While I would have expected the announcement of Booster Gold's return to Action Comics to be the most read post of 2017, it wasn't. (That post came fourth, by the way. By 7 hits.)

Instead, the honor belongs to our "celebration" of the most important comic event occurring exactly 25 years ago October 20: the beating of Booster Gold by Doomsday!

panels from Superman #74, released October 20, 1992. Story and art by Dan Jurgens

Booster boosters will recall that it was Booster Gold who named Doomsday. Judging by how he treated our hero in return, it seems Doomsday didn't much care for it. Perhaps he would have preferred "Brother Love."

Thanks for visiting Boosterrific.com in 2017. Let's make 2018 even better.

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Last Wednesday, CBR.com ran Jeffrey Renaud's interview with Dan Jurgens about the Booster Gold appearance in Superman's Action Comics #993. The interview included the following tidbit from Jurgens:

It's kind of weird in a way, because if you go all the way back to Booster Gold, Volume One, Superman was a part of Booster's origin story. Right about then, John Byrne came to DC to reboot Superman, and we had to do some surgery to the book so it fit what John was doing.

I still have the unused pages from the book, which are still waiting for the Booster Gold hardcover so they can see print. No. That is not a hint. Uh-uh. Not at all. Nope.

Superman was supposed to be in Booster Gold #1?!

I probably shouldn't be too surprised. For those of you who don't know, Booster's origins, as originally conceived, were tied to the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Silver/Bronze Age Superman mythos. Booster was supposed to have stolen his equipment from the Superman Museum (not the Space Museum). His force field belt would have belonged to the original Braniac, his costume would have been made from Lex Luthor's power armor, and his Legion Flight Ring would have been Superboy's. That would certainly have given an extra edge to the Booster Gold/Superman rivalry.

I have to wonder, did any of that make it into the script or pencils of Booster Gold #1 before Byrne's post-Crisis plans to streamline Superman continuity? Even if Superman only made a cameo appearance in the book, it still would have been his first post-Crisis appearance as well as the first time Jurgens drew Superman. What a treat!

Hey, DC! Give us that book already!

(Thanks to Damian Damex for ensuring I saw this particular bit of news.)

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DC is being generous to Booster Gold fans in 2018. The company released February solicitation earlier this week, and it looks like the "Booster Shot" story teaming Superman and Booster Gold in Action Comics will be running for at least three more months. Via Newsarama.com):

ACTION COMICS #997
Written by DAN JURGENS
Art by WILL CONRAD
Cover by BRETT BOOTH and NORM RAPMUND
Variant cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
"BOOSTER SHOT" part five! Superman and Booster Gold are stranded in time on a world ruled by not one but two Generals Zod! As Lor-Zod asserts himself as rightful heir to the military dictatorship of their adopted homeworld, Old Man Zod turns his attention to the interlopers from the past. Our heroes' only hope of survival is to repair their craft and get home—but to do that, they'll need to travel into the belly of beast!
On sale FEBRUARY 14 • $2.99 US

ACTION COMICS #998
Written by DAN JURGENS
Art by BRETT BOOTH and NORM RAPMUND
Cover by WILL CONRAD
Variant cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
"BOOSTER SHOT" part six! Escape from Planet Zod! Superman and Booster Gold must escape to travel back to the present, where the life of the captured Sam Lane hangs in the balance! On sale FEBRUARY 28 • $2.99 US

(Point of grammar: "Zod" is his name, not his title. Therefore, if there are multiple Zods, they should be pluralized as such. Unless maybe they follow different rules of grammar on Krypton. Dictators do whatever they want to.)

I admit, six issues of "Booster Shot" is much more than I thought we would get, especially in the run up to the big Action Comics #1000. Russ Burlingame recently interviewed Dan Jurgens for ComicBook.com, and he got the story why Booster is getting such a spotlight:

"[Geoff Johns and I] had plotted out the end of the Oz storyline and wanted to do a couple of things after that," at the start of the Rebirth era, Jurgens told ComicBook.com. "One of which was 'The Oz Effect.' It's pretty heavy stuff. We wanted to lighten it up a bit and at the same time have it be a logical progression from Oz to this. So, bringing Booster into it was going to accomplish both goals and so far it's working out quite well."

"Booster Shot" sure sounds like a story everyone should be reading. And it's starting early.

Today's issue of Action Comics #992, though not technically part of the "Booster Shot" storyline, concludes with a tease of the Booster Gold story to come. So take note, Booster boosters. If you want in on the ground floor of "Booster Shot," hustle to your Local Comic Shop before indulging in tomorrow's turkey feast!

(Thanks to SuperPat for that tip.)

Enjoy your Thanksgiving, everybody.

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Last Monday, I guessed that Francis Manapul was teasing his cover for the upcoming Action Comics issues featuring Booster Gold. This weekend, he proved me right.

Said Manapul on Instagram: "I'm taking over the variant cover art duties for #ActionComics and I couldn't be more excited! Here's the first cover of my run, #Superman along with time travelling #BoosterGold"

Presumably, that's the alternate cover for Action Comics #993, due December 13. DC has already released an image by Dan Jurgens presumed to be the standard cover. Neil Edwards and Jay Leistin were originally announced as the variant cover artists; I assume at this point that was an error.

(A quick note for new collectors about DC's "variant" covers. Traditionally, "variant" covers have been used as retailer incentives: "for every 2 of cover A, you can purchase 1 cover B," etc. This led to cover B being more expensive than cover A because retailers passed along the cost of acquisition. However, these days DC offers each issue in two covers to be ordered independently by retailers. Since the two covers exist in equal numbers, it's entirely arbitrary which is the "variant" as in practice they are both "regular" covers. So buy the one you like, or both, as neither inherently has more value or is rarer than the other.)

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We learned at New York Comic Con that DC had big plans for the landmark one thousandth issue of Action Comics due in spring 2018.

To celebrate the event, DC will release a hardback collection of past stories plus "all 1000 ACTION covers collected in a new poster." That poster will include Booster Gold, who was featured prominently on John Byrne's cover for Action Comics #594.

So we knew Booster Gold would appear in the celebratory hardcover, but what about appearing in Action Comics #1000 itself? We now know the answer is yes. Kind of.

Bleeding Cool reported yesterday that the hardcover will be titled Action Comics #1000: 80 Years of Superman, meaning that the $6 "oversized edition" comic and the $30 companion hardcover book will both be Action Comics #1000!

That might be confusing for fans, but it's good news for those of us looking for Booster to crash Superman's party. We can now definitively say that our hero will be in Action Comics #1000! Just be sure you pick up the right one when they hit your Local Comic Shop early next year.

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