When I went looking at the lists of new comics coming out this week, I was surprised to see so few books from DC. I didn't realize it was the 5th week of the month. DC has lately been releasing anthology books during "skip" weeks, but this year's Halloween special with a punny name, DC's Zatannic Panic, was released at the start of the month instead. I guess they were being helpful by ensuring we wouldn't get chocolate fingerprints all over our near mint comics. How thoughtful of them.

That's not to say that no Booster Gold comics were released this week. Yesterday saw the release of (count 'em!) three trades reprinting previous Booster Gold stories. In alphabetical order, they are

1. Batman: The Brave and the Bold Across the Universe
Collects the complete 2024 "Time Jerks" Booster Gold/Jurassic League story by Mark Russell told across three issues beginning in Batman: The Brave and the Bold #13.

2. Jonah Hex All-Star Western Omnibus
Reprints the entire third volume of All-Star Western, which is one of the few books unimpacted directly by the New 52 reboot in 2011. Of interest to Booster Gold fans are the issues spanning All-Star Western #19 through #21, which reintroduced Booster Gold to the DCnU eight months after he appeared to be erased from continuity in Justice League International Annual #1. (If you recall, issue #19 was part of DC's "WTF" month event and the Internet was rife with supposition that Booster Gold was the character hidden on its surprise fold-out cover. I have no idea if that cover is reprinted as a fold out in this omnibus, and I'm not paying $125 to find out.)

3. Justice League by Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV Omnibus Volume 2
Among other things, this reprints the complete 2020 Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen mini-series, which sees a mute Booster Gold temporarily turned into an evil zombie. Just in time for Halloween.

Trick or treat? You decide, Booster boosters.

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This week, DC is releasing the paperback version of the hardback version of the Multiversity: Harley Screws Up the DCU mini-series, in which Booster Gold makes a cameo appearance for a couple of pages at the end.

And that fulfils my contractual obligation to find something new(ish) to post about Booster Gold this week.

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Last week, the Guy Behind the Counter at my Local Comic Shop was complaining that DC was cancelling one Green Lantern title to make room for another. There should be room for more than two Green Lantern comics at a time, he lamented. As a Booster Gold fan, I'd very much settle for one.

The automated text at the top of this page informs us that it's been over two months since Booster Gold was last seen exiting the DC Universe in All In. There's no sign that the streak will be ending this week, although I suppose there's a non-zero chance that Booster might cameo in one of the Christmas specials, either DC's Batman Smells, Robin Laid an Egg one-shot or Batman / Santa Claus: Silent Knight Returns miniseries. It's Christmas, Batman; let some other heroes share the spotlight for a change!

For what it's worth, next week, Booster will be appearing in bit parts in new reprints DC Finest: Zero Hour, Part 1 and The Death and Return of Superman 30th Anniversary Collection. And week after next, we get reprints of Multiversity Harley Screws Up the DCU. Certainly, old Booster Gold cameo appearances are better than none.

Maybe DC is setting Booster up for his own Absolute title. That storyline in All In has to pay off sometime, right? (Is Booster Gold the Pariah of the Absolute Universe? What a crisis!)

Could be worse, I guess. In addition to not appearing in enough comic books, Booster Gold could also have been the subject of a big-budget film loathed by critics and audiences alike. Sometimes it's worse to get what you want than nothing at all.

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Arriving this week in a Local Comic Shop near you is the third (and final?) volume of the Justice League International Omnibus.

According to the solicitation, this issue (with a brand new wraparound cover by Kevin Maguire) reprints "stories from Justice League America #51-60, Secret Origins #33-35, Justice League America Annual #5, Green Lantern #18, Justice League Quarterly #2-5, JLA 80-Page Giant #1, Formerly Known as the Justice League #1-6, JLA: Classified #4-9, Justice League Europe #26-36, DC Retroactive: JLA - The '90s #1, Justice League Europe Annual #2, and Justice League International Special #2."

It's funny: when you're reading them as you go along, they didn't seem like so many comics, but in hindsight, that's a heck of a long list.

That's at least part of 46 different comics, which pretty much A) justifies the $150 price tag, and B) puts a cap on the Giffen/DeMatteis era (with the exception of Justice League 3000-3001, which is collected elsewhere).

And the best part is that it excludes the JLI's appearances under the pens of other writers, so if we want to, we can all just pretend that Identity Crisis and Countdown to Infinite Crisis never happened. I can live with that.

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I'll keep today's post brief so that you can spend more time reading (and re-reading) Booster Gold's appearance in DC's 'Twas The 'Mite Before Christmas. I just wanted to mention that if you still need Christmas presents, DC has released a bunch of collections recently in which Booster plays at least a small role.

This week, DC issued a 2023 hardcover edition of Infinite Crisis, in which Booster Gold returns from the future to introduce the future star of DC's Blue Beetle movie and save the world. At least that's how I remember Infinite Crisis.

DC has also just released the trade collections Multiversity: Harley Screws Up the DCU and Nightwing: The Leap, reprinting Booster's appearance in the pages of Multiversity: Harley Screws Up the DCU #6 and on the cover of Nightwing #100, respectively.

And since I'm on the subject, I would be remiss not to mention that last month saw the 2023 reissue of the 2018 The Seven Soldiers of Victory Omnibus hardcover. Booster Gold barely appears in the included Seven Soldiers: Bulleteer #3, but it's a darn good comic book series overall (made all the better by a small Booster Gold cameo appearance).

You may now resume your regularly scheduled holiday anthology reading.

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