The following poster was published as part of a contest in Wizard's JLA Special in 1998. You'll note Booster's original costume is in the exact center of the poster. That costume was lucky number 13 of the 45 items needing identification in the Wizard contest.

Time for a little audience participation. Who can name the other 44 items in the picture?

Click on the image above for a larger image of the poster. And click here for a visual key of which items need to be identified. You can leave your answers in the comments below or discuss the items in the Boosterrific Forum. (Naturally, a Justice League challenge should promote teamwork!)

When Wizard published this poster in 1998, they offered some original Howard Porter art to the person who could come up with the most answers. I don't have any original Howard Porter art lying around, but anyone can name all 45 pieces, I'll give that know-it-all an original sketch of Booster Gold by me!

There will be no post tomorrow for New Year's Day, so you have plenty of time to work on this. Good luck.

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Back in 2006, in the pages of 52 Week 6, we learned that Rip Hunter was spending his time tracking the anomalies of the DC Universe by scribbling notes, usually on a chalkboard. The board gave cryptic hints of current and future events in the DCU. This gimmick lasted for several years, until Rip Hunter disappeared in the Flashpoint cataclysm.

Well, now there's a new obsessive scribbler in town.

Justice League Dark #1 hit stands last week, and it included this two-page spread of John Constantine's notes. Isn't it just like that limey bastard to steal Rip Hunter's gimmick? Even Johnny's "handwriting" looks like Rip's. At least it's nice to see that someone in the DCnU hasn't forgotten about Booster Gold.

For a complete list of Rip Hunter's chalkboard appearances in the pages of Booster Gold Volume 2, see here.

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If you missed it, the big news from DC yesterday was the announcement that Justice League of America, the title that Geoff Johns has teased will feature the eventual return of Booster Gold to DCnU continuity, will hit stands in February alongside its own spin-offs, Katana and Vibe. Russ Burlingame has the info on the Booster Gold-Andrew Kreisberg-Vibe connection at ComicBook.com.

To ensure that this Justice League book -- featuring a team without a Flash, Superman, or Wonder Woman much like the now-cancelled Justice League International -- is a sales success, DC plans to cheat the market. In addition to the standard cover, the book will be published with 52 variant covers: one for each state in the union, plus the territories of the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. That's a total of 53 covers. Fifty-three! I pause here for emphasis.

Let's be frank: the purpose of variant covers is to promote sales via an artificial scarcity. If an issue has a variant cover printed in limited quantities, some collectors will buy an extra copy for the sake of maintaining a comprehensive collection. Some speculators will seek out the variants hoping that their relative scarcity will lead to a long-term increase in value. Whatever your opinion on the morality of this marketing strategy, it cannot be denied that variant covers do increase sales.

Is DC genuinely hoping that completists or speculators out there will try to acquire all 53 covers? Of course they are. By allowing retailers to order each of the 52 variants as a separate issue, the company is obviously hoping that each direct market retailer spends a small fortune trying to acquire at least a few of each cover to appease those collectors and speculators.

(It seems to me that DC is specifically targeting the direct market with this stunt. I've never seen any evidence that variant covers increase sales of digital editions, where "collecting" and "speculating" have little meaning.)

There must be a limit to the variant cover sales response, and I would expect it to be something less than 53. Consider that if you were to buy one of each at cover price, the total at the register will be $211.47 before tax. That's a lot of cash for just one issue. Compare that to the hardcover 52 Omnibus due out next week that will reprint all 52 issues of 2007's 52 series. Unlike the stack of variant covers for Justice League of America #1, the 52 comics included in the $150 Omnibus will at least tell a complete story.

There is no word yet whether Booster Gold will be seen in the series' first issue. If he is, I might consider buying 53 copies. But only if he is.

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Last week, we reviewed Booster Gold's sole appearance as the villain Bloodbath in a bit of pseudo-history. This week, let's take a look at some real history, Booster Gold's appearance in the first issue of Bloodbath.

If you're unaware, the summer 1993 DC annuals featured the Bloodlines storyline of an other-dimensional alien race who came to Earth to harvest humans spinal fluid. (Don't bother asking why a race of aliens would develop the need for human spinal fluid for their reproduction process. Comic books don't have time for your silly science.)

DC used the event to create new characters from the survivors of these alien attacks. These new super heroes -- all very '90s, if you know what I mean -- were called the "New Blood" and received the majority of the focus in these stories. That left precious little room for established characters like Booster Gold.

At the time, Booster was still adjusting to his new, post-Doomsday armor, and was arguably more hindrance than help to the Justice League. As a result, Booster confronts and is defeated by three separate aliens in this issue alone. Even if the story doesn't give our hero much of a break, it's still great to see Booster's commitment to heroics.

Yes, the premise is a bit ridiculous and smacks of market-driven storytelling, and yes, Booster Gold comes off looking washed-up. However, there will always be something satisfying about DC heroes banding together to save Earth from yet another alien invasion. If nothing else, the series deserves credit for inspiring the DC Bloodlines website, and that's got to count for something.

(P.S. The Boosterrific Forum is back online. Hopefully we'll get some good Booster Gold news to talk about from New York ComicCon this weekend!)

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Here at Boosterrific, we are developing quite a relationship with the Kevin Maguire/Terry Austin "Class of 87" Justice League International poster.

You may recall that back in August I solicited help getting a close-up of Batman's shoulder. I am finally at liberty to tell you why: the original art was in need of some repair, and the new owner, Malvin, needed a photo reference. Now the work is back from the restorer, and it looks great.

In addition to this piece, Malvin has a very impressive catalog of art online at ComicArtFans.com that you may enjoy (including a much larger resolution image of these inks). We both offer thanks to everyone who helped, especially Shawn Baston.

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