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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Justice League: Dark Tomorrow Special #1 arrives in your Local Comic Shop today, and Booster Gold is on not one, not two, but three of the covers! (The fourth is Gold Beetle!) You can see them all here.

AIPTComics.com has the preview in which we learn that Waverider is once again Mathew Ryder, and he dies. (Again. He dies a lot in these big, universe-threatening events. He seems to be made to suffer. It's his lot in life.)

But I'm sure you don't need to see that preview to know you want a copy (or three). Buy multiple covers of this issue and make Skeets very happy!

UPDATE: I don't understand. DC puts Booster Gold on all the covers, then doesn't actually put him in the book. (It really wants readers to believe that "Legend" is Booster Gold, but those clues just don't add up.) I guess you got me to buy extra copies of your comic, DC, but I'm not happy about it, and I'm certainly less inclined to do it again.

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Another year, another Comic-Con. So what did Booster boosters learn this year about our hero's role in the upcoming DC Universe?

Attendees of the "DC All In: What's Next" panel last Thursday were told that Booster Gold will be in the Justice League: The Omega Act special!

What's that you say? We already knew that? That's the one we learned about back two weeks ago, the one with a dead Booster Gold on the cover?

Yeah, ok.

But now we have pictures of Booster on the inside of a comic, too!

via BleedingCool.com

via AIPTComics.com

To be frank, I don't know which comic these pages are from. Omega Act seems likely, but that's just an educated guess. (CONFIRMED. It's Omega Act.) All I know for sure is that Booster doesn't look very happy to be included. Maybe he's seen the recent covers.

There is one more thing I learned this weekend, but it didn't come from Comic-Con. Booster booster Richard sent me an email pointing me to penguinrandomhouse.com:

So no matter what DC does to Booster this fall, we definitely have something to look forward to next spring! Hooray!

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Think things are bad now? Well, back in the summer of 1992, Eclipso was on the warpath in the "Darkness Within" summer event, and he had his sights set on killing Booster Gold's best bud Ted Kord in Justice League America Annual #6!

See, Eclipso has infiltrated the League and realized that the Blue Beetle's solar powered Flash Gun represents a real threat to his plans for world domination. So he does what any villain worth his black diamonds would do: he sows discord among the heroes.

Which was actually pretty easy considering that this incarnation of the League was never exactly one big happy family. Sometimes bad team chemistry is too much even for Superman to manage.

This story spends a lot of time on the Superman-Wonder Woman-Ice-Maxima love rectangle, but I don't think that's how Ice was expecting Superman to sweep her off her feet.

Speaking of romance, this is the same issue that has Booster Gold unwisely fondling Wonder Woman's hair then later punching her in the face (under Eclipso's control by way of Maxima—it's complicated) before having his equipment destroyed by Maxima (or Eclipso, like I said: complicated).

A lot happens in this one action-packed issue, but for me, nothing tops Superman losing his cool like an overwhelmed preschool teacher. That's good comics!

Footnote tangentially related to the above post: After I had written this post but before I published it, Booster booster J notified me that this issue is included in the Superman and Justice League America reprint collection, which I had been identifying in the Boosterrific Database as "Superman and the Justice League of America." The latter is the copyrighted name of the book in the publishing indicia, but as J reminds me, it is the policy of this site to reflect the name on the cover as the title for each issue, so the entry has been revised. Thank you for your diligence, J.

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Breaking news alert! Just in time for them to talk about this ad infinitum at Comic-Con, Deadline exclusively reports

HBO Max is progressing with its Booster Gold TV series and has attached Our Flag Means Death creator David Jenkins to write the pilot.

And we can be reasonably certain that it is true because Jenkins posted about it on Instagram.

Now, ray of sunshine that I am, I'm inclined to point out that this is at least the third announced writer for the current iteration of a Booster Gold series which has been in the works at Warner Bros since *checks notes* 2011. And they are still working on hammering out a single pilot episode. I will, as they say, believe it when I see it.

But that's just me being grumpy.

I'll concede that having a writer working on the project is certainly more promising than having no writer. So adjust your own hopes and dreams accordingly.

(Thanks to Rob Snow, whose emails inspired me to go ahead and post this news before I get any grumpier from the inevitable tidal wave of unfounded Internet speculation this announcement will unleash.)

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