If you don't remember life before the Internet, you may not realize how much harder it was back then for young people to find a community who shared your interests outside of mainstream pop culture.

I distinctly recall being teased quite mercilessly in high school for admitting in front of the class that my ideal Saturday night was staying home and watching Tom Baker Doctor Who reruns on PBS. (I can't say much has changed.)

Which is why, once I'd found friends who liked to quote Star Wars and watch Japanese cartoons, we especially cherished the things that brought us together. Such as comic books.

Especially when those comic books had something really cool in them.

Like that time Batman punched out Guy Garner in Justice League #5.

Like Blue Beetle, we talked about that forever. Which is why, despite having very little Booster Gold content — he's present but off panel — this is one of my very favorite pages of all time.

(Seriously. Why isn't this a movie yet, Warner Bros?)

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I very much enjoy Booster Gold #19 for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is because the Rainbow Raider is such a delightfully silly concept for a comic book super villain that Booster Gold seems completely reasonable by comparison.

Which is no small part of why I choose page 6 as my favorite in this issue.

Notice that all the panels feature diagonal layouts (mostly Dutch angles), emphasizing the uneasiness our hero feels. When the floor isn't tilting, the people on it are! His world is literally spinning out from underneath him as his self-confidence deserts him in a very public moment.

But if I'm being completely honest, the biggest reason it's my favorite page in this issue is because of that bisecting panel with the wide-eyed, costumed Rainbow Raider yelling his own name to a crowd full of witnesses — in the middle of his theft!

You're certainly one of a kind, Roy G. Bivolo.

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This series is intended to address all of Booster Gold's comics in the order of their publication, yet so far, I've only covered issues of Booster Gold Volume 1. I've skipped spotlighting issues of New Teen Titans, The Outsiders, and the earliest issues of Justice League because Booster doesn't appear on a full page's worth of panels.

Now, at last, we come to Booster's first significant appearance outside of his own title. It also happens to be my single favorite Booster Gold comic story of all time and the number one entry in my list of the Twelve Best Booster Gold Stories Ever. If you read the title to this post, you already know I'm talking about Justice League #4.

I can (and have) looked at this book all day. But if I could look at only one page of panels from Justice League #4, it would be the only page one with a smiling Batman.

I like how Batman's smile dawns after the line break, but I especially love that Booster's head turn in the final panel builds tension while leading to the single panel on the second page of this two-page spread, where artist Kevin Maguire gives us this:

Yeah, Justice League #4 is a Boosterrific comic, even if I do say so myself.

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Here, for your nostalgic end-of-year reading enjoyment, are the 5 most-read Boosterrific.com blog posts of 2022:

5. Friday, September 4: My Favorite Pages: Booster Gold 8
In which we take a look at my favorite page of Booster Gold's maiden flight from Booster Gold Volume 1, #8, which not coincidentally was also the original homepage image map for Boosterrific.com when the site launched in 2007. (Fifteen years of Boosterrific.com? Could that be possible?)

4. Monday, August 29: I Did Not Steal This Gif
In which we admire an animated gif of Joe Carlo's Funko digital Blue and Gold epic Non-Fungible Token.

3. Wednesday, August 24: Teen Titans Speak!
In which we talk about hearing Booster Gold speak for the first time in the seventh season of Teen Titans GO!. To actually hear Booster Gold speak (or, more accurately, hear Fred Tatasciore speak as Booster Gold), you'll have to visit CartoonNetwork.com.

2. Wednesday, November 23: Coming Soon: Lazarus Planet Omega
In which we reveal Booster Gold on the David Marquez cover to the final issue of DC's first 2023 event series, Lazarus Planet: Omega #1, expected to arrive in your Local Comic Shop this February 21.

1. Wednesday, January 27: New Release: Human Target 4
In which we read other people talking about Booster Gold in Human Target #4, a book Booster doesn't actually appear in. Nearly a year later, we're still waiting for issue #10 of that 12-issue mini-series. Originally solicited for a December 27 release, the book and its Booster Gold-including alternate cover is now scheduled for January 10. Better late than never!

Here's to another Boosterrific year in 2023!

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Booster Gold #18 is pure crime noir. The issue protagonist isn't Booster, but dogged policeman-out-of-time Broderick, who discovers almost too late that his concept of Justice may not be absolute. It's genuinely heartbreaking.

It helps that Jurgens the Artist masterfully supplements Jurgens the Writer with cinematic chiaroscuro shadows and and smooth panel transitions accompanying the world-weary narrative voiceover. It's almost a shame that the comic is printed in color! (Although Gene D'Angelo's midnight blue alleys, florescent green store interiors, and emergency-vehicle reds really are all perfectly executed.)

All of which makes it really hard to pick just one page to be my favorite.

I sure like the acrobatic routine on page 1. And if I didn't care to spoil the ending, I might say the best page is the last one. But better than those is this slow-burn close up establishing shot on page 6:

Most Booster boosters would say that Booster Gold #18 is the single best issue of Booster Gold volume 1. And I'm not going to argue with them. That's why I chose it as one of my Twelve Best Booster Gold Stories Ever.

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