Insiders have been teasing future plans in the lead-up to next week's Comic-Con International 2025, and it looks like after the Summer of Superman concludes, readers will next be treated to the Fall of DC.

Marvel Comics' new 12-issue maxi-series The Secret War will be "one of the most significant events in Marvel history ever" promises Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter. Shooter will write the book, in which a number of permanent and temporary changes will be made in many of the major Marvel super-heroes and super-villains.

Oh, wait. Sorry. That was the announcement of was eventually published under the title Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars as it originally appeared in The Comics Journal #85 in 1983.

What I meant to post was the story that The Hollywood Reporter broke this past Wednesday.

Scott Snyder, the writer behind best-selling sensation Absolute Batman, and Joshua Williamson, who writes Superman, are the co-architects of what is being called DC K.O., the story initiative that will debut this fall and run through a main book as well as ripple out through various titles across the DC Universe. Javi Fernández (Batman & Robin, King Spawn) will draw the main series that is being described as a slugfest to end all slugfests. “DC K.O. is a knock-down, drag-out fight between all your favorite DC super heroes in a cosmic tournament to save the universe from Darkseid,” said Snyder in a statement.

Just heroes fighting heroes, then? It's not Marvel's 1984 Secret Wars; it's DC's 2007 Countdown: Arena (or 2015 Convergence). At least no one has actually read those.

Over at BleedingCool.com's article on this announcement is this description of the upcoming event:

While the battles are epic, the emotional center lies with Superman. "Metal was a Batman story, Death Metal was a Wonder Woman story—and DC K.O. is a Superman story," said Williamson. "I wanted to tell a story about Superman looking into his own heart of darkness," said Snyder. "It's a very personal story wrapped in nine layers of candy exploding in your face."

Call me a grumpy old man, but I really do not ever want any layers of exploding face candy.

As this is a Booster Gold fan site and not a general comics blog, I wouldn't be snarking at this groundbreaking news at all if not for the graphic that accompanied the article. See if you can see what I saw. Hint: he's inside the golden circle (fighting Blue Beetle).

AIPTComics.com has identified that art as a crop of the Scott Koblish wraparound variant cover for DC K.O. #1. (Koblish has been doing a lot of those sorts of crowd scene covers lately. They must sell well. I admit I'm buying them; I'll buy any comic with Captain Carrot or Red Bee on it. What can I say? I'm a nature lover.)

Despite not actually being mentioned in the text of any of these articles (by accident or design?), Booster Gold also appears on a couple of other covers in the AIPT Comics article. The first is an alternate cover for Superman #31, which presumably concludes the storyline beginning in next week's Superman #28 as was teased back in May.

The second is the main cover for the one-shot special Justice League: The Omega Act #1. (Booster and Skeets also appear on a variant.) The cover by Pete Woods homages the classic cover of Crisis on Infinite Earths #7, you know, the one where Superman cradles a dead Supergirl, this time with Booster Gold in place of Supergirl. Uh oh. If I may quote SLW:

I mean, you can't be a fan of Booster's without acknowledging the fact that he's kind of the DCU's punching bag, but come on.

So be sure to tell your Local Comic Shop to hold at least one of each of these for you when DC K.O. and its many tie-ins begin arriving in stores this October. They may be your last chance to see Booster Gold alive.

(Thanks, Tiffany. Despite my cynicism and crushing event fatigue—maybe I really have been reading comics for too long—it really will all be worth it if Booster gets a match against "Apokolips Now" variant Superman. That guy sent Booster to an alternate universe and forgot about him! Grr.)

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It's been a few weeks now, but do you recall the last page of Summer of Superman Special?

Here, let me refresh your memory:

Pay careful attention to that big glowing symbol on the wall over the head of our chained hero. That is omega, the final letter of the Greek alphabet. As the last letter in its alphabet, omega is often used symbolically to represent the last element in a set, as in "the ultimate," or "the end." Naturally, this has led omega to become associated with death, the end of life itself.

Omega's symbolic relationship with death is why it was adopted by the New God now widely known as Darkseid. Darkseid came to power by stealing the Omega Force and using the Omega Effect power it grants (via his Omega Beams) to take total control of Apokolips and aid his relentless quest to discover the Anti-Life Equation.

In the DCU, wherever an omega appears, Darkseid and death aren't too far behind, as teased in this panel from this weekend's Free Comic Book Day DC All In 2025 FCBD Special Edition #1:

Between the contemporary Absolute Universe and the Dark Legion of the future, it sure seems that Darkseid and Omega Energy are corrupting the entire Multiverse. And the symbols of their evil influence are everywhere!

Even, it seems, on the Sunday broadcast of the CBS Nightly News:

CBS Weekend News, Season 2025, Episode 118, CBS, May 4, 2025

Darkseid over present-day America? That would explain a few things.

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Reminder to everyone: After moving to Tuesdays during the pandemic, DC is back to Wednesday releases starting today.

This would be bigger news if there was a Booster Gold comic coming out today, but today also marks the official start of DC's annual event, "Absolute Power," and unless our hero puts in a cameo in one of the many, many tie-ins (34 and counting so far!), we're not expecting him to make his appearance in that until Wonder Woman #13 in September. ["We" were wrong. See update below.]

So you'll have to find something else to enjoy this New Comic Day. May I suggest those sweet Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez turnaround alternate artist spotlight covers on Batman and Shazam? Or the Kevin Maguire variant cover for Kurt Busiek's new comic? Or Geoff John's long awaited JSA #10?

But I don't need to tell you. If you're reading Boosterrific!, you love comics. I'm sure you will find yourself something to read.

UPDATE: As Rob Snow has pointed out to me, Booster Gold is seen on multiple pages in today's Absolute Power #1. Hooray!

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Internet comic book "news" is often like a children's game of telephone: Someone says something, someone else hears what they want to hear and passes that along to someone else, and the next thing you know, Blue Beetle will be co-starring in HBO's announced Booster Gold television series.

If you saw that news reported somewhere in the past week, know that at this point it's nothing more than wishful thinking.

The original report that many sites are referencing ran in The Hollywood Reporter. "Marketing 'The Flash': No Ezra Miller, But Lots of Batman and TV Spots" ruminates on the James Gunn-controlled future of the DC Cinematic Universe thusly:

Both executives have said some actors from the current universe could persist, and one who seems most likely is Xolo Maridueña, whose character Blue Beetle has close ties in the comics to Booster Gold. Gunn and Safran are planning their own Booster Gold show, and it is possible Blue Beetle could appear in it, depending on Beetle's reception this summer.

"Could persist"? "One who seems most likely"? As you can see, that's a lot of speculation on the part of the article's authors. Which is fine, so long as we recognize that for what it is.

It's not like we haven't had high hopes before. Once upon a time, people were similarly predicting that Booster Gold would show up on CW's The Flash or early seasons of DC's Legends of Tomorrow. He didn't.

Which is not to say that we shouldn't be hopeful. Blue Beetle could appear in a Booster Gold show. Assuming we ever actually get a Booster Gold show, I sure hope he does. All I'm saying is that we should all be careful not to confuse rumors with reality.

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In case you missed it this week (and I don't blame you if you did), Newsarama.com has gone to that great comic book news website in the sky.

As you can see from that screenshot, it looks like the remains of Newsarama have become yet another casualty of the Dark Side of the Internet's never-ending hunger for listicles.

Newsarama editor Chris Arrant tweeted that Newsarama's staff survives intact behind the scenes, but as that screenshot shows, "Newsarama" content is only a single landing page for the few comics-adjacent articles on a website dedicated to video games.

Like the once great ComicBookResources before it, all of Newsarama's archives have also been wiped from servers as though they never existed. That means if you come across any Newsarama.com links on this site, such as I tended to provide for DC's monthly solicitations, they now link to the front page of a video game website. Sorry about that. Think of it as rickrolling, 2020-style.

(You young 'uns do know what rickrolling was, right? It was a meme your parents enjoyed. I'd link you to a website explaining it, but most of them have shut down by now.)

So continues the cycle of the commercial niche-interest press. Comic book journalism, such as it is, will survive, I'm sure. What form will it take? Only time-traveling super heroes from the future know for sure, though if I had to guess, I'd say it'll probably look like this.

UPDATE 2020-6-6: And now The Hollywood Reporter breaks the news that DC and Diamond have parted ways. That's a big comic book industry story that may affect where and how you can buy future Booster Gold comics. What's next, 2020?

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