Grailknight

While I'm not a professional physicist or a member of the scientific community, I know there are a number of them here, and would want to attach their names to this--
 
Letter To SCOTUS From Professional Physicists

I can't disagree more about tone. The Supergirl character has been light romcom for most of the character's existence. Even the most recent series never go darker than teen angst/rebellion and for much of her career, her stories were young romance.
 
The dumb stick is omnipresent in stories of any DCU character with superspeed. If Superman/Supergirl/Flash were run by genre wrecking gamers, then any villain they faced without a counter should wake up in jail asking who captured them. Kryptonians can scout a scene from 50,000 ft, observe powers, listen to plans swoop to attack before you can guess they are there. It's just that by genre conventions, only villains get to use their powers to the fullest consistently.

IMHO part of the "problem," if you want to call it that, is that many Marvel properties are in the hands of other studios. Two of them with the largest roster of attached characters, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, can't be used by Marvel for their own movies. Spider-Man is just a recent addition, through an exceptional cross-studio shared production agreement.
 
But I believe it's also worth remembering that Marvel Comics have been around since 1961. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has only existed since 2008. And a big portion of these movies' fan base know the characters only through the movies. There's only so much time and energy you can devote to introducing new characters in movies. These things aren't comic books, massed produced on cheap paper through the efforts of a handful of producers. These big-budget movies require a small army of artistic and technical talent, working with expensive equipment for months and sometimes years; all of which has to be paid for.
 
Remember when we were all amazed when the first Avengers movie managed to balance more than half a dozen main protagonists? Maybe we've become spoiled in thinking they can just keep throwing more and more characters into a movie.
 
However, for me the (relatively) small number of protagonists in the upcoming Civil War helps focus the action and the stories down to their key components. IMHO it makes them seem more important, not less. Over the past seven years, these few people have caused the world to face the reality of threatening alien life and beings with godlike power; exposed corruption at the heart of the world's premier security agency while preventing its subverters from seizing world power; caused the devastation of at least two cities and massive destruction around the globe. They're famous, they're symbols, and they're polarizing influences. As Nick Fury said, they can't be matched, can't be controlled. The actions of this small number of heroes have repercussions far exceeding their numbers.

Well, at the risk of repeating myself, I still see it like this:  these high-level (in game terms and political status) clerics did not stop at the local tavern en route to the meeting and call out "Any freebooter-adventurer-mercs in here want to earn a fiver by being a bodyguard for the afternoon?".  These bodyguards would, yes, be elite warriors, but more significantly, they would be devout followers of the god in question.  The clerics would let the warrior captain types choose their best.  From that pool the holy guys would review Sunday School attendance and other criteria ("Well young GruntBurp here is as devout as they come, but I think we should go with SparkleTeeth.  Have to put on a good presentation in front of the assembly)
 
So, I see these bodyguards as fanatically devout to their god and thus unswervingly loyal to his/her/its representative on the mortal plane.  The fact they each get a bodyguard at this convocation means, despite rules and regulations, there is a security risk.  SparkleTeeth's job #1 to protect the cleric of TinkleBells the Good.  If he charges off to help Roy, the cleric and bodyguard of TarSnot the Evil might work off a centuries-old feud on poor TinkleBells.  
 
Until SparkleTeeth is given the attack order, he'll do his job, no matter his personal feelings.

I respect your conviction even if I may not agree with your opinion. Folks complain about fumbles in football games, They complain about how a beloved character is being written in current comic books. They complain about a lot of unimportant things. I'm not sure why anyone would be surprised that they'd also complain about the big stuff too. Some on this thread might be doing more than that for all we know. Protesting, writing emails, or even just trying to learn more about the specifics of each situation. The last, I know that more than one has done. We're not just 'OMG! RAAAAGE' We're "WTF? Wait, how did ...." 
 
and that quest for knowledge aspect of it renders it more than simple complaint imo.  We're not instantly accepting things. For example, I recently asked for verification if anyone had heard that girl in the most recent incident had thrown the first punch, to my mind something that might explain (even if it might not excuse) the escalation. But innocent people are dying, and some not so innocent are dying when even if they are scum, they didn't deserve it. Complaining about it might not get a damn thing done, but it's a lot better than sticking our heads in the sand I think.
 
If some cop is being railroaded unfairly, I want to hear about it. I really do, just like if some citizen is set up for a fall for something he or she didn't do either, I want to know. But I'm not going to learn diddly about the truth by closing my eyes and wishing the bad  news away.
 
That's my take on it, and I know you have yours which I can respect.

I think he"d be better as Captain Marvel.

An Incredibly Detailed Map of the Roman Empire At Its Height in 211AD
http://brilliantmaps.com/roman-empire-211/

You can't have a memorial to the Kamikaze and then complain about any damn statue we put up anywhere.

You forgot the part where the comic MU forms Hit Squads of convicted murderers and terrorists whenever the heroes step out of line.

Sorry, you mentioned that I had forgotten about tragedy, and on a day after 9/11's anniversary ... which I will admit, I may have knee jerk taken to mean I had forgotten about nearly 3000 souls dying in a terrorist attack
 
I'm glad that's not the way it was intended. And I suppose I owe you something of an apology for my own negative take and putting meaning in what you said that was never intended. Apologies back at you.
 
Now, as for what you were trying to say, yes, the public in the real world often over reacts.... but MU isn't the real world. In the comic verse, it was time and time again saved by superheroes who stopped alien invasions, attacks by Atlantis, and my personal favorite.... Galactus about to eat the ####ing planet. But the event decided no, no, that was all under the rug, yeah, that's the ticket. ONLY the bad stuff was remembered. It was a retcon used to make the story fit, and  damn continuity, oh, and damn characterization to. Had Captain America gone on the news and given one of his super speeches (The guy has like an Oratory of 21-), the public probably would have wanted to elect him president... again. 
 
In the real world, the gun control debate has the public on both sides.... but in MU? There was no real attempt to balance things out when it came to supers. The superheroes were split (And in ways that made no sense.... Reed Richards actually gave a speech against registration once, but suddenly he was like a third Reich mad scientist.... Tony was the ultimate authoritarian tool, etc) but the public? It was one frothing stupid torch and pitchfork horde. If we want to use the gun control analogy, it would be as if suddenly the US woke up and 95% of the populace didn't just demand gun registration, they demanded that anyone with a gun be sent to a gulag without trial. Which is pretty insulting to both sides of the debate
 
Seriously, the MU Public in the comics was portrayed as the worst only, when in the real world, you actually have folks who, even if they're outnumbered against a social tide, try to urge calm and talking things out.  In the MU? The average Joe Public guy was portrayed so mindlessly hateful that I almost wanted to cheer Galactus on.
 
When your writing is so ham handed, when the story requires  more anvils than any twenty bugs bunny cartoons, when it turns into a parody of Oprah shouting "You get an idiot ball to carry, you get an idiot ball to carry, billions of you all get an idiot ball to carry"  and when you ignore characterization built up just to 'make it fit' like the writers of CW did, there's a severe problem.
 
It is my hope that the movies can polish off this turd and make something worthwhile out of it
 
YMMV, of course.

He had to shoot, it was closing in on him.

In the early issues he needed the cape to fly. If they keep that as part of canon then the cape is necessary. Besides that it looks cool and the high collar and the Orb of Agamotto are kinda his trademark look.

In the early issues he needed the cape to fly. If they keep that as part of canon then the cape is necessary. Besides that it looks cool and the high collar and the Orb of Agamotto are kinda his trademark look.

I think he"d be better as Captain Marvel.

Poor "exemplar" then, because both you and the author are leaping to a massive conclusion with no evidence to back it up other than a hunch.
 
I remember one time when I was going up the escalator from a BART station on the way to work. I had a messenger-type bag with one of those old mutant phone/radio things stuffed into the water bottle carrier. It tended to slip out, and when I reached back to stuff it back in, an indignant black girl behind me tore into me because she thought I was securing it in case she was going to steal it.
 
She was jumping to the exact same conclusion the mother who wrote that anecdote did, and that you are. And it's easy to do. It's very easy to be oversensitive to racial bias when it's thrown in your face every day. But . . . jumping to conclusions is still jumping to conclusions.
 
Attributing thoughts and feelings to a person without any evidence whatsoever is wrong.
 
The only conclusion that we can draw from the story posted is that a woman seriously overreacted to her daughter being accidentally harmed. That's it. There's not enough information available to make any other inferences.

This should be the opening image of Thor 3:

I think he"d be better as Captain Marvel.

I think he"d be better as Captain Marvel.

The amazing thing is that even Lovecraft cannot make penguins scary. In fact, if you feed a giant penguin to a shoggoth, it just makes the shoggoth less scary.
 
Meanwhile, massey pretty much sums up the whole thread.
 

   

  Repeatedly, I'm sure.
 
Still, you got me thinking on the subject, so I might as well inflict that thinking on the thread.
 
Here's how the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark would look, written by Lovecraft:
 

Lucius Alexander
 

It's not about power. It's about the tone of the campaign. Indiana Jones is about a world filled with ancient wonders that can be used to accomplish things, and the ability of adventurers to save the day. Call of Chutulu is about a universe that doesn't care and things above men as we are above insects.
 
It's not about how much power is involved in raising Hecate, it's about can the hero stop it without losing his mind at some horror that he can't comprehend.
CES 

Obviously, we need a genderless pronoun to continue having a full discussion of robot sexuality.  That way, we can avoid saying "she," "he," or "it" and just use something like "s/he-it" (for example).
 
After all, when you really get down to it, I think most of us here, myself included, are full of "s/he-it".
 
I think many people on both sides of this issue should keep that in the forefront of their brains -- in other words, have "s/he-it fore-brains."  The problem is, the various posters think their own "s/he-it" doesn't stink.
 
(Okay, I'll stop now, and take myself out back to be beaten profusely.  Maybe I'll get the "s/he-it" knocked out of me.)