It's been a wild week for Booster Gold fans with Booster making an appearance in one book and Skeets in another.

I'll save my thoughts on Summer of Superman Special #1 for a later post, in part because I want to put some space between now and then because what I have to say about it would definitely count as "spoilers." (Hint: I'm even more frustrated than I was before.)

Skeets' appearance in Challengers of the Unknown Volume 5, #5, on the other hand, well, it can't count as a spoiler because there's nothing to spoil. See for yourself: here it is, panel 1 of page 20 (of 22 in the issue):

That's it. That's Skeets' only appearance in the issue. It's Skeets' only appearance in the whole mini-series.

Story wise, original Challenger Rocky Davis has just been attacked (killed?) by longtime Challengers foe Ultivac just as the new Justice League Unlimited Watchtower explodes. And then... Skeets?

It has to mean something, right? The artists (Sean Izaakse, Amancay Nahuelpan) didn't just decide to place a random, obscure sidekick there that the writer (Christopher Cantwell) didn't ask for and the editors (Chris Rosa, Paul Kaminski) didn't catch. But the story gives no clue what this means other than to suggest that time travel might be involved. Or is it a metaphysical representation of life after death? Or maybe, since we're talking about the past, is it all a dream state? It's all punishingly vague.

Can we grasp at straws? It doesn't make any sense for Rocky to be thinking about Skeets because so far as we know, the pair have never even met. (Skeets was deactivated at the only time Rocky Davis and Booster Gold joined forces on panel in 1992's Eclipso: The Darkness Within #2). Skeets is 25th century (or better) technology with no connection to Ultivac (who was the robot villain of the second published Challengers of the Unknown adventure in Showcase #7 in 1957!). Skeets does not have telepathy and cannot independently time travel without the aid of Rip Hunter's technology. So far as readers are aware, Skeets has been lost somewhere in the Multiverse with (or without) Booster Gold since last year's DC All In Special. (And, although I said I wasn't going to talk about Summer of Superman Special, if the events there are what they appear to be, how could Skeets exist in the 20th century at all?) So what in creation is Booster Gold's robot sidekick doing here?

Maybe it's not Skeets? Maybe it's one of Skeet's outdated exterior casings, such as used to be kept in the previous Justice League watchtower's trophy room (in JLA Secreat Files #2 and Justice League of America Volume 2, #7). In the New 52 era, Skeets was one of a kind, but that was not so before or since; maybe what appears to be Skeets here is just another 25th-century BX9 Security Robot? For all I know, this could be the return of Mr. Mind doing the same Skeets cosplay he wore in the pages of 52.

Or Proty. Yeah, sure, why not. It could be Proty. That would make as much sense as it being Skeets.

According to multiple new sources and despite being solicited as a 6-issue mini-series, Challengers of the Unknown has been canceled after 5 issues, so we're not likely to learn anytime soon why Skeets was here. If anyone does ever turn up a clue, let us know.

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"You might want to change the counter."

So reads the email sent to me by Booster booster Bob. Bob's a longtime friend of the Boosterrific Blog, and he even gave us a shout out at the end of his recent YouTube video post about the schizophrenic nature of Geoff John's Rip Hunter. (Bob summarizes the problem with that characterization as "Good people don't kidnap children." Hear, hear, Bob!)

But the point of Bob's email yesterday had nothing to do with Rip Hunter. It was about Booster Gold's return to comic books.

Specifically, Bob was the first to tell me that Booster Gold will be making an appearance in today's one-shot anthology Summer of Superman Special #1.

I suppose I should have seen this coming. According to Matt Morrison's review of the issue at SuperHeroHype.com: "Finally, Joshua Williamson uses the last chapter to explore the cause of Validus becoming displaced in time. This final story ties into the larger story of DC All-In and the fate of the Legion following Dark Crisis." That does indeed sound Booster-adjacent.

Before you get your hopes up too high about the inevitable Booster Gold renaissance, know that Booster's role in this issue is actually pretty limited. (It's essentially little more than a reminder that DC hasn't forgotten about what they did to our time-travelling hero.) But the bright side is that, yeah, it definitely counts as an in-continuity appearance, and yeah, it does reset the missing-in-action counter (after reaching 196 days). These days we'll take what we can get!

So buy this book and make Skeets (who is *not* in this issue) happy. (UPDATE: As SLW points out in the comments, Skeets *does* put in a cameo appearance in this week's Challengers of the Unknown #5.)

Thanks for keeping an eye out for us, Bob!

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The 15-part "Breakdowns" storyline that ran through late 1991 into 1992 of the Justice League titles spelled the end of the heyday of the Justice League International's very popular "Bwah-Ha-Ha" era.

The letter column of Justice League America #55 (Breakdowns Part 5) made the announcement that a new team lineup would coming in issue #61 and gave fans a ballot to vote for the heroes they most wanted to see on the team.

According to the letter column in Justice League Spectacular #1 (which I recently re-read while preparing for last week's "My Favorite Pages" feature), DC received more than 6 million total votes!

To be fair, many of those votes were duplicate ballots that were not double counted, but it's not clear whether any of the votes received made any actual difference on which characters were chosen for the new team. After all, the poll was published only six months before issue #61 was to released and the production of a DC comic book generally takes about three months, meaning there was only a small window for voters to influence any decisions made by editors or writers.

The full results of the poll were not made public, but Justice League editor Kevin Dooley did reveal that the top vote-getter was J'ohn J'onzz, who pointedly was not on the new team. Dooley also explicitly named Peacemaker as the character with the fewest votes, and to no great surprise, Peacemaker wasn't on the team, either.

Of course, this being a Booster Gold blog, we'd be most interested to know how many votes Booster got. All we can know for sure was that it was more than three. Dooley listed all the characters, mostly write-ins, who got three or fewer votes, and Skeets got two votes! (Other two-vote getters were Angel and the Ape, Arisia, Beefeater, Brother Power the Geek, Catwoman, Deadman, Sue Dibny, Dove, Lady Flash, Maser, Mera, Nuklon, Peter Canon, Praxis, The Question, Red Star, Sandman, Snapper Carr, Valor, Wildcat, and the Wonder Twins. That some pretty good company, Skeets!)

However many votes Booster Gold got, the important takeaway is that he made the team. Maybe one day, Skeets will, too.

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For today's post, I asked Microsoft Copilot with GPT-4 for an essay about Skeets. The following is what it wrote.

In the grand theater of superheroes, where capes flutter and muscles bulge, there's a duo that flips the script - Booster Gold and his robotic sidekick, Skeets. But let's be honest, who's the real hero here?

Booster Gold may have the biceps, but Skeets has the brains. He's like a walking, talking encyclopedia from the future. While Booster is busy flexing his muscles, Skeets is flexing his circuits, predicting future events with the accuracy of a weather forecast. And we all know how often those are right!

Booster Gold may be the one with the shiny suit, but when things go south, who's the one saving the day? That's right, our metallic friend Skeets. When Booster gets knocked out, Skeets is there to pick up the slack. He's like the reliable friend who always remembers to bring the snacks to a movie night.

While Booster Gold is busy signing autographs and basking in the limelight, Skeets is the one doing the real work. He's the one navigating through time, providing strategic advice, and occasionally taking over Booster's motor functions. Talk about multitasking!

So, who's the real superhero here? The guy with the flashy suit and charming smile, or the small, hovering robot with the knowledge of the future and the patience of a saint? I think we all know the answer. So here's to Skeets, the unsung hero of the duo, proving that sometimes, the sidekick is the real MVP.

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Booster Gold appears two new books this week!

If you recall the end of Speed Force #5, Booster was the MC for the kickoff of the Symphonee Music Festival. What the reading audience knows — and Booster doesn't — is that Symphonee is actually a mind-control app that the Fiddler, Mad Mod, Music Meister, and Klarion the Witch Boy have built with the ultimate goal of... brainwashing teens for money? Okay, I admit, their ultimate goal still isn't quite clear.

Booster should have known better than to get involved in a business run by a bunch of super-villains. Therefore, it's up to Kid Flash to save the day in Speed Force #6 (preview online at AIPTComics.com):

It might be too late to cut and run, Booster. Do you think the general public is likely to forget that you already went on tv and announced you were a sponsor of this festival — with accompanying merchandise? Those "one-of-a-kind" Booster Gold Symphonee collectors cups are destined to turn up as evidence in a lawsuit and as punchlines on late night talk shows.

Elsewhere, in the backup story in Green Lantern #10, Booster and Skeets have a whole page to debate Booster's declining media exposure. No preview is available for this one, but you shouldn't need one once I tell you that it was drawn by Kevin Maguire!

Buy these issues and make Skeets happy.

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