Secret Origins (Volume 2) #35 is an issue of the series Secret Origins (Volume 2) with a cover date of January, 1989.
Synopsis for The Secret Origin of Booster Gold: "From the Depths"
Blue Beetle is taking out the trash from JLI headquarters when he falls and items begin to fall out of the ripped trash bags. He is discovered going through a Playboy magazine he finds by Booster Gold. Booster is seen with memorabilia from several members of JLI, including themed character plushies, toy figurines, clothing, and lunchboxes amongst other miscellaneous paraphernalia. Beetle learns that Booster is planning to sell this merchandise without letting Max Lord find out about this after which he then asks Booster why he is so interested in making money. Booster explains in the future year 2462 he was a college quarterback playing for Gotham City University. His football player nickname is "Booster" due to prowess in the sport. A sports bookie named Snake Eyes tries to talk to Booster but he angrily storms off, telling the better he isn't interested.
Booster returns home to see his mother and sister (Michelle Carter). Booster is concerned for his mother's health which Michelle reveals is getting worse by the day and he also notes their father walked out on their family many years prior. Michelle tells Booster that their mother's health needs money to get better to see her doctor and pay for medicine. Booster pleads to wait a few more years as he would be making vast amounts of money as a professional football player but Michelle asks if there is something he could do for money now as she thinks their mother won't be alive in a few years. Michelle notes she is already working 2 jobs to support their family. The next day Booster seeks out the bookie Snake Eyes because he needs the money. Snake Eyes and Booster have prior history growing up together and Snake Eyes discloses that Booster's father was a compulsive gambler who lost all of his money and left Booster's family when he was 4. Snake Eyes tells Booster he can make a lot of money by keeping the score of his next game low; Booster agrees but says he won't throw a game. Beetle admonishes Booster for his decision and Booster agrees with him and notes that he only intended to illegally involve himself just the one time as his family needed the funds and he didn't know another way to make money.
Snake Eyes and his betting associates are pleased with Booster's performance, paying him and even offering him a bonus, which he uses to take his mother to the best doctors in Gotham. Booster and Michelle learn their mother has a degenerative disease and without speedy treatment, she will die. The treatment will be incredibly expensive and just as Michelle tells the doctor they cannot afford it, Booster tells him that they can and he will get the money. Michelle doesn't understand how Booster will pay for it and questions him about this but her brother does not inform her. The doctor wishes Booster luck at his next game and tells Booster he's betting on it. Booster's mood is visibly dark and angry. Snake Eyes informs Booster he will have to illegally involve himself in two games for the money he needs. After agreeing, Snake Eyes ends up only paying Booster half the amount they agreed on; not enough to pay for his mother's operation. Snake Eyes tells him his betting associates have decided to keep Booster working for them forever, paying Booster the money he needs if he agrees and blackmailing him by going to the police if he does not. Booster punches Snake Eyes in anger. He makes the money for his mother's operation but lies to Michelle and his mother that the money came from a special college grant. Booster's mom improves and since he later must continue to illegally work with the bookies without any need for additional money, he spends it on himself. Booster admits to Beetle he was having the time of his life. He began to bet on his own games as well and would buy his family presents with his new funds. One day, Gotham Vice shows up to the Carter family doorstep and arrest Booster for conspiracy to fix college football games. This arrest emotionally impacts his mother and Michelle greatly, as they are reminded of how Booster's father's gambling addiction nearly destroyed their family years prior. Booster's mother disowns him out of great shame and tells him that no matter what he does for the rest of his life, nothing will make up for this act of betrayal.
Booster gets kicked out of Gotham City University, acquires a plea deal for probation in court, and moves to Metropolis where he begins to work as a night watchman for the Space Museum. Booster views the 20th century heroes with intrigue and begins to dream of moving somewhere where no one knows him for his past scandal so that he can try to regain some of the fame, adulation, and power he'd lost. Booster decides to use Rip Hunter's Time Sphere to travel back to the 20th century but is accosted by Skeets who warns him that historic record of that century is incomplete. Booster shuts down Skeets and takes him inside the Time Sphere. Booster steals an alien power suit that grants him strength, gloves and control bands, energy rods, a Legion Flight Ring, and a force field belt. Beetle is surprised by this information and calls Booster a crook and a sorry role model for children.
Upon arrival to the 20th century, Booster uses his future knowledge to invest in stocks to make quick money. He begins to work and advertise himself as a hero and notes that all was going well until Michelle Carter came back to the past as well and died as the hero Goldstar and his agent Dirk Davis stole all of his money. Booster tells Beetle things will be better financially once he sells his various JLI memorabilia until Martian Manhunter arrives and tells the two of them that they will not be selling anything.
Appearing in The Secret Origin of Booster Gold: "From the Depths"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Blue Beetle
- Martian Manhunter
- Ellen Carter (Flashback only)
- Michelle Carter (Flashback only)
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Other Characters:
- Snake Eyes
- Superman
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Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "Martian Manhunter"
Appearing in "Martian Manhunter"
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Other Characters:
Locations:
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Synopsis for The Secret Origin of Maxwell Lord: "Climbing Back Out"
Appearing in The Secret Origin of Maxwell Lord: "Climbing Back Out"
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Notes
- "Martian Manhunter" is reprinted in Secret Origins of the World's Greatest Super-Heroes.
Trivia
- The Martian Manhunter's story shows that he learned very about our world by watching TV. This scene is reviewed in The New Frontier.
See Also
Links and References
