I know that I said on Monday that I'd be busy this week and that "big news" would have to wait until next week.

I was wrong.

DC Comics released solicitations for December on Wednesday, and guess who's coming to Action Comics!

ACTION COMICS #993
Written by DAN JURGENS
Art by BRETT BOOTH* and JOE PRADO
Cover by DAN JURGENS and TREVOR SCOTT
Variant cover by NEIL EDWARDS and JAY LEISTEN
"BOOSTER SHOT" part one! As Superman struggles to cope with Mr. Oz's true identity, the Man of Steel turns to the only "hero" he knows who can prove once and for all if Oz's story is true: Booster Gold! But a massive power doesn't want our heroes venturing through time, and will do anything it can to sabotage their journey!
On sale DECEMBER 13 • $2.99 US

ACTION COMICS #994
Written by DAN JURGENS
Art by BRETT BOOTH* and JOE PRADO
Cover by DAN JURGENS and TREVOR SCOTT
Variant cover by NEIL EDWARDS and JAY LEISTEN
"BOOSTER SHOT" part two! It's the time-hopping team-up of Superman and Booster Gold—and on their quest to verify Mr. Oz's identity, a mysterious force attempts to sabotage the journey! This time (pun!) our heroes wind up in the crosshairs of a deadly new villain—the time wraith responsible for their tumultuous journey!
On sale DECEMBER 27 • $2.99 US

(* Note that while the solicitations indicate both issues will be drawn by Brett Booth, he has denied via Twitter that he will be the artist, calling the solicitations "a mistake". Therefore, actual artist for these issues remains unknown.)

It's been a good week for Booster Gold fans. We learned on Wednesday that the true identity of Mr. Oz isn't Booster but Kal-El's father, Jor-El . (*Whew!*) And now news that our hero will be returning from obscurity to team up with Superman in a story by Dan Jurgens? Whoo-hoo!

Thanks for this early Christmas present, DC. Extra thanks to all who called this news to my attention.

You can read the original solicitation details on Newsarama.com.

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Last week, Kevin Maguire unveiled the full wraparound cover for the upcoming hardcover Justice League International Omnibus cover on Twitter. It's a doozy!

You can click the pic above to go to Twitter for a bigger pic, but I've cropped the best bit for you here:

When it was originally solicited waaaay back in March as the Justice League by Giffen and DeMatteis Omnibus, it looked like this collection would reuse Maguire's famous "crowded elevator" cover from Justice League #1. I'm glad they changed it. While the cover to JL #1 was great, it wasn't golden!

The omnibus will collect most of the first four years of the Justice League International era, including many classic Blue and Gold hijinks. You'll find it in your Local Comic Shop on October 17.

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DC Comics released solicitations for November 2017 earlier this week. If you don't already have it in digital or floppy form, you'll soon have a third chance to see Booster's final, one-panel cameo appearance in Smallville continuity courtesy of the aptly-titled Smallville Season Eleven Volume 9: Continuity. That looks like about our only chance to see our hero in November. My question is "Why?"

Let's look at the bigger picture. Based on available numbers assembled by ComcisBeat.com and ComicChron.com, DC Universe titles have seen hard copy periodical sales fall by more than 21% over the past decade (and more than 42% since Rebirth's initial bump). Trade collections prop those numbers up slightly (adding 2% in either case), but not nearly enough to cover the full difference. Do digital sales make up that shortfall, or it simply a case that fewer people care to read DCnU titles these days? I certainly don't, and the primary reason is the continued absence of one particular character. (Hint, hint.)

DC doesn't exactly look to be taking that bad news lying down. Looking at solicitations, you'll see several new DCnU comics coming in November featuring lesser-known heroes. Black Lightning shines again in Black Lightning: Cold Dead Hands. The Demon is back in The Demon:Hell on Earth. Zatanna reappears in Mystik U. Even Batman's latest (and most lazily-named) protege, The Signal, is getting some love with Batman and the Signal.

While it is a good idea to inject new characters into the publishing line up, all of those are mini-series. You'd almost think DC was afraid of commitment. (Why wouldn't they be? Even death is impermanent in the DCU.) However, the company seems equally unwilling to drop the hammer on underperforming ongoing titles to make room for new ones.

In June (the most recent month for which numbers are available) the company had 3 ongoing titles that undersold the lowest selling issue of Booster Gold volume 2 (Booster Gold #43 in 2011). New Superman and Blue Beetle had June issues very near DC's pre-Flashpoint cancellation threshold. The worst performing of the three, Cyborg, is doing worse than its pre-Rebirth numbers, and it was trending below the old threshold then! Judging by November solicitations, all of these will continue into November with no cancellation, taking up valuable opportunities for titles with a chance to spark interest in new readers.

I don't mean to suggest that returning Booster Gold to action would reverse any of those negative sales trends for the company, but I do suggest it couldn't hurt. At worst, Booster Gold can outsell Cyborg! I can name at least one reader who would be picking up more DCnU books if Booster Gold was around.

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DC has released solicitations for books shipping in October. None of them give any hint that we'll be seeing DC's brightest star anytime soon.

But all hope is not lost! This weekend is Comic Con International in San Diego. DC has to be holding something back to tease their fans, right? I'm not saying that Booster Gold will be front and center, but maybe DC will demonstrate that he's not entirely forgotten, either.

Speaking of "front and center," I started the week with a plea that Superman antagonist Mr. Oz not be revealed as Booster Gold in the upcoming "The Oz Effect" story in Action Comics. Many of you had something to say about that. Let's run a quick poll and see what the group consensus is.

This week's poll question: Will Booster Gold play any role in the unveiling of Mr. Oz? Please visit the Boosterrific Polls page to view results for this week's poll.

Enjoy your weekend, Booster boosters!

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Pop culture website 13thdimension.com posted an "exclusive first look" at upcoming issues of Action Comics this weekend. Running throughout the title in September and October will be a five-part story by Dan Jurgens called "The Oz Effect," in which we will finally discover the true identity of Mr. Oz.

Reading the advance solicitations included in the article, all I could think was "please don't let Mr. Oz be Booster Gold."

The popular theory is that the mysterious Mr. Oz, introduced three years ago (!) in Superman #32, is Ozymandias from Watchmen. Personally, I think that seems a little too "on the nose" to make a very satisfying reveal after all this time. And even if the fans were right and it was supposed to be Ozymandias, I would expect DC to change Mr. Oz's secret identity mid-story to maintain the surprise. (Anyone out there still remember the last minute Captain Atom/Hawk swap in Armageddon 2001?)

Many of the things Mr. Oz has done and said over the past three years indicates a fixation on Superman. Therefore, I assume that Mr. Oz is someone aware of Superman's past in Smallville, Kansas. (I think Mr. Oz takes his name from the original manipulative "man behind the curtain," the Wizard of Oz, who also has ties to Kansas.) While those clues might point to familiar Superman foes like Conduit or Ruin, I begin to worry that it might be a time traveler with historical ties to the Man of Steel.

Which is fine, just so long as it's not Booster Gold.

I mean, if Mr. Oz is revealed to be a nearly omnipotent time traveler seeking to unify a fractured universe (post-"Crisis", "Flashpoint", "New 52", "Rebirth", "Watchmen," etc.), it would certainly explain why fan-favorite Booster Gold has been M.I.A. since Convergence. And we can't deny that Booster has beef with Superman that goes way back. And Dan Jurgens does like to recycle his favorite characters . . . .

As I said, I don't want this to be the case. I don't want Booster to be a "villain." (And I certainly don't want to have to add all 30+ appearances of Mr. Oz to the Boosterrific database after the fact.) But it could be worse. After three years of waiting to find out who Mr. Oz really is, it might turn out that he's the Black Beetle.

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