Booster Gold

Booster is actually a football star from Metropolis of the 25th century. At the height of his career, Michael Jon Carter was busted for illegal gambling and barred from the sport. Destitute, he was forced to take a job as a night watchman at the famous Metropolis Space Museum, where he had a lot of time to study up on the heroes of the late 20th century and their nemeses. One evening, Mike hit upon the plan of actually becoming a late 20th century hero. With the help of a security robot named Skeets, he stole all of his special equipment from displays in the museum and used the time machine of Rip Hunter (another of the museum's displays) to jet himself back to the 20th century. (Booster Gold #7)

Since Booster had done his homework, he was able to storm on to the heroing scene with a splash. In the first few months of his career, Booster was getting lucrative endorsement deals and huge licensing contracts. (Booster Gold #1) In no time at all, Booster found himself firmly entrenched in the position of "America's most popular hero." Booster used all of this cash and attention to set up Booster Gold International, a gigantic holding company and tax shelter. But as luck would have it, Booster's press agent turned out to be a top secret operative for the millennia-old race of intergalactic androids known as the Manhunters. While Booster was helping Earth's heroes protect the Chosen during the Millennium affair, his press agent secretly bankrupted BGI. By the time the smoke cleared, Booster was flat broke. (#24) Worse, he had lost his twin sister, Michelle, who had tagged along as Goldstar (II). (#22)

Booster was inducted into the Justice League by the mysterious Maxwell Lord just a few months before he went bankrupt. (Justice League #4) He later supplemented his Justice League income with the odd dollar earned by "The Blue and the Gold," a super-powered "repo" service that he established with Blue Beetle. (Annual #2)

When the island of Kooey Kooey Kooey was ceded to the JLI as a landed holding, Booster and Beetle built a huge resort and casino called Club JLI on the island. Their get-rich-quick scheme was foiled, however, when Major Disaster and Big Sir managed to break the casino's bank. (#34-35) Booster and Beetle were assigned housecleaning chores by Maxwell Lord as a punishment for using JLI funds in this fiasco, a situation that so humiliated Booster that he promptly quit the JLI and struck out on his own. (#37) Over the next few weeks, he began recruiting heroes for a team of his own. Called the Conglomerate, the team consists of Booster Gold, Gypsy, Praxis, Maxi-Man, Vibe's brother Reverb, Echo, and Vapor. (Justice League Quarterly #1)

After Breakdowns, he rejoined Superman's new JLA. During the battle with Doomsday, his costume, which supplied all his powers, was destroyed, and the Beetle built him a bulky suit of armor which was constantly malfunctioning. (Justice League America #80) He lost lost an arm and sustained fatal injuries in the battle with the Overmaster. (#89) The Blue Beetle quickly assembled a new suit to sustained his life functions. This suit was bulky but was equipped with a cybernetic arm.

When the JLA splintered, Booster joined Captain Atom's short-lived Extreme Justice group. In that time, he was fully healed by Monarch and could again remove his armor without dying. Skeets was installed into this new suit, along with technology from his colleagues, Zan and Jayna's alien ship (called the flesh driver). (Extreme Justice #14) This suit was (of course) destroyed, too, and he got a new costume from Superman's ally, Professor Hamilton. (Superman #124) This suit is made from leftover materials from "blue" Superman's containment suit.

Recently, Booster has pursued more entrepeneurial than heroic endeavears. He is partners in Ted Kord's Blue & Gold Software (DCU Heroes Secret Files) and opened his own resataurant, Planet Krypton. (Kingdom: Planet Krypton) For a brief time, he had a personal and professional relationship with Firehawk (Lorraine Reilly; first teamed in Chase #4). Currently, the ever-opportunistic Booster is married to a woman named Gladys who is many decades his senior. As a respite from that arrangement, he recently accepted Maxwell Lord's offer to join a regrouping of his original Justice League comrades in the Superbuddies. Sadly, he has discovered that he no longer shares much in common with his former best friend, Blue Beetle. (Formerly..,)

At some point, Booster lost track of Skeets, which was unfortunate, because the robot was kidnapped and secretly implanted into Blue Beetle's visor. This enabled someone to spy on countless missions and secret meetings.

Whether the Blue Beetle wanted it or not, Booster was always there for his best friend. And Ted had always suspected that Booster — being from the future — knew more about 21st century events than he let on. This intensified when Booster (knowingly?) took the brunt of an explosion that destroyed Ted's house. He suffered third degree burns, but at the hospital, Booster still tried to stop Ted from pursuing the person responsible. Perhaps he knew what was in store for his friend. The Beetle successfully traced the threat the Swiss Alps; the organization was masterminded by Maxwell Lord, who shot Beetle in the head. (DC Countdown #1)

Booster's personality seems to go through changes with astonishing and unpredictable frequency. Sometimes he's energetic, dashing, hip, handsome, and cocky. Other times he's immature, hyperactive, and excitable. His mood swings between these two extremes without rhyme or reason at times. For Booster, superheroing really is a business, and he'll use his powers and abilities to make a buck wherever and whenever possible; but he does have a genuine compassion for the innocent and downtrodden.

Powers

Originally, Booster's main abilities originated from the use of stolen artifacts from the Legion of Super-Heroes: a flight ring and force field belt. These artifacts have presumably been lost with the repeated destruction of his armor.

Each of his four suits of armor has employed different technologies and their capabilities were limited only by imagination. Flight and a force field remain the common elements, though.

Appearances + References

» FEATURED APPEARANCES:

• Action #594, 663

» SERIES:

• Booster Gold, 25 issues (1986-88)
• Extreme Justice, 18 issues (1995-96)
• Formerly Known as the Justice League, 6-issue limited series (2003)
• Booster Gold v.2, current (2007-)

» SEE ALSO:

• Conglomerate
• Unofficial Booster Gold Index