Michael Hopcroft

Good times at the ballpark!

Rockies 4, A's 1, top of the 6th.

I've got tix to Wednesday's Mariners-Astros game; the seats are almost exactly diametrically opposite the camera's, taking the pitcher's rubber as the reflecting point.  And I think it's the 13th row.

Violet Parr

To recap:
 

I remember reading an X-Men comic in the 1980s where Colossus and Juggernaut meet in a New York bar and get into a glorious brawl, which the bartender doesn't worry about too much because he's covered for it. Apparently any business in New York City that can afford it buys insurance against the damage done by superheroes and supervillains when they fight. Not only does Juggernaut have no hard feelings about the whole thing, but when it's all over he throws an enormous wad of cash to the bartender to pay a fair share of the damages. (Colossus lacks a huge wad of cash, so his share was presumably covered by the insurance -- and IRC he did not start the fight).

I remember hearing the saw that "Soccer is a gentleman's game played by hooligans, while rugby is a hooligan's game played by gentlemen". (Of course, that makes Handegg a hooligan's game played by hooligans, but that's neither here nor there.) A lot of working-class frustration gets vented in the stands, which the NFL avoids by pricing the working class out of attending their games.

As requested, I have started a thread for the upcoming NBA season now that the new league year is well underway (the subtitle was suggested in the end of last season's thread.)
 
Free agency is still underway, but the plums seem to all be taken. What's left is dubious. And Portland re-upping with RFA center Jusuf Nurkic for $12 million a year (average) strikes me as odd. My thoughts on players like Nurkic are not exactly charitable. He might be a valuable piece, and there aren't that many available options at that position, but his first full season in Portland was disappointing and doesn't quite justify his folk-hero status here. Portland isn't likely to contend anytime soon (not with Curry, Harden, and now LBJ in the same conference now), but I don't think our fans are patient enough for a Philly-like four-season "process of blowing up the average roster, deliberatel being awful for a few years, and stockpiling young talent. Nor does said young talent, I don't think. Damian Lillard is the only thing keeping this franchise even trading water.

The mention of the Ultra-Humanite reminds me of the Justice League episode he was in (the Timm-Dini animated series, which may be the best media portrayal of the group). He was a member of an "evil superteam" Lex Luthor had assembled (the Joker was on the team too, but his cruelty eventually disgusted even Luthor). He was init stricly for the money, which was quite good. But this meant that Batman could buy him off. When we see him at the end of the episode, he is in prison watching a concert on Public TV -- which he had sponsored. He used Bruce Wayne's money to become a patron of the arts (which is something both Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor probably did in their "non-super" identities). And the people he was sponsoring had no problem with being financed by a confessed supervillain who didn't even bother with a pseudonym.
 
 

Smart guys hating supers is, of course, not new. Lex Luthor (both as a mad scientist and later as a jealous tycoon) has always been this super-genius who hates being upstaged. His brain is a superpower in and of itself, but in his more recent versions he also holds a lot of social, economic, and political power -- but lacks what Superman has. Of course, early on in the Man of Steel reboot, Luthor tries to buy Superman's services -- which backfires substantially and puts him in a humiliating position. Since he cannot buy off Superman, all he can do is attack him. The Corrupter must destroy the Incorruptible Man.
 
Now Luthor would still have been a menace even if Superman never existed. But he would have been a totally different sort of villain, rather like the Kingpin of Marvel. And since he is so [politically powerful already, Luthor with no check on him might well make himself a dictator or worse.
 
Would the Screenslaver have existed if Elastigirl didn't? Probably. Screenslaver has more to her motives than just her emotional scars. She simply doesn't suffer fools lightly, resents being out of the spotlight, and hates the notion that there's anybody out there better than herself. She'd probably use her technology at first to  humiliate and destroy business rivals, but once she had a taste of power she wouldn't have stopped.

So I find this question of heroes and villains to be interesting from a literary and trope perspective. Most traditional superheroes start out fighting "normal" bad guys... as the only individual who can stand up to organized crime, or a cult or the KKK, etc. It is only after the superhero is established do the supervillains rise up to challenge him (traditionally him, but him or her.) This is actually brought up in Bronze age and later comics, the idea that the supers make things dangerous for everyone else by inciting all the crazies to new levels of villainy.

Now... juxtapose this with the classic fantasy literary tradition/trope of the great evil that rises, taking over and unstoppable by traditional forces, and it requires the hero (or heroes) to rise up to face and defeat the villain. It is the exact opposite... the super villain inspires the hero.
 
So you can look at the literary precedents to supers, primarily pulp heroes, and see where it comes from in comics. Sherlock Holmes or the Shadow or Doc Savage or Tarzan were superior individuals taking on the evils of the world that the common man was typically unable to handle. That was more in the vein of fantasy... a large, often faceless or organized evil where the individual of merit takes them out. But from a publishing and story perspective, these pulp characters had continuing adventures, and quickly they needed adversaries that could challenge them, since they'd proven to be too much for "normal" evil. So Moriarty appears... or for Batman, the Joker.  (Actually, I'm not actually sure who the first "supervillain" that Superman had to face, after he got tired of throwing KKK members off of buildings. I personally approve of that old Supes... sigh.)
 
In terms of the Incredibles, or any super world, I think it would be essential to the setting to have a clear idea of how the public views this? Is the general consensus that the supers arose to fight the fights normal forces couldn't?  If so, then there is likely to be a lot more cultural forgiveness for super-collateral damage. If, though, the social perception is "We never had these problems until the Capes showed up!" then things can go in a very different direction, with a lot more social pressure for control over supers.
 
Who came first, the hero or the villain?  It actually matters.

Q: I can end this universe with my mastery of Psychology and electricity! What do you think of that, Mr. Carter?
 
A: Ten out of ten dentists recommend Food(tm) for their patients who eat!

Q: What did you think of the disco I just opened?
 
A: That was so very 1979 of you!

Liquid Oxygen Flambe. Not only will you need a grill, but Home Depot will no longer sell you one.

Characters with WF: Everything. Seriously, just because someone can fire a handgun effectively, does that mean they can use the alien weapon they just find lying around on a ship someplace?

You guys and gals DO realize we play tabletop games, right ? What are tabletop gaming sessions if not action movies with infinite budgets?
 

I can't think of any teams in the East that would really be a good fit for him. Miami is an ongoing construction project, the Knicks seemingly get to be more of a disaster with every move they make, Philly has a truly dysfunctional front office and I don't think any of its young talent is really happy to be there, and Boston is just no.
 
There aren't that many good fits in the West either. We have billboards in Portland that say "Lebron, Dame (Damien Lillard) needs a third option". LBJ is nobody's third option. And Portland was never in serious consideration as a landing spot regardless. Houston and Golden State have everything they need to compete for championships for years to come. About all the Lakers have is cap room, but while they can certainly afford him and he does have a home in LA the only way I can see him going to the Lakers is if they cut bait on the circus sideshow that is Lonzo Ball and his family and suddenly develop actual NBA-level talent. You don't waste the remaining years of Lebron's prime on a rebuilding job, you sign him as the last piece to bring you two or three championships.

They all ruined their elbows playing tennis on the Wii.

Figure out which satellites are carrying the global feed, and shoot them down.
 
NT: We found remnants of ancient life on Mars! What else will we find there?

Live in the United States,

Or sit in the corner, shaking uncontrollably and hiding their faces from the world.

They all ruined their elbows playing tennis on the Wii.

In Traveller HERO, clearly you failed a career survival check and it's time to muster out and become a PC!

Live in the United States,