It's a big month at Boosterrific.com for Doomsday fans! (Or fans of Dead Superman. Either way.)

We all know that Booster Gold was on multiple covers of Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special #1 a few weeks back. (And, as it happens, he'll be on the cover of a few more when the second printings arrive after Christmas.)

Whether or not the 30th Anniversary Special was the inspiration, Booster booster J got to reading other Doomsday stories and discovered the following Booster appearance was missing from the Boosterrific.com database:

That's from Superman's nightmare sequence at the beginning of Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey #1. I'm sure I've seen that before, but somehow I failed to track it. Oops. (I wonder if I decided once upon a time that it didn't count because it's not really Booster Gold? Oh, well. Whatever. Never mind.) Fixed now.

And, as it happens, that's not the only Doomsday-related Booster appearance that's been added to the database this week. The cover to Justice League America #69 showed up in this week's Superman: Kal-El Returns Special #1:

Superman and Doomsday (and Booster Gold) together forever!

Thanks to J for setting me straight.

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Let's turn back the clock a little to last week's The Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special, which turns back the clock a lot.

The book, if you didn't know, is an opportunity for the creators involved in that seminal event to tell additional stories related to it. Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding give us the moment Jon Kent learns his dad once died (with a Booster flashback!). Jerry Ordway and Tom Grummet show us what the elder Kents were thinking while the fight went down. Roger Stern and Jackson "Butch" Guice revisit the events of the day from the Guardian's POV (with a Booster flashback!). And Louise Simonson and Jon Bogdanove return John Henry Irons to the day Superman died.

As you might expect, most of those creators are very loyal to the story as it was originally told in 1992, which is what made this panel in the Simonson/Bogdanove story stand out for me:

As you can see, in addition to being a re-creation of panels from Adventures of Superman #500, it gives the credit for naming Doomsday to... Lois Lane?!

While most sources in the DCU recognize Superman for popularizing the name, every Booster booster knows the real naming honor rightfully belongs to Booster Gold (as recorded in Justice League America #69)!

Even Booster will admit that his casual aside to Superman wasn't loud enough for everyone in the world to hear, so how *did* the name "Doomsday" reach the general public? I assure you, Lois Lane didn't have anything to do with it (but to be fair to the Man of Tomorrow, Superman himself very much did).

Justice League America #69 leads directly into Superman #74, where Superman calls the monster "Doomsday" directly to its still-masked face.

By the start of the next chapter in the story, Adventures of Superman #497, everyone present for that momentous meeting is also calling the monster "Doomsday," including young civilian Mitch Anderson. A badly beaten Guy Gardner soon uses the name in front of emergency first responders, who are instructed to get in touch with Maxwell Lord. Two pages later, Superman yells the name in front of the Kirby County Chief of Police, who immediately informs his state governor.

Whether it's Mitch, the doctors, Maxwell Lord, the police, or the politicians, someone promptly reveals to the media that "Doomsday" has come, as we find out when Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane travels to the Galaxy Communications Building in Metropolis on page 16 of that issue:

The reporter who breaks the news to the general public is not newspaper reporter Lois Lane but WGBS-TV sportscaster-turned-anchor Steve Lombard!

The name stuck. By Superman: The Man of Steel #19, Lex Luthor is using it in television interviews, and Metropolis bystanders use it when calling for help. So it comes as no great surprise that John Henry Irons knew the name before the monster set off a gas main explosion that dropped a building on him (occurring off panel in Superman: The Man of Steel #19 as later revealed in Superman: The Man of Steel #22).

And it makes sense that it would be the first word out of John Henry's mouth when we first meet him — after Superman's funeral! — in Adventures of Superman #500:

I'm willing to cut John Henry some slack here. I mean, he did just have a building dropped on his head, so it's understandable that he's a little confused. But Lois Lane didn't name Doomsday.

Nope. That credit belongs to someone else.

Superman: Day of Doom #1, 2002

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When you visit your Local Comic Shop this week, you'll see a lot of Booster Gold!

Not only is Booster inside Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths #6 (as visible in the preview at AIPTComics.com), he's also on the cover:

As is increasingly the case at DC, there are several covers to this issue. Officially, that one is being called the "Cvr A Daniel Sampere & Alejandro Sanchez" Cover. You may have seen it recently in the DC house ad promoting this month's Dark Crisis tie-in issues.

Speaking of multiple covers, Booster is also appearing on several covers of Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special #1:

Officially the "Cvr A Dan Jurgens & Brett Breeding Gatefold Cover"

Officially the "Cvr C Ivan Reis & Danny Miki Funeral for a Friend Variant"

You may have seen the wraparound cover in recent DC Nation columns promoting this month's "90's Rewind" tie-in issues. It's so nice, it's also being reused on the Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special #1 "Cvr F Memorial Dan Jurgens & Brett Breeding Bleeding Bag Premium Polybag Variant"!

How many of these comics are you going to buy to make Skeets happy?

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This series is about choosing my favorite full page, not the page with my favorite panels. For that reason, I am not showcasing Benny hitting on Trixie Collins from page 6, or Jack Soo's fat check from page 7, or the cover of Blaze Comics' "Blazing First Issue" from page 11.

Those are all great pages in Booster Gold volume 1, number 7. But the true star is page 21:

Every single panel on this page is delightful. Panel 1: Lois recognizing Booster's brand attributes. Panel 2: Booster charms his fans. Panel 3: Lois implying Superman is boring. Panel 4: Superman being pissed. Panel 5: Booster hitting on Lois Lane. Panel 4: Skeets stating the obvious! Each a mini-masterpiece!

So many great character moments. Honestly, I almost forget that the bulk of the issue is Booster and Superman throwing down on an alien planet.

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Last week's favorite page was hard to choose, but my favorite page from Booster Gold volume 1, number 6 is no contest!

For five issues, this series has been comparing and contrasting neophyte hero Booster Gold with the true benchmark of heroism in the DC universe, Superman. So when the two characters finally come face-to-face for the first time, the reader should expect to be awed.

This page delivers on that promise.

Only the Man of Steel could steal the spotlight from Booster Gold's origin story.

(This page also gets bonus cool points for being the first appearance of Superman in the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Universe, drawn and written by Dan Jurgens years before Jurgens would become "the" Superman writer/artist.)

Is it any wonder that this book is on my list of the twelve best Booster Gold comics?

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