Ockham's Spoon

A new addition to the Bestiary?
 

From Roz Chast

A new addition to the Bestiary?
 

From Roz Chast

A new addition to the Bestiary?
 

From Roz Chast

The big advantage a fantasy setting has over a superhero setting is simplicity.  Modern life is complicated, add super tech and it becomes even more so.  Fantasy settings are in a simpler time which makes it easier to imagine and easier to craft stories for, and if you even need to invoke deus ex machina you just call it magic.  Culturally, fantasy settings have existed for thousands of years, much of that time as a 'real' part of the world, while superheroes have always existed in a parallel universe which is harder to conceive.  Both settings can tell great stories, but the bar is higher for superheroes.
 
I think another reason that the popularity of superhero movies doesn't translate into RPG interest is that superhero movies typically have the same cast of characters (multiple reboots of Spiderman, Batman, & Superman for instance).  That makes the universe seem closed - the only heroes available have already been laid out.  (The mutants in the X-men would be something of an exception, but even the core X-men are relatively fixed). Conversely, there are lots of different fantasy settings and characters so you could more easily imagine a character that is unique to you and not predefined.

The big advantage a fantasy setting has over a superhero setting is simplicity.  Modern life is complicated, add super tech and it becomes even more so.  Fantasy settings are in a simpler time which makes it easier to imagine and easier to craft stories for, and if you even need to invoke deus ex machina you just call it magic.  Culturally, fantasy settings have existed for thousands of years, much of that time as a 'real' part of the world, while superheroes have always existed in a parallel universe which is harder to conceive.  Both settings can tell great stories, but the bar is higher for superheroes.
 
I think another reason that the popularity of superhero movies doesn't translate into RPG interest is that superhero movies typically have the same cast of characters (multiple reboots of Spiderman, Batman, & Superman for instance).  That makes the universe seem closed - the only heroes available have already been laid out.  (The mutants in the X-men would be something of an exception, but even the core X-men are relatively fixed). Conversely, there are lots of different fantasy settings and characters so you could more easily imagine a character that is unique to you and not predefined.

A new addition to the Bestiary?
 

From Roz Chast

If you glue a dead wasp to your palm, you can hit your boss on the back of the head as hard as you want, and claim to have saved him.

Albert Einstein, Blaise Pascal, and Isaac Newton were playing hide-and-seek. Einstein counted to twenty and Pascal ran off, but Newton just drew a square in the ground around himself with a stick. Einstein turned around, saw Newton, and said, "I've found you!" Newton looked confused. "No," he said, "You've found one Newton per square meter. You've found Pascal!"

"Uh, no, we didn't copy off each other! We swear!"
 
 

I don't envy the cops answering a domestic disturbance call to that household.

Fairy Tale mash-up:

Fairy Tale mash-up:

Fairy Tale mash-up:

This is an old one, but since Grumpy Cat just recently passed, it seem justified:
 

The key power of higher speed is in acting on other phases which most characters do not.  If you look at the speed chart, many phases are like "greatest hits" and get a lot of action.  Everyone moves on 12, of course -- or, at least they used to until 6th edition (which makes for a really weird anomaly in the progression of turns.  With this system speed 1 gets effectively 2 actions in the first 12 segments -- a turn -- then nothing for another 11 segments.  So its phase 0 (everyone acts), then 7, then... 7 next turn.  Anyway...

But look at the chart and you see some outliers.  Phase 6 for example has tons of action.  4 and 8 are the next most active phases.  So if you can move before those phases or you use saved phases tactically that can be a very useful advantage.
 
Until speed 7, nobody moves on phase 7 (ignoring speed 1 which is basically meaningless to the discussion because its so slow).  That's a scary phase, and it means someone is really really fast.  And Speed 7 is the first speed that moves on phase 11.  Further, look at speed 7 again; its the first speed where you get back-to-back phases of action.  Its like getting free held phases.  Frankly 7 is powerful enough for speedsters to dominate fights without needing to go any faster.
 
Honestly the more you study this chart, the more the genius shows.  It was probably not intentional but it worked out really well.  Mathematically they are split up across the turn as evenly as possible (and 12 gives the best number of possible even divisions).  But for the first few steps (the range most often encountered in Heroic games) the differences are most elegant.  From speed 3 to 5, each higher speed moves a segment before the previous speed in almost every phase.  So you have a slight edge showing greater training but not absurdly fast like phase 6 or something.