Dominic wrote:Dom
-and hey, who wants to talk about where the Hulk's mass comes from?
Oh, wait, I've got this! Cell division! You see, Banner's unique metabolism processes his uniquely gamma-radiated nervous chemicals dictating anger, resulting in his glands supercharging his body's growth functions to rapidly divide and add to his body mass based on how hot those chemicals are flowing. Yup, that radiation effectively gave the Hulk body-altering cancer that flares up and recedes with the mental imbalances his rage produces!
That's actually pretty much how they explain the Hulk's transformation in 'Iron Man Armored Adventures'. Banner says in one of the episodes the gamma radiation in his cells causes them to replicate and expand when he gets angry or stressed.
But, where does the *mass* for that cellular division come from? (The old MU Handbooks uses to handwave it as being from "an other dimensional source".) Any cell that divides, be it a single celled organism or a component of a larger thing, needs mass and energy to duplicate itself and grow.
If a cell divides in to two smaller copies, each 50% the size of the original, the two copies will still need mass to grow. So, a single banner cell would still have to double its mass to become 2 Hulk cells if the Hulk is twice as big as Banner. Cells normally get mass from external food sources. Banner would have to *eat* in order to sustain the change in to the Hulk, unless we assume that the Hulk is on something like "gas". And, expension without additional mass would increase the Hulk's fragility, undermining his strength and resilience. (This is similar to the discussions about size-changing TFs back in the day before stupid-space become officialized.)
My main point here is that Superman is not the only character with a *really* problematic (or simply ill-defined) power set. As stated above, the editorial standards for Golden and Silver Age comics were much lower than they are now, leaving us with grand-fathered characters that are just assumed to "work" because they always did....or something.
Dom
-notes the irony of the Sentry being better defined that Superman in some ways.
Best guess, Banner's cells somehow can metabolize the gamma radiation in his system in order to replicate for the transformation. Energy to mass conversion and back again when he returns to his Banner form.
Dominic wrote:If a cell divides in to two smaller copies, each 50% the size of the original, the two copies will still need mass to grow. So, a single banner cell would still have to double its mass to become 2 Hulk cells if the Hulk is twice as big as Banner. Cells normally get mass from external food sources. Banner would have to *eat* in order to sustain the change in to the Hulk, unless we assume that the Hulk is on something like "gas". And, expension without additional mass would increase the Hulk's fragility, undermining his strength and resilience. (This is similar to the discussions about size-changing TFs back in the day before stupid-space become officialized.)
Who's to say Banner *isn't* stuffing his face full of food off-camera to fuel his transformations? It seems like the few Hulk stories I've encountered always begin with him having stopped at a roadside diner or something, so.
Alternatively: EXTRY EXTRY, READ ALL ABOUT IT! COMIC BOOKS AREN'T REALISTIC!
Matter to energy conversion makes as much sense as "draws mass from dimension-X" or "always eating huge amounts of food off-panel" or Superman's retro-active psionics or.....
Bottom line, all of those explanations are back written to solve problems causes by sloppy writing and editing in the Silver/Golden age of comics.
And, hey, comics:
Rage of the Dinobots: Skipped it. I am actively trying to prune my pull-file at the moment. I might pick up the compilation later. I dunno.
My Little Pony: Skipped it. See above.
And just to answer the inevitable objections: My current pull-file has seven obligatory comics. I want to cut it back to 5 next year. The last thing that I need to be doing is adding an ongoing book or a mini-series that will likely have enough follow-up to effectively become an ongoing book. I have been dropping, or avoiding, books that I might otherwise be reading over the last few months. (And, as it is, I am currently reading *3* TF books at the moment, so "Rage of the Dinobots" has yet another strike against it.)
Cobra #19:
Costa's update of the October Guard continues. Daina's origin runs the risk of being quickly dated, referencing the '98 Olympics in Japan. Costa looks to be setting up for a story about loyalty and principle, as much is made of Bludd's motives and one of the Guard is matter of factly (if wrongly) described as a mercenary in flash-back. There is also a scene addressing the down side to operating outside of the law. For all of the freedom that extra-legal activities imply, being outside the law limits options for dealing with problems legitimately and bloodlessly.
Grade: A/B
Iron Man The Rapture:
Apparently, "Marvel Knights" imprint books do not take place in regular 616 Marvel. While I am not against comics being outside of the regular setting, there is no reason for those comics to be as predictable as this one. The high concept was sound. Tony Stark's attempts to upgrade himself go badly, and he inadvertently creates a new Tony Stark, "Stark 2.0". Unfortunately, Alex Irvine wrote this by the numbers. There is a blunt-force reference to Prometheus (that is actually referenced as being obvious by the characters, which is a pretty good indicator of how obvious it was). There are a few characters who show up just to die in a predictable demonstration of how real the threat is. (Oh, but Pepper Potts and Jim Rhodes come though it okay.) "Everybody dies except for the named/established characters" is less than a cliche. But, it is (if only partially) forgivable in an ongoing comic where established characters generally cannot be killed off. But, in a comic that is not intended to be reconciled with any other series, there is no reason for basic plot points to be so obviously predictable. I have seen action movies with more well-thought out plots. And, Irvine did not even manage to do anything truly great wth the high concept.
Grade: C/D
Dom
-considered putting "The Rapture" in the retro thread, but figured that it really does not matter.
Dominic wrote:Matter to energy conversion makes as much sense as "draws mass from dimension-X" or "always eating huge amounts of food off-panel" or Superman's retro-active psionics or.....
I'd say it makes more sense than anything else. The gamma radiation attributes itself to Banner's transformation to the Hulk being the thing that triggered his ability to change into the Hulk in the first place. It makes sense therefore that his body would utilize it in some way to make the transformation so instantaneous between his Banner and Hulk forms.
Bottom line, all of those explanations are back written to solve problems causes by sloppy writing and editing in the Silver/Golden age of comics.
I wouldn't call it sloppy writing/editing in the least. Figuring out how exactly the super powers might work in the real world for the Silver/Golden age was not important to the story. Frankly, I'd say it still doesn't really matter because it's about these characters doing what they do, not how exactly they're able do it. And when it comes to applying real world explanations for super powers that couldn't exist in the real world like they do in the comics... of course you're going to run into problems. It's no wonder that most creators try to stay away from that rather than opening a can of worms just to try explaining it.
More like, "don't expect things to work in comics like they do in the real world for obvious reasons".
Anyway, time to catch up on some comics...
Green Lantern #14
The Justice League clearly doesn't trust Simon but they're willing to hear him out as long as he takes off his ring. Of course he can't take it off and when a construct Sinestro programmed in to prevent anyone else from taking it off only makes things worst, starting a case scene. So he decides if he wants to clear his name he'll have to do it himself by finding the guy that actually planted the bomb in the van he stole. Honestly, I'm more curious to see what will happen to Black Hand, Hal and Sinestro here. I don't see why they felt the need to introduce a new Green Lantern character with this story.
Green Lantern Corps #14
And so the Guardians set in motion their plan to bring down Guy. He manages to get away from the Third Army but the other Lanterns are converted into more of them (after they tear off their ring arms) and the Guardians have manipulated things so that it looks really bad for Guy having failed his mission and gotten his whole team killed. So the Guardians ask him to resign. Meanwhile, Fatality tracks down John. Given the Guardians alliance with the Zamaron's, my guess is they're going to be pitting them against one another, especially with their history. And both Kilowog and Salaak are slowly becoming aware of the Guardians being up to something, discovering that rings are not going out and seeking new recruits and the Guardians knew John was innocent of murdering Lantern Kirrt having and caused the whole situation with the Alpha Lanterns in the last story arc. Not sure why the Guardians didn't think these two might figure things out considering how close to the inner workings of the Corps they are. It's good to see the Guardians are underestimating the Corps by only focusing on the Earth Lanterns as a threat.
Green Lantern: New Guardians #14
Kyle continues his training having apparently mastered Indigo with Indigo-1 off panel and then moves on to learn Yellow. When Kyle find Arkillo he decides to help him with his defective ring first. I'm not sure why Kyle believes the reason Arkillo's ring doesn't work is all in his head. The Weaponer said, a couple times, that he had to rush making that ring so it wouldn't work properly. I suppose that could have been a lie but I don't really see why the Weaponer would want him to think it was a defective ring. Also of note in this issue, a Zamaron is Queen of the Star Sapphire's once again when Carol was made Queen just before the new 52 reboot. But that I can easily see as Carol leaving behind the Queen position since she returned to Earth and didn't have much interest being a Star Sapphire until Hal was in trouble... again.
At any rate, while I really like this idea of Kyle training to learn to control the entire Spectrum, I feel like it's moving too quickly. Two issues in and he already knows all but Orange and Violet. He barely learns to use one of the colors and then he's off to the next. I know it's probably so that they can have him know them all by the climax of the Third Army storyline but I'd have preferred to see little more time and struggle that Kyle has to put into learning how to control the other colors, especially when his experience as a Green Lantern has taught him to overcome Fear in-particular.
Red Lanterns #13 and #14
The Red Lantern's battery is still weakened from the last story arc, so currently they cannot recruit new members either. And they have their first encounter with the Third Army as well. Mostly these two issues just set things up. Atroctius figures out whose behind the Third Army... Finds out what they are capable of... Decides they need a synthetic army (the Manhunters) to fight them. Atrocitus also decides Rankorr needs to face his Rage with the man that killed his grandfather to become a better Red Lantern. I kinda feel like he's already done that, even though Guy stopped him from killing him before.
Sparky Prime wrote:Honestly, I'm more curious to see what will happen to Black Hand, Hal and Sinestro here. I don't see why they felt the need to introduce a new Green Lantern character with this story.
To prove that they aren't racists. By...introducing one of the most hilariously stereotyped Muslim characters they could've come up with. Hey, I didn't say I understood it either.
Also of note in this issue, a Zamaron is Queen of the Star Sapphire's once again when Carol was made Queen just before the new 52 reboot. But that I can easily see as Carol leaving behind the Queen position since she returned to Earth and didn't have much interest being a Star Sapphire until Hal was in trouble... again.
Or, y'know, the whole dang universe was rebooted and this is effectively a completely different continuity from the one we had before. There's no reason to come up with an explanation for why a different chick is queen of the Yandere Lanterns when the whole point was that nothing before the reboot counted anymore unless very explicitly stated.
At any rate, while I really like this idea of Kyle training to learn to control the entire Spectrum, I feel like it's moving too quickly. Two issues in and he already knows all but Orange and Violet. He barely learns to use one of the colors and then he's off to the next. I know it's probably so that they can have him know them all by the climax of the Third Army storyline but I'd have preferred to see little more time and struggle that Kyle has to put into learning how to control the other colors, especially when his experience as a Green Lantern has taught him to overcome Fear in-particular.
Man, if you'd ever watched any shounen fighting anime, you'd know that training arcs need to be as short and economical as possible. We do not need to draw out a long story about how Kyle HAS TO GET STROOOOOONGEEEEEEER!!
