First David Zavimbe quit the Justice League International after Batwing #12. Now DC tells us he'll be quitting Batman Incorporated altogether in Batwing #19, released today.

So the question isn't whether Batman will be replacing Zavimbe as Batwing, but who Batman will be replacing Zavimbe with. In an interview with Vaneta Rogers at Newsarama.com, writer Jimmy Palmiotti described the new Batwing:

This new Batwing will be a character more people will relate to...or more likely wish they were. We are approaching this with the feeling of "what if Batman picked me as the next Batman" kind of feel. There is joy, chaos, over the top action and adventure and a lot of romance.

Working from clues dropped by Palmiotti and his co-creator Justin Gray, Keith Callbeck handicapped the identity of the new Batwing at Comicosity.com. Callbeck gives Booster Gold 250 to 1 odds to be the new Batwing. (Terry McGinnis is the favorite, at 5 to 1.)

We all know that Booster knows a thing or two about playing the odds, but we'll have to pick up Batwing #19 to see if he's the winner of this competition.

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WonderCon 2013 was this past weekend, and DC went ahead and made it official that Booster Gold will be guest-starring in All-Star Western #19-21. Our pal Russ Burlingame at ComicBook.com reports writer Jimmy Palmiotti's quote from the "DC All Access Panel" yesterday:

In the next issue of Jonah Hex, we have a special guest... running around with Jonah Hex will be none other than Booster Gold.

You can read details from the whole panel at Newsarama.com, but the fact that Booster will be in All-Star Western isn't really new news. However, something else I found reported from WonderCon is a little more exciting.

AnotherMealTicket.com reports that the "f" in the "WTF" issues appearing this month from DC will stand for "Flashpoint," and it seems that Booster won't just be travelling across the DCU, he'll be remembering it:

...Inside sources at DC were overheard this weekend at WonderCon 2013 saying we should expect to see plenty of the mysterious Pandora and finally hear Booster Gold admit that he remembers the old DC Universe!

It's about time! Thanks to MetalWoman and Morgenstern for posting the news in the Boosterrific Forum.

UPDATE 2013-04-01: More info at BleedingCool.com.

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Last night at midnight, Cartoon Network debuted the Robot Chicken DC Comics Special. The shot of Booster Gold versus Solomon Grundy that appeared in last month's episode trailer was seen in the episode, and Booster put in an additional appearance in the group shot at the end.

Teammates Ice and Firestorm each had lines, but poor Booster didn't have any dialogue. At least we were warned. On Friday, Vaneta Rogers of Newsarama.com posted an interview with Robot Chicken writer Kevin Shinick that included this paragraph:

"And I actually did a Booster Gold voice, but he got cut," [Shinick] said. "But we put the deleted scenes on the DVDs, so people will get to see that."

If we want to see 5 seconds of talking action figure Booster Gold, it looks like we'll have to buy a $15.00 DVD. Or visit PropJosh on YouTube for free.

Thanks to MetalWoman for warning us about Booster's cut scene on Friday afternoon in the Boosterrific.com Forum.

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Last week, Newsarama.com ran "BATWING Goes Global for JLI, Back to Africa for ZERO MONTH," an interview between Vaneta Rogers and Judd Winick. Included in that article was a quote about Winick's hopes for Batwing #12.

Nrama: Fans of your work on Justice League International are looking forward to you writing some of those characters again. How was it for you to return to them in the New 52?

Winick: Oh, it was a blast. I wish it was longer. I had 20 pages to do a lot. I wanted Booster to talk more, you know? So I could write him! I could have done 60 pages on these guys.

But it was really fun to get back to those guys for just a little bit. Just a little bit. I loved doing that entire run. It was fun for me when they announced that Batwing had joined the JLI. I'm sorry to see the book go. But it immediately opened the door for this. I said, "Oh! Can they come play over here? Please?"

I had this idea about this big old fight in Africa, and I thought they could come along. I knew it would be great. And I really enjoyed writing it.

That's what issue #12 is. It's one of those big superhero issues where it actually feels right. You know? You only get to do it now and again where it feels right and makes sense, and doesn't feel like an overload — a whole, big old superhero dogpile. That's what we have for issue #12. It's good fun.

While Winick may have intended Batwing #12 to be a "big old fight," the issue as published feels more like a bait and switch. Yes, Winick sets the scene for a battle royal by establishing bad-blood (and international intrigue!) between the combatants before maneuvering them into their respective corners. But just as the opening bell is rung, the broadcast edits the match for time and cuts straight to the finale. How disappointing!

The issue is all pre-fight and post-fight, with nothing in between. If I only wanted to know who won the fight, I could skip watching the bout and read the headlines in tomorrow's newspaper. Even that would be a waste of time here, since there's never any doubt that the forces of good will ultimately triumph over the forces of evil in mainstream comic books. If we're not paying to see the fight, what are we buying with our $3.00 admission ticket?

To be fair to Winick, he is just part of the team of creative personnel and editors responsible for the finished product. Perhaps penciller Marcus To forgot to include the panels with the real action. Throughout the issue, it's unclear how one panel is supposed to lead to the next; maybe To doesn't understand that sequential art is similar to film making in how it's supposed to tell a story. Or maybe issue editor Harvey Richards decided that showing the widespread combat this issue was theoretically centered around would be too graphic for the desired teen audience. This wouldn't be the first issue of the New 52 that DC Editorial had damaged its published product with enigmatic decision-making.

Whatever the reason, this issue ultimately feels like 5-10 pages were left on the cutting room floor. Winick did deliver big in the 26-issue Justice League: Generation Lost, where he had plenty of space to develop his story into a semi-satisfying finale (that thanks to DC's post-Flashpoint market strategy will never have its necessary follow-up). This begs the question of whether it is even possible to deliver an epic plot in the modern 20-page comic book that promotes digitally-aided pin-up art over old-fashioned plot narrative. If Batwing #12 is any indication, the answer is "no."

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Three things overheard this weekend at Comic-Con International 2012:

1. Screenwriter Andrew Kreiseberg on the progress of the Booster Gold television show being developed by SyFy (as interviewed by IGN.com):

"[I'm] handing in the script next month. It was actually pretty cool because I got to meet Dan Jurgens who created the comic book last night, and I spent about a half an hour convincing him that I wasn't just some gun for hire, that I was actually a huge fan of Booster as a kid. I wrote a couple of episodes of the Justice League animated series and when they asked me who I wanted to write, I said 'Booster'. So I've been a life-long Booster fan."

2. DC Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns discussing the Justice League International Annual at the "DC Comics: Justice League and Green Lantern" panel (according to Newsarma.com):

"It's really a Booster Gold story."

3. DC Co-Publisher Dan DiDio elaborating on what to expect in the Justice League International Annual at the "DC Comics: Meet the Publishers" panel (according to Comicbook.com):

We wrapped up some stories, especially Booster Gold's, where we see some strange things happen to Booster, Blue Beetle, and the August General."

Thanks to MetalWoman and Russ Burlingame for the tips.

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