Another something I haven't had the time to mention yet: Major Force made a guest appearance in Firestorm: The Nuclear Man #20 wearing a costume that looks very familiar.

I guess if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Major Force is paying Booster a big compliment. It probably doesn't help any that the artists for the book were Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund.

Late last month at ComicBook.com, Russ Burlingame — the internet's premiere Booster Gold journalist! — asked Dan Jurgens why Major Force looked like Booster Gold's purplest fan.

ComicBook.com: Major Force—is that the first time we've seen him in the New 52? I feel like there was a character who looked like that introduced in Ron Marz's Voodoo run, but I don't see anything to indicate it was him on the DC Wiki and I feel like they may have referred to him by another name there.

Jurgens: You were right the first time. Major Force made a brief appearance in the earlier days of the New 52, which is what we used for the overall character design. It was fun to push him back on stage.

ComicBook.com: I remember noticing at the time that there's a pretty unmistakable similarity between this version of Major Force's look and Booster Gold's, excepting of course the color scheme. Did you notice that too?

Jurgens: I did notice it, which is why I did whatever I could to work away from it, mostly emphasizing Force's bulk.

Jurgens is right, this "Major Force" design did show up in several issues of Voodoo. However, that character was not Captain Atom's old foe Clifford Zmeck but Blackhawk agent Major "Black Jack" Bolton. Bolton was clearly decapitated long before Voodoo was canceled. Is Jurgens' Major Force Zmeck or a reincarnated Bolton? (Major Force has survived some pretty gruesome injuries in the past.)

Back when Booster debuted in the 1980s, it could be argued that his costume had been strongly "inspired" by the costume worn by the Soviet hero Red Star. Since the Communists don't believe in personal property, Red Star's emblem, cowl, goggles, and high collar designs were destined to be copied by a Capitalist hero with good fashion sense. But in the contemporary DCnU of the 21st century, you'd think that a big celebrity like Booster Gold would have a good copyright lawyer on retainer to deal with copycats like Black Jack and Major Force. Maybe Booster's trying to keep his head down on this issue. His past isn't exactly spotless, after all.

Booster, give Batman a call. The lawyers working for Batman, Inc. must know a thing or two about dealing with intellectual property infringement cases by now.

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Russ Burlingame questions All-Star Western #20 co-writer Justin Gray in his latest "Gold Exchange" column at ComicBook.com.

ComicBook.com: Is a real explanation for what the heck is up with Booster forthcoming? It seems weird to me that he remembers Blazing Saddles and yoga pants, but not how his force field and flight ring work. Almost like the missing information was strategic...

Gray: I'd imagine based on his return that there will be an explanation, however that's not our story to tell. For me on a creative level and as a fan it is fun to me that there exists a universe where there can be random or seemingly random events contained within the very clear machinations of larger storytelling. With All-Star there's this sense of, I guess the random insanity of the first Hangover movie. Instead of a bunch of guys getting sucked into the world of Las Vegas, they get sucked into the world of Jonah Hex's and the ride is often more important and exciting than the destination.

...

ComicBook.com: Since you guys have made it no secret Booster is going to take Jonah to the present/Jonah's future, setting these guys up as a threat in the third part of the story kind of begs the question: What implications does that have?

Gray: In an attempt to channel Matt Smith's Doctor Who I give you the following and playfully snarky response: I see you're anticipating possible plot courses. I'd advise against that. That's the funny thing about time travel. Nothing ever truly happens in a straight line. Straight lines are boring. I'll take a nice wavy line or some loopty loops any day.

Gray sounds like someone who is enjoying playing with the sandbox of the DC Universe. As always, you'll find more in the full interview at ComicBook.com

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This past weekend, Russ Burlingame interviewed Smallville Season 11 writer Bryan Q. Miller for ComicBook.com. The interview primarily focuses on Miller's work with Superman and his creator-owned Earthward but doesn't forget the important stuff. By which I mean Skeets.

ComicBook.com: Skeets was barely in the television show, so there didn't appear to be any need to include him as a stand-alone character in [Smallville Season 11 #13]. Why choose to include Skeets, especially in a physical form?

Miller: Because I love Skeets. I've always loved Skeets. He's the straight man. And, as far as I'm concerned (thanks to Justice League Unlimited), he sounds like Billy West.

ComicBook.com: Do you realize that you've earned the eternal gratefulness of Boosterrific.com, who have been missing Skeets since before Flashpoint?

Miller: I didn't then, but I do now — and I'm happy to help!

Thanks, Bryan! We can never have too much Skeets in our lives!

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Justin Gray must feel pretty loved right now. He was interviewed by both Russ Burlingame at ComicBook.com and Newsarama.com last week about All-Star Western #19.

Vaneta Rogers interviewed both Gray and his co-writer, Jimmy Palmiotti, for Newsarama.com. The focus of the interview is very much on Palmiotti and Gray's plans for the future of the series (which has been losing more than 500 readers each month for some time now, currently down to under 17,000 per month and fast approaching cancellation). But there was still some room for some Booster news.

Newsarama: How did All-Star Western end up being the spot where Booster Gold would return to DC Comics?

Justin Gray: We needed to shake things up. Booster is the only time traveler operating currently in the New 52, and his story is that of a man hurtling through time for reasons unknown. He's not fully aware of the reasons behind this and so it felt like a great opportunity to pair him with Jonah Hex in a way that would get people talking about All-Star Western.

Palmiotti: We constantly like to keep All-Star Western on the cutting edge story-wise and loaded with ideas that we think really challenge the characters. Getting to be the book that reintroduces Booster again was even cooler for us. Once again we get a chance to turn more people onto the book, and that is a win-win situation for us on all counts. The crew at DC and our editors have been working long and hard on making this happen for us and we think we have a story that lives up to any hype we might have out there.

Meanwhile, at the New Look ComicBook.com Russ Burlingame resurrected his "Gold Exchange" column to put some questions to Gray, who genuinely appears to be a big Booster Gold fan.

ComicBook.com: There are few characters more entwined with the DC Universe than Booster, at least as he's been depicted in the recent past. His future is totally dependent on the "history" that unfolds in our titles every month. Hex is at the other end of the spectrum; his life would be only minimally impacted if Superman never had his coming-out party. Do you think that makes an exploration through time with these two particular characters even more interesting than the average mismatched duo?

Gray: Hex takes everything as it comes with an angry scowl and hand on his gun approach. I think any time you put characters together that are dissimilar, with very pronounced view points, methods and ideologies that you're going to have a good time.

A lot of times you have such similarities in characters that they become swappable costumes. I believe Booster being around Hex actually makes him more heroic in ways that would be overlooked and sometimes overshadowed by standing in a crowd with other heroes. He is essentially the only pure hero in the book at this time.

In both interviews, Gray sidesteps questions of how Booster got to the past and where he will be going next. It looks like readers will have to pick up All-Star Western #20 next month for more answers!

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Today Booster Gold makes his first appearance in the DCU since August 2012 in the pages of All-Star Western #19. Earlier this week, Brian Truitt of USA Today interviewed issue co-writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray.

"We're going to see Booster thinking on his feet," [Palmiotti] says. "He's pressed into a situation right away in the book that is a lot bigger than he can handle, and Jonah has a firm grasp of what's going on and Booster is coming into it and trying to figure out not only why he's there and what he's doing there but also solve what's been dumped on him."

This is neither Booster's first trip to the Old West nor his first meeting with Jonah Hex. Dialogue in the issue preview subtly implies that Booster's previous drunken meeting with Hex in Booster Gold, volume 2, #3 is still in continuity! Hooray!

You can read a preview of the issue yourself at ComicBook.com, where Russell Burlingame will soon be running a variation of his "Gold Exchange" column with co-writer Justin Gray.

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