corner box
menu button
Boosterrific.com: The Complete, Annotated Adventures of Booster Gold
Boosterrific.com: The Complete, Annotated Adventures of Booster Gold

It has been 128 Days since Booster Gold last appeared in an in-continuity DCU comic book.

Buy Booster Gold

Showing posts 1 - 5 of 14 matching: boostle

Friday, February 7, 2025

A Respectful Difference of Opinion

I'm firmly on record supporting the official DC Comics position that Booster Gold and Blue Beetle are platonic friends. My mind hasn't changed. But I cannot deny that a large and vocal potion of the Booster Gold fanbase would very much like to see the two friends establish a romantic relationship. As we are one week away from Valentine's Day, now seems like a good time to give that perspective its due consideration.

Recently, on an old Boosterrific post about how the television show Teen Titans Go! has leaned into the Boostle, SLW posted a (very long) comment that I think made a pretty good case for a non-traditional interpretation of Booster's romantic preferences beyond simple, prurient wish-fulfillment fantasies. Therefore, with SLW's permission, I'm reposting much of it here (edited for clarity and conciseness):

I've been reading DC for decades now myself and Booster and the JLI cast for just as long, and Booster has never come across as straight to me. He's only had one canon [heterosexual] relationship (Firehawk), 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. ... 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 who's 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 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[1], 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.... 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 ... 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 as 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 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. ...

As you can see, with each of us colored by our own personal experiences and expectations, SLW and I have different perspectives on Booster Gold's inner thoughts and desires. And whether I agree with that take or not, it's a good reminder that there are multiple legitimate interpretations of Booster's in-universe social behaviors and motivations.

Fandom is a big tent with room enough for everyone to find their own reasons to appreciate the characters they identify with. There are no wrong takes in head canon. So long as both of us draw our interpretations of Booster Gold from the stories depicted in comic books published by DC Comics, I'm perfectly willing to agree to disagree, at least until such time as Booster Gold is seen in an explicitly romantic relationship.

[1] SLW and I must be pretty close to the same age. Though we come from different parts of the country, I also remember the unsettling, widespread reporting about Matthew Shepard, whose death eventually led to revisions of US federal hate crime laws.

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: boostle slw

Wednesday, June 7, 2023

When Big J the Terminator Speaks

Booster booster Koby writes

there hasnt been much booster in comics, this is all we have right now. have you seen this? does this count as booster news? maybe. i miss him. happy pride month?

The "this" in question is this Twitter thread:

Happy Pride everyone!! Here is my only real contribution to the DC Extended Universe and if we're being honest, to culture #TeenTitansGo #boostle #BoosterGold #BlueBeetle -- @space_lt_josh via Twitter.com June 1, 2023

For the record, "Big J" is Teen Titans Go! storyboard artist Joshua Weisbrod, who does have some authority to speak on the matter.

Teen Titans Go! definitely takes place in its own continuity, and it stands to reason that in an infinite DC universe, everyone is in a relationship with everyone else somewhere. So if Weisbrod says Blue and Gold are a romantic couple on Earth-TTG!, I assume they are.

As for whether or not this is "news," well... I mean, yes, obviously, it's news that Weisbrod just said this, but Teen Titans Go! has been Boostling for years. The pics Big J shares are from episodes as far back as 2017. The pic of them hugging in suits is from the season 7 episode "Manor and Mannerism," which aired in August 2021.

Speaking of which, if you look at the "trivia" section of the teen-titans-go.fandom.com page for that episode, you'll see

© DC Comics

Married in Earth-1 continuity? Now that certainly is news to me! I didn't even get a wedding invitation.

Thanks, Koby. Here's hoping Booster turns up again sooner than later.

Comments (6) | Add a Comment | Tags: big j the terminator blue beetle boostle fandom.com josh weintraub koby teen titans go twitter.com

Monday, May 29, 2023

New Release: Power Girl Special

Ongoing monthly publishing schedules are based on planning for a release every four weeks. So the few months a year where the calendar contrives to have five weeks in a month throws a real wrench into the works.

This fifth week is sometimes called a "skip week" because publishers often release no ongoing books during the week to maintain their regular 4-week release schedules. Rather than just skip a week of potential sales, DC has traditionally solved this "fifth week" problem with mini-events and one-shot standalone issues.

That's why this is the week you'll be seeing the DC Pride 2023 anthology and the Power Girl Special in your Local Comic Shop.

While I don't expect we'll be seeing Booster Gold in either of those issues, they both will be offering Booster Gold fandom-adjacent entertainment. The Boostle crowd will probably find something to love in DC Pride, and Justice League International aficionados will want to read the back-up story in the Power Girl Spcial featuring Fire and Ice, the female "Blue and Gold," if you will.

As DCComics.com made clear last month's press release, Power Girl's Fire and Ice story is laying the groundwork to their own mini-series, Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville, coming in September. Again, I have no rational expectation that Booster Gold (and/or Blue Beetle) will be appearing in that series, either. But it would be nice if they did.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: boostle dccomics.com fire ice power girl

Wednesday, September 21, 2022

Who Do You Love?

During my weekly visit to my Local Comic Shop, the store's newest employee waved me over. "You're the Booster Gold guy, aren't you?" she asked. I confirmed that I was. "Tell me," she said, "what did you think about Booster Gold dating Harley Quinn?"

I assume it was this week's Harley Quinn 30th Anniversary Special that prompted her question. (Booster's not in that, by the way. DC doesn't like to put Booster in anniversary issues, presumably because they don't want him stealing the spotlight. They didn't even give him his own anniversary comic when he turned 30, you know. Not that I'm jealous. I'm sure they'll do right by our boy when he turns 40 in 4 years, right? Right?)

Anyway, in answer to the original question, what I said back in 2020 was

On the one hand, if Booster and Harley were real people and not comic book characters, they'd deserve the same chance at happiness as everyone else. Regardless of the fact that she was trying to kill him as recently as a year ago, the pair would still have the right to seek happy, fulfilling romantic relationships regardless of their past history or public opinion. Whatever anyone outside the relationship (read: me) thinks about the suitability of the pairing of a jock from the future and a psychopath's gun moll should be irrelevant to that relationship.

On the other hand, neither Harley nor Booster is a real person. They are comic book characters who have become widely recognized by fans for being in decades-long relationships with other members of their same sex. Booster's relationship with BFF and fellow hero Blue Beetle has always been intimate but canonically platonic, yet the dastardly damsels Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy have chosen a more physical relationship. (As is the norm in American popular entertainment, the good guys have to play it straight while the femme fatales enjoy "forbidden" love.) Is it a coincidence that these two standard-bearers of non-traditional relationships were chosen to enter into a gender-conforming heterosexual relationship by publishers, editors, writers, and artists who should be aware of the characters' metatextual associations? I find that hard to believe.

That still pretty much sums up my feelings, especially in the wake of the aforementioned 30th Anniversary Special, which goes way out of its way to lean into the Harley/Ivy romantic/sexual relationship.

That said, my opinion about the issue really isn't that important. But I can think of someone's whose is. (Hint: his initials are "DJ.") I'll have more to say about that in a future post.

Comments (2) | Add a Comment | Tags: boostle harley quinn heroes in crisis romance sexual politics

Friday, March 19, 2021

Summer of Love

DC Comics has announced (via press release) that the company's June 2021 anthology book, DC Pride will focus on a theme of "LGBTQIA+ characters from across the DC Universe."

The press release fails to define "LGBTQIA+". I'm familiar with shorter acronyms, but rather than assume that it meant what I thought it meant, I looked it up. Wikipedia directed me to the University of Illinois Springfield who explained the term as "a common abbreviation for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Pansexual, Transgender, Genderqueer, Queer, Intersex, Agender, Asexual and other queer-identifying community." So more or less everyone who isn't a square.

I assume from the inclusive acronym that DC is trying to reach the largest possible audience with this book. That's commendable (and a pretty good tactic for a large for-profit publishing company). I love DC's anthologies with their focus on the less famous, oft-neglected characters of the DCU, and I will be buying this one, too.

As a straight white guy, I fully admit that I am not in a position of authority to talk about what should or should not be in a book celebrating a community that defines itself with an acronym I didn't know, and I will refrain from doing so.

What I do want to point out is that the press release specifically identifies many familiar characters in the DCU who qualify as LGBTQIA+, including Batwoman, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, Midnighter, Earth-11 Flash, Alan Scott, Obsidian, Aqualad, Dreamer, Renee Montoya, and Pied Piper. Since you are reading this on a Booster Gold fansite, you may notice a couple of key omissions from that list.

Even in the new, inclusive Infinite Frontier DC Universe, DC Comics doesn't Boostle.

Comments (6) | Add a Comment | Tags: boostle dc pride


There have been 2971 blog entries since January 2010.

VIEW LIST OF 3050 KEYWORDS

FIND NEWS BY DATE


JUMP TO PAGE



SITE SEARCH


return to top

SPOILER WARNING: The content at Boosterrific.com may contain story spoilers for DC Comics publications.