Now that Justice League International has come to an end, Russ Burlingame and Dan Jurgens have their final monthly wrap-up with "Justice League International #12: The End of the Road" at ComicBook.com. The series was bittersweet, to say the least. As good as it was to have Booster Gold included somewhere in the New 52, the stories always tasted half-baked. Even this final conversation between Burlingame and Jurgens feels a little uncomfortable, as though Jurgens is unwilling or unable to directly answer some of Burlingame's more pointed questions about the activities behind-the-scenes at DC that led to the cancellation of this book despite what appear to have been positive sales.

Burlingame: "Our adventure together proved otherwise." We get a little on-page indication by Batman of a little bit of the nature of his past with Booster. Was there a particular story you had in mind, or was it just a New 52 riff on the adventure they had together during Booster Gold vol. 2?

Jurgens: No, there was a particular story we had in mind that was actually going to be our issue zero. Sadly, we didn't get there.

Burlingame: It almost seems like a weird kind of mirror of the end of Generation Lost, for Aaron to have to set up the end/beginning again.

Jurgens: I hadn't quite thought of that, but you're right. I was just trying to do something fitting. The cancellation was something of a last minute decision so we didn't have a lot of room or time to do things differently.

Burlingame: All of that "turning the page" stuff in this issue —- was that a bit of metatext? If Booster is moving on to the next stage in his evolution, is it time for fans to do the same and let go of our hopes and conspiracy theories that he might be a tether to the DC Universe of old?

Jurgens: My feeling has always been, that, regardless of the character, if there's something about him/her that fans want to hold onto, they should do so.

Here at Boosterrific.com, we'll be holding on to Booster Gold, all right, high collar and all.

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Hmm. How to interpret this poll? Jaime has a small but strong following? Blue and Gold fans still mourn Ted Kord? Ah, I got it: give us back our Booster Gold, DC!

Last week's poll question: How would you respond to a new series pairing Booster Gold and the new Blue Beetle? (61 votes)

Yesterday's issue of Justice League International #12 confirms that the JLI will no longer have any support, financial or otherwise, from the United Nations. One international organization's mistake is another man's opportunity.

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Welcome to the Digital Age of comics, where you can try before you buy! Interested in how Dan Jurgens will wrap up his year on Justice League International? Take a look at DC Comics' 5-page preview before you travel to your Local Comic Shop! Curious how well the JLI will be integrated in Batwing? Check out the preview before downloading it at Comixology.com.

Whichever method you prefer, buy these issues and make Skeets happy! (Thanks to MetalWoman for the preview links.)

UPDATE 08/03/12: MetalWoman also dropped by the Boosterrific Forum to let us know that Booster puts in a surprise cameo appearance in Stormwatch #12 this week. And he's not alone: alongside the JLI is Skeets, in his first New 52 appearance!

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Without Chris Sprouse, we might still have had Booster Gold in his black leather jacket as the leader of the Conglomerate, but he wouldn't have looked nearly as cool.

Justice League Quarterly #1 in 1990 was among Sprouse's earliest works for DC Comics, but by no means was it the last. While it may seem that Sprouse has gone underutilized since the DC reboot, his legion of fans will be pleased to know that he recently hinted on his website, SprouseNet, that he will soon be returning to a Tom Strong mini-series. That's good birthday news, indeed.

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Believe it or not, Booster Gold has appeared in 4 separate number 10 issues of ongoing series in the past 4 years. One of those series was his own, which made it through a run of 49 issues. Two of the others had already been canceled at the time the issue was published. The third is the current Blue Beetle series, which has sales numbers far worse than any of the other three series ever had, but has not yet been cancelled.

Granted, this random sampling of DC's production is hardly conclusive, but superficially it would seem that we should expect an ongoing with Booster Gold to sell right about 30,000 by the 10th month. (Booster gets the least face time in his one-page cameo in Blue Beetle, and it has the lowest sales. Coincidence or proof?)

Whatever else it may or may not say about DC's editorial policies, this chart does seem to demonstrate that cancellation is due more to editorial expectations or whims than just sales figures. Someone at DC must love Blue Beetle.

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