The Magic Sword FT...well, ok, not 'win,' exactly, but I was glad they reprinted that one. Bert I. Gordon/Basil Rathbone fantasy horriblawesomeness!

Ummm, grey gargoyle can turn motherfuckers to *stone* that's actually a really fucking scary power.

@thekeith82: Him and Black Talon were part of a pretty racially questionable team (led by a white supremacist Grim Reaper (!?)) in a west coast avengers arc in the early 80s. Mostly, tho, he's been a Black Panther villain.

@Kenro199x: He was ok (just ok) in the Priest Black Panther reboot a few years back...

I knew without looking that B would be for Batroc.

@GiR: Yeah, when properly handled Vulture showed how bad ass the 'boring' power of being able to fly could make a guy (much the same as X-Men's Angel, when he's properly done). There was a great arc in early 80s issues of Web of Spiderman where old-ass Adrian Toomes takes down some young whippersnapper villains…

@Sabithomega: Huh! I *love* Hamil's version, but Curry would have been even better...

Maybe the coolest thing I've ever seen on io9! Along w/ everyone else, I'd kill to see that version of the Matrix. The Clint as Roland and Wolverine is less clever, since King was clearly influenced by the Man With No Name figure for the books, and later versions of Wolvie also drew on Clint.

Wow — I had no idea Sayles (who rules) had this history. I thought "Brother..." was his one foray into genre. Awesome.

@theblazeuk: Not so much 'major breaks' — GRRM knows his stuff re: feudalism. So I don't mean he's 'failing' at what he's doing. But he's also a guy w/ lots of Hollywood experience, who understands that modern novels have to walk a line between fidelity and accessibility. Quickly, tho: even with The Seven and the…

Acid also improves one's chances of pitching a no-hitter:

ASoIaF has always been more about antiromanticism and grit than 'realism' per se — which is not a bad thing. Certainly the series is more 'realistic' than, say, Tolkien. But it's still a series of fantasy novels. Unfiltered reality makes for boring novels. I think most people who think of the series as straight-up…

These are so awesome they make me cry.

I'm also curious if this will be archived 'dead' somewhere/when. As a fantasy writer and former restoration/18th c lit grad student, this is SO up my alley — but I'll be away from a computer at showtime. :(

Hunh. I've read Moore's Jirel of Joiry stuff — one of the first female sword and sorcery heroes — but never heard of Northwest Smith. Will have to check that out.

@D Israel: I guess that's supposed to be a dig at Al Jazeera? Because, you know, a news network operated by a government that's housing another government's nuclear warheads is totally trustworthy, but a network run by Ay-rabs must be full of LIES DAMN LIES! Would you be griping if NBC were on this list? Probably…

If by 'the next smallville' we mean 'teenybopper supers show' than ythe above all work well. But if we mean 'quality 'realistic' tv show based on a comic' I'd love to see a gritty, Longbow Hunters-style Green Arrow show. It's be a sort of vigilante procedural w/ middle aged Ollie Queen using very few trick arrows,…

@Brett Ryans: The Daredevil idea — making it a law drama hybrid — is great.

@Faustroll: I would like to see this more as a movie — with a retro 70s blaxpolitation/Bruceploitation kung fu/funk vibe.

@comrade_leviathan: @Captain_Tripps: @lightninglouie: Yes, my outrage. let me show you it. Because, you know, by saying a movie sucks on i09, I'm really saying that everyone who 'dares' to like it should be dragged out into the street and shot...