Agnew's Mind He's got a long journey ahead of him.

DC University: Booster Gold

    by Mike Agnew Jr.

Ahhh...Booster Gold....the T.O. of the superhero world.  Well, let's not be that mean but you will see why I made the correlation.

Picture, if you will, the 25th Century.  For the non-math majors out there, that is 4 centuries away or 400 years into the future.  Thanks to technology, life has become a lot more livable.  Most of the super-heros you know and love have died off, but they are still remembered by their descendants.   In fact, there is a museum that honors their memory.  This museum has different collectibles like batarangs, ice ray guns, and even statues of the original Justice League.

Now, for a quick background.  Michael Jon Carter was born in Gotham City in the 25th century.  He and his twin sister, Michelle, never knew their dad, a degenerate gambler, since he had left them after gambling away the families savings.  Nice.   Michael was a gifted sports star and even got a scholarship to Gotham University for football.  He became the star of the team and was even nicknamed "Booster" after his amazing speed on the field.  Re-enter his degenerate dad looking to leach off of his son's newfound fame.  To make ends meet Michael worked the night shift at the Metropolis Space Museum which had a lot of the items described above.  He spent most of his time studying the displays and became a bit obsessed with some of the heroes, especially those of the 20th centruy... how convienient.  One night his oh-so-helpful father pressures Mike into throwing a game so he can make a bet and capitalize on it.  This plan backfires and soon Mike becomes an outcast of the sports community and loses his scholarship.  Basically, he goes into a Jack bender and decides to escape.  He swipes a Legion flight ring and a force field belt from the displays at the museum.  He and his secutiry robot pa , Skeets, hop in Rip Hunter's Time Machine (also on display) and travel back to the 1980s... because we all know that is where people from the future vacation to.

So, now Booster is back in the 80s with the hopes of becoming a superhero named Goldstar.  At one point, he saves the President Ronald Reagan's life and, when he goes to introduce himself, slips up and says "Booster Gold".

I always liked Booster Gold because he is constantly in a state of flux... is he in it for the fame and glory? Or is he in it to be a real superhero?  Wherever he goes, comedy is sure to follow.  There is a running joke in the DC universe where people call him "Buster" instead of "Booster".  The banter between him and Skeets is also usually very funny.  He hangs out with a lot of the B level characters like Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) and Elongated Man, like they are dorm room buddies.  This becomes even more enjoyable when he is face ot face with one of the A-listers like Batman or Superman because he will always mumble his words, regret everything he said, then walk away wondering how foolish he had looked.

One more important point I want to make is that Booster isn't always a push over or marketing whore.  He has played some very key roles at big moments in DC's history.  My favorite example is Doomsday, the guy who "killed" Superman.  When Doomsday first showed up, climbing out the ground, Booster was the first to face him and, I have to say lasted longer, than Superman.  Clark was off-world on some mission and was racing home once he heard the news.  But it was Booster leading the charge and holding the line.  He ended up getting his butt handed to him but if he had not been there Superman's parents, Martha and Jonathan, probably would have been killed as well.

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Booster had a episode all his own on Justice League Unlimited named "The Greatest Story Never Told"; the perfect title.

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Most recently the Booster Gold line of comics has been started again, this time with our Hero as kind of time line librarian.  He attempts to go back and "set right which once went wrong" but fails horribly.  If you have not read The Killing Joke yet, you should.  It's one of the best events in DC History.  Well, Booster tries to go back and stop the Joker.  You will have to read to see what happens when he does.