It's common to hear talk in the modern American news media about how our country is currently a nation divided. While it is true that some people like Coke and other people like Pepsi, most of us still believe in democracy, free speech, and Dwayne Johnson movies.

To see what a truly divided country looks like, turn back the clock to 1961. In the aftermath of World War II, Berlin was split between the eastern and western powers. It didn't take long for the citizens of the Communist east to express their preference for the more permissive west. The East German government decided that the best way to maintain their way of life was to build a wall. Not to keep people out, but to keep them in.

On this day 57 years ago, the Berlin Wall went up, separating families, friends, and neighbors overnight.

The wall would stand as a physical embodiment of the Cold War until 1990. Through traces remain, there are few intact remnants left that give a true impression of living through this tragedy. If you want to feel what it's like to live in a real nation divided, you'd have to be a time traveler.

Or read the editorial columns in your morning newspaper.

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Mexican artist Edil Villa has recently uploaded this commissioned piece to DeviantArt.com:

That purple fellow on the left is Kang the Conqueror. For those of you who don't read Marvel Comics, Kang is a time travelling would-be world conqueror who has long bedeviled the Fantastic Four and the Avengers. (Actually, there are a bunch of Kangs from alternate timelines. But that's beside the point.)

I'm pretty sure Booster could take him.

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Free copies of DC Nation #3 arrived in your Local Comic Shop (and on Comixology) last week. There were several pages promoting Heroes in Crisis, but very little previously undisclosed information was delivered. However, we did get this house ad for DC Nation #4:

Hmm. What can we glean from this illustration?

At last month's Comic-Con, Dan DiDio and Tom King teased that one of the two much discussed "deaths" of Heroes in Crisis will be a Flash, who is conspicuously absent from this ad. Is the other doomed hero one of these characters? I still hope it's not Booster!

I'd be remiss in my duties as unofficial chronicler of Booster's official chronicles if I didn't make note that the art for this piece — a future Heroes in Crisis cover? — was drawn by Brad Walker and inked by Andrew Hennessy. So far as I'm aware, this is the first time either has illustrated Booster Gold. Comparatively, colorist Jason Wright is an old hand, having colored Booster appearances twice before!

Perhaps DC will be willing to spill some more details in the next issue. They'll have time. DC Nation #4 is scheduled for a September 5 release, whereas Heroes In Crisis #1 won't be available until September 26.

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Knight Models, manufacturer of the DC Universe Miniature Game, has a new set available. In a word: Bwah-ha-ha!

These miniatures are only about an inch-and-a-half tall, and come in unpainted parts. (Don't expect to find any as good looking as the solicitation picture out of the box.) They are already for sale in Spain, and should be coming to specialty gaming stores stateside later this month.

More details available at knightmodels-store.com.

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Mike Cecchini interviewed Dan Jurgens at San Diego Comic-Con for Den of Geek. Of course, the topic of Booster Gold came up, including Jurgens' reaction to Tom King's "The Gift" story in Batman.

Den of Geek: You are also known as the creator of Booster Gold, and Booster has been absent from the DC Universe the last couple of years until that story that came towards the end of your run on Action Comics. What was it like revisiting Booster yet again, and are we ever going to see him again, or see you working on him again?

Dan Jurgens: Well, it's always fun to work on Booster Gold, and it's sort of like he comes up for a while, then he fades and comes back. Working on him in Action was a lot of fun. Watching Tom King use him in Batman was a lot of fun, and obviously Tom is using him in a new series that's coming up, called Heroes in Crisis. And, after that we'll see. Booster is, I think, this fun jovial character who is very complicated on one level, and at the same time very direct. In comics we have characters with secret identities, and all sorts of secrets they try and protect. Booster just wears it on his sleeve, and it's all out there for everybody to see, both the good and the bad, and he has plenty of faults. I think that's what makes it fun to work on Booster Gold, so yeah, hopefully out there we'll see something.

"And, after that we'll see." Booster will need something to do after Heroes in Crisis ends in March. And Green Lanterns is being cancelled in October, leaving Dan Jurgens working on only one book (Batman Beyond ). Wouldn't it be nice if we could get a creator/creation reunion in 2019?

You can read what else Jurgens had to say about his past work with Superman and his current plans for Green Lantern at denofgeek.com.

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