There's been a lot of talk online lately about who will act as or write for Booster Gold in James Gunn's proposed television show. Those choices will certainly be important to the show we ultimately get (assuming that we actually do get a show; remember that credible announcements by credible producers have been made periodically since 2011 with nothing yet having reached your television set), but the central question remains: What kind of Booster Gold will we see?

James Gunn has called Booster Gold a hero with “Imposter Syndrome,” and to a degree that's always been true. Booster's single greatest driving personality trait, his Shakespearean tragic flaw, has always been his unfulfillable desire to be loved. Abandoned by his (no-good) father as a child, most of Booster's greatest tragedies have resulted from his quest for external validation. It doesn’t matter how much good Booster does, nothing can fill the bottomless hole in his psyche's metaphorical heart.

Booster's successes, on the other hand, have generally been selfless acts. For example, very few inhabitants of the DCU are aware that he has saved the universe multiple times for no publicity or personal gain. Granted, he is often reluctant to get involved, and his solutions are not always perfect, but unlike his idol Superman, Booster is only a human doing the best he can to make difficult situations better. Obviously, his need to do the right thing supersedes his craving for recognition.

Booster Gold #31

The biggest pitfall when characterizing Booster is to portray him as an idiot. It's not lack of intelligence but poor judgment, usually driven by youthful brash arrogance, that leads to most of Booster's trademark misadventures (like establishing a casino on a living island or sponsoring a mind-influencing music app). Booster's need for the limelight makes his missteps extra visible compared to the likes of Batman, who operates in the shadows where no one ever sees him trip over his own cape, but Booster's intelligence and dedication to righteousness always see him through to saving the day.

To respect the character of Booster Gold, it will be important that any television series portray all sides of the hero who is, yes, cocky, impatient, and in need of constant adoration, but also intelligent, hard-working, and always well-intentioned.

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Justice League Europe #8 is the final chapter of the four-part "Teasdale Imperative." As with the previous three parts, Booster Gold doesn't have much to do here other than crack wise, but I absolutely love his body language on page 9 as both branches of the Justice League International witness a giant Grey Man erupt through the roof of the Stagg Industries industrial zombie-juice processing plant like Animal in The Muppet Movie.

It's just another day at the office for Booster Gold. He practically specializes in stopping rampaging giant gray monsters!

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After a weeks of my Google Alerts feed being full of nothing but ongoing speculation about what might or might not be happening with the James Gunn Booster Gold television show, you can imagine my excitement at seeing this encouraging tidbit:

I love Skeets! And I love art! Show me more!

Following the link led me directly to this:

And now you all share my pain.

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You know how there's that one thing you can't stand, but you have to suck it up and get through that thing to continue the pursuit of your personal holy grail (or, as the case may be, the Ark of the Covenant)?

Well, Booster Gold appears on the cover of one comic in DC's September solicitations as seen at AIPTComics.com):

WONDER WOMAN #13
Written by TOM KING
Art by TONY S. DANIEL
Cover by TONY S. DANIEL
$4.99 US | 40 pages | Variant $5.99 US (card stock)
ON SALE 9/18/24

ABSOLUTE POWER TIE-IN!
Gamorra found! Wonder Woman and Robin have finally located Amanda Waller’s super jail holding the powerless heroes they once fought alongside. Can the new dynamic duo break them out before they become trapped themselves? An undercover ally may hold the key to everything!

Note that the solicitation text doesn't explicitly say that Booster Gold will be in the book. He might be only on Tony Daniel's cover. I guess we'll find out in September.

Thank to Rob Snow for the bittersweet news that I'm order to keep my complete collection of Booster Gold comics going, I'll be buying yet another Tom King-written comic book.

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Almost all of Booster Gold's dialogue in Justice League America #32 is some sort of snarky comment on something one of his teammates has said. And that's why we love him!

Weirdly, Adam Hughes' art shows Booster's hair parted on his right side on this page, page 8, when it is parted on his left side (where character creator Dan Jurgens typically places the part) on pages 5 and 18. While that might lead you to believe that this page was flipped in production, the opposite is actually true. The original art for page 18 can be seen on ComicArtFans.com, making it clear that the Booster Gold/Blue Beetle/Fire panel was flipped on that page. I cannot find art for page 5 online, but I assume it was flipped there as well?

For the record, Booster Gold's part moved from side to side frequently during Kevin Maguire's time on the Justice League International, but Hughes will keep it pretty consistently on Booster's right side for the next few years.

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