Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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| Image by Tumisu from Pixabay |
A wise man once said, "Silence is golden."
Admittedly, he wasn't being silent when he said it.
Such is the nightmare hypocrisy of mankind.
But there is a place in which silence is most definitely not golden.
Bearing that in mind, make full use of that awesome responsibility and be sure to use the comments section below to register the subject matter of which you wish to speak.



44 comments:
I really love seeing Dennis the Menace’s hair style when you do this post Steve! JP
If you could build a "Mount Rushmore" of superheroes which four faces would you choose?
Colin - Interesting topic! Captain Britain, the Black Panther, Daredevil - and...what about the Super-Adaptoid (circa Captain Marvel! ), for a final choice? He'd get me several Avengers - Cap, Iron Man, the Vision, etc - all rolled into one! How's that for a fudge!?
Phillip
Adam Warlock could've been No.4, but he's not a superhero, strictly speaking (but, then again, neither is the Super-Adaptoid! )
Phillip
Colin- I would have Batman, Silver Surfer, Thor and Scarlet Witch.
JP. Took me a few minutes to get the Dennis the Menace comment lol
Charlie is going all-in on nostgia!
These dudes all have auper powers:
Superman, Captain Marvel (Fawcett), Sub Mariner (Timely) and Plastic Man (Quality)
Charlie is spinning the wheel twice! Non-superpowered dudes:
Blackhawk (Quality), Airboy (Hillman), Daredevil (Lev Gleason), and Black Hood (MLJ Archie)
I guess it’d have to be Batman, Superman, Spiderman and Captain America?
Though I’d personally do Superman, Batman, Judge Dredd and Daredevil.
Oooooh I forgot about Capt (Shazam) Marvel Charlie,can I add him to my list? Cap Marvel (Shazam), Batman, Silver Surfer and Scarlet Witch.
How about Marvelman, Captain Britain, Zenith and Bobby Moore.
D (half-time) W
You appear to be imagining an alternate Earth where the American colonies are still British, DW (;
-sean
Yes, let’s call it Earth 66!
DW
You took that too far with Bobby Moore lol
How did England not win that game? You will still win section though.
Wth! England drew? Charlie could not watch the game at work, alas. Tonight is the Human League, Soft Cell, and Alison Moyet tonight in Chicago. 80s forever gents!
This is at least six questions and it's easy to get into arguments when we're answering different questions. Does this question apply in DC universe or Marvel universe or our universe? In the first two, these are real people; in the third they're comic book characters. And are we coming up with the four that look best or the sensible four that would be chosen in reality? 3x2=6 questions. I'll have a go at answering four of them. I don't know enough about DC to answer the other two.
Marvel Universe - what looks good?
I need distinctive heads or head gear. The Thing has to be there. Then maybe Cap, Thor and Cyclops. Iron Man feels too ugly.
Marvel Universe - who would be chosen in reality?
Ruling out non-Americans and people that I can't imagine being interviewed on TV wearing a lounge suit. Only picking reasonably public figures with good reputations. No women because they're second class heroes in the Silver Age. Will be Cap, Mr Fantastic, Iron Man plus one more. If Doctor Strange and Professor X are unknown to the public then maybe Nick Fury?
Our universe - what looks good?
I'm a Marvel man. So I'll stick with Thing, Cap, Thor and Cyclops.
Our universe - who would be chosen in reality?
The most well known superheroes. Two each from Marvel and DC to keep things fair. Three easy choices are Superman, Batman, Spider-Man. But then who's Marvel's number two character? If a superhero, they're so far behind Spider-Man and so narrowly ahead of numbers 3-10 that it doesn't feel right to pick one. So for my fourth I'm going for Stan Lee.
Superman, Batman and Spider-man, for sure. For the fourth spot, maybe The Thing.
Or Captain America.
Or The Hulk.
b.t.
We seemed to have reverted to the ‘why take a touch when you can take three’ style of play. Frustrating as we seemed to have gotten past that of late
DW
Maybe there hope for Scotland against Brazil, Paul.
-sean
Thanks for the comments!
Dangermash, the question refers to OUR universe and YOUR personal choice. Imagine you're an Elon Musk-type trillionaire (but less evil) and you've decided to fulfill a lifetime dream of building your own "Mount Rushmore" dedicated to your four favourite comic-book superheroes. The imaginary Mount Rushmore could be built in any country and include superheroes of any nationality produced by Marvel, DC or whoever you fancy.
Phillip, your fondness for Daredevil is evident from lots of your previous comments but, I must admit, I thought DD was a rather boring B-list character until Frank Miller came along in the early '80s.
bt, you did what I thought everyone else might do - choose three big names and then struggle to think of a fourth.
Oo, that opens up another set of possibilities. Not going for artistic merit or parliamentary approval but doing what I want and damn the consequences.
If I were an Elon Musk type I'd go for those most like me. A rebellious streak and living life by their own values even when this means rocking the boat and going against authority.
Spider-Man, Hawkeye, The Thing and Magneto.
Colin - To a younger reader, Daredevil had action aplenty, with close-quarters battles! Monkey-climbs, drop-kicks, fire-men's lift throws (the Black Widow), and overhead lifts. Everything except Kent Walton! Prior to Ms.Marvel (and Iron Fist), maybe the most action-packed tales I'd read. Not having much in the way of powers, Daredevil's writers worked harder to get something out of the character. Limitations force creativity!
Phillip
Colin, thanks for the topic.
As I mostly bought comics by just four publishers - Marvel, DC, Charlton and Atlas - I shall pick the greatest character from each one.
Therefore, my Mount Rushmore shall feature Spider-Man, Manhunter, Dr Graves and The Phoenix.
Full speed ahead gents! Scotland v Brazil at 5 pm Chicago Time! Everyone synchronizes their watches!
I'm very nervous of the Brazil game Charlie they aren't the classic Brazil but then we certainly are not a classic Scotland team. 90 plus mins of stress ahead for me. We can afford to lose as long as it's not by more than 1 goal , so expect a 90th minute second from Brazil lol
I've built myself a spreadsheet this afternoon to calculate the probability of Scotland reaching the knockouts. It's based on the assumption that Brazil beat us by one goal tonight. A bigger defeat and I'll be tinkering with the spreadsheet after the match.
The inputs are a big list of 17 probabilities. Probability of Senegal beating Iraq by two goals, probability of Spain beating Uruguay, stuff like that. The spreadsheet takes these and works out the probability of Scotland reaching the knockouts. I got number one son to estimate the input probabilities for me.
And you know what? Scotland have an 87% probability of making through. As this round of matches continues and results crystallise, I'll be replacing probabilities with 100% or 0% as appropriate and watching how that probability moves.
87% though, 87%! #itscominghome🏴
McScotty - you’ll be awake from midnight until two in the morning your time to watch this game? That is excellent! I applaud your commitment to the Cause.
Danger mash - I need to follow your footsteps and do some mathematics to ward iff Alzheimer’s dementia! I’m only 65 but I can already feel aspects of my mind, shutting down to more advanced, detailed, thinking versus general conversation. Thank you for the inspiration!
Uh-oh, Brazil are a goal up already...
-sean
Oh dear we might not even finish 3rd in our section at this rate. Footballs not coming home, but Scotland are(again) 😟
BBC reckon Scotland now have. 49% chance of making it to the round of 32.
My model's more optimistic, coming up with 58%.
But these 2am kickoffs tonight in the Mexico group are so critical that my 58% will move to either 32% or 70% in the next couple of hours.
Two in the morning? That's an early night for McScotty. The Scotland vs Haiti game was a 1am kickoff and all of Scotland will have been up for that one.
dangermash - With the 1977 Superheroes card game, as a little kid, I made small cards, for certain characters, displaying numbers of other characters they'd beat, in the pack, for each of the 3 categories - physical strength, special powers, and weapons. Through those numbers, I'd know which category gave me the highest chance of beating my opponent. With the Hulk, for example, you'd obviously pick strength; making a 'card' for him thus pointless. However, with heroes with close/similar scores in the categories, my cards could help me know which of the three categories would be more likely to win. Aged 8, my cards showed a primitive understanding of probability. Or, my tendency to compare things.
Phillip
I probably did something similar. I remember Mr Fantasitc with his 5-8-5 numbers having the most common score in all three categories.
South Africa 1 South Korea 0 was a disastrous result. Probability of qualifying has crashed down to 32%. Ecuador, Iran and Uruguay all expected to be below Scotland in the third place table but we need one unexpected result to complete a set of four.
Nice to know, dangermash - I thought it was just me!
Phillip
DM - we don't deserve to go through. To qualify by only winning one game, losing 2 and having a minus 3 goal difference would be insane .Despite topping a pretty decent European qualifying section to get here we lack ambition and talent to progress at the very top level, we only needed to lose 1 nil (2 at most) but couldn't even do that. The team did well to get to the finals but it's failure number 9 at this level ( albeit many were missed to progress on goal difference). At least the fans did a great job.
.
Maybe Iraq will hammer Senegal, dangermash. You never know.
But - how can I put this tactfully? - are Scotland playing well enough to take advantage of any reprieve? Mind you, as Paul says, the fans seem popular, and it might be nice for them.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/23/scotland-fans-usa-world-cup-joy-fifa
-sean
Iraq beating Senegal by one or two would work but win by three goals or more and Iraq would be a better third place team than Scotland.
And, yes, if they do go through there's a tonking waiting for them in the next round. Probably from Mexico at the Azteca in the middle of the day.
Scotland fans have been definitely been a beloved talking point in the US! Mostly due to drinking and singing in Boston. Apparently they drank Hennessey’s bar dry in Boston and showed up en masse to a Red Sox game and were singing and cheering in a good hearted way.
But it was rather night and day vs brazil. Watching Brazil immediately snap into a hard 4-4-2 defense once you crossed the half line… they were a serious lot! CH
Yeah Brazil really showed us up in that game. We were tactically naive Clarke ( manager) has lifted us out of the 20 year doldrums we were in but I don't think he can take us any further. When you see the likes of Cape Verde etc giving it a go and then look at Scotland with English Premiership and Italian league players it's hard to understand.
According to US TV the Scots fans drank 3 times more on each day they were there than on any St Patrick's night. Really we are celebrating Scots having an alcohol problem lol. Still the City of Boston wants to set up a Scotland day
Hey, don't have a go at Cape Verde, Paul. They might not have any players from the English Premiership or Italian League... but they have one from the Irish League! Pico Lopes, from Dublin.
Good luck to them.
-sean
Cape Verde have looked comfortable on this stage in their games while we look like rabbits caught in the headlights. I hope they get through even if it'sat our expense. New Zealand , Canada and a few others have Scots in their team including Australia whose brother (Souter,) plays for Scotland.
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