Skeets

You can’t speak of Booster Gold without mentioning also his long-time buddy… no, not Blue Beetle, the other one: Skeets, his inseparable artificial companion. Skeets appears in Smallville as well, voiced by Ross Douglas, and he’s, just as in the comics, an artificial intelligence stolen from a museum by Booster Gold to provide him knowledge of the past thus helping him become a superhero. His appearance, however, changes drastically in the show: rather than being a floating semi-spherical drone, in fact, he’s reduced to an earpiece, making suggestions and sarcastic remarks to Booster for his ear only. In the comics, his backstory is more or less the same, but his role in Booster Gold’s life changes drastically with the stories’ progression, as well as his appearance. Let’s see together.

Skeets was a BX9 Security Robot, and he was built in Kord Industries in Metropolis, in the XXV Century. His main function was to act as a guardian at Metropolis Space Museum, and he was activated for that purpose around the same time former football star Michael Jon Carter started working there as a janitor to repay his debt to society. Used to fame and wealth, Carter wasn’t exactly the kind of guy who would just do what he was told quietly, and Skeets realized this when it was pretty much too late: wanting to travel to the past and use the devices he found in the museum to become a superhero, Carter “stole” Skeets as well, slightly reprogramming him to be his sidekick and living archive in the XX Century. Carter was no engineer, and Skeets wasn’t exactly his mindless servant, quite the opposite, but eventually the robot took a liking in the boastful hero-wannabe, and accompanied him in past Metropolis, providing him extensive knowledge on five hundreds years of history, allowing him to intervene to avoid disasters before they happened: thanks to Skeets, Carter made his debut as a superhero saving President Ronald Reagan‘s life from a killer for hire. Presenting himself as the superhero Booster Gold, Carter gained all the fame and the money he wanted, while Skeets provided him with intel about “past” history and allowed him to intervene exactly when he was needed. All this modifications to the timeline also influenced Skeets’ data, so he was always up to date. Skeets accompanied Booster Gold in all his first adventures, and stayed by his side also during some personal tragedies, as his twin sister Michelle Carter‘s death. Seeing Carter’s efforts to become a true hero, Skeets became determined to allow him reach that goal, and the two became close friends, despite their relationship had begun with a “kidnapping” (more like a theft, but whatever). Eventually, Booster Gold managed to become the hero he wanted to be, as he became part of Earth‘s most powerful super-team.

Billionaire Maxwell Lord, in fact, was reassembling the Justice League, and he wanted Booster Gold to be a part of it: the hero obviously accepted, but this time he wanted to play it fair and square, and this plan didn’t include Skeets. The robot wasn’t part of the team, so he was put in storage, waiting for Carter’s return; for all the time Booster Gold was out with the Justice League, Skeets surfed on the internet to kill time, learning a lot more about the time he was living in, and shaping his personality, gaining quite an odd sense of humor. He was called back to action when Booster Gold’s power suit was heavily damaged in a disastrous fight against Doomsday; Skeets proved to be incapable of repairing the suit, but he proved to be useful as well, since when Blue Beetle built a giant armor for Booster Gold using the Exorian Flesh Driver, Skeets’ consciousness was downloaded into the armor. This way, not only he could still guide Booster Gold with his advises, but he could also pilot the armor any time the hero was unconscious, thus saving Carter’s life more than once. Since Booster Gold didn’t have any experience in using the Driver and tended to overdo, Skeets also kept in check the armor’s functionalities, so that its capabilities could be rationalized. It was only when Professor Hamilton finally created a substitute power suit for Booster Gold resembling the original that Skeets abandoned the armor and came back to his old, floating robot self. Timing wasn’t the best one, as Maxwell Lord had finally revealed his true colors, and ambushed and destroyed Skeets, later reverse-engineering him to create a highly advanced surveillance system he used to kill Blue Beetle. This, however, wasn’t the end of the little robot: Booster Gold, mourning both his friends, abandoned the Justice League and the XX Century for a while, and when he came back he had Skeets along, a version of him from an alternate timeline. This time timing was just perfect, as Skeets was pivotal in helping Booster Gold and Batman locate the alien Khaji Da and its new host, Jaime Reyes, allying with them to lead a final assault on the evil A.I. Brother Eye. Skeets was back, and he was still determined to be a hero along with Booster Gold.

Skeets is a peculiar robot, characterized by an unshakable loyalty to his friend Booster Gold and by a weird sense of humor that differs from his original programming. As a BX9 Security Robot, he can fly, he possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of history, and he stores several hidden weapons in his tiny body; plus, since his shell is made with a unique alloy obtained from the corpse of the cosmic time traveler Waverider, he’s able to sustain time travel without any damage. Loyal and heroic in his own way, Skeets is the one companion Booster Gold will always find by his side, an artificial intelligence that sometimes believes in the adventurer’s chances to be a hero more than Booster himself does.