I do not have Blue and Gold #4 in my hand yet, but DC Comics' exclusive direct-market partner, Lunar Distribution, expects it to ship this week for a November 16 release, and I'm going to take them at their word.

DC feels so confident, in fact, that they've already released a sneak peek of the book to Comic-Watch.com. It's a cute couple of pages of Blue and Gold being interviewed by their adoring press, but the best part is

"Art, Present Day" by Ryan Sook, "Art, Blue Beetle's Sequence" by Kevin Maguire, and — most importantly — "Art, Booster Gold's Sequence" by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund?! It's a Justice League International and Booster Gold Volume 2 reunion! That alone should be worth the wait.

Buy this issue and make Skeets (and Buggles) happy!

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Boosterrific.com is, and is intended to be, a niche website for Booster Gold fans.

The comics lists and annotations are designed to provide information about the complete adventures of the character and his world, its creators, and its inhabitants. The goal of the blog is to capture all those Booster Gold references outside of comic books.

Those are all great, and I'm pretty happy with them. But the question I'm asking today is how could it be better?

What pieces of information about Booster's adventures am I missing? What else could I do that other sites don't? If you have any ideas, let me know.

Panel from the very accurately named Countdown to Infinite Crisis #1, 2005

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In this week's final issue of Justice League: Last Ride, when the chips are down and the cavalry is needed, in rides Green Lantern with an army of lantern-constructs of everyone who has ever been in the Justice League.

How do we know it's the whole league? Take a look:

story by Chip Zdarsky, art by Miguel Mendonça, Enrica Angiolini, Andworld Design

They're all there, every lesser-known leaguer from Aztek to Zatanna. There's even a Blue Beetle! So even though we don't see a construct of Booster Gold, he has to be in there somewhere, right?

That means that, technically, Booster Gold arrives on the scene to save the day! Whoo-hoo!

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Blue and Gold #4 was originally solicited for October 19, but when issue 3 slid to October 12, it was easy to see that that issue 4 would be significantly off target, too. Expect to see it next week.

In the meantime, may I suggest that you read a book. Maybe the kind without pictures. Perhaps a book like The Death and Life of Superman (1993, ISBN 0-553-09582-X) by Action Comics writer Roger Stern?

You'll find this historic passage early in Chapter 8:

Now that's what I call literature!

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Up front, let me say that I bought two copies of the first issue of Human Target, one by Greg Smallwood — showing Booster Gold's fist! — and one by Hairsine, Miki and Beredo — showing Booster Gold's leg! (I like to think of them as parts of a "Build-A-Figure" cover.) Having read the issue, I do not regret that decision.

However, that should not mean that I'm ready to endorse the story based on the first issue alone. I am on record as no fan of Tom King's storytelling, especially in reference to the way he handles Booster Gold. It is very clear that King and I have very different interpretations of the character (and most of the other inhabitants of the DC Universe).

Earlier this week, King was interviewed by Jenna Anderson for comicbook.com, and he explained why he chose the Justice League International for his story:

"What Giffen and DeMatteis put into these characters, they all feel very fleshed out," King added. "They all feel very real. When you picture them in your head, you just see that Kevin Maguire face looking up at you. They're very easy and very fun to write. The thing I most love to do in comics is to take silly ideas seriously and find the depths in them, and that concept was all over this — the idea that these little silly flaws that are implanted in these characters actually show real heart and real depth. Like I wrote this thing for Booster, why Booster's good. And the idea is, Human Target expressed my opinion on Booster as 'Booster is a joke. He makes mistakes all the time, but he doesn't hide them. He shows himself. He is himself. Booster is Booster. Yeah, he's a joke, but everyone is. At least Booster's funny.' That kind of stuff is incredibly fun to do. These characters have such potential — each one of them could launch their own series."

Ahem. Almost all of them have launched a series. Or two. Or more.

I have to admit, I can kind of see where King is coming from calling Booster "a joke." Yes, he has some terrible ideas, and yes, he takes advantage of his friends, and he even occasionally misjudges his own abilities. But those traits could just as easily describe Batman.

Maybe it's my incredible dissatisfaction with the way King depicted Booster Gold during his run on Batman or my anger at the horrible handling of the promotion and resolution of Heroes in Crisis that make me suspicious that Booster will be treated badly by Human Target. But at least I can rest assured that this will be the last time King will use Booster in a story, right?

King continued. "Booster Gold [is] my favorite character to write in all of fiction — who is always trying to do good, and always slipping on the banana peel."

Grr. You can't always get what you want. Sometimes, you can't even get what you need.

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