As all Booster boosters know by now, DC has announced a new Blue Beetle/Booster Gold mini-series coming in July 2021. What you may not know is just how long it has taken to get to this blessed event. On Twitter, Dan Jurgens wrote:

To be clear, this is the third, maybe even fourth time this project has been on my board, the first in '88or '89. Nice to have it become a reality and even better to have the incredible Ryan Sook drawing it. So good! (@thedanjurgens, Twitter.com, Apr 21, 2021)

I can attest that 1988 is the date that fans first learned about it. What follows is the first in a series of three posts that originally appeared here on Boosterrific in June 2011:

In Boosterrific.com's never-ending quest to catalog every Booster Gold appearance in a DC publication, I recently perused several issues of DC's pre-Previews solicitations, Direct Currents. Many of the early issues include interviews with DC artists. The artist interviewed for the "People At Work" column in issue #8 (August, 1988) is Dan Jurgens.

The article -- presumably written by Paul Kupperberg -- includes a brief biography, including the facts that Jurgens was inspired to read comics by the 1966 Batman television show, and that his first work for DC on Warlord resulted from a chance meeting with Mike Grell at a comic book convention. It even contains a bit about the origin of Booster Gold. But the part I found most interesting was this paragraph:

"Then there's next year's ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN ANNUAL, which I'm co-writing with Jerry Ordway and pencilling. And, of course, the one project I'm really excited about is something that DC's still got in the planning stages, called THE BLUE AND THE GOLD, a new series starring Booster Gold with the Blue Beetle. They've gotten real popular as buddies in Justice League International, so I think a book co-starring the two of them is a natural. It's going to have that unique JLI flavor to it."

We know it was never released, but how close did DC come to publishing The Blue and the Gold series teaming Booster Gold and Blue Beetle?

It's worth noting that there was no Adventures of Superman Annual released in 1989, and that no Adventures of Superman Annual shares writing credit between Dan Jurgens and Jerry Ordway (though both contributed to Action Comics Annual in 1989 and several issues of Adventures of Superman). So it seems that DC was being very flexible with their schedule in the late 1980s.

Next time, we'll look for more clues about the series that almost never was in Justice League letter columns from the 1990s.

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It's been a good week for Booster Gold fans, made all the better if you were fortunate enough to bump into this sketch by Otto Schmidt on Twitter.

Now *that* is my kind of collar. Hail to the king, baby.

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"BREAKING NEWS" is not something that a Booster Gold blog has much opportunity to say, but I think this counts.

DCComics.com has just posted... well, here it is in its entirety:

DC Comics Proudly Presents 'Blue & Gold' by Dan Jurgens and Ryan Sook!
DC's two favorite underdogs (Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, not Dan and Ryan) launch their own eight-issue miniseries!

Michael Carter, aka Booster Gold. A scoundrel from the future armed with stolen technology, a time machine and a robot pal named Skeets, is intent on making a name for himself in the past!

Ted Kord, aka Blue Beetle. The inheritor of a proud legacy of crimefighting who had no powers to speak of, but who carried on the Blue Beetle legacy with just his wits and his fists...is armed with a whole lot of gadgets and a sharp sense of humor!

Together, they're going to make headlines in DC Comics' Blue & Gold, a limited eight-issue miniseries by Dan Jurgens and Ryan Sook launching this July!

Desperate to regain the spotlight, Booster Gold looks to attract the public's (and Justice League's) attention the same way any washed-up, second-rate hero would—social media. The not-so-tech-savvy hero from the 25th century enlists the help of his best friend, Blue Beetle, who possesses both the money and the brains to help his old pal navigate the scary world of internet influencers.

Watch out, evildoers, our heroes are live and online!

Don't miss Dan Jurgens's triumphant return to Booster Gold, teaming with all-star artist Ryan Sook (Legion of Super-Heroes), telling a tale filled with heart...and maybe even redemption for DC's two favorite underdogs!

Blue & Gold #1 (of 8) by Dan Jurgens and Ryan Sook arrives on July 20 with a cover by Sook ($3.99) and a card stock variant cover by Dave Johnson ($4.99).

For more information on Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Skeets, Time Travel, the DC Multiverse and the World's Greatest Super Heroes, visit http://www.dccomics.com, and follow DC on social media at @DCComics and @thedcnation.

(I apologize for reposting the entire solicitation in full, but it feels like a special occasion, like the announcement of an armistice treaty. The original text is posted at https://www.dccomics.com/blog/2021/04/21/dc-comics-proudly-presents-blue-gold-by-dan-jurgens-and-ryan-sook)

If that doesn't make your 2021, Booster boosters, nothing will! (Thanks to all who made sure I saw the news.)

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UPDATE 2021-04-21: This post was originally sent live on April 21, 2021, but I have backdated it to clear the deck for some more important news!

The Flash 769 arrives in your Local Comic Shop this week. As you can see from the cover, Gold Beetle features prominently.

Says Barry Allen: "She looks like...well...like both of...you know." And that's as close as this issue gets to name-dropping Booster Gold.

The Gold Beetle in this issue is a fast talking, brash time traveler with a painfully strong Dr. Who vibe. The accoutrements and mannerisms aren't a perfect match to GB's first appearance (in Future State Suicide Squad, also written by Jeremy Adams), but as with the encounters with The Doctor, there's no guarantee we're meeting her in chronological order. Time Travel Is Complicated.â„¢

Which brings us to today's big question: should Boosterrific.com be tracking Gold Beetle appearances? When I put the site together 14 years ago, it honestly didn't occur to me that I might need to be tracking Booster Gold legacy characters. It didn't occur to me until earlier this year, in fact.

I do track Booster's sidekicks. I've logged independent Skeets appearances (though that's only happened a few times in JLA trophy rooms), but Goldstar had never yet appeared in a book without Booster. Should I be logging Gold Beetle appearances somewhere? Given that this is only GB's third appearance, maybe I can put that decision off until later.

Meanwhile, if you absolutely have to have a new comic with Booster Gold in it, there's always the Who's Who Omnibus Volume 1, a 1320-page hardcover reprint of most of DC's late 80's Who's Who encyclopedias, including Booster's entry in the Who's Who Update '87. It costs $150, but such is the price of nostalgia on glossy archival paper.

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I try to ignore CBR most of the time. (Are they primarily an entertainment tabloid with a little comic book news or a clickbait farm? Both?) But every once in a while they get my eyeballs, as they did with this article titled "The Justice League's Silliest Member Almost Took Down a Classic Team by Himself" by Nabeel Gaber.

The article is a recap of the events of Justice League #4, which is indubitably the best of the best Booster Gold comics ever. And for the most part, it's actually very positive. But it's not entirely accurate.

I might personally quibble with the description of the Royal Flush Gang as "a classic team" — the "team" is based on a costume gimmick and all the original members are dead, so isn't that a bit like saying that "classic" Gwar is still touring? — but my real complaint comes from this:

It's also significant that Booster Gold and Blue Beetle, two of the goofiest members of the Justice League, were the ones to defeat Ace. Even though these two worked well together in a comedic context, they were also a formidable fighting team.

What Gaber fails to make clear is that Justice League #4 is the *first* team-up between Booster Gold and Blue Beetle. Neither one was ever "goofy" without the other; all the comedy would come later. At the time, this was just powerhouse Booster Gold proving he could work with a team, something that had not been clear in his solo appearances to date.

The "Blue and Gold" paring actually begins in Justice League International #8's "Moving Day," which is the first time the two characters were featured away from the team. (Justice League became Justice League International with issue #7.) The humor developed naturally out of the relationship between the two JLI members who shared the unusual superhero problem of having lost great personal wealth. Comedy is just tragedy plus time.

It's nice that CBR can help modern readers enjoy the great comics of yesteryear. (Justice League #4 came out on May 5, 1987, thirty-four years ago!) But, c'mon. Booster Gold is hardly the Justice League's "silliest" member. Plastic Man is.

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