As I promised last week, Suicide Squad #13 has Booster Gold's biggest on-panel presence in months as the Justice League International goes toe-to-toe with a badly overmatched Suicide Squad, as you can already see on page 3:

After weeks on the sideline, Booster Gold comes off as something of a beast in this issue as literally no one on the Suicide Squad's roster can touch him (thanks to his force field). For what it's worth, Booster Gold is ultimately paired off against Javelin because somebody's gotta fight him (that's how these sorts of stories work). Were they paired just because they dress alike?

If you're a fan of the Green Lantern/Booster Gold running gag introduced in the 2004 Justice League Unlimited episode "The Greatest Story Never Told," you'll appreciate that Javelin debuted as a Green Lantern villain (in 1984's Green Lantern #173) who gave the Lantern considerably more trouble than he gives Booster Gold here.

Fip whang whiii, indeed.

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Since we started the week with a Justice League International theme, let's keep it going!

Check out this Boosterrific cosplay — with period-accurate popped collar! — recently posted to Instagram:

The Booster Gold cosplayer is the original poster, Lisandro Becerra aka amazingpurples, which only makes perfect sense. Who is going to be more eager to show off than Booster Gold?

Keep up the great work, everybody.

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Some people take Labor Day off, but not me, not when I've got to tell you about Booster Gold coming to your Local Comic Shop this week!

As you can see in the issue preview at AIPTComics.com, Booster gets a cameo appearance on the very first page of Blue Beetle #1!

I'm pretty sure that's a "Bwah-Ha-Ha" being cut off by the narrative box in that panel.

And if one panel isn't enough homage to Kevin Maguire's famous Justice League #1 cover, remember that there's also a 1:25 Justice League #1-inspired variant cover to this week's Fire and Ice: Welcome to Smallville drawn by... Kevin Maguire:

(For the record, neither Booster Gold nor Fire nor Ice appear on the original cover to Justice League #1, which wouldn't be re-titled Justice League International until issue #7. Booster joined the team in issue #4, and Fire and Ice joined in Justice League International #14. All three are on the updated roster cover of Justice League International #24, which was the very first book to homage the cover to issue #1. It is no coincidence that Issues #1 and #24 also bookend artist Maguire's run on the series.)

Buy one or both of those issues and make Skeets happy!

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Just last week, my chronological collection of favorite pages touched on Justice League International #11. That book was published on November 10, 1987. The following week, Booster appears (mutely) in exactly two panels of the frame story on page 2 of Blue Beetle #22. Two weeks after that, he is in just one panel of a previous issue recap in Action Comics #598. A week later, Booster is depicted in five panels across the 22 pages of Justice League International #12 — three of those in flashbacks!

Which finally brings us to Justice League International #13... which has Booster in exactly 6 panels. Why am I giving you a favorite page from this book and not those others? Although he is rarely seen or heard, Booster's role here is larger than a simple drop-in, drop-out cameo. He's present with his Justice League teammates as the action rises steadily towards the adventure's climax that will play out in Suicide Squad #13, and Booster has a more sizeable part in that melee. So even though Booster's role in Justice League International #13 is limited, it's not insignificant.

But it's not significant enough to make my favorite page.

That's page 8, and it really illustrates what I like best about Keith Giffen's very stylized art (ably aided by Al Gordon's confident inks and Gene D'Angelo's strong color) comprised almost entirely of close-ups and heavy shadows. Maybe Watchmen made me a sucker for the rigid 9-panel layout, but I especially love how Giffen uses it to create three horizontal triptychs — Rule of Three raised to the third power! — to ratchet up both the comedy and the drama. Very well done.

Tune in next time to finally see a Booster Gold panel in Suicide Squad #13!

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I had no idea what to post today. Booster isn't in any new comics, isn't expected to be in any upcoming comics, isn't in the news. He'd be furious.

But not all is lost. There's still plenty of great Booster Gold content out there if you know where to look. For example, these delights are on DeviantArt.com:

Toks Solarin

Heads Up Studios

Hernan Cabrera

Booster may be missing in action, but he still has some pretty great (and talented) fans out there!

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