The life of any comic book hero would be a lonely one if not for the many characters who have made up their supporting cast. Just as Superman has Lois Lane and Batman has Alfred, Booster Gold has also shared his adventures with quite a few people over the years. Today we look at one of those, Daniel Carter.

After a gruesome injury ruined his promising football career, Daniel Carter had became stuck in an unfulfilling job as Evergreen Insurance Company's fifth-best term-life salesman. He dreamed of being a super hero and reclaiming his lost glory. Perhaps it was that dream — or maybe it was fate — that lured him to Booster Gold's sparsely attended funeral in 52 #18.

Daniel was completely unaware that Michael Jon "Booster Gold" Carter was his descendant until Skeets told him the truth. Unfortunately for Daniel, that was the only truth Skeets told him (52 #19).

Skeets wasn't Skeets at all, but the villainous Mr. Mind in disguise. Fortunately for Daniel, Rip Hunter was already aware of Mr. Mind's schemes. Hunter enlisted Daniel to become the second Carter to don the mask of Supernova, world-famous super hero. Together with faked-his-own-death Booster Gold, Daniel defeated Mr. Mind and saved the multiverse (52 #52). Daniel Carter's dreams had come true!

Afterwards, Booster and Daniel became roommates (Booster Gold Volume 2, #1). Though Daniel meant well, he was also rather stupid. He was often left behind while Booster was out adventuring. This made it easy for Booster's ne'er-do-well father to steal the Supernova costume and use it for evil (Booster Gold Volume 2, #2). It would also present the opportunity for Daniel to meet his future wife, reporter Rose Levin, when she came snooping into Booster Gold's personal life (Booster Gold, Volume 2, #3).

Rip Hunter would eventually recover the Supernova costume, and Daniel would continue to play the role of hero for Rose. He traveled through time to find his wife the perfect gift — and only accidentally gave longtime Justice League foe Starro the Conqueror the ability to conquer all history (Booster Gold, Volume 2, #13). He would redeem himself by protecting Rose from a maurading Black Lantern Blue Beetle in Booster Gold, Volume 2, #27.

Supernova hasn't been seen since Flashpoint, but so long as Booster Gold is still around, Daniel and Rose have to be out there somewhere.

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What does it take to make a villain a hero's arch-enemy? If it's familiarity, then the villains vying for Booster Gold's most-hated award must be one of these:

Royal Flush Gang and Jonar Jon Carter (aka Supernova III): These long-time foes are tied with 7 encounters each.

The Director (The 1000): The Director was certainly the most dominant of Booster's early villains, racking up 8 encounters before his untimely demise.

Black Beetle: The villain with the most central role in Booster Gold's second volume, Black Beetle crossed paths with our hero 12 times with hints of more to come. Unfortunately, his story will probably remain forever untold thanks to Flashpoint and the arrival of the New 52.

Mr. Mind: Mister Mind has a surprisingly high count of 19 encounters with Booster Gold, a statistic increased both by his tendency to masquerade undetected as Booster's allies and his role in the weekly 52 title.

Maxwell Lord IV: Few characters have such frequently recurring roles in Booster's adventures as Max Lord, who has amassed a total of 65 encounters with our hero to date. Sure, most of those appearances were in supporting roles for the Justice League International (and all of those appearances take place outside modern Rebirth DCnU continuity), but nothing makes for a better antagonist than a former friend and mentor gone bad.

Now that you've seen the numbers, what do you say? Which villain deserves the title of Booster Gold's arch-nemesis?

This week's poll question: Which villain do you consider to be Booster Gold's arch-enemy? Please visit the Boosterrific Polls page to view results for this week's poll.

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Now that the holidays are past us, I finally had time to update the Boosterrific database to include those pesky Convergence collections. More importantly, I also included a Booster Gold appearance I had missed in 2007:

That panel is from Action Comics #848 (and was reprinted in Superman: Redemption).

Booster booster Logan spotted it over the holidays and let me know that it wasn't indexed here. So everyone thank Logan for making Boosterrific.com better than ever heading into 2016!

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A central mystery in the middle act of 52 was the true identity of Supernova. Was it Superman? Superboy? Someone new?

Of course, Booster Gold fans were never at a loss, and neither was Ralph Dibny, better known as the world-famous Elongated Man!

Dibny was the first (and only!) to deduce Supernova's identity in 52 Week 31. Out-thinking a man with access to all of time and space was one of the last achievements in Dibny's celebrated career and also one of his finest.

So long, Ralph.

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