Ironik

I made a similar comment in the Booster thread a couple weeks ago. I was actually a little bit more insistent by saying something along the lines of, "Why not put in a free costume for everyone you sell?"

Here's hoping all of David's questions over the past months means they are going to shut us all up with a whole slew of cool costumes, like a massive free bunch of Steampunk pieces. I rather doubt that will happen, though. I'd bet money it's going to be a Booster.

At least the schadenfreude will keep you warm.

Although they won't get the message, studio executives should take away from the failure of Sucker Punch and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World the moral of "don't spend lavishly on geek films with narrow appeal." With a side helping of "a decent story wouldn't kill you."

None at all. Although it is an awesomely fun film, the best action film of last year.

Mirren's been in a lot of Fantasy films, so she's good. Hamlet, Tempest, Midsummer Night's, Excalibur... plus sci-fi like 2010 and Hitchhiker's.

I think I found a guy, though: Clark Gable. No sci-fi or Fantasy that I can tell.

Not so, actually. The first comic books appeared in the early 1930s and were merely reprints of the newspaper comic strips -- hence the name "comic book". Superman debuted a couple years later and superheroes took over as hundreds of costumed characters were created to ride along on the phenomenon's coattails... or cape, rather. Back in the day, Superman fever (Supermania, if you will) was bigger than Elvis or the Beatles. The year after he debuted they had an official Superman Day at the World's Fair.

It wasn't until the 1950s that horror comics started to become en vogue. That's one of the things that kicked off the comic book witch hunt.

Sinestro... Atrocitus... man, alien parents are clueless. Those kids never had a chance to be heroes.

Daemodand is making a pun using your screen name with this bit from Babe: Baa Ram Ewe!

I don't recall, but they aren't all sunshine and rainbows, that's for sure. Not that many of the group homes are much better. A lot of abuse goes on there. Fortunately my cousin -- who is severely retarded (or developmentally challenged as it were) -- was able to get into a wonderful group home that is run by people I consider living saints. It's amazing the care they lavish on their charges. They get paid by the state to take care of their charges, but that's not why they do it. It's a thankless, 24/7 job and they aren't paid nearly enough for what they do for these people. He's in his mid 60s now and his childhood was simply horrific. But even though he's blind and essentially incommunicado, they take him out for ice cream and to the park, both things he clearly loves doing. Somewhere in there he knows, and he knows that he is loved. That never would've happened 50 years ago in an institution.

I can't stress this enough: read everything in the tutorial about powers and stuff. Then read what the trainers say to you. It's all good info. You won't get it all right away, but when it clicks you'll understand what they mean. When you do your next character (or your 300th like me) then, it'll feel perfectly natural.

Hence his ironic tirade.

I'd like a Speedster melee set. What would be cool is we could also get a regular-speed melee set based on the same powers and finally get our Street Fighter/Bar Brawler AT.

I can actually hear the jackhammer fist blows of a speedster in my head with mutliple superfast hits followed by a finisher: brrumbrrumbrrumbrrumbrrumbrrum-Kapow!

You've drunk the Kool-Aid and joined the Dark Side, becoming a naughty, naughty power ho interested in only plowing through things fast and dirty.

What are you doing tonight?

This is true. British actors treat the acting as a job for the most part, whereas American actors are often caught up in the celebrity of it, ever since the star system began in Hollywood's earliest days.

Also, science fiction in Britain was always less ghettoized than it was in the US. People like Arthur C. Clarke had much higher profiles and received greater respect there and Doctor Who was embraced, as opposed to America where shows like Star Trek had to struggle to stay on the air. Fantasy has always been huge there because of Shakespeare's plays, a few of which are Fantasy: A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, Hamlet, Macbeth, Richard III, etc.

Alec Guinness was in science fiction long ago when he starred in The Man in the White Suit. That outfit is every bit as science fictional a creation as the Enterprise, a Dalek, the Red October or Gort. It's not flashy, but it's still SF.

In the US, Science Fiction especially was looked down on as not being serious, or being less than literate. Which was true in a number of cases. America doesn't have the tradition of truly literate science fiction the way Britain does. With the special exception of Verne in France, practically all of the earliest science fiction is British: Frankenstein, Brave New World, everything by H.G. Wells, Olaf Stapledon, and so on. Whereas in America we were all about the Fantasy: Baum's Oz books, Twain's Connecticut Yankee, Poe and Hawthorne's horror stories. The only real exception to this rule was Bellamy's science fiction novel Looking Backward, a huge bestseller, but for whatever reason there were no successful follow-ups in the US. Most of the sci-fi that followed in America was lightweight adventure stuff: Burrough's Barsoom books, Buck Rogers, E.E. Smith's Lensmen, and so on.

It's kind of the way TV used to be perceived by movie stars: just something beneath them. there was the occasional good show, but overall it was pretty sad stuff. Over the past couple of decades, though, TV has been a launching point for movie stars and they often come back to it because some of the best entertainment is there, now. I think that's what's happening with SF and Fantasy these days: it's the dominant genre the way Westerns used to be the driving force in film and television.

Most of those spy films are sci-fi. And often with the pejorative version of that word, too. All of the Bond films are science fiction to some degree. Some outrageously so, such as Connery being strapped to a table with a giant laser about to slice in in half and some less so like For Your Eyes Only. The Mission: Impossible movies continue that sort of tradition using day-after-tomorrow technology.

Contrast with the Jason Bourne films which, while not exactly "realistic", don't have any science fictional elements to them.

Well, we're not talking about dumb people who only think that Fantasy means witches and warlocks of one sort or another. There's no question the first three Indy films are Fantasy, while the fourth one is Science Fiction. I mean, box that melts people, guy who pulls people's hearts from their chests without cutting them open and a cup that heals people... that's Fantasy.

Don't bother, it's genuinely terrible. But then it's by J.J. Abrams, so there you go.

Go visit a couple.

There's a reason why "mainstreaming" and "halfway homes" are so popular.

That's called "jumping on the bandwagon." It's just human nature. In this case, though, I'm one of the guys who hammered the wheels onto the wagon.

If someone wants to enjoy Sucker Punch for its mindless spectacle, then that's fine. But that doesn't mean I have to keep quiet about disliking Snyder's other work. That article TG linked to is just mindless crap. No one is trying to put on airs and act all "exclusive" about their geekery and who gets into the club -- what's happening is that geeks are, by and large, smart people and they've seen through the emptiness of Snyder's talent to discover he's a one-trick pony. The writing is on the wall: if as shallow a site as Ain't It Cool News doesn't like you, then you must suck. Because they are the Jackass of film reviewer-dom. Those guys like every stupid thing that comes along as long as it looks cool and has geek cred, yet they don't like it. I believe it's because they've finally had enough of that sort of thing, too, and even Harry is starting to grow up.

No biggie -- the thread title is misleading given the conversation. My bad.

Probably.

I think for the past couple of years, costume updates have been to the creator itself and to improvements of existing pieces. Let's look through Paragon Wiki:

Issue 19 had two new auras, fireflies and snowflakes. These were pretty clearly given out only because they were accidentally leaked before the Origins Booster debuted.

Issue 18 had a new option added to auras: Combat Only. Everything else was part of Going Rogue.

Issue 17 didn't have any new costumes, but had improvements on existing pieces due to Ultra Mode. Also: animated tails. Those were big for me.

Issue 16 was power customization. I consider this to be the last major free addition. I think everyone will admit that single addition was pretty awesome. It was released 9-15-09, so about a year-and-a-half ago.

Strictly speaking, Issue 15 was the last issue to have free costume bits: Vines and Ulterior. I consider 16 to be the last one, though, because of power customization.

Issue 14 had Valkyrie swords added to Dual Swords and buttcapes for Widows. That's a pretty limited addition, I'd say.

Issue 13 was when Shields were introduced, so those were all new. Also Day Jobs. Even though the wiki doesn't say this, weren't there a whole bunch of "civilian" and "official" bits added? (Like the police belt and various jackets?)

Yeah, those came with GR, so not free.

David's a Stalker, you know. "Placate successful."

Depends on what you want to be. If you don't have Going Rogue, then certain archetypes (ATs for short) start in one side or the other. Just pick one that sounds like something you'd like to play.

Generally speaking, a Scrapper with Willpower as the secondary will be the easiest to play in City of Heroes (what is known as blueside) and almost all the Brutes are the easiest to play on redside (City of Villains). They each have pretty good damage and decent defenses, so are good starter sets for new players. Have fun! Ask questions!

We're talking about big stars who ARE NOT in SF/F movies. Trying to find one.