lyle, Smith, Ferriter

It might be hard for modern audiences to believe, but for most of the 20th century, the cover of Time magazine was among the most prestigious pieces of real estate for notable newsmakers. In other words, if you made the cover of Time magazine, you had arrived.

Even if you had already appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone.

Animal Man #1 (May 1988) by Morrison, Truog, Hazelwood, Wood

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Booster Gold can be seen in two comics released today. Not Booster himself, mind you, but things designed to look like Booster.

The first is a casino advertisement as seen in this panel from Old Lady Harley #3 reprinted in today's Old Lady Harley trade.

The second is as a Justice-League sanctioned robot (!) in Dial H for Hero #4, as seen in the preview available online at DCComics.com:

Is that a robot Blue Beetle at the bottom of the page? I'd pay good money for a robot Blue and Gold team-up comic! (Thanks for spotting that, Blot.)

Buy either or both and make Skeets happy!

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This weekend, I was reading about the CW's latest Black Lightning Boys and Girls Club public service announcement on ComicBook.com. Naturally, as webmaster of the Internet's premier Booster Gold fan site, I thought to myself, "Booster Gold could do that."

And he has.

It might seem weird to see Booster addressing AIDS awareness so bluntly in this 1993 PSA, but both entered the public awareness in the 80s and both have been largely misunderstood over time.

Booster wasn't the only hero spreading the word — the series of AIDS awareness ads featured appearances from heroes across the DC Universe, including both Hal Jordan and John Stewart reading from the same script — but only Booster Gold and his Justice League teammates Blue Beetle and Fire were so serious about the issue that they returned to it one year later A.D. ("After Doomsday").

Booster was man enough to learn his lesson so that you would, too. Knowing is half the battle.

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