As SLW alerted us, Booster Gold (and Skeets!) does indeed make a cameo appearance in this week's Flash #22, where our hero (and sidekick!) show up in windows into the timestream inside the Linear Bureau's headquarters at the end of time where Wade West is being impossibly cryptic about current events:

Of course, that's not "current events" Booster, because Superman #27 makes it pretty clear that Booster is a little hung up at the moment.

That issue expressly identifies the setting of Booster's captivity as "the future," so today's question is "Where in time is Booster Gold?"

To recap: Last year's DC All-In Special led readers to believe that Booster Gold traveled across dimensions to the Alpha World of the Absolute Universe. Summer of Superman Special corrected course to reveal that Booster is not in an alternate dimension but an alternate future. But, as you can read above, Superman #27 combines the two, explaining that Booster did go to Alpha World before returning to the future of Prime Earth. Great. So now we know which dimension he's in (and that the dimensions can be transversed).

So what epoch is our hero in now? The setting of Booster's captivity would appear to be the 25th century Space Museum he once worked in, though presumably sometime after 2462 lest changes to the timeline write him out of existence. The logical assumption, especially considering the corpses of the Fatal Five seen in the aforementioned Summer of Superman, would be that he's being held captive in the 31st century, the native time period of the Legion of Super-Heroes. If that's true, where is the (uncorrupted) Legion native to our universe?

Since it's pretty clear now that "our" familiar Legion is not the same as the "Dark" Legion seen since DC All In Special, why did Booster's Flight Ring (native to Prime Earth) become a Dark Flight Ring in All In Special? Did Dark Brainiac 5 go back in time and leave his Dark Legion Flight Ring in the 25th century Space Museum?

And what, exactly, happened to Booster's high collar? All In Special promised more high collar! Must Darkseid destroy everything good in the world(s)?!

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To make Google happy, I've been tinkering under the hood here at Boosterrific.com to change how news items are retrieved and archived. If all goes well, this should only result in some changed URLs, and the average site visitor will never notice any difference. If anyone finds anything broken, please let me know, but "I'm not expecting any trouble" are some pretty good last words. (Just ask CrowdStrike.)

Meanwhile, as a good test case for new blog posts going forward, Booster booster J has found a new "Booster Gold" appearance in a comic that isn't already in the Boosterrific Database.

I'm currently reading Volume 2 of The Flash, from 1987. I just wanted to point out that on the very last page of The Flash, Vol. 2 #2, Booster's name (together with the DC Comics logo) is advertised (in-universe!) on the side of a truck.

Here is that panel in particular, taken from The Flash: Savage Velocity collected edition:

written by Mike Baron; art by Jackson Guice, Larry Mahlstedt, Carl Gafford, Steve Haynie; edited by Mike Gold

The reason this book does not appear in the Boosterrific Database is because the character of Booster Gold himself does not appear in this issue. But cases like this are a key reason why the Boosterrific Blog exists. I even have a banner and tag for it:

I do not think I had posted about this before, but that's one of the reasons I'm trying to make the news archive more Google-friendly. Sometimes it's hard for even the archivist to find information buried in the dusty virtual bookshelves in Booster Cave! In any case, I have definitely blogged about it now, thanks to J.

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The Gold Beetle returns — as a prisoner of the Linear Men! — in this week's The Flash #7:

written by Simon Spurrier, art by Ramon Perez

Seven issues into this latest Flash volume, it's still a big mystery what's actually going on (thanks, decompression!), so I can't explain it to you. What I can say for sure is that the mysterious Linear Man codenamed "Inspector Pilgrim" talking to Max Mercury and Impulse claims he and the detained Gold Beetle are "kinda family."

While I'm inclined to believe that "Inspector Pilgrim" is yet another future version of Jai West (who smooched with Gold Beetle during the One Minute War), I suppose it's a possibility that Pilgrim has some relationship with Booster Gold or Blue Beetle.

Maybe one day we'll find out.

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Don't let that headline mislead you; I'm not expecting to see Booster Gold in this week's The Flash #799. But as the issue preview now available at AIPTComics.com demonstrates, we will definitely be seeing Gold Beetle:

As I said a few weeks ago, I'm expecting we'll see Gold Beetle again on June 6 in The Flash's "extra-sized" final issue #800. (Don't worry, DC is restarting Flash with a whole new number one in September... because, um, the number one is cooler.)

What I was NOT expecting, and what I learned from reading the Flash #800 preview also already online at AIPTComics.com, is that the issue will feature an appearance by Booster Gold's long-lost second foe, Mindancer!

I can't wait to find out what she's been up to for the last 37 years!

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I've been really, really busy lately, so I haven't even made it to my Local Comic Shop in a week. Therefore, I wouldn't have known about this week's Gold Beetle appearance if not for Booster booster Marty. Thanks, Marty!

As you can see above, Gold Beetle and Wally West have their first meeting (from her perspective) in this week's Flash #798.

Of course, their first meeting from his perspective was in Flash #767, during which he was displaced in time and inhabiting Impulse's body in the 30th century. So their objectively chronological "present day" first encounter would be Flash #795. Confused yet?

One of these days I really need to devote more time to Gold Beetle, and that time might be soon. It sure looks like she'll be back for Flash #799, and no self-respecting heir to the legacy of Booster Gold would dare miss a milestone issue like #800....

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