During my weekly visit to my Local Comic Shop, the store's newest employee waved me over. "You're the Booster Gold guy, aren't you?" she asked. I confirmed that I was. "Tell me," she said, "what did you think about Booster Gold dating Harley Quinn?"

I assume it was this week's Harley Quinn 30th Anniversary Special that prompted her question. (Booster's not in that, by the way. DC doesn't like to put Booster in anniversary issues, presumably because they don't want him stealing the spotlight. They didn't even give him his own anniversary comic when he turned 30, you know. Not that I'm jealous. I'm sure they'll do right by our boy when he turns 40 in 4 years, right? Right?)

Anyway, in answer to the original question, what I said back in 2020 was

On the one hand, if Booster and Harley were real people and not comic book characters, they'd deserve the same chance at happiness as everyone else. Regardless of the fact that she was trying to kill him as recently as a year ago, the pair would still have the right to seek happy, fulfilling romantic relationships regardless of their past history or public opinion. Whatever anyone outside the relationship (read: me) thinks about the suitability of the pairing of a jock from the future and a psychopath's gun moll should be irrelevant to that relationship.

On the other hand, neither Harley nor Booster is a real person. They are comic book characters who have become widely recognized by fans for being in decades-long relationships with other members of their same sex. Booster's relationship with BFF and fellow hero Blue Beetle has always been intimate but canonically platonic, yet the dastardly damsels Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy have chosen a more physical relationship. (As is the norm in American popular entertainment, the good guys have to play it straight while the femme fatales enjoy "forbidden" love.) Is it a coincidence that these two standard-bearers of non-traditional relationships were chosen to enter into a gender-conforming heterosexual relationship by publishers, editors, writers, and artists who should be aware of the characters' metatextual associations? I find that hard to believe.

That still pretty much sums up my feelings, especially in the wake of the aforementioned 30th Anniversary Special, which goes way out of its way to lean into the Harley/Ivy romantic/sexual relationship.

That said, my opinion about the issue really isn't that important. But I can think of someone's whose is. (Hint: his initials are "DJ.") I'll have more to say about that in a future post.

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Now available at your Local Comic Shop is Harley Quinn Volume 5: Hollywood or Die, collecting the complete "California or Death" story from Harley Quinn #70 through #74. It's a lampoon of a the Hollywood detective noir genre (think The Big Sleep or Chinatown or, maybe more appropriately, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid).

The best part is that Booster Gold has a starring role as the romantic leading man!

*gasp!* They're not wearing masks!

If you didn't see the fireworks between these two lovebirds the first time around, it's because you're a rational person who recognizes a bad mismatch of personalities without being hit over the head with a giant mallet now's your second chance!

To give the story fair credit, if you didn't know anything about Booster Gold or Harley Quinn before reading this, I'm sure you'll find it actually quite charming. Sam Humphries builds a passable DCU mystery story with a grab bag of endearing characters, and Sami Basri's art sells a lot of punchlines, both comedic and pugilistic.

But still, some characters simply shouldn't be used in some plots, knowwhatI'msaying? This story came out only months after Heroes in Crisis established a very different relationship between Booster Gold and Harley Quinn. Can you imagine if The Fugitive had ended with Dr. Richard Kimble kissing the One Armed Man? (The Fugitive. That's a show kids watch these days, right?)

As always, Skeets encourages you to buy any comic that features Booster Gold this prominently.

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Yesterday, I woke to an email from Booster booster Logan Peterson, who had spotted Booster Gold making a cameo appearance at the end of Batman Beyond #47 in anticipation of his guest-starring role next month!

Well, if Batman doesn't exist, DC will be out of comic books, so you'd better get to work, Booster.

Is it just me, or is it starting to seem that Booster Gold has a new role in the DCnU as the harbinger of series cancellation? He showed up as the new boyfriend of Harley Quinn just in time for that series to be canceled. Before that, he played a key role in Action Comics immediately prior to all the storylines of that series being abandoned to whatever it was that Brian Michael Bendis wanted to do. And now he's guest starring in Batman Beyond, a series already announced to be canceled at issue #50 in December.

The Justice League currently has its hands full with Perpetua and Laughing Batman, but maybe they should be more worried about Booster Gold, who may soon be coming to end an ongoing series near them.

Anyway, thanks for the info, Logan. Everyone buy that issue and make Skeets happy!

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After Harley Quinn expressed her feelings last issue, I was expecting to see Booster Gold in yesterday's Harley Quinn #75, in which everyone taking up space in Harley's head helps her celebrate her birthday. But no. There's no sign of Booster Gold. Apparently Harley's love is as fickle as she is.

The closest we get to Booster in the "star-studded" series final issue is this t-shirt worn by Harley's west coast roommate, Becca.

Art by Sami Basri, Hi-Fi

Given that the series has been canceled and DC has yet to announce a replacement, the question becomes "Have we seen the last of #GoldieQuinn?" Only time will tell. (But we can hope.)

In related news, Booster may have skipped Harley's finale because he was trapped in a dungeon in another of yesterday's books, specifically Dark Nights Death Metal Guidebook. I say may because I'm not entirely sure myself.

Take a look at this panel and see what you think:

Art by Doug Mahnke, Jaime Mendoza, David Baron

It looks like *somebody* was in a hurry to get this panel done.

Is that Booster Gold? We saw the same crowd in Dark Nights Death Metal #3, and there aren't a whole bunch of characters it could be other than Booster Gold. Animal Man has angled goggles, Blue Beetle's hair is covered, and it definitely isn't Black Lightning.

So, you've seen the evidence. What's your vote? Booster or not?

This week's poll question: Does the face in the crowd in Dark Night Death Metal Guidebook belong to Booster Gold? Please visit the Boosterrific Polls page to view results for this week's poll.

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In the wake of DC Cybernetic Summer, the past week has become all about Blue and Gold, so now would seem to be the appropriate time for me to make my argument in defense of their canonical, platonic relationship. In a nutshell, I say not everything has to be about sex.

In published canon, Booster Gold and Blue Beetle have been inseparable since the very first year of Justice League International stories. Their intimate platonic love, better known as "friendship," has been the basis for a lot of stories in the decades since in no small part because everyone enjoys spending time with people who so very much enjoy spending time with one other. We like Blue and Gold because they like Blue and Gold, and that's great.

Romantic love is also great. Who doesn't enjoy a good love story where two people find that they each complement the other and form a lasting paired set? Everyone wants to live happily ever after.

But not every great relationship has to be a romantic one. The difference between platonic and romantic love is physical. It's natural for a human to seek out romantic love; we're biologically programmed to want to reproduce. However, a sexual relationship isn't a prerequisite for lifelong happiness, and an intimate emotional connection needn't be merely a stepping stone to a consummated marriage. Perhaps I've read too many chivalric fantasies, but I happen to think that sort of chaste, close relationship is just as worthy of celebration as the romantic kind.

So let Booster Gold date Harley Quinn. (Or not.) But the real love of his life is and always should be Blue Beetle. No romantic feelings or sloppy kisses are necessary to cement that bond.

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