What makes a hero super? The super powers! From awesome strength to zero-to-sixty speed, great superpowers are the most useful tricks in every famous costumed crime-fighter's tool kit. Michael Jon Carter knew this, and that's why he started his career with energy blasting Booster Shots.

At the outset of his super-heroic career, Booster Gold knew he would need offensive weapons to defeat the forces of evil. That is why, given his choice of many amazing inventions housed in the Space Museum, he selected wrist-mounted Energy Blasters.

In Booster Gold #6 (1986), Skeets tells Superman that they stole "gloves and control bands that were once worn by an alien menace." The true identity of this "alien menace" has never been clarified in any of Booster's published adventures, but Superman may have a clue. The technology may be alien, but it was crafted into powerful gauntlets by none other than Superman's oldest foe, Lex Luthor!

Lex has been wearing specially tailored suits to fight Superman since Superman #282 (1974). His purple and green suits soon became his trademark. Super genius that he is, Lex kept his suit's tool belt stocked with to whatever inventions he would need for the specific crime he was committing. Those tools included such classics as jet boots, robot controls, finger-mounted gravity casters, age-regressing omega barriers, age-restoring pills, and, of course, enough pockets for forty cakes.

However, none of that was enough to defeat The Man of Steel, so in Action Comics #544 (1983), Luthor fled Earth for the planet Lexor, named in his honor. (For an explanation of how an entire planet could consider a creep like Lex Luthor a hero, see "The Showdown Between Luthor and Superman!" in 1963's Superman #164.) Lexor had once been home to a race of advanced scientists, and Luthor adapted their technology into a "warsuit" that would allow him to defeat Superman once and for all. Or so he hoped.

The new power suit was indeed a considerable upgrade over what came before. Its energy gauntlets were so strong, they could destroy space-going vessels with a single blast. Alas, it was not powerful enough to make Luthor Superman's equal. It was, however, powerful enough to accidentally destroy Lexor (and Luthor's wife and child along with it). With great power can come great regrets.

Superman vowed to destroy the warsuit once and for all in Superman Annual #12 (published in 1986 but set in pre-Crisis, Silver Age continuity). How it survived to make its way from the 20th century to the 25th-century Space Museum will likely always remain a mystery, but we don't have to wonder whether they were the one and the same thanks to the original pencils from Booster Gold #6 included in the superb collection Booster Gold: the Big Fall.

Since returning to the 20th century, Booster Gold has integrated the power gauntlets into his crime-fighting arsenal. Renaming them "Booster Shots," he has used them as his primary weapon in his eternal quest to rid the multiverse of those who would destroy it. If there were any left, the citizens of Lexor would be proud.

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A "fictionalized" Booster Gold showed up at the end of Harley Quinn #66 in part to satisfy the title's obligatory "Year of the Villain" crossover event.

The next month, in Harley Quinn #67, faux Booster returned as justification for a trip through the DC Universe's never-ending series of "Crisis" events. (Was this the same "fictionalized" Booster seen in the previous issue, or a different interpretation? It's impossible to tell, so assume whatever you like.)

Finally, this March, it looks like the "real" Harley and Booster will finally cross paths for the first time since Heroes in Crisis.

Per the issue solicitation at Newsarama.com:

HARLEY QUINN #71
written by SAM HUMPHRIES
art by SAMI BASRI
cover by RILEY ROSSMO
Harley thought a little trip to Los Angeles would help her cope with grief, but grief followed her all the way to the West Coast. When a new friend of hers dies, she knows in her heart there is foul play at work. She'll have to put down her mallet and pick up a magnifying glass to prove her friend was murdered. And will Booster Gold help her investigation or only hinder it?
ON SALE March 4, 2020 · $3.99 US

Attention DC: you had me at Skeets on the cover.

Thanks to Rob Snow for alerting me to this coming event.

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On the subject of Justice League #37, I think I've decided that our mystery hero is supposed to be Animal Man. It looks like most of you agree with me.

Last week's poll question: Does Booster Gold appear in JUSTICE LEAGUE 37? (40 votes)

I think it's weird that the Justice League has spent the last year fighting a war to save the multiverse as we know it, and the DC Universe's greatest continuity cop, Booster Gold, has been relegated to a one-panel appearance. *shrug*

What does Scott Snyder have against Booster Gold?

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It looks like the only place you'll be seeing Booster Gold in your Local Comic Shop this week is in the softcover release of Injustice 2 Volume 6 trade. But that's a reprint of a hardcover which reprinted comics that were themselves reprints of digital-first content. So you've probably already got it, right?

Meanwhile, after all the rumors about Booster coming to TV, if you're wondering what a new live-action Booster Gold might look like, maybe it looks like this piece of fan art.

That's by Hal Laren as found on ArtStation.com. I especially like the highly rendered Justice League Unlimited Skeets.

Up, up, and away, boys.

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Early Saturday, Wired.com ran an article by Adam Rogers titled "The CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths Puts a Gen X Headlock on Superhero TV".

The article is mostly about the CW's upcoming crossover event between its DC-themed television shows, but as originally published, it contained the following passage:

Clearly superproducer Greg Berlanti and writer Marc Guggenheim, teenagers at the time Crisis came out, cared about all this. Their Arrowverse now occupies a significant number of hours on the CW's program grid, pulling stories from all across DC spacetime. And like our own universe, the wider Berlantiverse is expanding. Titans and Doom Patrol are on the streaming service DC Universe—based on DC books but, confusingly, outside Arrowverse continuity. Next year, TV will add Arrowverse shows with Superman, Stargirl, Booster Gold, and Green Lantern.

Did Wired break the news that Booster Gold is coming to the CW in 2020? Not so fast.

The article was later updated, changing the above to

Clearly superproducer Greg Berlanti and writer Marc Guggenheim, teenagers at the time Crisis came out, cared about all this. Their Arrowverse now occupies a significant number of hours on the CW's program grid, pulling stories from all across DC spacetime. And like our own universe, the wider Berlantiverse is expanding. Titans and Doom Patrol are on the streaming service DC Universe—based on DC books but, confusingly, outside Arrowverse continuity. Next year, TV will add Berlanti shows with Superman, Stargirl, and Green Lantern.

Hmm. Look who's missing from that revision.

The footnote for the article says it was "Updated to clarify that not all the upcoming DC comics-based shows will necessarily be Arrowverse shows." Which obliquely avoids saying anything about why references to Booster Gold were dropped.

So, is a Booster Gold television show coming or not?

I asked around to see if I could confirm any of this (as it relates to Booster) and was told not to trust any of it. Therefore, let's pretend none of this happened and just keep hoping for progress on the Booster Gold The Movie coming to HBO Max rumor that I rumormongered last month.

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