It was on this day in the year 2009 when DC Published Booster Gold Volume 2, #23 with this cover:

As it happens, Boosterrific.com has a real footnote connection to that cover, as cover model Blair Butler namedropped us in her July 19, 2009, interview with Laura Hudson at ComicsAlliance.com:

CA: So what exactly makes you Booster Gold's biggest fan?

BB: Well, first, let me just admit that there are some massive Booster fans out there who really dwarf me – the folks who run the Boosterrific site, the guys at Project Fanboy, and the folks in the DC forums. They're all so passionate that it's really awe-inspiring and humbling. But let's settle this now: The real #1 fan would be Skeets or Blue Beetle. And I think Ted wins. However, if this were the mid-80s, Trixie Collins would totally be on the cover, rockin' some awesome 80s shoulder-pads.

Comic book-focused news site Comics Alliance, established in 2007, was sold in 2013, and has been largely defunct since 2017, now existing only to repost content from other sites owned by its corporate parent. To their credit, they keep some of their old content online, including this article, "Blair Butler Sets the Record Straight on ‘Booster Gold’."

Similarly, Project Fanboy became the FanboyBuzz and fizzled out by 2014. I'm sure it was just a coincidence that DC Comics killed their own message boards about the same time they launched the the-less-said-about-it-the-better "New 52" in 2012.

...And as I'm researching all this, I rediscovered that I previously covered this ground (with a longer excerpt from the interview) on its tenth anniversary, August 12, 2019.

Which may explain why so many of those websites eventually petered out: there's only so much comics content to report before you start repeating yourself.

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I cannot tell a lie: it was really hard for me to pick my favorite page in Justice League Quarterly #8. Booster appears in two of four stories in the issue, but they both have their problems.

The second, "Yesterday's News" is written by accomplished Bronze Age Superman writer Elliot S! Maggin, but it looks like a new artist tryout piece with exceptionally amateurish results. Booster plays only an ancillary role. If I had to pick a favorite among its pages, I'd choose the last. That page has real structural problems, but at least it means the story is over.

Fortunately, the first story, "Double Trouble," gives me plenty of pages to choose from. Too many, in fact, but mostly because not one of them is perfect. I don't know if the problem is Mark Waid's script or Rod Whigham's art, but the pacing irritates me. Instead of having each page complete a single idea or scene, punchlines and consequences often require the turn of a page, disrupting the flow. (I assume the goal of this approach was to allow the page turn to build suspense, but the art and dialogue just aren't tight enough to make that work here.)

Which is not to say that it's not an enjoyable story. In fact, I quite like how Waid works the pre-Crisis Crime Syndicate into the post-Crisis DCU. Waid successfully evokes the satirical tone of the corporate environment that Giffen and DeMatteis established around the Justice League International era while adding an additional layer of Battle of the Network Stars meets American Gladiators. It's superhero fun in the classic Brave and the Bold tradition.

But since I cannot tell a lie, honestly, the reason that I picked page 11 is because of the signs in the crowd in panel 2. Specifically, this sign:

Yeah. I've been to a lot of stadiums. We definitely need more of *that* sign in the world.

Honorable mention goes to page 4, with its series of panels straight out of Hero Hotline of D-list heroes interviewing for membership in the Conglomerate. Specifically this guy:

Quality stuff.

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Booster was on the cover(s) of last week's Justice League: Dark Tomorrow Special #1. Before that, he had a two panel appearance in the digital-only Taste of Justice #3. Before that, he had a line in the Superman Treasury 2025: Hero for All #1. All of which means that the last time Booster Gold was seen in an in-continuity DCU tale was six weeks ago in Superman #27.

So.... When do we think we'll see him next?

I haven't seen anything to make me think Booster is in any of today's comics. Given that the special guest star teased for Superman #28 was *not* Booster Gold, I can't say as I'm expecting him in Superman #29 on August 27, unless maybe he makes a last-page cameo appearance. Booster is definitely in the solicitation text and cover art for the September 24 Superman #30, but based on the bait-and-switch pulled by Justice League: Dark Tomorrow Special, I won't actually believe he's in there until I read it.

I am confident he'll be in New History of the DC Universe #3 covering DC's output in the 1980s and '90s. That issue was announced for August 27 but now has been delayed until September 10. That's five weeks away.

Eleven weeks between Booster Gold DCU appearances feels like a long time, but certainly Booster Gold fans have waited longer. I guess if that really bothers me, I can always start buying Batman comics again. There's never any shortage of Batman.

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Now that I have my very own copy of the #SDCC25 exclusive Booster Gold lapel pin in hand, I've been inspired to finally add a long overdue "pins" category to the Boosterrific! Media page. Thanks all who have contributed to the category over the years.

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When we last saw our heroes in the 1992 summer event "Eclipso: the Darkness Within" (you know, back when Booster Gold actually appeared in comic books), the situation was looking grim. But in in Action Comics Annual #4, things get downright ugly.

If you read the issue, the first thing you will probably notice is that the art is, well, it's not good. Chris Wozniak is credited as sole penciller, but there are four credited inkers. This probably means that the issue was behind schedule and the finished product was rushed to meet a deadline. The bloated page count required of the double-sized, double-priced seasonal annuals isn't doing it any favors, either.

That's a real shame, as it is written by one of my favorite Justice League writers, Dan Vado, who had the bad fortune of working with many—um, how to say this politely?—awful artists during DC's EXTREME nineties. Vado was always respectful of his characters and especially good at building melodramatic character moments that felt authentic and organic. That skill is certainly evident in this issue, even on page 30, where Ice gets to be both competent *and* deliver the punchline.

I know that I rate this issue poorly here at Boosterrific (2 out of 5 stars), but I really don't hate it. If you're a fan of the classic JLI, you'll find enjoyment in Booster, Fire, and Ice's struggle against an entire Eclipso-ed village... and Superman. It's just a shame you can't read it with your eyes closed.

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