Ross Pearsall's Super-Team Family Presents... blog is one of the very few site that I visit on a regular basis. It's always worth seeing what inter-company team-ups Ross comes up with, especially when they're this radical:

I think it's great to see these signature teams of the 1980s finally come together, even if only in Ross's imagination.

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If you visited your Local Comic Shop this week, you might have picked up a copy of the DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Celebration #1 like I did. The title is an accurate representation of what's inside the book, and I enjoyed the much-deserved spotlight on characters who too rarely get their share of the accolades.

If I had any problem with the book, it was only that it was too short. DC Comics has several other notable Asian characters worthy of more attention, characters like August General in Iron, Rising Sun, Maya, Doctor Light, and the head of Research and Design for Booster Gold International, Dr. Jack Soo.

In the spirit of further celebration of the contribution of Asian characters to the DC Universe, what follows is a post about Soo's trailblazing contribution to the cast of Booster Gold Volume 1 in the 1980s, previously published on the Boosterrific blog in 2015:

It cannot be denied that the original cast of Booster Gold was pale. Michael Carter was white. Trixie Collins was white. Dirk Davis was white. About the only characters in the first six issues who weren't white were Booster's orange cats, Jack and Jill. (Hey, it's not Booster's fault that Metropolis was settled almost exclusively by Western Europeans and Kryptonians.)

The eventual introduction of supporting cast member Dr. Jack Soo in Booster Gold #7 finally provided an injection of some much needed color.

Jack Soo was the best young inventor at Scientific and Technological Advanced Research Laboratories (aka S.T.A.R. Labs) when he was hired to create a new female super suit for Goldstar, Inc. He delivered on his reputation and earned his place in Booster Gold's supporting cast.

While Soo's specific heritage is never addressed, his tan skin, dark hair, and narrow eyes indicate Asian ethnicity. "Soo" also happens to be a Westernization of the fairly common Chinese surname "Su."

Of course, it's hard not to notice the sudden appearance of an ethnic minority in a comic full of white characters. But was Asian the right race for Booster Gold's first new supporting character? I mean, isn't "Asian scientist" a little cliched?

As always, I turned to creator Dan Jurgens for the answer.

Yes, we realized that we need to have a more diverse cast.

I would also add that "Asian scientist" might seem a bit stereotypical now, but it certainly wasn't 30 years ago.

Jurgens has a point there. While ethnic Asians make up almost 15% of all modern science, technology, engineering, and technology jobs in America today (second in percentage only to — you guessed it — whites), that number was closer to 5% in 1980 according to census.gov.

We haven't seen Jack since Booster Gold #22 (1987). I assume that's because he's been hard at work in his lab creating new wonders. Thanks for all your hard work, Dr. Soo.

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Friend of Boosterrific ("F.O.B") Mike Foster took me to task for spending last Wednesday teasing Green Arrow when I should have been focused the latest Gold Beetle appearance as seen in this panel from that week's Green Lantern #2:

words by Geoffrey Thorne, art by Dexter Soy, Marco Santucci, Alex Sinclair

Exactly why Gold Beetle appears to be handcuffed is unclear, as this panel is her only appearance in this issue. Perhaps the "present day" Time Masters have finally taken notice of her recent shenanigans in Future State: Suicide Squad #1 and #2 and Flash #768 and #769.

By the way, this would seem to be Gold Beetle's first canonical (objectively documented) meeting with Rip Hunter and Waverider, her previously reported encounter with the "Linear Police" being merely anecdotal (as told by her) and apocryphal (because she's the very definition of an unreliable narrator). Good luck finding a game show that will ask for *that* thinly-sliced bit of comic book trivia.

At the rate Gold Beetle is popping up across DC's new Infinite Frontier, it's only a matter of time (har, har) before she finally comes face to face with Booster Gold and Blue Beetle themselves, maybe in this summer's Blue and Gold mini-series that everyone I won't stop talking about.

Thanks for the correction, Mike.

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Spotted on Twitter: a new Blue and Gold commission by artist Dean Kotz:

Always so much fun whenever these two are together. Fun for me, that is. They don't look like they're having such a great time — even if they do look great doing whatever it is they're doing. That's one radical flared collar, Booster.

Great work, Dean.

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Let me start with this disclaimer: I don't speak Spanish. The following story by Xabier Migelez comes to me secondhand through MSN.com and Google Translate:

Javier Dãvila loses the boat of 'Pasapalabra' because of the Booster Gold robot

Javier Dãvila caressed the juicy pot of 'Pasapalabra' on Monday . The man from Salamanca played a great program, but could not win the 1,570,000 euros at stake. For the second time in this stage, Dãvila was just one word away from correctly completing the rosco .

The program was looking for the "name of the comic book character, who is a robot, who accompanies the superhero Booster Gold on his adventures" , but did not find the correct answer. The contestant went around the donut six times, leaving only the letter 'S' unanswered.

Despite having more than enough time on the scoreboard, Dãvila acknowledged not knowing the answer: "I'll keep thinking because Booster Gold doesn't sound like anything to me. As long as I have time, I'll have hope." But after Pablo [Diaz]'s second ruling, the man from Salamanca had to risk and choose an answer. He said 'Stan', the very name of the autonomous valet robot that already works at Lyon Airport , but it wasn't the answer the show was looking for.

You mean to tell me there is a Spanish television game show that asked its contestant about Booster Gold's sidekick? I'm not sure I'd believe that even without the questionable syntax of Google Translate if I hadn't found a video clip of the episode on the website of the show's channel, antena3.com.

One-and-a-half million euros is a lot of money to lose, but don't feel too bad, Dávila. I'm sure most Americans don't recognize Skeets, either.

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