"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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"Panic in the Sky" was a storyline running though two month's worth of Superman comics in the spring of 1992. When Brainiac arrived to threaten Metropolis, Superman put together a team of heroes (and a few villains) to stop him.

Booster Gold was one member chosen for this team, and he plays some part in Superman #65, The Adventures of Superman #488, Action Comics #675, Superman: The Man of Steel #10, Superman #66, and The Adventures of Superman #489).

However, because there were so many heroes (and villains), very few got the chance at much of a spotlight, including our hero.

Therefore, rather than pick one favorite page from each of those comics, I'm going to give you just my favorite page for the entire "Panic in the Sky" storyline: page 5 of The Adventures of Superman #488.

Brainiac's skull ship is no match for this super-power collection!

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On this date in 2020, in the pages of Superman: Heroes #1, Booster Gold was among the first to tell the world that Superman had always secretly been...

Everyone in the DCU would know that Superman was Clark Kent for almost two full years... until Lex Luthor and Manchester Black forced most to forget that fact in Action Comics #1050. In that issue, Batman makes it clear that "the Justice League, reservists, and the Titans all have psychic defenses set up by Martian Manhunter," so we can be sure that Booster Gold still remembers.

The real question is how he knew something that everyone would forget.

The answer to that, I think, is that the psychic suggestion that forced this forgetfulness influences living minds to ignore any evidence to the contrary that Superman and Clark Kent are the same person, but it does not actually erase that evidence. Considering how widespread the psychic suggestion is, it is probable everyone just stopped talking about it.

Therefore, the historians of the 25th century, unaffected directly by the psychic effect, will learn from primary sources exactly when Superman revealed his identity, and a young Michael "Booster" Carter will be taught exactly when Superman revealed his secret identity without realizing that the information was ever again restricted.

See? No retcon is necessary. There's nothing to see here. Move along.

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Remember that time Superman killed Booster Gold?

Ask yourself: is Superman mad that he murdered Booster or that Booster called him a m-monsterrr?

Sheesh, 1991 was a rough year for Superman. First Armageddon 2001 suggests he's going to be a murdering tyrant in the future, then Adventures of Superman #479 makes him a murdering tyrant in the present.

Don't worry too much about Booster's death there. He doesn't really die. Or, more accurately, that's not really Booster Gold. It's not even really Superman. Red Kryptonite does some strange things to Kryptonians.

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The Armageddon 2001 storyline ran through the DC annuals in 1991 as Waverider took peeks into potential futures for the heroes of the DCU in search of the one who would become the evil dictator Monarch.

It was Superman's turn in Superman Annual #3, where an increasingly tyrannical Man of Tomorrow is opposed by the freedom-loving Justice League International (with predictable results).

I also really like pages 38 and 44, but neither of those pages manages to work in quite so much delicious cheesecake.

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