The life of any comic book hero would be a lonely one if not for the many characters who have made up their supporting cast. Just as Superman has Lois Lane and Batman has Alfred, Booster Gold has also shared his adventures with quite a few people over the years. Today we look at one of those, Blackguard.

When you hear "Batman villain," you probably think of the Joker. Superman has Lex Luthor, and Wonder Woman has Cheetah. It's an old adage that all heroes are defined by their opponents. But before you can battle the king, you have to work your way up the hill.

Long before Joker, Batman started his career against Doctor Death. Superman originally matched wits with the Ulra-Humanite; Wonder Woman had Princess Maru. Everyone has to start somewhere.

Booster Gold started with Blackguard in the pages of Booster Gold #1.

Blackguard's technology was a gift of his sponsor, the criminal organization 1000, who had hired him to steal technology from Metropolis' S.T.A.R. Labs. A clumsy getaway resulted in his first, accidental encounter with rookie hero Booster Gold.

The inaugural confrontation between hero and villain took up most of the pages in Booster Gold #1 as the matched pair took turns showcasing their super powers and abilities. Both had scientifically advanced power suits. Booster was lithe; Blackguard was strong. Booster had energy lasers; Blackguard had an energy mace. Booster was smarter, and Blackguard was ultimately defeated.

Everyone's got to have a gimmick, and "being defeated" would soon become Blackguard's. Despite his considerable cybernetic strength and amazing, mentally-controlled energy constructs, Blackguard's general incompetence would lead to his defeat again...

Booster Gold #2

...and again...

Booster Gold #3

...and again.

Booster Gold #4

Blackguard appeared on three of the first four covers of Booster Gold beginning in 1985, but unlike our hero, Blackguard's journey would be out of the public eye. While Booster was growing rich and/or famous, the forgotten villain spent most of the next few decades — except for a *very* brief stint as a henchman for the devil Neron — in maximum security prisons The Slab or Belle Reve. He gave himself the aspirational nickname, "The Human Killing Spree" (in Guy Gardner: Warrior #36) but given his track record, it's hard to believe he could ever successfully kill even a single person — unless it was by accident.

When he was finally paroled in 2005, Blackguard turned over a new leaf. Using his given name, Richard "Dick" Hertz, he partnered with experienced restaurateur Guy Gardner and opened a bar in the building next door to Booster Gold's Super Buddies team headquarters.

JLA Classified #4

Like so many other would-be reformed villains, Blackguard was eventually given a second chance to do bad, and he still tried to make the best of it as an agent of Task Force X, better known as the Suicide Squad. In Blackguard's case, it lived up to its name.

Ironically, Blackguard has become more famous in death than he ever was in life. He made his live-action movie debut in last week's The Suicide Squad, where he is portrayed by Pete Davidson.

Meanwhile, glory-seeking Booster Gold is still waiting for his shot at movie stardom. Blackguard didn't win at much, but at least he's got that.

Are you interested in meeting other "People in his Neighborhood"? Follow these links to get to know Trixie Collins, Daniel Carter, Jack Soo, Rani, Dirk Davis, Skeets, Mackenzie Garrison, Rip Hunter, Michelle Carter, Nurse Devlin, Monica Lake, and Doctor Shocker.

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Bleeding Cool has discovered several yet-to-be-announced upcoming DC comics reprint collections, and one of them includes a Booster Gold adventure:

The Flintstones: The Deluxe Edition
HARDCOVER $49.99

Welcome to Bedrock, where Paleolithic humans head to dinner for a taste of artisanal mammoth after shopping at Neandertall & Big Men's Clothing, where Wilma shows her modern art, and where, if you take a plane, you could end up sitting on the literal tail section. It's Fred, Wilma, Pebbles, Dino, Barney, Betty and Bamm-Bamm as you've never seen them before! The Flintstones garnered significant critical acclaim for its modern take on the iconic Hanna-Barbera prime-time animated series. This darkly hilarious title casts an acerbic eye on issues like consumerism, religion, politics, and relationships that's both distinctly 21st century and uniquely the Flintstones!

The critically acclaimed creative team of Mark Russell (Prez) and Steve Pugh (Animal Man) turned a beloved classic cartoon into a modern graphic novel masterpiece, and the entire 12-part story is collected in this Deluxe Edition hardcover—along with Booster Gold/The Flintstones Special #1, where DC's time-traveling hero meets Fred and Barney!

Booster Gold/The Flintstones Special was released waaaay back in 2017, which feels like a few stone ages ago. Reprinted once already in DC meets Hanna-Barbera collection of out-of-continuity one-shots, it'll be nice to have it reprinted with The Flintstones mini-series (where it really belongs).

The Amazon listing says the book is scheduled for release on February 8, 2022. If you plan ahead, maybe your Local Comic Shop can get you a discount when it does finally come out.

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Booster Gold rides in with the cavalry in this week's Justice League #66!

It's a cameo appearance, sure, but the book ends on a cliffhanger that promises more action to come. Maybe Booster will have a bigger part in the next issue? (If he's lucky, he may even get a whole line of dialog!)

And while we're on the subject of brief appearances, perhaps you'll recall that last week Booster's Gold's hair made a cameo in Teen Titans Academy #5? DC must have liked that, because this week they put Booster's hair in all of their books:

Director Bones enjoys running his fingers through Booster's hair.

This is the fourth weekly variant "Multiversal Monitors" house ad promoting the "Infinite Frontier" era. Each consecutive edition has retained and shuffled some images from the week before. In this case, Booster Gold and Blue Beetle are still on screen, relocated behind Director Bones where only Booster's hair is visible.

Booster should move quickly to capitalize on all the exposure his scalp is getting. If Dirk Davis was still his manager, I'm sure he'd be in television commercials for Mane 'n Tail by now.

Buy a comic book and make Skeets happy.

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Watching the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, I'm seeing commercials with Olympic athletes who, according to disclaimers at the bottom of the screen, don't even use the products they're endorsing.

Why do I feel I've seen this all before?

Booster Gold #2 (1986)

In my "Secret Origin of Booster Gold" interview with Dan Jurgens, Booster's creator describes his inspiration this way:

Much of Booster was inspired by the '84 Olympics when I saw an athlete described as having an endorsement contract without ever having won a medal. Many of the BG ideas were already in place but that sort of galvanized it.

The years might roll by, but Booster Gold and the forces of commercial opportunism and social insecurity that drive him and his misadventures are as relevant as ever.

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On Wednesday, I showed you this panel created by Steve Lieber for the June 2021 issue of Teen Titans Academy #4:

Seeing that panel, Cort Carpenter realized that the Booster Gold headshot looked incredibly similar to one he had commissioned from Lieber last year (previously shared with Boosterrific.com on October 19, 2020):

They do look alike, don't they? My first impression was that Cort's commission was a study used for the new work, but closer inspection makes it clear that Lieber used his earlier black and white commission as the foundation for the new piece of digital art. Just to make it clearer, here's a gif of the two pieces overlaid:

Isn't that cool? You can even see where Lieber erased his signature when adding color. Cort's commission is now a piece of original comic art. How often does that happen?

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