Ironik

That's why I say it needs to be excellent in order to be used correctly.

BTW, I read the 1st issue of Justice-Knights and you're right that it needs a rewrite. You could lose a fourth or even a third of the pages without much trouble just by looking for more efficiency in the story and dropping the in-game references. There's no need for the SG to be "popular" to have experienced a sneak attack by someone who hates them. Compared to the excellence of the Stalktress second issue, the action is really muddied and hard to follow, plus the shots are really dark.

Or leave it as-is, as evidence of how much your writing has improved.

Le petit mort dans la Fortress of Solitude?

I agree that we shouldn't have to suffer the belt-and-suspenders approach of stupid storytelling, but I think comics are not purely a visual medium. They inhabit the space halfway between literature and film, so they can really go either way, being primarily visual or text-heavy. There's no wrong way with the comic book medium.

The Age of Reptiles books by Delgado tells the story of dinosaurs without any words, while Warren Ellis is known for scripting books with a ton of dialogue. I couldn't choose between these styles because they're both valid and worthy in their own way.

There you go -- succinct and accurate. Well said, Durakken.

A weed is just a plant in the wrong place.

That's a Bendis trick, too.

I've enjoyed both AMC and USA adopting the BBC version of "seasons" which are only 6 episodes long, or in some cases 8. It makes it feel more like the US miniseries, such as Roots or something. One of my favorite US TV series was the adaptation of Maximum Bob, which was only 6 episodes. Sometimes that series length just feels right, because even the best TV series can have episodes which feel like padding when they have to do 22 or 24 episodes.

One of the biggest changes -- which Bendis recently brought back in one of the umpteen-dozen Avengers books -- was the elimination of thought balloons. I never realized just how much I hated them until they weren't there any more. In some spots they were fine, but most of the time, ugh. Very much like narration in films: don't do it unless you're going to rock it.

Ohh... yeah, those totally suck.

I'm kidding, I didn't read those. But make more Stalktress, those are awesome.

Well, if it's like Paragon City and the bus line goes by her house....

Dude, Space Raiders. Come on, it's right there. Pluck it from the tree!

Space Station would be awesome (was it called Gagarin and the Moonbase called Armstrong?) as long as we get to do things like go outside and fight in zero gravity (or even microgravity) and get ultra-cool costumes such as spacesuits from various eras: modern suits, futuristic battlesuits, 1940s and '50s era suits with glass bubble helmets and '60s era things with velour fabric and bold patterns... plus the silvery fabric space outifits. Those would be sweet.

I didn't know only the clicker gets credit. That needs to be addressed. I've always talked teams into doing side missions in bank job in order to get the badge. If those haven't been counting towards the badges, then I'll stay solo on those.

At this point I know where all the mobs who give side missions hang out in each safeguard, so it's easy to do the bank then run to the side missions and complete those, avoiding as many of the other groups scattered around as possible. Easier for some ATs than others, of course.

My critique of Issue 1 is -- and please bear in mind that I'm the person people love to identify as "The Guy Who Hates Everything" -- that it's fine.

The dialogue is fine. I don't think you have too much at all. It is, in fact, nice and spare. She repeats herself, but that's exactly what people do when wrestling with those kinds of things. However, what I would add is an extra page of him convincing her, so her acceptance of his point is less abrupt. You might even want to put in a few frames here and there which hint at what she went through, using her POV. (Which is hard to do with screenshots, but you can pull it off.) But you need a starting point, and that's a good one. Issue two is different stylistically and it kicks into gear with excellent pacing and really great framing while keeping the theme. But I like how you've ramped up the action and increased the dialogue (inner and outer) at the same time. I think the only reason Issue 1 feels dialogue-heavy to you is because there's no action. But action isn't necessary to be compelling. (Go see The Social Network as an excellent example of that.)

One minor thing I might change about Issue 1 is to make it a bit similar to Issue 2's dialogue by giving Stalktress the word "revenge' when he says "justice." "It's for justice." ["Or revenge."] "Stop them from doing it again." ["Stop you from doing it again."] That sets up the conflict but gives a hint that she plans to turn on him at some point. I mean, you could go back and make it mostly visual, but I don't think it would be a tremendous improvement.

Anyway, just an idea, keep up the good work.

I stopped watching it before the first commercial break because... I don't recall. Maybe I had some lint to pick out of my belly button or something. Dullsville.

I think most places which have a crucial emergency role have a generator. Heck, even my local cable access TV station has its own huge generator, because the Safety Complex (police/fire/paramedics) uses it as a communications hub. Because the power goes out so often here in New Hampshire (lots of trees overhanging powerlines), virtually every home and business has a generator. Most of them are also on well water, too, so the general power grid going down doesn't really affect us that much, just creates an annoyance.

Everywhere I lived in southern Ohio had gravity-fed water. So if the power goes out, you still have water as long as they pump it to the top of the tower. Either well water or gravity-fed system explains that pretty handily.

The thing about the shower scene, though, was that they were so excited and signing so loudly that I fully expected a ton of zombies to show up. That only a single one did was just Darabont messing with us.

It's really quite amazing how many TV shows have actors from the Empire. There are hardly any Americans at all in the lead roles of True Blood or The Wire, even the characters who are supposed to be American.

In Are You Being Served? the "American uncle from Dallas" had a hilariously bad US accent. Pronouncing "ceremony" as "sear-a-minny," heh.

Ellipsis use is hard for some people. It should only be three dots. If one uses an ellipsis at the end of the sentence, then it's four dots: the ellipsis and the period.

Ellipsis = singular
Ellipses = plural

...using them at the start of the sentence is incorrect, but it's a stylistic choice that I can't keep myself from using. Using... using.

"Very unique" is annoying. You can't go past "unique." Either it is or it isn't, there are no gradations of uniqueness.

Since this is political season, pay attention to how the politicians speak to you. When they say "see" they are inviting you to share in their experience. "See, if we were to do things like this...." However, if they use the words "look" or "listen," then they are dictating their opinion to you, basically talking down to you. It's rare these days to hear a politician use the word "see" rather than "look." I daresay anyone who does would be... unique.

You also appear to hate the word "to."

See what I did there?

Factoid: the lead actor is British. Last year I counted that fully 60% of American television lead actors are either from the UK or Australia/NZ. Dang immigrants stealin' our jobs!

Are these guys all born with the ability to do other accents?

That was a sticking point for me, as well. I chalk it up to ignorance more than anything else. This reaction from viewers is a great example of how audiences generally only buy into one unbelievable item and anything else cracks open the willing suspension of disbelief. Obviously this varies by person as some people just let it go and others demand attention to the littlest details. Generally most people will accept the big whopper (aliens have invaded, zombies are real, Arnold Schwarzenegger can act) but find little errors annoying.

As I've just recently been in the hospital, I'm familiar with the current IV machines like the one shown -- they run on electricity, but they have a battery backup that will last a day or so, according to the nurse who had to adjust mine. In Walking Dead the electricity in the hospital was not completely out (which I attributed to visual aesthetics) so that may be an out for some people to hang their hats on. I wasn't paying attention to the bag, but it was probably 1,000 ml. IV machines can regulate how quickly the fluid drips. A person can survive on as little as 500 ml per day (as has been done by people at sea) but he was in a coma in an undemanding environment, so he could probably do with a lot less.

So... big bag, slow drip, electricity lasts for quite some time to power the device.... plus, you know, it's a TV show about zombies.

28 Days Later was the most interesting and original take on the zombie idea in quite some time by making it a form of super-rabies that they called the Rage Virus. Those people weren't dead, just unthinking. If you've ever seen a rabid animal, they are scary as hell. Even small ones. They just keep coming at you and coming at you, trying to rip you to pieces and apparently feeling no pain. Of course, the virus kills you in about a week to 10 days, so it's not useful as an ongoing threat.