Just because you own a fancy suit and some cool gadgets doesn’t make you a role model hero. Take Michael Carter for instance. In the 25th century, Carter is a pro football star in Gotham, who becomes extremely famous extremely quick. Life seems to be in his favor, before he’s found out for betting on himself during games. Suspended indefinitely from pro football, Carter’s life plummets into shame and ruin as he fails time and time again to redeem his reputation, until he is little more then a night guard at Gotham’s Space Museum, which was made to honor the old ways of superheroes and display their artifacts. Surrounded by legends of the 20th century, he contemplates life and how things could be different.
He admired the superheroes he read about each night, and he realizes after never-ending shifts at watch, that as much good as the old superheroes did, not a single one of them took advantage of their situation. Everyone LOVED them. They were worshiped – they were idols; they could have made millions creating little action figures of themselves, writing cheap biographies, and signing autographs for the homeless. Now, if he had been alive way back then and he had superhuman powers, he would have reaped the benefits of saving Earth left and right. And you know what? That was a good idea.
Stealing a time belt, along with several other artifacts from 20th century heroes and villains, Carter traveled back to the golden age of supers, reinvented himself with the name Booster Gold, and began to ‘advertise’ his image, stage fantastic heroics through the knowledge of historical events from his time, and basically cause a heap of trouble. Building a reputation, he joins the Justice League, and through a series of experiences on just how hard it is to care for more then just himself, turns from fake to the genuine artifact, going from a boy tagged with shame to a man who knows when to take some responsibility.