The weirdest bit of Booster Gold news I've bumped into lately comes by way of Twitter.com:

Wait, who's the dad?

(Over at ComicBook.com, Russ Burlingame managed to turn this alpaca news into a 500 word article that also promotes Friday's Bill & Ted Face the Music in a clever bit of cross marketing. I tell you, that guy can work Booster Gold into anything, and I mean that as the highest possible praise.)

While we're on the subject of animals named after our favorite super hero, you may recall that last October I told you about a thoroughbred racehorse who lost every race he ran last year.

Well, according to Equibase.com, he's raced 4 more times in 2020, and these are the results:

June 27, Laurel Park, MD, Race 1; "BOOSTER GOLD, wide on the turn, weakened." Finished 6 in a field of 10.

July 30, Laurel Park, MD, Race 3; "BOOSTER GOLD was outrun." Finished 10 in a field of 10.

August 15, Laurel Park, MD, Race 6; "BOOSTER GOLD, in a bit tight at the break, raced wide and failed to menace." Finished 8 in a field of 11.

August 27, Laurel Park, MD, Race 9; "BOOSTER GOLD was outrun." Finished 11 in a field of 12.

Seven races, never finishing in the top half. At least he's a safe bet... not to win. Perhaps our boy should consider retiring to an alpaca farm.

UPDATE 2020-09-18: September 11, Charles Town, WV, Race 3; "BOOSTER GOLD rated close to the early pace three wide, gave chase from the three eights pole then weakened into the far turn." Finished 4 in a field of 6. This is the first time that a bet on Booster Gold could have paid off. A $1 Superfecta bet — a bet on the horses to place in first, second, third, and fourth position in the correct order — would have returned a $914.70 payout. Is it possible that Booster Gold has been sandbagging all this time just to run up his odds for a bigger payment? No one would put that past him.

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DC's November solicitations are out, and Booster Gold is in!

Specifically, he's in Batman Beyond #49.

BATMAN BEYOND #49
written by DAN JURGENS
art and cover by PAUL PELLETIER and NORM RAPMUND
cover by DAN MORA

To safely return to his own timeline, Batman Beyond will have to defeat the villain Blanque without being seen by his mentor, the World's Greatest Detective—Batman! Will Booster Gold help keep Batman Beyond hidden, or will time as we know it become completely undone? You do not want to miss this issue!
ON SALE November 24, 2020

I'm starting to hope that time as I know it *will* be completely undone, but DC's constant series of reboots has conditioned me to expect that I would like the new universe that takes its place even less.

I'm assuming from the way the solicitation is written that the book will have two covers. DC only released one cover with the solicitation, the one drawn by Dan Mora. While that cover is beautifully drawn, it does not include even a hint of Booster Gold. I hope Pelletier and Rapmund don't make the same mistake.

You can find a complete list of DC's November 2020 solicitations at GamesRadar.com.

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As many, many people have told me, Booster Gold appears in the October 2020 DC Comics solicitations. This is — as all Booster Gold appearances should be — Big News, big enough to be covered by many of the usual comic book news websites.

Compare the headlines "Batman vs. Batman Beyond Is Happening - And It's Booster Gold's Fault" and "Batman Will Finally Fight Batman Beyond Thanks to Booster Gold". The former belongs to CBR.com, who never misses a chance to troll Booster Gold fans. The latter belongs to ComicBook.com, where the Internet's foremost Booster Gold reporter, Russ Burlingame, adds a lot more context and a bit of speculation based on his past experience with the character. I'll leave you to your judgment which of those two links you should read.

Or, if you're in a hurry, you can just read the original solicitation below:

BATMAN BEYOND #48
written by DAN JURGENS
art by SEAN CHEN
cover by DAN MORA

"First Contact" begins! Something is very, very wrong with Bruce Wayne, as he lashes out in anger and tries to kill Batman Beyond! Who else can save him but...Booster Gold?! The greatest hero history never knew is going to take Batman Beyond back in time to the Gotham of old, where Bruce Wayne is Batman—which means Batman and Batman Beyond will meet at last!
ON SALE October 27, 2020

No matter whose fault it is, Batman must be getting tired of Booster Gold interfering with his destiny.

Though Batman Beyond #48 was the only solicitation to mention Booster Gold by name (and the only one to get promoted in the comic book press), our hero also appears in the announced reprint collections of Heroes in Crisis, plus lesser appearances in Batman/Superman Vol 1, Justice League Unlimited: Time After Time, and Underworld Unleashed: The 25th Anniversary TP.

You can find the complete list of DC October 2020 solicitations at GamesRader.com.

Keep your piggy banks nearby, Booster boosters. You're going to need all your pennies this October.

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We've reached the halfway point of my list of the twelve best Booster Gold comics, and number 6 is arguably the darkest story in the list. As you can see from the cover of Superman #74, Doomsday has arrived.

This story is a tragedy. An alien monster has crashed on Earth and is marching his way towards Metropolis, leaving a trail of unimaginable destruction in its wake, including the broken body of Blue Beetle, as we see in the first panel.

Unfortunately for Mitch and his family, Doomsday's path leads straight through their house. Unfortunately for the Justice League, they are Mitch's only hope.

Dan Jurgens is at his best as a writer when he scales his stories down to a human level. That skill is on display here, as several early pages are devoted to the introduction of Mitch and his family. (Angry teenage Mitch is so very 90s, but that's when this comic was created.) They put a face on the danger, giving the audience a reason to care about Doomsday's rampage and creating a dramatic tension often missing from these sorts of super-heroic fisticuffs. We see the stakes driving the heroes to fight and win. If the heroes fail...

Well, heroes can't fail, can they?

The following page contains 8 consecutive panels of Booster Gold taking a beating unlike any he's seen before or since. It's not just brutal --

The issue makes it clear that Booster's sacrifice is a heroic one. Booster Gold is giving his life so that others may live. That's the definition of a real hero.

And that's why I include it among the The Best Booster Gold Stories Ever.

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The comics industry is slowly getting back to normal, as you can tell by the release of solicitations for upcoming releases. While it doesn't look like our hero will be appearing in any of DC's August 2020 comics, the publisher's latest solicitations do include a confirmation of something we first spotted last month:

BOOSTER GOLD: FUTURE LOST HC
written by DAN JURGENS and others
art by DAN JURGENS and others
new cover by DAN JURGENS and NORM RAPMUND
The original solo series for Booster Gold, self-serving hero from the future, concludes with this collection of Dan Jurgens's formative mid-'80s stories! Booster finds himself a wanted man, and then lands in the polychromatic sights of the Rainbow Raider! Later, Superman gets in the middle of a battle between Booster Gold and...Booster Gold? Collects Booster Gold #13-25, pages from Millennium #3-6 and #7, Action Comics #594, Secret Origins #35, and more.
ON SALE 09.01.20
$39.99 US
400 PAGES
ISBN: 978-1-77950-672-6

That's right, the companion volume to the superb Booster Gold: The Big Fall collection will be in your Local Comic Shop this September. What could that "and more" mean? I'm giddy with anticipation.

See Newsarama.com for the full list of DC's August coming attractions.

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