"Light up the whole damn sky, Daniel! This one's for the blue and the gold!"
— Booster Gold, 52
Booster Gold was the first major new character to appear in The DCU after Crisis on Infinite Earths. He first appeared in "Booster Gold" #1 (February, 1986), created by Dan Jurgens. Born in the 25th century, Booster Gold, born Michael Jon Carter, was a famous college football player, until he got caught betting on his own games. After that, his life was a wreck: he was disowned from his family, expelled from college and he couldn't play football anymore. It wasn't until he got a job at the Metropolis Space Museum as a security guard that he got the idea to go back in time to become a superhero and make a little money at it too. So he stole some equipment on display, Skeets, a security droid that he had befriended; and took a Time Sphere on a trip to the modern era.
Originally intending to call himself Goldstar, at his first public appearance he flubbed it, combining his football nickname Booster with his intended superhero name. To his chagrin, "Booster Gold" stuck. He gained a reputation for being a sellout, taking brand endorsements while performing superheroics. Booster went on to be a part of the Justice League International, where he met and befriended Ted Kord, the second Blue Beetle. Ted's death in Infinite Crisis led to Booster wanting to better himself and his image in the eyes of the world, but circumstances prevented that from happening.
After 52, Booster was the star of his own series once again, from October 2007 to August 2011, in which he roamed the timestream protecting history from enemies who — if they ever saw past his foolish reputation and realized he was the one foiling their schemes — would not only kill him but do it in such a way that Booster Gold never existed. So now instead of promoting himself, Booster had to do everything in his power to make people think he was an inept idiot, in order to carry out his mission to defend time itself. However, with the New 52 relaunch on the rise, this series — along with a number of others — was canceled. Booster was in the New 52's Justice League International series, though that was also cancelled with #12.
Surprisingly, the pre-New 52 Booster Gold has shown up now and again. Initially appearing to his New 52 counterpart, Booster disappeared — quite literally in this case — apparently as a result of Superman and Wonder Woman starting a relationship. He would show up a few more times, first in Futures End, then in Convergence. Following the DC Rebirth relaunch, this version of Booster appeared in the Action Comics storyline "Booster Shot", the Batman storyline "The Gift", and Heroes in Crisis ... although he's sort of presented as "the" Booster Gold, in one of many reversions to old continuity that the Rebirth Cosmic Retcon facilitated.
Following another Cosmic Retcon in Dark Nights: Death Metal, he is reuinited with Beetle in their own miniseries Blue and Gold.
He also frequently appears in Justice League, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and Justice League Action.
Rip Hunter, a frequent ally of the character (who is also his son), appears as a major character in the Arrowverse series Legends of Tomorrow, played by Arthur Darvill. Booster Gold himself finally appeared in the season 7 finale, played by Donald Faison.
In January 2023, a television series
starring the character was announced for HBO Max by James Gunn and Peter Safran as part of a slate of projects in their revamp of the DC Extended Universe.
And for the last time, he's not Green Lantern.
Tropes that can be found in Booster Gold:
- Aborted Arc:
- At the beginning of Volume 1, Trixie Williams was being developed to being Booster Gold's love interest; then, wthout explanation, after the 25th century story arc, she was abruptly shipped with Dirk Davis. Again, in the last issue of Booster Gold Vol. 1 (and after Dirk Davis was inexplicably revealed to be a villain), Booster confess his love to her, the two kissed and... he flies away. The two will share a few panels in the subsequent decades.
- Throughout vol 2 there was a lot of hints that Ted Kord had come back from the dead, after the second story-arc. This never got properly explored before Flashpoint.
- Action Dad: Booster after he adopts Rani
- A Day in the Limelight: Booster's memorable episode on Justice League Unlimited.
- An Arm and a Leg: Had his arm cut off in the 90s and had to use a prosthetic as well as a life support suit before making a deal with Monarch.
- Angsty Surviving Twin: Booster until Michelle came back.
- Arch-Enemy:
- Maxwell Lord, after he killed Ted Kord.
- Black Beetle in Booster's own series.
- Back from the Dead:
- Michelle, Booster's sister, thanks to Rip snatching her from the moment of her death.
- This happened to Booster himself back in the JLI, he died on the operating table but because of the situation, was (effectively) a zombie for about a day. Then Ted built him a Power Armor suit that would double as life support.
- Backported Development: Parallax makes a brief cameo appearance from his Zero Hours days in an early issue of vol 2, acting slightly more in line with the post-Green Lantern: Rebirth idea of Parallax being the Entity of Fear, rather than just Hal Jordan having gone insane.
- Badass Family: The Carters.
- Bad Future: Saving Ted from Max Lord causes one, with Earth under the control of Max Lord and Brother Eye, most of the Justice League dead, Superboy-Prime fighting the Green Lantern Corps, and Superman directly under Max's control.
- Barrier Warrior: Booster's suit is equipped with a force field, courtesy of the Brainiac 5 belt, able to withstand powerful impact forces and supplying air for no-air atmospheres. Also Goldstar in Volume 2.
- Berserk Button:
- Don't hurt Skeets. Plain and simple. Just don't.
- Don't bring up Bonnie Baxter around Rip, or taunt him about her erasure.
- The Big Board: Rip Hunter's chalkboard, which gives hints on future events in The DCU.
- Big Bad Friend: In Issue 5 of Generation Lost Max makes it clear that he still considers Booster a friend and warns him to stay out of his way.
- Blue Oni, Red Oni: Booster (Red Oni) and Michelle (Blue Oni) have a bit of this trope.
- Break Out the Museum Piece: Though the point of going to the 20th century is that these 25th century "museum pieces" are still incredibly advanced tech by our standards. Though the flight ring and force field belt are actually future tech, they were left behind in "modern" times by Brainiac 5 who originates in the 30th/31st centuries depending on the continuity.
- Break the Haughty: Booster in the 52 miniseries where he is revealed to have staged a super villain attack using an actor in Powered Armor to increase his reputation. He becomes a haughty Jerkass with a bitter hatred for the new hero Supernova and desperately searches for a chance to regain his superhero status. In issue #15 he manages to redeem himself just before he dies in a nuclear explosion with only his skeleton left. In issue #37 it is revealed that his fall-from-grace, apparent death and rivalry with Supernova (who is revealed to be Booster Gold using time travel) was all part of a plan to stop Mister Mind from destroying The Multiverse. He still hired the fake super villain to boost his ego, which was his actual lowest point, but that was before he learned what was going on and decided to turn himself around.
- Brick Joke: Early on in Vol 2., Doctor Thirteen and his associates appear complaining about Mister Terrific, and his jacket. Anthro expresses his desire for a jacket like that. Next issue, he has somehow managed to acquire one. And then several issues later, Anthro appears in the altered timeline, still wearing the jacket, much to everyone else's confusion.
- Brother–Sister Team: Booster and Michelle (alias Goldstar).
- Brought Down to Normal: During The Death of Superman, Booster, along with the rest of the Justice League at the time, nailed Doomsday with their full might, draining all of Booster's energy stores. When all that did was free Doomsday's body from his shackles, Booster got the worst of the pummeling, destroying his original suit.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: During a run-in with Jonah Hex, the two are interrupted by a man barging in to tell Hex he killed the man's brother and he's out for revenge. Hex nails him with a bottle to the head and resumes drinking. Booster asks him if this happens a lot, and Hex admits it's usually every couple of days.
- Butterfly of Doom: Features in the various time travel plots. Such as Max Lord taking over the world because Ted lived.
- Butt-Monkey: Booster gets the short end of the stick from almost everyone. Even Roy Harper looks down on him. When Max Lord messed with everyone's perceptions to ruin the former JLI members, he did nothing to Booster, which Skeets states is probably because Booster's reputation is so bad that any effort on Max's part would be "redundant".
- Call-Back: Many of Booster's solo adventures feature him traveling to various historic stories in the DC Universe, including the death of Ravager I, Barbara Gordon's paralysis, and more personally the death of Ted Kord. He tried to stop the latter two, but Barbara's future as Oracle was already set in stone, and letting Ted live didn't go very well in the long run.
- Cape Snag: After getting drunk, Booster admits to Skeets that the reason he abandoned the cape from his early costume was that a villain grabbed it, choked him with it, and then threw him around by it. After the fight was over Superman took the cape telling Booster he can't handle wearing one. Booster was more than embarrassed by this.
- Character Development: Booster's increasing popularity is largely the result of enormous amounts of character development following Ted Kord's death. A good measure of how far he's come? 1980s JLI had Booster as largely ineffectual comic relief. 2010's JLI has Booster quickly asserting himself as the natural leader.
- Chest Insignia: Both Booster and Goldstar share a simple blue 5 pointed star.
- Civvie Spandex: When Booster saves Cyrus's life at the end of the story, he adds a longcoat to his uniform.
- Chrome Champion: Peter Platinum, a self-centered hero that hails from the 853rd Century.
- Clothes Make the Superman: All of Booster's superpowers come from his costume and equipment.
- Closest Thing We Got: In his Justice League episode.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Rip inflicts it on Rex to get him to talk.
- Color Character: Gold.
- Come with Me If You Want to Live: Lampshaded. Ted Kord says the line, and Booster protests."You said I could say it."
- Continuity Nod: They're almost constant, since this series has the entire history of the DCU to play around with.
- Corporate-Sponsored Superhero: Booster has been this at various points in his career.
- Covert Emergency Call: Skeets comes with a "silent scream" that can alert his master of anything attacking him. The Linear Man in the Superman story arc Time and Time Again uses that to his advantage to lure Booster Gold to Metropolis so that he could capture him.
- Crossover Finale: Crossovers tend to be good and bad for Booster. While both of his ongoing titles to date have launched out of crossovers, his original series finished with a Millennium (1988) tie-in and his second series had its premise fatally undermined by Flashpoint and finished by tying in to its time-travel-based premise.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: The series revolves around this trope. Back in the day, Booster was a shameless glory hound (though his heart was in the right place) with a reputation for screwing up. Now, he's just the opposite: he's developed into a truly great hero, but his mission depends on convincing the world that he's still just an egocentric dope.
- Daydream Believer: When Booster suggests they make a pit stop in the 1950's, Rip answers, "for the last time, The Fonz is a fictional character!" Booster replies that Rip is just being mean.
- Deal with the Devil: Booster made one of these with Monarch to restore himself and regain his arm. For whatever reason this led him to sprouting Combat Tentacles.
- Demoted to Extra: Skeets, come The New 52. You'd be forgiven for thinking he'd been Put on a Bus entirely. He's reduced to being part of Booster's costume.
- Determinator: Booster, in spades. When Rip tricks him into trying to stop the Joker crippling Barbara Gordon, Booster keeps trying, even when he fails over and over, and Rip reveals there never was any chance of him succeeding.
- Downer Ending: Vol 2. ends with all of Booster's supporting cast getting erased from existence, Skeets being destroyed, and Booster forgetting all of them entirely.
- Dramatic Unmask: When we find out who stole the Supernova suit (but not the identity of Black Beetle).
- Disappeared Dad: Jonar. Though given what a nasty guy he is Booster's life would have been better if he stayed gone.
- Distaff Counterpart: Michelle as Goldstar.
- Dystopia: Any of the Bad Futures, but Booster's home time has a few elements of a dystopia. Fortunately we know that it's gone by the time of the Legion.
- Engineered Heroics: This was Booster's original motivation, and what he's been trying to redeem himself for ever since.
- Esperanto, the Universal Language: This is Booster's (and presumably Goldstar's) first language.
- Evil Counterpart: Maximilian to Skeets, the third Supernova for Booster. Maybe the Chronos Twins to Booster and Goldstar.
- Fake Defector: Booster temporarily defected to the Manhunters in the Millennium (1988) mini-series, although the whole thing was a ruse as he was using that role to help the heroes defeat the Manhunters. This cost him a bit of respect from his fellow superheroes, and it also cost him his fortune as his agent soon afterward ran away with his money, thus forcing Booster to become a full-time member of the Justice League.
- Fake Ultimate Hero: Or he would have been if anyone had taken his boasts seriously. An Inverted Trope after his character growth - he's a genuine hero whose effectiveness relies on almost everyone thinking he's still an attention whore.
- Faking the Dead: In 52, the not-death of Booster Gold is hidden by Booster Gold.
- Family Business: Being a Time Master is turning into this.
- Fan of the Past: Booster was a history major specializing in the Age of Superheroes.
- Figure It Out Yourself: Booster uses a variation on this, to his past self.
- Fish out of Temporal Water
- Flanderization: Booster Gold started as a well-meaning hero whose love of money often got him in over his head. Over the course of the '80s and '90s, writers forgot about the "well-meaning" part and turned him into a money-grubbing jerk. Thankfully, over the course of Infinite Crisis and 52 in the mid-'00s, DC built Booster back up, and now he's a genuine hero again—though the lure of fame and fortune still occasionally tempt him. Even better, he now intentionally acts like that, so no-one except Batman and Superman realises that he's grown into a competent hero in his own right, whilst he roams the timestream protecting history from enemies who — if they ever saw past his foolish reputation and realized he was the one foiling their schemes — would not only kill him but do it in such a way that Booster Gold never existed. So now instead of promoting himself, Booster must do everything in his power to make people think he's an inept idiot, in order to carry out his mission to defend time itself. Even before 52, some writers had started pointing out that there was more to Booster Gold than met the eye. At one point one of the other heroes muses that, being from the future, Booster must have been aware that Doomsday was a monster that was fully capable of killing Superman. And he still stepped up and took the first actual punch Doomsday aimed at a hero on his personal forcefield, to protect another member of the League. Both this acknowledgment and the moment itself hint that some people never completely forgot that Booster was kind of badass.
- Flying Brick/Flying Firepower:
- Flight: The Legion Flight Ring.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: Forcefield.
- Superstrength: Power Armor and/or Clothes Make the Superman.
- Eye Beam: Energy Weapon for the Beam part, and the Goggles Do Something Unusual for the Eye part.
- Plus the Time Travel Circuitry.
- For Want Of A Nail: If Guy Gardner became Earth's first Green Lantern instead of Hal Jordan, he'd have died of a plague, and then Sinestro would've formed the Sinestro Corps a few years early, eventually conquering Earth.
- General Ripper: During Flashpoint, Booster runs afoul of that reality's version of Nathaniel Adam, who never became Captain Atom and is instead a crazed elderly general convinced Booster is an Atleanean out to attack America, and who thinks unleashing Doomsday on Booster is a sensible idea, refusing to listen to Booster's pleas to stop.
- Glory Seeker: Booster Gold's original characterization, and 52. The latter was an act.
- Goggles Do Something Unusual: They have a targeting system built in, among other things.
- Going for the Big Scoop: Rose Levin, a reporter Booster saves in the opening arc of vol 2. She starts investigating, and winds up meeting Daniel, then gets drafted by Rip to fix the mess Booster makes of time. And learns she's going to end up marrying Daniel.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: Booster's Justice League Unlimited episode, the Trope Namer. Also part of Booster's most recent title, as he has to let history think he's an idiot in order to do what he does.
- Heroic BSoD: Booster, on learning that his only legacy will be the egotistical Peter Platinum. Michelle, when she finds out that she should have died.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In order to undo the damage his survival caused, Ted Kord steals the Time Stealers' time sphere and goes back to his death... though it's implied he somehow managed to survive that.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Booster and Ted.
- Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act: Remarked upon by Booster in one issue of the comic.
- Hover Bot: Booster's Robot Buddy Skeets, who's a floating ellipsoid.
- Identical Grandson: In this case, great-great-great (etc.) grandson: Booster bears a striking resemblance to Daniel Carter, his present-day ancestor, including personality and life experiences.
- I Have No Son!: Booster was disowned by his own mother when she realized that he was gambling, just like his father was. In one account of his origin story, he took up gambling in order to pay for an expensive medical procedure to save his mother's life, which made the disownment much more heartbreaking, with his mother saying she would rather have died than live to see her son take up gambling for any reason.
- In Spite of a Nail: In the second arc of vol 2, due to Booster's actions, time has been rewritten, but much of the events of Infinite Crisis still happened.
- Kid from the Future: Rip Hunter is Booster Gold's son, helping to shape his father become the man who founds an entire family of badass time travellers.
- Kill and Replace: Rex Hunter's plan was to do this to the entire Justice League.
- Legacy Character: Goldstar (Michelle Carter) since the first Goldstar was Trixie Collins (and it was the name Booster had intended to use). Blue Beetle — in fact it has all the Blue Beetles (including the futuristic Black Beetle) in one shot. Booster becomes Supernova, then gives it to Daniel Carter, and in the future Booster's father wears the suit. Additionally, it's been hinted that Rip would take up the Booster Gold mantle at some point.
- Legion of Doom: The Time Stealers, a group of villains out to rewrite time to their own ends, consisting of Per Degaton, the Ultra-Humanite, Black Beetle and Mr. Mind.
- A Lesson in Defeat: Rip tells Booster he's got a mission to prevent Barbara Gordon being crippled in The Killing Joke. Booster tries, and fails. And again, and again, and again. Eventually Rip pulls him out and says Booster could never succeed. Booster, understandably, is pissed at Rip for this.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Michelle regarding her death. When she finds out she is pissed.
- Lucky Charms Title: Booster's first series was spelled Boo$ter Gold. His second is spelled B∞ster Gold.
- Meaningful Name: Jonar means "He who tried and failed", and Rip Hunter, who 'hunts' for 'rips' in time that need corrected and makes sure things happen how they're supposed to.
- Mistaken for Gay: And not with Ted Kord. As part of a sequence of events, Booster offers to buy Guy Gardner (before he became a Green Lantern) a drink, which Guy refused, assuming Booster was hitting on him.
- Mona Lisa Smile: Courtesy of Michelle.
- Motive Decay: Shortly after the mantle of Supernova is passed on to Daniel, he decides to use to play videogames without having to take breaks, since the suit alone nourishes him.
- Mr. Vice Guy: In Booster's case, the search for fame and money.
- Mythology Gag: There's one to The Greatest Story Never Told in the comic. The Space Museum where Booster used to work? It had its own series back during DC's Silver Age.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Booster saves his best friend's life? World goes to Hell.
- No Hero to His Valet: In Booster's first series, Dirk Davis and Trixie Collins have this reaction when they find out Booster's backstory. Also Broderick.
- No Holds Barred Beat Down: The Joker does this to Booster, and Booster Gold and Superman have both beat each other senseless.
- Noodle Incident: Apparently Booster had an encounter with an overweight woman while drunk once. He's tried to forget it, but Skeets hasn't.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Booster was originally less than a muggle, he was a total loser: an ex-football player from the 25th disgraced by betting on his own games who ends up as the security guard of a museum. He steals a time travel device and a Robot Buddy and transports himself to present day... and has surprisingly become a great hero despite himself.
- One-Steve Limit: Rip Hunter and Rex Hunter have no actual relation to one another, and in both cases "Hunter" isn't their birth name.
- Powered Armor: When Doomsday destroyed his original costume, Ted Kord built him a suit of powered armor to replace his futuristic costume. However, the stupid thing wasn't perfect and prone to breakdowns. Even worse, Booster was forced to use it as life support after a villain nearly killed him.
- Punch-Clock Hero: At first, Booster was only interested in superheroics for the money and the fame (a bit understandably, since he screwed up his "
Hometown Hero" status back in the future). Across nearly all adaptations, he eventually acquires fame just as he stops caring about getting it. Well, mostly. - Putting the Band Back Together:
- Max puts together the JLI in Justice League: Generation Lost.
- When Booster messes up the timeline by trying to save Ted, they reunite the old members of the Justice League International to overthrow Maxwell Lord in an alternate timeline.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The JLI, for the most part.
- Recursive Canon: A depiction of Lex Luthor's childhood shows his father was called Lionel Luthor, who looked like that version of him to boot.
- Ret-Gone: Discussed by Rip, who says a precaution taught by Time Masters is never revealing your real name lest an enemy use it to kill you in the crib.
- A favourite technique of the Time Stealers. They inflict it on Rex Hunter when he gets captured, by going back to his childhood and murdering him then.
- It happened to Bonnie Baxter, who Rip had feelings for. Rex taunts him about it, and quickly regrets it.
- Happens to Booster Gold when Superman and Wonder Woman kiss. Of course, there is no way this means nothing bad will come of the event in the future, right?
- The Reveal: The mini-series Blue and Gold finally reveal the true identity of the Black Beetle: he's actually the Booster Gold from Earth-3, inspired to do villainy by the actions of the Crime Syndicate.
- Ring of Power: Booster's Flight Ring. Is the standard flight ring employed by the adult Legion of Super-Heroes, made of a particular alloy named "valorium", bestows his/her owner with flight abilities. It is the only piece of equipment stolen from the Space Museum that survived to the most recent version of Booster's suit unscathed.
- Ripple Effect Indicator: Booster's Justice League membership in the first arc of Volume 2.
- Robot Buddy: Skeets, for Booster. He's generally the most supportive of Booster, but he's not above sassing him as and when the need arises.
- Room Full of Crazy: Rip Hunter's lab in 52.
- Secret-Keeper: Booster discovered that Batman had the photos of him trying to help Barbara Gordon when he tried to prevent The Killing Joke. When Batman acknowledged that Booster has a more important job to do, he became Booster's Secret Keeper.
- Secret Legacy: Played with. Booster thinks that the only legacy that he's going to leave behind is the egotistical Peter Platinum. In actuality his legacy is that his family becomes the Time Masters. Also, in the Millennium event, it was revealed that Booster is a descendant of the Chosen and will aid in humanity's evolution; he still doesn't know about this.
- Sealed Good in a Can: Rip Hunter used to run with the Time Masters. He locked them away in Vanishing Point because he disagreed with their methods. Eventually, due to a complicated series of events they got out, and were kind of pissed at him.
- Selective Magnetism: Goldstar has this in addition to all of Booster's powers.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Part of Booster's current job.
- Set Wrong What Was Once Made Right: Sadly, another part of Booster's job.
- Shout-Out: He's not the only Jo(h)n Carter
- Silicon Snarker: Skeets, Boosters security droid and Robot Buddy who is generally supportive of him, but not afraid to throw in a few snarky jabs when he feels like it.
- Straight Man And Wiseguy: Booster was the straight man and Blue Beetle was the wiseguy. Then these roles were reversed.
- Sticky Fingers: Related to the Break Out the Museum Piece, Booster has a tendency to use things that are associated with other superheros.
- Superhero Sobriquets: The Greatest Hero You Have Never Heard Of! Previously the Corporate Crusader.
- Super Zeroes: Booster is thought of this way.
- Tarot Motifs: In Trinity, Booster makes an appearance in the Justice League Arcana as the 15th of the major arcana (the Devil, which represents over-attachment to material things - fitting for Booster).
- Tears of Remorse: What sent Booster over the edge at Blue Beetle's funeral was his inability to speak.
- Temporal Abortion: In the comics' second run, time-travelling hero Rip Hunter states that he is using an alias precisely to avoid the outcome of one of his enemies travelling back in time and preventing his birth.
- Tempting Fate: A drunken Booster tries to drive the Time Sphere, despite Rip's objections. Booster asks who he could possibly hit. Cue a fender-bender with the Flash's Cosmic Treadmill.
- Theme Twin Naming: Michael (Booster) and his twin sister, Michelle.
- Those Two Guys: For most of the '90s, Booster Gold and the Blue Beetle were Those Two Guys of The DCU. They practically never got up to anything important of their own, but often showed up in team books or other heroes' series, where they invariably got into trouble thanks to some Zany Scheme or another. This came to an end in the '00s, when DC remembered they were both heroes in their own rights, Beetle died heroically, and Booster went on to star in his own series again.
- Throw the Dog a Bone:
- After the sheer Hell Booster goes through in the first several issues of vol 2, Rip does this by saving Michelle and erasing one of Booster's greatest failures.
- Not to mention Booster's failed attempts to save Barbara Gordon's spine are found out by Batman, who states he'll stand by Booster from then on, and gives him some words of encouragement. That and Michelle's return shake Booster out of his Heroic BSoD.
- Throwing the Fight: Originally Booster was expelled from sports for betting on his own games; over time this has morphed into throwing games in order to get money to get his mother medical treatment.
- 13 Is Unlucky: Thirteen was Booster's Football number.
- Time Machine: The Time Sphere is of the TARDIS type where you can program where and when you want to go.
- Time Travel for Fun and Profit: He traveled back from the 25th century to the present, hoping to make a name for himself as a superhero (and make some money in the process).
- Too Dumb to Live: Rex Hunter thought it was a good idea to tell his bosses in the Time Stealers his true name. The minute he becomes a potential liability, they go back and kill him.
- Took a Level in Dumbass:
- Like most of the characters in Justice League International, he underwent a fair bit of Flanderization in the title. He started off as a fairly likable, competent hero in his own book, but got progressively stupider and more vain once he joined the Justice League. It's even Lampshaded in Formerly Known as the Justice League, where Blue Beetle points out that Booster used to be fairly intelligent, and accuses him of acting dumb and childish on purpose. Later on, it is confirmed to be (mostly) an act.
- He is somehow even worse when written by Tom King, often being entirely Too Dumb to Live.
- Translator Microbes: The Red Baron, Renaissance Italians, and Ancient Egyptians all speaking modern English seems like a lazy, irritating flaw, until the writers thought to add a quick line about Universal Translator Tech from the future.
- Unlimited Wardrobe: Booster has had a lot of costumes, here is a list of them.
- Warts and All: Despite his flaws, Booster really is the hero he presents himself as.
- We ARE Struggling Together: In the alternate timeline Booster and Ted stumble into, the first resistance they find is led by Hawkman and Green Arrow, who historically hate one another. A disastrous alternate timeline has done nothing to stop their petty bickering.
- We Will All Be History Buffs in the Future: Subverted. He doesn't actually know much about the history. This gets him in trouble a lot... This may be a Series Continuity Error as in his original origin story he actually studied history in college, specializing in "the Age of Superheroes". Although, it never said he passed...
- Wealth's in a Name: Booster Gold himself is inverted then played straight. Michael John Carter traveled to the past to become rich and famous, calling himself Booster Gold despite not actually being wealthy. He does eventually achieve the wealth, eventually founding Goldstar, Inc.
- Would Hit a Girl: In Booster's first Justice League International appearance. He justifies this by saying that his future is one of gender equality, meaning that female villains get the same treatment as men.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Downplayed. While it is possible to change some things in the past to affect the rest of the timeline, this can lead to a Butterfly Effect that can change everything; usually the only reason Booster can affect the past is because it has already been changed/is in danger of changing on it's own due to timeholes. The theorem of "solidified time" explains: some events in time become so important to future events that they cannot be changed or will happen regardless of inference. For instance, Booster can't save Barbara Gordon because if he did she wouldn't become Oracle, Blue Beetle still dies "officially" because then the events leading to Max Lord's death won't happen, which stops Infinite Crisis from occurring, which in turn means The Multiverse wouldn't exist.
