It is a truth universally acknowledged that every comic book heroes will inevitably get in a fist fight with every other hero. Such was the case with Booster Gold and Superman early in Booster's career.

Every new super hero in a shared universe needs guest appearances from more famous characters to drive new readers to their title. Hence Superman's appearance in Booster Gold #6 and #7.

Pencils by Dan Jurgens, Inks by Mike DeCarlo

Not coincidentally, Dan Jurgens took the opportunity of a visit from the established star — in his very first appearance in the newly-merged post-Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Universe continuity — to reveal Booster's less-than-stellar origin tale. The image on the cover correlated well with the shock and disgust that audiences felt discovering that they had been reading the tale of a gambler and a thief. Superman was giving our hero nothing less than what many of us felt he deserved.

But the story doesn't end there.

Because Dan Jurgens was kind enough to accommodate John Byrne's post-Crisis revamp of Superman in the aforementioned issues, Byrne let Booster guest in Action Comics #594. The cover to that might look familiar; turnabout is fair play.

Pencils by John Byrne, Inks by Keith Williams

Once again, the cover was figuratively true. Booster had been growing into the role of a true hero, and history had been proven to be on his side. The story inside plays on Booster's bad reputation following the earlier story, making the cover reversal doubly sweet.

Aren't these some great covers? As a fan of traditional fine art, I love that the extremely foreshortened poses turn the heroes into grotesques personifying the ugly, violent acts that they are engaged in. As a fan of comic book artists, it's particularly interesting to compare young Jurgens' early take on Superman to Byrne's more iconic character (and also to Jurgens' future interpretation).

As a fan of comic book super heroes, it's just great to see two heroes going head-to-head.

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The old adage says never judge a book by its cover, but that's exactly what comic books expect you to do. If you like what you see on the cover, take a look inside!

Some covers do their jobs better than others. Some are truly outstanding in their own right. Among those is Kevin Maguire's composition for Justice League #4 (1987)

Pencils by Kevin Maguire, Inks by Al Gordon

Maguire's mastery of body language and facial expressions was as important to the success of the "International" era of the Justice League as Keith Giffen's action-packed plots and J.M. DeMatteis' comedic dialogue. This cover doesn't need extra text to grab the reader's attention!

Look at Booster up there: the surprised underdog caught by a larger, unknown villain strong enough to defeat Green Lanterns, Earth's Mightiest Mortal, and (gulp!) Batman. It's a real David-and-Goliath scenario that will play out on the pages inside. Who wouldn't want to read that?

In addition to the promise of action, Maguire also echos the comedic tone of the writing inside with the "cheek"-y placement of that title logo. (Comics Code Authority approved!) Perhaps Booster is shocked that the solid-blue villain who defeated Martian Manhunter isn't wearing any pants. Watchmen was released concurrently with this title, so could that be Doctor Manhattan "moon"-lighting in the DC Universe? My curiosity is piqued! I guess I'll have to pick it up and look inside.

It happens that Justice League #4 doesn't just have one of my favorite covers. It is also my personal favorite Booster Gold story. It introduced Booster Gold to a whole new audience and did so in a way that demonstrated Booster's humanity and the value his powers could bring to the team. All that is summed-up on the cover. Brilliant!

What are some of your favorite covers?

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The solicitation for Heroes in Crisis #9 is out. It looks like Booster Gold will finally be on one of the Ryan Sook variant covers. Sook has created a cover for each issue of the series, each showcasing a key "traumatic" moment of a hero's (or villain's) career.

As a reminder, here are the 8 Sook covers that have been revealed so far. (His cover for issue 7 remains a secret.)

Is the suggestion that it was Harley who took all these photos for the Sanctuary files? Maybe we'll find out in Heroes in Crisis #9. Here's the full solicitation text with an appropriate spoiler warning:

HEROES IN CRISIS #9
written by TOM KING
art and cover by CLAY MANN
variant cover by RYAN SOOK
The most-talked-about miniseries of the year reaches its stunning finale! The mystery behind the murders at Sanctuary is solved, but the mind behind it is one the heroes never expected. With their deepest secrets exposed, the Trinity has to consider how to carry on. Should the tragedy cause them to redouble their efforts to help their hurting comrades, or will they need to close up shop? The answers will be found in the ashes of this final showdown, and the fates of Booster Gold, Harley Quinn and the rest hang in the balance. Click here to reveal potential spoilers
ON SALE May 22 · $3.99 US

You can find the complete list of April DC Comics solicitations on Newsarama.com.

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DCComics.com released some alternate covers for upcoming issues of Heroes in Crisis via , including this J.G. Jones alternate featuring Booster Gold and Harley Quinn.

It looks like that will be a 1-in-50 "chase" variant, meaning that comic shops will get one for every fifty of the regular covers they order. (For obvious reasons, these are also called "incentive" variants, as they incentivize shops to order more comics than they otherwise would.) Comic shops price these rarer variants according to the purchase threshold, so expect to pay a pretty penny to acquire this cover, probably three or more times the $4 cover price.

There will also be 1-in-100 and 1-in-200 variants, the second of which is by Francesco Mattina and depicts a very bloody Harley wearing Booster's broken visor. Good luck finding that one for less than $50.

In addition to those rare variants, DC also released the Ryan Sook standard alternate covers for the first three Heroes in Crisis issues. Each depicts an "incident report" based on more traumatic moments in the lives of DC heroes. These are purportedly from the files of Sanctuary, "a facility designed to allow superheroes to process the trauma of those not-so-heroic moments." These traumatic moments include the death of Superman, Batman's broken back, Aquaman's lost arm, and Jason Todd's death. Oddly, they also include Wonder Woman's assassination of Maxwell Lord.

That seems to imply that Lord has died at Wonder Woman's hand. Where does this fit in continuity?

When last we saw him in the pages of Justice League vs Suicide Squad (2016), Lord was still alive and continuing his villainous ways. Since the original Justice League International never existed and Ted Kord is still alive in the DCnU, the events kicking off Infinite Crisis that led directly to Lord's death and eventual rebirth must have played out somewhat differently than originally seen in Wonder Woman #219 (2005) and Brightest Day (2010). Does this cover reference that old continuity destroyed by Flashpoint? Or are we being given a glimpse of a as yet unrevealed relationship between Lord and Wonder Woman in the DCnU? (Could Lord be behind the deaths at Sanctuary?)

Maybe we'll find out more when Heroes in Crisis finally sees print.

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This past weekend, I discovered that Booster Gold appeared on the cover of the June 2007 issue of Previews.

In case you're unaware, Previews is Diamond Comics Distributors in-house catalog of upcoming comic releases. Diamond distributes the magazine to comic specialty shops so that shop owners can place orders. Many shops make the catalog available to their customers, but it's really an industry tool.

Should this be in the Boosterrific database as a cover appearance? It's really just an ad for Booster Gold Volume 2 #1, and I cover that on the Advertisements page. I must have been aware of this when it was released, and I'm sure I didn't consider it a "cover appearance" then. I'm not sure my opinion has changed.

What do you think? Advertisement or cover appearance?

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