Sometimes, you can’t wrap your brain around any more intellectual analysis or esoterica, and instead find yourself considering simpler questions.  Who’s stronger?  Could Cable defeat Qui-Gon Jinn?  Would Godzilla overpower Jet Icarus?  Is Captain Kirk a better brawler than Nick Fury?  And who would win if Lana Kane battled Shego?  (Answer: The reading public.)  Thanks to recent viewings, I got to wondering what might happen if Ben Kenobi, Connor MacLeod and Zorro were locked in a room together with only the victor guaranteed a way out?

The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) does not think that word means what you think it means, asking: Who is the most skilled swordsman in all the worlds of fiction?

Yesterday’s MS-QOTD posited a posit regarding the breakdown of your perfect four-person (or four-creature, we don’t discriminate hyar’bouts) alliance of eeeevil.  But now, as the work-week comes to a close and I’m filled with hope and promise for the upcoming weekend, I find myself worried about all the potential villainous super-groups that we’ve just unleashed.  (Seriously, Velvet Revolver doesn’t need the competition.)  In the spirit of bringing balance to the force, albeit without providing employment to Hayden Christiansen, permit me to beg your indulgence in helping me to provide appropriate counter-measures…

The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) would like to remind you that super-powers alone do not a victory guarantee, so the team of Superman/Earth-2 Superman/The Sentry and Supreme would utterly suck for more reasons than one, asking: What four heroic types of all the fictional worlds would you recruit to combat yesterday’s perfect combination of eeeevil?

Some say evil is a state of being, others a state of mind.  Whether you define a bad guy through his nefarious acts or just an English accent (looking at you, George Lucas), one thing is clear: The dark side is strong, and a good villain can be just as compelling as the heroes they vex, but if the Secret Society of Super-Villains proved anything (not that I’m entirely sure they did, mind you) it’s that many evildoers can succeed where a single might have failed.  Grouping your bad guys can be dicey, though, as Loki proved during Marvel’s ‘Acts of Vengeance’ crossover.  Though he pulled in the biggest names in the Marvel Universe, he missed the fact that Doom resented The Red Skull, The Kingpin would cheerfully throw any of this criminal comrades-in-arms under the bus, and also that he had put the living symbol of Third Reich aggression in the same room with a concentration camp survivor.  (Even Daredevil saw that conflict coming.)  Anyone planning a team-up has to remember that there is no honor among thieves, which started my mental gears a’grindin’…

The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) likes to think of it as a nefarious version of ‘Emerson, Lake & Palmer’, only with added Starscream, asking: What four villains of all the fictional worlds would you recruit for the perfect combination of eeeevil?

Recently, I’ve found myself in possession of a bit of free time (a rarity in itself), allowing me to consume some new comics, catch up on some television, and, thanks to the power of storyline synchronicity, ruminate on the pitfalls of fictional romance.  It seems that many of the couples that I end up rooting for always end up utterly doomed, usually because one or both of the characters are just plain nuts.  Even the beloved pairings of my youth aren’t immune to this feeling, as recent ‘Zach On Film’ research reminded me that Claire and Bender’s iconic romance probably wouldn’t make it through the entirely of his extra detention sessions.  Buffy’s interactions with Spike were doomed on BOTH sides of the equation, and even my beloved Victoria couldn’t make it work with the giant pretentious turbo-douche that is Ted Moseby (although he does get a little credit for growing up to be Bob Saget.)

The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) remembers the time that Tony Stark’s armor flipped out and turned into basically an abusive boyfriend, asking:  What otherwise attractive pop-culture character would make the worst romantic partner?