According to Rich Johnson of Bleeding Cool, it was announced at the August 26th Fan Expo Canada "Flashpoint Friday" panel that Booster Gold will be the Canadian member of the upcoming Justice League International.

Let that sink in. A Canadian. Because the first things that come to mind when you think Canada is "selfishness" and "self-promotion."

Does this change anything significant about Booster's character? No, not really. It's just a little weird to think that Booster Gold, the Capitalist Crusader, will be Canadian in the DCnU, eh.

It's hard to believe that this wasn't just panelists Brian Azzarello, Eddie Berganza, Andy Kubert, Francis Manapul, and James Robinson playing up to the local crowd. We'll find out the truth soon enough: Justice League International #1 is less than 2 weeks away.

UPDATE 08/29/11: Jobu popped into the Boosterrific Forum to note the following.

One of the panelists (I was far back) replied "actually, I think you guys will be thrilled to know that in the DCnU one of heroes will now be Canadian". They batted around "can we tell them?" for a bit and then said it was Booster Gold. The crowd cheered and clapped, but I just assumed it was joke and nothing more.

The next day at the New 52 panel, I was rocking my Booster Gold fan club T-shirt when a question came up about the JLI and Dan DiDio once again said Booster would be Canadian. He said it with a totally straight face and wasn't playing for applause so maybe there's some truth to this rumour?

So they're serious then? Of all the characters to make Canadian... Booster Gold, a hero disgraced playing college football, named by Ronald Reagan, who wears a star on his chest? Thanks for the update, Jobu.

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As has been previously revealed by his "Booster Gold" tribute song, Eddie Argos, the rock-and-rolling frontman for Art Brut, is a big Booster Gold fan. How big a fan, you ask? Pretty big.

[Argos is] so obsessed with DC character Booster Gold that he often wears a Booster Gold costume around the house. "It's quite a nice look for me," he says.

I have no idea how big the Venn diagram of the intersection between indie rock musicians and DC comic book readers is, but it's good to know that the San Francisco Examiner thinks it's worth reporting.

You can read the whole article about Argos and his new comic-influenced album at sfexaminer.com. And if you're in San Francisco tonight and in the mood to rock, Art Brut will be playing at 9PM at The Independent.

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Thanks to site commenter Anonymous, we have known for a few months that the Jim Pesl referenced in Booster Gold Volume 2 was a high school friend of Norm Rapmund who now works in a restaurant in Northern California.

Thanks to Russ Burlingame's recent "Panel Discussions" podcast, we now know why Norm Rapmund puts Jim Pesl's name (pronounced "pē-zuhl") in his comics:

It was actually kind of funny that it took until Booster Gold for people to notice because [Rapmund]'s been doing this for years. He started slipping Pesl's name in back when he was doing X-Men [beginning in 2000] and he's put it in ... not every issue he's ever inked but pretty much every title he's inked in one way or another.

The pair of them have been friends for 20-odd years. Back in high school Jim was the only other person besides Norm who read comics. When Norm started working in comics and Jim was still reading, he threw the name in there. They live in the same general area, and [Norm found that] Pesl was very excited about having been referenced in X-Men. So Norm started tossing it in and occasionally bringing free comics to Pesl's restaurant. In exchange, Pesl gives Norm food. So there you have it.

Free food sounds like a pretty good reason to put someone's name in your comics, but maybe higher cosmic forces are at play. As fate would have it, the pair graduated from El Dorado High School. El Dorado is the name of the infamous South American City of Gold.

From El Dorado High School to Booster Gold. And now you know the rest of the story.

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Just in time for the unveiling of the DCnU and the first post-Flashpoint Justice League next week, today DC Comics releases DC Retroactive: Justice League America - the '90s, a look back at the first Justice League of the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths era. Maybe you can't go home again, but you can pay $4.99 for a new look at your old scrapbooks.

Also on today's docket of nostalgic releases is the hardcover collected edition of DC Universe: Legacies. While DC Universe: Legacies is a blueprint of revisionist history for the 75-year-old DC Universe in 2010, it remains to be seen how much of the continuity it reinvents will be maintained after Flashpoint concludes next week.

Pick up your copies and make Skeets happy.

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Sorry to pull a bait-and-switch on you for Gold Exchange Tuedsay, but it seems that there will be no more "Gold Exchange" columns now that Booster Gold has been canceled. The successor to the "Gold Exchange" will be announced during Russ Burlingame's "Panel Discussions" today on Comics Related. The "Panel Discussions" podcast will also feature Burlingame's call-in interview with Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund that was recorded on Friday. Tune in to Comic Related to hear what Dan and Norm have to say.

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