bigdamnhero

Lynda Carter says "You should see my other jet" in response to Supergirl mentioning Air Force One, a nod to Wonder Woman's Invisible plane.
 
Bet she's from Qward.

Yeah, the combination of Author Insertion, Mary Sue and LET ME BEAT YOU ABOUT THE HEAD WITH MY POLITICAL VIEWS! was too much for me.

Owen is my least favorite character in the whole series. He is very obviously an author insertion character. Besides that he has the whole "rebel without a clue" and "loudmouth so Conservative that he makes Conservatives as a class look bad" thing going. Hell, I prefer the thinly veiled Wolverine knock-off that is Harbinger. Turns out my favorite character is painted as an almost bad guy in the first few books (Franks). 
 
I have enjoyed the series but there have been many things that have just made me sign in weak exasperation.

After hearing alot of good things about it, I purchased and read Monster Hunters International. 
 
Positives:
The author put some nice twists into his world. I have always liked monster hunter campaigns and movies, so this was really enjoyable.
No good guy characters in the book were really invulnerable and everyone took a beating
Some of the situations had me thinking "Holy crap, how the hell are they going to get out of this????
 
Not so Positives...
I'm sure I'm going to get some flak for this, but Owen is a Mary Sue... I just can't get past this.  Maybe it's because of the first person way the story is told, or the forced, weird feeling romance that was shoved in, but yeah, Mary Sue.  I honestly feel that if the Owen character was replaced by someone else, I would have enjoyed the book more.

Your posts remind me of this passage from the above interview:
 

Distrust of superheroes, irrespective of their origin, seems to me to just be a manifestation of the paranoid zeitgeist that insists we can't trust anyone in a position of power (and by extension anyone who enjoys great wealth). Even if it is true that our society is drowning in feelings of powerlessness and cynicism, I'm a little disappointed that we would rather wallow in it than cultivate visions of hope and optimism.
 
At least with Supergirl, we are given a milieu in which the heroes carry a message of unapologetic optimism in opposition to the forces of paranoia, intolerance, and fear-mongering. If the show is appropriating those memes in order to deflate them and deprive them of cultural power, then that's another reason to love it all the more.

This episode made me laugh out loud a lot while my inner nerdchild was crying tears of happiness. Even with the reduced budget, the show keeps getting better and better.

Oh, one more from last week. The 5 PCs and their 10 retainers, seeking shelter from a sudden storm, are spending the night at a farmhouse and barn.
The two characters with Survival have gone out braving the storm to hunt; both make their Rolls by a lot, enough to feed everyone and pay the farmer for his trouble...
 
Priest: "Eh, I pay the farmer for one of his sheep, give him a little more than it's worth. We cook and eat that."
[outraged laughter and "Oh no you DIDN'T!" from the hunters]
GM: "So you return to the barn carrying a freshly-killed stag between you, only to find everyone gathered around the fire chowing down on roast mutton."
Ranger: "Freaking rich people! Got a problem? Throw freaking money at it! Just typical!"
Priest: [holds out a mutton leg] "Want some?"
Ranger: [takes it] "Well of course, thank you, but that's not the point!"

I just remembered another funny moment from two weeks ago. Low-fantasy game set in "real" Medieval Europe circa 1000 AD. The PCs are in Constantinople, and 2 PCs have wandered off on their own: a Welshman and an Irishman. I figure this is the perfect opportunity to introduce a key NPC, so as they're passing through the forum I describe a crowd that has gathered to hear some guy preaching, and describe his appearance and how he's mesmerized the crowd, and I take a breath to start in on my prepared monologue...
 
Player 1: "Wait, what language is he speaking?"
GM: "Um, well he's preaching to the masses so it has to be in Greek...Crap, neither of you speak Greek do you?"
Player 1 & 2: "Nope."
Player 3: "I speak Greek."
Player 4: "Me too. Shame we're on the other side of town..."
GM: [sigh] "Well whatever the hell he's saying, it sounds important. Sure has the crowd worked up. No idea what it's about tho."
Player 2: "Dodged THAT plot hook!"
 
And that, children, is why most Fantasy RPG settings have some sort of common tongue!

From last night's FH game. Our Heroes are hiking overland, accompanied by their 10 retainers - Egyptian sailors/pirates the PCs beat up and converted a few weeks ago.
 
GM: Your Egyptian sailors are unused to long distance walking, and several of them have bad blisters by day’s end.
[everyone looks at the miracle worker]
Priest: I’m not wasting a miracle on blisters.
Warrior: Fine. [makes Medic and PS: Herbalist rolls to get them back on their feet]
 
[1 minute later, following some mediocre Survival Rolls...]
 
GM: Unfortunately today’s hunting is less successful, and you don’t really have enough for everyone to eat their fill...
Priest: Oh I’ll totally spend a miracle on dinner!

Constantinople, April 7th, 1001. And now for a little Church politics...
 
The Patriarch of Constantinople has passed away, and the various Church factions are vying to have their man elected to replace him. One "dark horse" candidate, a priest named Gregoras, is pushing for Constantinople to break completely with the Roman Church. (50 years earlier than it happened in "our" timeline.) Our heroes have learned Gregoras is being backed by a foreign prince (who may or may not be the Antichrist), who has been greasing the palms of many Byzantine officials to get Gregoras elected. After our heroes reveal this information publicly (High Society by 10, and a natural 3 on Streetwise!), public opinion becomes so outraged that Gregoras is stoned to death by an angry mob. Leading to this exchange between multiple characters:
 
"Congratulations, you just engineered to have a Man Of God stoned to death. But you're pretty sure he was dirty, so..."
"Did we just turn him into a martyr?"
"No, because he was stoned to death by Christians. If he'd been killed by infidels, sure."
"But what if he was right and the people who stoned him were actually heretics?"
"The Bible says "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," right?"
"Riiiiiight..."
"Therefore the people who threw stones must've been sinless. QED."
"LOGIC!"
"I'm so confused."
"Welcome to Catholicism!"

Heh, that's how I was reading it too.

This episode made me laugh out loud a lot while my inner nerdchild was crying tears of happiness. Even with the reduced budget, the show keeps getting better and better.

I have to respectfully disagree over the inclusion of the X-Men and their fellow mutants in the MCU. Even in the Marvel Comics universe, mutants co-exist uncomfortably with superhumans having other origins. For some reason mutants are hated and feared by a large segment of the population, while other supers may be respected and lauded. The issues they deal with seem like an entirely different continuity from the rest of the Marvel Universe. IMHO they work much better in their own separate cinematic world, with mutation being the only source of super powers, rather than being squeezed in with all the mutates, aliens, and gods.

DC Swears Wonder Woman Will Actually Be Fun To Watch. Sounds great, but color me skeptical.

Gladiator and Hyperion are both deliberate clones of Superman (Superboy for Gladiator), in that the Squadron Supreme was a riff on the JLA and the Imperial Guard was a riff on the Legion of Super-Heroes. Further development allowed them to diverge, but that was the original plan (Squadron intentionally so, in that JLA featured a team modeled after some Avengers of the day).
 
At least they were all different enough to be an homage rather than a copyright lawsuit.
 
As for Captain Marvel being the MCU Superman, I take that to mean "very powerful, highly moral and well liked by the general public".
 
If we want to use Gladiator or Hyperion for that, they probably need to have been on Earth for a while (maybe rocketed there as an infant), have a reason not to go home (maybe their planet of origin suffered some catastrophe) and have a reason to follow Earth's moral codes (like being raised by morally upright earth people). That's definitely getting into lawsuit territory...

Captain Marvel Is The Most Powerful Hero In The Marvel Cinematic Universe Says Feige
http://comicbook.com/marvel/2016/10/12/captain-marvel-is-the-strongest-hero-in-the-marvel-cinematic-uni/
 
*happy*

I have to say that, after his last two big-screen outings, I find the interpretation of Superman in this series refreshing. Confident. Respected. Warm and outgoing. Happy. Not to mention colorful.

Season opener was pretty strong IMO. Mayor Ollie looks to be entertaining, the Russia flashbacks have potential to be more fun than Another Year On The Same Damn Island. (I like the open acknowledgement that the only thing really keeping Ollie from going home is that he doesn't feel ready yet.) Apparently we're going to start seeing some new vigilantes on the team, including presumably Mister Terrific and won't it be fun to see how they work their way up to that?
 
And oh hey,
 
 
Overall I'd say I'm actually looking forward to Season 5, and I didn't expect to be able to say that.

Luthor hating Superboy for having caused his hair to fall out always struck me as a really lame basis for a lifelong rivalry. And to me Luthor's costumes and armor looked garish and goofy, hard to take seriously. Byrne's notion that Lex had been the most powerful man in Metropolis until Superman showed up -- the one man he couldn't buy, intimidate, or kill -- seemed like a more credible source for his jealousy and ultimate hatred. Still, I'm glad that in this millennium the various DC media have been moving corporate Lex back into the super-scientist stream. It adds further dimension to his threat to Superman, and reinforces their "brain vs brawn" dynamic.

You mean like writing in the relationship after Magneto had been powermad for himself since appearing in X-Men #1? I think his history with Xavier was written in at a time not far off the backstory being added to Xavier and Magneto (and Magneto's WW II involvement was added about the same time a lot of other characters' was being removed - but he has the de-aging in Defenders and revival in X-Men 104 as a moving target for his physical age). And the prior relationship was only added in the 50's/60's Superboy stories, not the early Luthor appearances.

Deadpool
 
I liked it for what it was.  Probably the best portrayal of Colossus we've seen yet and as he's always been my favorite X-Man that was nice treat.

Constantinople, April 7th, 1001. And now for a little Church politics...
 
The Patriarch of Constantinople has passed away, and the various Church factions are vying to have their man elected to replace him. One "dark horse" candidate, a priest named Gregoras, is pushing for Constantinople to break completely with the Roman Church. (50 years earlier than it happened in "our" timeline.) Our heroes have learned Gregoras is being backed by a foreign prince (who may or may not be the Antichrist), who has been greasing the palms of many Byzantine officials to get Gregoras elected. After our heroes reveal this information publicly (High Society by 10, and a natural 3 on Streetwise!), public opinion becomes so outraged that Gregoras is stoned to death by an angry mob. Leading to this exchange between multiple characters:
 
"Congratulations, you just engineered to have a Man Of God stoned to death. But you're pretty sure he was dirty, so..."
"Did we just turn him into a martyr?"
"No, because he was stoned to death by Christians. If he'd been killed by infidels, sure."
"But what if he was right and the people who stoned him were actually heretics?"
"The Bible says "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," right?"
"Riiiiiight..."
"Therefore the people who threw stones must've been sinless. QED."
"LOGIC!"
"I'm so confused."
"Welcome to Catholicism!"

Running a one-shot at a game day fundraiser. The players have decided they need to vandalize the botanic gardens, so the Mayor's daughter will be forced to hold her wedding indoors. (Long story, it made sense at the time. Sort of.)
 
Gadgeteer PC: "I rig up an automatic chainsaw...on a roomba, and set it to run around cutting down all the trees!"

Watching this again (thanks LL for posting), it really highlights exactly the difference in approach between Tony & Steve. Tony sees the big picture*, and engineers a technological plan to solve it (alien invasion).
 
*Brought forward no doubt due to the downfall of SHIELD, the only other organisation shown to stop an alien invasion. Also Tony help design the Insight helicarriers for this purpose. With SHIELD's downfall that left the Avengers as sole planetary security, which means Tony's Iron Legion was an Avengers backup and civilian safety plan. 
 
Cap doesn't have a plan (that has been shown so far) but believe they can triumph by using teamwork. This no doubt is from his background as a soldier in WW2. Today the Avengers are his unit. 
 
Both approaches have merit. Neither is entirely right, nor wrong.