Category Archives: Versus

Poll Position: Rank badness

If comic book nerds love one thing, it's the opposite sex. Or the same sex. Really, sex of any kind, but aside from that, if comic book nerds love one thing, it's arguing about rankings. This year I plan on embracing my inner nerd nature fully, and thus I begin by lobbing a virtual parcel of dynamite into the frothy nerd-swirl of a comic book rave by asking:

{democracy:165}

I bet that's the first time you've heard the words "frothy" and "nerd" in the same sentence and not broken out in a nervous sweat.

On your marks ... get set ... ARGUE! Next Tuesday the poll will close and we'll have our official ranking by the HeroMachine community of the greatest villains of ALL TIME!
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Alternate Wolverines

I would wager that some of these have already been done, but I love both alternate historical settings for "what if" style stories, and Wolverine, so I wanted to combine them both:

{democracy:164}

Discussion to follow!
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Poll Position: Bat duty

A lot of how you approach the following broadcast of the Comic Book Nerd Fantasy Question Network depends on how you define "permanently". Because if there's one thing comic book nerds like me love as much as comics, it's arguments about grammar, especially when they involve Batman. However, here's the question:

{democracy:163}

Alarums and excursions to follow!

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Poll Position: Let’s get ANIMATED!

I've been lucky enough to have spent the last few weeks catching up on the wonders of Marvel Digital Comics, and along with finally watching some of the new "Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes" I've been doing a lot of thinking about what makes for good super-hero entertainment. And animated TV series are definitely a huge part of that.

So I want to know:

{democracy:162}

Discussion to follow!
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Poll Position: Yeeeaaah, I’m gonna need those TPS Reports …

We've all worked for a crappy boss before, the kind of guy who makes you wish your cubicle were soundproofed and invisible. Now imagine if that walking bag of hammers had super-powers. Yeah, scary. Which brings us to this week's Poll Position:

{democracy:161}

Discussion to follow!
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Poll Position: Team-offs

Our question this week involves groups of characters in primary colors gathering together to beat the snot out of each other. Namely:

{democracy:160}

Instead of me blathering on about this, I wanted to leave it open to you, the viewing public, who will doubtlessly know more about each of these groups than I do. So have at it in comments, and let me know which of these teams would be the winner no matter who else on the list they faced.

HeroMachine Commenter Force Super Discussion Mash-Up GO!

Poll Position: Fantastic!

It's Mister Fantastic Day here at HeroMachine.com, and to introduce our Poll Position question, I want you to listen to the following thoughtful piece by Mr. Norm Macdonald on the naming of the foremost super family:

[hdplay id=1 ]

In light of that riveting discussion, our poll question is:

{democracy:159}

For those of you who can't access the audio, at great personal pain I have transcribed the entire sketch below.

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Poll Position: Green Lantern movie

Short but sweet this week:

{democracy:158}

You can view the trailer here. Go watch it, I'll wait.

Back? Good. Did you bring me popcorn? Get out.

I would say the trailer makes me somewhat more interested in seeing the movie. It helped sell me on the idea of Reynolds in the lead role, and I am buying the "Hal Jordan, cocky test pilot" angle.

Where I'm still struggling a bit is with the fundamental difficulty of melding an intergalactic space opera with an Earth-bound spandex-wearing super-hero. Those are two tough genres to pull off, and mashing them together is exponentially more difficult.

Anyway, what do you think, having now seen the trailer?

Updated to add: Man I hate the costume in this shot. It just looks ... muddy. And why have glowing, cool CGI effects in the threads but make the insignia look so pasted-on? I'd have liked to see them go whole-hog and make the insignia a floating hologram or something to match the rest of the costume.

I hope it's just the way the image is lit, but I miss the sharply defined color areas, the deep black of space and the crisp white of the gloves in the original design.

Poll Position: WCJLA

Let's pretend you work at DC Comics HQ as a mid-level creative producer. One day your boss comes to you and says it seems that the Big Bosses at DC, ever envious of Marvel's success (a stretch, I know, but stick with me here), want to introduce more commercially adaptable super-hero teams to promote some of their lesser-known properties. Sort of a West Coats Justice League, if you will.

In fact, let's pretend your boss literally comes to you and says "Bob, the Bosses want you to develop a West Coast Justice League, like the West Coast Avengers, because we want to sell a zillion comics and make a movie and become rich like the Marvel guys and retire to Bali."

You manage to resist pointing out that your name is not, in fact, Bob (unless it is), and that this is the stupidest idea since Secret Wars II, which probably accounts for how you managed to navigate your way through ten different rounds of downsizing to occupy your current lofty corner cubicle.

Instead you put on your thinking cap and set about finding some obscure characters that you think would make a "viable" West Coat JLA. Maybe you check with your fellow creative professionals, which is a mistake because henceforth WCJLA will stand for "Water Closet JLA". Also, they smell funny. Your friends, that is, not the WCJLA, though if Swamp Thing makes the cut that would probably apply as well.

What six characters would you choose to flesh out the team? Any that you would add?

To make things more complicated, your boss only wants third-tier or less popular character. Why? He's a pin-head, that's why -- he helps run a comic book company, what do you expect?!

The only exception is for Billy Batson, because ... um, because I forgot this rule before I put up the list, is why. And any other character who I was also unaware had been on a team before. Sometimes it's good to be the Pinhead in Charge.

[polldaddy poll="4066916"]

Defend your choices in the comments!

Poll Position: Smells like team movies

Our question this week concerns our favorite spandex-clad characters teaming up on the silver screen:

{democracy:157}

Discussion to follow!

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