“The tiny running person is Clint, I think, by sheer virtue of carrying a long stck thing that looks like it might be a bow.”

Yup. Part of the logic of ISIS is that stirring up western hatred of Muslims is a recruiting tool. They need to convince Muslims that the western world is against them and their only hope is to join the caliphate. So when a half dozen guys with AKs and shotguns piss off a western country enough to get stepped-up…

Two thoughts on HydraRos

I do not normally bother with fancasting, but on reading the news, my mind immediately plugged Alan Tudyk into this. Perhaps to give him material for Con Man season 2, when this doesn’t make it past a fifth episode.

I’m not a comic book reader, so when the discussion goes to SWORD, I’m out of my depth. From what I’ve heard, it makes some sense, but the question of how the monolith wound up in Fury’s possession (or if there is more than one) will have to be resolved on the show because I have no idea.

Well, at the moment Fitz pulled her out, she’d been running from a death monster thing that could see human thoughts and change form, she’d just heard a gunshot and called to will and gotten no answer...yeah, she’d be a little shaken up.

I can’t take credit for this observation - it came up on the SHIELD subreddit - but the biggest connection of all came up a few episodes ago, and telegraphs where part of this season is going.

Yes, as I said, there is some disagreement over the theory. The point, though, is that any nuclear exchange between the US and Russia is unlikely to be that small, especially given that most weapons the two hold are thermonuclear now. There’s a very real risk that even a medium-scale nuclear exchange could cause…

Yes, I am quite worried about that. Strayed’s writing is amazing, Dear Sugar is the best of it, and some of those columns are among the most powerful things ever done with words. But they’re not fiction or easily adaptable to fiction, and I worry that sharing a title between the book and a tv show will ultimately just…

Dear Sugar is still the best thing she’s ever done, and one of the best things anyone has ever done with words. One column in particular explained my divorce to me in a way my ex-wife never could (http://therumpus.net/2011/06/dear-s… for the curious, and years later I did show it to my ex and she cried and confirmed…

It would take surprisingly few nuclear explosions to end all life on Earth. The issue is not the destruction caused by the bombs themselves, or even the fallout. It’s what’s known as “nuclear winter theory” - the idea that the firestorms resulting from the bombs would kick up enough soot to change the climate and…

The ultimate proof that they’re comic book movies — they’ve got a fandom that will correct writers’ mistakes about them on the Internet. (I’m not mocking you - I was going to correct him before I saw that you had).

That’s smart. I could see her nailing the sarcastic humor easily. I’d love that film.

I made this point elsewhere, too, but I’ll add it here — for scientific realism, The Martian should have been genderswapped. At some point, NASA is going to have to realize that women have lower caloric needs than men, and small women have the lowest caloric needs of anyone. In deep space travel where weight is…

I’m stealing this point from a previous io9 article. I think it was Charlie Jane’s but I’m on a sketchy mobile connection and not able to look it up —

Fair enough. I’m not claiming to have all the answers, I’m just saying that I see Marvel backing away from the same thing over and over again on film these days. It’s a pattern the media doesn’t seem to have picked up on yet, but I’m pretty convinced that, behind closed doors, Marvel is very nervous about backlash…

This is pure speculation and I have no sources, but it’s always seemed to me that Marvel really struggles with how to adapt all of its properties and characters that have an Asian aspect to them. They were created in a less politically correct time, and reek of orientalism and mystifying the other. Iron Fist is yet…

So The Incredibles 2, at this point, is going to be about middle-aged Violet and Dash looking for a nursing home that can contain their parents?

And, apparently, for fabrics that defy the laws of physics. I’m pretty sure that whatever is going on there isn’t actually possible with flesh and fabric. It looks alarming. Mesmerizing in a bad way.

And now I feel stupid for posting a couple of replies that relied on book details. Sorry.