As I said two weeks ago, the first volume of Booster Gold was in many ways a re-investigation of the heroic ideal of the DC Universe. But Dan Jurgens didn't draw the line at exploring what made a hero. He also took a hard look at what made a villain.

Jurgens tended to humanize Booster's villains, giving them reasonable backstories that were filled with the same short of hardships that Booster Gold was struggling to overcome. Sometimes that resulted in characters like Broderick or Dirk Davis, but it didn't always work. No matter how much you pathos you give to a color-blind man who dresses like a prism, he's still going to look like a clown.

Of course I asked Jurgens what his motive was for bringing the Rainbow Raider, one of the least successful of Flash's foes, to Metropolis. Why choose him, a villain with a lackluster Silver Age-style gimmick, to feature in a two-part story against a modern anti-hero like Booster Gold?

I though it'd be fun to play off the color angle. Plus, I liked the visual of him riding his rainbow.

Not my best day.

So not everything can be Shakespeare. It's important to remember that sometimes a funny-book is just a funny book.

Despite that Rainbow Raider story, we still thank you, Mr. Jurgens.

(Reminder: no post on Monday because of the Labor Day holiday. Blogging is hard work!)

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I'm on the fence here. I like Nathan Fillion, but he is not my ideal Booster Gold. Judging by these numbers, I'm not alone.

Last week's poll question: Should Nathan Fillion be cast as Booster Gold? (54 votes)

Comic book characters get reinvented all the time. Even the perennial-sellers like Superman and Batman aren't the same characters they were 70, 30, or even 10 years ago. They keep their names and their capes and their dead parents, but that's about all. That makes me wonder what parts of a Booster Gold's character are so essential that they can't be changed?

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Booster Gold fans rejoice! Our hero, the gilded guardian of time, and his sentient sidekick, Skeets, return to action today when they join forces with that mini munchkin of mayhem, Bat-Mite! Evildoers beware, the team of Mite and Gold are on the case!

*Ahem.* (All that bubbly sort of goes straight to your head, doesn't it?)

You'll find Bat-Mite #4 in your Local Comic Shop today. Buy it and make Skeets happy.

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Last week, Dan Seitz wrote on Uproxx.com that the DC movie universe needed more levity in the style of Marvel Comic's Deadpool. His solution? More Booster Gold.

That's what's great about Booster; he's funny and he often reflects our shallower instincts, but he's also a reflection of our ability to set aside the day-to-day B.S. and petty selfish desires when we need to. The fundamental issue DC has always faced is that their characters are essentially Gods walking the Earth. Booster's ultimately one of us, a flawed human being, and we could use more of those on-screen in superhero movies, especially if they come with smart-ass remarks.

Seems to me that we already have plenty of flawed human beings in super hero movies as it is, but we can always use more Booster Gold and smart-ass remarks. (Though these days, I suspect that the only reason Warner Brothers would put Booster in a movie would be to kill him off and give Batman one more reason to be angsty.)

You can find the whole article on Uproxx.com.

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I usually save previews for Wednesdays, but I thought since we've been in a bit of a Booster Gold drought since Convergence, I'd go ahead and post a link to Uproxx.com's preview of this week's Bat-Mite #4.

I'm sure it's not my imagination that Skeets is starting to look like a golden, robotic Batman. Though, to be fair, this is a "Batman Family" title. Loosely.

Bat-Mite #4 will be released this Wednesday.

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