Another something I haven't had the time to mention yet: Major Force made a guest appearance in Firestorm: The Nuclear Man #20 wearing a costume that looks very familiar.

I guess if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Major Force is paying Booster a big compliment. It probably doesn't help any that the artists for the book were Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund.

Late last month at ComicBook.com, Russ Burlingame — the internet's premiere Booster Gold journalist! — asked Dan Jurgens why Major Force looked like Booster Gold's purplest fan.

ComicBook.com: Major Force—is that the first time we've seen him in the New 52? I feel like there was a character who looked like that introduced in Ron Marz's Voodoo run, but I don't see anything to indicate it was him on the DC Wiki and I feel like they may have referred to him by another name there.

Jurgens: You were right the first time. Major Force made a brief appearance in the earlier days of the New 52, which is what we used for the overall character design. It was fun to push him back on stage.

ComicBook.com: I remember noticing at the time that there's a pretty unmistakable similarity between this version of Major Force's look and Booster Gold's, excepting of course the color scheme. Did you notice that too?

Jurgens: I did notice it, which is why I did whatever I could to work away from it, mostly emphasizing Force's bulk.

Jurgens is right, this "Major Force" design did show up in several issues of Voodoo. However, that character was not Captain Atom's old foe Clifford Zmeck but Blackhawk agent Major "Black Jack" Bolton. Bolton was clearly decapitated long before Voodoo was canceled. Is Jurgens' Major Force Zmeck or a reincarnated Bolton? (Major Force has survived some pretty gruesome injuries in the past.)

Back when Booster debuted in the 1980s, it could be argued that his costume had been strongly "inspired" by the costume worn by the Soviet hero Red Star. Since the Communists don't believe in personal property, Red Star's emblem, cowl, goggles, and high collar designs were destined to be copied by a Capitalist hero with good fashion sense. But in the contemporary DCnU of the 21st century, you'd think that a big celebrity like Booster Gold would have a good copyright lawyer on retainer to deal with copycats like Black Jack and Major Force. Maybe Booster's trying to keep his head down on this issue. His past isn't exactly spotless, after all.

Booster, give Batman a call. The lawyers working for Batman, Inc. must know a thing or two about dealing with intellectual property infringement cases by now.

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There has been so much Booster Gold news lately, I haven't had the space to post all the Booster Gold sketches that I've been collecting. I'll start correcting that with this post of from Dan Jurgens himself.

Shawn Baston, (whose name should be familiar to longtime Booster Gold fans and visitors to Boosterrific.com), commissioned this sketch from Dan Jurgens at Spring Con 2013 last month.

Thanks, Shawn, for sharing your new prized possession with us!

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If we want to see Booster Gold in comics again, it would be in our best interest to support the work of Booster's creator and biggest champion, the writer who has scripted more Booster Gold adventures than anyone else, Dan Jurgens. After all, who else can get away with answering Twitter calls for more Booster Gold with a "Bwah-ha-ha?"

DC may have taken Justice League International away from him, but Jurgens landed on his feet with The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Man. Firestorm fans, like the Irredeemable Shag! over at FirestormFan.com, seem quite pleased that Jurgens has jettisoned much of the New 52 re-interpretation of the character to draw Firestorm closer to his pre-Flashpoint roots.

If you're a fan of Jurgens or Firestorm -- or if you just want to keep Jurgens employed until he can tell us who the Black Beetle is -- consider picking up The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Man at your Local Comic Shop today.

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It may seem like a lifetime ago, but it was only 4 years ago today that DC published Booster Gold, Volume 2, #15, the issue marking the return of Booster Gold's creator, Dan Jurgens, as credited writer on a book titled Booster Gold.

When Booster Gold Volume 1 was cancelled did Jurgens expect 21 years, 1 month, and 13 days to pass before he would return to writing a Booster Gold series? If the past is any indication, we'll have to wait until September 2032 before we see Jurgens named as writer of Booster Gold Volume 3. Jurgens will be 73 years old in 2032, but Booster Gold will probably still be going on 23. (Time travel has its advantages.)

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My favorite part of running Boosterrific.com is discovering things I've never seen before in comics that I thought I knew. For example, just this week Ariel Justel dropped by the Boosterrific Facebook page to point out something I must have missed in my two dozen or so readings of Booster Gold, Volume 1, #6:

That's Thor walking through Metropolis' Centennial Park in the background of page 2, panel 1! I thought I had looked pretty hard at these pages, but I never realized that the little blue blob was Marvel Comics' Mjonir-toting God of Thunder until I broke out a magnifying glass to confirm Ariel's sighting.

What other Easter eggs has Dan Jurgens hidden in the original series that I'd never spotted before? Now I have a whole new reason to read my Booster Gold comics! Thanks, Ariel.

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