A little bird tells me that Booster Gold will play a part in this weekend's Justice League Action episode, "System Error."

That's not obvious from the episode description from my cable guide:

When Batman discovers that he and the rest of the League are robots, he investigates to find out who did this and why.

That said, IMDB does seem to confirm that Diedrich Bader will be in the episode as Booster. Even more telling, the episode writer, Patrick Rieger, retweeted the episode tease and followed up with this tweet.

So turn your television dial — they still have those, yes? Televisions? — to Cartoon Network at 7AM eastern Saturday morning to see Booster in action, Justice League Action!

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I'm about to do something I never do. I'm going to gush about something I saw on television this past weekend, specifically the Justice League Action episode "Time Out."

"Time Out" gives us possibly the greatest on-screen Booster Gold ever.

Episode writer Jonathan Callan channeled Booster Gold perfectly. Like our hero, he stole from his past to make a better present. Sci-fi geeks may recognize that the primary antagonists in "Time Out" were lifted from old Doctor Who episodes. (And that doorway at Vanishing Point sure looked like something from Stargate.) I'm not complaining. Using familiar ideas like this allows "Time Out" to squeeze some high concept time travel shenanigans into a brief eleven minutes of action.

[UPDATE: On Twitter, Callan admits that in addition to Who, the time antibodies were also inspired by Stephen King's Langoliers and the chronovore to be a "lift from Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman".]

Callan makes another theft that is much more important. The plot of "Time Out" comes from another television show you've probably heard of, specifically Justice League Unlimited episode "The Greatest Story Never Told." Once again, Booster Gold is initially presented as an incompetent dudebro who only plays at heroism for fame. Once again, Booster Gold is the only hero who can save the world when an unexpected crisis develops, and once again, no one else gets to know about it. It's the small changes to this formula that make this episode greater than its predecessor.

Whereas "Greatest Story" dropped the crisis into the lap of an ill-prepared Booster, here the problem is a job a more mature Booster has accepted, trained for, and completed many times before without any hope of reward. "Time Out" really sells Booster's inherent goodness and loneliness, personality traits commonly obscured by his more obvious desperate need for attention. In this episode, Booster is fully aware of his faults and doesn't care to hide them because how others see him isn't as important as doing the right thing.

That's some good stuff right there.

I probably don't need to mention that the episode is greatly enhanced by voice acting from former Batman Diedrich Bader and current (and all-time best) Batman Kevin Conroy. They manage to convey a lot of humor and pathos in a very short period of time. Great job done by all.

If I have any quibble, it's that Skeets doesn't have any speaking lines. But given how much good stuff we did get ("Booster cave," Vanishing Point, Booster getting the last word over Batman), I'm more than willing to let that go. That Skeets was in here at all is good enough for me.

I hope any Booster boosters who missed the broadcast will have a chance to discover this gem in reruns. I look forward to many repeat viewings myself.

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Justice League Action debuted on Cartoon Network on Friday in a four-part "Shazam Slam" special. Unexpectedly, Booster Gold got in on the action!

Booster played a small role in episode 3, "Night of the Bat," where he is used exclusively as comic relief. (There's even a quick "Gold's Gym" visual pun.) Diedrich Bader's portrayal of Booster sounds a little more Californian than Boosters past. It's very in keeping with Booster's public image as an idiot.

Although Booster doesn't have much to do in this episode, JLA writer Jonathan Callan called the character "a breakout star" on Twitter.com. Booster voice actor Diedrich Bader responded by saying how much he loves playing the character.

Hopefully, this love fest will translate into bigger roles for Booster in future episodes. We'll be watching.

(Special thanks to Bob in Friday's comments for catching Booster's appearance.)

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At Comic Con, Nerd Repository's Kyle Wilson interviewed Diedrich Bader about his upcoming take on Booster Gold for Justice League Action.

It's nice to hear Bader praising Tom Everett Scott for having fun with our favorite hero on Batman: Brave and the Bold. For many, Scott remains the ideal Booster Gold after his excellent performance in Justice League Unlimited's "The Greatest Story Never Told." Let's see if Bader can change some minds.

You'll find more information about Justice League Action at NerdRepository.com. (Thanks to Morgenstern for reminding me about this post.)

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We keep hearing that Booster Gold is going to be in the upcoming Justice League Action cartoon, but we haven't seen any pictures of the character design. That is, until now.

This pic comes to us courtesy of The Blot, who's been busy hunting Booster Gold at Comic Con this week. (We're in your debt, Blot.) Booster is one of several characters, most of whom were previously revealed, on a Justice League Action wall display. Note that the design is clearly based on his pre-New 52 look. Thank the gods.

At the convention, DC also released a sizzle real including some of the DC Universe's more obscure characters like Dex-Starr, Vixen, and Space Cabbie, but still no Booster Gold in action. However, we did get another video featuring Diedrich Bader talking about his approach to the character. You'll find it starting at 2:09 below:

(Thanks to Morgenstern for that link.)

I was initially apprehensive when I heard that Bader, known far and wide as Lawrence in Office Space, would be Batman in Brave and the Bold, but he totally won me over with his deadpan delivery. As much as I'll miss Tom Everett Scott in the role, I'm excited to hear what Bader can bring to Booster this fall on Cartoon Network.

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