DC's November solicitations are out, and Booster Gold is in!

Specifically, he's in Batman Beyond #49.

BATMAN BEYOND #49
written by DAN JURGENS
art and cover by PAUL PELLETIER and NORM RAPMUND
cover by DAN MORA

To safely return to his own timeline, Batman Beyond will have to defeat the villain Blanque without being seen by his mentor, the World's Greatest Detective—Batman! Will Booster Gold help keep Batman Beyond hidden, or will time as we know it become completely undone? You do not want to miss this issue!
ON SALE November 24, 2020

I'm starting to hope that time as I know it *will* be completely undone, but DC's constant series of reboots has conditioned me to expect that I would like the new universe that takes its place even less.

I'm assuming from the way the solicitation is written that the book will have two covers. DC only released one cover with the solicitation, the one drawn by Dan Mora. While that cover is beautifully drawn, it does not include even a hint of Booster Gold. I hope Pelletier and Rapmund don't make the same mistake.

You can find a complete list of DC's November 2020 solicitations at GamesRadar.com.

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: batman dan jurgens gamesradar.com solicitations

My list of the twelve best Booster Gold comics is presented in chronological order of publication. Otherwise, entry number 8 would have appeared much higher.

May I present to you the glory that is 52 Week Fifteen, the "Booster Gold Memorial Issue" and one of the earliest inspirations for what would become Boosterrific.com.

Art by J.G. Jones, color by Alex Sinclair

Spoiler Alert: Booster Gold dies in this issue.

For most of the early 2000s, Booster Gold was an afterthought, a wash-up has-been of a hero out of the public eye. His time in the shadows was preparing him for a new turn in the spotlight. But before Booster could soar, he had to fall. When Booster Gold does something, he doesn't settle for half measures.

If I didn't know better, I'd say don't be so hard on yourself, Booster. But this is only the first level of the inception.

Re-reading those panels once you learn who's wearing the Supernova costume and why, you'll start to see the play within the play. (Booster Gold as a Shakespearean tragic hero? Yes, please!) Who can't respect a character who is willing to go that far to save his friends?

I'm hesitant to say too much, as the Booster Gold story running throughout the ensemble series is as much a mystery as it is a tale of redemption. If you've never read 52 cover to cover, do yourself the favor of correcting that mistake. With all due credit to every writer, artist, and editor involved (including Dan DiDio), I say that 52 is about as great as long form American super hero comics storytelling can get.

And issue 15 is particularly good, certainly good enough to be included among the twelve best Booster Gold comics.

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: 52 best of supernova

Booster booster Logan writes in to say

I spy with my little eye one Booster Gold in today's Dark Nights: Death Metal #3! My intuition nudged me to reserve a copy at my LCBS last week—I'm glad it looks to have paid off. :)

Trust that instinct, Logan! Booster is one of many, many characters in Dark Nights: Death Metal #3. In fact, his appearance in this story is that Greg Capullo-drawn panel Scott Snyder teased on Twitter back in June. So that's one mystery solved.

Go ahead and buy this issue to make Skeets happy, but don't expect to understand what's happening. I sure don't.

The issue references dozens of other comics published over the past two decades, challenging the recall of even hard-core continuity fans like me. There are four Batmen (Batmans?) in the first four story pages alone. Have I met them all before? (Wasn't Silver Surfer Batman one of those Legends of the Dark Knight action figures?)

Not even issue editor Marie Javins (who also happens to be one of the few to survive Monday's "bloodbath" of layoffs at Warner/DC) expects readers to be able to decipher who's doing what to whom here.

If I'm making up my own stories, Marie, I certainly don't need to be giving DC $5 for this.

According to the checklist in the back of the issue, there are — count 'em — twenty (!) *more* comics to go in this seven-issue mini-series. I guess I should praise DC's brevity for keeping it down to 24. It took 26 issues to list everyone in 1985's Who's Who, and there were only two Batmens back then. On the other hand, if this event is anything like what we've seen recently, the "end" of the story will only bleed into the next event series with twice as many issues and derivative characters again. Twenty three is a very small number compared to infinity and beyond!

Sorry, but I think I'll pass. My head-banging days are long behind me. I think I'll stick to the Wonder Comics imprint from now on.

Keep up the good work, Logan. If Booster appears in any more Death Metal issues, I'm counting on you to let me know!

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: death metal greg capullo logan peterson marie jarvins new releases scott snyder

When we last left Cort's Booster Gold sketchbook, Cort had promised new pieces soon. He wasn't kidding!

The four newest hotnesses:

Kalman Andrasofsky

Mike Manley

Staz Johnson

Scott Koblish

Cort, I'm starting to think that you're spending more money creating Booster Gold art than DC is these days. Keep up the good work!

As always, you can see all these and more at imgur.com.

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: commissions cort carpenter imgur.com kalman andrasofsky mike manley scott koblish staz johnson

In the wake of DC Cybernetic Summer, the past week has become all about Blue and Gold, so now would seem to be the appropriate time for me to make my argument in defense of their canonical, platonic relationship. In a nutshell, I say not everything has to be about sex.

In published canon, Booster Gold and Blue Beetle have been inseparable since the very first year of Justice League International stories. Their intimate platonic love, better known as "friendship," has been the basis for a lot of stories in the decades since in no small part because everyone enjoys spending time with people who so very much enjoy spending time with one other. We like Blue and Gold because they like Blue and Gold, and that's great.

Romantic love is also great. Who doesn't enjoy a good love story where two people find that they each complement the other and form a lasting paired set? Everyone wants to live happily ever after.

But not every great relationship has to be a romantic one. The difference between platonic and romantic love is physical. It's natural for a human to seek out romantic love; we're biologically programmed to want to reproduce. However, a sexual relationship isn't a prerequisite for lifelong happiness, and an intimate emotional connection needn't be merely a stepping stone to a consummated marriage. Perhaps I've read too many chivalric fantasies, but I happen to think that sort of chaste, close relationship is just as worthy of celebration as the romantic kind.

So let Booster Gold date Harley Quinn. (Or not.) But the real love of his life is and always should be Blue Beetle. No romantic feelings or sloppy kisses are necessary to cement that bond.

Comments (5) | Add a Comment | Tags: blue beetle boostle friendship harley quinn