With the arrival of the annual NCAA March Madness basketball contest and its ubiquitous brackets, it's worth reconsidering the ethics of sports gambling. This subject is particularly relevant to Booster Gold, who as we all know, after being run out of college athletics because of a points-shaving scandal, traveled back to the past to become idolized and wealthy using stolen goods and knowledge.

At its core, gambling is a business transaction in which the "winner" takes the money of the "loser." So long as 1) both sides have access to the same information about the event they are gambling on, 2) neither side has any unequal influence on the event itself, and 3) both sides can afford to lose their stake without causing hardship, there are no ethical concerns.

That's all pretty straightforward. So long as they are aware of the rules, the self-sufficient outsider with a rooting interest should be allowed to gamble freely against like competition with no ethical qualms. But what if one or more of those conditions are violated, knowingly or otherwise?

With his future origins, Booster Gold has access to knowledge that is out of reach of the temporally locked gambler, so any bet he makes with that knowledge would be inherently unethical. As an active time traveler, Booster might — intentionally or otherwise — create rippling changes in time that could unethically alter any event. And while Booster would be willing to lose anything he bets, if he takes in winnings through a service that hasn’t properly vetted the gamblers who took the losing position, can he be sure that his actions aren't contributing to someone else's hardship?

Certainly, there are situations in which Booster Gold can gamble without tarnishing his Justice League bona fides. But, as they say, with great power comes greater responsibility.

Booster Gold #8

Please gamble responsibly, ladies and gentlemen.

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If there's one thing that Booster Gold loves, it's stealing time machines from Rip Hunter.

On this date in 1990, Booster Gold makes a 2-page cameo appearance in Time Masters #4 just so that he can help Animal Man get his hands on one of Hunter's prototypes.

To be fair to Booster, he didn't actually know he was stealing this one. Animal Man lied about reimbursing Rip from Justice League coffers for the totally understandable personal reason that he wanted to travel back in time to save his family from being murdered. Who wouldn't do the same? (For more details on how that goes, read Animal Man #22. Spoilers: not well.)

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We learned last month that Booster Gold will be in May's Batman: Brave and the Bold #13. In DC's solicitations for June (now online at AIPTComics.com), released last week, we now know our hero will also be in Batman: Brave and the Bold #14... and on the cover!

BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #14
Written by TIM SEELEY, MARK RUSSELL, JOSHUA HALE FIALKOV, and HAYDEN SHERMAN
Art by KELLEY JONES, JON MIKEL, LISANDRO ESTHERREN, and HAYDEN SHERMAN
Cover by SIMONE DI MEO
$7.99 US | 64 pages | Prestige | (all covers are card stock)
ON SALE 6/25/24

Nightwing and Deadman continue their rail-ridin' odyssey and find themselves face-to-face with a terrifying new foe. Booster Gold's adventures across time and space have delivered him to an alternate future inhabited by dinosaurs—but this alternate reality needs protectors, and it has them in the form of the all-new, all-different Jurassic League! In the finale of "The Poison Within," Artemis's attempts to return home are blocked by the anti-Amazon agents of AXE! Batman and Guy Gardner delve into a realm of high strangeness that is truly out of this world as they confront the grey alien that has crash-landed in Gotham. And last, but far from least, Hayden Sherman dazzles with a brand-new Batman Black & White story that needs to be seen to be believed.

I did not read Jurassic League, so I'm surprised to learn that it takes place in the future. What a twist!

Thanks to Rob Snow for making sure we didn't miss this solicitation.

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In addition to being the final issue of Justice League International volume 1 (next issue the team will be downsized to just Justice League America), Justice League International #25 is also the first book-length team-up between Booster Gold and Blue Beetle. Historic!

My favorite page comes early, which is probably not a surprise to those of you who know that Ty Templeton is one of my favorite artists. He only drew the intro and outro pages of this issue (over Keith Giffen's layouts), with the rest handled by Mike McKone (also over Giffen).

But it's not just the art I love; almost every panel on page 3 has its own punchline!

Despite the early (and often) jokes, the main plot of this team-up issue is a vampire hunt that turns into an overt criticism of Western consumer culture which, in Twilight Zone style, questions who the real monsters are on plane Earth. As Booster and Beetle (and the reader) will eventually realize, it just might be our heroes.

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Booster Gold returns to the pages of Speed Force in this week's issue #5!

I learned years ago that nothing makes me feel out of touch with pop culture as quickly as the American music industry. (Seriously. Skip a year of watching the Grammys then tune in next year and see if you have any idea what they're talking about anymore.) Couple that with the instant gratification era of smart phone apps, as the plot of Speed Force does, and I feel like such a dinosaur trying to make sense of these panels.

I have no idea what a "rap-avi" is. I'll just have to trust that Booster Gold knows what he's talking about. Because if you can't trust Booster Gold, who can you trust?

Buy this issue and make Skeets happy.

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