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. 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.
Celebrity Booster is originally based in Superman's home city, Metropolis. He starts his hero career by preventing the shapeshifting assassin Chiller, an operative of
The 1000, from killing the
President of the United States and replacing him. With the subsequent public exposure, Booster signs a multitude of commercial and movie deals. During his career, his sister Michelle Carter, powered by a magnetic suit, follows in his footsteps as the superheroine
Goldstar. Booster is devastated when she dies battling creatures from another dimension. Amassing a small fortune, Booster founds Goldstar, Inc. (later Booster Gold International) as a holding company and hires Dirk Davis to act as his agent. During the
Millennium event, Davis reveals that he is a
Manhunter in disguise and that he siphoned money from Booster's accounts in hopes of leaving him no choice but to do the Manhunters' bidding. Although the Manhunters are ultimately defeated, Booster is left bankrupt.
Justice League Booster Gold is a key character in the late 1980s/early 1990s
Justice League revamp by writers
Keith Giffen and
J. M. DeMatteis. Booster Gold is frequently partnered with
Ted Kord (Blue Beetle), and the two quickly become best friends. The duo's notable appearances include a stint as superhero repo men, and as the minds behind the construction of a gaming resort, Club JLI, on the living island Kooey Kooey Kooey. After one too many embarrassments and longing for his old reputation, Booster quits the League to found The Conglomerate, a superhero team whose funding is derived from corporate sponsors. Booster and his team are determined to behave as legitimate heroes, but find that their sponsors compromise them far too often. While a member of this team, Booster makes a deal with the supervillain
Monarch who fully heals Booster's wounds so that he can once again remove his battle suit. Booster dons a new costume created by Ted. Skeets acts as its systems controller who aids Booster and is able to take control of the costume if Booster is rendered unconscious. Following the disbanding of Extreme Justice, this suit is destroyed.
Professor Hamilton subsequently creates a new one based on the designs of both the original 25th century costume and the energy containment suit Superman was wearing at this time. This costume is later tweaked to closer resemble Booster's original costume. Booster is badly injured in an explosion at Kord's home, and it is revealed that his companion Skeets has been dismantled for its 25th century technology by
Checkmate. In
The OMAC Project limited series, Booster Gold gathers the old
Justice League International heroes to investigate Blue Beetle's disappearance. At the series' end, he is ruined physically and emotionally, having destroyed much of his gear in the fight against the
OMACs. He has seen his friend
Rocket Red die in battle. He discovered that another friend,
Maxwell Lord, is responsible for killing Ted and that in fact, Lord always hated
metahumans and superheroes. In a moment of self-reflection, he realizes that if only he had bothered to recall more of what was history in his native era, he might have been able to warn his friends. Giving a farewell kiss to the forehead of his wounded teammate Fire as she lay in a hospital bed, he drops his trademark goggles on the floor and leaves, saying only that he has decided to "go home", implying a return to the 25th century.
Infinite Crisis In
Infinite Crisis, Gold resurfaces in the ruins of the
Justice League Watchtower on the moon, along with Skeets, again branded as a criminal in his time for "hijacking historical records". When Skeets fails to locate the absent
Martian Manhunter, Booster searches for
Jaime Reyes, the new Blue Beetle, whom he takes to the
Batcave. Booster tells
Batman the subject of the stolen records: Batman never finds
Brother Eye, but Booster implies that, with Jaime's aid, they can succeed. The mission is successful and Booster plays a pivotal role in the destruction of the satellite.
52 and Supernova In the aftermath of
Infinite Crisis, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman temporarily retire their costumed identities, and the remaining heroes attend a memorial for
Superboy in Metropolis after he is killed by
Superboy-Prime. Booster attends the memorial, but when Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman do not arrive as he expects, he suspects his robot sidekick Skeets is malfunctioning and becomes hysterical. After Skeets reports other incorrect historical data, Booster searches fellow time traveler
Rip Hunter's desert bunker for answers, finding it littered with enigmatic scrawled notes. Booster finds photos of himself and Skeets surrounded by the words "his fault" with arrows pointing toward them.
One Year Later Following the events of
52, Booster Gold returns in his second solo series with the first story arc "52 Pick-Up". Booster puts in a request to the Justice League that they admit him and the group begrudgingly decide to monitor him over the following week. However, Rip Hunter informs Booster that history has become malleable after
Mister Mind's rampage and damage to the timeline.
Blackest Night In a tie-in to the
Blackest Night event, Booster faces Ted Kord who has been reanimated as a
Black Lantern. At first unavailable due to reliving Ted's funeral in the past, he returns to meet his ancestor Daniel Carter, only to find the crashed, derelict Bug at his house. Then, he finds Kord pummeling Jaime Reyes, Daniel, and Skeets. Attacked by him, he removes Daniel and Rose from the scene and heads to Kord Industries to arm himself. He uses a special light gun designed by Ted to blast the corpse and separate the ring with light, simulating the emotional spectrum. Upon separating the corpse from the ring, he collects Ted's remains before the ring can reanimate them and takes them into the Time Sphere to Vanishing Point Fortress to secure them. He is somewhat relieved when Skeets uses the Fortress's special chronal surveillance equipment to display images of the days of Team Blue and Gold. Jaime promises to live up to Kord's legacy and eventually form a new Blue and Gold team. They find evidence at the warehouse of someone else entering, even though the doors were genetically coded, with only two people cleared for access: Ted and Booster.
Brightest Day Booster next finds his sister living in Coast City mere hours before its destruction. Though unable to save her boyfriend, Booster and Michelle patch up their relationship, with her agreeing not to leave him. This arc introduces an older Booster Gold, the man that trained Rip Hunter and was the master of both Time, the
multiverse, and
Hypertime. Rip reveals that this Booster is not only his father, but also has been watching Rip training the young Booster Gold, aiding him when needed. Older Booster also reveals that he is still married to Rip's mother, and that Michelle is with them in some unknown time. In
Justice League: Generation Lost, Booster is part of the manhunt to bring the resurrected Maxwell Lord to justice. He finds Max but is beaten badly. Fire, Ice, and Captain Atom find him just as Lord uses his psychic powers to the utmost to erase all memory of himself from the minds of the entire world. For some reason, Booster, Fire, Ice, and Atom are the only ones who remember Lord and see him in recorded images. Trying to convince Batman (
Dick Grayson), Booster is horrified to learn that, thanks to Max, the world believes Ted committed suicide. Fire, Ice, and Captain Atom are soon set up by Max to cut them off from allies, but Booster is left alone because his reputation is already poor.
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".
DC Rebirth In 2016, DC Comics implemented a relaunch of its books called "
DC Rebirth", which restored its continuity to a form much as it was prior to the New 52. Booster Gold and Skeets return in
Action Comics #992. Later, after traveling through a time rift, Booster Gold absorbed a significant amount of "Omega Energy" and was thrown into a post-apocalyptic future where he was captured and tortured by
Darkseid's forces for two years. The
Time Trapper, who was working to stop Darkseid's ascendance, directed Superman and Superboy-Prime to this future to save Booster Gold. The two Kryptonians fought the Darkseid Legion, a version of the Legion of Super-Heroes under Darkseid's control, and successfully freed the weakened yet Omega Energy-infused Booster Gold, bringing him back to the present. While it was previously thought that the heroes saved Booster, it is implied that Darkseid had taken his form and infiltrated the heroes' ranks to manipulate the tournament from within and ensure his own victory as "King Omega". ==Other versions==