Zero Hour, DC's attempt to correct lingering problems left over from simplifying their multiverse in Crisis on Infinite Earths, is 25 years old. My, how time flies.

To celebrate, the company is releasing a $150 Zero Hour 25th Anniversary Omnibus which contains over a thousand pages of reprint comics. That's about 14¢ a page, a deal by modern standards.

Booster Gold didn't play a big role in Zero Hour, but he is present (and does get in a few lines) before time is rewritten to erase him from existence. (Spoiler Alert: It's only temporary.)

Thanks to series author and artist Dan Jurgens, Booster also represents the future (in his classic, high-collar costume) in the accompanying fold-out timeline of the re-ordered DC Universe. That's always cool.

Hopefully the Omnibus will include the fold-out. It's not much of a celebration without Booster Gold!

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If the 1980s was about anything, that thing was big business. Greed was good, deal making was an art, and Capitalism finally conquered Communism. Corporate interests dominated politics, and commercialism owned everything else. Into that environment came the original superhero salesman: Booster Gold.

No cover of the era exemplifies that aspect of our hero more than Booster Gold #11 (1986).

Pencils by Dan Jurgens, Inks by Jerry Ordway

This image is a delightful snapshot of time when J.R. deserved to be shot, and Micheal Knight was a lone crusader in a dangerous world. Booster does his best Don Johnson impersonation in his square-shouldered white linen blazer. He winks at us over his Max Headroom shades, reassuring us that he knows what cool is. If this guy is selling, you're buying.

It might look like an ad for the most 1980s car ever, but what Booster is really selling here is comic books. You can't own a Brysler Boostermobile, but you can own this comic. I'd buy that for a dollar. And I did. Because I was cool, too.

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The DC Comics reading world of 1986 was not ready for the debut of Booster Gold. Who could blame them? Gambler-turned-thief-turned-celebrity sounds more like a traditional DC villain than a hero. Anti-heroes wouldn't become all the rage for a few more years yet. Creator Dan Jurgens was ahead of his time.

The letter columns of early Booster Gold books were filled with complaints that the hero was inherently unlikable. A typical letter, from Booster Gold #5 called him "egotistical, self-absorbed, conceited, self-hyping, and immodest," which even Booster boosters have to admit was a pretty accurate assessment. This situation was only made worse once Booster's origin was revealed in issue #6. No less a moral authority than Superman thought Booster was "nothing more than a 25th-century crook!"

Souring fan reaction to the character was a major factor in the cancellation of the original Booster Gold series. Jurgens resisted polishing Booster's rougher edges, and the Powers That Were decided to move Booster in a new direction with Justice League International where Booster's less palatable character traits were often exploited for comic effect. This worked out in Booster's favor. It was with the JLI that Booster really became a star.

As such things go, public demand for the Justice League led to the JLI team being featured in three consecutive issues of Secret Origins, giving Jurgens another opportunity to sell Booster's origin to the comics reading public. This time he did what he had previously been unwilling to do: he made Booster Gold sympathetic.

In Secret Origins #35, released on this day in 1988, it is revealed that Michael "Booster" Carter only started gambling on his own football games in order to afford an expensive operation for his sick mother. No longer was he a selfish lout. Now Booster was a good son!

"Child with a heart of gold breaking the law to help his family" may not be the most original origin, but it did the job burnishing Booster's tarnished reputation with readers. Booster's worst mistakes could now be chalked up to good intentions. I'm sure Superman would agree that even 25th-century crooks deserve a second chance.

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Booster booster Cort harvested a bumper crop of commission Booster Gold this season. Check them out!

Keith Giffen

Jerry Ordway

Norm Rapmund

Chris Garrusso

Boosterrific as always, Cort. Thanks for sharing.

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We still don't have Booster Gold: the Movie lighting up marquees, but that doesn't mean that there's no news about Booster Gold in pictures. Two pieces from recent movies news reports:

1. Booster Gold was in Shazam!

That's Shazam! director David Sandberg responding with tongue held firmly in cheek to a question on Twitter. Before you laugh too hard, know that this might be the only way we ever get to see Booster Gold on the big screen.

2. Booster's first opponent, Blackguard, will be in Suicide Squad 2.

Booster Gold and Blackguard shared the cover to Booster Gold #1, so how is it that the minor villain will make it into movies before our hero? DC and Warner Bros must be taking Booster's "Greatest Hero You've Never Heard Of" tag seriously.

To be fair, Blackguard wasn't just a Booster Gold enemy. He was a minor player in the long-forgotten Underworld Unleashed event, accepting Neron's offer to become "The Human Killing Spree" and running afoul of Guy Gardner's clone, Joe. Blackguard didn't join the Suicide Squad until 2008. Spoiler alert: he didn't survive that experience.

For more pics of Davidson as Blackguard, follow the tweet's link to dailymail.co.uk. (Don't waste time worrying that Davidson is a little small for the part. Blackguard, like Booster, gains his strength from his power suit.)

UPDATE 2019-10-15: As Steven points out in the comments, it appears that Nathan Fillion, not Pete Davidson, will be playing Blackguard. That's very interesting, in part because Fillion looks more naturally like the comics incarnation of the character and partly because of the long history of fans wanting Fillion to play Booster Gold.

UPDATE 2021-08-05: The movie has finally been released, and it is definitely Pete Davidson in the role of Blackguard.

Thanks for the tweets, tipsters.

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