Booster Gold #14 is my least favorite issue of Booster's original volume.

I can't put my finger on just one reason why, but the art is a big part. Jurgens' take on the future of the DC Universe (and sequential-panel storytelling) was clearly being influenced by Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, which had taken the comic-book-reading world by storm earlier that year. What works for Batman doesn't necessarily work for Booster.

It doesn't help that the crowded panels are oversaturated with secondary and pastel colors. I typically like colorist Gene D'Angelo's work, but his color choices, clearly intended to play up the psychological tension of our physically-ailing hero stuck in an era that's out to get him, are perhaps working too well for me.

That said, the issue is not entirely without redeeming value. For example, page 19 does efficiently introduce Broderick, the Dirty Harry of the 25th century. And the final page, with a deconstructed Skeets, builds to a good cliff hanger.

But for my money, the best page in the whole book is this one:

If you couldn't tell before now, I'm a sucker for the Booster/Trixie relationship. Seeing them support one another emotionally in the lamplight.... Yeah. This one's got to be my favorite.

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My Halloween treat was this email from Booster booster FZ:

Was just reading Manhunter #4 cover date Oct 88 and spotted a kinda sorta Booster Gold cameo on page 4. Wasn't sure if you knew about this. Happy Halloween.

Wow! Somehow, no, I did *not* know about that.

For reference, this is the panel that FZ is referring to:

FZ is right. That's not really Booster Gold. It's not even a flashback. The apparition appears only as a helpful illustration for the reader to reinforce Olivia Vancroft's speach about the power of masks. That sort of thing is kind of rare in modern comic books.

Rare or not, it is an appearance previously undocumented in the Boosterrific.com database. How could I have I overlooked that for all these years? Perhaps there was some sort of crisis that caused all of history to be re-written around me so that things I once thought I knew have changed in unexpected ways. Yeah, that's the ticket.

In any event, thanks to FZ, that oversight has now been corrected.

If anyone else ever spots an appearance they don't think I'm tracking, please reach out to correct me. Booster boosters everywhere will thank you.

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Happy Halloween, Booster boosters. Please resist the temptation to eat all your candy at once!

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Booster booster Logan Peterson works in a bookstore and writes in to tell us that he has spotted our hero in the new book DC Greatest Events coming soon from Stephen Wiacek and DK.

I meandered my way through and can report that Booster makes several visual appearances--mostly in group shots from events like Zero Hour and Heroes in Crisis. He is listed in the index, though, which directs one to this particular page in the Flashpoint entry:

Golly. At the time, I believed Flashpoint was nothing more than a naked cash grab before the "New 52" launch. Reading that recap description of the "16 interlinked but self-contained three-issue limited series" makes me think my original opinion was too generous.

Thanks for the heads-up, Logan. Now everybody knows what to ask for from Santa this Christmas!

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Since I started this week showcasing one incentive variant cover, I should keep the theme going with another incentive variant, one I've never show on Boosterrific.com before, mainly because Booster Gold isn't actually on it.

His goggles are.

That's the 1:200 Francesco Mattina cover for 2018's Heroes in Crisis #1, and as you can see, it depicts a bloody Harley Quinn wearing Booster Gold's (broken) goggles.

This cover was also used as the basis for Graphitti Designs' New York Comic Con 2018 Silver Foil Convention Exclusive. I honestly don't know which one is rarer. ComicChron.com estimated that retailers ordered approximately 140,700 first-edition copies of Heroes in Crisis #1, which implies there are fewer than 700 of the 1:200 variants in the world. How many silver foils were printed for New York Comic Con, which sold over a quarter million tickets? 500? 1000?

For what it's worth, both are available on eBay right now unslabbed for about $35-$70. In either case, that seems like a pretty good deal for such a rare book.

I mean, if you're into that sort of thing.

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