The life of any comic book hero would be a lonely one if not for the many characters who have made up their supporting cast. Just as Superman has Lois Lane and Batman has Alfred, Booster Gold has also shared his adventures with quite a few people over the years. Today we look at one of those, Mindancer.

They say you never forget your first time. First love. First paycheck. First stollen time machine you used to travel back in time to become a super hero. And even first defeat.

In Booster Gold's case, that means he'll always remember the first time he met Mindancer.

Blackguard gets all the fame for appearing on the cover of Booster Gold #1, but the real villain in Booster Gold's 1986 debut issue is the "unidentified, super-powered woman who," in the breathless words of WGBS television news reporter Cindy Miles, "took S.T.A.R.'s satellite guidance system from Booster Gold!"

That mysterious, garishly-costumed assailant is "an extremely dangerous" psychic mercenary codenamed Mindancer. According to Booster's sidekick Skeets, she can leach the mental energy from nearby bystanders to boost her innate telekinetic and telepathic abilities.

At the time she crossed swords with Booster Gold, she was working for The 1000, who also employed Blackguard. In fact, Booster's inaugural defeat of Blackguard led directly to his rematch with Mindancer when she was sent to spring Blackguard from Metropolis Prison in Booster Gold #2. They fight to a draw, and Mindancer escapes after Blackguard creates a distraction. Considering that escaping was her whole reason for being there, this should probably count as another win for Mindancer.

Their third encounter, inside the headquarters of The 1000 in Booster Gold #3, goes even worse for Booster, as he is left unconscious and placed in a 1000 death trap!

Booster escapes thanks only to the timely intervention of Thorn (Booster Gold #4), who also defeats Mindancer in hand-to-hand combat. Thorn tears off Mindancer's mask, revealing that her red hair is only a wig. Mindancer's true face underneath is... well, this:

Why does she look like that? We may never know. The humiliation of having her true face exposed empowers Mindancer, an "unskilled physical combatant" according to her entry in Who's Who Update '87 #4, to overwhelm Thorn and escape.

Mindancer has rarely been seen since. She next shows up in 1994's Green Lantern Volume 3 #52 as a (masked) inmate in Slabside Penitentiary for metahumans, indicating that at some point she was caught and brought to justice. It must have been a long sentence. She's not seen again until The Flash #800 (2023), where she is caught participating in a poker game with stolen goods and presumably re-imprisoned.

After nearly four decades, it doesn't look like Booster and Mindancer will be crossing paths again anytime soon. Therefore, the final record stands at Mindancer 3, Booster Gold 0, a result so lopsided, I'm sure Booster Gold would prefer to forget.

Other People in Booster Gold's Neighborhood:

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Ok, I admit, I still haven't seen Blue Beetle. I will, eventually, I promise. Maybe soon, in fact. It's scheduled for release on DVD next week, and to promote that release, director Ángel Manuel Soto recently spoke to Andy Behbakht for screenrant.com.

ScreenRant: Speaking about the future, we have the post-credits scene with Ted Kord. In your head, do you know what that reunion is going to look like between Ted and Jenny? That is a father-daughter relationship I want to learn more about.

Soto: Well, definitely! Our initial joke with that was, Jaime and Jenny would be talking later, and he showed up and they [Jaime and Ted] are like, 'Who are you? That's your dad?!' between them. But I think by doing it this way opens up more of a curiosity to where is he and why is he sending this message today? Why did he leave? What did he go out to do and I think it opens a lot of doors.

For me, I always liked the idea of him and Booster Gold doing adventures and then this message being sent as a warning of something that eventually Booster Gold is the one that's able to bring Jaime into the mix, or tap Kord's expertise through Booster's time travelling powers. So for me, one of those things I definitely [want to see] are Booster Gold and Ted Kord, I want them to be a part of Jaime's future. There's a lot more that exist in all the different iterations but the Blue and Gold series is phenomenal. Their relationship is really, really awesome and a lot of Jaime's relationships with both of them are iconic, so I hope it goes that way.

ScreenRant: How funny that we have a Booster Gold TV show coming with James Gunn's DC Universe! Without spoiling it, have you and James talked about Jaime's future? Do you know your next project with DC Studios, and have you discussed what you want to do with Jaime next?

Soto: Yeah, we have had conversations about it and that's where he mentioned to me about the Booster Gold TV show that is coming up. Now, where does it fit, how is it gonna play out? We haven't talked about that. But we both have talked about our interest in continuing Jaime's story, and finding a way for that story to be a part of this new universe.

It sounds like it's still far too early to talk about what exactly Gunn's Booster Gold television show is going to be. But if it's Ted Kord and Booster Gold's misadventures through time, that sure would qualify as "must see" TV.

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DC Comics has released January 2024 solicitations, and as has become the recent trend, Booster Gold is not mentioned anywhere. And for that matter, neither is Blue Beetle or Fire or Ice. It looks like they're taking the month off to make more room for Beast World tie-ins, much as Lazarus Planet pushed books off shelves last year.

The good news in the solicitations is the advanced announcement of Justice League International Omnibus Volume 3, which will wrap up the Giffen/DeMatteis era. It'll even include the Blue and Gold (mis)adventures seen in JLA 80-Page Giant #1, Formerly Known as the Justice League, and the 2011 DC Retroactive: JLA - The '90s. Not a bad haul for Booster boosters of a certain era.

Even better, the book will have all new cover art by Kevin Maguire. Maguire worked Booster Gold into the new art for both Omnibus 1 and Omnibus 2, so here's hoping the third (and final) time is also charming.

(It might be worth mentioning that as I type this, the first Omnibus is currently 34% off at Amazon.com. Just in case you're still looking for that perfect Christmas gift for someone who needs more "Bwah-Ha-Ha" in their life.)

You can read the exact details about this third Omnibus, currently scheduled for a February 20 release, in the official solicitations at AIPTComics.com

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If you've ever read Captain Atom #16, you can probably guess my favorite page, but here, I'll save you the trouble of guessing:

Booster Gold busting through trees like a super man! Blue Beetle swooping out of the sky to rescue a buxom damsel from drowning like some kind of dark knight! And in place of a Wonder Woman, we get a Mister Miracle! It's like a Justice League International roll-call.

Can't you just imagine this animated and set to the Superfriends theme with Ted Knight calling out their names? I sure can.

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If you didn't see the update to Monday's post, be aware that this week's Batman Superman World's Finest #20 does include a single pic of Booster Gold (plus Blue Beetle's corpse). So you might want to check that out.

Meanwhile, it would seem this week's other theme is Booster Gold hanging out with cartoon characters, because Booster booster Jake has written to inform us of yet another Booster Gold television appearance:

Booster makes a cameo appearance in the Teen Titans Go! "Warner Brothers 100th Anniversary Special." He appears at about 22:21.

Booster Boosters may also appreciate Ted getting patted down at the WB Studios entrance (around 4:06).

According to Wikipedia, the "Special" is a two-part season 8 episode, and oddly, despite only airing on Cartoon Network for the first time this past weekend, it seems that episode has been floating around the webs and (legal!) streaming services since late September.

Thanks for bringing to our attention, Jake.

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