The fifth Booster Gold adventure, Booster Gold volume 1, number 5, is the first time in this series that I really struggle to pick just one favorite page.

I love the confrontation on page 4 in which Booster Gold arrives like an angel only to have the Metropolis cops reject him because he "ain't Superman."

I also love the nearly wordless (but imperfectly rendered) emotional sequence with those same cops in the snow after Booster's apparent death on page 11.

And the panels on page 16 perfectly sell Booster's personal regrets about his mysterious past and give us a sweet Back to the Future-inspired emotional transition.

But forced to choose, I have to say that my favorite single page in Booster Gold #5 is Booster Gold driving the Boostermobile for the first time like those two parking attendants in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Drive it like you stole it, Booster!

In a story built to compare and contrast Booster to Superman, this page is all about Booster enjoying himself doing something no responsible hero would (granted that the always responsible Skeets is in a position to take the wheel if necessary), in a for-profit licensed product no less!

He jumps a car over an ocean liner. I'd like to see Superman do that.

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In many ways, Booster Gold volume 1 number 4 is exactly what you might expect from a Bonze Age DC comic: two disparate heroes are forced to team-up to have a fist fight with a would-be world conquering super villain and his minions. However, the story has several elements that make it unique, not the least of which is that after several issues subverting heroic tropes, Booster Gold gets to play the role of the prototypical hero and be morally contrasted with Rose, a "hero" who shuns attention.

That said, I actually prefer the pauses the story takes to show us Trixie Collins feeding her fish or Skip Andrews trying to get a comic book off the ground. And I cannot tell you how excited I get every time I read the final page of the story, which promises Booster's next big foe: the Internal Revenue Service!

I am always disappointed that this subplot is eventually resolved off-panel. I think it would be interesting to meet Booster's bookkeeper.

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Years ago, in my original review for Booster Gold volume 1, number 3, I wrote "While the ride may not be as smooth as previous issues, it is worth the cost of admission just for the sight of Booster Gold on a date in a purple tuxedo over his regular costume."

I stand by that statement.

This page is so good for so many reasons. Who hasn't been on a terrible date? Booster Gold gets to be both a selfish cad and a clever hero. Monica Lake is a gold digger. The whole thing is the sort of train wreck you don't want to look away from.

And that tuxedo and bow tie still hasn't come back into fashion.

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After Booster Gold was portrayed so heroically in his first issue, Booster Gold volume 1, number 2 really delivers the gut punch that maybe he's not really all that he's pretending to be. He starts face down in the gutter, his friends chew him out for his failures, it becomes clear his family is lost to him forever, and the issue ends with the death of his sidekick. What a downer!

Yet, in the midst of all that, we get one of the best Booster Gold pages in the character's history:

If you don't love that, you're reading the wrong blog!

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By my count, Booster Gold has appeared in over 770 comics. That's a lot of pages!

I think it'll be fun — and maybe even enlightening — to give them another look, one page per book, in chronological order of publication, in a new series I'm calling:

There's no better place to start than where it all started, on the first page of Booster Gold volume 1, number 1, released on October 29, 1985.

You might be surprised that I chose as my favorite page from his first appearance one that has so little actual Booster Gold in it. What can I say? I'm a sucker for metatextuality in fiction.

From the moment I picked this issue out of a convenience store magazine rack in early 1986, I've always loved that the first Booster Gold comic book opens on the idea of a Booster Gold comic book, specifically a comic book that publisher Skip Blaze hopes will save his entire company. Though I didn't realize it at the time, that's an especially bold start for a character designed to break the mold of what DC Comics was known for producing.

Fortunately for Booster boosters everywhere, Skip Andrews' (and Dan Jurgens') big gamble in 1985 sure has paid off.

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