Michael Carter (Prime Earth)

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As a result of the New 52 in 2011, the entire line of DC characters was relaunched, incorporating properties belonging to the company's imprints: Wildstorm, Milestone, and Vertigo. As such, elements of this character's history have been altered in some way from the previous incarnation. For a complete list of all versions of this character, see our disambiguation page.

Booster Gold, real name Michael Jon Carter, is a straight forward-thinking, high-profile commercial time-traveling superhero from the 25th Century.

Origins

Born in the 25th century, Michael was a star college football player, who gambled on his own games to pay for his mother's medical bills. He intended to stop after his mother's bills had been payed but his dad forced him to continue this scam. He was eventually caught and banned from football. He then took a job as a night janitor, before robbing the museum he worked at and fled to the 21st century to become a celebrity superhero.^[2]

The Signal Masters

 Main article: Justice League International: The Signal Masters

Andre Briggs selects Booster Gold to lead his new U.N.-sponsored Justice League International. He immediately clashes over leadership with teammate Guy Gardner. Their first mission is against a race of giant robots called the Signal Men wreaking havoc across the planet.^[3]

Booster's leadership is called in to question when they retreat, but August General in Iron supports him.^[4] They investigate the threat underground in teams, and Booster works with Batman.^[5] The entire team is captured by the alien responsible, a world-destroyer named Peraxxus.^[6] They finally learn to work together as a team, and Booster leads them to distract Peraxxus in a brawl while Rocket Red reprograms his equipment. Peraxxus flees and they crash his spacecraft into Earth, declaring themselves victorious from the rubble.^[7] This success gets them public approval, and Booster delivers a passionate speech to the U.N. delegates. Briggs finally announces the JLI at a public debut ceremony.^[8]

The Death of Superman

He and fellow Justice League members Bloodwynd, Fire and Guy Gurdner attacked Doomsday during his attack on Metropolis but were defeated.^[9]

Breakdown

 Main article: Justice League International: Breakdown

Their public debut is attacked by a group of terrorists called the Burners led by anarchist super-villain Breakdown. Andre Briggs, Emerson Esposito and Rocket Red are killed in the explosion.^[10]

At the hospital, he fights Lightweaver, and Batwing rescues him.^[11] OMAC attacks the team, and they subdue then recruit him.^[12] In Paris, they help Jason Rusch take down a group of rogue Firestorms.^[13] They track down the Burners, but the League is defeated and Intersek manipulates Booster into taking down his teammates.^[14] Breakdown stages a public execution, but OMAC breaks them out and Booster helps August General take him down. He finally kisses Godiva to culminate their flirtation.^[15] At Rocket Red's funeral, they decide to continue the team without government funding in honor of his sacrifice.^[16]

Booster leads the team to regain U.N. approval, but they're disbanded when Brother Eye takes control of OMAC and destroys them. Using Skeets to infect his programming, he purges OMAC after the entire team is devastated. He's visited by a version of himself from the future who works with Rip Hunter as a member of A.R.G.U.S.. This future self warns him that Superman and Wonder Woman must be stopped, then both of them fade away into nothing.^[17]

Convergence

 Main article: Convergence (event)

Booster Gold and other heroes were teleported to an unknown planet by a being named Telos, who also kidnapped several other heroes from other universes to fight each other (at the behest of Brainiac).

Booster Gold, by complete chance, encounters Rip Hunter and helps him rescue his New Earth self and his sister's New Earth self from Deimos. He, Hunter and Goldstar then go to 31st century Metropolis and encounter the Pre-Zero Hour Legion of Super-Heroes.^[18]

Later, Telos regained consciousness and helped them defeat Deimos, but the energy he released would destroy the planet with them all. So with Brainiac's help, they were saved and Booster Gold was sent back to his Earth.

Booster Shot

When Superman seeks answers on the survival of his father and attempts to travel to the past while using the Cosmic Treadmill, Booster and Skeets arrive too late to prevent him.^[19] They follow after him using the Time Sphere and takes Superman out of the past to prevent history from being altered. However, he soon finds himself in prison in the future, sharing the same cell as his father who revealed Booster threw the football game for him. Superman would later break Booster out of prison and explained that he should spend more time with his mother.

After another attempt to travel the time-stream, Booster and Superman were captured by Zod after the Time Sphere broke.^[20] Zod, assisted by the Eradicator, prepares to torture the two. Skeets gets destroyed, leaving Booster devastated. However, Skeets downloads itself into an Eradicator who frees him and Superman. The three manage to escape back into the time-stream as time gets restored around them.

Booster manages to warn Superman that Lois and his son Jonathan get killed in the Middle East when they attempted to save Lois' father General Samuel Lane. They soon arrive to the time period and prevent their deaths, they later meet with Flash at the Watchtower where he berates Superman for stealing the treadmill and for attempting to alter the past. However, Booster revealed that he convinced Superman not to.^[21]

The Gift

During the Batman/Catwoman Wedding Arc, Booster Gold decides to rescue Bruce's parents from the past, convinced that it would make him a hero in his eyes. However, the new world is a doomed timeline so twisted that an Alternate Hal Jordan, corrupted by Joker gas, offs himself in front of Booster. Still insisting that this was a great idea, he accidentally frees a murderous version of Catwoman and together they murder Bruce's parents and the new Batman. Alternate Bruce Wayne, distraught, holds Booster captive and fixes his time machine, but instead of traveling to before Catwoman's rampage, they travel to when Bruce Wayne's parents were originally killed and fail to save them. Alternate Bruce Wayne offs himself in front of Booster. Booster tells Batman and Catwoman about his adventure, deeply traumatized by the events. ^[22]

Heroes in Crisis

Due to his trauma from the events of The Gift, Batman recommends him to Sanctuary to deal with his problems. Unfortunately, a massacre happens that kills most of the residents and he might actually be the killer. He is attacked by Harley Quinn, and narrowly survives.^[23] He is saved by Skeets. He later informs Flash about the massacre and is punched when he implies he killed Wally.^[24] He is interrogated by Wonder Woman about what he saw at Sanctuary. He is later freed by Blue Beetle.^[25]

Doomsday Clock

 Main article: Doomsday Clock Vol 1

After Superman is framed and rendered comatose, Booster Gold joined the group of heroes heading towards Mars to confront their mysterious enemy. The heroes meet and engage Doctor Manhattan, but they are easily defeated.^[26]

Blue and Gold

After helping fight off an invasion of the Beh'imoorians, the Justice League offers Blue Beetle a spot on their team.^[27] He refuses and starts Blue and Gold Restoration with friend Booster.^[28] The Beh'imoorian warlord Princess Omnizon attacked the duo two times, teleporting them to Beh'imoor,^[29] which they escaped with Rip Hunter's help.^[30]. The third Blue Beetle helped the duo beat a villain and they wanted him to join.^[31] Booster and Blue Beetle defeated Black Beetle and Batman helped their business.^[32]

Powers and Abilities

Abilities

• Athletics^[33]
• Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic)

Other Characteristics

• Mental Disorder: The events of The Gift traumatized Booster and it required him to be sent at Sanctuary for treatment.^[34]
  

Equipment

• Legion Flight Ring
  • Flight
• Power Suit
  • Superhuman Strength
  • Superhuman Durability: Booster's Power Suit allows him to take assault rifle's fire to the face with no damage.^[35]
  • Force Field
  • Gauntlets
    • Energy Projection
  • Visor
    • Enhanced Vision
      • X-Ray Vision
    • Enhanced Hearing
  • Time-Travel Circuitry

• Booster Gold was created by Dan Jurgens, first appearing in Booster Gold #1. However, in the rebooted Prime Earth continuity his first appearance as part of the DC Universe is in Jurgens and Aaron Lopresti's New 52 Justice League International series.
• In Justice League 3000 #12, Blue Beetle comments that Booster Gold is a time traveler from a period after the 31st century.
  • This seems to have been undone, with Booster being from the 25th Century again.^[36]
    

• Booster Gold Recommended Reading
  • Booster Gold (Volume 1)
  • Booster Gold (Volume 2)
  • 52 (Volume 1)
  • Justice League (Volume 1)
  • Justice League America (Volume 1)
  • Formerly Known as the Justice League (Volume 1)

• 170 Appearances of Michael Carter (Prime Earth)
• 138 Images featuring Michael Carter (Prime Earth)
• 26 Quotations by or about Michael Carter (Prime Earth)
• Character Gallery: Michael Carter (Prime Earth)

Footnotes