- "I am Booster Gold, the greatest hero you've never heard of... till now!" - Booster Gold, Booster
Booster Fame Fortune Front Page Gold (born Michael Jon Carter) is a showboating, fame-hungry "superhero" from the 25th century who traveled back to the past to take Clark Kent's place as Metropolis' hero.
Physical Appearance
Booster Gold.
Booster Gold is a tall and handsome man with a ready smile at all times. He keeps his blond hair cropped short and his face clean shaven at all times.
When he appeared in Booster, wearing his hero costume that he stole in the future: a blue and gold uniform made from what appears to be leather, designed with a blue star in the center of his chest, gold gauntlets with blue gloves that have gold mechanisms in the center that can emit beams of energy and blue boots. The costume is also covered in a series of corporate sponsors much like NASCAR drivers.
He often wears a pair of yellow colored sunglasses and what looks to be a hands-free telephone device that is in truth his sentient companion and time-line information source: Skeets, which he stole from a museum before coming to the early 21st Century.
Booster also wears a Legion ring that he admits he stole from the Legion.
Personality
- "Danger... is my middle name. So is fame, fortune, and front page." - Booster Gold, Booster
On the surface Michael Jon Carter is the stereotypical showboat: Arrogant, greedy and egotistical. Michael does whatever he can to gain attention, fame and riches. For him, it seems that the greatest thing in the world is an adoring fan and beautiful woman fawning over him. He initially seems to see heroics as a game and competition for attention, rather than a duty to actually help people with his abilities.
His need for fame has resulted in him ignoring the important stuff many times and do things that could be considered extremely unheroic and wrong. His greed resulted in his Football career ending and ego caused him to ignore Jaime Reyes' pleas for help. He also seems to suffer from an ironic level of low self-esteem, feeling he is not up to par naturally with real heroes like Clark. Hence why he resorts to over compensating and obnoxious means.
Beneath his bravado however, Michael does have the heart of a hero. He truly wants to be the kind of person that Clark Kent is as demonstrated by how he managed to talk Jaime down during his unintentional rampage with the scarab.
Powers and Abilities
While having no special powers on his own, Booster Gold was given a variety of abilities from the objects he stole from the future. He stole a high-tech suit, a Legion ring and Skeets.
The suit granted him the following abilities:
Booster shields Jaime from a car
- Force field generation: Booster can erect dense force field barriers: he created a golden force field around himself and Jaime to save him from being run over.
- Energy projection: Booster can, while wearing the suit he stole, project powerful energy emission beams from his hands capable of sending the Scarab armor flying.
- Super strength: He was about to punch the armor even though it survived being blasted 90 feet away meaning with the suit he has considerable super strength.
- Super durability: Booster is able to hold his own against Jaime's choke hold for an extended amount of time and apparently unharmed after Jaime freed him from the choke hold.
The Legion ring granted him:
Booster takes flight.
- Flight: Booster showed this ability when he flew away after saving Jaime Reyes from being hit by a car. He can fly exceptionally fast as he left a yellow trail behind him.
- Time travel: He used the Legion ring to go back from the future to our present time. Skeets aids Booster by telling him When and Where to arrive and uses the ring to time travel to that point of time and place.
In addition to his abilities, Booster also wears a stolen A.I. headset.
Skeets
- Skeets: an artificial intelligence unit that Gold communicates with. It has an unlimited amount of knowledge about the past. Skeets also acts as Booster's wireless headset, able to make and receive calls and take messages. He is also sentient as he is able to give Booster advice.
- Skilled hand to hand combatant: Booster has proven to be quite adept in unarmed combat he took down several armed soldiers by himself (Argo).
Early life
Sometime early in his life, Michael was a football player, who started to bet on his games and even lost on purpose in order to gain the bet money. As his life began to fall apart, he stole a Legion ring from the Legion and Skeets from a museum. Using the Legion ring he travels to Metropolis, 2011, to try and replace Clark in history as "The World's Greatest Hero".
Season Ten
Booster saves the day
Although he promoted himself as a fighter of justice, in reality, he left the future in pursuit of mega-fame and fortune. Arriving in downtown Metropolis, Booster arrives on scene just in the nick of time to save Jaime Reyes from a car accident before Clark has a chance too. Booster immediately begins to win the city over with his flashy costume, powers and charming personality to the media, however he knows the only way he can really make it big is by getting an exclusive one-on-one interview with Lois Lane, whom he calls a "hero-maker."
Booster wants Lois to interview him
Booster attempts to charm Lois into giving him an interview, he even tries to use the lure of temptation on Lois for a secured guarantee on nailing the Daily Planet job promotion she's up for. Lois turns him down instantly at the same time Cat Grant who's become a supporter of Booster tries to get interview with him but he's not interested.
Clark discovers that Booster made an agreement with Ted Kord to find a missing extraterrestrial technology that went missing during Booster heroic save of Jaime Reyes in exchange Booster would be handed the key to the city of Metropolis from the mayor. So he can re-write history and take Clark Kent's destiny as "The World's Greatest Superhero". Booster meets with Clark and reveals he knows his secret.
Booster tells Clark he's from the future
He tries and get him to reveal himself to the world public at the key to the city ceremony, but Clark refuses and gives Booster Gold inspirational advice about what it truly means to be a hero. Booster shows he is unconcerned with the details of heroism and explains as long as he arrives just in the nick of time to save the day everything will be fine. Clark notices the Legion ring on his finger and Booster reveals he's from the future. Clark warns him that by coming back in time he's altering history.
Booster takes on the Scarab armor
Booster reassures Clark that his partner Skeets is equipped with information him of impending accidents. He also says that he won't be needing the glasses or the suit because the world has the "Man of Gold" now. However Booster's presence has altered events and during the rehearsal he's attacked by Kord's armored weapon that's using Jaime as a vessel. Booster was at first afraid to fight the out of control Jaime, but Skeets convinces him to "Go big or go home", so Booster takes action. Unfortunately, the Scarab armor overpowers him and begins to choke the life out of him. Luckily, Booster gets through to Jaime, encouraging him to fight it, which allows him to take control of the armor and morph back to himself.
Booster talks with Clark about being a hero
After, Booster tells Clark that he regretfuls his actions and explains how he missed that feeling of being a hero and that's why he came back to the past to become a hero. Booster reveals his past to Clark and that he stole the suit, the ring and even Skeets and that his own sister told him the suit doesn't make the hero. Clark encourages Booster to be a true hero and take Jaime as his protege, to which Booster agrees. Before he leaves, he comments on Clark's current superhero name, The Blur, saying that he should change it into something more "super".
Later, he upgraded the systems in Watchtower based on his and Skeets' knowledge of technology from the future.
Season Eleven
Booster's Legion ring malfunctions during a fight with a monster.
In Antarctica, employees of WayneTech, Kord Industries and Michael Holt's company working on the Super Collider are running from something, when Skeets, in a new body, arrives to announce Booster Gold, leading to employees to admit they would rather have Kord's kid with the bug on his back. As they are fighting a huge monster arrive about to attack. Booster proceeds to attack only having his Legion ring failing to work because it detects no authorized user in the area. As the monster is about to kill him, Blue Beetle arrives and proceeds to scare the monster off. Jamie then checks to see if everyone is all right, leading Booster to shrug him off. As the Beetle and Skeets have a conversation of their own, Booster wonders what happened with the ring. Skeets then mention there would be one person who would know what has happened.
Booster asks Clark for help.
Later in the Daily Planet, Cat Grant reveals to Clark that he has a visitor, with Booster greets him with a joke. Clark then angrily pushes him to the rooftop, angrily confronting him on arriving at Clark's workplace. Booster then reveals that he knows about Clark's "hiatus" which Clark then wonders since Booster is from the future he knew about what was going to happen to Bart . Skeets then said their knowledge of the future is constantly changing. Booster throws Clark his legion ring and asks if he knows what a "Legion Protocol Six" is but Clark has never heard of it. The moment Clark touches the ring, the ring suddenly activates finding an "authorized user", causing Clark and Booster to suddenly disappeared in flash of light, leaving a very confused Skeets all alone. As Clark and Booster recovers, they wake up in a 31st-century war torn Metropolis with a destroyed Superman statue.
Clark asks Booster about his Legion ring.
Clark and Booster try to understand what happened to them and investigate Superman's fallen statue. Clark questions Booster how he could a get a Legion ring from the 31st century while himself was living in the 25th when suddenly Skeets appears revealing that he was waiting for them for one thousand years. While they are talking a burning spaceship which is on a collusion crash, is heading towards the city of Metropolis.
Superman catches the ship and lands it safely to the ground. Afterwards he greets his friends, Lighting Lad and Brainiac 5 who were inside the spaceship and they ask him how he arrived there unfortunately their reunion is interrupted by a squad of guards.
Booster asks Brainiac 5 to fix his Legion ring.
In the Legion safe house, Booster Gold asks Brainiac 5 to help him with his broken flight ring but Brainiac-5 seems not to appreciate Booster as a person and doesn't believe that he had ever hard-earned something in his life. Booster actually confirms that by revealing that he stole his Legion ring from a museum in the 22nd century, where he was working and that it was actually Superman's ring he stole. Brainiac 5 also confirms that except Kal-El's Legion ring, Booster Gold has also stole his faithful intelligence, Skeets and his wrist blasters. Booster Gold defends himself by saying that he had to "borrow" those things in order to become the hero he is now and asks Brainiac 5 to check the Legion's historical records so he can prove that he is a superhero too, like Superman. Brainiac 5 searches the records and finds no data on "Booster Gold", so Booster asks him to try "Goldstar", his previous alias, believing that he might return to it but Brainiac 5 can't find anything again. So Skeets suggests he might went under his civillain identity for posterity so Brainiac 5 searches on "Michael Jon Carter" but the only thing he can find is that he was a player in college football in the 25th century who was ejected from the sport because of gambling. Booster tries to find an answer on why there is no record of him but Brainiac 5 says that he might never succeeded to become more than a "fake" hero.
Booster reveals how he got the Legion ring.
An insulted Booster gets out of the safe house but Brainiac 5 follows and apologizes to him, saying that he shouldn't had been so harsh on Booster considering his past crimes as Brainiac. Then he says to Booster that maybe he shouldn't think he needs to have his blasters or his flight ring to be a hero and he should try to make a difference without superpowers taking for example Clark, who had succeeded to be a great hero even when he had lost his powers. Booster then asks him again if he will ever fix his ring and Brainiac 5 gives him a look of disappointment.
Booster Gold to the rescue.
Back in Metropolis, Booster complains to Skeets about how much he dislikes the 31st century, when he suddenly hears a girl screaming for help. Booster sees that EarthGov soldiers are hunting a female Legion member and he decides to come to her rescue. He incapacitates one of them, but another one shoots both him and Skeets from behind with electricity, rendering Booster unconscious.
Kirt Niedrigh tortures Booster for information.
Inside the EarthGov holding facility, Minister Kirt Niedrigh has captured Booster Gold and tortures him to get more information. Kirt is wondering why the Legion would accept a human like him in their ranks. He also wonders why he can't find any information about him in their history files but Booster says that he can't answer to that either. Niedrigh then reveals his scientists have separated Skeets into pieces and have found everything they wanted to know about Booster from Skeets' data. Niedrigh then calls him a liar and a thief and states that Booster needed Skeets from the beginning and he is nothing without his robotic partner.
Booster escapes captivity.
One of the scientists informs Niedrigh that they are ready to activate their plan so Niedrigh leaves the room but before he does he orders his soldiers to re-purpose the prisoners, leaving Booster promising to Skeets he will find a way out.
Booster joins the fight to save lives.
After Niedrigh leaves the room, Booster Gold begins to fight with the guards who had captured him and manages to escape along with Skeets, who informs him that situations are developing in both Metropolis and New Krypton. Booster Gold decides to do something about it.
Booster helps with rescue efforts.
With the gravity bomb activated on Earth in Metropolis, Booster along with Skeets commandeer a transporter ship and Booster decides that he'll use the ship to rescue the levitated citizens. He is joined by Kara and the entire Legion of Super-Heroes in the rescue efforts.
Meanwhile deep in space Superman engages Doomsday, flying him directly into the Sun while telepathically communicating with Saturn Girl, whom he gives certain instructions as he doesn't believe he'll make it out alive. He tells her to make sure that both Booster and Kara find a place in the 31st century.
Later, Brainiac 5 hands Superman his original Legion ring back declaring that it must remain in his possession a while longer in order for Booster to recover it in 25th century museum as history unfold.
Booster searches for clues in the supercollider.
Months later back in the 21st century, Otis Berg desperately tries to make his way out of the facility without Booster and Skeets, who are examining the supercollider for signs of sabotage, notice him. Booster, who is talking with his allies in D.E.O.'s facility, informs them that Clark and Lois were sucked in some kind of tear in reality, which Chloe identifies as the Bleed. Skeets says he is able to detect traces of unknown alien technology and they will continue tracking. While Booster tells them he will keep them posted, Otis finds the opportunity to get out. Booster then asks Skeets if there's anything in their historical database about Superman or Lois' disappearance, and the droid says there is not, even pointing out that he is having trouble accessing his archive. Booster can only express his distaste for the situation and continues his surveying.
Booster is in trouble.
Lex Luthor orders his henchmen to find Booster Gold and eliminate him.
Booster tries to escape from Luthor's security force.
Booster and Skeets listen in on the conversation, and Skeets tells Booster the fate of all reality now rests in his hands.
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Booster says that him and Lex are not that different.
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Lex decides not to kill Booster Gold.
Booster tries to escape from two of Lex's security force members, who are firing at him, and then he succeeds to overcome them and escapes to the outside. Unfortunately, he's ambushed by two others waiting for him, while a shocked Skeets observes them taking his master to Luthor.
Lex orders his Yellow Lanterns to torture Booster and then remove all of his gadgets so they can study them later. Booster remains defiant, despite his obvious pain. He tells Lex the two of them aren't all that different. They both want to be heroes, he says, but Lex can't shake his greed and ambition. Lex answers that, since losing his memory, he's yet to take a single life. He suspects he'll have to someday, and he doesn't want Booster to be the first.
Later the Lanterns suggest to kill the prisoners instead of keeping them locked up like Lex ordered them.
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Booster Gold and the others are saved by Skeets.
The Yellow Lanterns prepare to execute Ted Kord, Michael Holt, and Booster Gold, saying to them that it's not personal. Luckily, Skeets arrives just in time and attacks them with a set of cables that spring from its "body", distracting the Lanterns. Kord and Holt use the opportunity to incapacitate the men and then Skeets takes their rings. Holt and Kord help the beaten Booster Gold to stand up and comment that they might have been paying the wrong guy for the job, in which Booster Gold agrees.
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The Justice League attacks.
Superman delivers a rousing speech to the heroes. The other Earths might have been erased or rebooted but they are determined for their Earth to survive and their continuity to continue. With that Superman, Luthor and all of Earth's heroes attack the incoming Manhunters.
The plan goes into overdrive and the attack is immediately full on. They may be on a zero fatality mission but the Manhunters are not and Superman makes it clear if they are hit, they die. All the heroes are fighting valiantly and at the end they win the battle.
Appearances
- Season Ten: Booster, Dominion (Mentioned only)
- Season Eleven: Argo
- Smallville Miniseries: Alien, Chaos, Continuity
In the Comics
Booster Gold in the DCnU.
Michael Jon Carter and his sister Michelle Carter were born as twins to a loving mother and an irresponsible father in Gotham City in the 25th century. On their 4th birthday, their father left the household to pursue his true love, gambling, leaving a huge gambling debt behind for the struggling family. Michael became a football player in college, hoping that he would make it into the big leagues, when his mother was suffering from a debilitating disease that required a treatment that his family could not afford. Turning to the same vice as his father, Michael made bets and purposely threw games in order to earn enough money for the treatment. After his mother was cured, Michael was arrested and put in jail for gambling, instantly breaking his mother's heart.
After he was set free from jail, Michael managed to get a job as a security officer for the Metropolis Space Museum, where he saw images of superheroes from the 20th century that were legends in his time. Deciding to change his life and become a superhero himself, Michael stole some artifacts from the museum as well as the security robot Skeets and used Rip Hunter's time machine to travel back to the late 20th Century. It was there that he made his public debut, saving the life of the President of the United States from the Chiller as the new superhero Goldstar. Nervous, Michael misspoke on live television and got stuck with the name Booster Gold instead.
Booster Gold was a main player in the revamped Justice League International, run by Maxwell Lord, during the late 1980s. Booster teamed up with Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle, who quickly became a good friend, together causing some major trouble for the League and drawing them into some of their funnier adventures, including setting up a casino on a living island. Frustrated at the lack of respect he received from his teammates, Booster quit the JLI and formed The Conglomerate, though he would later return to the League's ranks. During the battle with Doomsday his suit was destroyed, leaving him no longer able to function as a superhero. Ted came to the rescue and built him a new suit, although it was much bulkier and tended to malfunction. During a battle with the Overmaster, Booster was mortally wounded, losing his suit and his right arm. Ted built Booster another suit, which also served as a life-support system and included a cybernetic arm.
After the death of Sue Dibny, Booster, becoming disillusioned with his fellow heroes, gave up the Booster Gold identity and returned to normal civilian life. This did not last long, as he teamed up with his friend Ted to find who was manipulating Kord Industries, an investigation that led to Ted's death and Booster's temporary hospitalization. During the following crisis, Booster brought together former team members of his version of the Justice League to help find the killers. After this group encountered a trio of O.M.A.C.s, which resulted in the death of Rocket Red and the hospitalization of Fire, as well as the destruction of the power source of Booster's suit, Booster left the group, claiming that he was going "home."
Soon thereafter, however, Booster reappeared, with a once-more functioning suit as well as Skeets, who had been previously destroyed, seeking the Blue Beetle Scarab. He found it fused to the spine of teenager Jaime Reyes, whom he promptly brought to the Batcave to aid in Batman's mission to find and destroy Brother Eye. When a ballostro brought a nuclear submarine into the middle of Metropolis, Booster tried to reclaim his lost glory by defeating the beast.
However, he had no luck until Supernova arrived to teleport the creature away. The submarine had been damaged and was in immediate danger of setting off a nuclear explosion in the middle of the city. Booster managed to lift the vessel in his forcefield and fly it out of harm's way. However, he was seemingly killed in the blast. It was later revealed that Booster had conspired with Rip Hunter and used his time-traveling capabilities to fake his own death. The Booster skeleton found at the blast-site was actually his desiccated remains from his death at some point in the future. Aware that his longtime robotic ally, Skeets, had apparently turned traitor, Booster secretly adopted the heroic identity of Supernova and traveled backwards in time to a point prior to his apparent "death" in order to ferret out the cause of Skeets' malfunction.
Booster returned to Rip's lab and agreed to work for him on one condition: that Rip will allow him to change history to save some people important to him, starting with the best friend he ever had. Though Booster and Rip manage to rescue Ted Kord, it is later revealed that with out the death of Ted Kord, Max Lord accomplishes his early plan in killing many of the DCU's heroes. Ted Kord then decides to sacrifice himself and returns to the time were he is killed by Maxwell Lord, in order to save the heroes of Earth. But Booster was not left alone, as Rip Hunter surprises Booster by rescuing Booster's sister Michelle right before she died in one of Booster Gold's early adventures.
It is later revealed that Booster is in fact Rip Hunter's father. Booster is unaware of this and Rip Hunter hasn't told him. Following the reboot of the DC Universe into the new 52, Booster was made a member of the newly reformed Justice League International and he was chosen as leader. Their first mission was to stop an invasion of Earth by the alien Peraxxus. Following this the team had to argue for their mandate against a skeptical United Nations but afterwards the team was given full approval. Soon after though and while being introduced to the public, the stage which the team was standing on was sabotaged with explosives and the subsequent attack left many of the team members hurt or worse. Booster escaped severe injury and pursues those behind the attack which brings him into contact with Batwing, with whom a quick alliance is made.
Notes
- Even thought his name is not revealed in Booster, Booster Gold's name is Michael Jon Carter and he is from 25th century's Gotham City according to Geoff Johns twitter. [citation needed]
- Booster Gold referred to his sister. In the comics Michelle Carter is the younger twin sister of Booster Gold who traveled into the past to be a superhero like her brother. She is known as the superheroine Goldstar.
- The show girls who are part of Booster Gold's campaign wear costumes similar to Goldstar's uniform. [picture needed]
- Booster Gold's claim to be from the 25th century doesn't explain how he got a Legion ring, as there is no way he could have acquired a ring from the Legion, who are from the 31st century. He would have to have lived over 600 years before by the time the Legion ring was made.
- "I am Booster Gold, the greatest hero you've never heard of... till now!" Booster's quote could also refer to the episode of the JL/JLU where Booster Gold and Skeets make their first appearance, "The Greatest Story Never Told"
Other faces of Booster Gold
External links
- Booster Gold - DC Comics
- Booster Gold on Wikipedia
- Booster Gold on Wikia DCAU
- Booster Gold on DC Database
- Booster Gold on Batman:Brave and the Bold Database