Lord Liaden

If you're familiar with Fourth Edition, and if you don't mind PDF books, my suggestion would be to go with Fifth. Not that there's anything wrong with Sixth, but the changes from 4E to 6E are numerous, and although they don't fundamentally change how the system works they do take some getting used to. OTOH 4E and 5E are very close, and you can easily use materials from one with the other. There is a ton of stuff available for 5E in multiple genres, and it's less expensive than books for 6E. Here's a summary of the changes from 4E to 5E: HERO System 4th to 5th Edition Checklist-Commentary.htm

I'm pretty sure Black Widow at one point said, "half of all living things." I also remember Scott Lang looking out a widow after the "return snap" and seeing birds in a tree, implicitly which weren't there before, and saying, "I think it worked, guys." If I'm correct in my memory, then I agree, that is a flaw in the thinking behind the writing.

I can see that, and it's a legitimate subjective response. For my part, that the axe's appearance betrays its construction, and its construction explains its function, makes it that much cooler. Also, I can't remember another movie in this genre in which a kaiju wields a distinctive melee weapon. Giant robots, sure, but not giant creatures. This may be a precedent setter. 😎

Now I disagree with your premise wholeheartedly. Aside from villains like the Joker who exist only to be monsters, the most memorable and compelling villains are those we can empathize with, because we can feel what drives them and appreciate that any one of us could have gone down their path and ended up like them. There's still something in them that's recognizable and admirable: Dr. Doom's code of honor, Magneto's mutant crusade, Norman Osborn's love for his son. Look how popular the MCU's Loki is. Besides, Thanos in Infinity War is evil, but he's also the protagonist of the movie.

An important point to emphasize. These Titans aren't just animals. Every one we've seen on screen for any length of time has displayed intelligence at or near the human level.

But the thing is, the Joker doesn't have a goal. He doesn't have a purpose. He's just randomly destructive, like a tornado on legs. He doesn't need to be understandable -- his not being understandable is what makes him so terrifying.

We're comics fans talking to comics fans here. We know and accept this stuff. But I don't want to belabor the point.

Guys, look at this objectively. This is a person who obsessively desires and believes he deserves a romantic relationship with the personification of DEATH! This is necrophilia and nihilism mixed with god complex and taken to the Nth degree. The only reason it makes sense to you is because you've grown accustomed to it over decades of the character's history. To any moviegoer without comic exposure (the majority of them), that idea would sound beyond insane. The movie Thanos's motivation at least has a relatable cause and logic, albeit flawed logic.

That's planning ahead. Then the people who make them up should be considerate enough to spell them for you.

Who is "we?" When and where did that happen?

I've come to the conclusion that everyone has their own instinctive reaction to every entertainment, fiction, and work of art, colored by their personality and experiences. Some things certain people connect to automatically, others they don't and never will. It's not that they're mistaken or flawed in some way, it just doesn't reach them the same way it does another person. In that case no amount of explanation will ever help someone understand, emotionally, why something is great. (Intellectually, maybe. I can think of several things in that category that apply to me.)

Actually, Stanley has it right. The League of Champions characters started out as PCs in the first Champions playtest campaign, with Bruce Harlick, Glenn Thain, Stacey Lawrence et al, under the team name of the Guardians. That was changed to the Champions for the original Eclipse Comics series starring them, for the name recognition of the RPG. Dennis Mallonee changed the name again for legal purposes when he acquired the rights to publish the characters.

The quality of the writing deteriorates over the course of the series, but the pilot episode was brilliant IMO. Patrick Warburton gloriously throws himself into the sincere absurdity of the Tick. And IMO Bat Manuel was a much cleverer concept than Die Fledermaus. But my favorite pun from the series is still the fifty-foot-tall bovine who shoots fire from her teats, "Apocalypse Cow."

I really don't see how they could have done much better. Government has to wield power to be effective, and governments are made up of people, with everything that entails. They created government with three co-equal branches dividing their powers, and two of them directly accountable to the citizenry. For Donald Trump to actually have become a dictator would require a degree of pervasive corruption among all three branches, and of widespread gullibility plus pettiness among the voting public, that not only the Founders, but none of us until a few years ago, would have thought possible. But it's worth noting that Trump didn't become a dictator. He came very close, but the system did ultimately stop him. Now America is forewarned. If the next one to try actually succeeds, America will truly deserve the government it gets.

Here you go. I'll also throw in the collected Tables of Contents from DH for good measure. DH Adventures .doc DH TOC.doc

Let's just say it's a really big Johnson.

The heroic sacrifice is a classic part of comic-book lore. John "Menthor" Janus staggering through a hail of bullets to warn the other THUNDER Agents of a trap. Ferro Lad of the Legion of Superheroes carrying a bomb into the Sun-Eater. Barry Allen burning himself out destroying the Anti-Monitor's doomsday weapon. Besides, when you're dead, you usually don't care what condition your body's in.

Understood. But I'm still not seeing what having two NPC superhero teams, explicitly dedicated as PC support, brings to that support that couldn't be provided by just one or the other. What's different in the support each offers? Got it, and that seems of practical benefit. I tend to use the Nagas, from The Ultimate Mystic, to fill that particular niche for my games.

I'm not sure I grasp your point, assault. Elaboration, please?

Yes, Legendary Godzilla is nearly 400 feet tall, which in those shots looks just about right on top of a thousand-foot carrier. I don't know where this talk of "tiny Godzilla" keeps coming from. There aren't many sky scrapers in the world much taller than that. This is also the tallest Godzilla ever in live action. Only the anime "Godzilla Earth" is taller, at 1,000 feet in height. If that's your standard, then sure, call this Godzilla tiny. As for Kong, he was a little over 100 feet tall nearly fifty years ago when the Skull Island movie was set. Plainly he grew since then. HIs axe appears to be made from body parts from the corpse of one of Godzilla's relatives, in which case its capacity to absorb atomic breath makes perfect sense. I'm sorry, Sketch, but I honestly don't see where you're getting that this movie is any less serious and more "kiddie absurd" than any of the other Legendary Godzilla movies. Just because Kong is wielding an axe? He used weapons on Skull Island too. Godzilla is on a rampage over the world, and humanity is desperate enough to try to press-gang Kong to fight him. How is that not serious? I fear you're psyching yourself into hating it before you've even seen it.

Except that it happened because Vanguard exhausted all his power crashing into that asteroid at ludicrous speed to shatter it.

Personally, I already use groups lifted from other sources for such purposes, so I don't have a need for it. But "modular" support groups in a single package seems convenient for people looking to add those options. However, I would like to know what distinguishes the two NPC superhero teams, the Guardians and the League of Champions. What do you see each providing that the other doesn't? For my part, I think some type of technology-based "super agency" like SHIELD would probably make a more useful support group. Maybe less guns and helicarriers, more intelligence resources.

No, here, allow me to help you:

Being better than Trump is a very low bar. America has had dishonest or incompetent Presidents before, but never one so actively, deliberately destructive to its guiding principles and basic institutions. That Trump is still able to maintain this level of both self-serving devotion and blind loyalty says as much about human nature as it does about him.