zslane

Well, even 60 years later we as a culture think of WWII as a monumental world event, and we still know (and instinctively react) to words like "Nazi" and "Hitler" and "fascism" and "Holocaust". This was a war that seared itself indelibly into the collective unconscious of the American psyche. It is not difficult for me to imagine that a costumed hero like Captain America would ascend to the level of mythological figure, even after 60 years. Especially if he then returned to us and (famously) participated in the repelling of an alien invasion.

I take a different approach. I think to myself WWAAD: What would Aaron Allston do? (if he were alive) and then I build that.

Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns were deconstructionist works intended to unravel the tapestry of superhero tradition and reweave it into something completely different. There is little in the way of traditional superheroics going on in either work, and neither stands as representative of the genre. They were never meant to be. Just because publishers cashed in on the widespread misunderstanding/misinterpretation of those comics and churned out countless comics where amoral anti-heroes supplanted the roles previously filled by what I would call "genuine" superheroes, doesn't mean that the true meaning of Christmas "superhero" has changed so drastically that the fascist undertones found in those (much) smarter works can be said to have revealed the genre's hidden ethical foundation.

Wonder Woman only pulled in half of what Black Panther did. Being a good movie that "breaks ground" by tapping some previously untapped demographic is not enough to replicate the kind of success Marvel movies enjoy. There is this fallacy in Hollywood that you can identify the one thing that made a movie a huge hit and then use that to "replicate" its success. Continued belief in this fallacy will lead to more Justice Leagues in the future as studios like WB attempt to make their own version of something another studio did better because of a long list of critical factors which they disregard as irrelevant.

Two headlines on io9 today:
 
Wonder Woman and Black Panther's Success Has Theater Owners Asking for More Diverse Blockbusters
 
I consider this fake news. I don't believe that "theater owners" are clamoring for more diverse blockbusters. I'm pretty sure they are just clamoring for more successful blockbusters, whether they have diversity as a primary feature or not. Theater owners--which are a cabal of corporations, not individuals--only care about making money, not satisfying some oblique social agenda. But, of course, io9 has to spin this as a referendum on representation in film.
 
What Warner Bros. Needs to Do to Replicate Black Panther's Success
 
Here the article frames this as a question over which black superhero DC should put on film in order to "replicate" the success of Black Panther. But to my mind this focuses on the wrong thing. The answer is to simply make a damn good movie. You do that and you'll replicate the movie's success, regardless of the race or gender of the lead character. But, of course, io9 has to make this all about race politics and the notion that Black Panther is successful primarily because it is all black, rather than because it is simply a superb film in all its other aspects.
 
Incidentally, trying to replicate the success of Black Panther's marketing campaign--which was as much about characterizing the film as an historic moment in cinema as it was about showing the film's amazing action and visuals--would also be a futile endeavor since that would only reek of desperate copycat maneuvering. But I just don't know if WB has the dexterity to avoid that particular minefield.

I think the creators of superhero comics, many of whom were Jewish immigrants, would be shocked to learn they were really indulging in fascist fantasy all that time. 

I think the creators of superhero comics, many of whom were Jewish immigrants, would be shocked to learn they were really indulging in fascist fantasy all that time. 

I think the creators of superhero comics, many of whom were Jewish immigrants, would be shocked to learn they were really indulging in fascist fantasy all that time. 

For learning the system, I would get Champions Complete. Then, get the entire 6th edition Core Library for after you've absorbed the fundamentals (from Champions Complete) and know for sure you like the system enough to want to devote your life to it like we have. 

WARNER BROTHERS: Everything you know about the Flash and the DC Universe is WRONG!
COMIC BOOK FANS: So Flash isn't a socially-retarded motormouth anymore? And the DCEU isn't depressing destructo-porn with lame CGI villains set against videogame backgrounds?
WARNER BROTHERS: Er...
GENERAL AUDIENCES: Wakanda forever!

Oh I wouldn't put it past WB to try and use Flashpoint to do some sort of soft reboot since the one thing they have demonstrated they are really, really good at is spending lots of time and money putting really bad ideas up on the screen.

Two headlines on io9 today:
 
Wonder Woman and Black Panther's Success Has Theater Owners Asking for More Diverse Blockbusters
 
I consider this fake news. I don't believe that "theater owners" are clamoring for more diverse blockbusters. I'm pretty sure they are just clamoring for more successful blockbusters, whether they have diversity as a primary feature or not. Theater owners--which are a cabal of corporations, not individuals--only care about making money, not satisfying some oblique social agenda. But, of course, io9 has to spin this as a referendum on representation in film.
 
What Warner Bros. Needs to Do to Replicate Black Panther's Success
 
Here the article frames this as a question over which black superhero DC should put on film in order to "replicate" the success of Black Panther. But to my mind this focuses on the wrong thing. The answer is to simply make a damn good movie. You do that and you'll replicate the movie's success, regardless of the race or gender of the lead character. But, of course, io9 has to make this all about race politics and the notion that Black Panther is successful primarily because it is all black, rather than because it is simply a superb film in all its other aspects.
 
Incidentally, trying to replicate the success of Black Panther's marketing campaign--which was as much about characterizing the film as an historic moment in cinema as it was about showing the film's amazing action and visuals--would also be a futile endeavor since that would only reek of desperate copycat maneuvering. But I just don't know if WB has the dexterity to avoid that particular minefield.

I think that list needs 100% more Wilson Fisk and 200% more Kilgrave.

Of course it is. I don't believe that the powers that be at DC/WB are aware of any other stories for the Flash. It's right up there with the handful of graphic novels that they always go back to for Batman and Superman.

I think that list needs 100% more Wilson Fisk and 200% more Kilgrave.

I think that list needs 100% more Wilson Fisk and 200% more Kilgrave.

Yeah, the biggest weakness of Babylon 5's first season, apart from the low fx budget and some of the acting, was that it had to spend that entire season just setting up everything that was to be paid off in the coming seasons. But I think you will be pleased if you stick with it, and especially impressed when you watch the two-part S3 episode War Without End (because of how it ties to a very particular episode in S1).

There's a puzzling tendency for HERO players to believe that the existing power set is always the best way to build any and all things. However, there are cases where the mechanics you are after aren't really covered by the existing skills/talents/powers/etc. without a lot of torturous, highly indirect application of what's available in the RAW. This situation is hardly unusual; new powers have been added to virtually every edition of the game in order to cover various concepts more directly/elegantly, and there's no reason you can't as well. You'll have to decide if obtuse builds based around Entangle, Mind Control, Flash, or Change Environment are better fits for what you're after than a simple Stun Target power that you come up with yourself.

Invent a new power:
 
10 pts - Stun Target
Upon a successful to-hit roll, target must make a successful EGO Roll (or CON Roll at GM's discretion) or be Stunned.
Adder: for +5 pts target takes a -1 penalty to their EGO Roll score.
 
Adjust point costs as you see fit for your campaign.

Episode 1 of Altered Carbon.
 
I need to watch it again, with the CC turned on; too much of the dialogue is unintelligible (actors mumble a lot these days). It is interesting so far, though hardly groundbreaking in its recycling of old cyberpunk tropes, but I am not a big fan of the lead actor. I was vaguely aware of the whitewashing accusations thrown at this show going in, but didn't pay that much attention to all the noise. For me, it isn't about some lost opportunity to put an asian actor in the lead role, but just the fact that the asian actor who appears as Takeshi Kovacs in the opening sequence was so compelling and charismatic (to me anyway) that I really wished the story stuck with that "sleeve" for the whole thing.

Pretty much, what I have been thinking.   I want to punish the damn perverts.  But, at the same time, I have serious negative feelings towards false allegations of sexual harassment.  And that seems much more common, than what we are lead to believe.  And it does feel like it has entered witch hunt territory.  It does feel like every man is one vengeful woman away from having their life needlessly ruined.  

This.  There's a lot of witch hunt feel, of goal posts being moved, and a whiff of revenge rather than justice.  I have had the experience of being cold-called by a reporter looking for dirt to substantiate allegations.  It's a glorious environment for extortion, and I wonder how much of it is happening.

Well, for anyone who grew up in the 70s (as Gygax and crew did), such a mixing of cultures had become a fixture of popular entertainment, and would have been thought of as pretty cool, not "odd":
 

Really? This is my least favorite season. It's afflicted with one drab location, a boring storyline (involving incomprehensible time-travel nonsense no less) and cheesy, one-note clichéd villains. The first season run-up to the Hydra reveal was better than this. Ugh.

I don't blame you. Wonder Woman's boots didn't look good on Melissa Benoist: