This past weekend at WonderCon, DC Comics unveiled many of their plans for Rebirth. Although Ted Kord will be returning to mentor Jaime Reyes, there was no hint that we'll be seeing a Booster Gold comic anytime soon.

At least no obvious hint.

That's Gary Frank's cover to DC Universe: Rebirth, the one-shot book written by Geoff Johns that will be launching the Rebirth event. If you're familiar with Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes, you'll recognize Superman's pose as he reaches out to touch the hand of god. A contributor to Comics Amino thinks he knows who that god will be.

Who could the character that ties directly to rebirth and is manipulating things behind the scenes be?
...
A being who is apart of the time stream itself and has the knowledge of the past, present and future and can monitor any activity within the time stream.
...
I think Waverider Booster will be the key to everything.

It may be wishful thinking on my part, but I'd like to believe this commentator (who posts under the pseudonym "Booster Gold"!). Part of his argument is based on an exchange between Johns and Booster Gold creator Dan Jurgens at the "DC All Access Live: DC Universe Rebirth" panel at WonderCon.

If you fast-forward to about 34:50 in the video above, Dan Jurgens will be introduced as the writer who will be returning the post-Crisis Superman to Action Comics in June. He will conclude the interview with this exchange with Geoff Johns:

Johns: There's also a character in there that will tie directly to Rebirth, and some of the stuff that you're playing with is long term for the story we're building. It's really exciting.

Jurgens: Right, exactly. You'll certainly see more of that right in the first issue as we see someone manipulating things behind the scenes putting everything in its place, and it's building to quite a big conclusion.

Last week Johns told Booster Gold fans that big things are coming and we're going to be happy, and now Jurgens is teasing some time-manipulating puppet-master responsible for restoring portions of the post-Crisis DC Universe. Is the reason we haven't seen Waverider since Convergence because he's been busy fixing the DCnU?

So, Booster Gold in Rebirth? Who knows. It could all just be a coincidence or wishful thinking. After all, DC teased that Booster would play a significant role in both Infinite Crisis and Futures End, and neither of those came to pass. However, I'd rather stay positive and hope for the best. Isn't that what a rebirth is all about?

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It's been a long time since I played a game of Magic the Gathering, but I might consider jumping back in if Wizards of the Coast was adding more Gold to their boosters.

This card was put together by TheUndead_King at the custom card website MTG Cardsmith. It's easily my favorite card since Black Cat! (For the record, my favorite card ever was Stasis. Yes, I enjoyed ruining your day.)

Although TheUndead_King left the artist on his card as "unknown," let me assure you that it is Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund artwork from Booster Gold Volume 2, #1. (And while I'm at it, the flavor text is from 52 Week 52. Damn, we got some good Booster Gold comics there for a while.)

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Booster Gold may not be in comic shops right now, but you'll still find him if you look in the right places. Here's what I've seen around the web in the past few days:

• Dan Jurgens is okay with Nathan Fillion (or "probably ten other guys who I'd certainly give a big thumbs-up to") playing a live-action Booster Gold. With a character as great as Booster Gold, I figure even George Clooney couldn't ruin him.
• Speaking of Jurgens, he recently told a fan on Twitter (Booster booster CDN) that "of course" he knows who Rip Hunter's mom is. The trick will be getting him an opportunity to tell us.
• Steve Lam of BamSmackPow.com thinks he has proof that television's Rip Hunter is still Booster Gold's son. If that turns out to be true it would mean that we've already met Booster Gold's grandson!
• Speaking of Legends of Tomorrow, Erin of Exploring the Time Lab revealed that her comic book reading, LoT-watching sister had no idea that Rip Hunter is Booster Gold's son. (Spoilers!) That got me wondering whether most fans of the show would think more or less of Rip Hunter if they knew who his father was. Booster doesn't exactly have a sterling reputation with the casual comic-reading public. (That's what makes his secret identity as The Greatest Hero You've Never Heard Of work.)

What have you heard about Booster Gold lately?

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A few days ago, Booster Gold creator Dan Jurgens made a pretty strong statement on Twitter.

The inspiration for Jurgens' comment was Booster booster Keith Callbeck's post of Ross Pearsall's Super-Team Family mash-up cover of Booster Gold and Blue Beetle running from the Hulk. Pearsall's inspiration was the opening splash page of Booster Gold, Volume 2, #34, drawn by Chris Batista in 2010. Specifically, it is this panel by Batista that Jurgens takes issue with:

It's easy to understand Jurgens' dissatisfaction with Batista's choice of poses and expressions. That panel has gained some traction on the Internet in recent years. You may have seen it copied by Blue and Gold cosplayers. Howard Porter's 2015 cover for Justice League 3000 #12 saw a similar scene of the panicked pair.

That wasn't always their reaction to trouble. In their Justice League International heyday, Beetle and Booster were chased by mobs of angry citizens, vampires, middle-eastern dictators, runaway islands, demons, and countless super villains. Yet Kevin Maguire, the artist most associated with the Blue and Gold pairing, never showed Blue and Gold turning tail in fear.

So what's the right way to depict Blue Beetle and Booster Gold running for their lives? Here's Dan Jurgens' take on the scenario in Booster Gold, Volume 2, #7 (2008):

Ok, so maybe Beetle is still scared. But look at Booster. What a hero!

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In celebration of the 30th anniversary of the first appearance of Booster Gold, I've spent the year asking Dan Jurgens questions about Booster Gold's earliest adventures. Today I conclude this year-long column with two final questions about Booster's powers.

In the pages of Secret Origins #35 (1989), Mark Waid pointed out that all of Booster's original powers and abilities were based on equipment found in Superman's pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths adventures, including Superboy's Legion flight-ring, Brainiac's force-field, and Lex Luthor's power suit. Most of those original powers are still part of Booster's ability set today, except for the Mass Dispersal Force, originally based on Jor-El's Phantom Zone Projector.

Being able to dematerialize and rematerialize matter at will is a pretty significant power. I asked Jurgens why it faded into the land of forgotten powers so quickly.

People seemed to have a hard time grasping what it was.

On top of that, I'd had a conversation with a couple of people at DC who thought it seems a bit too "magical". So, with that in mind, we dropped it.

On the other hand, one of the most enduring components of Booster's power set didn't have any clear antecedent: his Booster Shots ray blasts.

What could have inspired Jurgens to give Booster ranged gauntlet attacks? And perhaps more importantly, which came first, the power or the "pun"-ny name?

Good question!

The name really did come first in that case. I had been scrawling ideas in a note bad -- just sort of an idea matrix, if you will -- and wrote down "Booster Shots".

Once I did that, I simply had to find a way to use it!

There you have it. (And yes, I did save that one for last because Jurgens said it was a good question. Hooray, me.)

Thank you, Dan Jurgens. I've really enjoyed quizzing you on thirty-year-old trivia.

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