The Off Topic Topic

[CountDeMoney]

An angler hooked a 143-pound blue catfish in this reservoir along the Virginia-North Carolina border; it smashed the state record by more than 30 pounds and could be a world record.

Article here, and how blue catfish are causing a concern for Virginian tributaries: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/blue-catfish-catch-a-virginia-record-and-a-monster-of-our-own-creation/2011/06/27/AGBj30sH_story.html

[Neil]

If Batman spends a great deal of time in the Batcave--which, of course, is a cave full of bats--does he also spend a great deal of time covered in guano?

No.  Alfred maintains the cleanliness of the cave, and the bats seem to avoid the parts of the cave that Batman uses.

If Superman gets his powers from a yellow sun, would he be even more powerful if he wore less clothing?

I'm not sure that momentary charge is especially important, as Superman is depicted as being extremely powerful even on cloudy days or at night.  It's the accumulated charge of a lifetime that strengthens him, which is why old Supermen are often depicted as hideously powerful, and Superman himself is depicted as somewhat more powerful than other Kryptonians who have less yellow sun-time under their belt.

If Triplicate Girl got pregnant, when she split into her triplicates, would they also be pregnant?  Follow-up question: if one copy got pregnant while split, would she still be pregnant when she recombined, or does she use this for birth control?

They're not copies.  They're all her.  If one gets pregnant, they all do, and presumably the child would share the inborn ability of all natives of Cargg to triplicate themselves.  It's surprising that it never came up when she was Triad, given how the purple Triad was a little easy.  Or maybe not, since it's a comic book for young people.

If the Spectre is tasked with avenging murders, shouldn't there be roughly 99% fewer supervillains in the world?  If not, does this mean that supervillainy is actually pretty integral to God's plan, and should other superheroes consider this when fighting them?

The Spectre is extremely lazy.  Also, having to operate through a host body seems to weaken him and focus him down on a smaller region.  That said, it would seem that supervillainy is a part of God's plan, but the whole point of superheroics is to stand up to that plan and deny it.

If Element Lad can turn anything into anything else, how does a LSH comic ever last more than two panels?

Element Lad is a bit of a weirdo, and his powers are limited by his psychology.  His philosophy keeps him from butchering his opponents like hogs, and it seems that certain enemies are protected from his power.  That said, when the Legion was thrown through time and space and Element Lad was abandoned ten billion years in the past, he lost his mind and became a god.

Excellent, reasoned responses.  Although I'm not sure about the Superman thing.  They're really inconsistent with that.  On one hand, he seems to operate fine at night and in deep space, in the absence of any significant (maybe ultraviolet?) light source.  On the other, he is often portrayed as losing his powers immediately in the presence of "red sun radiation."  Ignoring for the moment that Superman's universe is not the most scientifically literate fiction there ever was, and also ignoring that "red sun radiation" was bullshit dreamed up to give Superman a weakness that any idiot can access in a universe where kryptonite is supposed to be scarce, why does that work to actively depower him if he's been absorbing power for decades?  That's like a black guy immediately losing all the melanin in his skin because you shined a flashlight at him.

Alright, so here's what I've come up with:

Superman's powers are fueled by energy off the high end of the spectrum, ultraviolet and such.  Perhaps Superman would be more powerful if Earth had a white or blue sun, but that's not important as humans couldn't survive in orbit around an OBA star.  However, at the same time, his powers have a vulnerability to large doses of infrared, which is how class-M stars emit three-quarters of their radiation.  Now, on earth it's not really an issue as his exposure to UV balances out any exposure to the infrared wavelengths, allowing him to maintain his powers.  However, when given a sudden, massive does of infrared, his body suffers from shock and drops down to his original, low-powered form in an effort to conserve energy.  When the source of infrared is removed, his body returns to its higher-powered state.

Interestingly, it seems that Superman can also draw even more power higher up the spectrum.  For example, in the #1,000,000 event, Superman has been living in the Sun, drawing power from the gamma rays produced by the nuclear fusion there, and is more powerful than ever.

[Ideologue]

If that were the case, Superman could never enter a burning building, even to save a kitten.  He'd immediately lose his powers and die.

I liked DC One Million.  That was good stuff.  It was cool to see it in All-Star Superman, too, even if it smacked a little of Morrison replacing the Legion with his own toys (that said, there were some important narrative reasons to keep other DC properties out of the book, keeping the focus on Superman).

[Eddie Teach]

You fellows are talking like superpowers are consistent and follow physical laws rather than the needs of the cartoonist.

[Ideologue]

You fellows are talking like superpowers are consistent and follow physical laws rather than the needs of the cartoonist.

Well, suspension of disbelief is a slippery thing.  I can believe a man can fly, but it's much harder to believe that a minor difference between two blackbody curves will make him fall.

The Superman mythos actually has a pretty interesting SF backdrop, it's just all fucked up with a history of Krypton that didn't get much thought put into it because it only needed to satisfy eight year olds.  Like, for another example, it's actually pretty hard to believe that Kryptonians weren't spacefaring, given the fact that their technology levels seemed to be there, and Jor-El knew about the powers a yellow sun could give his son.  We were talking about a new Space Age in that other thread, and what it would take--I'm pretty sure if being in orbit around Alpha Centauri A let you shoot lasers out of our eyes, we'd all be living there.

Of course, they were spacefaring, sort of.  Because you've got the Daxamites.  Who decided to live under another red sun.  They're an intensely stupid people.

[Neil]

If that were the case, Superman could never enter a burning building, even to save a kitten.  He'd immediately lose his powers and die.

I liked DC One Million.  That was good stuff.  It was cool to see it in All-Star Superman, too, even if it smacked a little of Morrison replacing the Legion with his own toys (that said, there were some important narrative reasons to keep other DC properties out of the book, keeping the focus on Superman).

Clearly it is the presence of the ultraviolet that is more important, as even in sunlight through the atmosphere you get 10 times more infrared than ultraviolet.  However, the UV and visible light added together balances out the IR.  The fire issue is more difficult, as you don't get much UV from fire, and a whole lot of IR.  I suppose we have to concede that there's no possible logic to Superman's powers.

[Ideologue]

They could just get rid of the weakness to red light.  The irony is, they're getting rid of his marriage to Lois Lane as we speak, but they'll probably keep his dumb vulnerability.

[Ideologue]

Ha, it turns out the credit card I thought I'd paid the balance off of six months ago had a finance charge added two weeks after I did it and has been riding for half a year.  Oops.  I hope they enjoyed the 47 cents in interest.  That's fucking obnoxious, though, since my credit history will have six missed months of payments on a ten dollar balance.

This is why credit card companies shouldn't send junk mail, you ignore actual messages.

[Neil]

Of course, they were spacefaring, sort of.  Because you've got the Daxamites.  Who decided to live under another red sun.  They're an intensely stupid people.

The Daxamites are vulnerable to one of the more common heavy elements in the universe, so that limits their desire to expand.

[Neil]

The irony is, they're getting rid of his marriage to Lois Lane as we speak, but they'll probably keep his dumb vulnerability.

What the fuck?  Did the retards from 'One More Day' take over DC?

[Ideologue]

Of course, they were spacefaring, sort of.  Because you've got the Daxamites.  Who decided to live under another red sun.  They're an intensely stupid people.

The Daxamites are vulnerable to one of the more common heavy elements in the universe, so that limits their desire to expand.

I actually think that lead's a decent weakness, but the whole explanation with the Eradicator makes no sense.  Granted, I only know of that through Wikipedia, but it made it sound like it was trying to get rid of a vulnerability to a rare material found only in the wreckage of a single planet, and wound up making them vulnerable to virtually everything.

What the fuck?  Did the retards from 'One More Day' take over DC?

DC's rebooting/relaunching in August, at the end of the Flashpoint "some Elseworlds stuff happens because Eobard Thawne is a time-traveling dick" event.  One of the retcons is, evidently, Lois and Clark.  Morrison's taking over Action Comics, which I would have thought was cool if it didn't come with that kind of baggage.  I mean, I don't care if Spider-Man post-BND was great or utter shit, I don't care about Spider-Man anymore.  I like Supes a lot more to start with, but that's a pretty heavy cross to bear.

If you want to see some hilarious nonsense, Jim Lee redesigned or helped redesign virtually every costume in the DCU.  Roughly 80% look fucking horrible.  Also, Voodoo from WildC.A.T.s is getting a solo DCU book.  Shit you not.  Voodoo.

[Neil]

DC's rebooting/relaunching in August, at the end of the Flashpoint "some Elseworlds stuff happens because Eobard Thawne is a time-traveling dick" event.  One of the retcons is, evidently, Lois and Clark.  Morrison's taking over Action Comics, which I would have thought was cool if it didn't come with that kind of baggage.  I mean, I don't care if Spider-Man post-BND was great or utter shit, I don't care about Spider-Man anymore.  I like Supes a lot more to start with, but that's a pretty heavy cross to bear.

If you want to see some hilarious nonsense, Jim Lee redesigned or helped redesign virtually every costume in the DCU.  Roughly 80% look fucking horrible.  Also, Voodoo from WildC.A.T.s is getting a solo DCU book.  Shit you not.  Voodoo.

Well, I'd been drifting away from DC for a while, I guess it started when Ted Kord got killed.  Final Crisis chased me away from pretty much everything that didn't include Green Lantern, and even that has been awful lately, as I can't for the life of me figure out what the fuck is happening in Brightest Day, or why I should care.  The Legion keeps getting rebooted, so who knows what the fuck is happening there.  Multiple Batmen was totally retarded, although probably inevitable.  Besides, I hate Grant Morrison.

After having seen the new JLA cover they're showing off, I don't really have any problems with those that I showed, except for Wonder Woman.  The different collar for Superman doesn't bother me, and Flash, Aquaman, Batman and GL have their classic looks on.  Cyborg seems bulked up, but he's a character that's changed a lot over the years and this version of him is close to his classic look.  Wonder Woman just looks weird, and I would rather that they have kept her recent redesign, which was cool.

As for Voodoo, that's sort of weird.  I know that Lee has always had a soft spot for the character, but I just have a hard time seeing interesting stories to be told there.  It strikes me as one of those '12-issues and done' books.  It's also troubling to see the DCU pollute the WSU.  They've only crossed over very well once.

[Ed Anger]

Nerds.

[Neil]

Nerds.

Fag.

[CountDeMoney]

Superman's powers are fueled by energy off the high end of the spectrum, ultraviolet and such.  Perhaps Superman would be more powerful if Earth had a white or blue sun, but that's not important as humans couldn't survive in orbit around an OBA star.  However, at the same time, his powers have a vulnerability to large doses of infrared, which is how class-M stars emit three-quarters of their radiation.  Now, on earth it's not really an issue as his exposure to UV balances out any exposure to the infrared wavelengths, allowing him to maintain his powers.  However, when given a sudden, massive does of infrared, his body suffers from shock and drops down to his original, low-powered form in an effort to conserve energy.  When the source of infrared is removed, his body returns to its higher-powered state.

Interestingly, it seems that Superman can also draw even more power higher up the spectrum.  For example, in the #1,000,000 event, Superman has been living in the Sun, drawing power from the gamma rays produced by the nuclear fusion there, and is more powerful than ever.

OK, that's it.

The hockey thing? I get it.  It's cultural.
The whole conservative Canadian thing? Eclectic in its contradiction.
Your knowledge of anime?  Well, that can be chalked up to a generational thing.
The battleships thing?  Outmoded thinking, but quaint.
Irrational sugardaddy defense of Timmay? It's because you don't have kids.  Retarded ones.

But this.  This crosses the line.  Fucking comictard.

I demand you change your avatar.  You're not worthy of RMN.