If you've been keeping track of my list of the twelve best Booster Gold comics, you know that we've reached number 9. More importantly, we've reached a turning point in the history of Booster Gold.

By 2007, Booster Gold was widely recognized as a laughingstock, has-been as a former member of the long-derided Justice League International. Booster Gold Volume 2, Number 1 begins the story of how Booster started his second act as The Greatest Hero The World Has Never Known!

As it happens all too often, the real trouble starts when Booster finally gets what he has sought since his earliest appearances in Booster Gold Volume 1: the acceptance of his peers.

As you can see, this issue is a great jumping on point for new Booster Gold fans. Never read a comic with Booster Gold before? No problem. Writers Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz make the issue accessible to casual Justice League fans and longtime Booster Gold fans alike.

It's not an exaggeration to say that without the changes to Booster's status quo that were begun in this story, significantly fewer readers would even care which comics should be considered The Best Booster Gold Stories Ever!

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On Monday, I wondered if the solicitation for Generations: Shattered meant that Booster Gold was going to make a previously unannounced appearance in yesterday's Detective Comics #1027 anthology.

The answer is yes. Kind of.

Words by Dan Jurgens, art by Kevin Nowlan, Hi-Fi, Andworld Design

First of all: The return of "Buster" Gold, a running joke as old as Booster Gold himself! (See page 2, panel 3 of Booster Gold Volume 1, #1!)

Second of all: Is that Skeets on Kamandi's arm? Kevin Nowlan may be the issue's credited artist, but boy howdy does that look like a Dan Jurgens circa 1992 design.

This story, "Generations: Fractured," has a very Zero Hour feel to it. I'm not sure whether that's intentional or coincidental, as Dan Jurgens did write and draw Zero Hour, after all.

We're told at the end of the story that it will be continued in Generations: Future State #1, but I have no idea what that will be. BleedingCool.com suggests that it is a series (mini- or otherwise) that Dan Jurgens will presumably be writing in 2021. However, on Twitter Jurgens seemed to have a bone to pick with some of Bleeding Cool's reporting, so whatever the truth is here is anyone's guess.

Just let me go on the record saying: Hey, DC, please, please, please publish a series by Dan Jurgens featuring Booster Gold and time shenanigans! I even promise not to complain about the cover price.

UPDATE 2020-09-17: BleedingCool has revealed a teaser poster for Future State coming January and February 2021. Which is slightly more than we knew before.

Looks like we'll see more in DC solicitations next month.

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Three weeks ago, Booster Gold clearly appeared in Dark Nights: Death Metal #3, the fourth (of 24) chapters in the seemingly eternal "Death Metal" saga (which began in the summer of 2017).

He *may* have appeared in the follow-up (chapter 5 of 24), Dark Nights: Death Metal Guidebook, though the art is unclear and Booster Gold fans were split on whether it was supposed to represent Booster or not.

But I can say without a doubt that Booster Gold definitely does *not* appear in this week's chapter six (of 24), Dark Nights: Death Metal Trinity Crisis. Despite revisiting the same scene as the past two issues, Booster Gold is cropped out of the panels. Neither does he appear in the issue's flashbacks to Infinite Crisis or Final Crisis.

But that's cool. Booster didn't need to be in this issue anyway. Someone had to go to make room for 11 different Batmen, and Booster has always been a team player.

While we're on the subject of books released this week that Booster Gold doesn't appear in, I probably also should mention that he's not in Wonder Woman #762, that despite the fact that it includes a Maxwell Max Lord who is for the first time openly aware of pre-Flashpoint continuity. We get flashbacks to the early days of the Justice League International and Max's death and ensuing defeats following Infinite Crisis and Brightest Day/Generation Lost. But as I said, no sign of Booster Gold. Max Lord is now a Wonder Woman villain, after all.

On the bright side of all these missed opportunities for Booster Gold appearances, not having to buy an issue because Booster doesn't make a cameo saves me money I can spend on a pizza instead. (That Dark Nights: Death Metal Trinity Crisis [part 6 of 24!!] is $6 before taxes!) So thanks for dinner, DC!

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DC's self-contained convention was this past weekend, and while it was a smorgasbord for fans of super hero movies, television, and video games, there really wasn't much news about DC's plans for comic books. And since Booster Gold doesn't exist in any current movies, television, or video games, our hero was nowhere to be found.

The closest we got to Booster was this Easter Egg spotted by the eagle-eyed Ouoya (@Ouoya on Twitter.com) in the Suicide Squad Versus The Justice League video game trailer:

Suicide Squad Versus The Justice League is set in the same continuity as Rocksteady Studios' Batman: Arkham series of games. Blaze Comics appeared in Gotham City in Batman: Arkham Origins (2013) and Batman: Arkham Knight (2015).

It's good to know that Blaze is still doing well enough to have a storefront in Metropolis, but you're going to have to wait a while to see it for yourself. Suicide Squad Versus The Justice League isn't scheduled to be released before August 2022.

So maybe that's not the Booster Gold bonanza Booster boosters might have been hoping for, but it's not nothing. And since FanDome was split into two weeks with most of the comics-related content pushed to September 12, we may still hear more about Booster yet.

Thanks for bringing that screenshot to our attention, Ouoya.

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DC's November solicitations are out, and Booster Gold is in!

Specifically, he's in Batman Beyond #49.

BATMAN BEYOND #49
written by DAN JURGENS
art and cover by PAUL PELLETIER and NORM RAPMUND
cover by DAN MORA

To safely return to his own timeline, Batman Beyond will have to defeat the villain Blanque without being seen by his mentor, the World's Greatest Detective—Batman! Will Booster Gold help keep Batman Beyond hidden, or will time as we know it become completely undone? You do not want to miss this issue!
ON SALE November 24, 2020

I'm starting to hope that time as I know it *will* be completely undone, but DC's constant series of reboots has conditioned me to expect that I would like the new universe that takes its place even less.

I'm assuming from the way the solicitation is written that the book will have two covers. DC only released one cover with the solicitation, the one drawn by Dan Mora. While that cover is beautifully drawn, it does not include even a hint of Booster Gold. I hope Pelletier and Rapmund don't make the same mistake.

You can find a complete list of DC's November 2020 solicitations at GamesRadar.com.

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