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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Superman is to Brainiac as Booster Gold is to whom? If it's true that you can define a man by the quality of his enemies, Booster Gold must be a pretty great guy. He simply doesn't have that many enemies.

Royal Flush Gang, Black Beetle, mid-life crises — it's hard to believe that Booster Gold's stable of foes is so limited after 30 years of fighting crime. I asked character creator Dan Jurgens why none of Booster's early foes like Blackguard, Mindancer, Chiller, or Mister Twister ever returned to bedevil Booster Gold.

I think that has more to do with his book coming to an end than anything.

Look, villains rarely catch on the first time they appear. It often takes 3-plus appearances before they actually become a real part of a hero's rogues gallery. I think a couple of them had some potential. A couple others are obviously weak.

Had volume 1 run, say, 100 issues, they would have appeared again and been developed.

I believe Jurgens. In addition to Booster, Jurgens can lay claim to creating Cyborg Superman and Doomsday. The man knows a thing or two about creating memorable villains. He just needs a chance to attach one to Booster Gold.

Thank you, Dan Jurgens, for filling in the gaps in the history of Booster Gold.

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The one thing all great heroes have in common is a robust Rogues' Gallery. Unfortunately for Booster Gold, he's too efficient. He rarely fights anyone more than once.

Among the few heroes to make a repeat appearance in the pages of Booster Gold is Broderick, the 25th-century cop who pursued wanted felon Michael "Booster" Carter back in time. Broderick had Booster Gold cornered in Booster Gold #18 before being distracted by a chance encounter with a liquor store robbery.

That was the last we saw of Broderick, but more than one fan has assumed that writer Dan Jurgens had intended for the character to play a bigger role in the series. Is there any truth to that conjecture? I decided to ask Jurgens directly.

Oh, Broderick was absolutely going to resurface. Had a very particular way it was going to work where, in true time traveler fashion, he'd pop up out of nowhere in the most unlikely of places.

In a way, he was the precursor to the first Linear Man story I did in Adventures of Superman.

The Linear Man first appeared in Adventures of Superman #476 as a time agent trying to bring Booster Gold to justice. Hmm, yeah, I guess I can see the similiarity there. Fascinating.

A hearty thanks to Dan Jurgens for his cooperation in exploring the rich history of his creation, Booster Gold.

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We first learned that Booster Gold had a twin sister in Booster Gold #6. It would be nearly a year before we actually met her in Booster Gold #15.

Michelle Carter would eventually join Booster and travel to the 1980s where she would assume the identity of the hero Goldstar. Yet despite appearing off and on in Booster Gold stories for 29 years, we still know very little about her.

Did she go to college or play a sport? What was her job in the 25th century? The few clues we have to her past was that the first time we saw her, she was driving a stolen school bus. Would I be reading too much into it to assume that she had once been a bus driver?

I put the question to her creator, Dan Jurgens.

Yeah, you would. That, in many ways, was Michelle's starting point. Eventually, I wanted to Goldstar to become much more her own character. I remember doing a sketch-- which I can't find anywhere-- of her wearing a cloak and hood, white, of course-- and becoming much more enigmatic. Much more the opposite of the more wide open Booster.

There has been a big push lately to develop more female-friendly comic book titles. Maybe it's time for DC to put Goldstar front and center so we can finally see what makes her tick.

Everyone say thank you to Dan Jurgens for answering questions about my far-fetched speculation about his characters.

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Behind every great man there is a great woman. In Booster Gold's case, that woman was Trixie Collins.

Theresa "Trixie" Collins was a red-headed Kansas girl hired to be Booster's original secretary at Goldstar, Inc. She would later move up in the organization to be the first to wear the Goldstar sidekick costume. Like all good Girl Fridays, she was an incredibly competent, level-headed voice of reason in an otherwise insane work environment. And she was far too professional to fall for her boss.

It seemed there were sparks between the two, but the coming of Millennium seemed to destroy any hope readers had of seeing their relationship come to fruition. I've always wondered if Dan Jurgens felt love was in the cards for his creations. So I asked him.

In the beginning, I saw Booster as having two voices that would serve as his conscience. Skeets was one, serving as more of his guide through aspects of the era they were in and against villains. Trixie would function more as his conscience in terms of how he dealt with people. There was plenty of room for both.

And while I never intended that there would ever be a romantic relationship, I did see a place for deep, friendly affection between them.

No matter what Jurgens intended, I have to believe that Booster would have charmed his way out the friend zone if he hadn't been forced to leave Metropolis on such short notice. But long-distance relationships rarely work out.

My eternal thanks to Dan Jurgens for stocking Booster's world with so many wonderful characters. (Happy Birthday, Dan!)

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