Booster Gold
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Booster Gold is a comic book superhero in the DC Comics universe. Created by Dan Jurgens, he has been a member of the Justice League and first appeared in Booster Gold #1 (1986).
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Background / History
From the future
Michael Jon Carter was a college football star in the 25th century, who was banned from the sport when he was caught betting on his own football games. He took a job as a night watchman at the Metropolis Space Museum, where he began studying displays about past superheroes and villains, particularly those of the 20th century. With the help of a security robot named Skeets, he stole various devices from the museum displays, including a Legion of Super-Heroes flight ring and Brainiac 5's force-field belt. He then used Rip Hunter's time machine (also on display in the museum) to travel back to the 20th century, intent on becoming a superhero and on starting a corporation based around himself to make a comfortable living. As such, he was a shameless self-promoter, whose obsession with fame and wealth irritated other heroes.
Celebrity
Booster Gold was originally based in Metropolis, the home city of Superman. He started his hero career by preventing the shape-shifting assassin Chiller from killing the President of the United States and replacing him. With the public exposure he gained from this rescue, Booster was quickly able to sign a multitude of commercial and movie deals. During his rampant superhero career, he saw his sister, Michelle Carter, a superheroine powered by a magnetic suit, follow in his footsteps as Goldstar and die, leaving him devastated. Amassing a small fortune, Booster founded Goldstar, Inc. (which later became Booster Gold International) as a holding company and hired Dirk Davis to act as his agent. During the Millennium event, Davis revealed that he was a Manhunter in disguise and had been siphoning money from Booster's accounts for months in hopes of leaving Booster no choice but to do the Manhunters' bidding. Though the Manhunters were ultimately defeated, Booster was left bankrupt.
Justice League
Booster Gold was a key character in the late '80s/early '90s revamp of the Justice League under writers Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis. Booster Gold is frequently partnered with fellow former Justice League member Blue Beetle II, and the two quickly became best friends. The pair were most recently seen in Formerly Known as the Justice League and I Can't Believe It's Not The Justice League. The duo of Booster and Beetle was responsible for some of the most memorable moments in the Justice League series, including a stint as superhero repo men and the construction of a gaming resort, Club JLI, on the living island Kooey Kooey Kooey. There were even hints dropped, in the final issue of Formerly Known As, that Booster had a secret crush on Beetle, and the two are a popular couple in the superhero slash fiction community.
Image:BoosterCostumeRipped.jpg
When an alien of awesome power came to earth and began a rampage of destruction, it was Booster Gold who coined the name Doomsday for it. In the ensuing battle with Doomsday, Booster's costume was destroyed. Blue Beetle II was able to design a new (albeit bulkier) costume to replace it, though this costume often malfunctioned. During a later battle with the Overmaster, Booster was nearly killed and lost an arm. Again Blue Beetle came to his aid, designing a suit which acted as a life support system in addition to replicating the powers of Booster's previous costumes. This suit also included a cybernetic arm to replace the arm Booster had lost.
Extreme Justice
Not long after this, the Justice League fell apart and Booster Gold joined Extreme Justice, a team led by Captain Atom. It was while a member of this team that Booster made a deal with the super-villain Monarch, who fully healed Booster's wounds so that he could once again remove his battle suit. With his arm returned to him, Booster donned a new costume created in part from Skeets, who was able to aid Booster and even take control if Booster was rendered unconscious.
Infinite Crisis
After the events of DC's Identity Crisis mini-series, Booster Gold hung up his costume and retired from crime-fighting. However, in Countdown to Infinite Crisis barely a year later, he once again assumed the role in order to help his best friend Blue Beetle discover who was manipulating Kord Industries. He was heavily injured in an explosion at Kord's home, and editors implied that he would again see action during the Infinite Crisis mini-series due to the Blue Beetle's death. It was also revealed that his companion Skeets had been dismantled for its 25th-century technology by the Checkmate organization.
In the pages of The OMAC Project,, Booster Gold gathered together the old Justice League International heroes to investigate the disappearance of Blue Beetle and ultimately find his killer. By series end he was ruined both physically and emotionally, having destroyed much of his gear in the fight against the OMACs, seen more friends fall in the battle and lost his trust of the other heroes of the DC universe. In a moment of self-reflection, he realized that if only he had bothered to recall more of what was history in his native era, he might have been able to warn his friends. Giving a tender farewell kiss to the forehead of his wounded teammate Bea as she lay in a hospital bed, he dropped his trademark goggles on the floor and left, saying only that he had to "go home"; the implication being a return to the 25th century. In the pages of Infinite Crisis #2 Booster Gold has resurfaced in the ruins of the JLA Watchtower on the moon, along with Skeets, again branded as a criminal in his time for "hijacking historical records". When Skeets failed to locate the absentee Martian Manhunter, Booster set off to search for Blue Beetle's lost scarab, which he has recently found as of Infinite Crisis #4, bonded to the body of a teenage boy named Jaime Reyes, whom he promptly took into the Batcave. After demonstrating the Scarab's powers (protecting Jaime from physical harm by creating a suit around him), Booster revealed to the Batman the object of the stolen records: the battle the Dark Knight was going to wage against Brother Eye would be a failure, but Booster, having stolen for himself a perfect knowledge of the Crisis, implies that, with the aid of Jaime, they can change the "past" for the better.
Booster will survive the Crisis, since he is one of the stars of 52. He has also appeared in Bulleteer #3 (which is set one week before the Infinite Crisis).
Powers
Booster Gold originally gained his powers from the stolen artifacts he brought back with him from the future. A power suit granted him super strength enough to lift several tons. A pair of wrist blasters allowed Booster to project force blasts of varying power; he could stun a foe at low power or blast through two feet of concrete at the highest power. In addition, these wristbands contained the primary controls and power supply for the suit as well as communications equipment to monitor all frequencies. Circuitry from a force field belt was incorporated into his costume allowing him to resist both physical and energy attacks. In addition, the force field could be used to repel objects with great force. The costume's goggles had infrared and magnifying capabilities as well. In addition to the powers from his suit, Booster could fly thanks to a Legion flight ring. The first issue of his title demonstrated that he had the power to absorb mass, and eject it either in its original form or as a melted mass, but this power has been forgotten by recent authors, and is probably not present in his current costume.
Booster's later costumes have used many different technologies to grant him his powers, but the powers themselves have remained basically the same despite changes to the source. Booster's third costume acted as a mobile life support system as well as granting him super powers.
Enemies
Some of his known enemies include:
In other media
Image:Booster and skeets.JPG Booster Gold also appeared in an episode of Justice League Unlimited. In that series, Booster is a comedic figure who is dismissed by the superhero community, who dislike his showboating and shameless self-promotion. As such, he is treated as a grunt assigned to relatively menial duties, while the other members of the league fight an epic battle against Mordru. While doing these lesser hero duties, a running gag develops as Booster is repeatedly mistaken for Green Lantern by civilians, despite the facts that the two heroes' costumes have no matching colours, patterns, and that the current Green Lantern (John Stewart) is African-American. Eventually, he has an important, if unappreciated, adventure on his own in which he realizes his limitations, but manages to prevail and gain some measure of honest self-respect (And end up with the girl.)
However, despite all this, more often than not he is used as an extra background character. The fact that he appears so often with so many of the Justice League ladies may be a testament to how much creators Dwayne McDuffie and Bruce Timm appreciate him. He is voiced by Tom Everett Scott while Skeets is voiced by Billy West.