Monday, March 10, 2025
Last April, J.M. Dematteis posted to his blog, jmdematteis.com, pictures of the late Keith Giffen's plots for Booster Gold Volume 2, #43, and for some reason, I bookmarked them but never posted about them here at Boosterrific.
I'm correcting that oversight now.
This is page one of the issue, with Giffen's signature thumbnail plotting on the left and finished art (by Chris Batista, Rich Perrotta, Hi-Fi Designs) on the right.
I enjoy Bastista's work (I even own some), but side by side, I definitely prefer the Keith Giffen-drawn comic.
By all means, visit jmdematteis.com to see some more.
| | Tags: chris batista j.m. dematteis keith giffen
Jade posted on Mar. 10, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Oh man. Wotta legend. He produced some of my best reading material over four decades. RIP
SLW (Steff) posted on Mar. 14, 2025 at 3:56 PM
I'm always gonna be scratching my head about how the same man could do a pretty damn decent job writing Booster and a really lousy one writing Ted. His pencils are okay; neither artist is in my top five faves for Booster, though.
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Mar. 14, 2025 at 6:05 PM
In a vast majority of cases, Giffen scripted general plots through his thumbnail drawings with some meager notes, which were then adapted freely by DeMatteis for details and dialogue. So, really, if you have a problem with characterization, I'd expect that's on DeMatteis (who openly patterned the duo's relationship on vaudevillian comedian double acts popular in the first half of the 20th century).
SLW (Steff) posted on Mar. 14, 2025 at 11:04 PM
No, Giffen was definitely involved in Ted's characterization beyond just that. He and DeMatteis used to spend hours discussing this stuff and you're sort of downplaying his contributions here. If anything, DeMatteis softened a lot of Keith's intended dialogue because there was definitely stuff in there that wouldn't fly -- and this was something they said in interviews! -- so it's not as simple as just putting the blame on one person.
I'm not the only one who had a problem with Ted's characterization, either. Len Wein, who was an excellent writer, absolutely did and made that clear. He wasn't alone in that. Even if my word holds no weight, his certainly should. I love a lot of what Giffen and DeMatteis did, but Keith Giffen was no doe-eyed innocent who just scribbled a few things, and both men have made some pretty damn dodgy creative decisions. While warping Ted out of true was a fairly minor one, it's still one that irks me, especially since every single iteration of the man written since has had to either account for that warping or continues to cling to it.
Like, I love the JLI. I love a lot of what Giffen and DeMatteis did. But they weren't saints, nor were they infallible, sometimes they made some very debatable decisions (or were mercifully stopped from making them at least once in Giffen's case), and they can both own the responsibility. I mean-- remember, these are the same people who wrote Formerly Known and ICBINTJL, where character-warping was apparently sport.
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Mar. 15, 2025 at 2:52 AM
@SLW I'm sorry. The mistake I made here was assuming I understood what parts of the characterization of Blue Beetle in Justice League International caused you such consternation. For that, I do apologize. I will endeavor not to repeat that mistake.
bob posted on Mar. 22, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Hey Boosterific for no random reason I like this issue too. I've never gotten your opinion on this but I think I would like to. Firstly did you read Star Girl the Lost Children? My question to you is Is the Rip Hunter featured there the same Rip Hunter as featured in Booster Gold? If the answer is yes then why was he so mean to Corkey? My theory is that there has been two Rip Hunters for years. One guy impersonating him and the actual Rip Hunter. I think that DC changes their minds on this all the time. Would like to know your .opinion fan to fan.
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Mar. 22, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Two active Rip Hunters? I like that idea (which was toyed with in the 1990s incarnation of the Linear Men). There's definitely a Silver Age version and a post-CRISIS version of Rip (just as there are two Corkys). I felt like Geoff Johns was trying to mix the two era's continuities (in typical Geoff Johns' style) in STARGIRL AND THE LOST CHILDREN.
Friday, March 7, 2025
Following the Panic in the Sky, the Justice League reforms (in its fourth incarnation, assuming you don't count the "Detroit" era as the last gasp of the original team) in Justice League Spectacular #1. Most of the core "International" era team is still involved, which means there's plenty of Booster Gold to be had.
Which is a bit of a problem for me, actually, at least when it comes to determining which is my favorite page in the issue.
On the one hand, I love the art and Booster's inner dialogue and interaction with Blue Beetle on page 6 (drawn by Dan Jurgens and Rich Burchett, greatly enhanced by Gene D'Angelo's selective use of colors).
On the other hand, I also really love Booster Gold in action saving his allies on page 21 (drawn by Ron Randall and Randy Elliott in a much brighter but flatter style more reminiscent of Saturday morning television cartoons).
Which one is my favorite? Fortunately, I don't actually have to decide. This is my blog, and I make the rules, so I'll choose both!
Spectacular, indeed.
| | Tags: favorite pages justice league international
SLW (Steff) posted on Mar. 14, 2025 at 3:51 PM
My favorite is probably where they're fighting on the floor for a few reasons (and only like 3% of them puerile and maybe 10% of them waggling my eyebrows):
1.) Right before they get into a fight, Booster's thinking about how he can cheer his best friend up.
2.) Ted's not even in costume, Booster's in a power suit that lets him lift tons, has a flight ring AND a force field, yet he's back to the ground; the only realistic way Ted gets to have the upper hand in that fight the way he did is because Booster intentionally let him.
2a.) Because while I am the biggest stan of a Badass!Competent!Ted there is, I don't think he coulda gotten there on his own steam THAT FAST without Booster throwing the fight intentionally. But given Booster's been willing enough to throw a competition before for someone he loves, it's perfectly in line with his character to needle Ted into taking a shot at him and then letting Ted win, all in order to get Ted out of his funk.
3.) I love them so damn much.
Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Booster booster Morgenstern calls our attention to this reddit post by ablearcher013:
Quote:
A while back I started looking for a DC comics themed chessboard so I could combine 2 of my great loves (chess and comics). After seeing what was on offer, and not being a fan of any of it, I decided to make my own. How hard could it be... About a year later it's finally done. I used Funko Pops because it was the easiest way to get the characters I needed (and i liked the styling), but they wouldn't readily fit on a standard chessboard... Ok, we'll build our own chessboard! Once I realized how big a chessboard with 3.5"x3.5" squares would be I just decided to turn it into a coffee table. So after about a year of work and around $1000 of investment into it I'm finally done and pretty happy with how it came out...
![[Other] My DC chessboard is finally finished... via reddit.com](https://www.boosterrific.com/pics/news/reddit_ablearcher0123_20250125.jpg)
More pictures here: reddit.com/r/DCcomics/comments/1ix7y3b/other_my_dc_chessboard_is_finally_finished/
I agree, M, that's pretty cool.
I find it interesting that Booster Gold was also a white pawn in the 2012 Eaglemoss chess set. Keep on keepin' on, Booster. With enough perseverance (and a little luck), maybe one of these days you can be promoted to queen.
| | Tags: fan art funko morgenstern reddit.com
SLW (Steff) posted on Mar. 4, 2025 at 8:09 PM
-coughs- That's presuming he isn't already a queen. XD (C'mon, you can't give me an opening like that and not expect that joke!) Also, his name's getting mentioned in articles again now that we're seeing the Evil Legion, so I'll just pretend everything is gonna be ohhhhhh-kay.
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Mar. 5, 2025 at 6:48 PM
I don't see you guys rating
the kind of mate I'm contemplating.
I'd let you watch, I would invite you,
but the queens we use would not excite you.
SLW (Steff) posted on Mar. 8, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Bravo! Encore!
Friday, February 28, 2025
Who wants some good news?
A Booster Gold television show was first announced in 2011. That one didn't really go anywhere. Then, in 2016, there was some discussion that Booster Gold was being developed into a movie. That one didn't go anywhere, either. Then, in 2023, another Booster Gold television show was announced.
Now, here's the good news. That 2023 announced series isn't dead. Yet.
As The Hollywood Reporter reported Monday from a press conference by DC Studios Co-Head James Gunn:
A series on time traveling hero Booster Gold was waiting for a showrunner to make time for it but "maybe he fell out of love, maybe he got busy," he says, "but we had to pivot."
ComicBook.com adds:
Booster Gold, meanwhile, represents one of the studio’s most intriguing developments, with Gunn confirming the project is "going pretty strong."
So there you go. "Pivot" and "going pretty strong." When it comes to Booster Gold shows, that's as good as news gets.
| | Tags: comicbook.com hollywoodreporter.com james gunn television
Tiffany posted on Feb. 28, 2025 at 8:54 AM
I honestly don't know what I would want from a Booster Gold show. There's a lot going on with Booster as a character and an idea. It'd be hard to try and condense it down to TV show format. Not saying it'd be impossible, it'd be bad, nor that I'm not looking forward it. (Even if it's bad, DC would reprint a lot old Booster stuff and there's a good chance my library would pick it up.) Just having trouble visualizing it.
jeff posted on Feb. 28, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Really interested in which route they are going to chose to tell a booster series, whether it would be like his vol 1 comic with a young booster coming back to the past. or maybe they are going to give us the 52 series booster as an older Michael leaving his fame hungry life behind to become a time master. excited nonetheless.
SLW (Steff) posted on Mar. 1, 2025 at 4:32 PM
I have like-- no trust in Gunn. Mostly because he's a big fan of Tom King and has that absolute hack on staff as a writer, which is sort of like handing the keys to your Jaguar E-Type to a drunk sixteen year old who bought too much into his own hype. And Gunn also cast Nathan 'Whedon Apologist' Fillion as Guy, which is also egregious. (And given they seem to be casting all the original JLI as older, who even knows; it's a fair bet they'll cast Booster with some 50-year-old actor who'll last like-- four, five years in the role before the next reboot.) But hey, take your optimism where you can find it? I guess?
Luthier posted on Mar. 3, 2025 at 1:14 PM
My dream booster series, which I am so aware will never happen, is a buddy-cop style comedy with Ted with monster of the week style shenanigans. No high stakes angst, no long convoluted arcs, no batman (said with love).
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Booster Gold has been absent from comics for 147 days (21 weeks) and counting. That seems like a long time in part because DC keeps crowing about how inclusive their "All-In" initiative is, but Booster has been gone for much longer stretches before.
On this day in 2014, Booster Gold broke a 245 day absence from the DC New 52 Universe — at the time, the third longest recognized gap between published Booster Gold appearances in history — to make a brief 3-page supporting appearance as a deus ex machina plot device to get Jonah Hex returned to the past in All-Star Western #28.
If you don't recall, Booster's amnesiac misadventures alongside Jonah Hex in All-Star Western took place during the period he was unstuck in time leading to Convergence.
If the current Booster-drought streak were to extend to 245 days, that will be the first week in June 2025. Considering that we just learned Booster is unlikely to appear in any comics through May, that very well could be an optimistic assessment for his return from his current banishment from the DCU.
Keep your fingers crossed, Booster boosters.
| | Tags: all-star western jonah hex lists new releases
Tiffany posted on Feb. 26, 2025 at 9:33 AM
(Sorry if this is a repeat. I made a comment before. And to me it didn't show. I'm having a bit technical issues. Or you could just find the comments I'm doing annoying so are censoring them. But either way I'm trying again.) If only there was an upcoming time travel event that had the perfect set up to, at the very least set up Booster's return from the elseworld.
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Feb. 26, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Last month, Scott Snyder told ComicsBeat.com that any actual crossover was "a long time away" and hinted that the "inflection point" was coming in a big event this fall (the one year anniversary of ABSOLUTE POWER). I'm betting we don't actually see Booster until then.
Tiffany posted on Feb. 26, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Booster is in the future of the Absolute Universe. The far future. Were none of the heroes in that universe should be. A. a lot them probably died of old age. B. even if they did still live this a future were they lost. So they'd, best case, caged on Apokolips. So we can still see Booster without being a crossover. And DC as late seems obsessed with trying to step their events. So we'll probably get little teases, maybe scenes of Booster to step up "Inflection Point. Coming this fall"
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Feb. 26, 2025 at 5:44 PM
The last time DC teased that Booster was lost in the far future, the reveal was that he was really bouncing through pocket universes in the present. (I say that because I'm a knee-jerk contrarian, not because I have any actual insight. In fact, maybe I'm just in a bad mood. Please ignore me.)
SLW (Steff) posted on Feb. 26, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Do you censor stuff? I mean, it is your site and that's entirely your right, you owe no one a platform, but it's also a legitimate question for Tiffany to ask and receive an answer on, especially so people can self-moderate if they know roughly what would be or is being censored.
At the end of Superman this week is some of the Evil Legion that was bearing down on him at the end of All-In, which naturally has me screaming into a pillow like Nani in Lilo & Stitch, because ?????? I don't even know. I think we'll see him before the crossover, though. I doubt they tossed him over there just to kill him.
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Feb. 27, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Tiffany, so far as I'm aware, I played no role in whatever happened to your original post. I certainly did not intentionally delete it.
SLW, censorship implies the systematic suppression of particular ideas. No, I do not do that. Generally speaking. Explicitly, yes, there have been cases where I have deleted comments that I thought were spamming or trolling. Yes, I have blocked people and IP addresses that continued to produce problematic content. Yes, I can think of a couple of times I have edited posts to add/remove self-serving links or profane language. Yes, sometimes errors in the my scripts unintentionally eat or duplicate comments. And yes, I have simply pressed the wrong series of buttons and accidentally deleted posts before. So post at your own risk.
SLW (Steff) posted on Feb. 27, 2025 at 5:38 AM
I mean, fair enough, guy. I do all of the same things when I have bad actors and I'm considerably less kind when giving the boot. It wasn't an indictment, for certain, I am a huge proponent of website and server owners getting to exercise control of their space, but was curious because one of mine had gotten pared down at some point and I wasn't sure if it was a glitch or intentional. If it was intentional, then obviously I would want to avoid a repeat. XD
bob posted on Feb. 27, 2025 at 4:34 PM
I hope that Booster makes it back in time for the Marvel DC Crossover.
