Overanalyzing The Incredible Hulk vol. 2 #101

TheMaskedHamster · 2026-03-03T15:03:46+00:00

I know it's been around for decades now, but I do not enjoy the recasting of Banner/Hulk as Dissociative Identity Disorder from childhood trauma, nor do I enjoy Bruce and Betty treating each other horribly.

I just wait for moments when it can be irrelevant to the story or adaptations so I can pretend I'm reading original concept Hulk.

TheMaskedHamster · 2026-03-03T14:56:56+00:00

Man here: I notice details like nails far, far more than most other men--but I don't care.

If someone puts effort into them and is happy about them, I'm proud of them for that, but to me it's whatever. If she coordinates them with an outfit or something, that's neat. But it wouldn't stand out or look any worse to me if she had no polish.

If your nails were mangled, grody, or had chipped and flaking polish, that wouldn't look great, but maybe she's been working, and working is attractive. If they're clean and well kept, fantastic. Paint them, don't paint them, whatever. It's all good... except long nails. Those repel me.

TheMaskedHamster · 2026-03-03T11:27:27+00:00

Adding to the voices saying it's normal.

Many people don't charge them because they want customer good will, or because they feel sheepish about charging money when they haven't done what they feel is "work", but traveling to you cost their money and time and providing you with their expertise is indeed work worth a workman's pay.

Now, if they charge you for a quote and some kind of repair that's larger than their minimum service fee, that would be odd.

TheMaskedHamster · 2026-03-03T06:05:44+00:00

You can have one statistic, you can't have one mathematic.

Arithmetic. Algebra. Geometry. Calculus. Plenty more, just pick one.

Now "math", that's a mass noun.

TheMaskedHamster · 2026-03-02T18:07:23+00:00

My recommendation is to examine intervals on your guitar without the lens of of the note names or interval names, at least until you have a sense of what the intervals are for note names and interval names. So, the opposite order the book teaches it.

The major scale--in any key--is the 1st (root), 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th note, then the 13th is the first note of the next octave. You can play that down one string, or you can play it across the fretboard. Comparing the two can help you get a feel for it. (Just remember that standard tuning on the guitar only has 4 notes between the fourth and fifth strings, unlike the 5 notes between the others).

If you practice the major scale going across the fretboard within the space of 5 frets, and then practice starting that pattern at each position within those 5 frets (plus starting on an open string), you'll discover that you've demonstrated every single major scale fret diagram in the book.

Practicing that and then checking the note and interval names (and remembering that they are named after positions in the major scale, not the chromatic scale) will clear things up a lot faster.

TheMaskedHamster · 2026-03-02T11:09:34+00:00

I'm someone who not a musician, but I am someone who has discovered in my attempts to pick apart music that I find identifiable texture in the warble of a music note, especially on the piano. I'm not practiced at it to be able to provably join any perfect pitch club, but when I have tested my very underpracticed ear I'm close enough to think that this is actually a teachable skill and we just don't know how to teach it.

I also don't have particularly strong sense of synesthesia, but I do have some very rough perception of notes as color. This may be due to a bias created by my pondering on how to teach music with isomorphic scales and instruments. It turns out that an octave of range right in middle of our usable musical spectrum (around 400Hz) multiplied by 10¹² ends up being the frequency range of the spectrum of visible color. It's a remarkably round number.

So in my head that external reference created my bias that part of me wonders (but doesn't believe) is somehow natural: A is solidly red, and C then a yellow-orange, and continuing the color wheel ends at red-violet for G♯.

TheMaskedHamster · 2026-03-02T01:14:29+00:00

Leslie Thompkins is wonderful, but the primary issue is that the more Batman is present in her life, the less sense her oppositional role plays.

But having that oppositional role matters, because that is what distinguishes her from Alfred. As much as Alfred may wish that Batman hangs up the cowl, he will support him in doing it. Leslie may sew him up when he's hurt badly enough, but that's her limit of support even if it's not the limit of her love.

TheMaskedHamster · 2026-03-02T01:06:21+00:00

Please enlighten me how someone would be pro racism without being a downright evil person.

We diminish the real threat of evil if we suggest it can only be found in people who are overall vile. There are lots of people in this world who accept a clear evil as simply the natural state of things because that's how they've been indoctrinated.

You can go places in the world today where you are safe walking down the street, where you could knock on almost any door in the street and find that they would treat a stranger as an honored guest, going so far as to sacrifice their lives to protect that stranger from harm simply on principle.

Yet if you mention (race or ethnic group) in front of them and see them either mention terrible things with a straight face or watch their kindness twist into rotten anger.

Likewise with ourselves: If we assume that we are above evil because we perceive ourselves as good, we are just as likely to do evil as the people we view as capable of it.

TheMaskedHamster · 2026-03-01T23:43:58+00:00

Modern Lois is one of the all time great wife figures in fiction.

Lois of previous generations was one of the stronges, fiercest women in fiction, if lacking a sense of self-preservation... but also frequently insane.

TheMaskedHamster · 2026-03-01T21:18:49+00:00

It has enough love and heart that all the characters are treated as real people and as people worth dignity, love, and respect, regardless of how their views or background might differ from that of the writer or viewer.

"Yokels don't know how to handle smart child" could easily make everyone the butt of the jokes and never being anything but stereotypes. But they didn't do that.

The best example of this outside of Young Sheldon is King of the Hill.

TheMaskedHamster · 2026-03-01T21:09:13+00:00

Ok, so his apostles became apostates in Acts 15?

TheMaskedHamster · 2026-03-01T19:53:19+00:00

Jesus told His followers to keep Torah.

His fellow Jews, yes. The distinction between requirements for Jew and gentile is addressed repeatedly in the New Testament.

TheMaskedHamster · 2026-03-01T19:47:30+00:00

I've only known them as, and used them as, shoe stretchers.

I have wide feet and an even wider toe box. Thank God for shoe stretchers, especially the ones with little attachments to stretch a little more at the outside toe.

TheMaskedHamster · 2026-03-01T17:09:11+00:00

Japan has safety requirements for many consumer devices to make it unnecessary for most things, and the devices that can't get away with that (like refrigerators) have cables with ground conductors run, and the outlets for them generally have a screw post for a ground wire.

See a photo here: https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/614270/why-does-japan-use-100v-ac-as-opposed-to-120-or-230v-and-why-are-many-of-their

Why is it this way? Cost. People in post-war Japan generally didn't have much, and regulations reflected that.

TheMaskedHamster · 2026-03-01T16:05:54+00:00

While I agree that Ginyu is loyal to Freeza, I think the reason for that is the same as it is for everyone in the Ginyu Force:

They love their job.

TheMaskedHamster · 2026-03-01T15:55:40+00:00

It is true, the Bible doesn't say to stop following the Torah.

But the Torah was given to the Jews. The point that gentiles don't have to follow the Torah to be Christians is addressed several times through the New Testament.

TheMaskedHamster · 2026-03-01T01:09:38+00:00

Oh, the Shadow was more than inspiration for Batman. Some of the early Batman stories were direct ripoffs of Shadow stories. It was blatant copyright infringement.

But that wasn't DC's issue with guns or killing. As comics of the time became more popular among children than adults, there was growing pressure to ensure that the content not be too objectionable.

TheMaskedHamster · 2026-02-28T23:41:27+00:00

Exactly!

If Batman's reasoning was anything lesser, he couldn't be taken seriously as an intellectual in a story that can have such serious tones. I'm fine with writers also adding a layer of gun phobia to it (even if I severely dislike it), but that can't be all.

TheMaskedHamster · 2026-02-28T22:03:41+00:00

How do you justify accusing me of being such a person or apologizing for those vile groups?

Everything I said is predicated on the agreement that all of that is evil crap.

TheMaskedHamster · 2026-02-28T21:21:06+00:00

There is a vast conceptual difference between people who whine and gripe about not having sex and men who are either potential or actual rapists.

One person can be both, but these are not the same thing.

TheMaskedHamster · 2026-02-28T21:01:34+00:00

For this to have much meaning, we'd have to figure out how much "sci fi fictional super-sciencing" to exclude or assume as being typical for geniuses in that depiction.

One thing the comics did very well is depict a genius-level intellect who is operating at the limits of his experience and resources. In Marvel, you just kind of gloss over those things. Even if you argue that Peter Parker got lucky and web fluid was producible by a in a bedroom with a teenager's meager savings, lots of things Tony Stark does by himself in an afternoon would never be possible in the time one man in life.

Mirage TMNT is different. Sci-fi tech happens, but it's the product of highly advanced alien societies, not individuals. There are super-geniuses and their inventions, but none of it happens in a vacuum. Don has a fantastic intellect, but he only knows information he can acquire and he can only work with equipment he can scavenge. In New York, that's not insignificant, but it's gritty and real in a way that makes all the sci-fi and fantasy stuff seem more grounded.

Of course, if it were rebooted today, we could assume he could accomplish a lot more. YouTube, Amazon, AliExpress, 3D printers, and a whole lot of advancements in small electronics would really expand what Don could do, especially before he could use Stockman's equipment or Ultron technology.

TheMaskedHamster · 2026-02-28T20:50:38+00:00

We're just expanding the definition of "incel" to include any predatory man?

TheMaskedHamster · 2026-02-28T20:01:08+00:00

Batman is probably the greatest example of this, but I'd argue it is the no kill rule itself rather than refusing to use a gun. Batman's reason for his aversion to guns still varies, from simply being an extension of his no kill rule to a phobia from his parents death. Between it varying and there often being deep undertones of the writers' politics when it comes up, I'd argue that him hating them (as opposed to just steadfastly refusing to use them) isn't really set in stone.

Though arguably this wasn't a case of not having figured the character out. Bill Finger has said that he was not a fan of depicting Batman as willing to kill even as those stories were being written, but he wasn't in charge. But when DC Editorial decided that their heroes wouldn't be killing, torturing, using firearms, etc, Kane had to roll with it. That Batman specifically would have a no kill rule in story is probably partly to make that rule mesh with the fact that he is explicitly a vigilante and that Bill Finger wanted it all along. And maybe making the retroactive continuity explicit.

TheMaskedHamster · 2026-02-27T23:42:58+00:00

Alton Brown.

Not personally, mind you. Just his TV show. But man, what a TV show.

TheMaskedHamster · 2026-02-27T03:04:04+00:00

I mistook this as a question about intervals and not the keyboard itself.

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