“Cold Redemption”
March 1986
Writer/Penciller: Dan Jurgens
Inker: Mike DeCarlo
Letterer: Agustin Mas
Colorist: Tom Ziuko
Editor: Janice Race

Booster is still on the ground. Reporters and onlookers start to speculate that maybe Booster Gold isn’t the hero he claimed to be, that maybe he should give up now. A Dr. Klyburn helps him into STAR labs.

Dr Jenet Klyburn first appeared in Superman #304, by Gerry Conway and Curt Swan.

We get a brief glimpse of Booster’s agent, who is furious with Booster for losing a fight in front of TV cameras. In Centennial Park, the mysterious woman who kicked Booster’s ass lands with the STAR gizmo. We see that to a couple of kids on a bench, she looks like a kindly old lady. She uses a secret entrance in the base of a statue to enter an underground lair. Her name is revealed as Mindancer, and she is currently part of The 1000.

Mindancer’s first appearance is Booster Gold #1. Created by Dan Jurgens.

This is the first appearance of the 1000. They are a newer version of The 100, created by Cerry Conway and first appearing in Lois Lane #105. In Superman #665, we learn that even before The 100, there was The 10.

Booster stops in at his agent’s office where they have a big argument, then Booster goes home. Skeets tries to give Booster some information on Blackguard and Mindancer by checking his historical records. Hmmm… bit of a clue there? Booster says he feels out of place here and he can’t even go home. More clues???

We get a curious interlude where a mysterious blonde woman quizzes some guy called Ciccarelli about The 1000, and then it’s the next day, and Booster is shooting a cereal commercial at the local prison (?). He gets harrangued over the “Booster Gold Trounced” headlines by his creative director Rose Forrest.

Rose Forrest – AKA Thorn – first appeared in Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane #105. Created by Robert Kanigher and Ross Andru.

Skip Andrews turns up, in case we’d forgotten about the exciting ‘Blaze Comics’ subplot, when the alarm goes off indicating a prison break. A chance for Booster to spring into action. It turns out its Blackguard being busted out by Mindancer. Skeets advises Booster he’s going to need his force field for this one!

We cut back to the shadowy guy with the nice lodgings. It turns out Boosters fingerprints show up nowhere. Likewise his face. “It is almost as though he never existed!”

Another strange interlude to show the chaos at the agent’s office, then its back to the big fight. Booster and Blackguard go toe to toe, while Skeets distracts Mindancer as he is unaffected by her powers. Blackguard is K.O.’ed, but Mindancer takes control of one of the prison guards and is tricking him into turning his machine gun on the crowd of onlookers. Blackguard is moving again, and claiming he is going to deal with “a computerized egg”, and just as Booster stops the prison guard from shooting there is an explosion. What has happened to Skeets? Find out next issue.
The letters page is an article by Dan Jurgens himself.

I do like how clues about Booster’s origin are scattered about the book, together with the mysteries of the shadowy guy and the blonde woman. It reals feels like we are building to something.