Booster Gold

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From the future

Michael Jon Carter was born poor in 25th-century Gotham City. He and his twin sister, the slightly younger Michelle, never knew their father because he left after gambling away all their money. Michael was a gifted athlete, attending Gotham University on a football scholarship. At Gotham U., Michael was a star quarterback until his father reentered his life and convinced him to deliberately lose games for gambling purposes. He was exposed, disgraced and expelled. His twin sister Michelle, the more responsible of the two, took on multiple jobs to support their ailing mother. Later, he was able to secure a job as a night watchman at the Metropolis Space Museum where he studied displays about superheroes and villains from the past, particularly the 20th century.

Michael's sidekick is a robot named Skeets. Skeets is a 25th-century security robot (sometimes "valet unit") with artificial intelligence. He is capable of flight, cognition, and voice projection, which are all considered highly advanced for 21st century Earth. He also has historical records which give him a vast knowledge of what will happen between the 21st and 25th centuries, though its reliability has become questionable. He possesses numerous miniature tools and weapons kept within his shell, and is also equipped with a powerful energy blaster. He is apparently immune to reality and temporal manipulation.

With the help of Skeets, Michael stole devices from the museum displays, including a Legion of Super-Heroes flight ring and Brainiac 5's force field belt. He used Rip Hunter's Time Sphere, also on display in the museum, to travel to the 20th century, intent on becoming a superhero and forming a corporation based around himself to make a comfortable living. He is a shameless self-promoter whose obsession with fame and wealth irritates other heroes.

Carter's nickname as a football player was "Booster", but his chosen 20th century superhero name was "Goldstar". After saving Ronald Reagan, Carter mangled the two names, causing Reagan to introduce him as "Booster Gold". The name stuck. In a running joke throughout the DC Universe, people erroneously call him "Buster", to his chagrin.

Flashpoint

After the Time Masters: Vanishing Point event, Rip Hunter informed them that someone snuck into the JLI base, leaving messages on a chalkboard about the altered timeline. When Earth entered an alternate timeline due to the actions of the Flash, Booster and Skeets awaken and are the only ones who remember the original timeline due to the former's suit protecting them. Gold travels to Coast City, but US soldiers attack him mistaking him to be an Atlantean threat. Skeets is damaged when Gold is attacked by the military's Project Six, which is revealed to be Doomsday.

During the battle in Coast City, he discovers that Doomsday is controlled by General Nathaniel Adam. He escapes from Doomsday and then saves a woman named Alexandra Gianopoulos from Doomsday's attack. He learns the timeline has been changed, suspecting Professor Zoom. Alexandra and Booster split up, but she secretly has powers allowing her to take others' powers and follows him. Later, he flies to Gotham City when Doomsday attacks him. General Adam's control link is destroyed by Alexandra in an attempt to rescue Booster. Doomsday's true personality comes to the surface and he attacks Booster. During the fight, Doomsday beats him nearly to death, but he is rescued by Alexandra. He tries to prevent Doomsday from killing innocent people, and manages to put Doomsday's helmet back on. Doomsday's control is restored to Adam, who grabs Booster, hoping to kill him. Adam takes him back to the base for interrogation, allowing him to escape when the sight of "Project Superman" causes Doomsday's true personality to resurface. Alexandra defeats Doomsday by using the control helmet to make Doomsday tear himself apart, subsequently asking Booster to take her with him when he restores history to normal. Alexandra sacrifices herself to save Booster from an Atlantean attack, leaving him to return to Vanishing Point as history resets without any clear memory of his time in the "Flashpoint" universe. Before the Time Masters: Vanishing Point event, Alexandra appears in the JLI base and leaves messages regarding the altered timeline on the chalkboard before vanishing.

The New 52

In The New 52, Booster Gold appears as part of the new Justice League International series. In the Post-Flashpoint continuity, Booster is portrayed with his original glory-seeking personality and is chosen by the U.N. to lead the JLI due to his PR sense and naiveté. He takes his leadership role seriously, and strives to become a better hero and role model. However, despite his best efforts and support from Batman who officially defers to Booster's leadership after supporting Booster for leader, the JLI falls apart due to a string of attacks against the group that leaves members killed or wounded. Despite his best attempts to bring in new members, Booster later watches in horror as the hero OMAC betrays the team and inflicts more carnage, including teleporting Blue Beetle to the homeworld of the Reach.

In the end, Booster is confronted with what appears to be an older version of him, an agent of A.R.G.U.S. who warns his present self to prevent Superman and Wonder Woman from dating. Failure to prevent it, without explanation, would cause Booster Gold to cease existing. As the JLI monitor reveals Superman and Wonder Woman kissing, the future Booster disappears. The present day Booster disappears moments later. A.R.G.U.S. director Amanda Waller orders Chronos to search for the contemporary Booster through time, but Chronos is captured by the Secret Society. The older Booster Gold mysteriously reappears in other timelines, like 19th century Gotham City. In Booster Gold: Futures End #1, the older Booster clarifies he is not an older version of the New 52 Booster, but an older version of him from a universe which no longer exists. The older Booster is sent careening through the timeline, eventually meeting up with his sister Goldstar who is in a version of Metropolis which has been sealed in a bubble by a godlike version of Brainiac from an alternative universe. They are teleported to where the younger, New 52 Booster is held captive by Brainiac. Brainiac threatens to kill Michelle unless the younger Booster gives up the location of Vanishing Point, which he concedes. The older Booster knows this could lead to the end of the multiverse, setting up the events of Convergence.

In the two-part Convergence: Booster Gold, Booster is found by a pre-Flashpoint Rip Hunter on Skartaris, where the older Booster Gold and Goldstar are in prison on the planet Telos, where Brainiac has gathered cities from across the history of the multiverse. The New 52 Booster and Rip release them both. Hunter tells older Booster that he has not traveled through the timeline, but through the cities in the planet which were now chronal anomalies that he was in conflict with, and that his body absorbed so much time travel radiation that he was aging rapidly and dying. The aged pre-Flashpoint Booster transports again, and encounters the Zero Hour Ted Kord. Booster explains to Kord that he has led a good life, married and had a son. Rip, the New 52 Booster and Michelle find him, and Rip forces the New 52 Booster to take his father into the raw chronal field contained at Vanishing Point to cure him; pre-Flashpoint Booster's body is destroyed, but he is reborn as Waverider, an all-knowing cosmic time traveler. Waverider then emerges on Telos in the final issue of Convergence, along with the New 52 Booster and Goldstar to bring back Brainiac, and they convince him to save the multiverse from its imminent destruction. Brainiac then sends the Zero Hour Parallax and pre-Flashpoint Superman to the conclusion of the Crisis on Infinite Earths to avert the original crisis event, restoring the multiverse.

Alternate versions of Booster Gold and Blue Beetle as they were prior to Countdown to Infinite Crisis appear in the pages of Justice League 3000 #14, where they are awakened from a 1,000-year suspended animation on the prison planet Takron-Galtos in the 31st century. According to Keith Giffen, "they're J.M. DeMatteis and my Blue Beetle and Booster Gold".

Television

Booster Gold and Skeets appear in Justice League Unlimited, voiced by Tom Everett Scott and Billy West respectively. This version of the duo are members of the Justice League who originate from the year 2462.

Booster Gold and Skeets make a cameo appearance in the Legion of Super-Heroes episode "Man of Tomorrow" as janitors in a Superman museum.

Booster Gold and Skeets appear in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, voiced again by Tom Everett Scott and Billy West respectively. This version of the duo are members of Justice League International.

Booster Gold appears in Teen Titans Go!, voiced by Fred Tatasciore. This version is in a relationship with Ted Kord.

Booster Gold appears in the Mad segment "That's What Super Friends Are For".

Booster Gold appears in Robot Chicken DC Comics Special as a member of the Justice League.

Booster Gold appears in Justice League Action, voiced by Diedrich Bader. This version is a member of the Justice League who was previously married to heiress Margot Montgomery. However, he eventually left her to become a superhero in an attempt to provide for them, with her becoming the villainess Red Velvet to seek revenge. Booster realizes the error of his actions and returns to the future to reconcile with Margot, erasing Red Velvet from existence.

Booster Gold and Skeets appear in the Smallville episode "Booster", portrayed by Eric Martsolf and voiced by Ross Douglas respectively.

In November 2011, Syfy ordered a Booster Gold television series, developed by Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg. While the latter submitted a script in early June 2013, the project never came to fruition.

Both fans and critics noted similarities between Krypton's version of Adam Strange and Booster Gold, with many outlets considering the former an amalgamation of the two.

Legends of Tomorrow's executive producers Marc Guggenheim and Phil Klemmer had frequently considered having Booster Gold appear in the series, but he was off-limits for most of the series's run. Due to this, some of Booster's character traits were incorporated into Rip Hunter. Eventually, Donald Faison would portray a variation of Booster Gold in the series finale "Knocked Down, Knocked Up". This version is "Mike", who protects a fixed point in time in 1916. While supposedly agreeing to help the Legends, Mike destroys Gwyn Davies' time machine and hijacks their timeship, the Waverider, to confront his superiors. When the Waverider returns, the Legends find that the Time Police have arrested Mike.

Booster Gold will appear in a self-titled DC Universe television series for HBO Max.

Booster Gold

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