Booster boosters Rob Snow and Pigeon both wrote to tell me that Booster Gold and Skeets have been sighted in DC Go!'s Aquaman: Yo-Ho-Hold Onto Your Hook!. Rob even gave me a couple of images he found on X.

I, for various reasons, am not on X, but I believe, based on the other screenshot that Rob sent me of an X post by Josh Trujillo, that the Booster and Skeets seen above are in issue #19 released to Ultra members of dcuniverseinfinte.com on November 11.

X will not let me search its content without an account, but from what Rob and Pigeon have told me plus a little old fashioned Google sleuthing, I am under the impression that the above character turnaround was drawn by Bradley Clayton, who is one of several artists that the DC Universe Infinite credits on that issue.

However, for slightly different reasons, I also do not have a DC Universe Infinite Ultra account, which is required to actually read that issue. (I read free issue #1. Reminded me of One Piece. Is that the target audience: people who can't get enough One Piece?) So I'm just going to have to assume that reliable Rob and dependable Pigeon aren't pulling my leg with one of those elaborate AI ruses that seem to be everywhere these days.

If anyone reading this does have an Ultra account, can confirm that Booster Gold is in Aquaman: Yo-Ho-Hold Onto Your Hook! #19, and wants to send me a screenshot of the title and credits page of that issue, I'll add the issue (with credit to the treasure hunter who brings me this bounty) to the Boosterrific! Database.

Thanks to Rob and Pigeon for their eternal vigilance, especially in this age of pirates.

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I've showcased custom Booster Gold Minecraft skins before. (Several times, actually.) But after recently watching the A Minecraft Movie, I got to wondering if anyone out there was still making them.

I'm happy to report that the answer is yes.

These are just the "Booster Gold" skins I found from one of my old bookmarks to The Skindex at minecraftskins.com:

Cross-tagged Blue Beetle? I'll allow it.

Those are all certainly Boosterrific, but what really impressed me was found on a rival site, planetminecraft.com:

Who needs a computer when they can have their own square Skeets?

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If you have read the preview of today's New History of the DC Universe #1 (available at AIPTComics.com, among other places), you may have noticed on the very first panel of the very first page a very familiar... well, "face" is definitely the wrong word:

There, on the left, it's Skeets!

(And many, many other treasures looted from the Justice League trophy room, including Superman's cape, Green Arrow's bow, Jack O'Lantern's lantern, Wild Dog's mask, Zatara's top hat, Blue Beetle's BB Gun, Kanjar Ro's Scepter, the Key's key, the Orb of Ra, Magog's staff, Star Man's Cosmic Rod, the original Red Tornado's helmet, the Guardian's shield, the Red Jar of Calythos, the Green Bell of Utholl, the Silver Wheel of Nyorlath, two Legion Flight Rings, Captain Cold's mask, the Book of Eternity, Elongated Man's Gingold, Batman's batarangs, a couple of other things I don't recognize, and I'm sure that's not all. I mean, the whole history of the DCU has to be in there somewhere.)

Thanks to all who made sure I saw this.

Buy this issue and make Skeets happy.

UPDATE: As you can see from the comments, Booster also makes an unexpected cameo appearance in Superman #27 and Flash #22. So buy those, too.

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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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