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Marvel Universe Is Almost Like *Real Life* Society
TheMatt writes "Scientists at the University of the Balearic Isles have analyzed the Marvel Universe and found that it is almost
like real society. The team studied the statistical properties of each character, the books they were in, and who else appeared in them (through resources like the MCP).
While there were some similarities to real society, a close look revealed the artificiality. For example, the MU isn't very clustered, only 1.5x that of a random network; real life is about 10x more clustered. Of course, the realities of comics (the business) are why this occurs. Also, they found the most networked of all Marvel heroes was Steve Rogers, Captain America himself."
so does that mean that the X-Men are like dot-com geeks? (powerful yet hated)
Why people are examining clusters in comics I don't know. Are they beowulf clusters of Marvel Superheroes? Or just load-sharing clusters of Marvel Superheroes?
Best Slashdot Co
Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson know this first hand. They should have asked them for some research material.
Now this is the kind of science that I can enjoy, especially after Book Reviews: The Skeptical Environmentalist
The only thing that we learn from history is that nobody learns anything from history.
While there were some similarities to real society, a close look revealed the artificiality
I'm wondering just how much exactly they spent on this study just to find out that comic books are in fact based on real society? I think the only reason this would even be important to the slashdot community is to see how foolishly Universities spend their money. I could have told them that comic books contain artificial societies for only $100 probably saving them thousands...
Any Universities needing useless information about comic books should make thier checks payable to aardWolf64, care of...
would someone please explain what the hell this write up means to me. it appears something to do with comics, which i don't read. any info appreciated. thx.
Geeks United concluded "Slashdot Is Almost Like *Real Life* Society" with hot grits, Natalie Portman dreams, Beowulf clusters and no women...
---"What did I say that sounded like 'Tell me about your day?'"---
Where can I get one? :)
-GReg
Breakfast served all day!
What the hell happened to the Silver Surfer? ATTITUDE! The d00d had mucho attitude and attitude is what it's all aboot.
heuristic algorithm seeks stochastic relationship
Also, they found the most networked of all Marvel heroes was Steve Rogers, Captain America himself.
Unfortunately, this research was responsible for the incredibly boring "Apocalypse Protection" series, when Captain America just tried to sell insurance to other superheroes for like 10 straight issues.
they looked at 11k comic books, and noted which characters apeared in each book. They then came to the conclusion, that comic books do not folow the same rules as real life. Their research also showed, that there was a corelation between the size of the group, and the chance of a specific character showing up.
------ Work is so much easier when you don't
What is the Marvel Universe supposed to be?
:)
- Remember: there is no stupid question
Life sucks.
Now, if you will excuse me, I must go irradiate a spider and coax it to bite me.
Hi, I'm b0r0din and I'm flamebait. Even though I tell scientists what they should be doing, I'm clearly not one, because the majority of them know how to spell. Yes, even the word masturbate.
Please subscribe to see the more insightful version of th
The book, "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference" has a couple of pages about networking. It mentions that a study was done to determine the connectedness of random people. It determined that random people can be connected within 6 links. Thus, 6 degress of separation.
The Kevin Bacon stuff is just a game based upon the same principle. I don't remember his score exactly, but in Hollywood circles Kevin is like 665th on the list of connectors. He can be connected to other people in Hollywood within 4.x people. The most connected person is Rod Steiger, who can be connected in 2.1x.
Perhaps you should rethink yourself. How many superheros do you know that have even come down with a cold? Methinks we should disect superman next.
I smell the smell of an IgNobel prize in the air.
I'm awaiting the debut of Marvel's newest hero, Super Tux, the bionic penguin with the bone crushing beak of steel.
Wonder Woman is from DC, not Marvel.
... well you get the idea
Appropriate subhects for the activity you mention would be Psylocke, She-Hulk, Spider-Woman, Mary Jane Parker,
Oh great, another of my dork hobbies goes legit!
"Lady, I'm not 'wasting time and money on funny books,' I'm conducting an analysis of social interaction through the medium of networked vigilantism. Now pass that new issue of X-Force and refresh my strawberry sprite."
Hey freaks: now you're ju
All I see is that some bastards are paid to read tons of comics and do resume about them, which, to be scrupulously accurate, needs to be cross-checkes... by reading the comics again.
Bastards
"The obvious mathematical breakthrough would be development of an easy way to factor large prime numbers." Bill Gates,
Maybe I don't quite understand the research, but it doesn't seem that surprising that the Marvel Universe does not follow real-world clustering patterns: many of the characters have dual identities, which I would think throw off the usual associative relationship of friends.
As an example, consider this scenario:
Jane Goodcitizen is friends with Peter Parker.
Spiderman is friends with Captain America.(?-don't know, but let's just say)
In the real world, there would be a high correlation of friendship between Jane and Captain America, while the whole secret identity thing puts a monkey-wrench in the comic universe.
The closest real-world model would probably be the network of say traveling salesmen or spies.
Really, has society gotten to the point where life is imitating art? I can see it now:
2036 elections
It has been 8 years since the city of New York has been renamed to Metropolis. The current primary elections for the United States President have been reduced to the following candidates:
Al Gore
Lex Luthor
Stan Lee
Edward Brock
Strom Thurmond
Jeb Bush
Impossible Man
Adam Warlock
Also, they found the most networked of all Marvel heroes was Steve Rogers, Captain America himself
Why not? He was the first major character (March 1941) that put Marvel, then known as Timely Comics on the map. He's simply had more time to network.
Only Human Torch (October 1939) and Sub-Mariner are older.
More info here (Google cache only)
I'm not afraid of falling, it's the sudden stop at the end that frightens me.
Scientists at the University of the Balearic Isles....
- Marvel writers (and writers of other comics, book and television universes) begin clustering their characters more, instead of letting them encounter each other more or less randomly, to increase the subconscious sense of realism.
- Software developers creating "artificial universes" apply the study to increase the clustering, and hence the underlying realism, of their creations -- for instance, Non-Player Characters in EverQuest or The Sims.
- Practical implementation for Marvel: LAY OFF THE CROSSOVERS and let characters who know each other already keep in touch each other instead.
"But Aquaman, you cannot marry a women without gills! You are from two different worlds! ... My life has been wasted".
...worst...study...ever.
Sorry, it had to be said.
I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep Dracula and Superman away.
While the comic book analysis seems useless, the more of our interactions are on-line, the more we can analyze them the same way. How connected are slashdotters compared to kuro5hin users? To WashingtonPost.com readers?
There's a lot to be said for how modern society, and the internet, lead to the fragmentation of society. This methodology of this study could be a way to analyze how those fragments come back together again.
(Also, I think secret identities are part of why the clusers are smaller in the Marvel Universe. Does Aunt May know Captain America? Doubtful.)
Teaching, coding, coffee, revolution.
The entire superhero population of the MU is already blacklisted from all NYC-area companies providing auto insurance, home insurance, and fire insurance, while the life insurance companies are investigating about half of them for fraud in light of their various resurrections.
All I want to know is how to the ambiguous duo fit into all of this? Huh, an you answer me that?
sheesh. Ok, I understand that this is quite nifty and all that. But for the life of me I can't figure out what this has to do with anything.
Seems like a huge waste of .
How the hell do you get funding for something like this? If you know, please tell me, I have an experiment to run to see if beautiful actresses enjoy sleeping with nerds (me). Of course, I would have to recheck my results many, many times.
Sent from your iPad.
A closer look reveals the Marvel Universe's artificiality. For example, social networks have a property called clustering... the Marvel network is only very weakly clustered - about 1.5 times more than a random network.
Another example of the artificiality of the Marvel Universe is that there are a bunch of people with super powers in it, where as in reality, there are realitively few people who can shoot lasers out of there eyes or turn into a gigantic green monster when they are angry.
Don't forget that Friday is Hawaiian shirt day.
The Marvel Universe has a lot more fighting than this universe.
Personally the folks I know that spend too much time in the Marvel Universe don't know enough about the real universe to be able to compare.
Coding Blog
So, is Captain America the Marvel Universe's version of Kevin Bacon? If so, let's play "Six Degrees of Captain America". Here are three inital people: Howard the Duck; ROM, Spaceknight; and any of the Seven Dwarves. I leave the rest to you.
--Chag
Captain America is this totally arrogan, pompus windbag Nationalist. He runs around proclaiming the total good of America and condems every other society he comes across. The can't even get along with Captain Britain for God's Sake! He gets bounced around from book to book simply because he shows up, gets involved, pisses off the other heroes who then quietly ask him to leave before they have to Biach Slap him into unconciousness!
The team studied the statistical properties of each character, the books they were in, and who else appeared in them (through resources like the MCP). While there were some similarities to real society, a close look revealed that comics actually have no similarity to reallife at all.
hehe.. the sentances are so much truer when I finish them.
You read it... how do you fit in given your comment above?
What?
Was that the sound of your fanboy ass being pierced by your awe inspiring intellect and poignant commentary?
You betcha!
...parents spending money to send their kids to the University of the Balearic Isles find that they have wasted their money on their children's tuition and have demanded their money back. Instead of a quality education, students are instead studying subjects like "sociological similarities between the Marvel Universe and Real World Society" and "Practical Limits of Beer Consumption By Humans."
UBI's Dean Pauly Shore was unavailable for comment at this time.
Did they include issue #3 of Transformers?
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
... that the marvel universe parallels real life?
Did they mention the similarities in genetic mutatations?? They have Captain Doom, we have Microsoft.
"It seems," say the researchers, "that Marvel writers did not assign characters to books in the same way as natural interactions would have done it."
Wow. No kidding. What a freakin' revelation.
Do you think it might instead have something to do with sales, or perhaps who had a good idea for a storyline?
IT'S COMICS, PEOPLE! It's not real life. Any attempt to do serious analysis just ruins it for the rest of us. Well, me anyway.
Don't these guys have some social paradigms to overturn? Or maybe some cosmic mystery to unwrangle?!
To celebrate the occasion of my 1000th post, I will post no more forever on Slashdot. Goodbye.
Well, they don't really rank above or below each other, but Trekkies are indeed slightly below comic book fans on the chart.
But, your argument breaks down if we are talking about geeks who read superhero comics. Are we?
Stumbling in the dark
I hear slavering of jaws
Eaten by a grue.
Future news:
Scientists at the University of the Balearic lose funding altogether
Who can say what a real research is before we can find the final product?
Who knows what applications or concepts can be extracted from what a research finds?
Scientists do not research for profit, or for launching things in space or for making the big bucks.
(and yes, it is THAT kind of thinking that got me choosing Physics over engineering, and now working for a call center, eating kraft dinner)
Nouvelles de jeux et technologies en français. TC
TheMatt writes "Scientists at the University of this place you've never heard of have analyzed Slashdot and found that it is almost like real society. The team studied the statistical properties of each user, the stories they posted in, and who else replied to their posts (through resources like the Slashdot archives). While there were some similarities to real society, a close look revealed the artificiality. For example, /. isn't very clustered, only 1.5x that of a random network; real life is about 10x more clustered. Of course, the realities of web boards (the interface) are why this occurs. Also, they found the most networked of all Slashdot users was CowboyNeal, the default poll choice."
main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
Yeah, that's certainly an area of legitimate scientific research, isn't it?
. . . they would have found far fewer crossovers which are often cheap quick cameos meant to get the casual buyer to take a second look and hopefully buy. The bankruptcy probably made Marvel a lot more marketastic. Which is not necesarily good, so we can still go on hating that fat bastard . . . :)
It'd be nice to see their numbers on a timeline to confirm or deny this.
This is almost as good a social commentary as a study on The Simpsons. I believe the book is called "The DO'H of Homer". EXCELLENT reading. What's even more amazing is that there is all of this philosophical depth and yet none of it was planned. There are some excerpts that you can read on Amazon.com so you should check it out.
Scientists at the University of the Balearic Isles have analyzed the Marvel Universe and found that it is almost like real society.
Imagine that.. humans living in real society have created fiction that is almost like... real society! Simply amazing! Good thing those research dollars are still being put to good use now that we've got the environment all figured out. So uh.. who gets the patent?
I always thought Rick Jones was the most connected person in the Marvel Universe. Captain America sidekick; involved in the creation of the Hulk, and Hulk sidekick; Marvell tie-ins; ROM sidekick, and didn't he work with Dazzler a bit in her performer days?
"Ricardo Alberich and co-workers at the University of the Balearic Isles in Spain, are tracing the evolution of the Marvel Universe in detail. "
This is the equivalent of trying to find a deep, moral, reality based meaning out of the crap stuck on a canvas thrown onto it randomly by one of them artistic monkeys.
------------- I didn't know she was your sister I swear!
But since superheroes fight supervillans, and since when there's a fight going on, someone would be alerted to show up and help, isn't this unfairly skewed? After all, how many books in the Marvel Universe are made about average citizens? JIM SMITH: GROCER FOR HIRE, or MAXINE CARROLL: OFFICE ASSISTANT.
"Defenestration" is to throw out of a window; what's a word for throwing 'Windows' out of something?
hehe...oops, I've wet myself
-- www.globaltics.net
Political discussion for a new world
I wonder if he is upset that he couldn't do the write up on this first.
I wonder if he is upset he didn't get the grant money to do the survey.
Definitely a top candidate for an IgNobel award!
You know, this sounds way too familiar to my own life. Get up, slay horrible creatures that live on the computer (or in the bathroom, whichever decide to attack first) then return to a life of seeming normality. *shudders* Either the comics are related to us, or we are related to the comics... and the sad thing is, it wouldn't surprise me if some of these comics are older than us /.'ers.
We must have been born a sketch then blown up like balloons and forced to roam the planet and get eaten by things that crawl under the bed.
Or maybe we just want to hide from our own realities so we emulate those from the comic books so that the real world ends up resembling the comic world.
-- RJ
My evil minions will be dispatched immediately.
BTW, for those wondering, the Spiderman bit in the headline of the NSU story: Reality Check foils Spider-Man, I think refers to a previous reporting of this study which labeled Spider-man as most connected.
At least, I think it does.
Fortran programmer...oh yeah. Array math for life!
example
study on marvel universe
study on EQ
But as you might expect, Slashdot has improved over society. Here you can always tell who loves or hates you, and you are reminded whom you love or hate. You can even ignore your enemies by assigning them a negative comment bonus. Just think of how convenient the world would be with those signals visible!
sulli
RTFJ.
Punisher has much more attitude than Silver Surfer.
Marketing--If a comic company funded the reasearch, it would be usefull to them
determin how close an artificial universe, created without much plan(if any), will be similiar to real society. May give insight to the way we think.
This is data, a rel thinker would find a way to put it to use, instead of just knee-jerk poopooing it.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Not the entire superhero population is blacklisted. I happen to know that AquaMan has plenty of flood insurance.
So long and thanks for all the fish . . . !!!
Hold onto your hats, true believers! By strange coincidence, I read the latest (I think it's still the latest...) issue of Captain America. Captain America was (apparently) killed by a group of Doomsday Terrorists. They didn't find his body, but from what I hear the Captain's popularity has been flagging a bit for awhile, and this might really be the end of him.
-- dR.fuZZo
Geekier than thou.
Okay, I know I'm sheltered, but after looking at the chart, I have to ask what the hell a 'furry' is?
I know I have to elbow my way through beautiful women with enormous, gravity-defying breasts clad only in miniscule, skin-tight leather outfits every day. But, maybe that sort of thing is confined to Indianapolis.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
The Surfer is about to take over the world, along with the other primary members of the Defenders (Hulk, Namor, Dr. Strange). (They've decided that if they're going to be forced into the duty of protecting the Earth (due to a curse they're under), that taking over will let them perform that duty more efficiently and with the least impact on their lives.) Look for the miniseries "The Order".
Mashed potatoes can be your friends!
IOW, smart cats, dogs, bears, etc. that take on human roles. In some cases, the "species" mix and in others, the animals hve replaced humans. Ever played Star Fox? Kinda like that...
And, much like tentacle pr0n, there's a subgenre of furry-on-furry and furry-on-human sex...Interesting...
GTRacer
- Would be a felinoid (probably)
Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
The Tick had a hell of a cold once that I remember.
Jaysyn
There is a war going on for your mind.
And let me tell you, I never had any assigment that was remotely similar to this one. There wasn't a single comic-book in the library, even!
Of course, I never got into the reserved-for-teachers part of the library. But I always assumed they just kept there all the copies of "The Art Of Programming" marked as "Unavailable to students", not comic books.
If I have posted far, it is because I replied to the messages of giants.
If I have posted far, it is because I replied to giants.
Wasn't there an issue of the Incredible Hulk where a group of evil scientists released a swarm of radioactive mutant insects on the unsuspecting humans?
Wow, they're right! The similarities are uncanny.
Uhoh...
/bin/laden) by randomly snatching a person, and six specific contacts (since it might be likely that Joe Blow knows a guy, who knows a guy, who knows a guy, who knows a guy, who knows a guy, who knows a guy who knows where they are.
Well, with all this thought about the whole six degrees thing.
I'm just afraid that someone in the US's SSSSq Agency (Super Secret Secret Squirrels of course) will realize they have a good chance of finding that some hidden terrorist types (cat
Why... The implications of this amazing research to national defense are amazing.
It's a good thing that affirming our consequents is a common practice now-days (psst... If (all persons in the world are "connected" via a small number of links) then (randomly picking a person and starting from there is a good way to "connect" to someone specific). (randomly picking a person and starting from there is--sometimes--a good way to "connect" to someone specific). Therefore (all persons in the world are "connected" via a small number of links).
Mmmmm fuzzy logic.
Having been born there but not back in a decade +, maybe it's time I go back home and start some elbowing of mine own...
*delicious grin*
I personally think all women should look and dress this way!
LOL
Since Aquaman is from DC, that would make you nonsense,..or does it just make me wierd for knowing that....
*sigh*
Why people are examining clusters in comics I don't know.
Forget /., this was in nature! The same magazine that just about all scientists want to have their latest work published in.
Clustering is important to scientists though, (clustering of galaxies gives clues about the Big Bang), and networks for anyone who uses one ;-) so I guess it struck a chord.
If we were ants living on a Rubik's cube, differential geometry would be a little more confusing.
Who pays for this kind of research?
Now let's see. Shall we apply for a grant for curing mental diseases, or shall we examine comic books?
The Marvel Universe has to be the *LAMEST* Comic-Book Universe these days. Just look at how Marvel ruined the X-men books. Back in the late 70's and early 80's these books were something people looked forward to getting each month. These days,who really cares what happens in the next issue? Just look at the pile of utterly unreadable shit Marvel has turned the X-Force title into.
Do yourselves a favor and abandon Marvel Comics and buy Magna and Anime titles instead.
Unstable molecues.
I meant to say but ran out of space:
Scientists also have huge crossovers (big conferences) with roughly the same frequency and guest spots (talks at other institutions). It's no surprise that superheroes don't show much clustering.
If we were ants living on a Rubik's cube, differential geometry would be a little more confusing.
Don't forget that Galactus made Aunt May one of his heralds while she was babysitting Franklin Richards. That should count for something.
If we were ants living on a Rubik's cube, differential geometry would be a little more confusing.
Well, first off, the study was done in Spain. Last I checked, NASA funding from Spain wasn't getting cut
Actually, though, all the outrage here seems kinda silly to me. What happened to the "Science for the sake of Science" mantra? This is exactly that.
Yes, it doesn't have on-the-surface real-world applications. Reading comic books isn't gonna make a cure for cancer. However, it -does- have some economic value.
Think entertainment. TV shows, computer games, books, comics. If I were creating one of these, I could benefit from this study, a LOT. Marvel comics are extremely successful, and they have a "clustring level" of about 1.5. I wonder what some of the failures have? Probably, a lot less. This is valuable, because gives me hard figures correlating success or failure of a venture with the reality level of its social networks.
Even if it only increases the "reality index" of my entertainment products by 3%, that's significant. A universe which can be related to by my readers in inherently more interesting. If it's more interesting, then more people will buy my product, increasing my revenue, potentially by a lot.
Plus, a bunch of scientists got to sit around reading comics
( unless, of course, the study was done by computer OCR of the comics, but still... gotta do something with them once they're scanned
to accept the praise of personal wisdom is an affront to the very ideal i hold dear.
That reminds me .... whatever happened to Mr Pascal Q Porcupine ?
The scientists forgot that Spiderman is very good friends with Kevin Bacon .
This brings the Marvel Universe's clustering factor to ~300x that of reality, making the Marvel Universe into surreality...
The next episode of Marvel Universe is slated to have John Malkovich play every character
-D
http://arXiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0202174
Real life is like the Marvel Universe?
I would have said these guys are full of crap, but every since I got my X-Ray vision and started running around in brightly colored tights...
This is by far the stupidest thigng I have ever read.
Carl Barks wrote and drew the Donald Duck and
Uncle Scrooge comics from the late 40s to the
early 60s, he also contributed stories to
Walt Disney's Comics and stories. There are
some differences from real life of course.
Billionaires don't keep their money locked up
in a money bin like Uncle Scrooge. But it
always seemed to me the conflicts among the
Duck Clan between greed, pride, angry temper,
remorse, were more solid real, complex and
funny than any superhero story. I have to
admit there was at least one really good
Captain Marvel yarn (from before the Stan Lee
era), it was a 2nd anniversary special which
I read in "The Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book
Comics" and is by far the best story in the
collection, better even than the Carl Barks
story in there.
The Barks stories seemed to appeal to people
who went on to become scientists (somebody
tried to patent a method for raising sunken
vessels and it was refused because the idea
had already been used in a Donald Duck story).
Steven Spielberg was an admirer too of Barks
also.
In theory, theory and practice are the same; in practice they're different. (Yogi Berra & A. Einstein)
Quite snugly.
So this is from the 'scary-as-heck' dept.? What scares me is what this says for IT itself. The dot-com bust must be bigger than anyone thought, if this is what geeks are up to. Maybe the Church of Sciencefictiontology can help fund more of this- uh, research.
Why the hell am I wasting my time in grad school?
I could go be a "scientist" at the University of the Balearic Isles.
Am I the only on who finds this scary? With all the things that the scientific community could be working on to benefit the Human race (like making a dryer that drys my jeans in one cycle rather than 3), they instead focus their attention on a make believe world. God help us.
You can't please all the people all the time, but you sure can piss all of them off all the time.......
When is the poster coming out?
Copyrights, Patents, Trademarks: temporary loans from the Public Domain, not real property ("intellectual" or otherwise)
Captain America has always been portrayed as a the most capable leader in the Marvel Universe. He's not that strong and he's not the smartest of the bunch. He's only at enhanced-human levels, with no super powers whatsoever. But even Thor, the god of thunder, respects him and follows his orders under the superhero group, the Avengers.
Spider-man is often a loner and misunderstood by the media. Anti-heroes, like Wolverine, keep to themselves. Mr. Fantastic is a genius, but it's very hard to work with him. Hmm... One might assume Superman to be the the most networked of all the DC heroes.
Marvel comics has a lot of interesting things to study. The Body of Work is probably the most evolved form of fiction literature on the planet. True it is only one company's work, but it has 60+ years of artificial history by hundreds if not thousands of artists and writers. Studying the influance of American history on early comics and then the influence of past comics on current comic writers and how they continue to create a world is a valid study.
As games like Ultima and Everquest evlove they will take on similar characteristics. As we view the future moving to a more virtual world (and controlled by big companies--another similarity) this study and others like it may shed light on what is to come in the digital world.
Not only are you right on every count, but you also spelled the word 'definitely' correctly. I salute you.
Has anyone considered that the reason the super heroes for "normal" social networks might be that the networks for the characters correlate with real life social networks of the cartoonists? :)
(Assuming that they have social networks
Since cartoonist A enjoys working with caroonist B, it might be more likely that the character A works with might meet B's character more often..
Just an idea..
"There is a terrorist behind every bush"
This is really out there.. what baffles me is that someone is paying for this.
But what else do you excpect from the only place on earth where it's harder to get a drink of clean water than to get some good mdma?
None wins, and finally they fight together against the evil-doers. ;-)
3rd man corolary:
The are very brave and never surrender, so the only way to get them stop fighting is because there is a 3rd superhero that stops them
(Field observations has full proved these coralaries, but sometimes 3rd man is a superheroine. This issue is still being investigated).
Spider Man came down with colds/flu all the time.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
It should be noted that Marvel Superheroes grandstanding, or addressing another Superhero or a villan seem to have a problem with balance.
i.e. They stand with their legs wide apart.
The only ones in the real world to stand this way are some practitioners of the martial arts; particulary if they hail from Brussels. Most ppl would find it painful to stand this way.
.
(David Bowman, EVA near HUGE Monolithic Win-PC in orbit around Jupiter) "My God - its full of Malware!"
All true followers of the Man of Steel know that the glasses are just the starting pointof his disguise; he pushes up the curl in his hair, he slouches and slopes his shoulders to appear shorter, and (as can be heard from the old radio serials to more modern movies) he raises his voice an octave or two!
Of course he's also in a business suit instead of elastic long johns!
.
(David Bowman, EVA near HUGE Monolithic Win-PC in orbit around Jupiter) "My God - its full of Malware!"