I'm very happy. Very old, but very happy.

Given the rapid decline of Russia's relationship with … well, most of the world … I hope that doesn't turn out to be an awkward year for everybody.

No love for Barbancourt? I have happy memories — granted, somewhat addled — of a month spent in Haiti, years ago, putting away significant quantities of the stuff. The five-star, mind you.

By Oliver Herford:

Yeah, yeah. Time travel, alternate timelines, whatever. Classic Flash stuff, and I approve. But you know what would seal the deal for me?

I'm 51. The Seventies don't seem like all that long ago. It only gets worse, my friend.

So they're bringing back the Blue Beetle. Fine. Maybe they're even having him haunted by the spirit of Azrael. Okay. But please let's not pretend that's Batman.

Time Travel. It can never be simple, can it?

I'm fascinated by the question, raised in the post, of what the environment was like.

I'm not sure about "popular," but Opinels are readily available and have a passionate following. I've carried my #7 with the carbon blade for almost 30 years, and if it broke or were lost would replace it without a moment's hesitation.

There's always Soylent Green. But, , next to a causality paradox, gray goo or even such going-on-now stuff as a massive species die off or a continent-sized island made of discarded plastic, Soylent Green seems sorta innocuous.

Nice reference. But seriously, no matter how much I love time travel stories, and it's a lot, that's one technology I am glad to hear is vanishingly improbable.

I like the Scarecrow. He's creepy and fear-based, which makes him fit in to the Batman world. He's a demented psychiatrist, which seems to have been quite a common thing among Golden Age Bat-villains (cf. Hugo Strange, Prof. Milo), and opens up all sorts of neat possibilities given the modern-day suspicion that…

If that were true, couldn't they just hire Dean Cain to play the part on some of the new TV shows? I mean, he might not be their first choice, or mine, but he was not bad at all and certainly has a fan following.

Well, I never stop reading the Bible, but that has a lot to do with my line of work.

Within i09's usual genres, it's easy:

These are soooo good.

I read it many times as a kid, and am going to read it out loud to my son in the next few months. I think he'll dig it.

Honestly, I don't know how it will hold up to my adult sensibilities, but the memories I have of it are great.

As a kid, I read about half of the first Mack Bolan, hated it, and avoided the genre forever. With the benefit of age and irony, I now begin to understand how much batshit insanity I missed out on.

yeah, I know. I was just 'splainin' how bad a musketeer Harlan would be. Unless there were three of him. And maybe even then.

ever read Ellison's comments on Roddenberry? Not so much "one for all" is all I'm sayin'