Geoff Johns should write every comic that DC releases. I mean that statement with all due respect to all of the other phenomenal writers at DC Comics. Over the last decade, Geoff Johns has impressed me more times than I can count and I don’t think I’m alone. I should probably hate Johns after all of the horrors he’s put my favorite characters through. Technically, Geoff Johns should be considered the most evil, villainous man in the DC Universe. Just look at his list of crimes. Johns put the Green Lantern Corps through the Sinestro Corps War. He killed numerous heroes in Infinite Crisis. He’s torn the Justice Society down and left them battered and bloody more times than I can count. Flash, Superman…no one has been safe from Johns’ wild imagination. Lex Luthor must be jealous. The thing is, no matter what he puts the heroes through, he always leaves them shining brighter than they ever have before. For the last year, Johns and Jeff Katz have teamed up with the art team of Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund on a little book you might have heard of, featuring the greatest hero you’ve never heard of, Booster Gold. A recent event in the pages of Booster Gold is the reason why I’m singing the praises of Geoff Johns and his collaborators now. That event was the return of the Justice League International. I know, I know! It’s not like they could stand toe-to-toe with Grant Morrison’s magnificent seven. The JLI was made up of mostly B-list, C-list and sometimes even F-list heroes. They were known as the Justice League joke and they charged into battle with a hearty “Bwhahaha!” Even on a team that, at one point, included the Green Lantern G’nort and a reoccurring character that was an ugly, one-eyed cat, this League is fondly remembered by fans and is one of my personal favorite versions of the League. While the generation before mine grew up with the classic Gardner Fox Justice League of America and the generation after mine might only be familiar with Grant Morrison’s JLA or the current League, I count the members of the JLI as the League that I grew up with. Characters like Blue Beetle, Green Lantern Guy Gardner, Martian Manhunter, Fire, Ice, Mr. Miracle and Booster Gold will always make me smile and remind me of that era during the JLA’s long and storied history. The original credit for making this team great goes to Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire, the creative team that launched this Justice League in 1987. A recent series of Final Crisis ads have been appearing in recent DC Comics asking such questions as, “Where were you when the Martian Manhunter died?” and “Where were you when Barry Allen returned?” Well, I still remember where I was when Batman knocked out Guy Gardner with one punch. I remember where I was when Justice League Europe was founded. I also remember where I was when Beetle and Booster created Club Justice League. Was I there when Mr. Miracle got replaced with a robot clone? Yep! Was I there when Guy Gardner finally got a date with Ice? Yes, and it was classic. I was even there for General Glory. Don’t ask. They may have been a joke, but to me, and many other readers, they were the Justice League that showed how fun a team book could really be. Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz get that and that’s why my hat is off to them. After saving the multiverse in 52, Booster Gold, a longtime member of JLI, was in a position to become one of the greatest heroes of all-time. The only problem is, due to the time traveling nature of his work and what his enemies would do with that power and knowledge, no one can know just how great he has become. Working with time traveler Rip Hunter, Booster Gold has finally become the hero he always claimed to be. The only thing that he hasn’t been able to do is save the life of his best friend, Blue Beetle, who was killed by the traitorous Maxwell Lord in Countdown to Infinite Crisis. A recent trip by Booster into the past to save Beetle from Lord resulted in changing the present into an apocalyptic nightmare complete with Maxwell Lord at the controls. With all of the DCU’s greatest heroes dead, under Lord’s control, or in hiding, Beetle and Booster manage to put the band back together, reforming the core members of the JLI to combat Lord. The 10-year-old kid inside me went wild seeing these characters appear together again. I give a lot of credit to Geoff Johns because this isn’t the first time I’ve read a book that he has written and watched him take the coolest aspects of a character, magnify those traits and take them to a level that they have never been at before. Plus, Johns has the ability to break through that wall that separates comic readers and comic creators. For me, it was like Johns looked right through the pages of the comic at me and said, “Hey…I remember when Batman knocked out Gardner with one punch too.” If you are a DC fan and you haven’t been reading Booster Gold for the last year, I highly recommend checking it out. And while you’re at your local comic shop, dig around the back issue bins for some old Justice League International books. It’s a classic run that is not like any other team book on the shelves today and it is always good for a few laughs of the “BWHAHAHA” variety. *(Drew Van Huss is a longtime comic fan and collector, and a contributor for Comic Collector Live. Drew also remembers Justice League Antarctica.)