Hermit

Just thinking about how things are done the same way over and over again in movies.  Some ideas I thought of to start off
 
1) Maybe make the Freemasons the good guys for a change  
 
2) Does the evil Greek god always have to be Hades?  I mean you do realize you are using as the bad guy, when you got a certain other god who swallowed his damn children, seems that might work better for a villain.  Hell, your "hero" god is a guy who could perpetuate a #MeToo movement that makes Harvey Weinstein looks chaste.
 
3) (maybe less common) If you are going to make one of the 4 elements the bad guy, why always fire?
 
Note: ok, the ones I thought of might new ways of looking at the traditional good vs evil matchups, but that isn't necessary for you guys.
 
 
 

“There’s no point in acting surprised about it. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display at your local planning department in Alpha Centauri for 50 of your Earth years, so you’ve had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it’s far too late to start making a fuss about it now. … What do you mean you’ve never been to Alpha Centauri? Oh, for heaven’s sake, mankind, it’s only four light years away, you know. I’m sorry, but if you can’t be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that’s your own lookout. Energize the demolition beams.”

considering how 9-11 affected the national outlook, and indeed had responses all over the world, HOW NYC went away would indeed be a big factor.A natural disaster would have folks thinking 'location location location' I suspect, where as a deliberately  man made one might have them thinking 'security security security'. 
 
While others have mentioned some likely options... for dark humor's sake? Jersey City
 
Also... if somehow the buildings still stood (Alien death ray) leaving the actual physical city in tact? You would have thousands of folks commuting from New Jersey snatching up the finally empty apartments and hoping Rent Control still held 
 

In much the same way Heaven and other spiritual positive afterlife locations are not considered part of the planet. I assume the fear that primitive cultures often exhibit when encountering more advanced civilizations explains much of the hostility. "Why do you resist us. We only wish to improve quality of life"

New one up...and oh [meep]!
 
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1139.html

New one up!
 
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1138.html

I love it when a hope comes together.

You won't get a plan without hope, though. You have to start somewhere.

I won't say Tennessee drivers are the WORST (Though it feels they are in the running) but 90% of them do equate using a turn signal with "Giving your position away to the enemy"

I won't say Tennessee drivers are the WORST (Though it feels they are in the running) but 90% of them do equate using a turn signal with "Giving your position away to the enemy"

I won't say Tennessee drivers are the WORST (Though it feels they are in the running) but 90% of them do equate using a turn signal with "Giving your position away to the enemy"

"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!"

Course, being the rural freak of our bunch,  "Livable"  and "city" are 2 words that cant possibly work together in my head. 
 
 

Here's to being on the side of desperate men. For whatever acts they may have committed (or not) to get them incarcerated, the use of what amounts to slave labor should be completely unacceptable.

The heavenly choir is humbled by her arrival
 
 

New one up!
 
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1135.html

This whole 'you have to be the exact character or you cannot play the role' thing is just truly obnoxious.  Its acting, people.  That guy dressed up as Chewbacca is not, in fact, a wookie.  Benedict Cumberbatch is neither a surgeon or a sorcerer.  Cate Blanchett is not an elf.  Get a grip.

I'm behind my last three
 
Anything: Medusa
(Currently having a wee bit of an amnesia problem)

New from Psybolt Comics....
 
The Fantastical Flibbertigibbets #1.  The Tick.  Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.  Captain Hammer.  Howard the Duck.  Elongated Man.  Squirrel Girl. Streaky the Super Cat.  When evil is afoot, there is no better team to come galloping to the rescue.  Heroes Don't Need to be Broody!  When the danger of Casanova Frankenstein rears its ugly head, the world can breathe a sigh of relief that the forces of goodness and heroism bond together to face the enigma of evil. 

 
BFFs#1.  Johnny Storm and Peter Parker are best friends.  The bromance has never been stronger.  So when Black Cat and Cheetah form an unholy alliance and take over the criminal underworld, setting themselves up as the head of the Maggia, the Amazing Spider-man and the Human Torch need to keep the balance in the city.  Can they do it even after the feline duo bring in Slade as their special assassin? 
 

 
All That Glitters#1.  Auric Goldfinger is the new head of the international terrorist group SPECTRE.  The world shakes in fear of what he could possibly do and so extreme measures must be taken.  Agent Allison Blaire is teamed up with Ethan Hunt and John McClane, under the watchful eye of Phil Coulson and Melinda May as this team of die hards try to prevent the overthrow of the world.  Super Spy action at its finest!
 

 
Support Group #1.  Doc Samson has formed a super secret support group for those loved ones of the heroes we love.  Mary Jane (BFFs), Sue Dibny (Fantastic Flibbertigibbets), Diane (All that Glitters), Holly (All that Glitters), and Penny (Fantastic Flibbertigibbets) arrive and Doc Samson realizes immediately that these women are nobody's damsels in distress.  Determined to prove that they are more than NPCs, the group becomes involved in solving the mystery of the murderous Muse.
 

Support: The Foundation for Oceanic Research
Anything: Mark Harris (The Man from Atlantis)
Anything: Codpiece
 
 

(Stringing you guys along for way too long now. It's NOT intentional)
 
 
I don't know who said no battle plan ever survived contact with the enemy, but we had bypassed that little truth by virtue of barely having a plan at all. It wasn't like we expected the 'good' aliens to have a problem with a cure for cancer enough to attack us after all, and while we had a head's up; it wasn't much time to do more than we had. Stash the goods fight as a team, and hope we remembered our training and code words.
 
The Hyadesians were possibly better prepared than we were. They didn't just try to swarm us with overwhelming numbers, their ambassador at least had studied humans and our media- and that meant he had to have been somewhat acquainted with our powers and abilities. So, the Hyadesian soldiers were forewarned and forearmed. Honest to gosh, their only mistake might have been not turning off their translation devices.
 
"Squadron Blue, Switch weapons to dehydration for Eel and Arctic Fox," One declared, and I noticed one group shift dials at their wrist bands. Well, of course they'd want to dehydrate us. I was aquatic, and without moisture to work with Fox might be at a disadvantage. I mean, I had never been purposefully dehydrated, burned sure, but I imagined the effect would be much the same- or worse.
 
Now , no less than two dozen guys were about to blast Fox and I with it. I was pretty sure I shouldn't stand there and just take it, which , as a fellow blessed with the power of toughness, was often my standard method of operation.
 
Turns out I didn't have to.  A shadowy wall of force formed like a closing curtain at a theatre, taking every oncoming blast with casual ease. Lady Obsidian to the rescue before a rescue was even required. Not content to just defend, she made a push motion and that wall, having done its job, became a wave! The invaders were dressed in gold and white body armor that was deceptively light. That made it hard to guess how much pounding they could take, but Lady O seemed to have a good idea just how much to apply. That wave of solid energy struck Squadron Blue like a line of 18 wheelers smashing through toll gates!
 
Through our coms, our leader's voice declared "Switch to battle chatter folks. Peekaboo in progress" that meant she was pretty sure our coms were being hacked. Which made sense when you realized we were dealing with an advanced alien race. She continued on, "Martin after McGlown- Hustle and Flow. Dash of King in your X if uncertain. Duets are best."
 
Well, that was as clear as day, at least if you were paying attention to her code word updates. Frankly, I missed the Mo-Town reference when first told, which almost got me disowned but I got it now. Orders were to be ready to fill in if someone fell, stay in the general area together but keep it moving as you did and sway a bit with the feel of battle. Oh, and if you didn't know how much a pounding your foe could take, don't go all out first shot. She also recommended everyone pick a team mate to work with.
These were guidelines more than rules. But when someone with that many decades of super battle experience gives you a guideline you don't ignore it. Lady Obsidian could, by now, teach Green Berets classes in small unit tactics. But as superhero team management was pretty much where the very metaphor incarnate for herding kittens, it was best to keep it loose.
 
Arctic Fox and I had worked well together recently, which is why she surprised me when she went off to find another partner after burying a half dozen of those that Lady Obsidian had knocked over under ice. I'd be worried about them 'dehydrating' the ice but I think most were out cold. Ah, no pun intended.
As always, while you try to keep track of your team mates and your foes, and the lay of the land in any battle; most of us only have so many eyes and ears. What I mean is, I'm sure there were whole levels of amazing I was just completely unaware of going on. Hopefully the amazing was being done by us rather than to us.
What did I see as I dodged between ray blasts and closed on our attackers?
 
I caught a glimpse of slime engulfing one Hyadesian and bursting his wrist bands open from within. Disarmament was a good plan, I decided to try something similar for my own tactics.  
 
Lady Obsidian was a beast, as she'd already demonstrated. I think the aliens were baffled. Sure, they had seen Earth media on her, but I think it was still like running into a caveman and discovering the guy had a mecha. While I heard the aliens say something about 'frequency' and scrambling to adjust their weapons, she didn't exactly hold still while they tried. She changed the nature of the terrain almost causally, generating barriers here and there before causing said barriers to explode out ward or just fade at her discretion.  Heck, one bombardment went her way and her force shield took on an almost mirror like hue causing the blasts to reverse and turn back.
 
"Ever wonder if secretly we're all just her sidekicks and she only calls us equals so she doesn't take the blame if things go south?" Tornado commented. He had no trouble closing in on his chosen targets. He closed on two in fact, doing a scissor kick that allowed a foot to each face before flying up leaving the disoriented soldiers to shoot each other.
 
I did not see so much as hear Pogo, even amid the blasting zapping din I could make out "Oh my gosh I'm fighting aliens to defeat cancer and I'm doing it with the new Samaritans! Omygodohymgod!" a thump "Sorry sorry but I have to bet you all up now, I can't look bad in front of the T-E-A-M."
 
Honestly, I've been accused of bantering too much in my fights, but Pogo makes me look like a mute.
 
I didn't see Pinprick. I think he was on the 'other side' of the action.
 
On the plus side, my girlfriend came to my rescue!
 
Okay, rescue is a strong word. I tackled one Hyadesian to the ground, and then smashed his blaster bands or whatever he was calling those things on his wrists by squeezing them. Behind me, another guy shot me dead center in the back of the skull.
 
It didn't so much hurt as disorient. For a moment, the world looked like I was viewing it through a randomly convex then concave lens. Sizes of parts of bodies, my own and others, were completely blown out of perspective with odd glass like circles in my vision adding to the distortion.
 
"Count yourself lucky we value life, Terran" my shooter explained, right before Valarosa ghosted through two different guys to get to me, turned solid, and leg swept him onto his butt.
 
"Right back atcha," She said before putting his lights out with a shot to the jaw. Steel hard fists hurt bad enough, steel hard fists with martial arts training? World of ouch.
"You okay?" She asked.
 
"Yeah," I said, "it's clearing up fast enough, thanks" And I brought my hands down hard on the ground and sent a man-made tremor through the flooring! The Hyadesians didn't expect that, and it was really gratifying to knock them down and about like bowling ball pins.
 
"Strike," I said with satisfaction. That move didn't always work, but I knew the base terrain pretty well. The Hyadesians might well come to regret coming for us on our home turf.
An orb of light landed next to me and exploded. I've been blinded before, but this was bad. Furthermore, judging by the gasp near me, Valarosa had been engulfed as well.
 
"How many of us are played Keller here?" I asked over the comline. It occurred to me that If they had any strategy at all, there would be no reason for them not to try it all around.
Turns out it wasn't just Valarosa and I. While another blast sent me for a loop, I could hear the responses.
 
"As a bat" Tornado cursed.
 
"Yeah, they got me" Pinprick confessed with irritation.
 
"Only a little bit" Fox confessed, then again she might not have been down playing. Perhaps it was to prevent snowblindness, but she had a natural resistance.
 
"I see fine, but I have an idea" Lady Obsidian said "Mabel- Let's save some electricity.  Fox, Flurry hurry, honey."
 
And it got very cold very, fast, and I felt stuff splatter against and shoot past me. Now, as a southern boy, I can't say I've been in many, but we do sometimes get snow in North Carolina, and I realized what was going on. This was a snowstorm, the sort you couldn't drive through because you couldn't see through it well enough to find the road!
"Well, everyone's blind now" I said "Keep it up, even Steven. More chance we'll hurt one of them than each other."
 
Why settle for even odds at all? Doctor Salem's voice broke through, I will share my senses with you.
 
And then there was light.
 
Not sunlight, nor moonlight, and certainly not anything that came out of a bulb, but it was light. Outlines, auras, I realized, like Mayo had spoken of. It was nearly impossible to make out details, but I didn't need the details. I need the them and the us, and the ability to tell the difference.
 
"And the power to smash them with," I said reminded of an old prayer, and grabbed one of the soldiers and threw him into his friends.
"We're gonna win," I grinned.
 
At the time? I thought it was true.
 

Aquaman's brother seems noble, true, but he is also , like Arthur, angry at the treatment his half blood nature has caused him to endure. When Magneto told him he was a mutant, he allied with the terrorist, and now Aquaman, the son who hopes to bridge two worlds, must find a way to talk sense into the one who wants to take vengence on them both. 
 
 
Anything: Namor the Sub-Mariner

Anything: Fathom aka Becky Golden (From the Elementals)
Becky died! And has been reborn! Once a frivolous debutante, now she finds herself a being of power tinged with death. Things aren't so simple anymore. While she is unique in this world, she has run not into one but two men who are princes like in an underwater fairytale. Each seems drawn to her despite her otherness, and she to them, but it's getting crazy. Maybe her God Uncle Lex Luthor has some ideas? 

Support: Sub-Diego! (From DC comics)
 

(Stringing you guys along for way too long now. It's NOT intentional)
 
 
I don't know who said no battle plan ever survived contact with the enemy, but we had bypassed that little truth by virtue of barely having a plan at all. It wasn't like we expected the 'good' aliens to have a problem with a cure for cancer enough to attack us after all, and while we had a head's up; it wasn't much time to do more than we had. Stash the goods fight as a team, and hope we remembered our training and code words.
 
The Hyadesians were possibly better prepared than we were. They didn't just try to swarm us with overwhelming numbers, their ambassador at least had studied humans and our media- and that meant he had to have been somewhat acquainted with our powers and abilities. So, the Hyadesian soldiers were forewarned and forearmed. Honest to gosh, their only mistake might have been not turning off their translation devices.
 
"Squadron Blue, Switch weapons to dehydration for Eel and Arctic Fox," One declared, and I noticed one group shift dials at their wrist bands. Well, of course they'd want to dehydrate us. I was aquatic, and without moisture to work with Fox might be at a disadvantage. I mean, I had never been purposefully dehydrated, burned sure, but I imagined the effect would be much the same- or worse.
 
Now , no less than two dozen guys were about to blast Fox and I with it. I was pretty sure I shouldn't stand there and just take it, which , as a fellow blessed with the power of toughness, was often my standard method of operation.
 
Turns out I didn't have to.  A shadowy wall of force formed like a closing curtain at a theatre, taking every oncoming blast with casual ease. Lady Obsidian to the rescue before a rescue was even required. Not content to just defend, she made a push motion and that wall, having done its job, became a wave! The invaders were dressed in gold and white body armor that was deceptively light. That made it hard to guess how much pounding they could take, but Lady O seemed to have a good idea just how much to apply. That wave of solid energy struck Squadron Blue like a line of 18 wheelers smashing through toll gates!
 
Through our coms, our leader's voice declared "Switch to battle chatter folks. Peekaboo in progress" that meant she was pretty sure our coms were being hacked. Which made sense when you realized we were dealing with an advanced alien race. She continued on, "Martin after McGlown- Hustle and Flow. Dash of King in your X if uncertain. Duets are best."
 
Well, that was as clear as day, at least if you were paying attention to her code word updates. Frankly, I missed the Mo-Town reference when first told, which almost got me disowned but I got it now. Orders were to be ready to fill in if someone fell, stay in the general area together but keep it moving as you did and sway a bit with the feel of battle. Oh, and if you didn't know how much a pounding your foe could take, don't go all out first shot. She also recommended everyone pick a team mate to work with.
These were guidelines more than rules. But when someone with that many decades of super battle experience gives you a guideline you don't ignore it. Lady Obsidian could, by now, teach Green Berets classes in small unit tactics. But as superhero team management was pretty much where the very metaphor incarnate for herding kittens, it was best to keep it loose.
 
Arctic Fox and I had worked well together recently, which is why she surprised me when she went off to find another partner after burying a half dozen of those that Lady Obsidian had knocked over under ice. I'd be worried about them 'dehydrating' the ice but I think most were out cold. Ah, no pun intended.
As always, while you try to keep track of your team mates and your foes, and the lay of the land in any battle; most of us only have so many eyes and ears. What I mean is, I'm sure there were whole levels of amazing I was just completely unaware of going on. Hopefully the amazing was being done by us rather than to us.
What did I see as I dodged between ray blasts and closed on our attackers?
 
I caught a glimpse of slime engulfing one Hyadesian and bursting his wrist bands open from within. Disarmament was a good plan, I decided to try something similar for my own tactics.  
 
Lady Obsidian was a beast, as she'd already demonstrated. I think the aliens were baffled. Sure, they had seen Earth media on her, but I think it was still like running into a caveman and discovering the guy had a mecha. While I heard the aliens say something about 'frequency' and scrambling to adjust their weapons, she didn't exactly hold still while they tried. She changed the nature of the terrain almost causally, generating barriers here and there before causing said barriers to explode out ward or just fade at her discretion.  Heck, one bombardment went her way and her force shield took on an almost mirror like hue causing the blasts to reverse and turn back.
 
"Ever wonder if secretly we're all just her sidekicks and she only calls us equals so she doesn't take the blame if things go south?" Tornado commented. He had no trouble closing in on his chosen targets. He closed on two in fact, doing a scissor kick that allowed a foot to each face before flying up leaving the disoriented soldiers to shoot each other.
 
I did not see so much as hear Pogo, even amid the blasting zapping din I could make out "Oh my gosh I'm fighting aliens to defeat cancer and I'm doing it with the new Samaritans! Omygodohymgod!" a thump "Sorry sorry but I have to bet you all up now, I can't look bad in front of the T-E-A-M."
 
Honestly, I've been accused of bantering too much in my fights, but Pogo makes me look like a mute.
 
I didn't see Pinprick. I think he was on the 'other side' of the action.
 
On the plus side, my girlfriend came to my rescue!
 
Okay, rescue is a strong word. I tackled one Hyadesian to the ground, and then smashed his blaster bands or whatever he was calling those things on his wrists by squeezing them. Behind me, another guy shot me dead center in the back of the skull.
 
It didn't so much hurt as disorient. For a moment, the world looked like I was viewing it through a randomly convex then concave lens. Sizes of parts of bodies, my own and others, were completely blown out of perspective with odd glass like circles in my vision adding to the distortion.
 
"Count yourself lucky we value life, Terran" my shooter explained, right before Valarosa ghosted through two different guys to get to me, turned solid, and leg swept him onto his butt.
 
"Right back atcha," She said before putting his lights out with a shot to the jaw. Steel hard fists hurt bad enough, steel hard fists with martial arts training? World of ouch.
"You okay?" She asked.
 
"Yeah," I said, "it's clearing up fast enough, thanks" And I brought my hands down hard on the ground and sent a man-made tremor through the flooring! The Hyadesians didn't expect that, and it was really gratifying to knock them down and about like bowling ball pins.
 
"Strike," I said with satisfaction. That move didn't always work, but I knew the base terrain pretty well. The Hyadesians might well come to regret coming for us on our home turf.
An orb of light landed next to me and exploded. I've been blinded before, but this was bad. Furthermore, judging by the gasp near me, Valarosa had been engulfed as well.
 
"How many of us are played Keller here?" I asked over the comline. It occurred to me that If they had any strategy at all, there would be no reason for them not to try it all around.
Turns out it wasn't just Valarosa and I. While another blast sent me for a loop, I could hear the responses.
 
"As a bat" Tornado cursed.
 
"Yeah, they got me" Pinprick confessed with irritation.
 
"Only a little bit" Fox confessed, then again she might not have been down playing. Perhaps it was to prevent snowblindness, but she had a natural resistance.
 
"I see fine, but I have an idea" Lady Obsidian said "Mabel- Let's save some electricity.  Fox, Flurry hurry, honey."
 
And it got very cold very, fast, and I felt stuff splatter against and shoot past me. Now, as a southern boy, I can't say I've been in many, but we do sometimes get snow in North Carolina, and I realized what was going on. This was a snowstorm, the sort you couldn't drive through because you couldn't see through it well enough to find the road!
"Well, everyone's blind now" I said "Keep it up, even Steven. More chance we'll hurt one of them than each other."
 
Why settle for even odds at all? Doctor Salem's voice broke through, I will share my senses with you.
 
And then there was light.
 
Not sunlight, nor moonlight, and certainly not anything that came out of a bulb, but it was light. Outlines, auras, I realized, like Mayo had spoken of. It was nearly impossible to make out details, but I didn't need the details. I need the them and the us, and the ability to tell the difference.
 
"And the power to smash them with," I said reminded of an old prayer, and grabbed one of the soldiers and threw him into his friends.
"We're gonna win," I grinned.
 
At the time? I thought it was true.