DC Comics has announced (via press release) that the company's June 2021 anthology book, DC Pride will focus on a theme of "LGBTQIA+ characters from across the DC Universe."

The press release fails to define "LGBTQIA+". I'm familiar with shorter acronyms, but rather than assume that it meant what I thought it meant, I looked it up. Wikipedia directed me to the University of Illinois Springfield who explained the term as "a common abbreviation for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Pansexual, Transgender, Genderqueer, Queer, Intersex, Agender, Asexual and other queer-identifying community." So more or less everyone who isn't a square.

I assume from the inclusive acronym that DC is trying to reach the largest possible audience with this book. That's commendable (and a pretty good tactic for a large for-profit publishing company). I love DC's anthologies with their focus on the less famous, oft-neglected characters of the DCU, and I will be buying this one, too.

As a straight white guy, I fully admit that I am not in a position of authority to talk about what should or should not be in a book celebrating a community that defines itself with an acronym I didn't know, and I will refrain from doing so.

What I do want to point out is that the press release specifically identifies many familiar characters in the DCU who qualify as LGBTQIA+, including Batwoman, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, Midnighter, Earth-11 Flash, Alan Scott, Obsidian, Aqualad, Dreamer, Renee Montoya, and Pied Piper. Since you are reading this on a Booster Gold fansite, you may notice a couple of key omissions from that list.

Even in the new, inclusive Infinite Frontier DC Universe, DC Comics doesn't Boostle.

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Now available at your Local Comic Shop:

Batman Beyond Volume 8: The Eradication Agenda collects the final 8 issues of the recently-canceled Batman Beyond series, including the excellent 2-part "Canceled by Yesterday" story written by Booster Gold creator Dan Jurgens.

If you missed that the first time around, you'll be pleased to encounter it in this reprint paperback.

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Some days I'm like, "what should I post today?" And other days I see things like this:

That's not a physical Justice League Unlimited Skeets model, but it could be.

It's creator, 3DPrintedPropsStuff on etsy.com, is selling the 3D files necessary to print your own 16-inch (!) Skeets model on your own personal 3D printer. I don't happen to have one of those, but if I did, this is exactly the sort of thing I would use it for. (And then I'd put an Alexa speaker in it.)

If you'd rather print yourself a Skeets that looks more like everyone's favorite security droid appeared in Booster Gold Volume 2, 3DPrintedPropsStuff has got that model, too.

Being able to print my own sidekick robot at home is something I couldn't even have dreamed of when Booster Gold debuted in 1985. The future is Boosterrific, indeed!

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You may recall that this time last week, I asked whether the "Linearverse" introduced in Generations Shattered and Generations Forged should count as continuity. That question got answered (in a roundabout way) when earlier this week Russ Burlingame took a break from writing books about movies to interview Generations writers Dan Jurgens, Robert Venditti, and Andy Schmidt in a spiritual successor to his old "Gold Exchange" column for ComicBook.com.

ComicBook: The idea that realities have always been there, just out of sight, rather than actually being destroyed, is a revelation to the characters here -- but is that how you view the worlds that are destroyed in each subsequent Crisis event? Certainly it's how The CW explicitly dealt with their post-Crisis multiverse.

Dan Jurgens: I hadn't thought about it that way, but I certainly see your point!

For me, on a personal level, I find it harder to accept the notion of entire planes of reality being destroyed, only to be recreated again. "Hiding" them or making them inaccessible actually seems much more believable. The amount of energy required to destroy and recreate universes is tremendous, after all.

Plus, we weren't going to change anything. The Linearverse was meant to stay much the way it had been, which is a place that is belt around DC's published history.

Robert Venditti: To steal from Dan a bit, I hadn't really thought of that. I don't know if it's important to me that definitive explanations are made. Mostly, I want to leave toys in the sandbox for other creative teams to play with. I think we've done that.

Andy Schmidt: One of the things that I generally want to shy away from as a creator is writing over someone else's work or saying that it never happened. Because it happened for the reader and for the creators who put those stories together. They're real and they're important to someone.

Most of the comics I grew up reading that got me into comics in the first place have been retconned so they never happened, but they're still what made me fans of those characters in the first place. So, for me, it's just kind of a respect thing for fans and creators both. If it's real to you — I should treat it as such. Generations Shattered and Forged gave us a platform to re-validate those "hidden" stories as you called them. To let readers and creators know we remember, and we still love those stories, while also crafting something new to introduce those takes on characters to new fans. It's challenging and it's fun and I think it's upbeat in the approach and hopefully in its execution.

I like the "it is what you want it to be" approach to the DC Universe — which in the past has made such titles as Formerly Known As The Justice League possible — so I'll choose to consider the story canon. Thanks, guys! I think I'm going to like this Linearverse.

Elsewhere in the interview, the creators also talk about why they chose the characters they chose to include in the story, as well as the long shadow Zero Hour cast on Generations. I recommend you read the whole article yourself at ComicBook.com.

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DC released barely any new comics this week, at least none with Booster Gold in them. However, they did re-release a collected edition of their 1996 four-issue event mini-series, Final Night.

In this story, the star-devouring Sun Eater has devoured Earth's star, and the heroes of the DC Universe do what they can to prevent the complete collapse of civilization. It's kind of a dark story.

If you weren't around to read it the first time around, here's Booster Gold's entire contribution to the event:

Final Night #1

Final Night #3

And that's it. Not even a line of dialogue! The "Extreme Justice"-era was a lean time for our hero. (I'm sure he was very busy behind the scenes.)

Booster Gold's involvement aside, the mini-series is better known as the first step on the road to redeeming fallen hero Hal Jordan. It's also the event that kick-starts the infamous electric Superman Red/Superman Blue era. (Is it just a coincidence this collection is being released a week before DC launches the new Superman: Red and Blue title next week? I think not!)

It's not a bad story, and if you're not familiar, give it a look. At the very least, you're going to want to know what "really" happened before you read the inevitable Tales of the Dark Multiverse version.

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