Every family has its bad seeds. While many might suggest that Booster Gold is the problem child in his own family, the real black sheep of the Carter clan is actually Booster's father, the good-for nothing Jon Carter.

In the very first telling of Booster's origin (by Skeets to Superman in Booster Gold Volume 1 #6), Booster's father is mentioned only in passing. Booster later confirms his father's absence from his 25th-century life while relating the story to his friends in Booster Gold Volume 1 #13: "You see, my old man was a compulsive gambler. He lost everything we had a couple of times over and finally took off when I was four."

Booster led everyone to believe that his father wasn't particularly important in his life after the year 2446 other than for setting the example on how gambling can destroy families (thus making young Booster's turn to gambling even more tragic).

The truth is actually much worse.

Booster Gold Volume 2 #44

As it turns out, before Jon "Jonar" Carter* abandoned his family, he was actually quite abusive to his wife, to the point where Mrs. Carter required hospitalization on multiple occasions (Action Comics #995). It is no surprise that after he left, his mother swore off relationships, declaring that she was "fine without a man!" in Secret Origins #35.

Despite this history of abuse, young Michael Jon "Booster" Carter always craved the approval of his absentee father. After achieving early success as a quarterback at Gotham University, Booster sought his father out. But approval was not forthcoming.

Instead, Mr. Carter manipulated his son into a deepening spiral of illegal activity for his own personal gain.

Booster Gold Volume 2 #0

Despite the warnings of his twin sister, Michelle, Booster was unwilling or unable to extract himself from this bad situation. In 2462, he was caught, expelled, and ostracized, leading him to exercise more of his trademark questionable judgement by stealing a time machine and running away into the past.

Rather than stand by his son, Mr. Carter turned state's evidence against his former gambling associates, even going so far as trying to sell out his own son (as Booster would only discover many years later after a time travel accident in the aforementioned Action Comics #995).

Rather than serve out a ten-year prison term for his own bad behavior, Mr. Carter jumped at the chance to join Black Beetle and Mister Mind in their time-manipulating scheme to seek revenge on Booster and Rip Hunter, who had prevented Mister Mind from taking over reality in 52. Despite the fact that Mr. Carter was little more than a small-time crook, the supervillains needed his Carter family DNA to access the powers of the of the Supernova costume created by Hunter.

It was while masquerading as Supernova that father and son would once again cross paths in Booster Gold Volume 2 #2 before the mask came off in Booster Gold Volume 2 #4.

Once the truth was revealed, Booster cut off his father's own ear to excise the Venusian worm in his brain and free him from the villains' control (Booster Gold Volume 2 #10). Shortly afterwards, Ted Kord sacrificed himself to correct an unstable alternate timeline. Mr. Carter hasn't been seen since.

Understandably, Booster has been in no hurry to re-establish a connection.

Action Comics #995

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

* In four decades of Booster Gold comics, the elder Mr. Carter is identified by name only once: as "Jon" in 2008's Booster Gold Volume 2 #10. In a response to the 2010 Boosterrific.com post "Dan Jurgens on the Creation of Booster Gold," Booster booster Erin of exploringthetimelab.blogspot.com pointed out that Geoff Johns writing as Skeets in an article on the Newsarama website (presumably in 2008) explained "'Jon' is a 25th century shortening for Jonar which means 'he who tried and failed.'" I have never been able to track down the original article, and the name "Jonar" has never appeared in print in an official DC publication. But I believe Erin and a significant portion of the fanbase seems to accept this as a fact, so Boosterrific.com has adopted "Jonar" as a convenient shorthand to differentiate father and son who share the name "Jon."

Other People in Booster Gold's Neighborhood:

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Today at your Local Comic Shop, you can pick up a reprint collection of Booster Gold's last appearance in the mainstream DC Universe in the All In Saga trade paperback.

And while you're there, in case you missed it, you may want to know that Booster also appeared in a couple of panels in the Black Label Superman: Last Days of Lex Luthor #3 that came out last week. (Thanks to clonegeek for that spot.)

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In 1985, DC Comics decided that their continuity had become so complex and discouraging to new readers that they had a Crisis on Infinite Earths to scrap everything and start over. DC has spent the past few decades rolling that back, but I'm starting to think that they had a point. Case in point:

Per Booster booster Jade Knight:

Our guy's really on a roll right now. One of the most recent episodes of Teen Titans Go! sees him on an assembly line being forced to lay eggs alongside his pal Ted Kord and other members of the DCU (S9 E8: "Teen Titans and the Easter Factory"). Yes, you heard that right.

I'm not a regular Cartoon Network Teen Titans Go! viewer, but watching the episode to grab that screenshot made it clear that the cartoon Teen Titans had some serious backstory with the Easter Bunny. So I looked it up on teen-titans-go.fandom.com.

The Easter Bunny was introduced in season 3 ("The Teen Titans Go! Easter Holiday Classic") as a captive of a rogue Santa Claus plotting to take over all the holidays. The Titans were repulsed by the Easter Bunny's half-man, half-rabbit appearance and especially the fact that a half-man/half-rabbit lays eggs. Despite their misgivings, the team still aided him again in season 4 ("Easter Creeps") to save Easter from the Tooth Fairy. In season 5 ("Booty Eggs"), the Titans decide the Easter Bunny is too creepy to tolerate any longer and work to replace him themselves. (When you think about it, this pretty much the same plan as hatched by Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy in the earlier episodes, but Teen Titans Go! episodes are better when you don't think too much.) The Titans are forced to realize they aren't cut out to run Easter and cede oversight back to the Easter Bunny.

In season 7, the pattern repeats itself when the Titans have to help the Easter Bunny defend Easter from Marshmallow Ducky ("Feed Me"), and Beast Boy foils Santa Claus's latest attempt to take over all holidays from the Godfather-inspired Holiday Mob ("A Holiday Story").

In season 8 ("Easter Annihilation"), inspired by Aliens, the Easter Bunny finally becomes a fully fledged supervillain when he decides that every day should be Easter. His plan? "Since Easter is based on the lunar calendar, I'm going turn the moon into an Easter Egg so every day will be Easter!" (Like I said, don't think about it.)

Anyway, all that history informs the latest Easter Bunny episode in which the Easter Bunny's latest plan for world domination is to impersonate Willy Wonka's famous chocolate factory and capture all the heroes and villains of the DCU to lay eggs until there are enough for everyone in the world. (Don't. Think.)

I think I'll have a crisis myself if I have to watch any more Teen Titans Go! Easter episodes.

Thanks to Jade Knight for keeping us informed.

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Look, I'm getting old. I know it. And because I'm old, I sometimes get nostalgic for giant shoulder pads, Marlboro cigarette ads in print magazines, and giant overblown hairstyles on dudes. And boy, does this page from Justice League America #63 hit that sweet spot!

Looking back on this 1992 issue from the distant future of 2025, I'm struck by just how of its era it really was. Way too much arguing about interpersonal relations (which was all the rage in the best-selling X-Men comics of its day) and the wisdom of military interventionism (a la "Operation Desert Storm" in Kuwait that brought with it heated discussions of a new draft).

Cap it all off with Fire's new very 90's — dare I say "extreme"? — costume. Chef's kiss!

Bea sewed a whole new costume in just 6 pages? Now that's a super power!

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I get a kick out of seeing Booster Gold referenced in places I don't expect. Although I know that our hero was the greatest football prospect of all time, that doesn't appear to be common knowledge even among people who claim to understand the game, which makes it extra amusing to see Booster pop-up in a football conversation.

Writes Jarrett Bailey in a March 20 article for USA Today's Touchdown Wire ("49ers need to fully embrace a rebuild and trade Brock Purdy"):

Purdy has never been the one credited for their success. He's never been the Batman or Superman of the Justice League-[esque] rosters the 49ers put on the field every Sunday over the last number of years. At best, he's been Green Lantern -- scrambling around, making things happen off-platform. and getting the ball to one of his several All-World playmakers. At worst, he's been Booster Gold -- the butt of several jokes and not looked at as a serious threat from the quarterback position. Rather, being seen as the trailer being pulled by this massive truck.

Hey, if we're picking teams, I'll take Booster Gold over Green Lantern any day. Green Lantern never played quarterback. (Although, honestly, I'd much rather have a Green Lantern on my football team than a Batman. Batman is famously not a team player.)

I have a hard time believing that the target audience of a USA Today sports column has any idea who Booster Gold is, but I certainly appreciate our oft-underestimated hero getting an outside-of-comics shout out.

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