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ender2003's Comic Book Blogs

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    ender2003 | Male | 39 years old | Texas

"The enemy's gate is down."

Well, after pruning back my collection I have about 5 long boxes crammed full that need to go away. Will probably put them on CL or do bulk packs another way just to get rid of them fast. Got to make room for the baby so she can have her own collection...

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Mystique's powers

2888 views • May 5, '14 • (0) Comments

I just watched the Amazing Spiderman 2 post-credits scene promoing X-Men Days of Future Past and remembered something that has been bothering me about the X-Men movies - Mystique's power. She is a shapeshifter and as such can change her body to look like another person. Nothing is ever really said about the clothes, but let us just suppose for a moment that she is also able to mimic someone's clothing like is shown in the movies. What would happen if she removed an article of said clothing? Would she essentially be removing a piece of her skin or body? In X2 when she is trying to seduce Wolverine by coming in as Jean Grey, Wolverine slides a hand under her shirt a little bit and shifts the shirt up. Is he just pulling her skin around when he does that? When she shifts to other forms, the clothing also shifts. 

I thought about this as well when the tv show Heroes was on the air. One of the characters later in the show (season 3 or 4 I think) was a shapeshifter but he had to change clothes manually as he could not shift those. However, once Sylar stole his powers it was shown that Sylar could also change his clothes when he shifted, completely ruining that little bit of continuity (I know, a minor offense compared to the rest of the show). 

I think some stories have showed that Mystique shifts her clothes as well (she shifts back and is in her usual outfit) but I don't think that is always the case. I wish they would do some kind of story where Mystique has to shed a layer of clothes while in another form (like a jacket catching on fire or something) and it causing her obvious pain when she removes it. Just something to answer the question. Has anybody come across something like this before?

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back to the superpowers

2696 views • Apr 28, '14 • (0) Comments

Going back to some of the posts I made before with questions on how powers work, let's pick a few more power questions. Oh, and feel free to make suggestions of other powers for me to pick apart in comments.

I know this is technically not a power, but Captain America's shield has always been a bit of a sticking point for me. The alloy that it is made of (sometimes a Vibranium-Adamantium alloy, sometimes different) is basically amazing at absorbing impacts. This allows Cap to use it to stop bullets or even blows from Thor/Hulk level characters with minimal to no force transferred back to him. In essence, the shield nullifies the blow and stops the entire force. Given that, how in the world does the shield bounce when Cap throws it? If the Vibranium in the shield "absobs kinetic impact" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_America%27s_shield) then wouldn't the shield also absorb and negate the kinetic impact of the shield itself striking an object in flight? Or perhaps it is a special characteristic of the shape of the shield, impact on the rounded front is nullified but impact on the edges is not. Either way, doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me...

Over to DC for a minute, Animal Man's power is a little odd. His body normally does not change in any noticable way, but he can focus and gain a bird's ability to fly (without wings) or a fish's ability to breathe underwater (no gills). So by channeling the strength of a gorilla and punching someone should break his fist and arm because he still has the physiology of a human. In New 52 he has been shown more as taking on forms of the animals he is channeling, but he still flies with no wings. I like Beast Boy better because he actually becomes the animal that he is channeling power from, that makes a lot more sense.

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bulk boxes

2867 views • Apr 28, '14 • (3) Comments

Random poll if anyone feels like chiming in. I have 5 long boxes of comics that I am looking to get rid of. All are bagged and boarded and the long boxes are stuffed pretty full, I think it is 2 boxes of Marvel, 2 DC and 1 Other (Valiant, IDW, Mirage, etc). 

I know I should not take these to a CS to sell, will get maybe a couple cents each and the bags and boards are worth more than that. Do you think people would go more for a pick and choose type, bundles of 10-30, or try to sell the entire box all at once? I am not sure I want to go for FeeBay to try and unload full boxes like that but also not sure that Craiglist would be a good choice either.

I could take the time to go through the boxes and make lists for each if that would help, but I don't think I would sell very much or very quickly doing individual sales. I have a few decent books, but probably a max of a dollar or two a book for the best ones. Suggestions? Comments? Feel free to just tell me to stop asking and just set the boxes out at the curb if you want, all suggestions are welcome.

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Overpowered characters

2588 views • Apr 25, '14 • (0) Comments

Spawning from one of the forum threads about characters that people don't like, a lot of people picked Superman and cited his overpowered nature. That got me to thinking about other overpowered characters.

Superman is the most obvious example, he can fly, is invulnerable, super-strong, super fast, heat vision, cold breath, and super senses (vision, hearing, feeling, etc) as well as an eidetic memory. Those are just the most frequent powers, he has been granted temporary use to too many to count as one-offs. His power levels have varied over the years but he is pretty much always the strongest hero by a wide margin. The only way that they can make his character interesting at all is basically by giving him a vulnerability to kryptonite, magic and psychics. One of his other weaknesses is the fact that he is always holding himself back. Pretty much every battle starts off with him gauging the enemy and then using the least amount of power to stop them, because if he always went full-bore he would kill everything in his path. That would reduce repeat offenses... Anyway, there have only been a handful or characters that have been shown to truly go toe-to-toe with Supes and match him physically, but his other powers always win out at that point.

Not that Superman is the only one overpowered, there are others that are guilty as well. Let's flip back and forth between Marvel and DC and go for the Hulk for a minute. With strength that can rival Superman's, Hulk gets stronger the madder he gets. This has been taken to the point where he has broken planets with his strength. While he does not have the multitude of powers that Supes has, Hulk also has been shown to have healing on par with Wolverine, or possibly with Doomsday (DC) because it is basically the ability to adapt and survive. In other words, the Hulk will survive pretty much anything and then pummel the out of it, no contest.

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Regeneration powers complaint - Daken

1663 views • Apr 3, '12 • (0) Comments

Just recently read the Daken - Dark Wolverine storyline and ran into something that made me think for a little while. I have always questioned the comic power of regeneration or super-healing, but Daken just had a few things that stood out a little to me.


First, let's start with a description of the power (I'm sure you all know it but bear with me). For characters like Wolverine (most famous), Deadpool, Hulk, X-23 and Daken, any wound that they take will heal quickly good as new. Get shot, no worries. A little cut, gone in seconds. Broken bones knit in a flash. Somehow their bodies work so quickly to heal that even burning or acid isn't always enough to put them down for long. Heck, Wolverine has been at basically ground zero of a near-nuclear explosion when Nitro let loose while on MGH and healed in a few hours.

In the past, the writers would go through great pains to make sure that everything made sense and had very detailed explanations. Lately though, small things get past them. Looking at the healing ability, I have always wondered how it even seems to know what hair style they had so that the character's hair grows back just the right length and style too. But Daken took the cake in the Dark Wolverine storyline. My first big complaint is Daken's tattoo. I think it was in Ultimate X-Men, Wolverine mentioned that tattoos had a habit of fading quickly on him since his skin cells regenerate so quickly and the ink wouldn't stay. Not too sure I buy that completely, but I buy that more than watching Daken get burnt to a crisp and then heal back to normal with his tattoos intact. Did those somehow get inked into his DNA? How in the world would his skin know to put the ink back in the right places?

Sorry, I know that is probably a very specific complaint about something that most people would never notice, expecially when characters keep coming back from the dead or going to different universes, but they could at least try to make things as realistic as possible. At least make Daken about having to go to a tattoo shop after every battle or feature his tattoo artist shaking his head every time he gets called to redo it.

Sorry, minor issue that just set me off a little...

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Death in Comics

2967 views • Apr 8, '11 • (2) Comments

Why can't they leave comic book characters dead?

Recently, the Human Torch bit the dust and ended the series of the Fantastic 4. However, death in comics has been a big part of sales generation. Years ago, Captain America "died" while stopping a missile in the arctic. about 30-40 years later it was discovered that he was just in suspended animation and was revived. More recently, Cap was assassinated and actually died, but was brought back in a pretty crappy storyline.

I guess the major introduction of comic deaths not being permanent was the Phoenix. She has died several times and keeps coming back. Other big names who have taken very short dirt naps: Superman, Batman (this was recent), Hawkeye, Flash, Jason Todd, Punisher, and Bucky. The big joke for a long time was that only 3 people had ever died permanently in comics - Bucky, Jason Todd, and Uncle Ben. Of those 3, Uncle Ben is now the only one who has not been brought back.

Superman died while fighting Doomsday but survived because he basically went into Kryptonian hibernation and was not really dead. Batman "died" when Darkseid used his Omega Beam on him, but he was really just sent back in time. Hawkeye was killed by someone (can't remember who) and was brought back when the Scarlet Witch rewrote reality. I can't remember what happened to the Flash, or which one. Jason Todd became the Red Hood and they tried to say he came back when Superboy Prime "punched" reality so hard he broke stuff. Punisher got dismembered by Daken (Wolverine's son) and brought back as a type of Frankenstein's monster. Bucky became Winter Soldier and was a covert operative for decades after his "death".

Professor X once joked that for mutants, Heaven had a revolving door instead of a pearly gate. It seemed like death did not have as tight a hold on mutants or other superheroes as it did on the rest of the world. I agree with that statement, but I think it is really because the comic writers don't want to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. If the series is still going strong, why would they want to kill off something that is making them money? The death makes for a good way to increase sales for a little while, as does the resurrection. 

One problem that I have with that now is that the deaths and rebirths are so common that people are jaded to them. I posted that they had killed off the Human Torch and the first response was that he would be back within a year. And now the deaths are so publicized and demand for that issue is so great that they will actually issue reprints (they did this with Cap's latest death) which pretty much kills the collectible value of the issue. I know the first run of the issue will still be worth more, but to other collectors who just want to see the death they would be happy with the 2nd run for a lower price.

I think that if they feel the need to kill off a character, they ought to leave them dead. For example, back when Jason Todd died, they actually let the readers call in and vote on whether he should live or die. The die vote won, so Jason die. That was a big deal and has scarred Batman ever since. Now that Jason came back, they basically let readers know they care more about making a buck than pleasing the readers and don't care what we think. I mean, why ask what the readers want if you are just going to retcon it a few years down the road?

That being said, I agree with x8xid and feel that the Torch will be back before too long. It seems like the only people to die in comics and stay dead are the very minor characters and that once they hit the big time they come back. I am still waiting for Nightcrawler to be resurrected.

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More superpower questions

1038 views • Apr 8, '11 • (0) Comments

I thought I would try some more questions about how super powers work in the comics. 

First off is Spiderman. I'm not going to tough the webs at all, my question is for his ability to climb walls. In the movie they showed tiny hairs on his fingers and hands that let him cling to surfaces. I can't remember what explanation (if any) they gave in the comics, but I have this question. Whether it is the hairs or some type of sticky residue or whatever, how does it work through the suit? When they zoomed in on his hand in the movie, those hairs looked like they were about 2mm long. I can't see them poking through the suit, especially since it appeared to be a pretty tough material. And the same thing goes for his feet. There are scenes in the comics where he is in civilian clothes and sitting on a wall with only his back and feet touching it. Somehow he is sticking to the wall either with his back through his shirt, or with his feet - wearing shoes? How does that work?

Next lets focus on the Hulk. When you want to talk about big bads, this guy is the biggest and baddest. However, I have a couple of questions about how he works. First off, how does a 150 lb. scientist suddenly turn into a 500 lb. monstrosity able to destroy entire planets? I know the gamma radiation is what caused the change in the first place, but as Bruce Banner gets mad he suddenly morphs into a giant Hulk. Where does all the muscle come from? How does he grow 3 foot taller? How does he keep his pants from shredding like the rest of his clothes? 

Even if we overlook that first question, how does the Hulk get stronger the madder he gets? He has to have a base strength that is "normal" for him. Even taking adrenaline into account, he should have a max limit. However, it has been stated that he literally has no limit to his strength. Somehow anger just makes him stronger and stronger to the point where he has overpowered every other hero and villain in the marvel universe except the Sentry, who has the power of a billion exploding suns. Even then, they were evenly matched.

Another power that I have wondered about is with the characters who can absorb energy or kinetic blows and tranform it into other energy like Bishop. Have Storm hit him with a lightning bolt, and he somehow aborbs it and can shoot energy back out. Same if you hit him with Cyclops' optic beam (which is more physical than energy). Same with Gambit's exploding cards, Sunfire's flames, etc. No matter what energy force you hit him with he can absorb it and send it back out in a different form. I am curious how that works. Normally, all of those attacks would cause severe damage. Bishop is able to just take it in and use it to his benefit instead. His entire body is some super form of solar cells and can absorb any energy?

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Superpower questions

979 views • Apr 8, '11 • (0) Comments

Some of the superpowers in comics bring up some random questions. I know that they are comic books and we are supposed to suspend disbelief and just enjoy the story, but some things just beg for an explanation. I will start with Superman.

Flying - How does Superman fly? Does he have to jump really hard like Neo does? Does he simply concentrate and somehow decrease his density to lighter than air? Does he have to constantly focus to stay in the air? Can he make the air beneath him solid enough that he can stand on it? 

I have never really seen a good explanation for his flight. I know it is not jet propulsion from his kryptonian farts, but how does he fly? Also, how does he lift other objects while he is in flight? I'm not really talking about a person, I'm talking about a bus or a plane. Does whatever force that he focuses to get himself of the ground have to increase in order to accommodate for the extra weight? And does his physical strength matter at that point? If he lifts a plane into the air and begins to fly, does he still have to exert the same force that he does to simply hold the plane up, or does it become weightless once he leaves the ground? And speaking of his strength, how can Superman be strong enough to punch holes in mountains or pick up an entire planet and still be able to tone it back enough to shake hands with someone and not put them in the hospital?

Let's jump to the Flash now. I know that they explain away a lot with the "Speed Force", but Flash can run at superspeeds and has reaction times that are instantaneous. Does that mean that he experiences the world much more quickly than we do at all times? Imagine how annoying it would be if he lived through 1 full minute for every second that passed to us. If we try to talk to him it would be so boring to him to sit there for an hour while we complete a single sentence. Shouldn't he also age about 100x faster than a normal person? And let's think for a minute about what happens at high speeds with any type of collision. Or what about his combat method, one of his abilities is to focus his speed into a fist and swing with immense force. However, if he were to punch someone like Superman, wouldn't that break Flash's hand? He has no super strength, just speed. Also, Flash has been shown to run at speeds faster than light. My question is, how can he see if he is running faster than light?

Let's jump over to the Marvel side for a minute. Cyclops shoots beams of concussive force from his eyes. Most movies and shows make it look like his beams are heat-based, but they are not. My question is this, how do beams that basically have physical force come out of his eyes without ripping holes in them or pulling them out of his skull?I can live with the fact that he basically absorbes sunlight and converts it to that energy, the beams themselves just don't make much sense to me.

And then there is Colossus. He can cover his body with an organic metal that just appears from nowhere. And somehow in the process he gains abot 6 inches in height too. Where does the metal come from, and where does it go when he turns back to normal? How does being covered in metal increase his strength by about 1000%? It doesn't say that his entire body turns into the metal, it is just his skin. In addition to making him incredibly strong and almost invulnerable, some incarnations of Colossus also do not need oxygen while in metal mode.

One last marvel question for the moment, how could Magneto develop a helmet that prevents Professor X from reading his thoughts? If the helmet is just some kind of shield that blocks psychic probes, why can't the professor come in from under the helmet and project the probe upwards through the head? If the helmet creates some kind of field that disrupts psychic abilities in the general area of Magneto's head, would that not screw up his brain? Besides, in the early comics Magneto was shown to have minor telepathic powers as well and those should have been blocked by his helmet.

Again, I know we are supposed to not think too much about this stuff, but it really makes me wonder sometimes. 

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