When DC rebooted its entire universe, part of the point was to make everyone younger. Outside of Batman — really, the less said about the mess that is his continuity now, the better (hello, Hawkman!) — most other heroes were stripped of their sidekicks and history.

That's part of what makes the new Superman: Lois and Clark series so unusual. The Superman of the previous DCU has returned with his wife — and son! There have only been two issues so far, but it's really pretty good.

Of course, the series writer is Dan Jurgens, who has an extensive history with both Superman and family dynamics. Jurgens spent the last few years of the last DCU giving us the adventures of Booster Gold and his son, Rip Hunter.

Naturally, once Booster discovers that his frienemy Superman has a kid of his own, Booster will turn child-raising into a competition. Superman might be morally perfect, but that's a hard example for anyone to follow. Comparatively, Booster has made plenty of mistakes, and therefore has lots of experience to draw from when coaching his own son. Who do you think will do a better job?

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Today's featured comic book has nothing to do with Booster Gold directly. Booster does not appear appear in 1996's Superman: The Wedding Album", so it's unlikely that he appears in today's re-titled reprint, DC Presents Lois & Clark 100-Page Spectacular.

Still, I would hope that Booster Gold fans would support this issue. Not only was Dan Jurgens a big contributor, but support for this and Jurgens' Superman: Lois and Clark series indicate that there is still an audience for the continuity abandoned by Flashpoint.

If we ever want to see a continuation/conclusion of the stories in Booster Gold volume 2 — Who is the Black Beetle? Who is Rip Hunter's mother? Whatever happened to Ranni? — we need to show DC that we still care.

And, hey, if nothing else, it'll be a nice change of pace to read a comic about a likable Superman again.

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Found by Morgenstern on Youtube: New World Comics presents the Death and Resurrection of Superman. Booster Gold shows up at about the 1:36 mark because you can't call it Doomsday without Booster Gold.

I love it. Who needs big budgets when you've got such great story and characters? ("You better get out of here before I mess up the me part of your face.")

Thanks to Morgenstern for passing it along. Bigger thanks to all involved at New World Comics for making it happen in the first place.

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One hero stands above all others as the metric by which heroism should be judged. Obviously I'm talking about...

No matter what generation you're from, Superman is the paragon of all that is altruistic and moral in the DC Universe. He was raised with a strong code of ethics and strives to use his tremendous power to make the world a better place. He never cheats, yet he always wins. It takes a Man of Steel to live up to his ideals.

It's only natural that a more flawed, human hero, Booster Gold, looks worse standing in Superman's shadow. Booster is jealous of Superman's power and fame, but he also resents the fact that he can't meet the standard that Superman's sets. Comparisons between the two heroes provide a lot of drama throughout Booster Gold Volume 1.

The late 1980s were largely defined by the deconstruction of super-hero mythos. (Alan Moore's Swamp Thing and Grant Morrison's Animal Man were contemporaries of the original Booster Gold.) In hindsight, it's natural to ask whether Dan Jurgens was, like his fellow writers at DC Comics, intentionally using anti-hero Booster Gold to tear down what made Superman tick in order to investigate what it meant to be a super man in the DC Universe?

I was aware of it but I don't think I would, at that time, have phrased it that way.

I simply wanted to do something different. Superman was the pinnacle-- the absolute king of heroes. Booster could never aspire to that so he had to take a very different approach. He never wanted to be iconic-- at least not in the way Superman was. He wanted notoriety, but knew he could never have that level of unquestioning trust from the public that Superman enjoyed.

In general, I think handled Superman fairly well. I did, however, write him a little more staid so Booster's differences would stand out.

When Jurgens would get his chance to write for the Man of Tomorrow, he turned in some of the best Superman stories of all time. So I think we can forgive him if his early Superman appearances seem a little stiff.

Thanks to Dan Jurgens for, well, everything.

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Every Friday for the past ten years, Brian Cronin has run a regular "Comic Book Legends Revealed" post that clarifies some common misconceptions about comic book history. This past Friday, Booster Gold got a turn. Specifically, Superman's appearance in Booster Gold #6.

COMIC LEGEND: The first comic book appearance of the Post-Crisis Superman was in the pages of Booster Gold!

STATUS: I'm Going With True

[I]n the pages of Booster Gold #6 (by Dan Jurgens and Mike DeCarlo), Booster met Superman for the first time. ... Superman doesn't recognize the Legion of Superheroes flight ring, because THAT's the Post-Crisis Superman!

They essentially confirm it in the letter pages of Booster Gold #10, when people wrote in asking why Superman didn't recognize the ring.

Cronin included many great pictures with his article, but not the letter in reference. So here it is:

Read Cronin's whole analysis and reasoning (with many, many pictures) at comicbookresources.com.

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