DC has released solicitations for books shipping in October. None of them give any hint that we'll be seeing DC's brightest star anytime soon.

But all hope is not lost! This weekend is Comic Con International in San Diego. DC has to be holding something back to tease their fans, right? I'm not saying that Booster Gold will be front and center, but maybe DC will demonstrate that he's not entirely forgotten, either.

Speaking of "front and center," I started the week with a plea that Superman antagonist Mr. Oz not be revealed as Booster Gold in the upcoming "The Oz Effect" story in Action Comics. Many of you had something to say about that. Let's run a quick poll and see what the group consensus is.

This week's poll question: Will Booster Gold play any role in the unveiling of Mr. Oz? Please visit the Boosterrific Polls page to view results for this week's poll.

Enjoy your weekend, Booster boosters!

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Believe it or not, once upon a time, Booster Gold was such a big star that he could sell comics he wasn't in just by appearing on the cover! Backwards!

Take, for example, Secret Origins #32, released 29 years ago today.

art by Eric Shanower

This issue presents the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths origin of the Justice League of America (which was differentiated from the original origin by the substitution of Black Canary for Wonder Woman).

The Justice League International was super hot at the time, so although the only links between the two teams were Canary and Martian Manhunter, the JLI was still given prime cover real estate to sell the story to new readers unfamiliar with DCU history.

There's no reason this strategy couldn't be used to sell old stories to a modern audience today. I speak only for myself, but I'd be much happier buying a comic showcasing Damian Wayne (Robin V) if he appeared only on the cover.

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Pop culture website 13thdimension.com posted an "exclusive first look" at upcoming issues of Action Comics this weekend. Running throughout the title in September and October will be a five-part story by Dan Jurgens called "The Oz Effect," in which we will finally discover the true identity of Mr. Oz.

Reading the advance solicitations included in the article, all I could think was "please don't let Mr. Oz be Booster Gold."

The popular theory is that the mysterious Mr. Oz, introduced three years ago (!) in Superman #32, is Ozymandias from Watchmen. Personally, I think that seems a little too "on the nose" to make a very satisfying reveal after all this time. And even if the fans were right and it was supposed to be Ozymandias, I would expect DC to change Mr. Oz's secret identity mid-story to maintain the surprise. (Anyone out there still remember the last minute Captain Atom/Hawk swap in Armageddon 2001?)

Many of the things Mr. Oz has done and said over the past three years indicates a fixation on Superman. Therefore, I assume that Mr. Oz is someone aware of Superman's past in Smallville, Kansas. (I think Mr. Oz takes his name from the original manipulative "man behind the curtain," the Wizard of Oz, who also has ties to Kansas.) While those clues might point to familiar Superman foes like Conduit or Ruin, I begin to worry that it might be a time traveler with historical ties to the Man of Steel.

Which is fine, just so long as it's not Booster Gold.

I mean, if Mr. Oz is revealed to be a nearly omnipotent time traveler seeking to unify a fractured universe (post-"Crisis", "Flashpoint", "New 52", "Rebirth", "Watchmen," etc.), it would certainly explain why fan-favorite Booster Gold has been M.I.A. since Convergence. And we can't deny that Booster has beef with Superman that goes way back. And Dan Jurgens does like to recycle his favorite characters . . . .

As I said, I don't want this to be the case. I don't want Booster to be a "villain." (And I certainly don't want to have to add all 30+ appearances of Mr. Oz to the Boosterrific database after the fact.) But it could be worse. After three years of waiting to find out who Mr. Oz really is, it might turn out that he's the Black Beetle.

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No, seriously, I really need these two as actual LEGO minifigs.

This piece was created by the South African/German artists Basstudio on DeviantArt.com. Great characters know no boundaries!

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Before Justice League Action blew my mind this weekend, I was thinking that I should start an occasional series of posts covering some of the higher points of Booster Gold fandom. After all, every day someone is probably encountering Booster Gold for the first time, and they need to know what the good stuff is.

Apparently, The A.V. Club was thinking along similar lines. Monday, the site ran an article by Noel Murray extensively praising the Justice League Unlimited series that ran on Cartoon Network from 2004 to 2006. Most of that praise was thrown at one episode in particular: "The Greatest Story Never Told."

There are few stories in the history of Booster Gold as good as "The Greatest Story Never Told."

Murray's commentary is insightful. He covers why the episode is great as well as why all comic book fans should love Booster Gold. His post's only weakness is that it fails to make it clear to any readers who have never seen the episode just how much fun it is to watch.

So if you're a Booster Gold fan (or even if you're just Booster Gold curious), you owe it to yourself to track the episode down and spend 23 minutes with the most underappreciated hero in the DC Universe.

And when you're done watching the episode, you can read Murray's whole article at avclub.com.

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