Believe it or not, once upon a time, Booster Gold was such a big star that he could sell comics he wasn't in just by appearing on the cover! Backwards!

Take, for example, Secret Origins #32, released 29 years ago today.

art by Eric Shanower

This issue presents the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths origin of the Justice League of America (which was differentiated from the original origin by the substitution of Black Canary for Wonder Woman).

The Justice League International was super hot at the time, so although the only links between the two teams were Canary and Martian Manhunter, the JLI was still given prime cover real estate to sell the story to new readers unfamiliar with DCU history.

There's no reason this strategy couldn't be used to sell old stories to a modern audience today. I speak only for myself, but I'd be much happier buying a comic showcasing Damian Wayne (Robin V) if he appeared only on the cover.

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There was no post yesterday . . . because I screwed up my dates. Oops. (January has how many days this year?) Sorry. The following is the post that should have run yesterday morning. I hope it was worth the wait.

I posted a cover image by Kevin Maguire on Friday. I liked it so much, I'm going to start the week with a couple of recent Maguire commissions.

via ComicArtFans.com

also via ComicArtFans.com

via Twitter.com

It has been nearly three decades since Justice League International made him a star, and Maguire's work is as good as ever!

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Few things are as important to a comic book super hero as his or her costume. The look of a character should hopefully immediately convey everything that a new reader needs to know about that character. That's why last week's brouhaha over Wonder Woman's new duds is more than some temporary media circus: it's an important window into America's association with the character of Wonder Woman. It would seem that most of us don't care for the new appearance, likely because it does not invoke what we expect from the character (which as I understand it is actually a part of Straczynski's story). Whether the design is temporary or not, it reveals our biases about what we expect of one of DC's most iconic heroes.

While Booster Gold is not as popular or as iconic as Wonder Woman, can this situation teach us any lesson about Booster's costume? Booster's look has passed through many permutations over the years only to return (more or less) to the original design just in time for the character's great renaissance. Is this a coincidence? Did Dan Jurgens strike gold (so to speak) on his first try? Or was it always the collar holding Booster back from widespread recognition?

Hmmm. There may be something to that collar business; we'll have to see what Martian Manhunter has to say about that.

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