Earlier this month, DC made several creators of the DC All In Special available to reporters. You can find snippets of the conversations at several websites, but I think these two posted this week at thecomicsourceblog.com are particularly interesting.

First, from the article "DC’s All In Publishing Initiative and Darkseid’s Evolution with Scott Snyder and Wes Craig: The Comic Source":

Reporters: Booster Gold is elevated to a new height in this issue as the person bridging 2 universes. Why is he the right person to connect these two storylines and will that remain his role in the future?

Scott Snyder: I was talking to Josh [Williamson] and we wanted somebody who hasn't been a huge part of the Justice League, but who would have a different perspective on it and be so excited to be welcomed in. So, we thought of a lot of different characters you wouldn't expect to be on there, from Ambush Bug to whoever. Then it was, you know what, Booster has this really powerful view of it because having been, not only a time traveler, but specifically being familiar with this kind of resplendent Superman inflected future of Legion, it feels like he would understand this moment in the trajectory of the DCU narrative, and he would see its importance. And so if he was kind of both the comical character who you're like. How could he be invited and then you start to get a sense of what it means to him to be here at this moment because he knows it goes a certain way and then suddenly when that moment doesn't go that way, he understands the gravity of why and how badly things can go because of that. So he felt like just the right kind of figure to bring both those things and we were really happy when Dan Jurgens liked the idea when we saw him.

We were on the Superman set in Atlanta and he was there. It was me and Josh and him and that's where we told him about it. When we got to visit the James Gunn Superman set and we're like, what if he hates it and we have to change it? But he liked it.

For the record, that meeting of Superman writers on the set of the Superman movie in Atlanta was back in May. So it would seem this has been in the works for a while.

And second, from the article "DC’s All In Publishing Initiative and Darkseid’s Evolution with Joshua Williamson and Daniel Sampere: The Comic Source":

Reporters: What went into the redesign of Booster Gold and his popped collar?

Josh Williamson: That's not a redesign. I'm not sure how much I can explain about this without getting to in the weeds with spoilers for the future. So, in the beginning he's wearing the last costume he wore. He is the costume from Blue and Gold that Dan Jurgens design with Ryan Sook. That's the costume he's wearing in at the beginning, and then we originally pointed it out [in the story], but we cut the line because we thought it was a little weird for Booster in the middle of this very bad situation, to say, wait a minute, why am I back in my original costume, minus the cape? Which is funny cause Dan Jurgens and I had this whole talk about this, because it was originally because Booster really idolized Superman. So when he would show up really early on, he would sometimes wear the cape. And I was thinking about that, but Danny had already drawn that page and I was thinking, he should have a cape. And then Dan Jurgens was the one that said Booster only wears the cape during press conferences, and I said perfect, good. OK, don't worry about it. We don't have to worry about this, but he's wearing his original first appearance costume in in the last scene, and there's a reason for that. That is a spoiler for future stuff. Let's just say something happened to Booster that made him revert back to his original stuff, so I can't go beyond that without giving out spoilers for much further down the line.

"Revert back to his original stuff"? Hmm. Sounds like something a Time Master would need to investigate.

Those two articles contain even more All in Booster Gold info than I reposted here, so you might want to go read them before you get your hands on DC All In Special #1 next week.

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The TwoMorrows website says that the Spring 2024 issue of Comic Book Creator will be released on April 10, but my issue arrived in my mailbox late last week. That may be because I ordered it as soon as it was announced that the issue's feature interview would be with Booster Gold creator Dan Jurgens!

And what a great long-form interview it is! Over the course of 33 pages, interviewer Greg Biga asks Dan about his entire career, from his early days breaking into the business working on Mike Grell's Warlord through his experiences working on characters like Flash Gordon, Spider-Man, Thor, and, of course, lots of Superman.

The interview reveals some great information that will delight Jurgens fans, including some trivia nuggets even I had never heard before. From page 57:

CBC: I'm going to skip past asking the questions you've heard a thousand times, and circle back to do follow-up questions on "Death of Superman." With that story having happened, with "Funeral for a Friend," was one of the main reasons behind that to show how relevant this character of light and hope was?

Dan: That's going to be something of a long answer and, for part of it, we do have to come back to the overall discussion of "Death of Superman" a little bit. For some time, I'd had in the back of my mind that I could make a big adventure story out of killing off a title character and investigating how his absence affects his friends, family, and the people who rely on him.

By the way, I first thought of the idea when I was working on Booster Gold. Booster wasn't like any of the other characters in the DC Universe at the time, and the book was struggling to find an audience. Readers seemed to think Booster was a jerk. That's why I introduced his twin sister, Michelle. That way I could kill off Booster but we could keep the book going as Michelle stepped into her brother's role playing a somewhat more conventional hero while we explored what Booster had gotten right and wrong. Kind of an evil twin, good twin scenario. I was going to retitle it Busty Gold.

I wish I'd know that during Women's History Month! Can you imagine "good twin" Michelle taking Booster's place in the Justice League International?

For more gold nuggets like these, be sure to pick up your own copy of Comic Book Creator #34 at twomorrows.com.

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Booster booster Rob Snow points us to the interview of Josh Trujillo, writer of next week's Keith Giffen-inspired Blue Beetle #7, by David Brooke for AIPTComics.com.

AIPT: Blue Beetle #7 features Booster Gold. On a scale of one to 10, how fun is it to write Booster?!

Josh Trujillo: Umm, like a 12 on that scale? Booster is one of the most ridiculous and perfect good boys in comics. He has such an incredible hook and SO MANY good stories! A huge ego and also a huge heart for his friends! I really can't get enough of him.

It took a lot of restraint not to let him completely take over the book, but this story is about Jaime's journey in helping save his mentor and friend, our beloved Ted Kord. And Booster is there helping him every step of the way.

AIPT: This is a time travel issue. How hard is it to avoid retcons?

JT: I'll leave that for the wiki editors to answer!

In all seriousness, I pored over so many comics to find openings/moments that wouldn't directly conflict with the work Keith and his collaborators did. But the simple fact is that this is a time travel story, so try not to get too stuck in the details and just enjoy the ride. Let the continuity cops deal with the mess Booster and Jaime are making (and they will!)

As a fan of huge egos and Time Masters, let me go on the record and say that I am not enthusiastic about anyone making a mess of established continuity. But this sounds like fun, so I'll allow it. This time.

Blue Beetle #7 features art by Natacha Bustos, Howard Porter, Cully Hamner, Scott Kolins, with a Booster Gold cover by Adrian Gutierrez. Look for the issue on shelves (in English and Spanish editions) March 5.

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Ok, I admit, I still haven't seen Blue Beetle. I will, eventually, I promise. Maybe soon, in fact. It's scheduled for release on DVD next week, and to promote that release, director Ángel Manuel Soto recently spoke to Andy Behbakht for screenrant.com.

ScreenRant: Speaking about the future, we have the post-credits scene with Ted Kord. In your head, do you know what that reunion is going to look like between Ted and Jenny? That is a father-daughter relationship I want to learn more about.

Soto: Well, definitely! Our initial joke with that was, Jaime and Jenny would be talking later, and he showed up and they [Jaime and Ted] are like, 'Who are you? That's your dad?!' between them. But I think by doing it this way opens up more of a curiosity to where is he and why is he sending this message today? Why did he leave? What did he go out to do and I think it opens a lot of doors.

For me, I always liked the idea of him and Booster Gold doing adventures and then this message being sent as a warning of something that eventually Booster Gold is the one that's able to bring Jaime into the mix, or tap Kord's expertise through Booster's time travelling powers. So for me, one of those things I definitely [want to see] are Booster Gold and Ted Kord, I want them to be a part of Jaime's future. There's a lot more that exist in all the different iterations but the Blue and Gold series is phenomenal. Their relationship is really, really awesome and a lot of Jaime's relationships with both of them are iconic, so I hope it goes that way.

ScreenRant: How funny that we have a Booster Gold TV show coming with James Gunn's DC Universe! Without spoiling it, have you and James talked about Jaime's future? Do you know your next project with DC Studios, and have you discussed what you want to do with Jaime next?

Soto: Yeah, we have had conversations about it and that's where he mentioned to me about the Booster Gold TV show that is coming up. Now, where does it fit, how is it gonna play out? We haven't talked about that. But we both have talked about our interest in continuing Jaime's story, and finding a way for that story to be a part of this new universe.

It sounds like it's still far too early to talk about what exactly Gunn's Booster Gold television show is going to be. But if it's Ted Kord and Booster Gold's misadventures through time, that sure would qualify as "must see" TV.

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As all Booster boosters of a certain age know, when Michael Jon "Booster" Carter first came to the 20th century back in 1985, he started a company he called Goldstar, Inc. in honor of his originally intended alter ego (which he fumbled naming in front of the United States president).

The name "Goldstar" was used a lot in the first year of Booster's adventures, eventually becoming the name of Booster's sidekick. And then, after a trip back to the future, Booster renamed his company "Booster Gold Incorporated" with very little explanation why.

Which is not to say that there wasn't a reason.

The answer lies in Russ Burlingame's exclusive interview with Dan Jurgens in a book I'm sure I haven't mentioned around here yet, The Gold Exchange: The Boosterrific Deluxe Edition:

Burlingame: It's funny. I was talking to someone younger than me, recounting the story of how Booster was originally Goldstar. And I said that I always wondered whether that was because of Goldstar, the electronics manufacturer, and whether you had really made that change, rather than it just being a throwaway gag. But that person was younger than me, so they had no idea what the company was that I was even talking about.

Jurgens: Yes. Yeah, it was, by the way. That's exactly what it was: we were into it, I had done Goldstar, and Booster's sister as well, but ultimately, they said "We've got to work away from this," and it was because there was a company out there called Goldstar, which none of us were aware of when I first started using that name. So I was like, "Okay, we've got to roll with that one too."

So yes, that is 100% true.

To be clear, United States trademark law protects a "word, phrase, or design" that distinguishes a company's goods and services from its competitors' similar goods. Therefore, while it was in Booster's best interest to rename his licensing company to avoid confusion with pre-existing international electronics company GoldStar (which you can tell your kids became part of what is now known as LG Corporation), there's no reason DC can't keep using "Goldstar" as a character name.

And now you know... the rest of the story.

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