Self Duplication. The ability to create multiple copies of myself in an instant.

Okay, this pick was totally inspired by one of my favorite comic book superheroes:

Jamie Madrox, The Multiple Man

Why this power? Why create another copy of myself? Heck, why not ten? A thousand? Eh, I think if I had this power, I need to limit myself. I could easily take over the world with billions of myself making up the military. Let’s go into my powers into more detail. And yes, I have thought about this seriously.

My ability is very similar to Jamie’s, minus the need for kinetic energy. I can just think it and a copy will form. When I create a duplicate, it’s just as instantaneous; more like cell-duplication with my copy forming off a part of myself rather than out of thin air. This video does a pretty sweet rendition of it. How many at a time? Not sure. I think that with each copy I make, I need an amount of concentration that exponentially grows with each duplication. Two of myself would be as easy as breathing while making a hundred would probably take so much energy and concentration, it would be best left for emergencies.

A way to work around this though would be to just spread out the rate of duplication. Meaning, I would create maybe five every hour or so. Duplicates exist indefinitely until I absorb them, which would be by contact. There is no time limit to them. I could create a duplicate and send it off to live off his own life and never hear from him again.

A copy is independent from me, meaning I can’t directly control him. He is free to make his own decisions. However, since they are pretty much a direct copy of me, they would pretty much be thinking the same way I am, and through mutual self interest, he would most likely act the way I would and do what I made him for. However: They may be the exact copy as me with the same background, history, and experiences… but we can still turn out to be different people. For example, if I send him to another country to learn the culture, I can’t say for sure that when—and if—he came back, he would turn out the exact same way I would if I stayed home. It’s like we’re the same thread, but at the moment of duplicating, we’re split and can go in different directions. We both may look the same at the two new ends, but if one is burnt or cut or soaked it would definitely not be similar to the other.

When I absorb a duplicate, I will also absorb all the experience, skills, and knowledge he may have picked up. This can be very useful. I can send one to learn all the martial arts in the world. I can have a duplicate master mathematics and physics. I can be a cook, a spy, an actor, a taxi cab driver, an athlete… all these things will take time of course, but I can focus on all of them at one time.

I can duplicate matter as well. I mean, if I couldn’t each duplicate would be naked as day, right? So, each duplicate would be an exact copy of myself with all the clothing I’m wearing and whatever objects I’m holding. It would need to be in contact with my skin, however. Anything in my pockets or backpack would not be duplicated. I can’t duplicate living matter though, otherwise if I was touching another person and duplicated, I’d have created a copy of that person… I think that would get way too complicated.

A death of a duplicate should generally be a bad thing. I think I, as the orignal, and all copies would experience some remote trauma or pain. Not exactly the same, but if I or a copy should feel some very extreme emotions or pain, the rest of us would feel a bit of it. But I don’t think it’d be a good thing to just send hundreds of myself to fight a war and die; I think I would go insane with the constant pain and deaths.

Soooo, as you can plainly see, I have given this plenty of thought. Self-duplication. It’s the power for me!

Oh, yeah. With that power I can totally freak the ladies out like Dr. Manhattan (minus the blue penis). Unless they’re into that kind of thing.

What super power would you have?

Guess who.

I’m having a small dilemma. Where am I going to get the time to do all the things I want to do? There are a ton of tv shows I need to catch up on. I have a couple books in the pipeline I want to read. There are some comics that I need to get back to. And then the video games… well there wasn’t a lot out before other than GTA4. MGS4 actually is coming out and I’m dying to play that, but I really want to get into Crisis Core. I had this game sitting by my desk for the month now, still in its plastic wrap. I had been saving it, not playing it until I got a job. It actually was quite an incentive to get me motivated. And now that I have a job, why not?

I think I’ll get back to my roots. I’m gonna go on a Final Fantasy VII binge. All things FF7 for the next few weeks. This includes: Crisis Core, watching Last Order, playing FF7 over again, and finally finishing up with Advent Children. Not sure if I want to get into Dirge of Cerberus though; maybe, if I’m up for it.

Okay. Time to fire up the PSP.

Aeris ♥ Cloud.

Ooooh… this one looks good.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I just read this post on one of my favorite authors, George R. R. Martin’s, blog. He does a great job summarizing the Super Bowl, one of the greatest games I’ve ever seen in my life. Hehehe, and he does some nice comparisons to ASOIAF characters.

Spidey has had a long history behind him with plenty of ups and downs. He’s had great moments, and some others that many would rather forget (clone saga, anyone?) But no matter what, they are all in continuity and a part of his mythos. However, Marvel somehow had it in there mind to retcon (for those unfamiliar with the term, it pretty much means a rewrite of a part of his past and the old version is disregarded as if it never happened) some major points of Peter Parker’s life in order to make him more “accessible” to new audiences. That’s great, to bring in new readers, but that’s what we have Ultimate Spider-Man for (this is a completely different Spidey in a different universe). Don’t mess with a character that has decades of stories and generations of fans that remember them!

Now, before I go into what was changed, lets go over what brought it about story-wise. A major series event that crossed over practically all of the Marvel titles, called the Civil War, pitted super hero against super hero over the Superhuman Registration Act. This act required that anyone with super powers to register, reveal their identities, be properly trained, and ultimately be employed by the federal government. This was created to hold superheroes accountable, in case they made a costly mistake that could mean the loss of innocent lives. Anyway, what did this mean to Spider-Man? Well, in a series of events that I won’t go into, Peter was initially a supporter of the act. And believing it the right thing to do, revealed his secret identity publicly to everyone on national television as a sign of advocation for the act. This is personally not a development I was happy with, but it was a big change and I went with it. So now, with all the enemies he has, Peter and his family are pretty much in the crosshairs of danger… most notably that of the Kingpin who orders a hit on Mary Jane and Aunt May. MJ escapes unharmed, but Aunt May is shot by a sniper.

So Aunt May is critically injured and on the brink of death. I stopped reading the comics at this point, so all the following I got from wikipedia. Peter exhausts all of his connections and options to try and save her. Cue the appearance of Mephisto, demon ruler from hell, who offers to save Aunt May’s life. Not for free, of course. In return, Peter and MJ have to essentially give up their marriage… pretty much have it so that they never got married in the first place. To Mephisto, this is a blow to God since Peter and MJ’s love is so strong that such a bond very rarely occurs.

MJ and Petey no longer married?! I understand that Peter was not always married, but when they did get hitched that’s a major point in his history and helped shape him into what he is today. There was actually a point when they were separated and one when MJ was thought to be dead, but the series didn’t receive any boosts in readership. The editorial team seems to think this time around it will be a hit. So now Peter is still doing his webshooting, but he and MJ are not together and their marriage never happened. Other parts have been retconned to: Peter’s best friend Harry Osborn is alive, and his identity is secret again, his public outing erased from existence.

I’m not happy with a lot of aspects of this development. I usually hate retcons and this is no different. But I also don’t like how they did it. To me, Peter wouldn’t deal with the devil, even if it meant saving the life of Aunt May. And the devil? Come on… it just doesn’t fit with me. Peter has always been a distinguished scientist since his high school days. The series hardly ever touched the subject of magic and the occult. And they also retconned his identity to be secret so soon… it just seemed like a big cop-out, like the whole event of him doing it was just a big publicity stunt and they never meant it to be something to be long lasting to develop the character.

But you know what? Despite all these misgivings, I’ll still give the new stories a chance. It could be interesting to see how Peter deals with life now that he’s single. I’d be much happier if it wasn’t such a drastic retcon, but I guess they couldn’t have done it any other way to set the story the way it is now. Don’t drop the ball on this, Marvel. I really want to see some really good stories from now on.

The premise behind Fables is that ages and ages ago, there were vast and numerous kingdoms, home to magical creatures and legendary peoples. These fantastical worlds are actually real, living, and breathing settings based on fairy tales and folklore. These peoples refer to themselves as ‘Fables,’ and the kingdoms had kept to themselves mostly until an enemy called the Adversary appeared and started to conquer what is now referred to as the Homelands. Many were killed and slain… but what remaining survivors there were had fled to our world, the ‘Mundane’ world. They keep their existence secret and us ‘Mundy’ people are oblivious to their community of Fabletown. All had lost their homes to the Adversary, and the Fables resolved to band together, forgive past grievances with a general amnesty, live out their immortal and still magical existence in our world, and the story of Fables begins.

Writer Bill Willingham does, I think, a wonderful job of reinventing many of our familiar folktale characters. These are not the same innocent fables you knew as a child, but more adult, human, and believable individuals. Here’s a rundown of the main characters in the first book, “Legends in Exile.”

• Snow White: Deputy mayor of Fabletown, but she, for all intents and purposes, runs the administration of Mayor King Cole. In the first story arch, her (less well-known) sister, Rose Red, is missing after her apartment is found in disarray with blood everywhere, beginning the mystery story as to what happened. She had divorced her husband, Prince Charming, a long time ago after finding that he and Rose Red had an affair together. The introduction of Prince Charming is actually quite funny as well; having lost his kingdom and wealth left behind in the exile, he uses his magical charm to seduce a Mundy waitress into paying for his meal and letting him crash at her place for a couple weeks. He even goes to the extent of writing a note in the morning to have her take care of his dry cleaning and helping himself to the money in her purse!
• Bigby Wolf: Also known as the ‘Big Bad Wolf.’ The same one that blew down the houses of the 3 pigs, remember? He had a notorious reputation before the exile to Fabletown, but due to the general amnesty, all past transgressions were forgiven. He eventually gained the ability to shift into human form and became the sheriff of Fabletown. His detective skills shine through in the first story arch as well as his gruff nature. He’s one of my favorite characters, due to his general bad-assery and attitude. Eventually, later on in the series, his feelings for Snow White come out and they marry and have kids. Awwww…
• Jack Horner: The same Jack Horner of the nursery rhyme. He was also the same Jack of “Jack and the Beanstalk” and “Jack and Jill” and many other mythological Jacks… he’d been dubbed Jack of the Tales. He’s the boyfriend of Rose Red, a trickster, and always tries to come up with get rich quick schemes.

There are many, many other familiar characters that have developed into very complex individuals living in our world. Pinocchio has been made a real boy… but although over 300 years old, remains a boy permanently and unable to hit puberty. Many of the non-human fables, such as the three little pigs, the bears of Goldilocks fame, and Shere Khan from the Jungle Book, live up in a remote community, called the Farm, away from the Mundy world. Eventually, in the series, we even discover the true identity of the Adversary. I won’t spoil it, but I think it was a great revelation and excellent story-telling by Willingham.

I would highly recommend the first book. It’s a great story, and does well as a stand alone representation of the series, but I’d probably guess that you’ll get hooked and will want to read more and find out what happened to other Fables such as Little Red Riding Hood, Mowgli, Frankenstein’s Monster, Beauty and the Beast, and even Santa Claus. The series is still going, and its pace has picked up dramatically since its beginning with the Adversary coming close to invading the Mundy world and the current storyline focusing on Flycatcher, the Frog Prince. Introduced in the first issue as a bumbling, innocent janitor that ate flies, yet deeply cared for his friends, he undergoes a tragic transformation: learning the truth that his family was slaughtered in the homelands and becoming horribly depressed. However, he encounters the Ghost of the Forsworn Knight, revealed to be the ghost of Sir Lancelot who then becomes Flycatcher’s guide to realize his destiny. Flycatcher then obtains Excalibur and claiming the role of the Once and Future King, and begins building an army to battle the Adversary and avenge his family. It’s AWESOME.

Watchmen is one serious comic book. Yes, it does have superheroes, but the setting and story is just so grim and depressing at times. This is not a comic book I’d think any kid would like to read. I won’t go into any details of the plot and characters. Instead, I’ll just say: Go read it. Pick it up at the bookstore and read it. I seriously, seriously, SERIOUSLY recommend it. Give it a chance. It is not like your garden variety Spider-Man, Superman, or even Batman stories.

I finally visited the official site and saw some of the production photos. I am totally blown away by what they have so far. It really does look like it’s straight from the comic book. I’m getting really excited about it now. I’m not familiar with the people they casted, but I trust that they made some good choices. And I am really psyched to hear that they’ll be filming the Mars scene. I hope they do a good job on the Doctor Manhattan/Silk Spectre II scene… the dialog from that scene is one of my favorite parts:

I then decided to try and make it at least over the weekend, fly over there Friday evening and back Sunday evening. I’ll miss tons and tons of stuff, but at least I’ll have seen it for once in my life. And now this shows up… I know that Comic-Con has been the place to preview the latest in cool movies and television (they premiered the Lost pilot!), and I had intended to catch one of these this time around. Some of the titles that really intrigue me: Beowulf (Looks pretty neat), The Bourne Ultimatum (I loved the first two films), Coraline (Neil Gaiman is always a treat), Get Smart (Eh, the Rock… but Woo Hoo Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway!), The Golden Compass (Yummy Nicole Kidman… and Daniel Craig! hehe), I Am Legend (I love post-apocalyptic sci-fi films… and you can’t go wrong with Will Smith as the last man on earth!), The Incredible Hulk (Edward Norton as the puny Bruce Banner? Sounds perfect… and Live Tyler as Betty!!! Hot!), Stardust (Another based on Neil Gaiman’s work), Sweeny Todd (SWEET. Tim Burton film featuring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter!), and 30 Days of Night (based on a comic book I haven’t read yet… but it sounds awesome. It’s got vampires!).

I would love to attend the panels for these and a chance to meet the writers, actors, and directors… most of these films are pretty much of my favorite genres, and it’d be awesome to get in on the exclusive sneak peaks at the Comic-Con. Hmmm… Maybe I have some sick days left…

I just wanted to put the word out about this awesome webcomic, Gunnerkrigg Court by Tom Siddell. I guess you can sum it up as a story that follows the adventures of a girl named Antimony Carver, a student of Gunnerkrigg Court. There’s plenty of strange and wonderful things that happen at the boarding school; from robots to ghosts to demons and many others. I really highly recommend everyone to read it; especially if you are Harry Potter fans. It’s not like Harry Potter, per se… okay it’s nothing like Harry Potter. It would be unfair to compare the two. Just give it a read and see for yourself. The story and art are excellent; I think I might need to get it the first book right away… If you have some time, give it a chance!

Start reading it now!

BIG SUPERHERO FIGHT!!!

The dude is from the Philippines! I hope to meet him in person one day.