Booster Gold is the greatest hero that nobody has ever heard of. But maybe not quite as obscure as one might think. This time-displaced superhero is one of the funniest - and greediest - characters in the DC Universe. Unfortunately, he is not very bright.
Booster's impulsive actions have a tendency of doing catastrophic damage to the time stream. It does not help that he is motivated by profit rather than a desire to help people (though this is something he has gotten better about in recent years). Here are the ten absolute worst things Booster Gold has done to the DC Universe:
10 Resurrect Blue Beetle
Booster Gold's best friend is Ted Kord, the original Blue Beetle. Just before the events of Infinite Crisis, Ted tried to investigate some suspicious events going on with the organization Checkmate, for which he was killed by the villain Maxwell Lord.
Later, Booster would try to save his friend, rescuing Ted from death an instant before he died. However, Ted Kord's death was the inciting event that the superhero community rallied around to stop the threats of OMACs--Observational Metahuman Activity Constructs--a group of powerful AI that infected human host bodies through nanites. Saving him created an alternate timeline far worse than the one where he died.
9 Alienate Everyone Before OMACs Came
Ted Kord might not have needed to die if he and Booster had not successfully driven away everyone who cared about them. The two were practical jokers, always laughing at their antics. The problem with this merriment is that these two man-boys were not able to be taken seriously by the other heroes.
Ted tried to reach out to get help before he was killed, but he was turned away. If he and Booster had not been so irresponsibly childish for years, they could have gained allies to stop the OMACs without Ted having to die.
8 Hire Fake Supervillains
During the events of the 52 storyline, Booster secures a bunch of new profitable contracts with different private companies who want him to endorse their products. One reason for these contracts flooding in is that he begins to take down a number of costumed villains in front of the public.
Unfortunately, these turn out not to be villains at all, but actors he paid to dress in costumes. He is discovered when one of the actors goes to cash a check Booster gave him and the check bounces. After that, all corporate contracts disappear.
7 Break the Multiverse
The events of the 52 storyline follow different heroes week by week through the events of the missing year between the end of Infinite Crisis and the follow-up story "One Year Later." Booster's story over the course of this year begins in triumph and quickly begins a downward spiral, at one point resulting in his apparent death.
Before this, he makes a terrifying discovery when he goes to check in on the master of time travel, Rip Hunter. While Rip is nowhere to be found, his lair is filled with notes showing how Booster Gold broke the multiverse, creating multiple timelines and realities that were not previously supposed to be there.
6 Free Mister Mind
There are a lot of weird villains in the DC Universe, but a near-omnipotent caterpillar that devours space-time is pretty outrageous even by the standards of most comics. Mister Mind is just such a character, and despite being weird, he is one of the most powerful villains DC has.
Booster accidentally sets Mister Mind loose upon the multiverse at the end of 52. Then, he does this again in the alternate future timeline he creates when he tries to bring Ted Kord back. Not exactly a wise move.
5 Destroy Bruce Wayne's Life
After Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle become engaged, those who know the couple react in dramatically different ways. Superman and Lois Lane take them out for a double date, while the Joker goes on a jealousy-fueled killing spree, shooting up a church wedding in Gotham. For his part, Booster Gold wants to show Batman a world in which his parents are still alive.
This creates an alternate future where Bruce never became Batman, Gotham is beset by super crime, and just about everyone's life is worse off (except for Thomas and Martha Wayne, who at least are alive in this version of reality). It is not the wedding present Bruce would have asked for.
4 Dystopian Krypton
This is one of the rare examples where Booster is not the one to cause the problems. After Superman has an encounter with the mysterious Mr. Oz who claims to be his father Jor-El, the Man of Tomorrow uses Flash's cosmic treadmill to travel back in time to visit Krypton. Superman alters the timeline, somehow making a world where Krypton survives, but where it is a totalitarian police state ruled by General Zod.
Booster travels back in time to stop Superman, but he is too late. Eventually, time is set right when the two escape to the present, but even as the altered timeline fades from existence, the memories of what they encountered linger.
3 Inspire Sinestro
Sinestro is Hal Jordan's greatest enemy. His organization, the Sinestro Corps, use power rings that channel the yellow light of fear to make hard light constructs. As it turns out, Booster Gold inspired Sinestro to create his corps.
Booster travels back to when Sinestro was still a Green Lantern. When Sinestro notices Booster wears a yellow ring, he asks about it, at which point Booster says he belongs to the Sinestro Corps, giving Sinestro the inspiration to make it.
2 Hurt His Family
Booster is not the only hero in his family. His sister is a superhero who goes by the name Gold Star while the greatest time traveling hero ever, Rip Hunter, turns out to be Booster's son.
His sister ends gets killed after she follows in his footsteps and his son is often the one who has to fix the problems Booster creates. They would both be better off not knowing him. Then again, neither would have become heroes and Rip would not even be alive if not for Booster, so there are no easy answers here.
1 Convergence
During Convergence, Brainiac abducts people and parts of the worlds from across multiple timelines, pitting them against one another. He is only able to do this because of Booster Gold.
In fact, this has multiple Booster Golds from different timelines. One of them is turned into a version of Waverider, the guardian of time, and in this form, he helps save the multiverse, thus undoing the damage he helped create.