Because knowledge is EVIL. Plus, if their plans fall apart, they can always fall back to academia. Wicked nice tenure bennies.

I, for one, am prepared for Professor Calamity, from Velarus. He wears a purple cape and wears armor made from a durable but light-weight synthetic stone.

Just like that, my children's book homepage, gone

Well, Cap is supposed to be relatable by design. He's just Joe Schmuck until Dr. Stanley Tucci juices him. And even then, he's just stronger than your average bear with a bulletproof shield and a very, very keen understanding of physics and geometry.

He was there to receive the Medal of Perpetual Nebbish

Agreed on the first bit. Their war on copyrights has extra-disturbing implications for all the IP those bastards are buying up

Hot-ish take: By not having heavy hitters like the X-Men (or mutants in general), the Fantastic Four and Dr. Doom, maybe it forced Marvel/Disney to start with more grounded heroes, forcing them to create relatable narratives and recognizably human heroes (Iron Man, specifically) that live in a world without magic.…

Damn it she has gloomy tits!

As my friend Black Bolt used to say, "."

Hahaha, that is extremely fair. Either way, I unabashedly love Yiddish Policeman's Union. Hands down my favorite of Chabon's novels

You beat me to the "Harry's Law" punch, Dave

Nope, you didn't. And no, I'm not. But the key here is context, as laid out in a later post: I was discussing the people in my MFA cohort, my friends with an interest in literature and a number of people I've met that can get fairly pretentious about books. (Elements of the Chicago literary scene can be surprisingly…

No, no, I read that. And to your indirect point, you're right: I was asking the wrong question. Or rather, I shouldn't have asked a question at all. If you're going to critique, the worst thing you can do is impose your ideas on what works on that of the creator. Some of the weakest film criticism comes from that…

But baaaaaaaconnnnnnnnnn, whined every hipster with bacon-patterned lampshades, shower curtains and bacon-scented soap

Right, and what I'm saying is that all Sylvester would have to do is go to anyone higher up and say, "Uh, hey, Felix just made Maeve wicked smart and she's threatening us." From Sylvester's perspective, threat neutralized, no?

In that case, wouldn't his shortcut be Felix?

I believe a female sheeple is a sheeple. And…I'll see myself out.

I see. Even if she got immediately murdered and decommissioned (which, again, she'd almost have to) it would still mean his ass. That makes more sense…and, if he's a coward (which it's been established he is) he wouldn't have the courage to either confess and rat her out or call her bluff. It still seems flimsy, but I…

I'm still not totally sold on the "Sylvester's afraid of blackmail!" angle. I buy completely that Felix, despite his better instincts, wanting to see where all this is headed. But why would Sylvester be afraid of being blackmailed by a malfunctioning robot? Who could she tell without being immediately killed?

So many layers to unpack