Today is a slow news day, so I'll take this opportunity to clean out my "images to post" folder and share this Special Director's Cut panel that didn't make the final edit in my annual April Fools Day post.

Booster Gold #2 (1986)

Yeah, that probably deserved to stay on the cutting room floor. Oh well. They can't all be winners, can they, CW?

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If you've seen any movie filmed in New York City during the 1970s and 80s, you know that town was an absolute cesspool overflowing with garbage and urban blight. Thankfully, one visionary man bucked the system, seized power, and began cleaning up the city in the mid 1990s.

Yes, Booster. That man was the dictator Monarch. And readers of Extreme Justice #7, released on this date in 1995, would have recognized him as a wolf in sheep's clothing. Therefore, the question at the heart of this story isn't whether or not the familiar Monarch had become a sheep, but just which wolf he was.

First, a bit of backstory. Debuting in Armageddon 2001 #1 (1991), Monarch was a corrupted hero who had grown so frustrated at how bad the world was being run, he was determined to take it over himself. The time-traveling would-be world dictator (co-created by former Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Archie Goodwin with shades of Doctor Doom and Kang the Conqueror) had already had run-ins with almost every super hero on Earth.

What makes Monarch particularly unique in the DC Universe isn't the character's origins or motivations, but his very complicated relationship with Captain Atom. See, as originally planned, Monarch *was* Captain Atom. DC's writers and artists seeded clues to Monarch's true identity for months, but when news of the planned reveal leaked to the general public, editors made a last-minute change to his secret identity.

However, no one liked the change (perhaps because of all the strong clues already in print to the contrary), and thus would begin years of stories revising Monarch's identity and intentions. Stories like this one.

Those who remember Extreme Justice often remember the "extreme" art, which makes it easy to say that the strength of the series was writer Dan Vado's character-driven melodramas and morality plays. What is the cost of being a hero? What defines a villain? Who are we all, really? This issue doesn't answer those questions, but life is about the journey, not the destination.

Just remember to never, ever trust a tyrant like Monarch.

Especially not if your name is Booster Gold.

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Since Boosterrific.com is my site, it tends to reflect the aspects of Booster Gold fandom that I find the most interesting. That means there are elements at the edges of fandom that I rarely touch on but shouldn't ignore. Topics like buying and selling comics for profit.

Earlier this week, the website gocollect.com ran an article called "It's Time for Booster Gold" by Matt Tuck. The gist of the article is in its first line:

This year's Blue Beetle movie could pave the way for a sure-fire fan favorite, Booster Gold, and you can own his key issues for pennies on the dollar.

Tuck specifically suggests that comic collectors should go get their hands on Booster Gold #1, Legends #6, and Justice League #3 because they are cheap enough that the buy-in risk is low and the likelihood of their value increasing is high. I guess. I mean, sure, Booster Gold #1 floats to the top of the speculation chart every time there's a rumor that Booster might finally get the television/movie spotlight he deserves, but Legends #6 has nothing to do with Booster Gold or the Blue Beetle who is getting a movie. I can't imagine anyone will be knocking down doors to get a copy of it anytime soon.

While comics speculation obviously isn't my bag — which is kind of ironic when you consider that I obsessively track a commercially-motivated character who knows what items will be valuable in the future — I cannot deny there's a certain appeal to that the idea of turning $5 into $10. Therefore, if I were to speculate, I would choose to hoard books like Booster's origin story in Booster Gold #6 (also the first appearance of post-Crisis Superman) that currently sells for a paltry $40. Or how about the first appearance of the Conglomerate (also the first appearance of Booster's cool leather jacket costume) in Justice League Quarterly #1, which tops out near $50. Or any Extreme Justice issue. No one has ever asked for an Extreme Justice issue, so demand for those can only go up. They certainly aren't making any more of them, thank goodness.

On second thought, maybe you should ignore my advice. If I knew which comics were going to be worth real money, I wouldn't be running a Booster Gold website; I'd be paying someone else to do it.

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Booster booster J's emails are usually in regards to the many, many typographical and grammatical errors on this site. (I'll take all the help I can get, J. Thanks!) But the message in my inbox today was to let me know that Booster Gold gets a shout-out in this week's Flashpoint Beyond #2.

And here it is, from page 2:

words by Geoff Johns, Tim Sheridan, Jeremy Adams; art by Xermanico, Romulo Fajardo Jr, Rob Leigh

For the record, the rule here at Boosterrific.com is that we track all Booster Gold comic book visual appearances but not text-only dialogue references, much less the expositional internal monologue of a murderous Dr. Batman. (Back in the day, this name drop would be inside a bubbled thought balloon!)

Therefore, Flashpoint Beyond #2 will not be added to the Boosterrific Database, and this blog post will be the only place on the site you'll see it.

If that bothers you, I recommend that you get to your Local Comic Shop and pick up your own copy of Flashpoint Beyond #2, just like I did. A compulsive collector's job is never done!

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Available tomorrow at your Local Comic Shop:

Yes, that is Booster Gold on the wraparound Daniel Sampere/Alejandro Sanchez cover.

I should also mention that Booster is definitely on the inside, too. Pretty significantly, in fact.

That should be all you need to know before deciding to pick up Dark Crisis #1, but if you want (slightly) more, AIPT.com has a preview of the first five pages (with Booster appearing on two of them!).

Buy this book and make Skeets happy.

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