Now available at your Local Comic Shop is Harley Quinn Volume 5: Hollywood or Die, collecting the complete "California or Death" story from Harley Quinn #70 through #74. It's a lampoon of a the Hollywood detective noir genre (think The Big Sleep or Chinatown or, maybe more appropriately, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid).

The best part is that Booster Gold has a starring role as the romantic leading man!

*gasp!* They're not wearing masks!

If you didn't see the fireworks between these two lovebirds the first time around, it's because you're a rational person who recognizes a bad mismatch of personalities without being hit over the head with a giant mallet now's your second chance!

To give the story fair credit, if you didn't know anything about Booster Gold or Harley Quinn before reading this, I'm sure you'll find it actually quite charming. Sam Humphries builds a passable DCU mystery story with a grab bag of endearing characters, and Sami Basri's art sells a lot of punchlines, both comedic and pugilistic.

But still, some characters simply shouldn't be used in some plots, knowwhatI'msaying? This story came out only months after Heroes in Crisis established a very different relationship between Booster Gold and Harley Quinn. Can you imagine if The Fugitive had ended with Dr. Richard Kimble kissing the One Armed Man? (The Fugitive. That's a show kids watch these days, right?)

As always, Skeets encourages you to buy any comic that features Booster Gold this prominently.

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Today at your Local Comic Shop: more Dark Nights: Death Metal!

Don't worry. DC isn't releasing new chapters of last year's Death Metal event. (At least not yet.) This is the first collect edition for the seven issues of the main Dark Nights Death Metal mini-series. DC is calling this one Dark Nights: Death Metal: Deluxe Edition (because someone at DC *loves* colons).

I don't know if the story will make any sense without the eleventy-something crossover tie-in one-shots, but come to thing of it, it didn't make much sense with them, either.

Booster Gold was in issues 3, 5, 6, and 7. Those are all cameo appearances, but Booster did get a couple of lines:

There are no small parts, only small heroes. Go get 'em, Booster!

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I'm back! And so is Booster Gold!

Booster booster Logan spotted our hero in the pages of today's The Other History of the DC Universe #3. It's a sight you may recognize.

Befitting its premise, The Other History of the DC Universe uses a lot of art from a lot of sources representing the history of the DC Universe. However, this panel isn't actually historical; it's allegorical. Blue Beetle, Mon-el, Darkseid, and many others weren't actually present for Superman's funeral.

This was the poster by Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding released with Superman #75. It's meant to represent the entire DC Universe. To writer John Ridley's credit, that's how it is used in this issue.

When you head to your Local Comic Shop to pick up this cameo appearance, you may want to be aware that elsewhere, Gold Beetle is in Flash #768. Cameo appearances for everyone!

Skeets thanks you for your support.

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Now available at your Local Comic Shop:

Batman Beyond Volume 8: The Eradication Agenda collects the final 8 issues of the recently-canceled Batman Beyond series, including the excellent 2-part "Canceled by Yesterday" story written by Booster Gold creator Dan Jurgens.

If you missed that the first time around, you'll be pleased to encounter it in this reprint paperback.

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DC released barely any new comics this week, at least none with Booster Gold in them. However, they did re-release a collected edition of their 1996 four-issue event mini-series, Final Night.

In this story, the star-devouring Sun Eater has devoured Earth's star, and the heroes of the DC Universe do what they can to prevent the complete collapse of civilization. It's kind of a dark story.

If you weren't around to read it the first time around, here's Booster Gold's entire contribution to the event:

Final Night #1

Final Night #3

And that's it. Not even a line of dialogue! The "Extreme Justice"-era was a lean time for our hero. (I'm sure he was very busy behind the scenes.)

Booster Gold's involvement aside, the mini-series is better known as the first step on the road to redeeming fallen hero Hal Jordan. It's also the event that kick-starts the infamous electric Superman Red/Superman Blue era. (Is it just a coincidence this collection is being released a week before DC launches the new Superman: Red and Blue title next week? I think not!)

It's not a bad story, and if you're not familiar, give it a look. At the very least, you're going to want to know what "really" happened before you read the inevitable Tales of the Dark Multiverse version.

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