sfcityduck

A really beautiful FF 214, because of its colors, just blows the WSF 29 away (it was supposed to have been a FF cover, right?). To nitpick the WSF 29, I always wondered why the hero's arms were out of proportion and he has a lot more hair on his forearms than the Neanderthals. Once seen its hard to un-see.

We disagree. Up above I posted a video that is eerily similar to the RoP scene taken from the vantage point of people overtaken by a blast cloud on a volcano. They survived because the blast cloud of a volcano does not have to be hot and it is cooler and has a different composition the further you get from the volcano (and here it is quite a ways away). The notion that the RoP blast cloud was pyrooclastic is contrary to the fact that there is no evidence of superheated gasses at the village. The people and structures who are burned were hit by ejectment. The other people are essentially unharmed except for being covered by dust. That's why many survived. The scene makes sense in the context of the logic of the story and not outside the realm of what actually happens in nature. The amount of suspension of disbelief here is a lot less than for a fire breathing dragon. I think you might enjoy it if you just realized it is a fantasy story.

Very cool historical artifact from the time period before Stalin became a member of the Allies. Great way to get editorial cartoons from the earliest stages of the war. Certainly ads context for those who think Captain America punching Hitler was some sort of radical statement in 1940 (it wasn't). WWII history buffs must love this thing.

I have not noticed that. Might be time to get the hearing aid checked?

In Tolkien, Elrond was much older than Celebrian, and Galadriel and Celeborn lived separately at points. These characters lived thousands of years. Again, Tolkien sketched the story and left a lot out. Not like comics where for many characters every second is documented.

Magneto and Prof. X back together? I am in. But gays are not fad, they have been out and proud ince Stonewall and a normal part of life for a long time. Why hate?

Early episodes are background. It starts moving more as you get deeper.

You are in a very small, maybe as small as Qanon sized even, minority.

They showed no heat from the blast wave, which is in fact realistic. It was the ejections which set things on fire. People were suffering secondary burns, not burns from the blast wave (which was not a pyroclastic flow). Mt. St. Helen's was a much worse eruption than Pompei, the pyroclastic flows went about 1/5th the distance of the blast waves. I'm gonna call it the way I see it: You want to nitpick the show because you have a sports team attitude and to elevate HOD you think you need to push down RoP. The sad part is this is not sports or politics. Its not a binary competition. Everyone can win in art.

In a story about Orcs, Dragons, Elves, supernatural beings, etc., we're worried about whether they were hit by a pyroclastic flow or just an ash cloud and flung lava? Give me a break. It was discharged material from the mountain that set fires, not the ashcloud. The degree of suspension of disbelief necessary to enjoy this scene is not high (certainly not Indiana Jones refrigerator level). BUT let's use your example. Pompei was just SIX MILES from Vesuvius. Vesuvius is not a tall mountain. It is only 4,200 feet high which is about the same height as Mt. Doom. BUT here is how Vesuvius looks from Pompei: That is a radically different view than that of Mt. Doom waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off in the distance from the village: People watched and described the eruption of Vesuvius from a only a few more miles away than Vesuvius - including Pliny the Elder. It is a scientific fact that pyroclastic flows stay close to a volcano, the really severe blast zone is also close but extends beyond the pyroclastic flows with blast force and heat dissipating with distance until the blast force is not great enough to knock over trees (or further out even scorch them but the blast is still felt), the zone impacted by ejectments can extend further still, and ash can spread incredibly great distances (I have experienced ash fall from a volcano over 100 miles away). Again, I really don't think suspension of disbelief is that hard for fans of fantasy featuring giant flying lizards (Are they aerodynamically accurate? Why don't they explode? etc.). In any event, if you want to see someone surviving a RoP type of experience watch this video starting at 1:13:

He's going to say "Hi, I'm Annatar!"

There is no hard and fast timeline for the Wizards - just snippets of speculation - in the relevant works by Tolkien. This is one of the areas where a lot of wiggle room was left by Tolkien for others to embellish the story. There is a timeline for Sauron in this show (and Tolkiens writings) which makes clear the Stranger is not Sauron in hiding. To the extent there is a timeline for Bombadil in Tolkiens writings it is much more out of wack than that for the Wizards. Could the stranger be Radaghast or another Wizard? Yes. But too many hints suggest Gandalf. We will know as soon as he meets a speaker of Elvish (not likely this season).

Love your engagement. No way Elendil is Sauron. Harland is still a suspect. May be time for a surprise new character reveal. I really enjoyed the episode. Gandalf origin is really going well.

Unfrigging believable! The "Worst Team in the League" episode and the following "Stockport" episode may feature the two most exciting and fantastic soccer matches I have ever seen! I can't recommend this enough. For a soccer/real "football" fan those two episodes were beyond cool. Really, the entire four-episode arc that came out this week left me drained! "Welcome to Wrexham" may well simultaneously be the most poignant, intelligent, funny, and action-packed show on video. It is must viewing. If I could force everyone to watch it, I would. If you don't mind a spoiler, watch this video starting at the 2:59 mark:

Back when it came out, I was happy it existed. But, it was also pretty slow. Did not have a good score. And the animation was rotoscoped so it was a bit jerky and the voices were all sort of mellow (good for Frodo, not for Aragorn). The movie blows the animated version away. But at the time it was better than any other fantasy.

The Rings of Power Showrunners Break Silence on Fandom Backlash and Season 2 – The Hollywood Reporter Great read.

I think Halbrand is likely a bit of misdirection. Sauron has to influence the Elves to forge the rings before he subverts the men of Numenor to sail West. And as far as we can tell, Halbrand has been nowhere near the elves. All we do know is that he can forge a sword. If he heads off to hang out with Elven craftsman, sure, I'll buy that. But right now he just seems too obvious a candidate. As far as we know, the rings of power are not even being forged yet. Some folk think that the stranger is Tom Bombadil which makes zero sense. Not sure why they think RoP would use a character that LOTR famously omitted. If it is not Gandalf, I'll be shocked. And everyone should keep in mind that there were a lot of Balrogs in Middle Earth. I dunno, I think that Halbrand and Galadriel's little moment was not about romance - it seemed to be about evil. Both Galadriel and Halbrand were struggling with the evil inside of them. Both had to be restrained from murdering Adar. I think this show likes misdirection. I did like the reveal about Adar being one of the stolen Elves who were corrupted into or who did the corrupting of Elves to create Orcs. That is LOTR canon (such as it exists). I think this story is doing exactly what JRR wanted to happen with his story - they have taken up sketches of bits and pieces and are fleshing them out. I am enjoying it immensely.

Not GA, but I've never seen it before:

I think Dr. Occult is cool. But I've never bought the Superman prototype concept. It's based on the fact that in New Fun 14 he has a red cape (which everyone else in the story also has) and takes flight. Problem is that the only reason he takes flight is someone else moves him with magic. It is not of his own volition or due to any SUPERHUMAN power of his own. It is not until issue 16 that he gets a belt that lets him fly on his own but how is that different than Buck Rogers and his belt? Or other pre-superman magical characters? (Was Peter Pan a Superman prototype?) And, really, the character has no similarlity to Superman other than they were drawn by the same artist. But, to my eyes, Shuster was ripping off Raymond's Flash Gordon stylings (which started the prior year) including with the swords: Flash Gordon's look from a year or two prior to New Fun 14:

You've never been to Vegas?

New Adventure 26 and the MF's are, IMHO, candidates for the poor man's Action 1 because they are pre-Action 1 images of Superman and "first appearances" if you think ads matter for first appearances (I don't). Again, the import of Action 1 is the first appearance and origin of Superman. IH 180 is NOT a poor man's 181, again in IMHO, because it is the true first appearance of Wolverine in story continuity (just not valued as much as the 181 b/c he's not on the cover).

Nothing wrong with disagreement and spirited discussion. We all get to have our own opinions - it’s just some are more well-founded than others LOL! The Expanse is a brilliant book series. Have not been tempted to watch the show. In my view the Buffy musical episode was one of the greatest and most daring ever! GoT is the single worst fantasy series I ever read - I gave up partway through book 3 because the author clearly had no idea where he was going - and I guess that is borne out by the fact he has not finished. My son enjoyed the tv series until the end where he thought it all fell apart which I guess is a not uncommon reaction. I loved wheel of Time at the start - but it dragged and the author died and it ended with a whimper. Can’t bring myself to check it out on tv. I never really gave Firefly or farscape a look - working too much. For me, Avatar Airbender may be the greatest carton ever made. I enjoy all things Star Wars (and most things Star Trek but the quant is a little too high and similar). I trend towards escapism and don’t need major doses of depressing stories in my life - sorry Breaking Bad is likely fantastic I just had no interest. Welcome to Wrexham is worth checking out, and not just for the celeb connections. There’s a lot to life. No need to waste time thinking about things you do not enjoy. My advice walk away from RoP if it brings you no joy. That’s my reaction to GoT despite a few good actors.

Congrats to the latest entrant to the CCA Comic Rack Club! Just sold on eBay for $1,200:

Dude, your hatred of RoP is more than a little weird. The science on the eruption has been validated by geologists in numerous articles on the internet right now: "“VIOLENT VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS OCCUR IN LARGE PART BECAUSE WATER IS INVOLVED. THE WATER IS DISSOLVED IN THE MAGMA. THE MAGMA RISES TO THE SURFACES, THE WATER MAKES BUBBLES THAT CAN TURN TO STEAM AND THE STEAM AND WATER EXPAND SO RAPIDLY THAT THEY BASICALLY BLOW THE MAGMA APART. THAT STUFF PILES UP NEAR A CENTRAL VENT AND THAT’S WHAT MAKES BIG VOLCANOES." - Jeffrey Carson, a professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Syracuse University, whose area of expertise is volcanic activity. The broken sword was not random, it has been a major driver of the plot. It did not "just happens to be in the fort they were in hiding in," it has been in the possession of characters and traveled from location to location. And, yes, we saw lots of digging going on and it was left as a surprise as to why. Which is certainly one normal way to tell a story. I don't share your opinion on earned or unearned. The battle in this episode was very similar to the movie battles. And as far as overcoming long odds, I'd suggest you brush up on history such as the Battle of Agincourt in which an army of 12,000 Englishman defeated a French Army of four or five times their size. That battle is also telling on the logistics as the English fleet of less than 1,500 ships transported over 12,000 men and 20,000 horses. As for timelines, the show is eliminating the down time of travel. Undoubtedly many of the events we are seeing are spread out over weeks or months - we saw that passage of time in the "migration map" scene for example - but they have made the creative choice to assume the audience knows that and that they don't need to document every step. Ultimately, every show depends upon some degree of suspension of disbelief. If this show doesn't do that for you, I get it. I felt the same way about GOT as a book (and never could make it to the tv show it was a non-starter for me).

For me, the comic cover which sums up the core of the Superman concept is this: