The life of any comic book hero would be a lonely one if not for the many characters who have made up their supporting cast. Just as Superman has Lois Lane and Batman has Alfred, Booster Gold has also shared his adventures with quite a few people over the years. Today we look at one of those, Monica Lake.

It's a common practice for anyone seeking to become a celebrity to attach themselves to other celebrities. When Booster Gold was new on the scene, he was no different.

In order to maximize his client's marketing potential, Booster's manager, Dirk Davis, scheduled a very public dinner date for our hero at The Imperial, "one of the finest restaurants in Metropolis," in Booster Gold #3 (1986). The lucky (or opportunistic, depending on your point of view) starlet is Monica Lake, star of The Love Cruise.

Due in equal parts to Booster's vanity and Monica's disinterest, the date did not go well.

Despite the inauspicious start to their relationship, both Booster and Monica recognized the practical public relations value of continuing their association. By the next issue, Booster Gold #4, Monica was already in touch with Davis about staging another encounter. In Booster Gold #9, she revealed explicitly what she hopped to gain by the relationship.

For a time, the plan seemed to work. The media couldn't get enough of the couple. Rumors of an impending marriage between the couple started immediately ("his first, her fifth"!), and continued for months.

Gradually, this made-for-tabloids romance began to strain Booster's personal relationships, most notably with his secretary, Trixie Collins, who felt that Booster was demeaning himself (as seen in Booster Gold #10). Booster eventually agreed. After a near death experience and a trip to the future, he re-evaluated his life and decided that there was no room in it for Monica Lake, resulting in a blow-up between the two in the pages of Booster Gold #16.

It was not the last Booster would see of Lake, however. She may not have gotten what she wanted from their year-long partnership, but Booster sure did. He had successfully elevated himself into the celebrity social echelon, and the former couple would cross paths again at celebrity parties, such as the art gallery opening of painter Paul Morris' latest show (Booster Gold #19).

Neither Booster nor Monica come off looking very good in hindsight, but that's sadly true of all too many relationships. In all fairness, they were both immature. Booster was barely 20 years old at the time, and Lake couldn't have been too much older despite having already been married four times. Keep that in mind this Valentine's Day: if you want to maintain the magic in your partnership, don't be a childish jerk.

To answer the question of whether creator Dan Jurgens based Monica Lake on any real celebrities, click here to read my post from May 8, 2015.

Interested in meeting other "People in his Neighborhood"? Get to know Trixie Collins, Daniel Carter, Jack Soo, Rani, Dirk Davis, Skeets, Mackenzie Garrison, Rip Hunter, Michelle Carter, and Nurse Devlin.

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Booster Gold fans will find two "must buy" books in their Local Comic Shop today.

First is Superman: Heroes #1. Originally solicited for January release, the book was postponed for reasons that are not yet clear. In fact, back in January it was announced that the book would be delayed until February 19. So depending on how you look at it, the book is either two weeks late or one week early. *shrug* Maybe we'll know why it changed dates so much when we read it. (BleedingCool.com has the preview.)

Also available today for the first time is Justice League: Corporate Maneuvers trade, reprinting for the first time the first four issues of the Justice League Quarterly anthology. Twenty-five dollars seems a fair price for finally getting Booster Gold's black leather jacket printed on some high-quality paper.

Buy one or both and make Skeets happy.

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Booster Gold gets his hands on a karaoke microphone in Harley Quinn #70 to sing

When I was lost, you took my hand
When life was gray, you made it grand
When I was damned, you knew the deal
When my heard was sand, you made it steel

I'll call you babe, and you call me boo
I'll love you strong, and you love me true!
Until the end of the world, I love you!

Don't be surprised if you don't recognize the song. It's not real. It was created by issue writer Sam Humphries specifically for the occasion ("to pass legal"). But he didn't create it without inspiration.

According Humphries himself (@samhumphries on Twitter.com), the song was inspired by "For Crying Out Loud," written by Jim Steinman and performed by Meat Loaf on his 1977 epic operatic album, Bat Out of Hell.

I've always thought of Booster as more of a U2 fan, but who am I to tell a Justice Leaguer what to sing.

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I mentioned on Monday that I had been looking for something else on Twitter when I found that enamel pin. That something was some art of Booster Gold in an anime/Freakazoid!-sort of style. I did finally find what I was looking for:

Turns out that's not an official DC release but a very polished piece of fan art by self-taught artist @Jokeb0i. If you're interested, those panels culminated in a gif punchline you can see at ask-jokeboi.tumblr.com/.

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Booster Gold has been popping up in Harley Quinn stories a lot lately, and I'll let you in on a little secret: I don't understand them. Harley Quinn stories, that is. They all have at least two series of ongoing events, one clearly presented as a fantasy tale and the other as... reality? However, it's often a reality that doesn't quite square with the rest of what's happening in the DCnU or any of the dozen other Harley Quinn appearances each month.

So when Booster Gold shows up, which one is it? The "real" Booster Gold (at least as real as comic book characters get), or some alternate reality Booster, or a figment of the protagonist's imagination (assuming the protagonist isn't herself a figment of someone's imagination).

Even in its 70s, Harley's ongoing series continues to sell 5-10 thousand more units than what Booster Gold was moving near the end of his last self-titled series, which is to say that her title has some loyal month-to-month readers. I assume they enjoy the lack of concrete reality in her stories. I've got nothing against them or series' writer Sam Humphries, but you can guess that someone whose hobby is cataloging the minutiae of a fictional super hero's continuity might find such ambiguity unsatisfying. That unsatisfied person is me.

All of which is a long way of saying that I was planning on buying today's Harley Quinn #70 in the hopes that when I pick up next month's Booster Gold appearance, I might have some hope of figuring out what is happening. I say "was" because I've just learned from Booster booster Logan Peterson that Booster is in issue #70, too!

Hooray?

A preview of the issue (which gives no hint of Booster Gold — not that I doubt you, Logan!) is online at CBR.com. Buy it and make Skeets happy.

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