Hey, kids! Today's your first second chance to buy November's Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Infinite Crisis #1 one-shot, as it is included in Tales form the Dark Multiverse hardcover collection. Better late than never.

Speaking of reprints, if you're the sort of person who reads comic book related news sites — either for fun or because you run a website devoted to a comic book character who only sporadically appears as a background character in other books and you're always looking for new content — you may have heard that today's Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #3 went to a second printing two weeks before the issue was ever released!

Believe it or not, that post-Final Order Cut-off/pre-New Release sellout happened because DC failed to mention in the solicitations provided to the stores that a certain super-popular character appears in it.

That character is sadly NOT Booster Gold.

Per DC's February 11 press release at dccomics.com:

The debut of Punchline, the Joker's deadly new henchperson, has led to pre-on sale sellouts of both Batman #89 and Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #3—and now, DC announces that these issues, both written by James Tynion IV—are rushing back to press for second printings!

Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #3's second printing covers the confrontation between Lex Luthor and The Joker, with help from Punchline and Mercy, as the conflict between the forces of Perpetua and the Batman Who Laughs reaches the boiling point. Written by Tynion IV with art by Steve Epting, this issue will arrive in stores with a recolored version of its original cover by Epting.

The second printings of Batman #89 and Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #3 will both be published on March 4. If the comics aren't already on your pull lists, contact your local comic book shop and let them know you're looking for these issues to be added!

For the record, no one knew this milked cash cow "Punchline" character would be in these two books until DC announced it... on February 7. Hint to DC: if you want people to buy your comics in the specialty shops dedicated to your product, maybe you should tell us about them before those stores have to place their orders from you. Otherwise, you're kind of shooting yourself in the foot. You won't make a single penny on the two or more (or much more) times cover price I'll now be paying for a first edition printing of a new Booster Gold comic book, so you end up losing money and angering fans. That's good business, he says sarcastically.

Sigh. Oh, well. I guess it's just one last thing I can blame on newly ex-publisher Dan "don't let the door hit you on the way out" DiDio. (Double sigh. Now who am I going to blame for everything I don't like about DC Comics?)

If you can find it for a reasonable price, buy this issue and make Skeets happy.

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Booster Gold fans will find two "must buy" books in their Local Comic Shop today.

First is Superman: Heroes #1. Originally solicited for January release, the book was postponed for reasons that are not yet clear. In fact, back in January it was announced that the book would be delayed until February 19. So depending on how you look at it, the book is either two weeks late or one week early. *shrug* Maybe we'll know why it changed dates so much when we read it. (BleedingCool.com has the preview.)

Also available today for the first time is Justice League: Corporate Maneuvers trade, reprinting for the first time the first four issues of the Justice League Quarterly anthology. Twenty-five dollars seems a fair price for finally getting Booster Gold's black leather jacket printed on some high-quality paper.

Buy one or both and make Skeets happy.

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Booster Gold has been popping up in Harley Quinn stories a lot lately, and I'll let you in on a little secret: I don't understand them. Harley Quinn stories, that is. They all have at least two series of ongoing events, one clearly presented as a fantasy tale and the other as... reality? However, it's often a reality that doesn't quite square with the rest of what's happening in the DCnU or any of the dozen other Harley Quinn appearances each month.

So when Booster Gold shows up, which one is it? The "real" Booster Gold (at least as real as comic book characters get), or some alternate reality Booster, or a figment of the protagonist's imagination (assuming the protagonist isn't herself a figment of someone's imagination).

Even in its 70s, Harley's ongoing series continues to sell 5-10 thousand more units than what Booster Gold was moving near the end of his last self-titled series, which is to say that her title has some loyal month-to-month readers. I assume they enjoy the lack of concrete reality in her stories. I've got nothing against them or series' writer Sam Humphries, but you can guess that someone whose hobby is cataloging the minutiae of a fictional super hero's continuity might find such ambiguity unsatisfying. That unsatisfied person is me.

All of which is a long way of saying that I was planning on buying today's Harley Quinn #70 in the hopes that when I pick up next month's Booster Gold appearance, I might have some hope of figuring out what is happening. I say "was" because I've just learned from Booster booster Logan Peterson that Booster is in issue #70, too!

Hooray?

A preview of the issue (which gives no hint of Booster Gold — not that I doubt you, Logan!) is online at CBR.com. Buy it and make Skeets happy.

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I had been prepared to remind you to buy Superman: Heroes #1 today at your Local Comic Shop, but that will no longer be necessary. According to Newsarama.com, DC has postponed the release until February 19.

Why? "The publisher did not give a reason for the change." Hunh.

This is disappointing news if only because it means I'll have to wait three more weeks to find out the in-universe explanation of why Harley Quinn is sitting at this table, as seen in last week's Superman #19:

At least Wonder Woman has the good sense to look uncomfortable to be sitting across the table from the Joker's former sidekick. Is anyone keeping track of how many people she's killed in her own title? I believe in second chances as much as the next guy, but it's not like she was a serial shoplifter. There has to be some limit to how many people you get to kill before you don't get to sit at the hero's table anymore, right?

Aaaanyway. Whatever reason DC has for postponing the issue, I hope they don't change the solicited cover. There just aren't enough books on the stands featuring Booster Gold's crotch.

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Booster Gold hasn't been in a new release in weeks, so I hope you've been saving your money. Because he's in three titles today!

Logan Peterson, a longtime friend of this site, dropped me a line to say

I just finished skimming through the new comics coming out tomorrow as I was sorting through them at my store, and I made some exciting discoveries! Booster appears in not one, but two of tomorrow's releases: Superman #19 and Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #2. I won't say anything to spoil them, but I wanted to give you the heads up!

I had suspected that Booster might show up in Superman (in response to some recent, high-profile events in the life of the Man of Tomorrow), but the appearance in Hell Arisen is a total surprise. (The way Logan words that leads me to believe that it might not be an entirely welcome one. But then, the book is titled Hell Arisen.)

This is the solicitation text for Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #2:

Apex predator Lex Luthor is on the hunt for the Batman Who Laughs. To catch his prey, he must follow a trail of broken heroes... leading him to Jim Gordon, one of the victims of the Batman Who Laughs' deadly virus that turned the heroic police commissioner into the worst version of himself. The trail leads Lex to a lonely cell in the Hall of Justice - but it's not the good guys who come to stop him. It's more of the Batman Who Laughs' dangerous operatives! And if they couldn't resist the influence of the Dark Multiverse, then how can Lex?

And while we're at it, this is for Superman #19:

One day later! What happens the day after Superman reveals his secret identity to the world? And what repercussions will his decision have across the entire DC Universe? Plus, Superman: president of Earth?

Wait a second. "President of Earth"? Is that a thing? I don't remember voting for that.

Anyway, what Logan failed to mention in his note is that Booster will also be featured in the new collection Justice League International Book One: Born Again, which reprints Justice League #1-6, Justice League International #7-17, Justice League Annual #1, Justice League International Annual #2, and Suicide Squad #13. That's a whole bunch of great 1980s Booster Gold adventures reprinted on good paper for the very reasonable (modern) price of $2 per comic.

Buy one of those and make Skeets happy! (Thanks, Logan.)

UPDATE: As you can see in the comments, Booster has also been spotted in Batman/Superman #6. He's everywhere!

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