David Johnston

Re: The downsides of the Iron Age Of course that's why they call it the "Iron Age" in the first place. It's analogous to the classical "Iron Age" Hesiod's label for what he saw as the war-filled violent times he lived in.

Re: Alignment Issues You're right. Better words would be: Freedom, egalitarianism, a willingness to make up the rules as you go along and to abandon traditions no longer seem to serve a practical purpose, a refusal to respect the position when you don't respect the man, a love of change for change's sake, and a low boredom threshold. Those are Chaotic values.

Re: Super Origins

Re: Top 10 List of the Lamest Superheroes of All Times Yeeeeeah... The thing about "lameness" is that a laughable character doesn't necessarily lose that just because the author throws him a bone. Any character can save the day as long as the scriptwriter want it that. Spider-Man can beat Firelord to death with his bare hands if the writer wants it that way. Squirrel Girl can trash Doctor Doom. But are we going to buy that? And even if we do, are we going to see it as anything except a joke that make fun of Doctor Doom or a third-rater who got lucky once? Now in Ramsay's case, he was just a non-combat capable character in the middle of a group of combat critters. Didn't make him look good. But I've seen much more laughable characters. Ramsay was just a bit pathetic. However it didn't help that his codename was a synonym for "nonentity".

Re: The downsides of the Iron Age

Re: Power source or origin by era Yes but Lightning Lad didn't get any power worth mentioning from being a cyborg. He just had a pretty good prosthesis. Wouldn't Nanotechnology fit under a subsect of "Cyborg" - and with the same concept of Genetic Engineering and/or Bio-replacements. Not as such. A cyborg is a person who has actually had body parts replaced with artificial replacements. The recently trendy nanotech characters have all their original parts, but nanobugs as well.

Re: Power source or origin by era There's another Iron Age origin, the self-referential one where the characters get powers explicitly from being a figment of the imagination. This is of course mostly Moore characters.

Re: Big Blue in control: WWYD Riptide: I'll intevene at the point where he starts killing people to get what he wants.

Re: If they get better, is it actually murder?

Re: If they get better, is it actually murder? It is true that there's a Silver Age loophole. "People" who aren't alive, machines, and Solomon Grundy and the like, aren't covered by the CVKs and killing them isn't considered to be illegal. But what real reason do you have to think that this guy is that kind of unkillable monster?

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines) Freakyboy wins (because his idea seems more usable in a game to me). It is up to Freakyboy to select the next character.

Re: (best ever)...reasons for becoming a supervillain! A supervillain is someone with exceptional abilities who is at odds with the law. So, yes. I'm a supervillain. But then again, I do live in a dictatorship ruled by a madman...

Re: Corven's Heroes & Villains It seems to me, given a public identity and a guy who commits crimes by growing to giant size, that his heel-turn would quickly be known to everyone.

Re: Corven's Heroes & Villains Is "student" really a professional skill? And would a guy in his thirties who takes what he wants by force have it?

Re: OBELISK - A new character to review please. Besides, the first aid is about the only thing his intelligence is good for. If you want lower First Aid, you should lower his intelligence.

Re: WWYCD: Fuel for the fire I think you've asked the wrong question. The right question is "DTGMFU?". I think he did. Why are bystanders standing around in arms reach of the Purple People Eater as he brawls with the Thing? Why is someone who is winning the fight taking hostages or alternatively why is someone who is involved in a fight taking meals? Even if the Thing's attacks are ineffective at actually doing damage, they should still be distracting.

Re: Alignment Issues I disagree. The reason "we" have laws in the first place is to ensure the maintenance of public order. Consider...if you will, the laws of the United States prior to the 14th amendment. Can any reasonable person say that the laws concerning slaves were in any way designed to fight evil and encourage good, as they are defined by the D&D rules?

Re: Height & weight ratios

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines) Geez, toss a disposable thought in just to avoid victory by acclamation and go skiing-- Okay, okay, the next name is: Darkstar Both Marvel and DC have characters named that, so you ought to be able to come up with something.

Re: HWYW*: Marvel Civil War? Cap would be supporting the SRA because it's the law. The law itself as opposed to how it's being administered is not entirely unreasonable. The nation needs superheroes, but many people who try to put on costumes and enforce the law privately are, to put it mildly, flakey incompetents who put people in greater danger. Licensing superheroes is no more unreasonable, at least in theory than licensing private investigators or bail enforcement agents. Let the murkier possibilities play out (like government agencies taking advantage of the law to unofficially pressure people with powers to pull covert operations on their behalf) to justify the existence of the anti-registration side. Cap doesn't need to know anything about them. They won't be part of the law itself.

Re: HWYW*: Marvel Civil War? I think the first thing I would have done, is leave Captain America on the side of the United States government. Having Stark, who has been a massive screw-up since his first descent into alchoholism, being the standard-bearer for pro-registration, while Rogers is leading the opposition makes it much too painfully clear who has the right side, and who on the wrong. Let Spider-Man be the standard-bearer for secret identities. Let the slogan be "Remember Gwen Stacy!"

Re: Galactic Champions Was there? Admittedly I stopped reading Legion as it went into the Iron Age, but the Saturn Girl I remember was far less than planetary in her capabilities.

Is Overrider really the right name for her? She doesn't think of herself as "controlling" the machines after all. Access, Liberator, Technique? Also, I find it amusing to think that the Legion of Superheroes would almost all be too wimpy to be in a Galactic Champions campaign.

Re: Location of Gotham City Which in case anyone forgets, is by Lake Michigan.

Re: (worst ever)...reasons to be a supervillain