Now available at your Local Comic Shop is Harley Quinn Volume 5: Hollywood or Die, collecting the complete "California or Death" story from Harley Quinn #70 through #74. It's a lampoon of a the Hollywood detective noir genre (think The Big Sleep or Chinatown or, maybe more appropriately, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid).

The best part is that Booster Gold has a starring role as the romantic leading man!

*gasp!* They're not wearing masks!

If you didn't see the fireworks between these two lovebirds the first time around, it's because you're a rational person who recognizes a bad mismatch of personalities without being hit over the head with a giant mallet now's your second chance!

To give the story fair credit, if you didn't know anything about Booster Gold or Harley Quinn before reading this, I'm sure you'll find it actually quite charming. Sam Humphries builds a passable DCU mystery story with a grab bag of endearing characters, and Sami Basri's art sells a lot of punchlines, both comedic and pugilistic.

But still, some characters simply shouldn't be used in some plots, knowwhatI'msaying? This story came out only months after Heroes in Crisis established a very different relationship between Booster Gold and Harley Quinn. Can you imagine if The Fugitive had ended with Dr. Richard Kimble kissing the One Armed Man? (The Fugitive. That's a show kids watch these days, right?)

As always, Skeets encourages you to buy any comic that features Booster Gold this prominently.

Comments (4) | Add a Comment | Tags: harley quinn new releases sam humphries sami basri

Sometimes I need a reminder that the world is full of creative people doing good things, and that's what Ithildyn gave us this weekend. Specifically, we got a link to this video:

Apparently, that's a DC Comics skin mod featuring Booster Gold and Blue Beetle created by CosmicBeetle for a rhythm game called "Friday Night Funkin'" by ninjamuffin99.

I've never been any good at rhythm games (I have two left thumbs), so I'm content to watch the video. If you're the sort who's into playing such things, there are resource links in the video description.

Thanks, Ithildyn.

UPDATE 2021-04-15: Mod creator CosmicBeetle dropped by the comments with a link to the official trailer (also viewable on YouTube), so I've removed the gameplay video I'd originally embedded above. Sorry about that, CB. You've done good work.

Comments (2) | Add a Comment | Tags: cosmicbeetle friday night funkin ithildyn ninjamuffin99 video games youtube.com

DC Comics has taken the unusual tact of pitting its potential audience against itself in whittling down pitches for upcoming books with its current "Round Robin" tournament.

If you are unaware, DC has revealed 16 different comic book concepts by 16 different art teams. These concepts were set in paired brackets, and fans are asked to vote for their favorite in each pairing. After four rounds, the winning pitch is promised a series. There's one big problem with this plan:

None of these concepts include Booster Gold.

One round has already been completed. You can find details and concept art for the potential books still in the tournament at community.dcuniverseinfinite.com.

Go ahead and vote for the ones you like. (The Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle soldiers on, but Justice League Pets has already been eliminated, and I can't bring myself to care about the rest.) I offer my congratulations to whoever wins. But don't be surprised if I keep a firm hold on my purse strings until such time as Booster Gold reappears in the DC Universe.

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: blue beetle dcuniverseinfinite.com i am a grumpy old man

Today at your Local Comic Shop: more Dark Nights: Death Metal!

Don't worry. DC isn't releasing new chapters of last year's Death Metal event. (At least not yet.) This is the first collect edition for the seven issues of the main Dark Nights Death Metal mini-series. DC is calling this one Dark Nights: Death Metal: Deluxe Edition (because someone at DC *loves* colons).

I don't know if the story will make any sense without the eleventy-something crossover tie-in one-shots, but come to thing of it, it didn't make much sense with them, either.

Booster Gold was in issues 3, 5, 6, and 7. Those are all cameo appearances, but Booster did get a couple of lines:

There are no small parts, only small heroes. Go get 'em, Booster!

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: death metal new releases

With tornadoes and fools now in the rear-view mirror, let's get back to what's really important around here: the awesome awesomeness of Booster Gold.

Last week while I was taking a forced sabbatical from the Internet, artist Michel Fiffe teased his upcoming story in the Superman: Red & Blue anthology with a step-by-step construction of this panel:

I love the fact that our golden hero will be appearing in glorious black and white — with flight ring *and* high collar! — in Superman's comic. Stealing Booster's color is probably a ploy by the Man of Steel to prevent Booster from outshining him. (Again.) The Rainbow Raider would be proud.

You can see the complete breakdown of Fiffe's panel art on Twitter.com. And you can buy a copy of Superman: Red & Blue #3 at your Local Comic Shop on May 18.

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: michel fiffe superman twitter.com