With Warner Brothers’ The Time-Traveler’s Wife being released on DVD, Blu-Ray and digital download on February 9 (good flick, by the way—check it out), I thought I’d take a little look at one of the nagging questions from the Johns/Katz/Jurgens run on Booster Gold: Who is Rip Hunter’s mother? As revealed in Booster Gold #1000000, Booster is (unbeknownst even to himself) the father of the enigmatic Time Master…but without a consistent romantic interest, fans have been left to speculate as to who Rip’s mother is—or if we’ll even ever see her.

UPDATED on February 9 to reflect changes seen in the Booster Gold #29 preview pages.

· Sondra Crain – Little is known about this character yet, even her name (although it appears in the preview pages for this week’s upcoming issue as “Sondra Crain”), but it’s clear from Michelle’s observation of the time screens at Vanishing Point that this woman is going to be very important.
Why not her? Well, she’s a new character, and there’s nothing much to suggest her as a candidate, besides the fact that she’s new, female and apparently important.

· Trixie Collins – Booster’s secretary through the first volume of the comic and the original Goldstar, Jurgens recently told The Gold Exchange that we won’t be seeing her anytime soon—but since there’s a following for the character among the hardcore Booster fans, and it seems from future solicitations that we’ll be short a girl in a Goldstar costume soon.
Why not her? Dan Jurgens told The Gold Exchange last month that there were no plans for Trixie in the immediate future.

· Blair Butler – A bigtime Booster Gold fan in real life, a woman named “Blair” has been Booster’s unseen date a few times lately.
Why not her? Rip doesn’t seem to care if they ever get around to their date. Seems like if there were destiny at play, he’d be more determined to see it happen.

· Fire – This relationship was teased a little bit in the Giffen/DeMatteis “I Can’t Believe it’s not the Justice League” arc of JLA: Classified, and there was a little bit of dipping their toes in the pool during The OMAC Project miniseries. It’s been mostly forgotten since then, but you never know what might happen. With a JLI mini coming up, and Guy back with Ice, these characters could have some hilarious double-dates.
Why not her? The relationship between the two really hasn’t been touched on at all in this title, and it seems likely that Rip’s mother will be human.

· Lady Chronos – She’s got a mean-on for Booster Gold and little is known about her; it’s not like superheroes haven’t been known to use sex and love to “turn” a villain before. Plus, Rick Remender has mentioned having long-term plans for a Booster/Chronos story and he was very focused on the Booster/Rip relationship in the arc he wrote.
Why not her? The relationship between the Chronos twins and Booster wasn’t dealt with in Jurgens’ or Johns’ runs on the title; Jurgens was, in fact, pretty dismissive of Chronos when the two appeared together.

· Wonder Woman – Hey, you never know! She’s functionally immortal, so she could have come across Michael at any point in his personal timeline. Also, he’s consistently had a crush on her (even if it’s just a tiny one) across both the Giffen/DeMatteis and Jurgens/Johns iterations of the character over the years.
Why not her? It’s pretty damned unlikely that Diana would give Booster a chance. Or that DC would let Jurgens and company do it.

· The girl from Booster Gold #20 – A female character who had a little sexual tension with Booster, and was created by Keith Giffen? Maybe. Also, Rip Hunter’s early adventures took place in the ‘60s (when they were written), and although as a time-traveler he could get around just fine, it’s possible that his first adventures happened in the ‘60s simply because he was getting old enough to have them.
Why not her? She’s not in current continuity, which makes her harder to position as a character who gets page-time…and besides that, Booster going back in time to knock boots with someone would probably be verboten under Rip’s current set of rules.

· Liri Lee – One of the Linear Men, and a time-traveler created by Jurgens, she’s been the subject of a lot of fan theories since the revelation that Rip is Booster’s kid.
Why not her? Comments made by the characters seem to suggest that when the Linear Men reappear, any surviving members of their team will be more at odds with Rip and Booster than on their team.

· Gladys – The rich, old lady who apparently took Booster as a trophy husband in the Formerly Known as the Justice League miniseries seems as likely a candidate as any, right? I mean—it’s his wife and all!
Why not her? First of all—menopause. I think she’s been referred to as being a senior citizen. Second—I don’t see even her existence as being in keeping with Jurgens’ approach to the character. If he didn’t use her so far, or get rid of her expressly, it seems like he’s just letting that story beat die quietly.

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