In case you missed it, the movie Justice League is opening this week. In cross promotion of the event, Entertainment Weekly's Darren Franich interviewed Justice League International co-creator J.M. DeMatteis.

EW: How did the specific tone of Justice League International develop?

JMD: No one ever said to me when we started, "Oh, we're doing Funny Justice League." It just evolved naturally. The more we went along, the more we realized that what we had on our hands was a superhero sitcom. But we never set out to do that. The minute you sit down and think, "I'm going to be funny," you're probably screwed.

Around the same time, I was writing "Kraven's Last Hunt," which is as dark a Spider-Man story as has ever been written. I wasn't thinking, "Now I'm doing this in clever contrast, we are answering the grim and gritty stories with our version of light and happy!" We just followed the characters. Keith [Giffen] would write the plots and set up these situations, I would start writing the dialogue, and the characters would start talking to each other. Beetle and Booster really created that team, not us.

Shh! Don't let Booster hear you say that. He'll get a big head!

You can read the whole interview at EW.com. (And you can see Justice League in theaters Friday.)

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Over the weekend, Ithildyn recommended that I should check out artist Francis Manapul's Instagram page. That's where I found this:

Manapul has been working for DC Comics for a decade, and in that time he's never drawn Booster Gold for publication. Is this about to change? The instagram post is tagged "#actioncomics", which leads to the implication that this will art is part of a cover for an as-yet unreleased issue.

Although DC hasn't announced that Manapul will be providing any covers for the title after next week's Action Comics #992, we already know that solicitations for issues of the "Booster Shot" story running through Action Comics in December and January misidentified interior artists. (Brett Booth will not be drawing interiors on issue #993 or #994.) It seems increasingly likely they were wrong about at least one cover artist as well.

We'll be keeping an eye out!

Thanks for the help, Ithildyn.

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A little bird tells me that Booster Gold will play a part in this weekend's Justice League Action episode, "System Error."

That's not obvious from the episode description from my cable guide:

When Batman discovers that he and the rest of the League are robots, he investigates to find out who did this and why.

That said, IMDB does seem to confirm that Diedrich Bader will be in the episode as Booster. Even more telling, the episode writer, Patrick Rieger, retweeted the episode tease and followed up with this tweet.

So turn your television dial — they still have those, yes? Televisions? — to Cartoon Network at 7AM eastern Saturday morning to see Booster in action, Justice League Action!

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Via Twitter, Benni Beard called my attention to this custom Booster Gold minifig (with Legion Flight Ring!) now available from bilbobaggins7919 on ebay.com:

It was just back in March that I spotlighted a different custom LEGO-compatible minifig.

There must be a growing demand for block versions of our hero in the wake of the LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham video game and The LEGO Batman Movie. Are you paying attention, LEGO?

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While I like most Booster Gold comics, I love some more than others. Among my favorites is Justice League Quarterly #1, the first appearance of the Conglomerate, released on this date in 1990.

Written by J.M. DeMatteis, Keith Giffen; Art by Chris Sprouse, Bruce Patterson, Gene D'Angelo; Cover by Adam Hughes

The issue's story, "Corporate Maneuvers (and leveraged buyouts)," was a logical counterpoint to the Justice League International era. Unwilling to sit back and let the nations of the world monopolize influence on the activities of formerly independent super heroes, the major international corporations of the DC Universe developed their own team: the Conglomerate. It was only natural that the original Corporate Crusader himself would lead them into battle.

The Conglomerate went on to much early success which created tension with Booster's friends in the JLI, especially Blue Beetle. I probably don't need to tell you that the two teams have to overcome their jealousy of one another to save the day, but it's very satisfying when the inevitable finally happens.

You probably won't see this issue on any "must read" list for new Booster Gold fans. I admit that it's mainly a Justice League International story. However, Booster Gold does have a starring role, and the story does directly address the dichotomy of Michael Jon Carter's "shallow" public persona versus his more noble self-identification. For that reason alone, I think it's worth a look for people interested in the evolution of my favorite character.

Besides, who doesn't love that leather jacket?

In honor of the issue's anniversary, here's Adam Hughes' original pencil work for the cover — an homage to Kevin Maguire much duplicated "crowded elevator" cover for Justice League #1 — as published in Back Issue #2 (February 2004). As you can see, an uninvited guest crashed this party! Click the image to embiggen.

Here's to the good old days!

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