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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I was recently asked whether we would ever see Rani again. I think that's a pretty good question.

For those who don't know or don't remember, Rani was a supporting character in later issues of Booster Gold Volume 2. Displaced from her natural era (the 30th century), she was taken in by Booster Gold who treated her as family. That makes Booster something of a surrogate father to the young girl. Rani was still a member of Booster's family when the events of Flashpoint changed the DCU. She hasn't been seen or mentioned since.

Now Infinite Frontier has restored all previously existing chronologies into an infinite DC Multiverse, Rani certainly exists somewhere. But it remains an open question whether readers will ever see her in the pages of an ongoing comic again. In other words, will we ever learn what became of Booster Gold's young ward?

Obviously, I can't predict the future, but past experience leads me to believe that Rani's story may never be told. Comic book supporting characters rarely follow the heroes they support from title to title. Artist turnover is high in the world of comic book publication. New storytellers often want to tell their own story, not continue the story of a previous teller. So even if Booster Gold gets another chance at the spotlight, it's unlikely that Rani will follow him (unless Rani's creators, Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis, are the ones telling that story, and even then it's no guarantee that they would want to retread old ground).

Which is not to say that it's impossible. Creators like Roy Thomas, Grant Morrison, James Robinson, and Geoff Johns have made careers out of breathing new life into long forgotten characters. Who's to say that someone won't pick up the loose threads of Rani's story and run with them?

I sure hope so, Rani. You can't ignore family forever, can you?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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