Booster Gold

Origin

Booster Gold was created by Dan Jurgens in 1986, and his first appearance was in Booster Gold #1.

Booster was born Michael Jon Carter on December 29th, in the year 2442. He grew up to be a foolhardy and egotistical man, and his only stand out talents were his notorious silver tongue, and his ability to promote himself. Never having been the best student growing up, he took a much deeper liking to sports, and football more specifically. Eventually he acquired a scholarship, and proceeded to become a star of college football, and even gained the nickname 'Booster'. However, being the scheming and selfish man we've all come to know and love, Michael started actually betting on his own games. He was caught rather quickly, and banned from playing the sport altogether. Forced to take a part-time job at the Metropolis Space Museum, Michael 'Booster' Carter was down, out, and on his last leg.

On his nights alone at the museum, Michael began to to take an interest in 20th century history, particularly in that time period's Superheroes and Villians. After some time he became completely fed up with where his life was going, and began to concoct a scheme. Through the aid of a museum security robot called Skeets, Michael took a Legion Flight Ring from a display involving the Legion Of Super-Heroes and a Force Field Belt that belonged to Brainiac 5. Also acquiring a power suit that granted him Super Strength and wrist bands that released Force Bolts, he set off using Rip Hunter's Time Machine to go back to the 20th Century along with Skeets (who possessed historical records dating back to pre-20th Century history).

Michael Jon Carter constructs his own Superhero identity -- Booster Gold!

Upon arrival in our time, Michael used a credit card he had taken from the museum and used it to set himself up until he could make a living on his own. He adopted the name Jesus Alvarez on the credit card for a short time telling himself that he would pay him back as soon as he could. After he found a place to stay he quickly made use of his stolen technology from the future and Skeets' knowledge of events to come in order to mould himself into a successful Superhero. His first experience was saving the President's life from a villain named Chiller. The President honoured him with the Medal of Honour. Booster was going to call himself Goldstar but he was so nervous all he got out was “uhh...Booster... No wait Gold...” So the President called him Booster Gold. Later his sister and friend Trixie Collins would wear a uniform made by Dr. Jack Soo of S.T.A.R. Labs and they would use the name Goldstar.

He proceeded then to found Goldstar, Incorporated (later known as Booster Gold International) as a holding company for himself, and also enlists a man named Dirk Davis as his agent. He sets up his company in the heart of Metropolis. Then he quickly makes a name for himself. He becomes the main guy for a short time because Superman is not around and no one knows were he is. Meanwhile his company would derive its funds from corporate sponsors and Booster's own shrewd investments.

Booster kicks Big Blue's Butt!

When Superman gets back he has more than one run in with Booster and he is not a fan of how Booster is a Hero for profit. Booster really wants to get Superman to like him and he really want to get in the Justice League but both things elude him for a long time. Things even get worse when Lex Luther makes an android that looks like Booster with a piece of Kryptonite in it. This Android Booster runs a muck of the city and even kidnaps the mayor's daughter on Superman day. When Superman hears her screams he quickly takes on the Booster android as gets his blue butt kicked. Then the real Booster arrives and saves Superman. This eases tension between the two and sets them on a path were eventually Superman comes to respect Booster. Booster however always tells him not to let that get around.

After being attacked by a mob of anti-superhero radicals, Booster's power suit was depleted of energy, and he was physically injured. Travelling to the future again to repair his suit, he ran into his twin sister Michelle. She decided to go back to the 20th century with her brother, and become his super heroine sidekick 'Goldstar', Booster's original chosen name. However, much to her brother's devastation, she would soon die in one of their adventures.

However, in the midst of the 'Millennium' crisis, in which the Gaurdians Of The Universe left this dimension, Dirk unveils himself as a lackey for the Manhunter Androids in disguise. He had been redirecting Booster's finances in the hopes of getting him to bend to the Manhunter's demands. Using this to his advantage, Booster attempted to infiltrate the Manhunter's ranks, only to discover they had planted a destructive device at the core of the planet. In his attempts to foil their plans, Booster was declared a traitor by his newfound superhero colleagues. He managed to dismantle the doomsday device, and was once again in their good graces. However, after the Millennium crisis is averted and the Manhunters are disposed of, Booster must declare bankruptcy for himself and his company due to the Manhunter's actions.

Justice League International and The Conglomerate

In 1987, Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis were tasked with revamping the Justice League Of America during the crossover event Legends. What spurned from it was a less America focused Justice League, even branching out to other parts of the world, such as Europe. Booster Gold was one of the main players of this particular era, including others such as Blue Beetle, Guy Gardner, Mr. Miracle, and the Martian Manhunter. Maxwell Lord acted as something of a manager for the Justice League and their new International embassy. He was responsible for Booster's original induction into the League.

Booster Gold alongside his long-time best friend and teammate, Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle.

After several of these embarrassing schemes went wrong, Booster eventually began to feel that although he was a fully fledged member of the League, he wasn't getting any respect from his fellow members, and was largely regarded as a joke of a hero. Because of this, he and Claire Montgomery (Maxwell Lord's ex-wife) created a new Superhero group known as the Conglomerate, which would be funded by corporate sponsors. It's members, including Booster, were Reverb, Maxi-Man, Echo, Praxis, Vapor, Gypsy, and Blue Beetle. Eventually though, after some moral dilemmas concerning their priorities as far as sponsorship and duty go, Booster rejoined the League, now under the guide of Superman. The Conglomerate had several later incarnations, although its current status is disbanded.

Doomsday's Onslaught, Extreme Justice, and Booster's new costumes

After Booster rejoined the League, now known as the JLA, the Earth soon came under the attack of a seemingly unstoppable alien force. Booster Gold dubbed the monster *Doomsday*, and the name stuck. During the battle between Earth's heroes and Doomsday, Booster was injured deeply, and nearly lost his life. His power suit, which contained all of his future tech and granted him his abilities, was completely destroyed. The Blue Beetle, after recovering from a coma induced by a beating from Doomsday, quickly built him a new suit that replicated his old abilities. Unfortunately, it was entirely too clunky and often malfunctioned.

Superman's death at the hands of Doomsday, and his victory, rocked the world and foundations of superheroes everywhere. Fortunately, his later return would herald a new hope among their ranks.

During a later battle the League was having with the Overmaster, a 600 million year-old Galactic conqueror, Booster would spearhead the initial attack against the invading force. However, his new suit was destroyed along with one of his arms in a vicious attack by the Devastator, one of the Overmaster's lackeys. His friend Blue Beetle again came to his aid building yet another suit that acted as a life-support system, and provided a robotic arm in the place of the one he lost. Booster was quoted as saying, "Good friends give you a hand; best friends give you an arm."

Booster is soon recruited by Captain Atom to join his new team *Extreme Justice* after the JLA once again splinters. While on the team, Booster struck a deal with super-villain Monarch, who was able to completely heal Gold, including his lost arm. He could finally remove the suit that was keeping him alive. A new suit, with a slight resemblance to his original, was constructed. Skeets was built into the suit, to allow more easy communication between the two of them. Although, once again, along with the disbanding of Extreme Justice, Booster's suit is again destroyed. Fortunately, Michael was able to recover his robotic companion from the remains.

Finally, Booster has a replacement suit built for him by Professor Hamilton from the remains of Blue Superman's containment suit. It was made to resemble his original costume, and grants him all of his original abilities.

The Superbuddies, Heroes for the Common Man!

Maxwell Lord, claiming that he finally wanted to do something for un-selfish reasons, enlisted the help of his old robotic friend L-Ron to recruit Superheroes from the International League era for a new team he was forming. He ended up successfully acquiring the Elongated Man, his wife Sue Dibny, Mary Marvel, Blue Beetle, Fire, Captain Atom, and of course, Booster Gold. Booster had apparently recently married a much older woman by the name of Gladys, with no interest in her aside from her money. She was supposedly a very demanding woman, apparently making him dress as Wonder Woman in the privacy of the bedroom. Booster agreed to join in a last ditch attempt to get back to his superheroic roots, and away from Gladys.

The Superbuddies - Heroes accessible to the common man.

Maxwell established their headquarters in a Queens, New York strip mall, and dubbed the team '*The Superbuddies*'. He set up a 1-800 number for the team, and advertised them as 'Heroes for the Common Man', claiming that anybody could call them with a problem, and the Superbuddies would solve it.

It would seem that Blue Beetle, previously Booster's best friend and partner-in-crime, had developed a heart condition (something Booster made clear he doubted), and was trying to distance himself from his old, less mature ways. This caused several arguments between the two of them, many times with Blue Beetle claiming that he never liked Booster anyway and that he was now too mature for him. But even in his newfound maturity, he still managed to argue with Booster like a 5-year-old.

The team ended up drawing the attention of Manga Khan, an old enemy of the Justice League International, who wanted L-Ron back in his service. Booster deeply angered Khan by accidentally damaging and destroying some of his robotic guards. This almost invoked a full invasion, had the actual Justice League not been there to bail out the new team.

Later, in an attempt to recruit Power Girl in order to bring some sense to the team, Blue Beetle began yet another argument with Gold. Booster, in anger, storms off into the halls of the Justice Society mansion. Coming across Dr. Fate's room, Booster picks up one of the artifacts he finds, thinking it to be nothing more than a fancy paperweight. Attempting to take out his anger, Booster holds the artifact above him and proclaims the entire Superbuddies team banished to Hell. The next moment, Booster and the remaining active members of the team after the Manga Khan incident, find themselves smack-dab in the middle of Hell. However, after serving at an Underworld Burger-Joint and battling parallel versions of themselves (called "The Power Posse"), Dr. Fate eventually brings them back to the main DCU after Maxwell enlists his help.

The Superbuddies have since been disbanded.

The OMAC Project and Infinite Crisis

Michael Jon Carter had retired his Superhero identity after the violent murder of Sue Dibny in Identity Crisis, and Skeets had been dismantled by the Checkmate organization due its comprised future technology. Michael was contacted by his old friend the Blue Beetle, who required his assistance. Ted told Michael that funds had been stolen from his company's (Kord Industries) accounts, and had left him bankrupt. Everybody else had turned Ted away when asked for help, so he contacted Booster. Michael agreed to help his old best friend, and donned the identity of Booster Gold once more. However, after setting off a trap somebody had set at Kord's home, Booster is severely injured in the resulting explosion. He warns Blue Beetle not to investigate any further, but Ted continues.

After tracing the clues all the way to Switzerland, Blue Beetle finds himself at the headquarters of the Checkmate organization. Ted soon discovers that Maxwell Lord is in fact the Black King, and throughout his time with the Justice League had been gathering data and enough power to assemble an Anti-Metahuman Strike Force. He considers them to be a threat, and reveals that he has all of the Justice League's files along with Batman's satellite known as the Brother Eye to monitor all Metahuman activity. Blue Beetle refuses to join him, and is shot in the head by Maxwell himself.

Rocket Red #7, Booster's teammate, sacrifices himself in battle with the OMACs.

Sometime in the midst of the conflict with Checkmate, the JLA Watchtower is destroyed by an explosion. The Martian Manhunter disappears, and chaos breaks loose on Earth. Havok on the magical realm is being caused by the Spectre, OMACs are murdering metahumans, and a society of villians is conspiring for an unknown cause. After her murder of Maxwell Lord, Wonder Woman finds herself under intense scrutiny. Superman finds himself losing his priorities. And Batman's paranoia, only intensifying after the hijacking of Brother Eye, is getting the better of him. As a result, the survivors of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Earth-2 Superman (along with Earth 2 Lois), Superboy Prime, Alexander Luthor of Earth 3 leave their otherworldly refuge in an attempt to save this Universe from itself. Although Alex Luthor may have a separate agenda...

Somewhere in the middle of all the chaos, Booster Gold arrives from the future again. Apparently they didn't arrive when they were supposed to, as Booster expressed that he needed to be back in time to save Ted Kord, but failed. Finding himself in the wreckage of the JLA Watchtower, he and Skeets (now criminals in their time for the hijacking of historical records) set off to Earth to find the original Blue Beetle's mystic Scarab.

Booster introduces Batman to Jaime Reyes, the third Blue Beetle.

It is revealed that Alexander Luthor had orchestrated all the chaos across the Universe in the hopes of undoing the destruction of the Multiverse that occurred in the original Crisis. His plans are soon undone by the Earth's heroes, including Booster Gold among them. He is regarded as a hero worldwide, and his fame is returned to him.

52

Days after the Universe is saved, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman disappear, and remain gone for an entire year. That year is documented in the weekly comic maxi-series '52'.

"Time is Broken."

Back in the city, a new masked vigilante by the name of Supernova makes his first appearance, much to Booster's dismay. The fledgling hero, who exhibits a bizarre array of abilities stemming around bright lights and applied teleportation, begins to take away from Booster's face time with the press. This forces Gold to work twice as hard as before to gain the public's attention, and causes him to disregard his old friends when asked for help.

Booster Gold -- Exposed!

The Death of Booster Gold?

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Supernova carries Booster Gold's remains to safety.

Skeets' Hunt for Rip Hunter

Clark Kent assists Skeets in carrying out a small ceremony for Booster, which is only attended by a small number of paid superheroes whom Booster never knew. In his exposure as a fraud, he lost many friends and supporters. After the memorial however, Skeets discovers a young man by the name of Daniel Carter, who is revealed to in fact be Booster Gold's ancestor. In an attempt to discover where Booster went astray from history, he enlists the help of Daniel to investigate further into Rip Hunter's desert laboratory. As Daniel explores the abandoned bunker, Skeets watches on through his visor. Suddenly, Skeets realizes that Booster failed to mention any of the things he found there. What strikes him the most though, are the pictures of Skeets and Booster on the wall, proclaiming that "it's his fault." Upon closer inspection, Skeets sees that the messages were in fact saying that it was not Booster at fault, but Skeets himself. He then locks the bunker with Daniel inside, setting to open only on 1,000,000 A.D.. A time-vortex trap is set off, and Daniel is stuck reliving one moment over and over again. As Skeets leaves the bunker, his final words are "He knows."

Later in the weekly comic 52, Skeets is seen in Metropolis possessing much more advanced technology. He brings with him an onslaught of pirates from the past and robots from the future, in an attempt to flush out Rip Hunter from wherever it is he is hiding. It ends in the massacre of several scores of civilians, and the murder of the new Super-Chief.

Two weeks following, Skeets murders the Time Commander, and tortures Waverider for information regarding Rip Hunter's whereabouts. Waverider claims that no one knows where or when Rip is, or even what his real name is. Skeets then proceeds to maliciously harm him, and implies that Waverider's own skin in fact comprises Skeets' body, after being discovered hundreds of years later.

In Week 36 of 52, it is revealed that Supernova has been under the employ of Rip Hunter for the duration of the series. Supernova has been gathering various objects, such as the Staffs of the Starmen, Lex Luthor's Kryptonite Gauntlet, and the Shadowthief's Dimensiometer, in order to create a machine that can destroy Skeets. Rip Hunter has been hiding within the shrunken city of Kandor inside Superman's Fortress of Solitude in an attempt to stave off Skeets crusade to find him. It appears also that Rip is having problems "staying linear", and must focus in order not to speak a bizarre backwards gibberish. On the last page of the issue, Skeets can be seen floating above the bottled city, listening to the conversation between Rip and Supernova.

The Return of Booster Gold

Supernova reveals himself to be... none other than Booster Gold!(Not Connor like Wonder Girl thinks.)

As Rip Hunter and Supernova frantically prepare for a battle they know will happen with Skeets, their refuge in the bottled city of Kandor comes under a fierce attack. Buildings begin to fall, and to the horror of Rip and his masked assistant, they hear the voice of Skeets outside the city. He proclaims that if Rip does does not surrender himself, he will destroy Kandor completely. Panicking, Hunter tells Supernova to leave Kandor, and distract Skeets. Using the Atom's Size-Belt, the man under Supernova's mask leaves the city, and reveals himself to be none other than Booster Gold, much to Skeets' surprise.

In attempt to stall Skeets long enough to allow Rip to finish his device, Booster reveals how he became Supernova. In Week 3, when Booster entered Rip Hunter's desert laboratory, he saw many clues telling him that Skeets was responsible for the fracturing in time. Before Gold could say anything though, he was quickly hidden inside of a Chronal Field, and contacted by Rip. Rip told him all about Skeets and his plans, and what they had to do to stop him. Their plan was for Booster to leave the bunker, and withhold all information found from Skeets. Gold would then run his career into the ground, and play dumb to all that was going on around him. Finally it culminated to one final piece of the plan -- faking Booster's death. He carried the explosive submarine into the air, and at one crucial point before the explosion, his present body was switched with his real corpse after his actual death in the future (something Booster didn't seem too happy about). He was then sent 12 weeks into the past, and donned the costume of Supernova. The new powers, he explained, were a combination of various technologies plundered from Superman's Fortress of Solitude, and the Phantom Zone Projector itself, used to create great rays of light, and move things from one place to another, or move them to the Zone itself. Their goal was to gather as many items of power from around Earth as possible, including Nth Metal, Luthor's K-Gauntlet, and Starman's Staff, to build something powerful enough to confront Skeets with.

Finally, after Booster narrowly escapes several of Skeets' attacks, Rip Hunter appears out of Kandor, carrying the Phantom Zone Projector. As he flips it on, Skeets does everything he can not to get absorbed into the Zone. And then somehow, much to the surprise of Rip Hunter and Booster, Skeets absorbs the Phantom Zone into himself. This causes Skeets to be momentarily immobile, an advantage Hunter uses to ready their retreat. He clicks a small device, and begins counting backwards from fifty-two, and he and Booster begin to disappear. However, just before they're gone completely, Skeets manages to follow them into the time-stream.

World War Three

In the 13 weeks between Booster Gold's return, and week 50 of 52, Black Adam's wife and brother in-law, Isis and Osiris, were killed by the Four Horsemen of Apokalips. Isis' last words to Black Adam instructed him to avenge them. Black Adam then proceeded to hunt down and slaughter the remaining Horsemen within the country of Bialya. Bialya saw this as an act of war on Adam's part, and showed no remorse in harbouring the Horsemen. Adam killed every single man, woman, and child within the country in retaliation. Adam refused to be taken into custody, and when the other Marvels and the JSA found this unacceptable, they fought him. Chasing him around the world, Black Adam left complete and utter annihilation in his wake. Thus began World War Three.

Booster arrives at the wrong time.

In Pisa, Italy, on Day 4 of the War, Black Adam is found battling members of the Doom Patrol. Briefly, a portal opens in the sky, and Booster Gold appears from it. He mutters to himself that he's "too soon", and this isn't the "right time". The portal opens again, and he disappears.

At the Greek Parthenon, on Day 5, the Teen Titans recover from a brutal defeat at the hands of Black Adam. Then, in a quick flash of light, Booster Gold appears once more. Riding atop the wing of a jet-plane, he states that this is "still not the right time!", and rides into another time-portal.

Gold commandeers a specialized missile from Steel.

Finally, on Day 7 of the War, in China, the final vestige of heroes attack Black Adam. In the heat of the battle, Steel and his niece Natasha prepare a missile they've built to take down Adam. It's purpose is to release a series of nanites within a special gas, whose A.I. will direct them to his brain, and disable his motor-functions. Just before they can launch the missile, Booster Gold leaps from a time-portal directly behind them. Steel and Natasha are surprised to see him, having considered him dead. He tells them that he isn't dead yet, and grabs they're specialized missile. He informs them that it wouldn't have worked on Adam anyway, and that he needs it more than them. He quickly disappears once more into a portal.

Booster Gold and Rip Hunter -- On a mission!