Morgenstern posted on Jun. 26, 2023 at 8:05 AM
Does Ted still have a secret identity? The Graduation Day mini made it seem like he did not and it was at least partly revealed in a suicide squad a few years ago iirc. And Booster's was always of a different type anyway.

 Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Jun. 26, 2023 at 5:21 PM
That's a good question. I assume that Ted's identity as Blue Beetle is still a secret to the general public. It was a secret in BLUE AND GOLD, and GRADUATION DAY doesn't explicitly say otherwise. I suppose his status quo is subject to change depending on what the upcoming movie does with it.

Brandon posted on Jun. 30, 2023 at 2:36 AM
Reading Booster's original series and his time in the JLI, I always assumed he kinda abandoned his "Michael Carter" identity. The only one I remember calling him by his real name was his sister.

And during his entire duration with the league, no one ever, ever called him anything except "Booster". There was never even any indication his teammates even knew his name was "Michael", though I assume he told them at some point.

That's what threw me off with Greg Rucka's take on the characters during Omar Project and Infinite Crisis. Suddenly everyone's calling Booster "Michael". And calling Captain Atom "Nathaniel" instead of "Cap". I know it's their names, but it was so strange when they literally never used their names during the entire JLI run.

Jake posted on Jun. 14, 2023 at 11:13 AM
I've been waiting for the Blue Beetle movie the same way I imagine Newton was waiting for the apple to drop, like I'm sure many other Booster Boosters have been. I think it'll be great, and I really do hope it is successful, and it would be cool if Jaime did appear in the Booster series, but I'm hoping more than anything that if there is a Beetle starring in that show, it's good old Kord. Don't get me wrong, I'll be happy with any Blue and Gold, but nothing's the same as the classic. Also (and I know I'm terribly naive), I've been taking Gunn's promise of the Booster Gold series like just that: a promise. I know that literally all of the other announcements have been phony, but guys, I'm about sure this one's gonna be different. I hope.

 Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Jun. 14, 2023 at 1:18 PM
I don't think any of the announced Booster projects, whether the TV show on Syfy or the Guggenheim movie, have been "phony." Just like Gunn, the creatives behind those projects intended them to be realized, I'm sure. But not everything that's announced gets made (especially at Warner Bros). Booster has been especially unlucky in that category.

Rob snow posted on Jun. 7, 2023 at 10:12 AM
A line from Jay and Silent Bob...hetero life partners

 Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Jun. 7, 2023 at 1:59 PM
I'm on record as a big fan of seeing platonic (unromantic) male love represented in comics.

Jake posted on Jun. 7, 2023 at 4:36 PM
I caught that Tweet at the beginning of June while surfing the net for Booster Gold happenings, and it led me to do a deep dive on Josh Weisbrod (the Tweeter) to see what else he had to offer, Booster-wise, and also TTG-wise, as I'm a massive fan of the show. I didn't realize he was the all powerful man behind inserting Boos into the show as frequently as he's appeared in the past few years. I found it incredibly entertaining and I loved finding out that the Teen Titans Go offices had Booster and Beetle's figures displayed together on some shelves. I'm really praying that Booster can have more speaking roles in the show as time goes on. I relayed thanks to Mr. Weisbrod for giving our favorite superhero time on the silver screen, and he agreed Booster was his favorite, too. I hope that means he'll keep trying to pull strings for our boy.

Eskana posted on Jun. 8, 2023 at 9:54 PM
Mostly for the sake of Titans' fans, I hope that TTG isn't canon, haha

Cort posted on Jun. 10, 2023 at 9:02 PM
I'm all for MLM, but I also find a serious need for more male friendships being loving without romance being involved. But for TTG universe, this is cute.

SLW posted on Dec. 24, 2024 at 4:14 PM
You don't have to publish this, but it's been gnawing on my mind for awhile -- a very long while -- and I wanted to say something (gently) 'cause I quite love this site, but sometimes it feels a bit like I can only really love it as a red-headed stepchild. Given I'm a webmaster (and server owner) myself, of course it's your property to do with as you like and I would never in a million years suggest you should change it, let alone be demanded to, but figure I might as well speak anyway. Fandom and community are dialogues, and maybe some of the last places left in this world founded on love.

There are a lot of platonic male friendships in comics. A *lot* of them. There's even several actual comic lines dedicated to them (World's Finest, anyone?), so while that is a perfectly regular personal opinion that gets hauled out every time someone ships a close canon male pair (seriously, every time, it's like clockwork), it can feel disingenuous to the queer community (of which there are many of us who're comics fans) when it's used as a reason canon characters can't turn out to be queer themselves. It feels more like-- 'I find homosexual relationships uncomfortable and characters I love can't be Like That and therefore I will lean into the close friendship angle as an argument against'. It's honestly kind of a trope to us out here in the rainbow-colored weeds, we hear it so much, and always -- almost inevitably, I'd venture 94% of the time -- from straight men.

It's now about to be 2025. We have a million examples of straight male friendships in media. Deep ones, intense ones, decades-long ones. In fact, media *still* caters to the straight male demographic, the same one where certain entitled and hateful subsets cry foul anytime queer (or non-white, or female-led for that matter) media starts getting made or acknowledged, decrying it as being too 'woke'. (I'm not saying that's you; for all I know, you may be a gay Black transwoman, in which case, awesome. I am saying that it's still nonetheless such a tired, inaccurate argument that it can absolutely be pinned to a demographic.)

And I dunno, I've been reading DC for decades now myself and Booster and the JLI cast for just as long, and Booster's never come across as straight to me. Seriously, he's always read queer to me. (Ted comes across as more straight, though his absolute meltdown when Booster bites it during Judgment Day is quite a lot anyway. LOL!) But Booster's only had one canon het relationship (Firehawk) and one that was retconned (Gladys), one that's speculated -- not actually canon yet -- for the future (probably Terri) and-- that's it, in forty years. A handful of dates. He's pretty inept at flirting past his first solo and at least half the time he tries, it comes across as awkward and a little desperate. (Seriously, Jurgens writes him as the worst flirt; I dunno if he's meant to be suave, but being a woman, I'd wanna slap the hell out of him myself no matter how gorgeous he is for how sleazy he's sometimes written.) He gets regularly sexually harassed by female villains and doesn't like it, which I find it easy to sympathize with, albeit from the angle of being a woman whose been harassed by men before.

But anyway, to me, he acts about like how a kid who got dropped into the 80s during the height of the AIDS panic and rampant homophobia and the wholesale death of gay men might, especially if he were queer himself. I'd probably try to straight-wash myself, too, in his boots. (I remember that time period, if distantly. I didn't realize I was queer myself until I was well into my 20s, despite falling in very desperate and intense love with another girl when I was 12. I do remember being in high school when a boy was murdered for being queer by being tortured and left tied to a fence to die, though. It was that kind of world back then for people like us. In some places, it still is.)

Still, where Booster fails at any hetero romance (oh god does he), he's so devoted to Ted that a big part of his second solo was dedicated to him either trying to save the man or actively *mourning* him. It's heartbreaking and amazing and really actually quite good stuff, from a literary POV. Whether DC meant it or not, somehow they managed to write one of the greatest love stories I've ever seen in a comic across most of twenty years, no kidding, and I've read a *lot* across a lot of companies, even back when I was a twelve year old girl and ridiculed for it. And not just a great queer love story, it's a great love story period. A person can make a credible argument for it being a one-sided -- romantic and therefore non-platonic -- love, but it's pretty hard to argue it's not a very intense one regardless.

You and I both love the same guy and have loved him a hell of a long time. And like, seriously, I think Booster has one of the most interesting and deep character arcs of any canon comics character: From growing up in deep poverty (which, me too) and all that does to a person for the rest of their life (they've done studies on this) -- including inclining them to take serious risks they might not otherwise -- to the various reads one can make on his given backstory evolving (I personally think the first several times he told it or sanctioned Skeets to were so brutally self-punishing because he'd rather have been castigated than vulnerable, this kid who doesn't tell anyone his given name for something like a whole year after landing), to how he both rises and falls (to the point of homelessness in Countdown), to what he's willing to sacrifice for the sake of love, whatever color you want to color it.

I guess what I'm trying to say is: This is another read on him. And I think also a very valid one. He's one hell of an amazing character, I wish DC had handled him half as well post-Flashpoint than they did pre-Flashpoint, and I don't think a queer reading of him detracts anything from how amazing he is. If anything, I think it makes the older stuff several shades deeper (and so, so relatable, god), and I think if they decided to write him as explicitly queer now, not too many people would actually be all that surprised. With or without Ted. I can't really identify with Alan Scott, love him though I do, even though I can acknowledge that a generation of gay men likely could quite strongly. But I *can* identify with Booster Gold, who grew up poor and wrecked his future in part for love of family, who clawed his way out of poverty and fell back into it, who has brilliant and shining moments of courage and heart, and moments where he lands on his face, who was tough enough to survive a lot of shit but devastatingly vulnerable to exploitation, and who looks like a fellow queer kid who might've fallen for his best friend, but was surrounded by homophobia and hate and terror and buried that part of himself because the alternative might have been getting beaten and left tied to a fence to die.

So, I am happy for TTG making it explicit. And for Tom Taylor leaning into it for the Injustice2 comic and not-so-subtly shipping it. (Which I sob every single time I read, seriously, cannot read that in public.) And your feelings are just as valid as mine, of course, and this IS your site and soapbox, but I figured that it couldn't hurt to offer another perspective from another fan. Maybe it's one you've heard before, maybe not, but hopefully one that proves interesting to you, whether you take it to heart or not; that even if you don't ever change your read of him, hopefully you'll better understand why this other read exists.

Thanks for listening; may you have a lovely holiday and a kind 2025.

-Steff

Brandon posted on Jun. 10, 2023 at 9:37 AM
Just out of curiosity, why does Booster saying Wowzer feel "off"? Didn't he say that a lot in his original series?

 Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Jun. 10, 2023 at 12:28 PM
That's a very good question. Yes, Booster often said "wowser" in BOOSTER GOLD volume 1 as a term of surprise (as early as issue #1 and as late as issue #25).

Here, the "wowser" just feels (to me) out of place in the flow of the dialogue of the scene, maybe in part because the sentiment is sarcastic as opposed to genuine, maybe because the entire scene feels so stiff and artificial, like it's been computer generated from a machine who has seen these characters but doesn't understand them. The Wein+Andru+Bulanadi combination just isn't working for me in this story.