I bought and read Dark Crisis: Young Justice #1. For what it's worth, I liked it fine but am at a complete loss to understand how these characters' continuities connect to the characters in Bendis's 2019 Young Justice series. (Why do I care more about continuity than DC does? What's the point of an event series celebrating "legacy" characters if the details of that legacy are an unexplained mystery?) But how I feel about the book isn't what brings me here today.

No, today's topic is "Who is standing behind Booster Gold?"

art by Laura Braga

I had hoped that the answer to that question would be in the published issue. It is not. That means that all I have to go on is the image itself. So besides Booster Gold and Blue Beetle, I can confidently identify only (1) Cyborg, (5) Wonder Girl, and (7) Starfire. Who are those others?

The purple hood on number (2) makes me think it is supposed to be Raven or Spoiler, however the darker skin makes me think maybe Vox? (Please don't be Pandora.)

There's a pretty good chance that number (3) is Doctor Light without her headpiece, yet (4) certainly can't be Wally West in his pre-Rebirth costume, can it? For all I know, (3) and (4) could just as easily be Outsiders Katana and Geo-Force.

Things get really weird with number (6). She sure looks like Black Canary, but Canary was a member of the League, and for several weeks, it has been implied that she "died" off panel in Justice League #75. I note neither she nor her fellow leaguers Green Arrow or Zatanna get a statue here or in the same scene Dark Crisis #1. Are they all alive? If so, shouldn't they be leading this memorial service instead of standing in the crowd?

And of course, number (8) is Booster Gold again, right? He loves funerals so much, he's already time-traveled back for more!

Naturally, a definitive answer to these identifications is useful only to totally obsessed fans like me who track fictional character interactions. However, if any of you other totally obsessed Booster boosters have any other guesses, I'd love to hear them.

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Some events in the DC Universe are so significant, they are revisited over and over again. How many times have you seen Krypton explode? Or Martha Wayne's pearls? Or the Martian Manhunter's funeral?

I mention that last one for a reason. Manhunter was the first hero to die in 2008's Final Crisis, and his funeral was seen in both Final Crisis #2 and Final Crisis: Requiem #1. And Booster Gold was there both times. (In fact, Booster Gold was seen at DC's most significant funeral of the 21st century again as recently as 2019's Harley Quinn #67. Take that, Krypton!)

Well, it's starting to look like Nightwing's memorial service for the fallen Justice League seen in Dark Crisis #1 is the latest in repeatable solemn events. That memorial service will be seen again in this week's Dark Crisis: Young Justice #1. And once again, Booster Gold is in the crowd, as you can see in the issue preview at aiptcomics.com.

Booster Gold sure must love funerals.

Buy this issue's alternate cover by Todd Nauck (with Snapper Carr in a Booster Gold t-shirt) and make Skeets happy.

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As you may have heard, Superman For All Seasons artist Tim Sale passed away yesterday, which means this panel from Challengers of the Unknown #5 (1991) is as close as we're ever going to get to his take on Booster Gold in a DC publication.

Obviously that's *not* Booster Gold. I can't even find a Booster Gold commission drawn by Sale. If you know of one, please leave a link in the comments. I hate to think that we've permanently missed a chance to get his distinctive take on our favorite hero.

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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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