Now that the final chapter of Heroes in Crisis has been written, I'm of the general impression that the less said about it, the better.

(Right now, I never want to read a DC comic book again. Maybe by Monday, I'll be in a better mood.)

While I'm recovering from my own personal trauma, enjoy this delightful sketch of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope as Booster Gold and Blue Beetle drawn by Joe Phillips in the style of Al Hirschfeld tweeted by @DrPopCultureBG.

Sigh. I still love you, high collar. (And I'm tickled pink by the thought of Booster wearing one of Bing's rugs.)

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Let's make a whole week out of Dan Jurgens' Twitter feed! I wouldn't normally do that, but Dan has shared some pretty good Booster Gold-related stuff lately, like this tease of the original, unused art from Booster Gold #6 (1986).

A bit of background: Booster Gold #6 was the first telling of Booster's origin story, which was originally tied more closely to the Silver Age Superman mythos. For example, the Space Museum was originally intended to be the Superman Museum, and Booster's Flight Ring was going to be the ring that the Legion of Super-Heroes gave to Superboy. (See my 2010 interview with Jurgens for more details.)

The pages seen in that tweet are very likely the original story, before Jurgens had to change it to work with the new origin that John Byrne was giving Superman in the pages of The Man of Steel. It's super-cool that Jurgens still has them. Maybe one day, he'll let us see the whole thing. (In a Booster Gold Omnibus, maybe?)

And before we sign off for the weekend, here's one more tweet from Jurgens, a Booster Gold sketch commission.

See? Twitter *is* useful for more than just rants and bullying. Thanks, Dan!

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When I go into my Local Comic Shop today to pick up Wonder Twins #3, there's something else I'll be taking a look at.

For the second week in a row, DC is releasing a reprint of an event story that contains some Booster Gold. In fact, Booster has very important role in The Death and Return of Superman Omnibus. He named Doomsday.

Justice League America #69 (1992)

But perhaps you already own one of the previous Death of Superman reprints? Well, DC has given you another reason to buy this one. Says Dan Jurgens on Twitter.com:

It's good to know that these omnibuses are reprinting the comics as they were originally intended to be read. That's cool, DC. Good for you.

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Via Twitter.com, Dan Jurgens finally has confirmed the identity of the mysterious woman we saw on the originally solicited cover to the 2012 New 52 relaunch of the Justice League International #1.

To refresh your memory, here is the originally solicited cover, with the woman in Black, on the left and the published cover, with Godiva, on the right:

Art by Aaron Lopresti

Alexandra Gianopoulos was introduced in Booster Gold #45 when Booster quite literally fell into her bed in the "Flashpoint" timeline. Her power was the ability to "borrow" the power of anyone she touched, similar to Rogue of the X-Men. Despite also appearing on the published cover of Justice League International #5, Gianopoulos has never actually made the transition from the Flashpoint timeline to mainstream DCnU continuity.

Thanks to @Cyberjaeger for asking the question that finally resolved this longstanding mystery.

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In a recent interview with SyFy Wire, Ngozi Ukazu revealed she almost had a job at DC writing for Blue and Gold.

SyFy: There's a rumor that one of the Big Two came knocking after your second huge Kickstarter. What happened with that?

Ukazu: It was actually DC Comics that came knocking and it just didn't work out. And that was fine. I think one reason it didn't work out is because I made a lot of demands. My attitude was like, "I don't have to work for you guys."

SyFy: Because you had a Kickstarter that just made $350,000.

Ukuzu: I'd love to write a Blue Beetle/Booster Gold epic. But if y'all don't want to collaborate, then we don't have to. I really like those comics but it just didn't work out.

Ukuzu has made quite a name for herself with her creator-owned, character-driven, award-winning Check Please! webcomic that follows the misadventures of a young gay man finding his way in the world of collegiate hockey. Given her oeuvre and her success at building a devoted audience, it would have been interesting to see what she might have created if DC had given her the green light. Could we have had an official, DC-sponsored Boostle?

Whatever her plans, we'll never know exactly how close DC came to signing on, nor should we read too much into the fact that DC was holding talks about a new Booster Gold comic. It happens all the time. For example, last year, writer Tony Lee, perhaps most strongly associated with Doctor Who comics, revealed via Twitter that he also had talks with DC sometime in the past decade about rebooting Booster. That obviously never happened either.

The takeaway is that DC is always exploring new avenues to merchandise their characters. Sooner or later, when the company feels that the idea and artists are right, Booster Gold will be back making monthly appearance on the racks of your Local Comic Shop.

You can read the whole Ukazu interview by Kamara Horne at SyFyWire.com.

UPDATE 2019-03-25: Ukazu confirmed the meeting and her plans via Twitter.

Who knows? Maybe she'll get a chance eventually.

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