‘Batman’ Writer Teases “HUGE” Things for Booster Gold

Booster Gold’s arc in Batman might be over, but writer Tom King isn’t done with the Greatest Hero You’ve Never Heard Of yet.

Spoilers for Batman #47 below.

Earlier today, a fan asked King on Twitter if Booster would be showing up in other places around the DCU now that “The Gift” ended in Batman #47 this week and King responded that “huge” things were coming for the hero.

“Yes! This is the beginning of HUGE Booster story that puts him at the center of the DCU. More announcements coming…” King wrote. He followed it up to explain that his goal was to give the character “the popularity and respect he deserves”.

Getting to that point may be trying for fans, though. Booster most recently showed up in Batman as part of the lead up to the big Batman/Catwoman wedding event this summer. In “The Gift”, Booster comes to Gotham to give Bruce Wayne an incredible wedding gift: he has gone back in time to save Bruce’s parents so that he could learn the lesson that even though terrible things happen, they work out for the best — a well-intentioned version of the Superman story “For The Man Who Has Everything”. Unfortunately, despite this alternative world being a mess and thus proving Booster’s point, it doesn’t go over well. Bruce decides that he doesn’t want to go back to the “real” world, so he destroys Skeets, locking in this twisted reality.

While things manage to get worked out — with the wedding coming just three issues from now in Batman #50 readers knew they would have to — Booster ends up in a very dark place. Booster manages to go back in time to the night Bruce’s parents were murdered originally. However, the alternative Bruce Wayne is with him and, as an adult, witnesses their deaths. It sends Bruce over the edge. He shoots himself in the head right in front of Booster. Splattered with blood, Booster breaks as well. The issue ends with the well-intentioned hero unable to stop cleaning his glasses, unable to see anything but the blood.

While King didn’t reveal what he has planned for the hero — he did tweet that he’s already written the story and it is now in the drawing phase — he may have already revealed where Booster is going next. During a panel at the DC in DC event, King revealed that DC would have a place for heroes to deal with the PTSD they experience — Sanctuary.

“Every DC comics is full of violence,” King said then. “It’s fun and exciting and I love reading about that, but we do talk about the consequences of that, both on the characters and the readers, and they asked me to think about that and do something with it. And we are. We’ve created something, it’s called Sanctuary. We’re creating something where it’s sort of like a crisis center for superheroes. And it’s going to be DC wide, all the superheroes and it’s going to be a place where these superheroes who are living violent lives every single day — Batman gets in a fight every single night, five times a night.”

“And so, we’re creating this space where superheroes can go that sort of mimics the good work people are doing for veterans around the world where they can have a space where they can actually admit that this violence has had consequences for them and has affected them mentally, so that your greatest heroes, who are inspiring our children, can say proudly: yes, I’ve had some mental difficulties, and yes, working with people has helped me through them. And we don’t hide behind that,” King said.

Given how traumatized Booster is in the last panel of Batman #47, he seems like a perfect fit for Sanctuary to us.

Batman #47 is available now.