Last weekend, I read online rumors that a director had been hired for the previously-announced Warner Bros Booster Gold television show, and that James Gunn himself would be writing. I did not post about that here because I was waiting for some confirmation from Warner Bros.

I don't like unfounded rumors. Founded rumors are fair game, but those unfounded ones... I can't stand those.

Here it is, nearly a week later, and we still don't know if the rumors are true. But James Gunn may have addressed them when, according to BleedingCool.com, he responded to a question about the rumor on X.com Threads.net by posting:

"Don't believe the Internet." ^[1]

Is that in reference to the announcement of the director? Or that Gunn will be writing any episodes? Or should I not believe what Gunn is saying now because I only read that online?

Or, heck, since I only know that Warner Bros is supposed to be working on a television show because I saw the announcement WB released on the Internet, maybe I shouldn't believe that either.

Or maybe the James Gunn on X Threads isn't really James Gunn? If that quote was made by an imposter, does that mean I should believe the Internet? Come to think of it, I've only ever seen James Gunn on the Internet; how can I know he really exists at all?

"Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end?" ^[2]

Anyway. I think the point here is that we still don't have any concrete news about what to expect from a Booster Gold television series, so don't get too excited — or bent out of shape, whichever your proclivity may be. James Gunn will tell us when he wants to know.

Assuming he's real, that is.

^[1] I'd link to the original post if I could find it, but X.com now requires a login to see its content, and I'm not going to do that. So I'm just going to have to take Bleeding Cool's word that this happened. Does that make me part of the rumor mill? Yes, yes it does. Probably best if you just forget that I posted any of this. As a wise man once (maybe) said, don't believe the Internet. UPDATE: See the comments! It wasn't on X but Threads, which is EXTRA why I couldn't find it.

^[2] This quote comes from a book. Since it was written on paper in the age before digital screens, the source can be trusted as the gospel truth. Which is how I know that all Cheshire cats can grin... and most of 'em do.

Comments (3) | Add a Comment | Tags: bleedingcool.com james gunn television threads.net

This week is Thanksgiving, the American holiday when we count our blessings. Unfortunately, Booster boosters are going to have to look somewhere other than their Local Comic Shops for their bounty this season, as DC has released their February 2024 solicitations with nary a Booster Gold in sight.

But one cover does get oh-so close.

As you can see, the Terry Dodson cover for Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville #6 homages the Adam Hughes cover to Justice League America #34 with Fire and Ice lounging for some rest and relaxation in the way that Blue Beetle and Booster Gold did on the original.

But since Fire was in the role of reluctant serving wench on the original cover, it seem the tables should have been fully turned, and Booster (or Beetle) should have had to serve the ladies this time around. Instead, poor alien robot L-Ron gets the chore as Club JLI Smallville burns behind them.

Is no Booster better than an amusingly subservient butler Booster? I'll let you be the judge.

In the meantime, you can see pictures of all the covers for DC's February 2024 solicitations at ComicsBeat.com.

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: adam hughes comicsbeat.com fire ice justice league international l-ron solicitations terry dodson

Despite the fact that Captain Atom spends most of the issue running away from the New Gods' Black Racer on the astral plane, somehow Booster Gold and Black Racer never come face to face in Captain Atom #17.

So instead, I have to settle on page 5 as my favorite page of the issue.

Yes, Booster plays a more important role on page 8 when he identifies a nearby hero who can help the situation (future enemy Brainwave!), but what I like specifically about this page is that it's Booster Gold who carries the wounded Captain Atom to safety.

For one thing, while armored, the good Captain weighs three-quarters of a ton (according to the Captain himself in Justice League: Generation Lost #6), so Booster is the only hero present who could lift him.

More importantly, in years to come, it will be Captain Atom who cradles Booster Gold after the Devastator leaves our hero for dead in Justice League America #89. That's some good symmetry.

Both Booster and Atom joined the DCU at almost the same time following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, and both have always represented different, competing aspects of American culture that are just as relevant today as they were in the 1980s. I always like seeing them on panel together.

Still... one of these days, I really would like to get a showdown between Booster Gold and the Black Racer. I also always enjoy seeing Booster Gold cheat Death.

Comments (2) | Add a Comment | Tags: black racer captain atom favorite pages

What makes a hero super? The super powers! From awesome strength to zero-to-sixty speed, great superpowers are the most useful tricks in every famous costumed crime-fighter's tool kit. Michael Jon Carter knew this, and that's why he started his career with a time machine.

Power suit, energy rays, force field, flight ring... "Booster" Carter could steal every super power in the Space Museum, but none of those would make the citizens of the 25th century forget that he had committed the ultimate crime: shaving points in a college football game.

To move on with his life, Booster would have to think outside the box. He'd have to think in a sphere. Specifically, he'd have to think in Rip Hunter's Time Sphere.

Rip Hunter and his distinctive time machine, the "amazing" Time Sphere, made their debut appearance in Showcase #20, 1959. He and his 20th-century companions, calling themselves Time Masters, would continue to improve the Time Sphere's design as they traveled from one end of history to the other with many adventures in between.

At any given time, there were several operating spheres, any one of which could have ended up in the Space Museum of the 25th century for Booster to, um, borrow. Although Booster broke that first Time Sphere, he has since had the opportunity to use some of Hunter's other Time Spheres for other temporal journeys both with and without the Time Master, beginning in 1987's Booster Gold #13, and as recently as 2021's DC's Cybernetic Summer.

Though the story of the time-traveling globe doesn't end (or begin) there. As we will eventually learn, while Rip Hunter may have invented the Time Sphere, he certainly did not invent time travel. Or even spherical time machines.

As revealed in Booster Gold volume 2, #1,000,000 (2008), Rip Hunter is Booster Gold's son. Later issues of Time Masters: Vanishing Point will demonstrate that Rip traveled through time as a child with his father. That crates a paradox, since it's impossible that at some point in the future, Rip Hunter could have gone back in time to create the circumstances that led to his own birth.

But it's not impossible that at some point in the future, a super-intelligent alien from another planet could have traveled backwards in time and laid the groundwork for Booster to do so. That alien is Brainiac 5.

In addition to inventing the Force Field Belt and Legion Flight Ring that Booster liberated from the Space Museum, Brainiac 5 also worked with the 30th-century Time Institute, perfected the time-traveling Time Bubble that his fellow Legion of Super-Heroes would use to have time-travel adventures with Superman beginning with 1958's Adventure Comics #247.

Clearly, the Time Bubble precedes the Time Sphere. Since Brainiac 5's history is in no way connected to Michael Jon Carter's, it is no stretch of the imagination to speculate that Brainiac 5 or the Legion of Super-Heroes made trips through time that somehow created the impossible sequence of events that lead to Rip Hunter appearing to create the machine necessary for his own birth. Fortunately, Brainiac 5 also has the power to resolve such space-time paradoxes.

As seen in Time Masters Vanishing Point #3, Brainiac 5 has access to the uniquly powerful Miracle Machine, a device that turns imagination into reality. With a power like that, even the most difficult paradox can be untangled with a thought.

That panel makes it clear that time-traveling Rip Hunter knew Brainiac 5 from an early age, so it's probable that the future Time Master's time-machine design was influenced by the Legion of Super-Heroes' pioneering inventor. When a design works that well, why change it?

(Footnote: Amusingly, there is also a time-traveling globe from the future in 1951's Batman #67. Although the Batman of the 31st-century takes credit for inventing it, he wouldn't be the first person to steal a Time Sphere.)

If you'd like to read about other powers in Booster Gold's arsenal, check out previous spotlight posts on his Force Field Belt, Booster Shots, Flight Ring, and goggles.

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: brainiac 5 powers rip hunter time sphere

Since last week I posted that 1991 article about a never-filmed Justice League movie script, I feel bound to report that over the weekend, I bumped into another Booster Gold script on reddit.com.

While Sean(Gary) worked on The Flash in 2021, Sean was doing some work on the script (uncredited and improv). He mentioned to me that he and ezra had been talking about Booster Gold on set in that context. I've been friends with sean since like 2014, we've written a lot together. They apparently talked about Sean as booster being fun so me and Sean ran with it.

Me and him fell in love with the fun and original take Booster could bring to superhero live action media, so we decided to start writing a pitch on spec. The season would have dealt with a time traveling OMAC trying to wipe heros out by stopping their origin moment. So booster, with Rip Hunter, would have traveled to multiple time periods to try and preserve the timeline, thus learning what it means to be a true hero through seeing the origins of others (since he doesn't really have his own organic origin). We have episodes, concept art and the pilot script.

The post goes on to explain that they hoped to eventually sell it to James Gunn/Warner Bros, though it seems that after many obstacles were placed in their way, they've mostly given up on that idea.

You can visit that reddit link above to read more about their plans; you'll even find a link to download the script, if you're so inclined.

The script does indeed have Dirk Davis and Trixie Collins and a lot of other characters Booster boosters will recognize in it, but beware that their Booster is also a bit of potty mouth.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: movies reddit.com