- "Squeaky wheel, buddy. Squeaky wheel."— Booster Gold
-Written by Andrew Kreisberg
Booster Gold has just defeated some random mechanical villain and attempts to brag to an audience of bystanders along with his robotic sidekick, Skeets. Putting a slight crimp on his plans is the fact that nobody knows who he is, or worse, thinks he is Green Lantern.
Later at the Watchtower Booster complains to Martian Manhunter about his low-profile situation, but J'onn says it's Booster's fame-seeking attitude that's preventing him from rising in rank. Suddenly an alert goes off and an army of heroes is deployed, which only includes Booster due to pestering.
Back in Metropolis, everybody except for Booster and Elongated Man are asked to assist with defeating the villain (Plastic Man was down there; they didn't need two stretchy guys). The remaining two heroes are delegated to "crowd control". Elongated Man finds this situation unfair and continuously complains to Booster, claiming "the squeaky wheel gets the grease, my friend". Eventually even Elongated Man is called to the front lines, leaving Booster with only Skeets and panicked citizens for company.
Booster continues halfheartedly to maintain order among those citizens when suddenly, there's a loud bang and Superman crash-lands. Booster rushes over, asking Supes if he was okay. Superman gets up and reveals his left half is that of Batman and says (in Wonder Woman's voice), "I'm fine, get back to crowd control".
Some time later, Booster is asked by a child to save his "aunts" in a burning building. This really piques Booster's interest but, sadly for Booster, they were actually just ants. Booster returns the ant farm to the child, who only responds with "Thank you, Green Lantern!" before running off.
An earthquake strikes a nearby building, so our hero goes to assist with the evacuation. There he encounters an unconscious scientist, Doctor Tracy Simmons, who soon wakes up and warns of an impending disaster. She and her fellow scientist, Doctor Daniel Brown, were attempting to use a contained black hole to generate energy but, due to the earthquake, the containment field broke and the black hole somehow embedded itself within Doc Brown. Fortunately, this effect could be neutralized by popping a convenient collar around Daniel's neck. Who better to perform this feat than Booster Gold?
This seems like an easy enough task but due to environmental factors, medical emergencies, and plain ol' idiocy, it takes Booster a while to complete it. All the while Brown is acting as a super vacuum cleaner, sucking in birds, cars, buildings, and Skeets.
The episode comes to its climax when Booster, once again, fails to collar Brown and rants to Simmons about how he didn't come to the past to become a hero but to be rich and famous. It takes a pep talk by Tracy to encourage Booster enough for one last try. This time, after near spagettification, Booster Gold gets the collar around the doctor's neck. Subsequently he "burps" up all of the stuff the black hole swallowed, including Skeets.
When Tracy congratulates Booster on saving the world he walks off, claiming "kissing girls is for heroes", contrary to Skeets' readings.
Booster returns to the battlefield to find Mordru defeated due to some "slick moves" by Elongated Man. After congratulating the stretchy guy Batman (who has fully recovered) approaches Booster, berating him for not sticking to crowd control and Booster Gold can't manage to explain the previous incident, with the caped crusader making it clear Booster Gold is likely in hot water. To add insult to injury, someone comes up to Booster asking for Green Lantern, only to reveal it's a jesting Tracy, asking for a dinner date.
As they walk off into the sunset, Booster Gold remarks to a baffled Elongated Man, "Squeaky wheel, buddy. Squeaky wheel."
This episode includes examples of:
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Both Booster Gold and Elongated Man get a taste of this.
- Booster Gold really wanted a high danger mission so he could strut his stuff. When he gets it in the form of a walking black hole, he loses his Robot Buddy Skeets (temporarily), is forced to come to terms with being a fraud, and nearly dies in the process of stopping it.
- Elongated Man kept complaining about being on crowd control and ultimately gets his wish to join the main fight, even being the one to take down Mordru in the end. He then gets to help with the less glamourous parts of superhero work: clean up.
- Bittersweet Ending: Booster Gold learns a little about true heroism, saves the day and gets the girl, but at the price of being on Batman's shit list and deciding to keep his act of true heroism a secret. On the side of the barely-seen fight against Morduru, the League won, but the collateral damage is absurd (which leads to Elongated Man, who got his day in the eyes of the League, not looking forward to help with the clean-up).
- Damsel in Distress: Booster's kind of damsel.
- Deadpan Snarker: Elongated Man gets in a perfect opportunity to mockingly repeat what Green Lantern just told him, but in a much more sarcastic way.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Played straight initially. Dr. Simmons wants to kiss Booster after he defuses the black hole, but he walks away, invoking "I'm Not a Hero, I'm...". Subverted after being berated by Batman; Simmons returns to ask for a date...and Booster takes her up for it.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Booster Gold complains that despite his power and deeds, he doesn't get the recognition he feels he deserves. When Booster goads Martian Manhunter into letting him take part in a battle against a physical god, he gets excited to have the chance to show what he can do. Instead, he was put in the role of crowd control. Subverted in that at least he gets a very thankful girl at the end...at the price of becoming part of Batman's shit list.
- Fusion Dance: During the offscreen fight, Superman gets thrown away and lands in front of Booster Gold. Superman then stands up to reveal that he has merged with Batman, a literal 50/50 body split. When he (they?) speaks, Wonder Woman's voice comes out.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Tracy apparently created the special disruptor collar to contain the black hole, since she was tinkering with it while Booster called J'onn.
- The Ghost: Plastic Man is mentioned, but never seen.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: Trope Namer. Booster tries and fails a couple of times to explain his situation to fellow Leaguers, but winds up content not telling.
- Laser-Guided Karma: A positive example. Booster Gold ultimately ends up saving the world, nearly performing a Heroic Sacrifice in the process, and chooses not to boast about it to his fellow heroes, accepting the berating he'll be getting from Batman. However, he for his selfless and truly heroic deeds, he gets a date with Dr. Simmons.
- Leg Focus: Booster seems to see this in Tracy, when the camera focuses on her legs at one point while she talks about the lab accident situation.
- My Sensors Indicate You Want to Tap That: ...But kissing is for heroes.
- Mythology Gag: "If I were Green Lantern, my costume would be green, wouldn't it?" Unless you were Alan Scott...
- Superman, Batman, and possibly Wonder Woman get merged into a single entity dressed like Superman on one side and Batman on the other, resembling DC villain Composite Superman.
- Not Now, Kiddo: Booster Gold tries to tell the rest of the League about the black hole situation after Tracey explains it to him, but when he contacts Superman, he is simply told to get back to crowd control.
- Not That Kind of Doctor: When encountering a woman in labor, Booster looks to Dr. Tracy Simmons since "you're a doctor." Tracy clarifies that she's a physicist.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The entire fight with Mordru, which required the effort of well over a dozen heroes in addition to the core Justice League members to take him down. Special mention to Elongated Man as well, who was somehow the one to finally take Mordru down.
- Robot Buddy: Skeets
- Rousing Speech: Between Booster Gold and Tracy:Booster Gold: I blew it.
Tracy: It's not too late.
Booster Gold: I can't do it.
Tracy: Yes, you can. You have to.
Booster Gold: Tracy, I'm a fraud. Do you know why I came back to the past? It wasn't to fight for justice. It was to get rich, be famous. I was a failure in the future, just like I am here. I'm not a superhero.
Tracy: Everything is about to be destroyed forever, and where are the other superheroes? Not here. You are! You're the only one who can do this, so do it! - Running Gag: The Phrase Catcher "thanks Green Lantern" after being helped/saved by Booster Gold and Booster going "The name is Booster Gold, not Green Lantern" in response.
- Shout-Out: After getting freed from the black hole, Skeets notes "My God. It's full of stars". Possibly also an Actor Allusion to Billy West having aled the line once before.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Booster getting a date in the end.
- What You Are in the Dark: Booster discovers to his and Dr. Simmons' surprise that, underneath the selfish glory-hound exterior, there is potential for genuine selfless heroism.
