And, of course, with that new charisma, he was given a new series.

I haven’t read the old Booster series, although I’m a big fan from the JLI days. How much effect do you think that series had on his becoming likable?

To be honest, I think it hurt a lot. Giffen and DeMatteis played up the “greedy” aspects of the character and played down the “altruistic” end, so that once his own book was canceled and they were the only people writing the character, audiences pretty much remembered Booster Gold as the super-hero equivalent of a used car salesman. Trying to take the character seriously afterwards was kind of a lost cause for quite a while.

(And I say this, by the way, as someone who liked the Giffen/DeMatteis JLI run. My feelings about whether a particular creator’s run on a series was entertaining are very different from my feelings about how it affected the storytelling engine of that series.)

so booster gold has a showcase? i did not know that. something else i am putting on my buy list.

I’ll be honest, at the begining, I didn’t like Booster too much. I was young and I felt that Superheroes should be heroes… for free. And even though I was still a kid, I could see through the 80′s embodyment or cliché that he was. You know, that whole “Money-money-money” and “Greed is good” mentality that we all know and love.

It wasn’t until he lost all his money and had to start trying to get rich again, that I really started liking the guy. I mean, “the get rich quick schemes” of the early 90′s… now, those are classics!

Nowadays, I think he is awesome. Just not as awesome as Awesome X!!!
KA-POW!!!

It’s weird to think of a character like “Booster Gold” being ahead of his time (I’d honestly never even considered it before now), but in all the ways you say, he really was. Moreover, unlike Rob Liefeld’s supposed take on “superheroes as celebrities” in Youngblood, which wound up being an advertising blurb that was never reflected in the stories, Booster Gold actually did address this head on.

Even now, as much as different creators and companies talk about “superheroes as celebrities,” and as many series as start out with that concept supposedly front and center, it’s interesting how rarely, and how poorly, it’s addressed – Kurt Busiek’s Superstar came the closest of any comic I’ve seen to doing it really well, since its protagonist literally became more physically powerful the more popular he was in the media, but that was apparently only one issue.

One other issue with early Booster is that a lot of his story is very reminiscent of Superman, and that comparison doesn’t flatter Booster at all (the proper term is that Booster is a Superman ectype).

Both are essentially the sole immigrants from a place they can’t return to (Krypton/25th century).

Both have similar power sets (flying/invulnerability/power beams: obviously Superman is better at all of these then Booster and has additional powers).

Both had a home base in Metropolis which only reinforced this connection.

Both have connections to the Legion.

On the other hand, I really liked the idea that there was another high-profile hero based in Metropolis; aside from Booster, the pickings have always been somewhat thin (Thorn, Guardian, Gangbuster, etc.).

Although I guess Birds of Prey is theoretically based there now, although the soul of that book is pretty clearly tied to Gotham.

I read the first few issues of Booster Gold’s original run and it just didn’t grab me.

Didn’t care for JLI.

But “The Greatest Story Never Told” is just about my favorite Justice League episode.

In retrospect, DC almost could not have planned the early career of Booster Gold any better. John is right that his ego does not make him a great protagonist in a solo title. However, it makes him an almost ideal member of a super-team. The lesson of the Justice League: Detroit was that characters who’ve never carried their own title are not well suited to the JLA. It is a collection of headliners. Those 25 dead-end issues got Booster in under-the-wire for the JLI.

No matter what you might feel about the Bwahahaha-era, it is hard to doubt that it was a success. The title only ran into trouble when Giffen left and other writers had a hard time continuing the template he’d created. Booster Gold was a huge part of that.

The genius of JLI was the pairing of Blue and Gold. As Booster was a wannabe Superman, Beetle was a wannabe Batman. Not that they were direct imitations or anything, it’s just that there are enough similarities to make the parallels. However, whereas I classify Superman and Batman as “friends from work”, Blue and Gold are truly best friends. Superman and Batman are friends because of mutual respect and admiration, along with the fact that they’re at least a step above nearly everyone else. Booster and Ted have fun together.

The one issue I read of the original run makes me think the problem may be Dan Jurgens as a writer. The episode (which was with Chesire and Hawk) was very flat and dull. He also had Booster very self-righteious in the story which doesn’t work well with that kind of character. One trouble with the early BG was making him too successful too early. Usually with heroes with this kind, Maverick is a good example, they’re only scraping by. Winning enough to keep them temporarily in the black but enough to make indepently wealthy. When they do get that big payoff, usually fate or a hidden altruistic streak appears. Instead, it looks like DJ tried to milk angst from the story of BG’s little sister Goldstar. Frustration as narrative device seem to be at the heart of the new Booster Gold comic book. Whether or not, Dan Jurgens was intentionall reference the Parker Brothers game Careers what Booster wants most is fame like the star on his chest not $. SO in his new series, he must continually save the day while receiving no acknowledgement.