In this week’s issue of Action Comics, Superman and Booster Gold find themselves transported to Gotham City in the 25th Century, visiting Booster’s hometown and home timeline after having been spat out of the timestream. When he gets there, Booster runs into a couple of people he recognizes — and one that long-time fans of the character will doubtless be familiar with: Broderick.
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The character, created by Dan Jurgens (who also writes Action Comics right now — go figure!), has not been seen for decades.
Broderick, who appeared in the 1980s and was a major anagonist in Booster Gold’s first ongoing series, is a federal agent who stalked Booster back to the past, dead-set on bringing the hero back to his proper time to face the death penalty.
(For relatively obvious reasons, time travel is a huge no-no in the future.)
What ultimately saved Booster wasn’t beating Broderick up, but making him realize that, for whatever reason, Booster was not breaking time but fulfilling his destiny by traveling back.
Broderick was blinded by his own investment in the case: after all, before he became Booster Gold, Michael Jon Carter was a college football player booted from the league for corruption. As a big football fan, Broderick hated Carter even before he traveled through time.
In the 20th Century, eventually Skeets — a security droid from the future who serves as Booster’s confidant and sidekick — managed to convince Broderick to leave them alone by showing Broderick 25th Century historical documents that proved Booster Gold being in the 20th Century was always part of the historical gameplan.
Broderick was a major part of the first Booster Gold series, but never reappeared after it was over. Creator Dan Jurgens, who wrote and drew Booster Gold vol. 1, told ComicBook.com in 2015 that he would have expanded the character’s role, and introduced him earlier, if he had the story to tell over again.
Of course, in the post-Rebirth continuity, Action Comics #995 represents the first canonical look at Booster’s origin…and Jurgens has baked Broderick right into it, effectively planting him there from the beginning.
Action Comics #995 is available today. You can get it at your local comic shop or buy a digital copy here.
