Back in September I was planning to show you my favorite page from 1994's Justice League International Annual #5 but I had to skip it because I didn't have the book on hand at the time. I have since rectified that and can now show you this, page 19:

You might be asking yourself, "how is this his favorite page in this issue?" Well, in addition to showcasing some of the best art in the entire issue (I wish I was kidding about that), page 19 gives this knock-off Booster Gold the most dialogue he has in the entire story. That's not nothing.

It may help clarify a bit if I explain that this one-off adventure presents an alternate-universe Elseworlds Justice League origin story. I'm pretty sure that "John Michael Carter" is an intentional garbling of the birth name of the familiar DCU's Booster Gold ("Michael Jon Carter"). I can't be sure about that, though. The whole story feels second-rate, like the writer was assigned a job he didn't really want and the artists didn't have the time or skill to do the job right. If you told me the transposed name was an editorial oversight, I'd believe you.

I'd encourage you to read the book and see what you think your favorite page is, but this issue is really not worth the effort. Justice League International Annual #5 is an artifact of the 1990s Chromium Age that spawned it and probably best remains consigned to the dusty longboxes of yesteryear.

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Bizarro Booster Gold made his first appearance on this day in 2010 in the pages of Supergirl #57:

And, one page later, also his last:

Oh, Bizarro Booster Gold. We hardly knew ye.

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To quote from his Wikipedia entry: "William Whiston (9 December 1667 – 22 August 1752) was an English theologian, historian, natural philosopher, and mathematician, a leading figure in the popularization of the ideas of Isaac Newton." Whiston also had a few irregular religious beliefs that would cause him trouble throughout his career.

For example, in 1696, Whiston published A New Theory of the Earth which argued that the Biblical flood of Genesis was caused by Earth passing through the tail of a very wet comet. He predicted that the Earth would some day end in a conflagration of fire brought the same way.

In 1736, when a comet was spotted in the skies above London, Whiston calculated that the time had come. He declared that the world would end on October 16 of that year. This predictably caused a bit of a stir in London, including a run on the banks. The Archbishop of Canterbury was forced to deny the prediction in order to calm the public.

As we now know, the world did not end on October 16, 1736. Whiston's reputation never recovered, and he remains one of history's controversial figures, alternately ridiculed for his heresy or respected for his courage to speak out.

But what if Whiston was really right about that comet? What if Earth was only saved because something or someone, say a time traveler with a time and space machine shaped like a bubble, was able to intercept and bump the comet, deflecting it ever so slightly to avoid the Earth and prevent an apocalypse?

That person would most certainly be the Greatest Hero The World Has Never Known.

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