Monday, December 30, 2013

The Next 15 Missed Opportunities of Atop the Fourth Wall



15 more opportunities that Linkara failed to notice in previous episodes! ‎

78 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wonder Woman has lost the will to live, even though she’s Pregnant!? What did Doug Moench take inspiration from Padme in ‘Revenge Of The Sith’!?

A Woman chastises Superman for not instantly curing her Husband’s Cancer!? LADY!
Superman is not a Doctor! He can’t just solve every disease in the History of ever in a Nano-Second! Also, he just saved the World! I am sure your Husband would prefer it that he and his loved ones live long enough to get the chance to make a cure or have anything horrible happen to his loved ones.
Here’s an idea, You Ungrateful Lady! Why don’t you let Superman give you a nice Neck Massage!?

Actually, I think De Mal got all his information of Pollution from whoever Directed; Birdemic. The same person who thinks Global Warming cause Birds to puke Acid and Explode at anything that isn’t wearing Plot Armour!

Qui-Gon also told the Jedi to take in a little boy who would later kll all the Jedi and saved the life of someone who gave all Emergency Power to Palpatine, allowing the Empire to come into Power. So…all the problems of Star Wars were not Jar-Jar’s Fault…But Qui-Gons!

With the Red Dwarf Credits music, you should have used a Video of a Fly-By of Comicon-One! Like how they did in the first couple of seasons of Red Dwarf!

Still, Great Video, Linkara!
Looking forward to seeing more from you!

LucasChad said...

2013 was definitely a wild and raucous year for this show. Let's see if 2014 can get even wilder.
Also, nice sneak peek of Spoony's new place.

Unknown said...

Oh what will 2014 oh for us?

Well there is the end of marville. Hopefully. But on the plus side maybe we'll discover if Mr.T has more superpowers. So probably a win-win situation?

Unknown said...

Something that I found a little odd in this episode is when Linkara says that Superman "still needs to eat and sleep". Now, since I'm not e regular reader of Superman comics I could very easily be wrong about this, but from what I've gathered from a multitude of sources, Superman can survive indefinitely on yellow sunlight alone, without needing to eat, sleep or breathe. Could somebody tell me if I was misinformed, if Linkara made a mistake, if it depends on the comic, or if it's something else?

Adam said...

So many missed opportunities, so many bad comics, and so many lousy writers, artists, and editors that need to be smacked upside the head multiple times with a rolled up Sunday edition of the New York Times.

Farewell, 2013! I would like to wish 2014 will be a better year but we're starting off with the last issues of Marville and All-Star Batman and Robin. -_-

Hope there is enough booze for all of us, Linkara. We're gonna need it.

Kaze Koichi said...

Linkara, it's you who can't get beyound thunderdome.

Also, the first rule of Star Wars prequels: we don't talk about Star Wars prequels. But if we would talk, I'd say Jar Jar was the least problem about them.

FordXanakov said...

Awesome video!

I had totally forgotten that I had left a comment about the "Philadelphia Cheese Steak Sandwich" thing until I saw this again. Man, that line bugged the crap out of me. I could forgive the bizarre city geography and how Philadelphia looked, but man, that cheese steak thing bothered the hell out of me. It still does! I don't order "New York pizza" in New York. I don't order "Chicago pizza" in Chicago. I JUST ORDER PIZZA. GRRRRRR!!!!

Anyhow Linkara, I don't leave comments thanking you for your work anywhere near as often as I should. So in this space I'd just like to thank you for another year of great videos in 2013, and giving me a smile every Monday. I wish you nothing but the best in 2014!

(And for anyone reading from Philadelphia....GO EAGLES!! E-A-G-L-E-S!!!!)

wade said...

spoony is right man. you thunder dome jokes where all kind of forced.

DMaster said...

Quick reminder lest you have to bring it up in the next Missed Opportunities video: to celebrate Batman's legacy with a supersized issue #27 in the new Detective Comics...they hired Frank Miller for their ONLY variant cover, giving us THIS abomination:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=49905

Get beyond Thunderdome? Phooey. We ALL need to get beyond Miller already.

Unknown said...

Here's to 2014 and more missed opportunities! I-I mean perfectly timed and flawless jokes that don't miss a beat. Of course.

As for the ending of the video? Well…
http://www.schadenfreudestudios.com/backup/pictures/wallpapers/yotsuba.png

lee said...

Do you think kickassia should have a sequel? I just like to see another even if it has been about 2 to 3 years.

Anonymous said...

Liam Neeson train batman and obi-wan ,he punches wolves, and he played Zeus and Aslan make him a god in two religions he is a better the Jedi then you could ever dream of being. He even let Jar jar live show he has more self control then anyone of use.

Thibaud said...

I already commented about it once but isn't it conceivable that Wonder Woman could have converted from Greek paganism to Catholicism ? And boy is it a strange sentence to write ;)



Anonymous said...

Dude you so need to have Nash watch number 14!

Also thanks for another year of laughs and may you have all the luck with the next... "comic".

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"I already commented about it once but isn't it conceivable that Wonder Woman could have converted from Greek paganism to Catholicism ? And boy is it a strange sentence to write ;)"

She has literally met all the Gods.

She is not going to suddenly decide "superpowers lost, must mean the Catholic God is the right way to go."

And yes, comics are weird. XD

tenkiforecast said...

As a meteorologist, I am so happy you mentioned the tornado in the Quik Bunny comment. That scene made so little sense that it is baffling, and the writers likely confused "tornado" with "hurricane."

The big difference?
Tornadoes: At greatest, 2.6 km in diameter
Hurricanes: At greatest, 2200 km in diameter based on 15 m/s wind speeds.

They are very, very different.

Good episode!

Anonymous said...

kudos for the ERed Dwarf theme

Falcovsleon20 said...

Awww I was hoping for a Battle for Bludhaven MadWorld joke. And yes I did read that comment at the end that you don't keep up w/ everything but I'm pretty sure someone at least linked you to the cutscenes once or something.

Unknown said...

I kinda wanna watch all those previous episodes now. I remember so many good jokes and moments from them.

Oh, and nice to see Noah again. It's always good to see that you two are still good friends. You're two of my favourites so I always enjoy seeing you and your vastly different styles meshed together.

47ness said...

Part of me was hoping you would start singing Rocketman (as Shatner, or Montalban, or a bizarre greenscreen of yourself doing both!!)

Thanks for another year of laughs. :)

Chris Evans said...

2013 has come and passed, here's hoping that next year will better than the last, and...

*looks at the lineup for next month*

Wow, um...good luck, Lewis.

Jesse said...

YAY! SPOONY CROSSOVER! :D

Happy New Year Linkara. Hope 2014 is just as much fun as 2013 if not more:)

Unknown said...

On #11 maybe the captain actually wanted to find a different kind of amazonite. The kind that would mega evolve the amazon rainforest into a mega rainforest so he could defeat everyone. Then again that makes way too much sense to be in NBComics.

PopCultureOtaku said...

Cameos! Love them. Funny all around video.
You know you are writing Wonder Woman badly when you get get people thinking your version is just a little bit worse then new 52 version. I mean the fact as you mention she meet the gods she also even battled Ares aka THE GOD OF WAR. Why didn't she just back to her island? I forget. Or even find an old remance of greek temple that might you contact with god. It's long shot but better then giving up and changing your total way of thinking. What is about even worse about pregnant suicide wonder woman was attempting she someone who seems to want to preserve human life. Only know to take it when forced to. And she decides suicide is okay despite being pregnant. She is only stopped because she got her Man back in life. That is right Doug Moench pretty much saying women can't survive on their own as mother or heroine or anything without a man. ::Face palm::
I'm glad i'm not only one who thought the writer confused eye of tornado with hurricane.
You reminded me the fact that Luke married Mara Jade in Expanded Universe. That part of the reason i'm guessing he had the rule done with.
Here is to 2014. Good news is you will be Marvelle next week. Bad news is that your starting year off with it again.
All seriousness everyone have a safe and Happy New Year. See you at MAGFest.

Anonymous said...

Man, I wish you had made a joke about the Red Skull saying "I'll be back with more murder" in Captain America Comics #1. Oh well, at least you made the how the hell did the jedi know about this story jokething that I commented on. I recall I joked that a force ghost did it.

Shanethefilmmaker said...

Nice one. I almost laughed my cold off. But a few thoughts.

Sue's situation wouldn't matter. Yes Arkham is a revolving door psyche ward and she could reveal the identities, but you missed one factor that both crappy and good comic never forgets. Arkham houses the Joker, a maniac that has time and again, found various ways of simply walking out of his own cell let alone the asylum. Only when he feels like it. When he doesn't, it's practically his home away from home. So during the off chance he stays, he will receive word that someone in the Asylum knows the identity of DC's finest. He could care less about the other superheroes, but when it comes to Batman, he feels it's his job to do everything from finding his identity to killing him. And knowing his massive ego, he won't let anyone else do either. Something he has done in the past and only few were lucky to survive.

As for the force cop-out, you are right, but you missed another thing. While the force itself cannot tell you what went on....unless you have complete control over it of course. Force Ghosts on the other hand could tell. While it was proven that much of the Ghosts in the movies are only reserved for the good characters, the expanded universe on the other hand showed time and again that even a few bad or fallen to the dark side characters, could slip out. Including those two planet exploders. They could simply visit other jedi and tell their story.

That aside great top list as always, shame Spoony had to shoot you. I guess he didn't want you to go Beyond Thunderdome.

Taiko said...

Huh; I hadn't thought about a lot of those points (although I remember reading how you realized the Wonder Woman pregnancy after the fact). Still, one hundred-million dollars in hundred dollar bills taking up that much space and weight...I hadn't thought on that. I'd say it would have been a smart idea to give our hero a machine that could take undefined bills and turn them to smaller increments, but that would be fraud at worst, and stupid at...well, best. You almost think Marvel would have been better off as a time-travel comedy comic rather than what it turned out to be.

Good point about Superman's journey happening in real time, with the comic release, and another with Secret Crisis' own problem - an interesting idea, but with someone like Superman it's just not well implemented. For the Star Wars comic, you can't even say that it was spy-satellites over the planet that recorded this info that were found later - with an explosion that big, the satellites would need damn impressive shielding in order to survive the initial explosion, much less anything else they'd come across in space.


Just a note on number 2: you bring up a(nother) legitimate problem in Cry For Justice you hadn't before, but not quite for the reasons you mentioned. You've brought up before (with the Koolaid Man) that objects in space don't radiate/lose heat like they do on earth, nominally for the lack of a medium to transmit it through (meaning people would likely die from overheating before they become frozen - it's why spacesuits have tubes pumping cold water through them over the astronaut's body). Therefore, Hal would likely have problems with overheating rather than freezing, which his suit would have to deal with...but on that same note, he's probably been to places of greater extremes in temperature than Gotham, and Green Arrow is covered by LESS than him, and by a less forgiving and supervising material.

Therefore, the writer assumed that the Green Lantern ring only was a forcefield that could project light energy in controlled forcefields, but couldn't keep in heat or out the wind unless going through space...wherein the next issue we get the superbomb which could use Hal's DNA to bypass the ring's defences and blow him up. The ones that can't hold in body-heat for a subject it's been with for quite a while, with a great amount of intelligence/knowledge backing it. Still a stupid point in the comic, just for different reasons than you (and the comic) mentioned.

(I could be wrong about all this, just giving what knowledge I have)

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"Man, I wish you had made a joke about the Red Skull saying "I'll be back with more murder" in Captain America Comics #1. Oh well, at least you made the how the hell did the jedi know about this story jokething that I commented on. I recall I joked that a force ghost did it."

I do actually have the Red Skull thing on my list of potential ones for the future. XD

DuelMark said...

There are two in particular that I thought were obvious jokes to make.

From Spider-Man: Power and Responsibility
Spider-Man: You're not Peter Parker! Just a computer simulation!
Cue joke about then current Holo-kara incident.

Also from Comic book quickies, given you mentioned Mr. Computer and we know Peter is a science major.
"I know I can stop him, because only a science major can handle computers! (Cue photo of Mr. Computer) EXCEPT THAT ONE!"

Anonymous said...

Um, Linkara, Jean Loring WAS put on trial.It happened in the pages of Manhunter, in fact I recall somebody pointing it out in the comments and admitting it was a mistake. And then you do it again, weird.

Angel Asylum said...

that ending, best part.

Anonymous said...

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!

You actually used my observation about the Red Dwarf joke in your list. I'm sure you were thinking it before I commented about it, but I still think that's incredible.

Unknown said...

You know back when I first watched in 2008 and 2009 I actually really liked the Prequel Trilogy.

But the more and more I think back on them, along with peoples arguments against them...I'm beginning to see why people don't like them.

I agree with everyone that's said it before including you...the Jedi against falling in love is just plain STUPID.

If I were a character in the Star Wars Universe and I had a force sensitive child the Jedi would never get their hands on it.

Anyway I wish you good luck for next week because after two whole years of complete idiocy, insulting science, ridiculous story and terrible philosophy...you're finally finishing Marville.

Every pub in Minnesota will be robbed this Sunday night as you'll need a lots and lots of booze for what you mentioned happens in Issue 6.

Bill said...

Actually, the worst thing for me about "Grounded" (well, not the worst thing, but certainly the most telling) was that the writer became disinterested in the whole mess almost before the readers did. I can't believe DC allowed the storyline to continue as long as they did.

Arc said...

Ahhh, good to see Spoony always and he is right a bit man. You could've just tied him. I mean pulling them all out at once is unfair. Put them in the review then. :P

Ha, ha, still good list as always, heres to the next 15 list you make.

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"Um, Linkara, Jean Loring WAS put on trial.It happened in the pages of Manhunter, in fact I recall somebody pointing it out in the comments and admitting it was a mistake. And then you do it again, weird."

...Whoops.

FugueforFrog said...

Great episode, there, a fun way to end 2013. Honestly happy you did an explanation at how stupid Superman walking America was considering he didn't even know how he could walk around Philadelphia...or that the typical Philadelphian gets their cheesesteak from a cheesesteak shop, not a diner. (though diners do sell them) And yeah, Hal really needs to suck it up regarding a rooftop considering he's been in space all the time and whatnot.

Next week: THE END OF MARVILLE!!!! (boy am I happy to say that)

Adam Graham said...

You're right that it would take a long time for Superman to walk across the country and later on in Superman: Grounded, he is shown flying over some areas and more like walking through the cities. Still I liked it.

While I think you're right on the Wonder Woman/baby suicide thing, suicide is actually the second highest cause of death among pregnant women.

http://blog.chron.com/momhouston/2011/10/homicide-and-suicide-leading-causes-of-death-for-pregnant-postpartum-women/

Still, I have trouble buying it for Wonder Woman.

Anonymous said...

Nice video to end 2013 on. In regards to Wonder Woman...honestly, how consistent is her characterization really? It seems no writer really 'gets' her. I can get her turning to Catholicism because, well, even if she did meet the Greek Gods they must seem kinda jerkish now, but the suicide thing...yeah, agree with you there.

Also, are you sure Liefeld didn't mean a biblical equivalent to the actual movie 'Armageddon'? As in, Jesus and his apostles must fly a space shuttle with a nuclear bomb, with seizure-enducing SFX sequences throughout?

With the SW thing, bares pointing out that as far as I know that particular comic comes from an anthology marked non-canon, so I guess the writers decided to make up whatever stuff they wanted. In any case, comments about the Expanded Universe are going to get complicated when the Abrams Trilogy comes along and tramples all over it (for better or worse--mostly better IMO).

Who did come up with the first Thunderdome joke anyway? The source must be found.

Thanks for five years of entertainment, Linkara, and look forward to 2014!

Unknown said...

Well, It's a nice review for the last review of the year. I am so glad that Marvile will be over in the next review, Thank Goodness. I guess in the Superman comic where he walks across america, it was silly of that woman to chastise Supes like that. As if he could've done anything.

Torkuda said...

Not sure how many others will, but my guess is Linkara will understand this completely:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/sgRD8oV0jJgON8iBcFaBWJoh1ES7vS_MGqPQ3D2LC8A=w632-h925-no

Check the link, for some reason I can't make it a hyperlink.

Tantum Ergo 2 said...

I'm still trying to figure out what the heck Doug Moench's deal is. He seems to not have any understanding of or appreciation for most superheroes other than Batman and those like him, so I guess I just don't see why he'd -want- to write comics about other heroes.

I wonder if he was just -told- to write stories about Superman, Wonder Woman, Catwoman, etc, and then wrote these really awful stories in protest against being pulled off of Batman. That's the only way I can make sense of this kind of thing.

I'm not even totally against the idea of Wonder Woman converting. I just don't think the mere loss of her powers gives her character sufficient reason to do so. Then again, Moench doesn't seem aware of the reasons why people typically convert, so that would make it hard to depict them, wouldn't it? Furthermore, this is doubly insulting to Catholics, since the conversion takes place, not as a legitimate change in the character's belief system, but as a precursor to/part of a -mental breakdown.-

The whole "Act of God" comic was just so superficial and shallow, and reflected not even a surface-level understanding of what kinds of people these characters are on the inside, that it created plot hole after plot hole, just because the writer said.

Let me give an example. Wonder Woman discovers she's lost her powers. What's the first thing she would realistically do to try to figure out what happened? Why, fly her invisible jet to Themyscira and try to contact the Greek gods, of course. While she's there, she might check to see if the magic there is working, which might further enlighten her as to the scope of the problem.

She tries to get in touch with the gods to find out what happened, and they either respond with some reason, or they're apparently confused, but are trying to bluff their way through it, or they seem to have lost their powers as well. The last case would, I think, be valid grounds for Wonder Woman to question her faith, though still not, in my mind, for her to convert. In any case, it would give them more information on the scope of what had happened.

Finally, even supposing it -was- a deliberate act by God or something like him, wouldn't the Spectre (DC's embodiment of the wrath of God) have something to say about this? Wouldn't he have some answers for how and why this happened, and if not, why not? Has he lost his powers too? If so, why? If not, why not? This would provide so much more information on what was really going on, which could further develop the story, instead of descending into lame half-guesses, as it ultimately did.

Lastly, I don't think I was really expecting a whole lot of new pop culture references, but I did think you might make some references to other episodes of AT4W, and sure enough, you did. The Quick Club reference was good.

Ming said...

Great episode. Here's to the new year . . . and of course the end of the abomination known as Marville. God have mercy on us all . . .

Felix Brunschede said...

Haaaa, thunderdome. We love thy meme power. And I was waiting for the Forest Gump reference, but at least it made it into the after-credits commentary of cthulhu. I love forced alliteration.

N. said...

I find the notion that somehow a child should be the only reason for a woman to keep living highly offensive

It's a male dominant society imposed standard that is trying to tie women down as nothing more than breeding machines

Even if a woman believes that the child itself deserves a chance at life and carries it till birth, there's nothing binding her to dedicate her existence to it's raising (which in itself can be an unpleasant experience to some)

It's sexist to assume a woman who's at her lowest would automatically see her male society imposed role as a reason to continue her existence

Ozaline said...

Saw the Red Dwarf joke coming a long way and during the whole build up I just wanted you to get to the singing but it was totally worth it.

You know What would have been an interesting comic about Superman walking? If Superman had joined Terry Fox on his walk across canada to try and raise money for cancer research, than maybe that woman would get off his back.

Speaking of Cancer, I might have commented about this on that 701 video (I honestly don't recall) but Supergirl DID try to cure a young boy's cancer in the pages of her own book... Superman and Wonder Woman pointed out that it was idiotic to try since that's not what Superheroes do, freedom fighters from the future came back to stop her from transforming the human race into something that was "other", and Resurrection man speechified that cancer was a good thing because it was a sign of human progress that we lived long enough to get cancer at all, and that nature shouldn't be challenged. The story also resolves itself 30 years in the future after her obsession has caused her to look for a time traveling solution (and yet the next issue ignored the implications of that story)... and the kicker the real kicker for that whole stupid storyline?

Previously in the book she sold a Kryptonian medical device to Batman that monitors your genes and replaces defective ones... in other words she already HAD the cure for cancer and just needed to adapt it to humans, but she forgot all about that device.

I'd like to give JMS some credit and think he was rebuking the Supergirl story, but perhaps not.

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"Finally, even supposing it -was- a deliberate act by God or something like him, wouldn't the Spectre (DC's embodiment of the wrath of God) have something to say about this? Wouldn't he have some answers for how and why this happened, and if not, why not? Has he lost his powers too? If so, why? If not, why not? This would provide so much more information on what was really going on, which could further develop the story, instead of descending into lame half-guesses, as it ultimately did."

That's the thing, though - in an act of sheer laziness, a lot of the magic-based superheroes, like the Spectre or Dr. Fate, just vanished. We never hear from them, never find out what happened to their human identities... they're just GONE.

Megan said...

@ N:

I find the notion that somehow a child should be the only reason for a woman to keep living highly offensive
Of course you do. Is there ANYTHING about men that you don't find completely sexist and "oppressive to womyn?" And Linkara didn't say the child was the only reason, he said it was a major reason. Wonder Woman values all life, which makes her thoughts of suicide so enraging.

It's a male dominant society imposed standard that is trying to tie women down as nothing more than breeding machines
WOW. You do realize you just spat in the face of every single mother in existence, right? I highly doubt the majority of them would classify themselves as 'breeding machines.' And this is coming from someone who is childless by choice.

Even if a woman believes that the child itself deserves a chance at life and carries it till birth, there's nothing binding her to dedicate her existence to it's raising (which in itself can be an unpleasant experience to some)
Crops are raised, children are reared. Yes, sometimes rearing a child can be very hard. There's horrible parents out there. But I can guarantee you that the horrible parents make up a very small percentage in the grand scheme of things.

It's sexist to assume a woman who's at her lowest would automatically see her male society imposed role as a reason to continue her existence
"Male society imposed role?" N: A bit of biological fact: With a few exceptions, THE MALES OF A SPECIES CANNOT HAVE BABIES. It's not "male dominated", it's pure biology. And no, I'm not saying we're only put on Earth to pop out kids.

Putting all that aside, Why would Wonder Woman even want to kill herself IN THE FIRST PLACE?! She's the embodiment of Truth, one of the most compassionate characters in the DCU, and Act of God made her into a wet rag who cries constantly and converts to Catholicism despite, as Linkara pointed out, having met the Greek gods!

Moving on...great video, Linkara. I still need to watch the Quikbunny review, though. Loved all the cameos.

Oh, and Road Warrior is better than Thunderdome. (Ducks rotten fruit)

Looking forward to seeing what horrors Marville has in store for us!

Anonymous said...

A joke I'm surprised you missed - In Punisher: Silent Night, Punisher dumps a load of cocaine into the river and later dresses up as Santa. So, no Snowflame reference at all?

Also, in regards to #2, space isn't actually cold. In fact, the idea of outer space having a temperature is meaningless.

OK. Heat is the kinetic energy of vibrating atoms. The more energy they have, the more they vibrate, and hence the more heat they have and the higher their temperature.

Matter can lose heat by coming into contact with matter that is at a lower temperature. The atoms in the high-temperature matter collide with those of lower temperature and pass on some of their kinetic energy, thus increasing the amount of heat in the low-temperature matter and reducing the amount in the higher-temperature matter until the temperatures equalise.

However, space by definition is not matter. When Hal is in space, heat wouldn't flow out of him because there are no atoms in contact with him for the heat to flow into. Well, he would lose a little bit in the form of infrared radiation, but substantially less than he would lose from the cold air on the Gotham rooftop. (Also, if he was anywhere near a star, he would be in much more danger of overheating due to absorbing the electromagnetic radiation emitted by said star; this is why space suits are designed the way they are).

EB said...

Happy New Year Linkara.

Thank you for years of entertaining Reviews/videos.

You are awesome.

Unknown said...

It looks like we're giving this year a pretty good send-off with cameos from the Nostalgia Critic, the Cinema Snob, Phelous, and the Spoony One.

As for the review:

While I can't stand Act of God's depiction of the DC Heroes, I have to say that Frank Miller's version is wors--
Actually I take it back. In my humble opinion, they are both horrible but in different variations. AoG turned these heroes into idiots who mostly sat in corners and did nothing (at least make more than one attempt to save others and fail before lamenting about how hard and different things are without your powers, guys) while ASBAR just turned them into sociopaths who I would personally fear more than Gotham's super-criminals.

Any way, hopefully we'll get to find more missed opportunities in the upcoming years. Have a Happy New Year!

Anonymous said...

I don't really get Khan attributing that quote to the klingons. Seriously, this isn't even nitpicking, this is basic common sense. Khan is from Earth pre-First Contact. He shouldn't be familiar with an alien civilization, and since he comes from Earth he should know that it's from Earth. It's not as though the man was ignorant of common sayings.

And you can at least say that in Cry for Justice the Green Lanterns use their powers to keep themselves warm during interstellar travel. Unlike the Force that isn't a cop-out, that's a legitimately useful function of established powers (if it lets them breathe continuously in space nothing to say it can't produce heat).

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"And you can at least say that in Cry for Justice the Green Lanterns use their powers to keep themselves warm during interstellar travel. Unlike the Force that isn't a cop-out, that's a legitimately useful function of established powers (if it lets them breathe continuously in space nothing to say it can't produce heat)."

See, my point is more: why doesn't he just use his ring to keep himself warm? XD

popeyedboy said...

To N, whoever you may be. Regardless of whatever political or social opinions you may have, I personally do know several women who have children, who cite children as one of their greatest pleasures in life and who also happen to have salaries and responsibilities much higher than my own.

Personally I'd rather believe you're a troll, though I'm disgusted with trolls who think that feminism, motherhood and life are things to mock.

Anonymous said...

Their was build up to Superman and Wonder Woman getting together it was in the Justice League and Superman titles if you read it you would know instead of listening to people on twitter who also didn't read it.

prawdziwy 666 said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--0r-dZ8bJU

dear Linkara if by "better" you mean "weirder" in that case, yes this year was better than the last

Thibaud said...

"She has literally met all the Gods.

She is not going to suddenly decide "superpowers lost, must mean the Catholic God is the right way to go.""

I see your point but I'm still not convinced. There is a huge difference between the gods of Greek mythology and what Christians (and others, like Muslims and Jews) call "God". Just to name a few, "the" God is eternal, uncreated, and all-powerful. Greek gods are not eternal, they were created at some point (by other Titans or other gods and before that they did not exist) and are not all powerful. Greek gods are creatures like humans, just much more powerful (and generally immortals). Therefore, knowing that Greek gods exist would not necessarily imply that "the" God does not.

See for instance Tolkien legendarium which include "the" God (Eru Iluvatar, eternal and all powerful) but also a bunch of gods (the Ainur, the Valar and the Maiar) who are comparable to Greek gods (very powerful and more or less immortal but created and not all powerful).

What I'm trying to argue is that it would be possible (though not easy) to reconcile actual proof of the existence of Zeus, Hades, Juno and Aphrodite on the one hand and belief in an eternal, uncreated God on the other hand. But I can totally see people disagreeing with me on this.

There is also a slim chance that I might be thinking too hard about this :).

Anyway, happy New Year and thanks for the show !

Anonymous said...

"What I'm trying to argue is that it would be possible (though not easy) to reconcile actual proof of the existence of Zeus, Hades, Juno and Aphrodite on the one hand and belief in an eternal, uncreated God on the other hand."

Well, from a logical standpoint, it may be possible, but from a human standpoint, is it really all that likely? Would someone who drew upon the strength of gods that she had physically met simply give up on them and turn to a God that has considerably less proof of existence? It may not be an impossible conclusion, but considering how fiercely loyal people are to gods that they haven't met in person, I find it incredibly hard to believe that someone would completely lose faith in the god figures in her life that she knows are real and then give the same devotion to a more abstract God. It just doesn't ring true, at least not to me.

Anonymous said...

Packing?

You just said on your twitter feed that you were packing.

Are you moving again, Linkara?

Allan Olley said...

"Also, in regards to #2, space isn't actually cold. In fact, the idea of outer space having a temperature is meaningless."

Note that even in space the vacuum is not perfect so deep space (Green Arrow talks about it and I assume that is what Linkara means also), is actually full of a very diffuse gas. There is no line where a gas of density X has a temperature and a gas of density less than X ceases to have a temperature. I'm pretty sure if you put a thermometer in deep space it cools eventually to 3 Kelvin (the interstellar background radiation) and so I think the average kinetic energy of the very diffuse hydrogen gas there is likewise 3 Kelvin.

However, you have a point that heat loss due to conduction and convection are minimal in space, so 3 Kelvin in a gas as rarified as that found in interstellar space feels way less cold than if that gas were at atmospheric pressure/density. However the reduced feeling of cold is going to be true say of a gas at 1/2 atmospheric pressure or 1/10 to some degree.

So I think it makes sense to say it is "very cold in space" but we should acknowledge that cooling is not as rapid.

"Well, he would lose a little bit in the form of infrared radiation, but substantially less than he would lose from the cold air on the Gotham rooftop."

Well I've not done the math myself (I think I did once but not recently) but a few people on the internet have (here for example) and they get a loss due to radiative cooling of about 700-900 Watts. Since the human body produces about 120 Watts you would get cold eventually under such conditions. Now according to how wind chill is calculated losing a little over 900 Watts of heat is like standing in still air at most a few degrees above freezing (0 Celsius). I'm not sure what time of year Cry for Justice was supposed to occur in but I thought it was not Winter so that suggests it was well above freezing on the rooftop, so I think it would be a little more cooling to be in deep space (but not as much as Green Arrow might have thought). However depending on the rooftop time of year, Hal's surface area exposed to deep space, etc. it might feel no colder or warmer in deep space.

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"Packing?

You just said on your twitter feed that you were packing.

Are you moving again, Linkara?"

Nope, going to MAGFest.

Maria Mystery said...

Hi, Lewis. It's me, Natasha. (I still need to explain the whole Maria thing, don't I?) Great video, and I just wanted to wish you a happy new year. I'll be going around TGWTG to wish a lot of people the same, but wanted to start with my fave. It's hard to believe that almost a year ago, I watched my first NC episode on youtube, and now I know so much about a lot of your fellow contributors ans their shows (yours especially), the anniversary films, and so much else. This little 14 year old is just stunned. Anyway, please wish Liz, Will and everybody a happy new year and lots of love from me.

Maria Mystery said...

Almost forgot, Have fun at Magfest. :D

Unknown said...

@ Linkara: "That's the thing, though - in an act of sheer laziness, a lot of the magic-based superheroes, like the Spectre or Dr. Fate, just vanished. We never hear from them, never find out what happened to their human identities... they're just GONE."

Thank you for bringing that up. It's been irritating me on how some of the magic-based &/or supernatural based characters, including the ones that can use magic are down played, pushed to the side or in some cases have hat aspect of themselves taken away. Isn't that right Dr Doom.

Starman said...

Re: Why doesn't Hal Jordan use his ring to keep warm?

He shouldn't have to. Body temperature is one of the things the ring is supposed to monitor automatically. That's why each ring has a fancy AI - so the Green Lantern can focus their will directly on things like weapons and directional flight without having to worry about maintaining their life support at the same time.

Good thing too. Knowing Hal, if he had to focus on keeping his shields up AND making a boxing glove, he'd forget how to breathe...

Anonymous said...

happy new year Linkara

are we going to get to see Fat Grandma on the show?

Starman said...

To Shanethefilmmaker:

Re: Force Ghosts tell the story.

One problem with your idea - it was established in Episode III that the idea of a dead Jedi being able to reach back to speak to his living friends through The Force was first pulled off by Qui Gon after he died.. and even then only Yoda could talk to him at first. Eventually Obi Wan and Yoda both learn the trick and... well, somehow they teach it to Anakin after he dies.

So yeah... no ghosts of the two dead idiot Jedis.

Unfortunately, that means I just proved Qui Gon was actually good at something...

Unknown said...

Happy New year.

So I just sat down and reread Flashpoint, this time from the trade.
Honestly, I think I like it more now.
I like the redesigns in this event more then I like most of the Nu52, Aquaman's being the standout, I think it befits a Warloard.
At did get that feel that the tie-in comics had more information, but with the exception on one panel where Gorilla Grodd charges in out of nowhere (and Flash kind of hangs the Lampshade by being confused by it to), I never quite felt it was vital info.
I definitely wanted to know more about what triggered the war, but since the story is a Flash/Batman comic I think it would have thrown off the pace to have it here.
That being said, it is a Flash/Batman story, that reboots a universe.
Flash talks about the butterfly effect, and how a small change breaks everything, and that is what happens here, sort of.
A splash page talks about merging three timelines, but doesn't really explain how or why three timelines are merging.
That's what I really want to know,how does Flash stopping himself form changing history change the history of the timeline the Flash was trying to change in the first place?
If that one part made sense I feel like I could accept this causing a reboot.
But all my favorite titles of the Nu52 have been canceled, and I still can't find Demon Knights volume 2, so I honestly can't get invested in the Nu52.
...
I am enjoying Superior Spiderman.
I liked The Amazing Spider-Man issue 700 right up until page 41 (I think), and I might have even accepted the idea of Otto armoring the spot needed for a mind transfer in case of emergency if it had been foreshadowed.
Maybe I missed the foreshadowing somewhere, but that dues ex machina is what left a bad taste in my mouth.
But seriously, have a great new year.

Anonymous said...

"Nope, going to MAGFest."

Don't scare me like that.

Anonymous said...

Hm on the whole wonder woman converting belifs, maybe the greek gods lost their powers too. I reminded of a spoony counter monkey episode where he mentioned the idea of a cleric having to change gods if he goes to another dimiension since his god has no power their. Maybe in leu of the greek gods having no power, it was pointless to worship them. That said that stil a long stretch from stop worshiping the greek gods since they have no power any more to converting to catholicism and in a better story that might have been explored.

Dave said...

Hi,

I'm the guy (or a guy) who told Linkara about the weight and size of $100 million back in Marville. Here's a Tweet from last February:

https://twitter.com/boffo97/status/298598947096760320

Since Linkara used the info, I'll fill in that I got the info from multiple pages (checking my work!) on how much space and weight a million $1 bills would take up. Wikipedia backs the notion that $1 bills and $100 bills are the same size and weight.

I also assumed that the bills were $100 because that is the highest denomination of money currently printed (since 1969) and thus higher denominations are likely worth more than their face value to collectors.

Just to give some scale to 3,980 square feet, one million hundred dollar bills would completely fill a room 20ft x 20ft x 9.95ft.

Also, to rule out alternatives, the cop who gave one to Al (was it the same cop both times? Marville is idiotic...) specifically called them "bags of money"

Dave said...

Oh, also, if Linkara did get his comment on the volume of $100 million from me, I have to take responsibility for a minor error he passed on:

I meant CUBIC feet, not square feet, since we are talking about volume.

Sorry.

Unknown said...

Loved the "It's cold outside" joke.

Had really thought we'd get one from Batman: Noel, why is he gritting his teeth on the cover? Because there's a weeping angel behind him.

Anonymous said...

"But all my favorite titles of the Nu52 have been canceled, and I still can't find Demon Knights volume 2, so I honestly can't get invested in the Nu52."

Eh, you too? DC finally had an excellent book that wasn't written by Gail Simone, Geoff Johns or Scott Snyder that I enjoyed... and it gets canceled right after the trade paper back announces that the thing Cornell (And probably a LOT of the readers) loves the most about his book is basically creating a world within the DCnU and that he'll continue in volume 2...

M. L. Martin said...

One thing that I'm not sure you've ever noted about "JLA: Acts of God".

The reasons given for the Lois Lane/Superman divorce make no sense because, at the time of the wedding, Clark didn't have his powers either!. If Lois was just fine with marrying him then, why not now?

DMaster said...

One More Missed Opportunity: in the One Moment in Time crossover, that Eddie Muerta guy? Kinda looks a lot like a certain Hispanic schlub whose fault the story was in the first place, don't it?

Anonymous said...

Hey Linkara, on the topic of Hal Jordan, what are your thoughts on Green Lantern: Rebirth? Did you like the story and want to see Hal redeemed? Or would you rather have had Kyle stick around longer and leave Hal as a dead villain.

MaestroHazard said...

Oh, thought of a missed opportunity for your missed opportunity video.

When you mention the Game Boy comics and taking over a Hardee's? You could have gone with "Perhaps taking over a small micronation just outside of Nevada."

Kickassia FTW