Tom King is up to his old tricks in today's Human Target #1. Someone has tried to kill Lex Luthor, and who are the usual suspects? Hint:

Art by Greg Smallwood

I wonder which character will need a rehabilitation mini-series this time?

Booster Gold's arm is on the standard cover, and his legs are on the variant. Buy either one and make Skeets happy!

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Justice League America #56 was released on September 17, 1991, thirty years ago next week. Its mawkish story takes place in the middle of the too-long "Breakdowns" event marking the denouement of the United Nations-sponsored Justice League International era.

This chapter focuses on the forsaken Leaguers struggling to adapt to life without a league. Among them, Fire and Ice struggle to join a modeling agency, and Blue Beetle finds that his poor physical health will prevent him from joining the Booster Gold-led Conglomerate. There aren't a lot of "bwah-ha-ha" moments here.

No matter how you look at it, "Breakdowns" was not a particularly good story, and this wasn't a particularly good issue. As much as we want them to be, not all comics can be masterpieces.

But this comic book is worth a look back today if for no other reason than for its cover by Chris Sprouse and Bruce D. Patterson. As pretty as it was at the time, it was made more poignant by events that transpired almost exactly ten years after the issue's publication.

#NeverForget

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This time next week, we should have a copy of Blue and Gold #2 in our hands. (Fingers crossed!) In the meantime, let's take a look back at the earliest adventure of Blue and Gold.

Any wiki site can tell you that the very first time Blue Beetle and Booster Gold both appeared in the same panel (much less in the pages of the same book) was 1987's Justice League #3.

But despite working together as a team for the first time in the following issue, the pair wouldn't really become a pair for a few months more, not until they paid a visit to Paris in Justice League International #8, by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Kevin Maguire, et al.

(Don't let the "International" in the name fool you. This was a continuation of the same series. "International" was added to the title starting in issue 7, and would remain there until issue 26, when the book returned to it's "America" roots for the duration of its 113 issue run.)

If you're keeping track, this was Booster's second visit to Paris that year. He had already been with Black Canary in the pages of Justice League Annual #1 (as we saw here). Booster didn't have a lot of luck romancing Canary, and his bad luck with women would continue into the International era.

Thus the template was set for Blue and Gold's enduring (and endearing) 34-year-and-counting comedic bromance. Perfect from the beginning!

If you want to impress your friends, take note of the "Bwah-ha-ha" Beetle unleashes in Black Canary's presence (page 14 of the original story). That's the first appearance of what would become the pair's signature laugh!

And that's how comic book legends are made: one panel at a time.

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On Friday, comic book writer Tom King (@TomKingTK) tweeted this image accompanied by the text "Announcement incoming.":

Those arms belong to, from top to bottom, Martian Manhunter, Rocket Red*, Blue Beetle, and Fire. Naturally, this made a lot of people excited at the teased prospect of new comic adventures of the Justice League International.

Of course, that's not what Tom was teasing.

He was baiting the hook with the JLI for a different property he revealed later that same day:

Who can be mad about a bait-and-switch that leads to art this great? (Those new arms belong to Booster Gold, Guy Gardner, Batman, Ice, and G'nort.)

If you didn't know, Christopher "Human Target" Chance has been in the DC Universe since 1972 but is far more famous outside comic books. In addition to recent guest appearances on Arrow, Chance has had his own television series twice (!). Being a TV star probably explains why he and Booster Gold have never crossed paths.

Frankly, the espionage antics of Human Target are a perfect fit for King's storytelling strengths, and any project that keeps King far away from Booster Gold is a project I can support. In fact, I promise to buy a copy of the first issue... but only if they keep that amazing Smallwood cover.

* That Rocket Red arm design belongs to the armor of Maks Chazov, who was never a member of any line-up of any Justice League, international or otherwise. Chazov worked for the pre-New 52 United Nations-sponsored incarnation of Checkmate. But it wouldn't be the JLI without a representative Rocket Red, and all the Reds who appeared on a JLI roster are dead. I guess you can't bring every dead hero back to life.

UPDATE 2021-07-12: Shawn dropped by the comments to point out that Greg Smallwood has posted process and reference pics of the cover's development on Twitter.com. He includes an interior pic of the JLI, and it is glorious.

Yep. Definitely buying that.

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I try to ignore CBR most of the time. (Are they primarily an entertainment tabloid with a little comic book news or a clickbait farm? Both?) But every once in a while they get my eyeballs, as they did with this article titled "The Justice League's Silliest Member Almost Took Down a Classic Team by Himself" by Nabeel Gaber.

The article is a recap of the events of Justice League #4, which is indubitably the best of the best Booster Gold comics ever. And for the most part, it's actually very positive. But it's not entirely accurate.

I might personally quibble with the description of the Royal Flush Gang as "a classic team" — the "team" is based on a costume gimmick and all the original members are dead, so isn't that a bit like saying that "classic" Gwar is still touring? — but my real complaint comes from this:

It's also significant that Booster Gold and Blue Beetle, two of the goofiest members of the Justice League, were the ones to defeat Ace. Even though these two worked well together in a comedic context, they were also a formidable fighting team.

What Gaber fails to make clear is that Justice League #4 is the *first* team-up between Booster Gold and Blue Beetle. Neither one was ever "goofy" without the other; all the comedy would come later. At the time, this was just powerhouse Booster Gold proving he could work with a team, something that had not been clear in his solo appearances to date.

The "Blue and Gold" paring actually begins in Justice League International #8's "Moving Day," which is the first time the two characters were featured away from the team. (Justice League became Justice League International with issue #7.) The humor developed naturally out of the relationship between the two JLI members who shared the unusual superhero problem of having lost great personal wealth. Comedy is just tragedy plus time.

It's nice that CBR can help modern readers enjoy the great comics of yesteryear. (Justice League #4 came out on May 5, 1987, thirty-four years ago!) But, c'mon. Booster Gold is hardly the Justice League's "silliest" member. Plastic Man is.

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