For many reasons (not the least of which was that as a poor college student I didn't have $30 in discretionary funding to spend at that time), I didn't pick up Bizarro Comics when it was released in 2001. I only finally read it last week, and was pleasantly surprised to find Booster Gold making a very brief cameo appearance when Mr. Mxyzptlk takes a look at what goes on inside Bizzaro's addled brain.

Art by John Kerschbaum and Tom McCraw

My brain might be just as addled. I've always thought that "Metropolis' Golden Guardian" would be a great nickname for Booster Gold... if it wasn't already the name of another DC character!

Jim Harper debuted as the shield-carrying policeman known as Guardian in 1942, but his clone used the "Golden Guardian" name in the 1970s. They were originally created and named by the comic book gods Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, you know, the same guys who get credit for a certain shield-carrying super soldier.

Of course, that pedigree and seniority only carry weight if you respect them. if Booster really wanted the title, he'd just take it. Maybe I should, too.

Bizarro would approve.

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This week's unexpected Booster Gold cameo (there on the bottom right between Beast Boy's legs):

That's Dark Nights: Death Metal #5 where Booster Gold has joined the heroes and villains of Earth assembled to confront the Batman Who Laugh's evil multiverse. This is set up to be the final battle at the end of the DC Universe, and it must be a big one; there are still 6 books yet to come in the Dark Nights: Death Metal event (at least one of which we'll be buying for the covers alone).

You can find an issue preview at CBR.com, but don't expect it to make a lot of sense. This series is not about making sense.

Skeets says buy it if you want to.

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Cort's back with more Booster Gold sketchbook pages! He writes

These are a fun and varied mix of styles so it was nice to add them all to my collection. Which is now 59 pieces large! 2020 has had a lot of downs and twists and turns, but it has been fruitful for having artists open their lists for mail-in commissions, and I've been very lucky and very grateful for that.

Jon Bagdanove

Will Conrad

Elsa Charretier

Nick Prolix

Way to find the bright side of everyone being stuck at home without regular jobs in 2020, Cort! (And we're grateful that you shared your luck with us.)

You can see Cort's full Booster Gold sketchbook online at imgur.com.

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Quick recap: In early 2021, Booster Gold will be appearing in a two-part mini-series, Generations: Shattered (January 15) and Generations: Forged (February 23). This story will not be related to the "Future State" event DC is publishing over the same period. (More details available in these Boosterrific posts.)

Until now, we've talked only about Shattered, but we're finally starting to get some good information about the second half of the series. Noah Dominguez and CBR.com and Michael Doran at Gamesradar.com have the advanced solicitation text:

GENERATIONS FORGED #1
written by DAN JURGENS, ANDY SCHMIDT, and ROBERT VENDITTI
art by BRYAN HITC, MIKE PERKINS, BERNARD CHANG, PAUL PELLETIER, and others
covers by LIAM SHARP and RAFAEL ALBUQUERQUE

Dispersed through time by the villain Dominus, our ragtag team of generational heroes -- featuring 1939 Batman, Kamandi, Superboy, Steel, Starfire, Sinestro, Booster Gold, and Dr. Light -- must find a way to restore the timeline... and what they ultimately discover is something far, far greater You'll have to read it to believe it as time dies... and generations rise!
ON SALE February 23, 2021

standard cover by Liam Sharp

alternate cover by Rafael Albuquerque

Booster boosters know that our hero's planned origin story relied heavily on Superboy's continuity which was erased from the DC Universe by the original Crisis on Infinite Earths. It will be pretty cool to see the two characters finally interacting.

By the way, if you don't recognize "the villain Dominus," Russ Burlingame has the explainer of this 1990s Superman foe at Comicbook.com.

It's looking like it'll be a very Boosterrific 2021! Hooray!

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Booster Gold doesn't show up in any of DC's books this week, so let's talk about next week, where we should expect our hero to make a cameo appearance in Underworld Unleashed: The 25th Anniversary Edition.

For those of you who weren't reading comics in 1995, Underworld Unleashed was that year's universe-wide "crisis" crossover event. The demon Neron engaged in a campaign tempting the inhabitants of the DCU to sell their souls for a taste of greater power and influence

For obvious reasons, many villains were quick to agree to the bargain, and even some heroes found the temptation impossible to resist. Those who accepted were warped into XTREME versions of their former selves. (The influence of Underworld Unleashed is painfully evident in the current, never-ending Death Metal series, which probably plays a role in DC's decision to reprint it now.)

Eventually, the remaining heroes rallied their fractured teams (divided at the time into the Justice League America, Justice League Task Force, and Extreme Justice) to confront the growing evil.

Sometimes these group panels are like playing "Where's Booster?"

Despite being far from a moral paragon, Booster Gold was never approached by Neron, leaving our hero at the fringes of the story. He made cameo appearances in only two panels in the three issues in the mini-series (issues #2 and #3). And while the crossover event spilled over into two issues of the ongoing Extreme Justice series, Booster was mired in a sub-plot about Firestorm's immaturity and missed out on events when Star Sapphire made life difficult for his teammates in issue #10.

(Ironically, Booster would succumb to the temptations of a different evil manipulator just two months later in Extreme Justice #12 as culmination of a long-running subplot. One imagines that Extreme Justice editor Ruben Diaz, knowing what he had planned for future issues of his series, used his influence as assistant editor of Underworld Unleashed to keep Booster out of the event. That's the sort of role that editors used to play behind the scenes before DC Comics' parent company Warner Bros decided they were an unnecessary expense.)

If you like the 1990s DCU, especially if you like the villains, then you'll get a kick out of the 25th anniversary collection. Personally, I'm still saving up for the inevitable Extreme Justice omnibus. I mean, if DC is reprinting the 90s, they might as well go straight for the top (or bottom, depending on your point of view).

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