"underwear perverts" and other stories

via BoingBoing:

Marvel Comics: stealing our language
Marvel Comics is continuing in its bid to steal the word "super-hero" from the public domain and put it in a lock-box to which it will control the key...

Here's a proposal: from now on, let's never use the term "super-hero" to describe a Marvel character. Let's call them "underwear perverts" -- as Warren Ellis is wont to -- or vigilantes, or mutants. Let's reserve the term "super-hero" exclusively to describe the heros of comics published by companies that aren't crooked word-thieves.

Works for me! :) ...sex...

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via Strange Horizons:

The Flying Woman
The flying woman didn't fly above the clouds. "It's cold up there," she'd say, "and there's not enough air." She skimmed the roofs and treetops. Her legs dangled behind her, and she wore her wheelchair strapped to her back...

This is a great little story by Meghan McCarron. In relatively few words she manages to deliver a satisfying slice-of-life/super-hero/romance story.

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via MattFraction.com:

22 pages of the upcoming graphic novel THE FIVE FISTS OF SCIENCE, by Fraction and Sanders -- this one looks good. Here's the solicitation copy:

True story: in 1899, Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla decided to end war forever. With Twain's connections and Tesla's inventions, they went into business, selling world peace.

So what happened?

Only now can the tale be told-- in which Twain and Tesla collided with Edison and Morgan, an evil science cabal merging the Black Arts and the Industrial Age. Turn of the century New York City sets the stage for a titanic battle over the very fate of mankind.