Episode 272 of the Letters Page: Writers’ Room: Mystery Comics Vol 2. #485

Let’s do our own stunts on some snakes

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Christopher’s here for the twenty-ex-ty-nines.

Christopher also gets to be a snob about the oddest things. Cultivate unique interests!

The “three years?!” thing is hiarious, considering they could just, like, change that.

Now I am imagining a yellow flag with Night Snake that says “Don’t Tread on Mainstay and Stuntman”. XD

A news reporter? I want to see Night Snake kidnap Tabitha Taft and then be like, whoa, hang on, what the heck is going on here, you’re supposed to turn into a snake!

This whole thing is delightfully stupid. XD I once again am enjoying envisioning the in-world creative process going more or less exactly the way they’re making this issue.

A snakier trap? Guys, it’s right there! Stuntman starts climbing a ladder, but then he falls down a chute! It’s right there! D:

Remember, kids, the first step to ethical snakification is consent!

“Why not ‘Snake Hunter’?” “No no, that’s not as good a name.” This is maybe my favorite hero/villain interaction, where the villain is not only a fan of the hero, but a nerd. I’m dying. XD

Yes! And it even comes around on the name, this is the best thing ever! Now I am a Night Snake fan.

Into the snake future, the snuture!

“Using hos knowledge of kung fu or whatever…” ‘Kung fu or whatever’ is absolutely Stuntman’s power set.

Using his knowledge of Shaq Fu or whatever…

Yes, so dumb, what an ending!

Faraliss, what a hell of an opening question.

Oh god, I very much want to see Ophidia messing with Night Snake. New topic idea! I feel like I am losing my entire mind! XD

Have we heard any discussion on Angel G. Moreau’s sexuality? I was idly thinking about this earlier, and now there’s this kissing letter…

Okay.

I know that I am biased but this was one of the best episodes ever and so much fun to listen to.

These two characters complement each other so well, it’s just such a great matchup. I was also really hyped for Night Snake to be fleshed out some more, and boy do I like what we got. He’s just so much fun.

So many cool moments! Night Snake being an Ansel G. Moreau fan who picked his name because of Night Hunter. The silly dialogue between them (“You’re supposed to do your own stunts” xD). Dante actually remembering/recognizing Ansel whereas the people he rescued DO NOT. A little black snake. The whole ending scene. Telenovelaverse Night Snake being canon. So many new plot ideas.

I thought I had sent at least two more Night Snake letters over the course of last year that were not read, so I am currently wondering whether I actually forgot to send them or whether they contained anything they didn’t want to talk about

Also Kate. Reading your post, and you’re on. fire. I love that flag idea.

Can this year get any better? Welcome to the club

My first Champions campaign back in the dim mists of Reagan Era America featured a PC hero made by one of my middle school friends named Snake Hunter. Because one of the main evil organizations was called VIPER, of course. And his secret identity was John Hunter, because we were thirteen. Or maybe twelve, not certain.

The celebrity hostages fighting the minions reminds me of the episode of Static Shock where Shaquille O’Neil guest stars. The bad guys try and kidnap Shaq but while he might be the biggest, slowest guy on the court, he is still a top-level athlete with more training than any punk mutant-gang member and they can’t lay a finger on him.

Ahh… the 2nd hand stories I could tell you about the Viper source book.
And Murderers Row + Assassins Directory.

Feel free, but it might be better to do so over on the Hero forums. I’m semi-active there as well, and (as someone who pretty much stopped with 4th ed) the Viper book was one the relatively few 5th ed books I bought owing to a soft spot for those Totally-Not-Cobra goofballs dating back to 1st.

When Christopher and Adam were talking about Nightsnake’s monologue they had him listing out what mutations a person might get from the snake serum, and one of them was “you might get snake ears, which is unfortunate”.

So then when the stars are fighting the randomly generated man-snake minions, the one Beyond-Zay is fighting should have like absurd Alfred E. Neuman ears stuck to its snake head, and that’s why that one is particularly vulnerable to her sonic attack.

Also, I just wanna say, intentional comedy is probably the right way to go with this story. Like, 2014 is the same year Guardians of the Galaxy came out in our universe; by that time we were well into the era when comic writers were self-aware enough to not really publish funny-on-accident stories. That seems more like an element of the 80s and 90s when comics were trying to be so self-serious that they sometimes stumbled into accidental self-parody.

Not specifically, but he has been depicting as being pretty flirtatious with various deadly women in Sentinel Comics (I want to say both Wraith and the Operative, and possibly Expatriette as well?), and I don’t recall him being equally flirtatious with men.

well, I suppose no man could match himself in any way

You just know in the Metaverse, someone wrote a fic for Ansel involving himself, a mirror, and the Divinyls hit “I touch myself”

From the original Shipping Editor’s Note:

Mainstay/Stuntman (with the comment that it’s surprising that Ansel’s into women - to which they reply that Ansel G. Moreau is into Ansel G. Moreau)

Since they couldn’t rule out a Stuntman/Grimm story, that leaves open the chance for Ansel to fall in love with his own reflection while playing the role of Narcissus. He’s somehow able to look beyond his tragically disfigured visage and pour all his acting skill into the part.

And… Scene!
Curtains
Thunderous standing ovation

Is this the first color art we’ve seen of Night Snake? I don’t remember him being flesh-colored. It’s surprisingly weird and gross.

That was exactly my reaction, too.

We do have the famous sorta-colored sketch in which he is more… sand-colored I wanna say? At least that’s how I’ve been reading it the whole time. And I (want to) think it’s still supposed to be something like that but that the lighting makes it look different.

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another thing I am thinking about is the implied story with Kris Shemsworth.
He is cowering in fear trying to escape and suddenly lunges forward with a haymaker. And taunts “You thought I was helpless, but I was ACTING!” Implying that is important to Kris to he can prove that he has the skills to project emotion not just look good.
I also imagine Meta-verse Chris Hemsworth loving it and petitioning that they also have a Thom Shmidelston actor show up.

I have to wonder what role Chris Hemsworth is most famous for in the metaverse. I kept thinking, “Ooh, he should clock a snake with a sledgehammer! Oh, wait…”

I was going to joke “James Kirk’s father, of course”, but the true answer might be that Strange New Worlds somehow comes out earlier than it actually did and he plays Captain Pike (with much apologies to Anson Mount).

I mean that’s a good question, does the MCU even exist in the metaverse? Is Chris Hemsworth even known for playing a blond viking god with a hammer?

In all seriousness, I don’t think it was ever said Marvel and DC don’t exist in the metaverse? Just that Sentinel Comics is way more popular even if they did.

Krish Shemsworth is just the name in the comic book, right? What is the name of the person in the metaverse?

It hasn’t been specifically said, but the History of Sentinel Comics videos specify that a superhero called The Centurion, created by GR Comics, was the first classic superhero in the metaverse, rather than Superman, and that the Wraith was the first hero to do the ‘Batman’ thing, so it’s probably safe to say that there’s no DC.

My assumption is that when History of Sentinel Comics releases, it’ll have a few competitor companies roughly outlined that serve as the primary Distinguished Competition to Sentinel Comics, whereas Marvel and DC won’t exist.

I want to know if Metaverse Christopher or Adam have recurring cameos in the Sentinel Cinematic Universe and if they have a single word exclamation that they’re known for there.

They hemmed and hawed about it for a while, but in one of the more recent episodes (some time last year, I think), they came right out and said that Marvel & DC don’t exist there. They said it quickly and off-the-cuff, though, so they may not have meant it literally.

Honestly even if Marvel exists, that isn’t what I asked – I asked if the MCU exists. If Marvel is a distant “also ran” in the metaverse, then it’s unlikely that they have a major movie franchise running alongside the Sentinels franchise, and thus unlikely that Hemsworth has played the Mighty Thor, which was pretty much the role that made him a household name.

Oh, right, I guess the metaverse names are the same as in our universe, the faked up names were for the comic printing.

well, the stories are short and apropos as yesterday was the birthday of Cliff “Doc” Christianson who wrote some of the first Viper book and was listed in credits of new Viper book. Not that anyone called him “Doc” except ironically as he just picked a nickname.
The modern Viper book included an updated version of the 999pt joke character that was not meant to get past the editor. They dropped the character that shows off his love of the Full Moon Puppet Master movies.

Maybe Hemsworth played Ra: God of the Sun. Would that be too self-referential?

Also! Because I did not catch this, but it coincidentally came up in another thread on another forum. Yesterday I posted:

The Centurion is, of course, the Superman-equivalent of Mutants and Masterminds Earth-Prime setting, published by Green Ronin. GR Comics is presumably the comics of the Freedom City setting and its heroes. With that in mind, maybe Chris Hemsworth is best known for playing Captain Thunder?

I think all of the other comic companies mentioned are other superhero RPGs.

Oh the number of jokes that can be recycled from Discworld. Like all the “self-inflicted” wounds when some idiots tried to rob a bar when Angua was there…

Angua and Alpha being besties in some weird crossover event is a thing I never knew I needed until you put it into my head.

Which is odd, because the Sentinels of Earth-Prime character cards have the Castle Comics branding.