Booster Gold

James Gunn’s DCEU slate has been announced and it seems to focus on lesser known DC characters. That said some of the more casual comic book fans might need a brief introduction into these characters so lets start with Booster Gold.

Booster Gold first appeared in a solo title in 1986, this was after Crisis on Infinite Earths and he was really the first significant character introduced after that event. Crisis consolidated most of DC’s extra universes and parallel worlds so a new character introduction was actually a huge thing. Especially since Booster Gold became a member of The Justice League and remained as such until the team disbanded in 1996.

Booster Gold is also known as Michael Jon Carter and is from 25th century Gotham City. He got a job at the Metropolis Space Museum that was home to a lot of superhero artifacts which he used to travel back to the 20th century and make himself a superhero. He is very obsessed with fame and money much to the irritation of other heroes. His attempt at a hero name was Goldstar, but when he was introduced to President Ronald Reagan that got mangled with his high school football nickname, “Booster”. The name Booster Gold stuck.

After saving the President of the United States, Booster Gold gets a bunch of commercial and movie deals fueling both his ego and his bank account. His kid sister follows in his footsteps as a hero, even taking his desired name Goldstar.

Booster Gold played a big part in the Justice League in the 80s and 90s, often being seen paired up with Blue Beetle (who also has a movie coming out soon). Booster’s personality and hero style didn't really fit that of the Justice League so he eventually quits and joins a different hero team called the Conglomerate who were entirely funded by sponsorships. Though this team tried to conduct themselves like real heroes their sponsorships often got in the way, leading to him re-joining the Justice League.

Extreme Justice was another short lived team Booster was a member of, the team was quickly disbanded with all other formations of the League after an incident with Queen Beatriz.

If you would like a classic confusing DC storyline to read, go ahead and check out Convergence: Booster Gold. Where once again DC attempts to redefine how time travel works and what exactly constitutes time travel when Booster Gold meets an older version of himself and they reconcile both the Flashpoint and New 52 storylines.

We almost forgot to mention another character that is often tied to Booster Gold and that is his robot Skeets, who comes with him from the 25th century and provides Booster with historical data as well as at one point acting as his supersuits control center. Often Skeets is seen as the brains behind their operation and occasionally a point of conflict that is normally filled by a loved one in other superhero stories.

As a major plot point in all of Booster Gold’s is the fact that he regularly time travels, some of his alternate versions occasionally pop up in stories, such as; in The Kingdom Booster is the founder and owner of a restaurant on Planet Krypton, and in Justice Riders Booster is a gambler who wants to join Diana’s posse.

Overall Booster Gold is an entertaining character that is going to bring great balance to the future of the DCEU. The DCEU tries very often to provide very dark, serious content however there is so much more to the DC universe that is often overlooked. Booster Gold is an excellent addition to the new line up.