First things first: my apologies that the Boosterrific Forum was down all weekend. It wasn't supposed to be. I took it down for testing late last week, and then my internet went out most of the weekend.

This disruption in service probably didn't bother many of you, but I'm sure that someone tried to drop by and let us know that DC has announced that Booster Gold will be making a feature appearance in May's Smallville Season 11 #13.

SMALLVILLE SEASON 13
Written by BRYAN Q. MILLER
Art by DANIEL HDR
Cover by PETE WOODS
On sale May 8 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T • DIGITAL FIRST
• An all-new episode begins with "Argo" part 1 of 3! Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes try to stop war between Earth and a shocking enemy! Plus, a glitch in Booster Gold's Legion flight ring propels the "Gold Standard," his trusty robot Skeets and The Man of Steel into the 31st century.

That was some good news I'm sure that we all would have liked to seen last week, yes? (This solicitation was originally posted on IGN.com. As per DC's recent trend of teasing solicitations across the web before releasing them on their own website, you can expect to find this solicitation on DCcomics.com/blog later this week.)

Smallville is one of DC's "digital first" titles, meaning that we probably don't have to wait until May 8 to see Booster return to action in the Smallville (television) Universe. The books are released in three parts over the course of three weeks at 99¢ each before being collected in a print version. Therefore we can expect to start reading this story online on April 12, if we're impatient for more Booster Gold. I know I am.

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Fifty-two titles to chose from, and one stands out significantly above the rest as our expected source for Booster Gold's return. Is it any surprise it's the title written by Geoff Johns? (For the record, 37 books received one or fewer votes. Only the top ten are shown in the graph below.)

Last week's poll question: Which April DC title will see the return of Booster Gold? (Choose up to 3 titles.) (117 votes)

Remember R.B. Silva's Instagram.com sketch that has been widely interpreted as a sign of an upcoming Justice League International comic? Now that we know that Booster will be reappearing in April, has that changed your thinking about what Silva's sketches represent?

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Last week, there was some debate about whether the character teased in DC Comics Presents #19 was going to be Booster Gold. The case against it looked pretty clear, as the results of the poll suggest.

Last week's poll question: Will the time-displaced hero in DC PRESENTS #19 be Booster Gold? (43 votes)

But yesterday, Buzzfeed.com released a list of teases about DC's April solicitations. First and foremost was news about our hero.

• Booster Gold reappears while an entire team disappears

Whoo-hoo! Now we need to know where. Could we have been wrong about DC Comics Presents? Over at ComicBook.com, Russ Burlingame suggests Justice League Dark or Stormwatch. Months back, we were told that we'd see Booster in Justice League of America, although we could certainly see him first in Justice League. Is that Booster's force field on the cover of Vibe? Might the disappearing team referenced in the tease be Suicide Squad, who all look dead on their cover?

So many options! We need more clues! Where's Rip Hunter's chalkboard when you need it?

Where do you think we should start looking? How about I give you the option of voting for up to 3 titles that DC solicited for April, and we'll narrow down the search from those that get votes.

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I rarely do this, but I've received so many notices about it, I think I can avoid it no longer. For the record: no, it does not look like Booster Gold will be the mystery guest solicited for the final issue of DC Presents.

DC UNIVERSE PRESENTS #19
Written by TONY BEDARD
Art by JESUS SAIZ
Fold-out cover by JESUS MERINO
On sale APRIL 17 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T • FINAL ISSUE
• In this final issue, what time displaced-hero has arrived on our world—and is the destruction he brings the herald to a great disaster?

That tease was from the April Soliciatations released last week, and it has caused many of you to speculate that the "time-displaced hero" is Booster Gold. Russ Burlingame ran an article about it at ComicBook.com, and we discussed it in the Boosterrific Forum. We all came to the same conclusion: it's probably not Booster Gold.

The sword seen on the revealed half of the gatefold cover looks notably like the sword carried by Beowulf in a back-up feature in Sword of Sorcery. DC Presents #19 is written by Tony Bedard, who also writes Beowulf's story in Sword of Sorcery. Combine those two facts and it sure looks like that "time-displaced hero" will be Beowulf. Not Booster Gold.

The only way to find out for sure will be to check out DC Presents #9 when it is released April 17, 2013, but Booster Gold fans probably shouldn't be getting their hopes up.

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Today marks the 72nd week since DC debuted the New 52, and it has less redeemable value than ever.

I've tried to make myself like it, really I have. When that failed, I tried hard to tolerate its presence. But there's simply no denying that there's simply nothing in the New 52 for me, as proven again by this week's April solicitations.

There isn't any sign that Booster Gold will be seen anywhere before May at the earliest. That'll be 8 months and counting between Booster appearances, which will be a record for the longest drought between appearances in the nearly three decade history of the character.

DC claims to be "moving forward" with the New 52, but charging $8 for Detective Comics #19 because it would have been a milestone issue if it hadn't been renumbered in 2011 seems to seriously belie that point. I'm sorry, DC, but you can't price gouge for the sake of nostalgia and call it the future and expect anyone to celebrate.

Conventional wisdom says that it takes a month of changed behavior to break a habit. If there is any truth in that, I guess Booster Gold fans are done with buying comic books. Thanks for nothing, DC!

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