Background
Real Name: Michael Jon Carter
Age: 35
Height: 6’5”
Weight: 215 lbs.
aka Goldstar, Supernova, Waverider
Best buddies with the second Blue Beetle, Ted Kord
Ronald Reagan came up with his superhero name after mishearing Booster stammered through saying his name was “Goldstar.”
Eventually became Waverider, basically the god and protector of time.
Michael Carter was an exceptionally gifted Gotham University football player...in the 25th century. He was nicknamed “Booster” for his speed and skill, and he had a bright future ahead of him. However, his mother took ill with a disease that Michael’s relatively poor family couldn’t afford to treat, so Michael took to betting on his own games in order to make ends meet. He was eventually caught and put in prison, his bright future seemingly eliminated. Once he got out, he got a job as a security guard at the Metropolis Space Museum and, upon discovering the exhibit on 20th century superheroes, was inspired to become a superhero himself and rebuild the future he lost. To do so, he stole a Legion flight ring, a force field belt, a power suit, and Rip Hunter’s Time Sphere, and travelled back in time to the 20th century with a security robot named Skeets in tow. There he established himself as a superhero in Metropolis.
However, his heroics were not entirely altruistic. He used his knowledge of future events to win big in the stock market, and founded his own company, Goldstar, Inc. to basically serve as a PR firm and merchandising house, profiting off his heroic stunts. This annoyed other heroes like Superman, who viewed Booster as an empty grandstander. As time went on though, Booster battled actual threats like the criminal organization The 1000 and was forced to mature or die. He even joined the Justice League International and met his soon-to-be best friend Ted Kord, the second Blue Beetle.
Eventually he was contracted by Rip Hunter to become a guardian of the time stream, but at the expense of going down in history as a fraud hero only in it for the greenbacks. He accepted and journey with Rip across time and space, even saving the entire multiverse from Mister Mind. As the years passed, Booster would grow to be a seasoned adventurer and protector of all reality. Eventually he fathered a son (who would grow up to be his own mentor, Rip Hunter), before succumbing to chronal radiation. His body was taken to the Vanishing Point and became one with the chronal energy that was killing him, turning him into the new Waverider, the god-like protector of the time stream.
Booster served as a superhero centered primarily in Metropolis for several years. Although he’s never had a particularly strong rogues’ gallery, he has extensive experience with the League and other teams including Extreme Justice and the Super Buddies (yes, that’s what it’s called), and even led the JLI in the New 52. He kept adventuring across time and space for 15 years and becomes far more seasoned and experienced in that time.
Accomplishments
Despite being a solidly C-tier superhero in DC Comics, and even being considered as such in-canon, Booster’s accomplishments are deceptively impressive, including:
Single-handedly taking on the Metropolis-based crime syndicate The 1000, and defeating its head, the Director (who was secretly a senator who tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan), in hand-to-hand combat after losing his suit’s power and functions.
Saved the world and most of Earth’s heroes and villains from a Starro invasion.
Killed Rex Hunter, who at the time was composed of chronal energy and was causing temporal anomalies.
Defeated a god-ified Mister Mind (a mind-controlling supergenius caterpillar who’s usually a Captain Marvel villain) and saved the entire multiverse.
Became the leader of the Justice League International in the New 52.
Rejected an offer to become a member of the JLA, instead choosing to protect the time stream instead of embracing fame and fortune, truly becoming “the greatest hero the world has never known!”
Eventually became the god-like Waverider, guardian of the timestream and reality.
Booster’s Power Suit is skin tight and lightweight while also greatly enhancing his natural strength, speed, and durability to superhuman levels. With it he can easily lift weights in excess of several tons, react to things he normally could not, and survive attacks that would normally obliterate him, even without his force field turned on. He has had multiple versions of the suit throughout the years, but all are basically the same (save for some really cringey looking bulked-out armors during the mid-90s).
Energy Gauntlets
His main offensive tool is his gauntlets attached to his arms, both of which house his suit’s power source, 25th century energy cells, and both of which can fire powerful unidirectional energy blasts. These blasts are called “Booster Shots” and their intensity can be adjusted from simply stunning an opponent to outright killing most at full power. He can max out his gauntlets’ power and channel it back into his suit in order to give himself a physical boost, though this could potentially kill him if used for too long. He can also channel his gauntlets’ energy through his suit to shock anything touching him.
Time Travel Circuitry
Although he used to use Rip Hunter’s Time Sphere to travel through time, he eventually integrated time travel circuitry into his suit, allowing him to warp backwards and forwards through time at will. Aside from the obvious strategic value of being able to appear at a fight before it happens, Booster has also used it to on occasion gather other versions of himself from different points in time to fight with him.
Also of note, his future self developed a device that allowed him to stop time entirely and added it to his suit, allowing him to do so at will.
Goggles
His goggles allow him to see through walls, switch to heat vision to detect invisible targets, infrared for operating in darkness, and were once tough enough to protect him from being possessed by Starro.
Legion Flight Ring
A ring originally belonging to members of the Legion of Superheroes, it allows Booster unlimited and extremely high-speed flight, enough to keep up with ultra-fast beings like Superman, Martian Manhunter, and the Flash. If removed from Booster’s finger he’ll lose his flight, but if it’s close enough to him, he can control it telekinetically and force it back on.
Force Field Belt
Easily Booster’s single most useful and powerful piece of his arsenal, his Force Field Belt, which originally belonged to Brainiac-5 of the 30th century, forms an impenetrable barrier of energy around Booster’s body even protecting against microscopic bacteria. Not only does it protect from physical and energy damage, it resists more esoteric attacks like matter manipulation and even telepathy. While a powerful enough telepathic attack can overpower his force field, it has stood up against Maxwell Lord, who once mindwiped the Earth so thoroughly that everyone on the planet forgot his entire existence to the point that video footage of him would appear as someone else.
Booster can also project his force field outward to surround and protect others, or to do so offensively, usually covering an opponent, then shrinking the force field until it crushes them. He once did this to a cloud of bacteria and packed them so tight they baked themselves into ash. He can also increase the size of his force field and surround it with electricity to shock enemies. It’s also worth noting that his force field activates extremely quickly, able to raise itself to cover Booster fast enough to intercept a punch from Doomsday, a character that can fight at massively faster than light speeds.
Mass Dispersion Field
Probably his least-used but arguably deadlies ability is his mass dispersion field which surrounds his body similar to his force field, but instead of blocking attacks, it absorbs any matter it touches and can either redirect it and project it back out, or rearrange its molecules and merge it with other objects. Obviously if applied to a human this could be extremely deadly. Of note, it can also absorb energy, like that of a Green Lantern’s. As useful as it is, using it too much will deplete his force field’s energy, making it more of a last resort kind of attack.
Booster’s eventual transformation into the time god Waverider. It technically only appears in one issue and he doesn’t have a lot of feats as Waverider, but it’s not simply a one-time power up. It is in-canon Booster’s eventual permanent transformation in the future. He has similar time-based powers but now supercharged into god mode. It could make sense that Waverider could hypothetically appear alongside the present version of Booster to defend him.
Michael Carter was an exceptionally gifted Gotham University football player...in the 25th century. He was nicknamed “Booster” for his speed and skill, and he had a bright future ahead of him. However, his mother took ill with a disease that Michael’s relatively poor family couldn’t afford to treat, so Michael took to betting on his own games in order to make ends meet. He was eventually caught and put in prison, his bright future seemingly eliminated. Once he got out, he got a job as a security guard at the Metropolis Space Museum and, upon discovering the exhibit on 20th century superheroes, was inspired to become a superhero himself and rebuild the future he lost. To do so, he stole a Legion flight ring, a force field belt, a power suit, and Rip Hunter’s Time Sphere, and travelled back in time to the 20th century with a security robot named Skeets in tow. There he established himself as a superhero in Metropolis.
However, his heroics were not entirely altruistic. He used his knowledge of future events to win big in the stock market, and founded his own company, Goldstar, Inc. to basically serve as a PR firm and merchandising house, profiting off his heroic stunts. This annoyed other heroes like Superman, who viewed Booster as an empty grandstander. As time went on though, Booster battled actual threats like the criminal organization The 1000 and was forced to mature or die. He even joined the Justice League International and met his soon-to-be best friend Ted Kord, the second Blue Beetle.
Eventually he was contracted by Rip Hunter to become a guardian of the time stream, but at the expense of going down in history as a fraud hero only in it for the greenbacks. He accepted and journey with Rip across time and space, even saving the entire multiverse from Mister Mind. As the years passed, Booster would grow to be a seasoned adventurer and protector of all reality. Eventually he fathered a son (who would grow up to be his own mentor, Rip Hunter), before succumbing to chronal radiation. His body was taken to the Vanishing Point and became one with the chronal energy that was killing him, turning him into the new Waverider, the god-like protector of the time stream.
Experience
Length of TimeBooster served as a superhero centered primarily in Metropolis for several years. Although he’s never had a particularly strong rogues’ gallery, he has extensive experience with the League and other teams including Extreme Justice and the Super Buddies (yes, that’s what it’s called), and even led the JLI in the New 52. He kept adventuring across time and space for 15 years and becomes far more seasoned and experienced in that time.
Accomplishments
Despite being a solidly C-tier superhero in DC Comics, and even being considered as such in-canon, Booster’s accomplishments are deceptively impressive, including:
Single-handedly taking on the Metropolis-based crime syndicate The 1000, and defeating its head, the Director (who was secretly a senator who tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan), in hand-to-hand combat after losing his suit’s power and functions.
Saved the world and most of Earth’s heroes and villains from a Starro invasion.
Killed Rex Hunter, who at the time was composed of chronal energy and was causing temporal anomalies.
Defeated a god-ified Mister Mind (a mind-controlling supergenius caterpillar who’s usually a Captain Marvel villain) and saved the entire multiverse.
Became the leader of the Justice League International in the New 52.
Rejected an offer to become a member of the JLA, instead choosing to protect the time stream instead of embracing fame and fortune, truly becoming “the greatest hero the world has never known!”
Eventually became the god-like Waverider, guardian of the timestream and reality.
Arsenal
Power SuitBooster’s Power Suit is skin tight and lightweight while also greatly enhancing his natural strength, speed, and durability to superhuman levels. With it he can easily lift weights in excess of several tons, react to things he normally could not, and survive attacks that would normally obliterate him, even without his force field turned on. He has had multiple versions of the suit throughout the years, but all are basically the same (save for some really cringey looking bulked-out armors during the mid-90s).
Energy Gauntlets
His main offensive tool is his gauntlets attached to his arms, both of which house his suit’s power source, 25th century energy cells, and both of which can fire powerful unidirectional energy blasts. These blasts are called “Booster Shots” and their intensity can be adjusted from simply stunning an opponent to outright killing most at full power. He can max out his gauntlets’ power and channel it back into his suit in order to give himself a physical boost, though this could potentially kill him if used for too long. He can also channel his gauntlets’ energy through his suit to shock anything touching him.
Time Travel Circuitry
Although he used to use Rip Hunter’s Time Sphere to travel through time, he eventually integrated time travel circuitry into his suit, allowing him to warp backwards and forwards through time at will. Aside from the obvious strategic value of being able to appear at a fight before it happens, Booster has also used it to on occasion gather other versions of himself from different points in time to fight with him.
Also of note, his future self developed a device that allowed him to stop time entirely and added it to his suit, allowing him to do so at will.
Goggles
His goggles allow him to see through walls, switch to heat vision to detect invisible targets, infrared for operating in darkness, and were once tough enough to protect him from being possessed by Starro.
Legion Flight Ring
A ring originally belonging to members of the Legion of Superheroes, it allows Booster unlimited and extremely high-speed flight, enough to keep up with ultra-fast beings like Superman, Martian Manhunter, and the Flash. If removed from Booster’s finger he’ll lose his flight, but if it’s close enough to him, he can control it telekinetically and force it back on.
Force Field Belt
Easily Booster’s single most useful and powerful piece of his arsenal, his Force Field Belt, which originally belonged to Brainiac-5 of the 30th century, forms an impenetrable barrier of energy around Booster’s body even protecting against microscopic bacteria. Not only does it protect from physical and energy damage, it resists more esoteric attacks like matter manipulation and even telepathy. While a powerful enough telepathic attack can overpower his force field, it has stood up against Maxwell Lord, who once mindwiped the Earth so thoroughly that everyone on the planet forgot his entire existence to the point that video footage of him would appear as someone else.
Booster can also project his force field outward to surround and protect others, or to do so offensively, usually covering an opponent, then shrinking the force field until it crushes them. He once did this to a cloud of bacteria and packed them so tight they baked themselves into ash. He can also increase the size of his force field and surround it with electricity to shock enemies. It’s also worth noting that his force field activates extremely quickly, able to raise itself to cover Booster fast enough to intercept a punch from Doomsday, a character that can fight at massively faster than light speeds.
Mass Dispersion Field
Probably his least-used but arguably deadlies ability is his mass dispersion field which surrounds his body similar to his force field, but instead of blocking attacks, it absorbs any matter it touches and can either redirect it and project it back out, or rearrange its molecules and merge it with other objects. Obviously if applied to a human this could be extremely deadly. Of note, it can also absorb energy, like that of a Green Lantern’s. As useful as it is, using it too much will deplete his force field’s energy, making it more of a last resort kind of attack.
Abilities
Booster is a more or less a normal human. Granted, he is a gifted athlete with a basic understanding of hand to hand combat and a fair amount of gymnastic training and acrobatics which has helped him out when his suit has failed him but other than that he an average human with no super powers...Other
WaveriderBooster’s eventual transformation into the time god Waverider. It technically only appears in one issue and he doesn’t have a lot of feats as Waverider, but it’s not simply a one-time power up. It is in-canon Booster’s eventual permanent transformation in the future. He has similar time-based powers but now supercharged into god mode. It could make sense that Waverider could hypothetically appear alongside the present version of Booster to defend him.
Because he only has one appearance in this form, he doesn’t display all of Waverider’s classic powers, however, as the character of Waverider is a being inhabiting different hosts over time, they all have the same powers, and Booster seemed to have an immediate grasp of his powers immediately upon gaining them, so it’s likely you can look at the Matthew Ryder version for the full list of his abilities. These imclude
Composed entirely of chronal energy, making him intangible and unable to be hurt by physical attacks (also likely by matter manipulation and telepathy as he doesn’t have a body or a brain and can just reform from attacks).
Unlimited time travel across all of time and space, as well as sending others to different points in time and different universes against their will. This also allows him to exist in multiple places at once, giving him a pseudo-omnipresence.
Complete knowledge of past and future events, and an understanding of the histories of other beings and their eventual fates, essentially a form of omniscience.
Stop time at will and is immune to time stops
Can follow others through time by tracking their chronal residue
Warp energy to bypass force fields and shapeshift himself into different forms
Can move faster than light
Can summon an infinite army of himself from various microseconds across time
Create force fields that can protect against powerful opponents like Extant
Remove others from timelines and place them elsewhere, including outside of time itself
Erase timelines by altering past events
Skeets
Skeets is Booster’s robotic ally that has followed him from the 25th century and continues to help him on his adventures. “He” possesses an artificial intelligence, advanced computing software, the ability to levitate and fly, fire stunning lasers, produce a cloud of smoke (to fake his own “death”), hack into computers manually with cables, and detect others with special sensors.
Can track/detect people traveling thru time. Some time force sensing shit.
Feats
Strength- (in general) Since his force field draws from the same power source as his energy gauntlets and power suit, it’s likely that whatever feats the force field can accomplish, he can utilize roughly the same amount of energy offensively.
- (Action Comics #995) His beams are portrayed to be as potent as Superman’s.
- (Booster Gold v2 #46) Managed to harm Doomsday with physical strikes.
- (Booster Gold v2 #0) Hurt Extant.
- (Justice League America Annual 10) Overpowered Maxima.
- (Action Comics #994) Physically overpowered Kryptonian machines designed to kill other Kryptonians.
- (Blue Beetle v3 #11) Battled evenly against Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle.
- (Justice League International v2 #10) His Booster Shots have harmed Guy Gardner.
- (Booster Gold v2 #2) Tackled Sinestro.
- (Booster Gold v1 #16) Guides a blimp to the ground (he says he can’t lift it, but the comic clearly shows him pushing against it enough to shift its angle of descent, which would involve lifting at least most of it).
- (52 #2) Lifted an airplane.
- (Booster Gold v1 #9) Flies through a helicopter, destroying it with his body.
- (Booster Gold v1 #8) Skeets says Booster should be able to lift several tons.
Speed
- Booster Gold v2 #47) Flew on par with Flash fast enough to tap into the Speed Force.
- (Heroes in Crisis #5) Managed to tag Barry Allen.
- (Martian Manhunter #24) After stealing Martian Manhunter’s cookies, managed to outspeed him in flight.
- (Booster Gold v2 #2) Dodged multiple blasts from Sinestro’s Lantern Ring.
- (Justice League America #69) His force field was also able to raise itself just in time to intercept Doomsday’s punch.
- (Justice League International v2 #10) Reacted to Lightweaver’s light attacks.
- (Booster Gold v1 #19) Dodges what may be light beams (they’re supposed to be color-themed and are described as beams, but not explicitly as light) Note: in the next issue, page 15, he describes one of his beams as light.
- (Justice League International v2 Annual) Dodged attacks from OMAC.
- (Booster Gold v2 #7) Dodged beams from several OMACs simultaneously.
Durability
- (Justice League International v2 #5) With his forcefield, stopped a blast that was breaking down the planet on a subatomic level.
- (Booster Gold v2 #24) Survived attacks from Trigon using his force field.
- (Justice League International v4 #10) Survived a blast from a GL Ring without using his forcefield.
- (Justice League America #69) Force field tanks a punch from Doomsday (also in Deadman: Dead Again #3 and Booster Gold v2 #45-46).
- (Booster Gold v2 #46) Survived blows from Doomsday without his forcefield up.
- (Booster Gold v2 #30) Took hits from Mongul’s ship and Cyborg Superman.
- (Action Comics #995) Survived a blast from a robot that harmed Superman.
- (Action Comics #996) Takes hits from the Eradicator.
- (Convergence: Booster Gold) Takes a punch from Superboy (young Superman) and also stops one with his forcefield (and again from another Kryptonian in Booster Gold v2 #30).
- (Booster Gold: Future’s End) Took a hit from Captain Atom.
- (Justice League International v2 #4) Took a hit from Peraxxus.
- (Booster Gold v2 #2) Takes a hit from a GL construct.
- (Justice League International v2 Annual) Took a hit from OMAC (again in Booster Gold v2 #7).
- (Action Comics #993) Takes a hit from Barry Allen Flash (also in Heroes in Crisis #2 and #5).
- (Booster Gold v1 #5) His force field protects him from a massive explosion that shattered windows in Metropolis and was comparable to the “fury of a hurricane.”
- (Booster Gold v1 #7) Superman says Booster’s force field should be strong enough to protect him from his blows.
- (Booster Gold v1 #22) Force field protects himself and others from a monster that could punch apart buildings.
- (Booster Gold v1 #11) Survives a building falling on him with a weakened force field.
- (Booster Gold v1 #4) Briefly survives being tortured with a solar laser (on 20% power, but Mindancer thought that’d be deadly) w/o his force field on.
- (Booster Gold v1 #7) Tanks a blast from Skeets and then falls several stories to the ground with a depleted force field and no injuries.
- (Booster Gold v1 #12) Managed to fight with a broken arm and cracked ribs, and then survived a massive fire explosion with no force field.
Skill
- (Booster Gold v2 #6) Resisted Maxwell Lord shutting his brain off (his force field was off at the time, as he immediately gets hit with a bullet).
- (Justice League International v4 #4) Became the leader of the Justice League International.
- (Booster Gold v2 #40) By projecting his forcefield onto Hit Point while he was firing missiles, knocked him out and restrained the implosion of the missiles.
- (Booster Gold v2 #10) Saved his dad from being controlled by Mister Mind.
- (Booster Gold v2 #2) Tricked Sinestro into not creating a paradox by stroking his ego.
- (Booster Gold v2 #45) Hacked into the USA’s Defense Tracking Department.
- (Booster Gold v1 #4) Defeated the criminal organization the 1000, at least temporarily.
- (Booster Gold v1 #1) Uses Skeets tactically to distract Blackguard, then tricks him into electrocuting himself.
- (Booster Gold v #14) Reprogramed his forcefield without even looking at it.
- (Booster Gold v1 #5) Can hit small targets from far away with his Booster shots.
- (Booster Gold v1 #12) KOs the Director/Senator Ballard with two punches.
- (Booster Gold v1 #15) Is a fairly acrobatic and strong fighter, taking on a group of future cops by himself.
Weaknesses
Booster’s suit is powered by 25th century energy cells, and while they last an incredibly long time, they will be depleted eventually with enough use. His force field in particular, while supremely durable, will not last forever against powerful blows, and can be bypassed by exceptionally strong telepathic and magical attacks, as well as get turned off by energy absorption and EMPs. Without his force field, his suit does still offer protection, but much less, and he is essentially a sitting duck.
And while Booster is intelligent and experienced, he doesn’t usually strategize too much and prefers to rush in without thinking and play it by ear. He’s pretty confident and likes to showboat, although he has admittedly matured since the 90s.
Im not seeing Cable taking this.
ReplyDeleteScaling to Superman is far more than scaling to silver surfer, right?
What's surfer biggest feat?