I have yet to read most of the books you covered, but let me just say: Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck = WOOHOO! 
Now there's what good comics are all about 
I did read both Flash and Green Lantern. GL was okay, but indeed a bit lacklustre. Johns is not doing much to dispell the notion that Kyle wasn't as boring as Hal (and I like Hal).
As for Flash, did I miss a page or something, in regards to Boomerang? I don't remember him saying anything about Owen and his parenthood this issue (last issue he did the "keep him away from his broth-AAACK" thing but this issue?) Now if his dad is meant to be Barry Allen (presumably while inhabited by Boomerbutt), who is the "broth-AAACK"? And why would the Rogues be so pissed about Owen's real mother (presumably not Golden Glider then?) I'm confused, but enjoying it immensely. Very sad Johns is leaving :/
Oh, I also agree that DC's doing this attempt at old-Marvel-style continuity but they're botching it up all over the place. I get no sense of a cohesive timeline at all. Still enjoying lots of their books though, just annoyed that they can't get simple things right. What are editors for anyway?
And the Allies/Non-Enemies thingie cracked me up
More reviews! More! :p
D'oh! Thanks for pointing out the Flash thing, Peter! I read both issues at once this week since I missed #222; obviously it made more of an impression on me, dammit. I'll change the review to reflect that...
Read that first chapter of Life and Times of Scrooge McD last night and man is that some impressive stuff....would that people at DC and Marvel could play with continuity in such an obviously affectionate way.
Thanks again for catching the stuff with the Flash, Peter, and glad you enjoyed the reviews!
Heh, you're welcome, Jeff I was all wondering whether I misread #223 or something
I personally thought #223 was pretty awesome too. The final page was fantastic, I had no idea that was about to happen. I also don't mind Hunter working with the Society because even if he doesn't think of himself as a villain, he's still trying to come up with ways to "make Flash a better hero" (which is in my mind an interesting take on a Reverse-Flash). It's similar to Black Adam joining up with them. They all have their own reasons, I'm sure.
The things I liked, other than the awesome cliffhanger ("spkfdvl" indeed!), was the frenetic pacing, the way the Rogues all ganged up, bringing in Grodd too (what the hell is he doing with the Society?! I do wonder about that part ), the use of Bart as Kid Flash (if Johns were continuing to write this book I'd say we'd have a Bart-Flash by #250, but now I don't know where we're headed. DC themselves don't seem to know or we'd know the writer already, right?)It was all just great fun and I love the pouring on of villains, since Flash does have a fantastic gallery of Rogues (I want me some Kadabra though!)
Lastly, as for Life & Times of Scrooge McDuck, Don Rosa kicks the ass of virtually every other writer in the field with his attention for detail, his ability to invoke the spirit of Barks, his tight pacing and his great visual and verbal humor, and best of all, he can tell complete, exciting stories in a relatively small amount of pages. Only true masters of the art of comics can do that. I put him up with Alan Moore in regards to storytelling skills. Apart from that, his love for the Ducks, Scrooge especially, just splashes off the page.
This is what comics should be all about. Fun stories that make you care. At one point, one of the chapters actually made me teary-eyed. The Ducks, and Scrooge in particular (naturally), come off as people, far more so than most of, say, the X-Men do.
And aside from all that, Don Rosa is one of the nicest, non-blustering, humble creators I've ever had the pleasure of "reading" too. (He's on a Duck-comics mailing list, and always really nice, not at all look-at-me-ish )
Anyway, enough about that. A few more comments on your comments now that I've read more of the comics:
Batman #641 - I didn't much care for the previous issue, but this one's better again. Winick is one of those very inconsistent writers. I agree it could become a trainwreck with the combination of editorial nonchalance and Winickism.
OMAC #3 - I'm already buying all the Superman books, but won't people be miffed at "having to buy" all the Supes-books and Wonder Woman too, before Omac #4? I am intrigued by the Superman arc now though, especially since Rucka is bound to give us some more Ruin-stuff (it's not Pete, it's Lana, I'm now convinced of this, even if it's ludicrous ) and tie it all nicely into the shattering of the Big Three. I much prefer the Kirby
ideas of the uplifting and the new, but I'll settle for the darkness and hope for the dawn!
Outsiders #25 - That was corny, with Shift and Indigo. And for the rest it was one big fight and Dick being a whiny brat. For what was meant to be the big denouement to a two-year arc, it sucked. Remember how much of a buzz there was with Outsiders and Teen Titans when they both started? They're killing it all over again (same with Green Arrow). Why does DC persist on choking (on) their own success?
Shining Knight #3 - I actually enjoyed it. Maybe I'm just too much of a Morrisonite, I don't know (but then I disliked most of his New X-Men, so maybe I'm just weird ) The art was very good so maybe that carried it for me, and I'm still looking forward to #4. So a good from me.
Solo #5 - Still have to actually read, but I bought it because of Darwyn Cooke (I will so try to get my girlfriend to read New Frontier for his art alone), I flipped through it, and the art looked fantastic. The man is a storytelling genius.
I also flicked through X-Men 172 at the store. A "cliffhanger" I predicted based on previews is a lame cliffhanger indeed Who does Milligan think he's kidding? This is pretty crappy stuff, yeah, and I'm glad I dropped X-Men despite looking forward to his run at first. For an all-popular franchise, they still manage to come up with some of the worst shit in comics, go figure.
So what did everybody else think anyway? :D
I really liked what they did with Batgirl this issue. Considering that she was raised so that the language centers of her brain would be developed to read body language and fight, it made a lot of sense that she associates fighting with communication. This was obviously an intentional theme, since it was introduced "subtly" in one conversation and then repeated more explicitly (ie, explained in narration) later.
Also, "only" 2 of the 4 conversations in this book involved fights -- you forgot to include the discussion with coffee-shop-girl. (And those two conversations that did include fights were with people she is used to sparring with.)
So am I the only one that wonders what RH was thinking throwing a batarang to Bats with his thumbprints and DNA - in the rain? Wouldn't the rain wash off, or at least contaminate, the blood evidence? I don't watch CSI or anything like the rest of America, so it just seems to me that the blood sample would be destroyed by the rain.
Other than that, a decent wrap-up. Still, not that great of a storyline, but it was a helluva lot better than Winnick's ScareBeast story. Ugh!
Speaking of Jason Todd, did that comment about Clayface replacing him in part 11 or so of the Hush storyline mean that it's retroactively "worth more" because it now features "first return of Jason Todd" after all?
I wonder if Loeb knew they'd go this way or not, when he wrote that issue and the Clayface cop-out...
I guess I'll have to get Solo now. I passed on it, as I'm cheap, but it's universally hailed as excellent.
As for Shining Knight, I liked it, myself. It revealed some interesting stuff about the whole mythos, and there are a lot of interpretations to the whole thing if you read far enough into it. Not where I thought Morrison was going with the book, but that doesn't mean it's bad. And the art's gorgeous.
Oh, and I think the OMAC thing is moot. Roz Kirby passed away a little while ago.
The whole thing's a bastardization of Jack's OMAC, anyway. OMAC was brilliant, especially for its time. 70's Kirby rocked.
Peter: Thanks for all the addtional comments. I'm truly loving the Life & Times book--each chapter is rich and absurdly well-researched. Really a gem, and I hope more people try to pick it up based on the rantings here.
Nevin: Glad Batgirl worked for you; like I said, it seemed to work for Hibbs as well. I may give it another read-thru this Friday.
Todd: That ScareBeast stuff wasn't exactly prime Batman material, was it? Really much better stuff currently.
Bill R.: Thanks for the update on Roz Kirby--it makes a ton of sense, sadly, that she would have passed by now. Glad Shining Knight is working for you. And yeah, the original OMAC kicked mighty ass--this version has so little in common with it (they even changed the acronym!), it might as well be something different. Kirby '70s material is brilliant--even though I have the originals somewhere, I'm already saving for that first volume of the Kamandi archives...
Jeff,
One more thing about the Flash issue (#223)--yeah, that's Reverse-Flash on the last page--but it's not Hunter Zolomon. The layout made that a little confusing for me . . .
It was great to see another issue of Planetary, as always. There can't be too many issues left . . . I guess we're in the home stretch.
I picked up the Scrooge McDuck TPB too--awesome stuff. Has Gemstone Publishing done any Carl Barks collections?
Charles: Wait, really? That's not Hunter Zolomon?! Christ, I'll really have to re-check out that issue now. Thanks for the tip.
As for the Barks collections, I don't know, but if there were, I'd buy 'em in a heartbeat.
*lol* Jeff, you really didn't realize it wasn't Hunter Zolomon at the end? That was what made it such a big kicker! First you've got Hunter-Zoom messing with Kid Flash, he mentions Eobard Thawne, then he goes "spkfdvl" (*loved* that part--go Zoomspeak!) and the real Reverse-Flash shows up going "Thank you for the invite, Mr Zolomon," (making it clear it's one Zoom talking to another) "The PROFESSOR is here. Let the teaching begin." (which is sweet because Thawne's villainous full name is indeed "Professor Zoom, the Reverse-Flash" :D)
The only thing that confuses me there is that he doesn't have a reversed Flash symbol on his chest. On the cover for #224 though, where Zoom is kicking Wally's ass on the cosmic threadmill, he *does* have a reversed Flash symbol. (Hunter also has a reversed symbol, as he should)
I've seen the mention about the layout being confusing before, but I really have no problem following Porter's art, I think it's clear and flows well. And the dialogue has no two ways about it. It's just freaky cool to see Johns using the Flash's worst enemy at the tail end of his run, after tricking us by leading us to believe he was content with his own version of Zoom. Caught between two Zooms, one who loathes him more than he loathed Barry, one who thinks of him as his friend but will do his worst to make sure Wally becomes a better hero--the next two issues are total must-reads for me, and I can't wait for the nifty tpb too.
Yes, I'm a Johns fan, obviously, sue me ;p
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