It caught my attention earlier this week that DC Universe Online, the massive multiplayer online video game from Daybreak Game Company (formerly Sony Online Entertainment), is celebrating its 6th anniversary. No celebration of time would be complete without Booster Gold!

Says DCUniverseOnline.com, the game's official website:

Booster Gold is filling up Time Capsules with lots of useful and exciting items to send through the Multiverse to you!

The current in-game event where you can earn Stabilizer Fragments is "Antimatter Research." The Anti-Monitor is sending his Qwardian allies to weaken the Earth, and it is up to you to stop them.

Once you use a stabilizer to open a capsule, you'll see what sort of goodies Booster Gold has sent to you!

These Time Capsules first appeared in August of 2016, meaning that in recent months, Booster Gold has appeared on television shows and in video games, but not comic books. I didn't think I'd live to see the day!

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Cdn dropped by the Boosterrific Forum yesterday to tell us that the Booster Gold episode of Justice League Unlimited cracked the top 5 in CBR.com's list of "15 Unforgettable Justice League Unlimited Episodes."

Well, of course it did. It's "The Greatest Story Never Told."

Says list compiler Colby Lanham:

It's a touching moment for Booster Gold, one that makes the audience feel for the character and his plight while adding layers of depth to the hero who doesn't get many opportunities to do good.

I think it's nice that people remember the episode favorably. But I think it's even nicer that people remember the episode at all.

"The Greatest Story Never Told" first aired in 2004. Twelve years before that, people couldn't watch what had been on television twelve hours earlier if they hadn't had the foresight to record it on a magnetic tape!

It's comforting to know that people will still be discovering both the adventures of Booster Gold long after comics are no longer printed on trees. (Maybe even into the 25th century.)

Long live Booster Gold!

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Designer Shane Glines has been posting his character designs for Justice League Action to his Facebook account. He posted these "rough" and "final" versions of Booster Gold back in December.

Sharp eyed Booster boosters might recognize that the final design is the exact same image as spotted at Comic Con last year.

I love the hair on the rough, though the final does look more like his comic book self (except for the gold earpieces). So long as it's not the New 52 costume, I'm satisfied.

Is everyone enjoying Justice League Action?

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So you're still happy, even without Booster, huh?

Last week's poll question: More than six months in, how satisfied are you with Rebirth overall? (59 votes)

Generally speaking, I do think that the Rebirth DC Universe is an improvement over what came before. That said, I'll never be satisfied until I get my Booster Gold back.

On an unrelated note, for those of you like me who missed Booster Gold in the Justice League Action debut in December, TV Guide tells me that Cartoon Network is scheduled to rerun the episode "Night of the Bat" tomorrow morning at 7:30 AM Eastern. Don't miss it twice!

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The fourth issue of the fourth DC Comics volume of Blue Beetle was released one week ago today. Since this issue finally got an origin story for the "Rebirth" versions of all three Blue Beetles, let's run a quick recap.

In 1966, Ted Kord inherited the mantle of the Blue Beetle from his predecessor, Dan Garret. Although Garret did not give Kord the magical scarab that gave Blue Beetle his powers, Kord made do with advanced technology making up for the lost abilities.

In 1986, it was revealed that Kord had found the scarab, but it never worked for him. The new hero Booster Gold would soon become Ted Kord's partner in crimefighting and his best friend.

In 2006, Jaime Reyes found the scarab after Ted Kord's death. He soon learns that the scarab wasn't actually magical but was instead a malfunctioning alien device. Booster Gold locates Reyes and introduces him to the super hero community.

In 2012, in the wake of the universe-changing Flashpoint, Dan Garret and Ted Kord are erased from history. Jaime Reyes becomes the first (and only) Blue Beetle when he comes into contact with an alien scarab following a heist by the Brotherhood of Evil. There is no connection between Booster Gold and Blue Beetle in the New 52 Universe.

In 2016, after yet another universe rebooting Rebirth, Jamie Reyes comes into contact with an alien scarab that was floating down a river. He is mentored by Ted Kord, a retired super hero who once called himself the Blue Beetle after a chance encounter with his neighbor, the previous possessor of Reyes' scarab. There appears to still be no connection between Booster Gold and Blue Beetle in the Rebirth Universe.

But note: for the first time, Booster Gold predates Blue Beetle. Kord name drops "Booster Gold" as a bad example for a name when trying to think up his own moniker on page 17 of Blue Beetle Volume 4 #4.

In the Rebirth Universe, Ted Kord has had time to develop his technology, become the Blue Beetle, and retire from heroics to mentor his successor. If Booster Gold has been around that whole time, what has he been doing? (It's been 519 days since we've last seen Booster Gold make any significant appearance within the DC Universe.) And why do they have to keep changing Jamie Reyes' origin story?

Despite my desire to see Blue Beetle and Booster Gold eventually reconciled, Blue Beetle volume 4 is not a series I can endorse. Keith Giffen's scripts are disjointed and meandering. Rather than resolve the confusion, Scott Kolins only muddies the water further with a loose art style that lacks any subtlety and makes comprehension a chore instead of a joy. (After four issues and a one-shot, I still don't know if the characters have freckles or bad acne. Perhaps the dots are fleas given how they relocate from panel to panel.)

For my money, Blue Beetle has been the biggest disappointment of Rebirth so far. So until Booster Gold is reintroduced to Ted Kord, I won't be paying much attention to the ever-changing origins of the Blue Beetles from now on.

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