You won't find a new Booster Gold comic in your Local Comic Shop this week.

In fact, we probably won't get a new Booster Gold comic until July 18, when Injustice 2 #30 comes out. We'd better start enjoying those Injustice comics while they last. DC's September solicitations came out Monday, they and they imply a "tragic conclusion" to Booster's current storyline. Gulp.

The September solicitations also tell us that "The Gift" will be reprinted in Batman Volume 7: The Wedding in October. The trade will include a reprint of Batman #50, the much-hyped wedding issue, so it's likely it will sell a lot of copies. Expect to see it in your LCS on October 24.

And of course, Heroes in Crisis #1, in which Booster Gold is a "prime suspect" in the killing of "many" PTSD patients, will be out on September 26.

You can read all of the September solicitations on Newsarama.com.

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I spent a lot of time in recent weeks worrying about how Booster Gold's unfortunate appearance in Batman might inspire future problems for our hero. According to Meg Downey's recent think piece for IGN.com, Booster's troubles are worse (and more persistent) than I thought.

Like pearls in Crime Alley follow Batman, trauma now follows Booster wherever he goes. Even in alternate universes outside of the main DC continuity like Injustice 2, Booster ends up forced to watch helplessly as Ted was killed yet again. In the splintered timeline of the "Batpoint," Booster winds up teetering on the edge of death, emaciated, mentally broken, even deeply disturbed -- a pretty far cry from his days stealing cookies from Martian Manhunter with his best friend.

Downey makes a good point. Grief has been a central theme in Booster's life since Infinite Crisis, first published nearly thirteen years ago. Even in this modern age of decompressed, made-for-trade storytelling, that's a long time.

You can read Downey's full article, "How Batman's 'Batpoint' Story Highlights the Tragedy of Booster Gold" at IGN.com.

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If you're reading this, you probably know that the Internet has a sizable contingent of DC Comics fans. It just so happens that My Little Pony also has a pretty significant online presence. It was only a matter of time before the two met.

This delightful mash-up of Blue Beetle and Booster Gold as ponies comes straight from the sketchbook of Pony Goddess. They're a happy looking pair. I'll bet they'd be even happier if there was a whole team of them.

Three generations of Blue Beetle ponies meeting Booster Gold and Goldstar ponies? Yes, please. We have ajremix to thank for such goodness.

But how would Blue pony and Gold pony interact with the rest of the DCU ponies? LadyM has that answer.

Yep, that seems to cover all the bases. Thank you, Internet.

Click any of these images to see them larger in their native environment at DeviantArt.com.

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Booster booster Jackson Williams was reading The Flash #46 and caught this sequence of panels.

The Flash #46, words by Johsua Williamson; art by Scott Kolins, Luis Guerrero

This issue of The Flash was released the week before Batman #47, but the former sure looks like it refers to the latter's meeting between Batman, Catwoman, and Booster Gold. (Which was, by the way, the first time that Booster Gold and Catwoman have ever met on panel.)

Thanks for the update, Jackson.

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I'd like to stop talking about the recent Batman story "The Gift", really I would. I'd like to file the three issues away in my longboxes and forget it was ever published. But it seems Tom King doesn't want to let me do that.

Please, no.

#BEGIN RANT (Warning: rant may contain spoilers)

I'm not intimately familiar with King's entire body of work, but I find it unlikely he's grown as popular as he is if all of his stories are as carelessly crafted as "The Gift."

The premise is laughably bad, an idea that should have been left on the back of whatever cocktail napkin King first jotted it on. How, exactly, is changing time to prevent the wedding of Batman and Catwoman supposed to be a gift? What kind of person would choose a vague dream over the lives of two loving parents? What kind of person would expect someone else to? Booster Gold was a former member of the Justice League, not a super villain. The excuse of immaturity can only be stretched so far.

The conclusion is no better. It's the worst kind of time travel plot device, where the resolution invalidates everything that came before. The Booster Gold who has been tortured by Bruce Wayne for the previous year can no longer exist. How can any Booster remember an event which never happened? (By the way, what happened to the corpse of the impossible Bruce Wayne? Or Skeets? Or the "other" Booster Gold? Damn this rabbit hole!) The resolution of "The Gift," as nonsensical as it is, makes it clear that its events can only affect one character (at most), and that character wasn't even the guy whose name is on the cover. If King hadn't tweeted otherwise, I would have assumed this story was filler so the wedding could take place in an issue with a nice, round number.

Speaking of Batman, he comes off just as poorly as Booster Gold does. As I wrote back in April, King ostensibly set out to recreate Alan Moore's "For The Man Who Has Everything..." by showing that the world was a worse place without Batman. However, instead of affirming the heroic value of one of the most popular fictional characters of all time, King instead successfully invalidates another of Moore's stories, The Killing Joke. In the end, all it takes is "one bad day" for Bruce Wayne to become a gun-toting murderer. Was that the goal, to demonstrate not that the world is better with Batman in it but that *Batman* is a better person because his parents died young? Unlike Booster, who King treats as a brain-dead court jester, Batman should be deserving of some respect. But no, his character is dragged through just as much mud.

If this story is any indication, King clearly cares nothing for characterization. Any excuse to write a feral Catwoman who kills for no apparent reason or a Batman who shoots first and asks questions never. (Or worse, Green Lanterns who shoot themselves in the head on a dare.) Judging by the quote above, I'm guessing that King intentionally ignored years of character development so that Booster Gold would be in position for that other story he wants to tell. Otherwise he certainly went out of his way to mangle some beloved characters for no obvious reason.

#END RANT

Maybe you were one of those people who who read "The Gift" and liked it. More power to you. In that case, perhaps you'd like to hear what BleedingCool.com has to speculate about this announcement.

Personally, I found the ridiculous premise, careless resolution, and misguided characterization insulting to some characters and artists I'm actually quite fond of. If "The Gift" is any indication of the kind of story that King likes to write, I'd prefer that he left Booster Gold on the sidelines instead.

FOOTNOTE 2018-05-18:

I'm guessing... lobotomy? (As I said above, "the excuse of immaturity can only be stretched so far.")

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