Hey, everybody! Let's start the week with some great sketch art by professional illustrator Dean Kotz!

Those two always looked like they were having such fun.

You can see the above much larger and more of Kotz's work at deankotz.com.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: blue beetle dean kotz fan art

The fans have spoken.

Last week's poll question: What is your reaction to the news that Tom King will be writing Booster Gold as a murder suspect in the HEROES IN CRISIS mini-series? (72 votes)

A majority of respondents in the poll are clearly unenthusiastic about Tom King's announced plans for Booster Gold. Maybe things will turn out well for our hero. Maybe he'll save the multiverse and get his own series. It's happened before.

I guess we'll find out whether our hopes and fears are founded this September.

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: heroes in crisis polls

You won't find a new Booster Gold comic in your Local Comic Shop this week.

In fact, we probably won't get a new Booster Gold comic until July 18, when Injustice 2 #30 comes out. We'd better start enjoying those Injustice comics while they last. DC's September solicitations came out Monday, they and they imply a "tragic conclusion" to Booster's current storyline. Gulp.

The September solicitations also tell us that "The Gift" will be reprinted in Batman Volume 7: The Wedding in October. The trade will include a reprint of Batman #50, the much-hyped wedding issue, so it's likely it will sell a lot of copies. Expect to see it in your LCS on October 24.

And of course, Heroes in Crisis #1, in which Booster Gold is a "prime suspect" in the killing of "many" PTSD patients, will be out on September 26.

You can read all of the September solicitations on Newsarama.com.

Comments (2) | Add a Comment | Tags: batman heroes in crisis injustice newsarama.com solicitaitons

I've noticed that Dan Jurgens has been publicly silent about Tom King's recent reinterpretation of Booster Gold. However, Booster's creator did recently speak up about Clay Mann's pencil art for the upcoming Heroes in Crisis mini-series.

That's an endorsement of sorts.

Despite the pretty art, I'm still not any more optimistic about Heroes in Crisis than I was last week. But I'm perfectly willing to admit that I'm a hard-to-please blowhard. Maybe it's time to hold a finger to the wind and test which way public opinion is blowing on this thing.

This week's poll question: What is your reaction to the news that Tom King will be writing Booster Gold as a murder suspect in the HEROES IN CRISIS mini-series? Please visit the Boosterrific Polls page to view results for this week's poll.

Comments (3) | Add a Comment | Tags: clay mann dan jurgens heroes in crisis polls tom king twitter.com

DC Comics announced a new comic series on Wednesday via a press release. Mainstream media sites which usually ignore comic books, such as Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter, and Newsweek, decided the announcement was newsworthy.

What could make this series such a big deal? Perhaps because Booster Gold is invlovled.

Per the original press release at DCComics.com:

(June 13, 2018 — Burbank, CA) There's a crisis headed toward DC's greatest heroes, but it isn't coming from outer space or another dimension—this time, the threat is homegrown. DC proudly presents a new seven-issue miniseries debuting in September by Tom King and his BATMAN collaborator/artist Clay Mann, titled HEROES IN CRISIS.

A former counterterrorism operations officer with the CIA, [Tom] King's bestselling, critically acclaimed comics—including THE SHERIFF OF BABYLON, THE OMEGA MEN, BATMAN, MISTER MIRACLE—have often grappled with war and conflict, and a hero's struggle to put their war and their trauma behind them. This new series will explore similar themes against the backdrop of a murder mystery involving Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn, Booster Gold, and the rest of the World's Greatest Super Heroes.

Boy, doesn't that sound exciting? Booster Gold working with DC's heaviest hitters solving a mystery? It's a Booster Gold fan's dream come true!

But not so fast! Yesterday, Newsarama revealed what appears to be the issue's upcoming solicitation text. The solicitation casts the story in a slightly different light that might *not* be everything a Booster booster could hope for.

Per the "Heroes in Crisis" fact sheet:

There's a new kind of crisis facing the heroes of the DC Universe, ripped from the real-world headlines by C.I.A.-operative-turned-comics-writer Tom King: How does a superhero handle PTSD? Welcome to Sanctuary, an ultra-secret hospital for superheroes who've been traumatized by crime-fighting and cosmic combat. But something goes inexplicably wrong when many patients wind up dead, with two well known operators as the prime suspects: Harley Quinn and Booster Gold! It's up to the DC Trinity of Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman to investigate — but can they get the job done in the face of overwhelming opposition?

Apparently Booster Gold has a new archnemesis, and his name is Tom King.

Arrgh. Murder! Death! Kill! What kind of "community-building" story about overcoming PTSD could be built upon the death of all the patients who sought help?

Before I work myself further into a frenzy over this, let me remind me that advance solicitations for King's stories tend to vary widely from what actually sees print. The solicitations for Batman #45 is a prime example.

Per the original solicitation for that issue:

"THE TRAVELERS" part one! Booster Gold has come to Gotham City, and he's enlisting Batman and Catwoman to go on a time-traveling mission to rescue...Booster Gold! It seems a younger Booster Gold has gone back in time to kidnap an even younger version of himself, and to rescue his own past, Booster must pursue both of his previous incarnations through Batman's history to find out what is going on. The start of a new story that will sow the seeds for a whole new epic to come....

As we now know, when that story was eventually published as "The Gift," it looked almost nothing like what was promoted outside the inclusion of Booster Gold and Batman. Maybe Heroes in Crisis will be something like that. Maybe Booster Gold will be the detective that solves the crime and saves the day.

Or maybe Booster will be the same as the last time we saw King write him: a short-sighted idiot who enabled a mass homicide.

My hopes are not high.

Everyone can decide for themselves if King redeems his poor treatment of Booster Gold when the first issue of Heroes in Crisis is released on September 26.

Comments (4) | Add a Comment | Tags: clay mann dccomics.com ew.com heroes in crisis hollywoodreporter.com newsarama.com newsweek.com tom king