Booster Gold has been absent from comics for 147 days (21 weeks) and counting. That seems like a long time in part because DC keeps crowing about how inclusive their "All-In" initiative is, but Booster has been gone for much longer stretches before.

On this day in 2014, Booster Gold broke a 245 day absence from the DC New 52 Universe — at the time, the third longest recognized gap between published Booster Gold appearances in history — to make a brief 3-page supporting appearance as a deus ex machina plot device to get Jonah Hex returned to the past in All-Star Western #28.

If you don't recall, Booster's amnesiac misadventures alongside Jonah Hex in All-Star Western took place during the period he was unstuck in time leading to Convergence.

If the current Booster-drought streak were to extend to 245 days, that will be the first week in June 2025. Considering that we just learned Booster is unlikely to appear in any comics through May, that very well could be an optimistic assessment for his return from his current banishment from the DCU.

Keep your fingers crossed, Booster boosters.

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What makes a hero super? The super powers! From awesome strength to zero-to-sixty speed, great superpowers are the most useful tricks in every famous costumed crime-fighter's tool kit. Michael Jon Carter knew this, and that's why he started his career with high-tech goggles.

Energy blasts, impenetrable force fields, flight: Booster Gold's best known powers are also the ones that show up the best on action-oriented comic book panels. But Booster's arsenal contains more than just power gauntlets and powered tights. He's also got a fancy pair of glasses which, while less flashy, can be just as useful.

Booster's goggles have been a part of his costume from the very beginning. Using components he stole from the Space Museum in the 25th century, Booster and Skeets integrated the goggles into the hood of his power-suit and fueled them with the same "little power rods" that supplied energy to his other technological abilities, as detailed in Booster's very first chronicled adventure detailed in Booster Gold volume 1 #8.

Though their technology isn't traceable to any particular hero or villain, their powers were clearly inspired by the incredible range of abilities of a certain Man of Tomorrow's Kryptonian eyes.

Booster has used the goggles' infrared filters to help him defeat the mad bomber Mister Twister in Booster Gold #5 (1986) and infiltrate the 1000's waterfront stronghold in Booster Gold #12 (1987). The magnifying ability came in handy when the Justice League needed to find a weak point in the otherwise indestructible hull of the alien Klaarsh spaceship in Justice League Quarterly #7 (1992), and the telescopic function was useful when traveling into the Old West to help Jonah Hex bring the warped Hootkins Gang to justice in All-Star Western #20 (2013).

Super strength is great if you want to break through walls, but a hero always knows which walls can be broken safely. Knowledge is real power, and nothing is better at gathering information than high-tech magnifying infrared goggles, just like the pair Booster Gold wears.

If you'd like to read about other powers in Booster Gold's arsenal, check out previous spotlight posts on his Force Field Belt, Booster Shots, and Flight Ring.

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Today at your Local Comic Shop you'll find the continuing adventures of Jonah Hex and Booster Gold in All-Star Western #21.

When we last left our heroes, they were returning to Red River Junction with the recovered gold and the sole surviving member of the Clem Hootkins Gang. But if the preview pages at CraveOnline.com are any indication, the trouble is just beginning for this odd couple.

Buy All-StarWestern #21 and make Skeets happy.

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Last time we saw Booster Gold, he was hungover and being laughed at by Jonah Hex. It's a pretty sure bet that things are going to get worse for our hero in today's All-Star Western #20.

You can find a preview of the (very gory) issue online at nerdist.com.

Buy this issue and make Skeets happy, pardner.

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Today Booster Gold makes his first appearance in the DCU since August 2012 in the pages of All-Star Western #19. Earlier this week, Brian Truitt of USA Today interviewed issue co-writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray.

"We're going to see Booster thinking on his feet," [Palmiotti] says. "He's pressed into a situation right away in the book that is a lot bigger than he can handle, and Jonah has a firm grasp of what's going on and Booster is coming into it and trying to figure out not only why he's there and what he's doing there but also solve what's been dumped on him."

This is neither Booster's first trip to the Old West nor his first meeting with Jonah Hex. Dialogue in the issue preview subtly implies that Booster's previous drunken meeting with Hex in Booster Gold, volume 2, #3 is still in continuity! Hooray!

You can read a preview of the issue yourself at ComicBook.com, where Russell Burlingame will soon be running a variation of his "Gold Exchange" column with co-writer Justin Gray.

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