Friday, September 26, 2025
If you're not a nut about professional American football, you might not know who sportswriter and Pro Football Talk founder Mike Florio is. That's okay. I mention him only because, according to sports website AwfulAnnouncing.com, he has written a new novel, Big Shield, with a premise that might sound somewhat familiar to those of us who know Booster Gold's origin story:
Carson is a former college star just trying to hang on in a league where the bodies are disposable. It's easy to see how the lure of easy money from [gangster] Johnny would be too much to turn down. While Carson has limited value to teams, he is immensely valuable to Johnny. Inside information in America's most popular sport is hard-to-obtain currency. The person who would know a lot about the details before the game, such as injuries, and during the game, such as play-calling, would be someone like a third-string QB.
In the real world, some of the circumstances might seem hard to believe. However, according to Florio, this book is set in the not-too-distant future. What is very easy to believe is that someday someone will successfully offer an NFL player a bag of cash for inside information, to fake an injury, or worse.
Given that the dam has now burst, professional sports leagues and media companies are in business with the gamblers, and there is no such thing as amateur football anymore, I'm starting to think that the most far-fetched aspect of Booster Gold's origin story as a disgraced point-shaving quarterback is that future American society would feel he's done anything disgraceful.
Booster Gold Volume 1 #18
If you make people enough money, you're already a hero to them.
| | Tags: awfulannouncing.com gambling mike florio
Shawn posted on Sep. 26, 2025 at 10:16 AM
Both Florio and Dan Jurgens are big Minnesota Vikings fans
SLW (Steff) posted on Sep. 26, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Most college athletes are exploited terribly. There are whole papers and studies done on it. And how we view agency and culpability in this society is disgusting, especially when it does come to those being exploited, as if the spotlight and mere shot at something like fame is payment for the punishment they put their bodies and brains through.
Booster was a desperately kid with no resources in a dire situation with no way out. The only disgrace in all of that belong to the people using him.
Jeff posted on Sep. 26, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Given the recent times of college sports and nil money where some student athletes are making millions in college, it makes you think. Given the fact Michael only starts betting on his own games to pay for his mothers surgery, would they need to tweak boosters origin as he was the best college football player and was probably making millions in college why would they be a need to bet on his own games? Or am I overthinking this lol.
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Sep. 26, 2025 at 9:48 PM
It's worth noting that American football is just starting to make a comeback in Booster's 25th century as society continues it's recovery following the Great Disaster. So maybe they have stronger rules against what we used to call "cheating."
Jeff posted on Sep. 26, 2025 at 11:28 PM
On another note, If the great disaster you're talking is the same one that relates to the character komandi. I thought that timeline was a else worlds story?
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Sep. 27, 2025 at 1:21 AM
Yes, the original Great Disaster was on Earth-AD. In the Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths era, with the Multiverse reduced to a single timeline, the Great Disaster was re-imagined as a nuclear war in the 21st century that was explored in the series HEX and referenced directly in BOOSTER GOLD volume 1.
SLW (Steff) posted on Sep. 27, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Also referenced in Time Masters.
Jeff, the thing you're getting into there is where the Watsonian (in-universe) read collides with the Doylist reality. It wasn't until 2021 that college athletes were allowed to make any money on themselves and even then, they were allowed to control their images, names and likenesses (NIL), not to get paid to play. (Though there are some really ugly things going on in college football that circumvent that kind of thing, involving private donors and 'gifts' and shit, which is not dissimilar from what happened with Michael.)
It's only now -- this year! -- where House v. NCAA was signed off on, allowing colleges and universities to pay players from the athletic budget, and I believe the cap is 20 million. Which is admittedly an astronomical sum of money, but that's a social problem. I'm not blaming the teenagers and early-twenty-somethings for it.
But this wouldn't have been the case when Dan wrote Vol. 1, ergo you can't assume that it would be the case for Booster regardless of whether it is now. Booster would have been playing under the rules as Dan understood them to be. Further, unlike Pete Rose or the Black Sox, his motivations for getting into it were -- as I've said when writing about this myself -- the most forgivable and understandable. Whereas the people exploiting this kid were a whole different kind of ballgame.
Personally -- and this is a very unpopular opinion -- I think football really oughta die off and not be resurrected, because the damage it does to the bodies and brains of the players is horrific. I worked in a stadium -- and not as a low-level grunt -- and watched them carry kids off the field, so I bet I've got more experience with this than most. But we're a frankly selfish nation that likes our entertainment more than we actually care about the people giving it to us, so that's not gonna happen; at least if college athletes are being paid, it's something in return for the fact they're risking CTE and various other horrors.
And yes, don't get me started on high school football, either. Even as a former band kid.
Anyway, the upshot is that Michael's backstory doesn't really need revised. It's an incredibly good backstory and frankly one of Dan's most brilliant pieces of writing; the way he doled that out over time and built it in each iteration, starting with what looked like selfishness and foolishness, but then adding little-by-little to it, until you realize just how screwed up and awful it was and just how little agency Michael actually had, possibly was some of the best character work I've seen in a comic. Maybe some of the best I've seen in any fiction.
It's tangled and twisted and painful and human and very, very understandable. Changing that would be taking away from its genius.
Eskana posted on Sep. 28, 2025 at 2:49 PM
In a football-related note, Glen Powell, a popular pick to play Booster Gold, is going to be starring in a show on Hulu in which he plays a washed-up college football player who just wants one more shot. He goes a decidedly different route than Booster.... but not TOO far off, really.
Audition tape? YOU decide.
SLW (Steff) posted on Sep. 28, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Glenn Powell's not pretty enough, in my opinion. LOL!
Wednesday, September 24, 2025
Pay attention, Booster boosters, as Booster Gold is in three different comics today!
Did I say "different"? According to Rob Snow, not so much. Apparently, while Booster Gold is in Justice League Unlimited #11, it's just the "last page splash panel. Same exact scene as the last page splash panel in Superman #30" that sets up next month's Justice League: The Omega Act.
You all already know my opinions on what's going on over in Superman, so that's all I have to say about those.
However, the third comic is New History of the DC Universe #3, which has been twice delayed past its original expected date August 27. Two delays are kind of fitting considering that Booster Gold and Skeets(!) are on two of its covers, one by Chris Samnee and the other by Scott Koblish. Both are really great. AIPTComics.com has a preview of the interior that confirms that Booster Gold and Skeets are inside, too.
Buy some comics and make Skeets happy! Thanks, Rob.
| | Tags: aiptcomics.com justice league unlimited new history of the dc universe new releases previews rob snow superman
SLW (Steff) posted on Sep. 24, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Yeesh. What a misery-fest.
Monday, September 22, 2025
It's taken over a year since DC solicited the first issue of Justice League Unlimited by teasing the new team would "encompass every hero championing the forces of good in the face of incredible evil!" And we're finally getting an issue with Booster Gold in it.
According to the December 2025 solicitations, Booster Gold will be on the Kevin Wada alternate cover to Justice League Unlimited #4.
JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #14
Written by MARK WAID
Art and cover by DAN MORA
Variant covers by SANFORD GREENE, JEFF SPOKES, KEVIN WADA, and STEVAN SUBIC
$3.99 US | 32 pages | Variant $4.99 US (card stock)
ON SALE 12/24/25
As the time-displaced heroes fight for their lives against the towering might of the demonic Neron, Mr. Terrific descends into the cold vacuum of space! But this time it’s by his own design…can Michael Holt team with the rogue agent behind Justice League Red to purge all emotion and coldly calculate the fate of humanity? Grab the tissues, everybody—this issue’s about to break some hearts!
Great! Another fun book from the happy people at DC Comics!
You can read the full list of solicitations at ComicsBeat.com.
| | Tags: comicsbeat.com justice league unlimited Kevin Wada solicitations
pigeon posted on Sep. 22, 2025 at 12:27 PM
he needs a shower, or at least some dry shampoo. his poor hair is so greasy
SLW (Steff) posted on Sep. 22, 2025 at 2:13 PM
@pigeon I think this is the first time he's ever *not* had good hair after a prolonged period of torture and/or deprivation and they're milking it for all its worth.
Morgenstern posted on Sep. 22, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Just because Booster is featured on the cover, that does not mean he is featured in the story, as it was demonstrated recently. And the text of the solicit does not exactly scream Booster Gold. He might still show on the last page again...but should it be another dud, i would start to wonder if they plans for a one-shot focused on Booster Gold that got canned, but was far enough for Cover Art to be commissioned. Like what happened with BG #37:
https://www.previewsworld.com/Catalog/AUG100174
While there was of course an issue #37 in Booster Gold Volume 2, the Story had nothing to do with the original preview and the already finished cover art was never used.
bob posted on Sep. 22, 2025 at 4:56 PM
I think that he's going to show up in Superman. Being that's where he was last. I think he will try and clock Superboy Prime, fail. And Superman is going to save the day. And Mr. Terrific is going to show up. Does anybody else think that the new Time Traveler may be Rani?
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Sep. 22, 2025 at 9:53 PM
You'll note that the solicitation references "the time-displaced heroes." I do believe that includes Booster Gold based on images seen at Comic Con (and relayed in my post dated July 28, https://www.boosterrific.com/news/2025/07/28/What-We-Learned-at-Comic-Con-2025 ).
@bob Yes, Booster will definitely be in this week's SUPERMAN 30. You can already see previews of that at AIPTComics.com and BleedingCool.com .
SLW (Steff) posted on Sep. 23, 2025 at 8:56 AM
I still think that if the kid he was rescuing in that one panel *wasn't* Rani, they missed a hell of an opportunity. But otherwise, I'm just watching all this happening like the Ben Affleck smoking meme at this point.
Friday, September 19, 2025
Believe it or not, one of my least favorite parts of running a website devoted to a comic book superhero is wading through all the Internet rumors and arguments about potential appearances in other media. I love movies as much as the next guy, but not superhero movies. My imagination brings superhero comic books to life better than Hollywood screenwriters and CGI.
Despite my personal misgivings, I recognize that Booster Gold fans are really, really interested the subject, and I admit that tracking a history of such things falls squarely inside the mandate that I have set for myself here at Boosterrific.com. In the past, I've put that content into the Boosterrific! Blog, but I recognize that information there can be a little hard to dig out.
Therefore, I have finally come to the decision to build a single landing page for credible reporting (with supporting source links where available) on all of the DC-sanctioned live-action projects that have ever been considered. You'll find it in the menu above under Booster Gold > Movie Development. Or, if you're in a hurry, here's a direct link: boosterrific.com/booster/movie.php
| | Tags: movies website update
Tuesday, September 16, 2025
When I was writing last week's "Favorite Pages" post and was looking for a list of DC event villains, I quickly Googled, well, see for yourself:
Yeah, that's really, really wrong. But it also sounds like a much better story than what we got.
| | Tags: google heroes in crisis
Rob snow posted on Sep. 16, 2025 at 11:11 AM
I dont belive I've read this " Heros in Crisis "comic you speak of. And if it did exist, surely it wouldnt be a steaming festering pile of actual dog$#!+ would it?
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Sep. 16, 2025 at 2:58 PM
I think I need to build a system to "like" comments.
Eskana posted on Sep. 18, 2025 at 7:50 PM
"AI responses may include mistakes."
Well, so can the original story lol
