corner box
menu button
Boosterrific.com: The Complete, Annotated Adventures of Booster Gold
Boosterrific.com: The Complete, Annotated Adventures of Booster Gold

Buy Booster Gold

Showing posts 1 - 5 of 6 matching: michael doran

Friday, April 15, 2022

Coming Soon: Booster Gold, Vampire Hunter

DC Comics' July 2022 solicitations are due out today, but Michael Doran of Newsarama@GamesRadar has already broken some Booster Gold news, specifically that our hero is going to start hunting vampires this summer.

© DC Comics
cover art by Alan Quah

DC vs. Vampires: All-Out War #1 is a new six-issue "all-you-can-eat buffet of grindhouse mayhem" limited series beginning in July that serves as a companion series to the main DC vs. Vampire series, following the companion one-shots DC vs Vampires: Hunters in May and DC vs Vampires: Killers in June.

"One of the last secret, underground human cities is facing total annihilation and its leader - John Constantine - must plan a suicide mission to assassinate a key lieutenant in the vampire empire!" reads DC's description. "Against unreal odds and with an unlikely team including Booster Gold, Deathstroke, and Mary Marvel, does the Hellblazer have one more trick up his sleeve?"

DC vs. Vampires: All-Out War will be written by Matthew Rosenberg and Alex Paknadel with "monochromatic" black-and-white (!) art by Pasquale Qualano.

It's always cool that Booster Gold gets more spotlight, but if the main DC vs. Vampires mini-series is any guide, most of these characters are just going to die very gruesome deaths at the hands of other fallen heroes. If vampires can turn the likes of Wonder Woman and Superman, I don't much care for Booster Gold's chances. (How did he not see this coming?)

Will Booster be seen anywhere else in the DCU in July, perhaps in a book that isn't so... bloodthirsty? I'll certainly be checking GamesRadar.com for updates later today.

UPDATE LATER TODAY: Whoo, boy, it looks like DC really doesn't know what direction it wants to take its properties this summer. An endless series of Dark Crises, Flashpoints, and multiverses of Superman and mechs and vampires and knights and children.... Maybe I'm just getting too old for this.

On the up side, Booster Gold does appear on the solicited cover for Superman: Son of Kal-El #13 by Travis Moore.

© DC Comics

The issue is teased to introduce the television Arrowverse's Dreamer to the DCU (whatever that means anymore), so when it arrives in your Local Comic Shop on July 12, expect it to be a big seller to television watchers who also buy comic books... all 15 of them.

Now get off my lawn.

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: alan quah dc vs vampires gamesradar.com michael doran newsarama pasquale qualano soliciations

Friday, March 5, 2021

Serious Question

I said at the start of the week that I wanted to talk about Generations Forged, so if you haven't read that yet (or for that matter Generations Shattered or Dark Knights: Death Metal ), beware that spoilers follow.

...

...

You've been warned.

...

You know from cover (and timing) of Generations Shattered, this story takes place in the DC Omniverse created in the wake of Dark Nights: Death Metal.

© DC Comics
Dark Nights: Death Metal #7, January 2021

As if the Omniverse wasn't a big enough concept to take in, it only gets bigger. ("Infinity is just so big that, by comparison, bigness itself looks really titchy," explainsthe Hitchhikers Guide the Galaxy.)

At the end of Generations Forged, as Waverider returns the Batman of 1939 (abducted by Kamandi in Detective Comics #1000) to his native time, he introduces us to another concept:

© DC Comics
Generations Forged #1, February 2021

Waverider goes on to imply that the Batman of 1939 will continue fighting into the modern day, that the Batmen of all publishing ages (Golden, Silver, Modern) are the same character (who may or may not have memories of all of his adventures.)

While the Omniverse just increases the size of the bucket for potential story settings, the Linearverse is a radical revision to understanding DC Comics' publishing history.

For GamesRadar.com, Michael Doran has already written several articles on the implications of this revelation, each quoting Generations Forged architect Dan Jurgens on his intent with this new Linearverse.

"It's fair to say that what we built here, the Linearverse, is its own universe that can fit into the larger context of DC's Omniverse," explains Jurgens. "It's a place where some unique and individual stories can be told."

Jurgens himself admits that this is an imperfect solution to an artificial problem. Comic book fans have always struggled with reconciling how Dick Grayson could be a boy in 1940 and still a young man in 2020 or how both Superboy and Superman could each have co-existing adventures for most of 80 years. These are only "problems" when trying to reconcile the lives of fictional characters with the passage of nonfictional time, but they are problems that fans have nonetheless tried to resolve for as long as we've been reading and relating to new monthly comics.

I don't mean to suggest that I think the Linearverse is necessarily any worse than any other attempt at reconciling the impossible. From my restricted point of view as the chronicler of the adventures of multiversal time-traveler Booster Gold, I've always attempted to to harmonize the many incarnations of Booster Gold onto a single entity, albeit an occasionally fractured and splintered one. That's no so different from what happens in the Linearverse.

So, to finally get to the serious question I referenced in my post title, what I want to know is whether the adventure told in Generations Shattered and Generations Forged happened to a Booster Gold in a previously existing continuity or not? The rules as explained for the new Linearverse would seem to suggest it happened to all known Boosters while at the same time happening to none of them, or maybe only those that exist inside a Linearverse that reflects the sum of all other universes.

For reasons I can't quite express, I don't find any of these options entirely satisfying (thought that may not be surprising coming from someone who obsessively tracks super hero minutia for a hobby).

Perhaps there is no definitive answer to my question, at least not yet. As GameRadar reports,

"There are all sorts of stories and adventures worth exploring in the Linearverse," Jurgens concludes. "If readers like what they've seen, react well to the concept, and ask for more, it might just happen."

Like so much else, maybe the answer to my question will only become clearer with time.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: batman dan jurgens gamesradar.com generations linearverse michael doran multiverse omniverse superman

Friday, November 13, 2020

Forged Future

Quick recap: In early 2021, Booster Gold will be appearing in a two-part mini-series, Generations: Shattered (January 15) and Generations: Forged (February 23). This story will not be related to the "Future State" event DC is publishing over the same period. (More details available in these Boosterrific posts.)

Until now, we've talked only about Shattered, but we're finally starting to get some good information about the second half of the series. Noah Dominguez and CBR.com and Michael Doran at Gamesradar.com have the advanced solicitation text:

GENERATIONS FORGED #1
written by DAN JURGENS, ANDY SCHMIDT, and ROBERT VENDITTI
art by BRYAN HITC, MIKE PERKINS, BERNARD CHANG, PAUL PELLETIER, and others
covers by LIAM SHARP and RAFAEL ALBUQUERQUE

Dispersed through time by the villain Dominus, our ragtag team of generational heroes -- featuring 1939 Batman, Kamandi, Superboy, Steel, Starfire, Sinestro, Booster Gold, and Dr. Light -- must find a way to restore the timeline... and what they ultimately discover is something far, far greater You'll have to read it to believe it as time dies... and generations rise!
ON SALE February 23, 2021

© DC Comics
standard cover by Liam Sharp

© DC Comics
alternate cover by Rafael Albuquerque

Booster boosters know that our hero's planned origin story relied heavily on Superboy's continuity which was erased from the DC Universe by the original Crisis on Infinite Earths. It will be pretty cool to see the two characters finally interacting.

By the way, if you don't recognize "the villain Dominus," Russ Burlingame has the explainer of this 1990s Superman foe at Comicbook.com.

It's looking like it'll be a very Boosterrific 2021! Hooray!

Comments (2) | Add a Comment | Tags: cbr.com comicbook.com covers gamesradar.com generations michael doran noah dominguez russ burlingame solicitations

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

What Dan Jurgens Said

No sooner do I post one Michael Doran Newsaradar interview about the upcoming Future State event than he releases another, this time with Generations: Shattered writer (and Booster Gold creator!) Dan Jurgens.

Nrama: Dan, the [Detective Comics #1027] story pretty much is a lead-in to what we know about Shattered #1 from the solicitation. The "original" Batman is recruited from his timeline to serve on a time-crossed team (somewhat reminiscent of Avengers Forever). The most interesting new detail not in the solicitation seems to be that despite his appearance on the covers we've seen, Kamandi twice refers to Booster as an old man.

Jurgens: Yes, Kamandi refers to Booster as an old man, but that's by design and all meant to lead to part of the overall mystery of what's happening—not to mention the idea that we can have different generations of characters.

Nrama: So then it suggests to us he's referring to a Booster not from the current main timeline or his original timeline, but from a timeline years-decades removed from the current core DC timeline. Did we interpret that clue correctly?

Jurgens: You did!

Nrama: Will any other time-plucked characters be part of the story?

Jurgens: Yes, one in particular, who'll play a key part in the story and, we think, serve as a very pleasant, fun surprise for readers.

Nrama: Speaking of surprises, most "mysterious" comic book foes (in solicitation terms, as Shattered #1 promises) turn out to be established characters in new guises or making surprising returns. Can you give any clues as to who your's is?

Jurgens: Sure! He has definitely appeared before, but I think it's been a while since we've seen him. His power level has definitely positioned him with the ability to manipulate time into something he can shatter, dominate, and shape to his own desire.

Please, please, please let it be Black Beetle!

I guess we'll find out when Generations: Shattered #1 arrives January 15, 2021. In the meantime, you can read the whole interview at GamesRadar.com.

Comments (2) | Add a Comment | Tags: dan jurgens gamesradar.com generations interview michael doran

Monday, October 12, 2020

What Scott Snyder Said

Late last week, Newsaradar finally shed a little light on what we should expect from the upcoming Future State event in an interview with Dark Nights: Death Metals writer Scott Snyder, who says

Death Metal ends in January, and then January and February is Future State, which is going to give glimpses of possible DC futures. That was built while we were doing Death Metal to lead into some stuff which isn't happening anymore, but those plans have taken a new shape, which is exciting.

The article authors, Michael Doran and Kat Calamia, speculate that the "stuff which isn't happening anymore" is more than likely the 5G event promoted by former DC Comics publisher Dan DiDio before he was abruptly fired back in February. It looks to me like Future State is the company trying to salvage the sunk cost of that project in a month-long alternate-continuity event similar to the sort of stories we saw in 2011's Flashpoint and 2015's Convergence. Whether they call it "Future State," "Elseworlds," or "Hypertime," DC loves these things.

I don't know Scott Snyder, so I don't know if his "is exciting" comment is sincere or salesmanship. (Was it not exciting in its original form? "Exciting" like a roller coaster or a car fire?) Whichever the case, so long as Booster Gold is involved and on covers like these, I'm on board.

© DC Comics
Generations: Shattered #1 card stock variant cover by Lee Bermejo

You can read the original article at GamesRadar.com.

Comments (2) | Add a Comment | Tags: covers gamesradar.com generations interview kat calamia lee bermejo michael doran scott snyder


There have been 2924 blog entries since January 2010.

VIEW LIST OF 3033 KEYWORDS

FIND NEWS BY DATE


JUMP TO PAGE



SITE SEARCH


return to top

SPOILER WARNING: The content at Boosterrific.com may contain story spoilers for DC Comics publications.