Behind every great man there is a great woman. In Booster Gold's case, that woman was Trixie Collins.

Theresa "Trixie" Collins was a red-headed Kansas girl hired to be Booster's original secretary at Goldstar, Inc. She would later move up in the organization to be the first to wear the Goldstar sidekick costume. Like all good Girl Fridays, she was an incredibly competent, level-headed voice of reason in an otherwise insane work environment. And she was far too professional to fall for her boss.

It seemed there were sparks between the two, but the coming of Millennium seemed to destroy any hope readers had of seeing their relationship come to fruition. I've always wondered if Dan Jurgens felt love was in the cards for his creations. So I asked him.

In the beginning, I saw Booster as having two voices that would serve as his conscience. Skeets was one, serving as more of his guide through aspects of the era they were in and against villains. Trixie would function more as his conscience in terms of how he dealt with people. There was plenty of room for both.

And while I never intended that there would ever be a romantic relationship, I did see a place for deep, friendly affection between them.

No matter what Jurgens intended, I have to believe that Booster would have charmed his way out the friend zone if he hadn't been forced to leave Metropolis on such short notice. But long-distance relationships rarely work out.

My eternal thanks to Dan Jurgens for stocking Booster's world with so many wonderful characters. (Happy Birthday, Dan!)

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Look what Morgenstern spotted in DC's September solicitations:

BAT-MITE #4
Written by DAN JURGENS
Art and cover by CORIN HOWELL
On sale SEPTEMBER 2 • $2.99 US

There's a new bad guy in town: Gridlock, the villain who's stuck in the past! And now, he's out to stop the future from coming! Booster Gold, the hero from the future, obviously can't allow that, but when he seeks Bat-Mite's help in finding this purloiner of progress, it doesn't take much of a prognosticator to predict that he's going to regret it.

Booster's first headlining role in the post-Convergence DCU comes courtesy of who else but Booster's proud papa, Dan Jurgens. And look: New Skeets!

You can see all the announced books (including the many, many Convergence collections, some of which contain reprints of Convergence Booster Gold) online at Newsarama.com.

UPDATE 2015-06-19: This is the second time in recent weeks I have accidentally let a post go early. I promise to try and be more careful from here on. So if you saw this post yesterday, please forgive this repost.

JLA Classified #6

To make amends, I offer this bonus link to a Dan Jurgens and Corin Howell interview at Comicosity.com about Bat-Mite. The interview is light on Booster Gold references, but not everything can be solid gold, right?

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With DC Comics moving on from Convergence, I was worried that we'd seen the last of Russ Burlingame's "Gold Exchange" columns. But Burlingame was on the ball, and his interview with Dan Jurgens over Convergence Booster Gold #2 was published last week.

Burlingame:Last thing's first: How long have you known what Older Booster's final fate would be? It feels really organic to Convergence but at the same time, he was a HUGE player in Time Masters: Vanishing Point where Waverider's corpse played a big role.

Dan Jurgens:I've always had a couple of thoughts in mind for Booster's fate. This is the one that worked.

It seemed a natural evolution. And, because this was an older Booster Gold, there are still a huge number of stories left to tell that would have existed between the end of Time Masters and the events of Convergence: Booster Gold #2.

Burlingame: Do you have an idea how Booster Classic ended up working with A.R.G.U.S., or is that just a mystery of the New 52 era?

Jurgens:Yes, I have a definitive idea. It really has to involve the notion of that particular Booster crossing over from the pre-Flashpoint universe to the New 52 Universe.

Booster had some lines in these last two issues along the lines of, "The things I've seen, the things I've done..." There are a number of stories that would have taken place, one of which would have led to the A.R.G.U.S. suit.

Will those stories never get told? Argh! I need to know!

If you haven't already, you should head over and read the whole interview at ComicBook.com. Clearly Jurgens has a lot of ideas for Booster Gold stories but not a lot of places to tell them. Someone should talk to DC about that.

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It cannot be denied that the original cast of Booster Gold was pale. Michael Carter was white. Trixie Collins was white. Dirk Davis was white. About the only characters in the first six issues who weren't white were Booster's orange cats, Jack and Jill. (Hey, it's not Booster's fault that Metropolis was settled almost exclusively by Western Europeans and Kryptonians.)

The eventual introduction of supporting cast member Dr. Jack Soo in Booster Gold #7 finally provided an injection of some much needed color.

Soo was the best young inventor at Scientific and Technological Advanced Research Laboratories (aka S.T.A.R. Labs) when he was hired to create a new female super suit for Goldstar, Inc. He delivered on his reputation and earned his place in Booster Gold's supporting cast.

While Soo's specific heritage is never addressed, his tan skin, dark hair, and narrow eyes indicate Asian ethnicity. "Soo" also happens to be a Westernization of the fairly common Chinese surname "Su."

Of course, it's hard not to notice the sudden appearance of an ethnic minority in a comic full of white characters. But was Asian the right race for Booster Gold's first new supporting character? I mean, isn't "Asian scientist" a little cliched?

As always, I turned to creator Dan Jurgens for the answer.

Yes, we realized that we need to have a more diverse cast.

I would also add that "Asian scientist" might seem a bit stereotypical now, but it certainly wasn't 30 years ago.

Jurgens has a point there. While ethnic Asians make up almost 15% of all modern science, technology, engineering, and technology jobs in America today (second in percentage only to — you guessed it — whites), that number was closer to 5% in 1980 according to census.gov.

Thanks to Dan Jurgens for being both culturally sensitive and historically accurate.

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Convergence has killed the tyranny of the New 52, and humor can now return to the DC Universe!

Introducing Bat-Mite, a 6-issue limited series featuring everyone's favorite, uh, mite, I guess. Say, who's that on Corin Howell's cover?

Booster doesn't show up inside this issue, but I'll give you good odds he appears before series end. (Dan Jurgens is the writer.) You can decide for yourself what you think by reading the preview online at ComicVine.com.

Buy this book and make cartoon Skeets happy.

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