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 a telepathically-controlled flight ring.

As a student of history, Michael "Booster" Carter modeled his superhero persona on Superman. In addition to strength, invulnerability, and long-range energy beams, he'd also need to be able to fly. To that end, he stole a Legion of Super-Heroes Flight Ring, created by Brainiac 5 in the pages of Adventure Comics #329 (1965).

In its original design, the ring was a simple metal band that provided a telepathically-controlled anti-gravity effect for those Legionnaires who could not fly under their own power. They soon became standard issue equipment for all Legionnaires. Even Superboy had one, though he rarely had need of it except in those few cases where he lost his powers, such as the time he visited Earth's past and found it lit by a red sun.

(If you squint at the panel above, you can see a flight ring there on Superboy's hand in this panel from Adventure Comics #133, also in 1965. This is the first time Superboy wore a Flight Ring.)

Brainiac 5 wasn't content with having a ring that only allowed flight. He eventually gave the ring other abilities, including sending emergency distress signals. He also improved its appeal by converting it to a gold signet-style ring showing a raised letter "L" in the center (first appearance in Adventure Comics #347). That's how the ring looked when it found its way into Booster Gold's arsenal in Booster Gold #1 (1985), and that's more or less how it looked when Booster Gold joined the Justice League in Justice League #4 (1987) and escaped from a Bialyan prison in Justice League International #17 (1988).

Booster's ring was originally depicted with a letter from the Roman alphabet. However, it sometimes was seen showing Interlac, the "inter-galactic universal language of the 30th century" which first appeared in Adventure Comics #379 (1969). By Booster Gold volume 2 #1 (2007), Booster's ring had changed to the stylized "L" on a black background that had been in use since Legion of Super-Heroes #41 (1993).

How could one ring alter its appearance so much? Well, the Legion of Super-Heroes have a tendency for getting involved in reality-warping time travel shenanigans. In fact, that's how a Legion of Super-Heroes ring from the 30th century ended up in the 25th-century Space Museum in the first place.

When Booster's debut in the 20th century drew the attention of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Brainiac 5 realized he had to leave his own flight ring in 1985 for Booster to be able to steal it in 2462 (as seen in Booster Gold #6). Therefore, the ring was available for Booster Gold to steal only because he had already stolen it. (It's best not to think too hard about that.)

If it sounds like Booster Gold creator Dan Jurgens was making things up as he went along, he was. His original plan, as revealed in Booster Gold: The Big Fall, was that instead of stealing Brainiac 5's ring from the Space Museum, Booster would have stolen Superboy's rarely used original ring from the Superman Museum!

That plan was scuttled by the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths, which erased Superboy's adventures from history. Thus the original origin of Booster Gold's flight ring became just one more casualty of the universe-destroying Anti-Monitor. What a jerk.

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

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Via Twitter, Benni Beard called my attention to this custom Booster Gold minifig (with Legion Flight Ring!) now available from bilbobaggins7919 on ebay.com:

It was just back in March that I spotlighted a different custom LEGO-compatible minifig.

There must be a growing demand for block versions of our hero in the wake of the LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham video game and The LEGO Batman Movie. Are you paying attention, LEGO?

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On this date 29 years ago, fans finally learned where Booster Gold's Legion Flight Ring came from in Booster Gold, Volume 1, #9.

See, we knew Booster Gold stole a Legion Flight Ring from a museum in the 25th century before he traveled with it to the 20th century. The only problem was that the ring wouldn't be invented until the 30th century. So how did it get back in time for Booster to steal it in the first place? Even 12th-level intellect Brainiac 5 didn't know the answer to that.

Ironically, it was only after he traveled back in time with Chameleon Boy and Ultra Boy to investigate this paradox that Brainiac 5 realized that Booster's Flight Ring was in fact his own. Brainiac 5 didn't dare change history lest he damage his own timeline, so he chose to leave his 30th-century ring with 20th-century United States President Ronald Reagan so that it would eventually end up in the 25th-century museum.

Hey, if you don't love a good time-travel paradox, maybe Booster Gold isn't the right hero for you.

The Legion of Super-Bloggers reviewed this story (including its first half in Booster Gold #8) from the Legion's point of view earlier this week. Check it out at legionofsuperbloggers.blogspot.com.

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No Booster Gold costume is complete without a Legion of Super-Heroes Flight Ring. Typically, there are only two ways to get rings: you become a member member of the 31st-century Legion of Super Heroes, or you steal one from a museum. For a limited time, you can have your own without inventing time travel or turning to a life of crime!

That postcard campaign back in February/March 2010 must have worked, because last week DC released their latest ring promotion for buyers Legion: Secret Origin #1. Rush out and pick up a copy of the book, and that ring can be yours, baby!

(I apologize for not mentioning this last Wednesday. DC announced this promotion back in August and then buried it, probably because it's not tied-in to the New 52 that the company has been working so hard to promote. Without a reminder, I simply forgot about it. Fortunately for all of us who can't get one anymore at our Local Comic Shops anymore, there's always eBay.)

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I can't make any promises, but I can venture a guess who's hand this is.

The image is a still taken by kryptonsite.com, the internet's leading Smallville resource, from a CW teaser for April's Smallville episodes. And yes, the Legion Flight Ring has already appeared in earlier episodes in the series, though no other Legionnaires are currently expected to appear for the rest of this season. So this is probably the closest we'll get to Booster Gold's costume before the episode "Booster" airs one month from now on April 22.

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