First things first: 26 Down in today's LA Times crossword puzzle (by Winston Emmons, edited by Rich Norris) is "Robot companion of superhero Booster Gold."

Hundreds of thousands of people work daily crosswords puzzles, so this is great exposure for Booster Gold. If you are one of them, and you are dropping by Boosterrific.com for the first time today, hello. The answer is "Skeets."

Elsewhere, those of us who read Booster Gold comic books will find slim pickings on the ol' periodical rack this week. To the best of my current knowledge, the only place you'll find our hero in the latest releases from DC Comics is in the pages of Superman Volume 4: Mythology, reprinting Superman #20-28, including this panel from Superman #23:

I like that panel — artist Kevin Maguire's take on Blue and Gold *and* the Wonder Twins? Yes, please! — but I'm not sure it's worth $20 for an entire reprint collection.

Instead I'd encourage you to go out and pick up the single back issue from your Local Comic Shop where it's probably selling for... *looks it up on eBay* ... $25?!? Because it's the "1st appearance of Xanadoth"? Xanadoth? You've got to be kidding me. Xanadoth has been in exactly *two* comic books. Fat chance of seeing him as an answer in a crossword puzzle.

Ahem. As I was saying, $20 is a pretty good deal. Buy this issue and make Skeets (and cruciverbalists everywhere) happy.

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Great news, Booster boosters! Booster Gold is in this week's Superman: Red and Blue #3.

You can read a preview of the first few pages at aiptcomics.com, but we've already seen what we needed to see via Twitter.com:

And while you're in your Local Comic Shop, know that Booster reprises his cover-only appearance from Dark Nights: Death Metal: The Last 52: War of the Multiverses on the reprint collection Dark Nights: Death Metal: War of the Multiverses, where he once again appears only on the cover. If nothing else, you've got to give him credit for consistency.

Buy these comics and make Skeets happy!

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If you visited your Local Comic Shop this week, you might have picked up a copy of the DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Celebration #1 like I did. The title is an accurate representation of what's inside the book, and I enjoyed the much-deserved spotlight on characters who too rarely get their share of the accolades.

If I had any problem with the book, it was only that it was too short. DC Comics has several other notable Asian characters worthy of more attention, characters like August General in Iron, Rising Sun, Maya, Doctor Light, and the head of Research and Design for Booster Gold International, Dr. Jack Soo.

In the spirit of further celebration of the contribution of Asian characters to the DC Universe, what follows is a post about Soo's trailblazing contribution to the cast of Booster Gold Volume 1 in the 1980s, previously published on the Boosterrific blog in 2015:

It cannot be denied that the original cast of Booster Gold was pale. Michael Carter was white. Trixie Collins was white. Dirk Davis was white. About the only characters in the first six issues who weren't white were Booster's orange cats, Jack and Jill. (Hey, it's not Booster's fault that Metropolis was settled almost exclusively by Western Europeans and Kryptonians.)

The eventual introduction of supporting cast member Dr. Jack Soo in Booster Gold #7 finally provided an injection of some much needed color.

Jack Soo was the best young inventor at Scientific and Technological Advanced Research Laboratories (aka S.T.A.R. Labs) when he was hired to create a new female super suit for Goldstar, Inc. He delivered on his reputation and earned his place in Booster Gold's supporting cast.

While Soo's specific heritage is never addressed, his tan skin, dark hair, and narrow eyes indicate Asian ethnicity. "Soo" also happens to be a Westernization of the fairly common Chinese surname "Su."

Of course, it's hard not to notice the sudden appearance of an ethnic minority in a comic full of white characters. But was Asian the right race for Booster Gold's first new supporting character? I mean, isn't "Asian scientist" a little cliched?

As always, I turned to creator Dan Jurgens for the answer.

Yes, we realized that we need to have a more diverse cast.

I would also add that "Asian scientist" might seem a bit stereotypical now, but it certainly wasn't 30 years ago.

Jurgens has a point there. While ethnic Asians make up almost 15% of all modern science, technology, engineering, and technology jobs in America today (second in percentage only to — you guessed it — whites), that number was closer to 5% in 1980 according to census.gov.

We haven't seen Jack since Booster Gold #22 (1987). I assume that's because he's been hard at work in his lab creating new wonders. Thanks for all your hard work, Dr. Soo.

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Friend of Boosterrific ("F.O.B") Mike Foster took me to task for spending last Wednesday teasing Green Arrow when I should have been focused the latest Gold Beetle appearance as seen in this panel from that week's Green Lantern #2:

words by Geoffrey Thorne, art by Dexter Soy, Marco Santucci, Alex Sinclair

Exactly why Gold Beetle appears to be handcuffed is unclear, as this panel is her only appearance in this issue. Perhaps the "present day" Time Masters have finally taken notice of her recent shenanigans in Future State: Suicide Squad #1 and #2 and Flash #768 and #769.

By the way, this would seem to be Gold Beetle's first canonical (objectively documented) meeting with Rip Hunter and Waverider, her previously reported encounter with the "Linear Police" being merely anecdotal (as told by her) and apocryphal (because she's the very definition of an unreliable narrator). Good luck finding a game show that will ask for *that* thinly-sliced bit of comic book trivia.

At the rate Gold Beetle is popping up across DC's new Infinite Frontier, it's only a matter of time (har, har) before she finally comes face to face with Booster Gold and Blue Beetle themselves, maybe in this summer's Blue and Gold mini-series that everyone I won't stop talking about.

Thanks for the correction, Mike.

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Back before the DCU was overwritten by the DCnU, and before "The Arrowverse" was a thing on TV, Green Arrow and Black Canary got married in the appropriately titled Green Arrow and Black Canary Wedding Special in 2007. Everyone who was anyone was there, which means that of course Booster Gold was there — in a strictly non-speaking cameo appearance.

Ok, well, technically, as we now know (but Booster didn't at the time), Booster didn't really attend the marriage as there wasn't any actual marriage in that issue. In follow-up issues of Green Arrow/Black Canary, it was soon revealed that the Green Lantern who exchanged vows in The Wedding Special was an imposter. But that's sort of par for the course in the star-crossed Arrow/Canary relationship.

Someone at DC must love doomed weddings, because this week The Wedding Special, previously collected in The Wedding Album, is getting collected for a second time in Green Arrow/Black Canary: Till Death Do They Part.

As you can see, even if the unions don't last, memories of weddings are eternal. That's why you should get yourself in as many wedding photos as possible. Consider it another good lesson learned from Booster Gold comics.

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