Ivan

Saying "it's being done nonetheless" is equivalent to seeing your house on fire, shrugging, and updating your twitter status. Grab a hose, man! Heh. Seriously though, I'm looking for an answer from a mod. WHO LET THIS HAPPEN!? OH NOES!

Dr. Strange's assistant Wong could solo Hogwarts. Yeah. Wong, who has no magical powers, but a lifetime of kicking the dark powers in the face without needing them. Look at the difference in their opponents. Compare a cheesecake like Voldemort to Dormammu or Mephisto. Now remember that Hogwarts barely survived a Voldemort attack, and that was with the assistance of luck, prophecy, and narrative convention. Dr. Strange regularly goes toe to toe with his villains and comes out no worse for the wear.

http://hotcakencyclopedia.com/ho.GlossaryIndianNations.html

A+ for concept. The idea for this fight is hilarious. Please make more fights. You have the Ivan stamp of approval.

http://www.electricferret.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=25722 I'm not upset, it's just... when did this become what the CBUB is about? Historical figures? Extant human civilizations? I very strongly remember one of the only mandates Serge ever gave, which was that characters need to be fictional. I mean, I could dig a Reign the Conqueror vs Brath match, or the Lost Valley Tribe (Turok) vs those scary dudes from Eaters of the Dead. Sure, that works. But a rehash of Deadliest Warrior? When did that become acceptable? I'm not angry, I just want to know what was the reason behind changing one of the only rules this site has ever held? (I'd be less critical if there weren't literally dozens of other options for fictional characters/groups which could be used instead.)

Wow. As much as Blackest Night was a shamelessly transparent grab for cash, playing to the lowest common denominator in storytelling, it will never touch the pure loathsome art prostitution of early 90's Image. (Plus, BN at least had the benefit of occasionally containing Larfleeze.) On the other hand you kind of have to feel sorry for Dale Keown, who made the choice to go from collaborating with Peter David on some of the best Hulk issues of all time straight to writing Pitt. Yeaaah... how'd that work out for you, Dale?

My first thought: Hot Damn this decade has been good to BA. I remember a time when I was the only person who gave half a shart about Black Adam, or at least the only person besides John Ostrander and Erik Larsen. Teams will divide roughly along company lines. This is good, because it's going to take all of these dudes working together to beat Mr. Majestic.

Powers-wise, I think BPI has one of the few sets of powers that could stand up to Serif's manipulations long enough for Tony to figure out he's being manipulated, and the healing/ally combination gives him a chance at surviving this fight. However, between her invisibility and telepathy Serif should be able to avoid being shot and, worst case scenario, has to retreat to fight another day. In terms of story, Serif seems to have more depth and complexity, (even if, as a writer, she's ripping off Read or Die and Harry Potter,) but Tony's backstory feels more lived-in and genuine. At the end of the day, though, Serif is a concept character more than an assassin and I'm a sucker for concept characters.

Err... meant to post on the actual Main Event. Heh. sorry.

In terms of writing, Sarah is lightyears better than Edward. I went with the more well-written character.

I'd like to do this.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch. I’ve put off paying the price for a long time. The diary is full, I filled up the last page and the words are beginning to bleed out around the edges. A lifetime of dirty secrets, now at risk of becoming unbound. I knew it would come down to Khazan, eventually. I knew it was the beginning of the end, and it all started with that damned reporter. Richard Goodson. Dick. You know, all things considered, I’ve had a pretty good relationship with the press over the years. Early in my career, I philosophically aligned my interests with the quagmire of spin, agenda, and bias which dominates all the major news outlets. Goodson though, he wasn’t a proper journalist, or rather he was and that was the problem. One of those hard-nosed, “the people have a right to know†types, just like the nosy bastard who bought it when the Benedict Satellites fell. And here’s me without a conveniently engineered disaster. I had him thrown in jail in São Tomé, which should’ve been the end of it. A little shithole in the middle of nowhere, rough him up a little, the dude learns his lesson, and in the bargain comes home a hero himself. Interview with Barbara Walters, three book deal, get his name in the Jeopardy answer rotation. He could’ve taken the deal, but my luck isn’t infinite. He’s coming here tonight, to play hardball, to tell me he’s hired a detective. The most unfortunate detective- more of a Mortician really. He doesn’t know I’m dying. It’ll start to show soon enough, and without the diary to reinforce it my public image will only hold up for so long. He doesn’t know this is my last F- You to the world that never stopped loving those tin gods and paper tigers. When I go, the diary will burn, and all the hidden secrets crammed within its pages will be released. I’m going to offer him an option, first: an interview. I may be dying, but belief is the surest fulcrum there is, and that man believes in the truth. He believes it so hard, that rock-solid devotion, that maybe, just maybe he’ll bite. I’ll give him the whole story, in all its bloody detail, and send him off on a fact-checking mission that should take two years. I’ll bet he’s done by the end of the month. Just enough time to wrap this up.

HOLY CRAP that looks badass. For those not in the know, that artwork was created by one-time FPL powerhouse Poe, creator of the webcomics Exploitation Now and Errant Story. Those are Poe's interpretations of classic FPL characters like Faster Pussycat and Mr. Graves. Very cool to see those images (some of them for the first time!)

Ok.

As much as I love John Steed and Emma Peel... you realize this is basically putting Cap, T'Challa, and Shang Chi against the equivalent of AIM goons with inferior technology?

A single page of Sophia Martel's Parva Sub Ingenti, recently recovered by scholars at L'Academie d'Avenir: … but it is apparent that Coleridge busied himself with a reconciliation of opposites. Taoists, Acrobats, the Chiz, they all obsess over balance- diametrics, antithetics, the endless Newtonian push-and-pull. The pendulum swings, after all, and the Skeptic’s Choice drives that forward motion. On the Pendulum A good deal of philosophy is concerned with the beginning, presumably on the grounds that this is where the answers are. They aren’t. The beginning is where the questions are. The beginning is not interesting. In the beginning there was no pendulum. There is no foundation in looking for something in nothingness, and such philosophies are always logically self-defeating. The beginning was what it was, and as instantiation logically predates observation, there is no direct evidence. The only proof that the beginning even exists is that the present exists, and many a philosopher turns up a blind alley searching in vain for an unmoved mover. The major fault in this philosophy is that the teleological argument for existence does not begin with the beginning. Rather, it begins with a suspension of disbelief. That is where the pendulum hangs. As sentient beings, we are required to assume a degree of preface- to acknowledge that existence predates our awareness of it. It is illogical to suggest that the universe exists because we believe in it. However, it is observable that the universe changes because we believe in it. Belief informs perception, and perception shapes reality. That mutability, a force that is somehow both infinite and definite, irresistible yet malleable, that is the foundation of existence. Skepticism, then, is the fulcrum on which the pendulum swings- a secure pivot that, independent of observation, allows a central philosophical tenet to exist. The Question is the beginning, and also the middle. Descartes had the right start, but was preoccupied with reconstructing an extant morality rather than making any legitimate discoveries. The alteration of perception is, in fact, an evolved trait. The consequence of the pendulum’s downswing is an eventual upswing. The ability to observe- and comprehend- change is tantamount to survival. The ability to predict change is tantamount to growth. The prediction exists in the hypothetical, which requires the suspension of disbelief. This view of the future is the only accurate lens- potentiality is the only truth because it exists beyond mere perception. Awareness of the infinitely bifurcated future allows life, creation, spontaneity, action, anticipation. This limitless possibility is secured by the mathematics of probability- a scientific application of skepticism. All systems of rules and numbers are founded in that skepticism. Some philosophers attempt to raise these systems on a pedestal- reasoning that mathematics, probability, and temporal causality must be foundational elements of the universe. The flaw here arises from a love of skepticism, the misapprehension that because a thing is observed, its qualities are defined. The slower the pendulum is moving, the sooner it will change direction. Again we come to the forked path, and The Skeptic’s Choice. Existence derives meaning from opportunity cost, the lost potentiality at each crossroad. By circumventing that choice, by selecting both options, the post-human condition disallows mutability. The butterfly helped from its cocoon will die. So, too, does this bode for men, when opportunity is…

I was really excited about this until I realized that he probably means a Marvel/DC superhero's day off. Blah. Fanfiction competition.

I'll try to get a character into the mix this time too, using Sonics.

CBUB's version of Khazan is a giant floating asteroid with a very large flat surface, ringed with grandstands, encased in a God-Proof Sports Dome. If the ponies want it, they can have it.

Most powerful character in Marvel? Bob Iger. Obviously.

+/- 60%

The Vision is a ripoff of Red Tornado! Oh No! Getting back to the thread... Why do people like FPS games? I mean, I guess they're diverting for a while if all the players are in the same room and at roughly the same skill level, but if you don't have those exact conditions the game ceases to be enjoyable for me.

Characters don't need to appear in the gallery, just on the CA board is fine. The due date SHOULD be January 1st. However, I'm going to be at a conference the 3rd through the 8th, so let's make it the 8th.

Has anyone namedropped The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay yet? It's a fictionalized account of two creators who, help usher in the age of the Superhero by creating one of the most popular characters of all time.

Goku is easy to argue for in a CBUB match. Too easy, in fact. It's kinda like being a Yankees fan- it means you don't really know anything about baseball. The character is as bland as they come- even on the standards of Shonen anime heroes he's got little to no personality. He's an idiot-savant, and his one and only useful talent is melee combat. Unfortunately the dial on that one ability got twisted until it broke off, leaving a really generic protagonist who is really, really supereffing good at magical alien karate-splosions and nothing else. In a CBUB fight Goku powered up to Super Saiyan would beat the tar out of Spider Man. Spider Man is far and a way more interesting, more popular, and a profoundly more versatile character, but it's easy to see the appeal of Goku to young or inexperienced match creators. Unfortunately DBZ backlash is second to none (there are more Twilight apologists than DBZ apologists) due to its ridiculous popularity. (And I think that's as close to Respectable Goku as we're gonna get.)