Booster booster J writes to let me know about what would seem to be a small correction to a nearly 20-year-old comic book, 2006's 52 #7:

In the annotation for Page 17, panel 2, you say that an actor introduces himself to Lois as "Bob Castell", even though in the previous issue his name was Bill. I'm current reading the digital version of 52 Volume 1 (the one that collects issues #1-26). I just want to point out that, at least in the digital version, they corrected this error and he introduces himself as "Bill Castell".

Firstly, thanks for reading the annotations, J. I wrote them in 2007, and I apologize in advance that they're probably all awful and chock full of typos I'm sure you'll be telling me about later.

Secondly, issues of 52 were originally released weekly, which by all accounts was a real challenge for all involved, so it's no great surprise that a few errors made it through to the final product. I'm glad DC was able to make the corrections in the (many) subsequent collected volumes.

Here's the panel as it was originally published in 52 Week Seven:

And here it is as it appears in the corrected reprints:

The first name of a minor character may seem like small potatoes, but in context, it's a relevant clue to the mystery of the Last Days of Booster Gold, one of several main plots unfolding throughout the series.

Readers were introduced to Mr. Castell in 52 Week Six, where we discover that despite a recent return to the spotlight, Booster Gold has been burnishing his image as a superhero by paying an actor to portray a supervillain and allowing Booster to beat him in a public setting. Intentionally evocative of Maxwell Lord's scheme to force the Justice League to accept Booster Gold into its ranks (in 1987's immortal Justice League #4), this is particularly despicable behavior, even for Booster Gold.

And to make matters worse, Booster treats the actor like a real jerk, refusing to even get his name right.

As you can now see, in the original publication, the reader has (unintentional) cause to be suspicious of the actor's motivations and integrity when Castell changes his first name between issues and accuses Booster of writing a bad check. However, in the reprint, when the reader is more confident that the actor knows what he's talking about, the accusation against Booster is more credible and extra damning.

Why would Booster do such a thing? And why would he go out of his way to be such a jackass to his partner in crime, essentially encouraging him to be disloyal? At the risk of spoiling a great comic book mystery, all I'll say is that this behavior was no mistake, and may, in fact, rank among the most clever things Booster Gold has ever done.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, be like J. Go track down a reprint collection of 52 and read one of the greatest stories DC has ever published. You can thank me (and J) later.

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True story: I walked into my Local Comic Shop today and asked for DC K.O.: Superman vs. Captain Atom #1.

"We sold out," said the man behind the counter. "Why? Is Booster Gold in it?"

"Yes," I said. "Last two pages. DC is going to get me to spend five dollars for two pages of panels of Darkseid wearing Booster Gold's skin and murdering people."

Said the resident Superman fan employee standing behind me, "I'll be happy to tear the last two pages out of my copy and give them to you. I'm already sick of this event. I think someone should take Joshua Williamson out behind the woodshed and Old Yeller him so I can have my Superman back."

Now, that Superman fan happens to be about three decades younger than I am, and he was raised on the New 52. We don't often see eye to eye about most comic book stories.

But I thought it is kind of nice that DC's ongoing torture porn is uniting fans of all characters. That's the Spirit of Christmas! Thanks, DC.

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Tuesday already? Let's look over the weekly ship list here... Hmm. Looks like if Booster Gold will be anywhere this week, it'll be the DC K.O. Superman vs Captain Atom #1 one shot. If anyone spots Booster there, please let me know.

UPDATE: Yeah, he's in there. And the way he's in there leads me to believe he's going to be in all of these one shots. <sarcasm>Great</sarcasm>.

Meanwhile, DC Universe Infinite has adapted the Booster Gold story "Twas the Night" into vertical smartphone scrolling format as DC Go! Holiday Special 2025 #9. (This story was originally released in 2020 in the DC's Very Merry Multiverse #1 anthology.) You can re-read it now for free at at dcuniverseinfinite.com.

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For what it's worth, page 9 is probably my favorite full page in 1992's Superman #7. It depicts Waverider taking Superman through the timestream to Vanishing Point. But instead of showing you that page, with nary a Booster Gold in sight, I'm instead going to cheat today and show you my favorite sequence of panels from that issue. Two of them, actually.

First up is this sequence from page 21, in which the Linear Men detail just how important Booster Gold is to DC continuity:

For a long time, that was probably my favorite. But I find I now prefer this sequence on page 3, which in hindsight of how Booster's career has changed over time, reads even better now than it did thirty years ago:

Those are two pretty good sequences for Booster Gold fans in an issue otherwise light on Booster Gold content.

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Today you'll find DC K.O. #2 at your Local Comic Shop. As a reminder, this was the last panel in issue one:

Since it's already over and Darkseid has obviously won, why is there a second issue?

UPDATE: Booster Gold also appears (briefly) in Superman #32.

SECOND UPDATE: I've read them now, and I'm frankly amazed that DC keeps finding new ways to make the All In era, now in its second year, less enjoyable. Great job, everyone.

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