DC Comics publishes Booster Gold: Day of Death, volume 4 of the collected trades of the second series of Booster Gold. In addition to Booster Gold #20-25, this trade is set to also contain The Brave and the Bold #23. If you didn't catch these issues the first time around, pick 'em up now for $14.99: that's $10.94 less than the cover price of the individual issues!

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Think you're clever and looking for something to pass the time? Consider entering the current Superman Homepage's caption contest. This week's image is from the Justice League Unlimited episode "The Greatest Story Never Told," the greatest cartoon ever made.

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Following one of the holiest days of the Christian calendar, perhaps its fitting to give some thought to the spiritual leanings of Booster Gold. In the canon of DC Comics, Booster has openly claimed to be an atheist (in Justice League International Annual #2), though offhand comments made in the years since imply that he may truly be more agnostic. (Never mind for the time being that atheism appears to be a logical fallacy in the DCU, where the personification of the Wrath of God is a member of the Justice Society and an angel is a member of the Justice League.) According to adherents.com, many people have guessed that Booster is a Scientologist. Do the actions of Booster Gold give any clue to his belief system? Or is Booster Gold as spiritually shallow as he would like you to believe?

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Attentive readers may have noticed that in the most recent issue of Booster Gold, Cyborg Superman blows a huge hole in the Eradicator. My first thought was that that sort of thing wouldn't have been allowed if the new Booster Gold series had been submitted for Comic Code Authority approval as the original series was. But when I double-checked Superman #80, the scene is shown very graphically on the cover of the issue which also bears the Comics Code Stamp of Approval!
DC Comics still promotes the fact that their Johnny DC line is approved by the Comics Code Authority. But if the modern Code allows for the sort of graphic violence as one man shooting another in half, I can't imagine that the Code is really providing much assurance for parents looking for kid-friendly books. If that's the case, we might as well get the Code back on Booster Gold if it would encourage anybody to buy the book. Then maybe DC could start promoting the time-traveling adventures of Booster Gold as edutainment: a history lesson with staples!

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Believe it or not, before Millennium killed the series in 1988, Rob Liefeld was planned to take over pencils on Booster Gold Volume 1. Booster Gold was not selling well, but Dan Jurgens was refusing to bow to editorial pressure to modify Booster Gold into a more traditional hero.

Desperate to increase sales, editor Barbara Randall was seeking alternative ways to draw readers to the flagging book. Since DC was also looking for a way to retain the up-and-coming Liefeld, who was at the time penciling the best-selling 5-issue limited series Hawk & Dove, assigning him as regular artist for the ongoing Booster Gold series seemed a perfect solution: create some buzz on Booster Gold and keep Liefeld at DC Comics.
DC went so far as to hire Liefeld to prepare some promotional character sketches of his interpretation of Booster Gold. Unfortunately, before plans advanced any further, Liefeld was stolen by Marvel Comics for New Mutants and Booster Gold end up canceled. But just think what might have been!

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