Pathetic John Byrne has a nifty forum that I dip into every now and again. People post about comics, movies, television, and current events. It's also a great place to get some questions answered by someone who has worked in the field.

That having been said, John Byrne recently revoked someone's membership in his special club because of a disagreement about Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. This is a post from the thread Spidy 2 [sic] on March 1, 2005:

John Byrne (responding to Steven Clubb):

Sky Captain's plane was specifically modified (and stated to be so) to do what it did. Clearly the enemy fighters were not.

Helps to pay attention, instead of just picking nits.

+++++

Steven Club:

Oh, I caught that line, but it doesn't even begin to explain what I had just witnessed. Physically speaking, the impact at that velocity would be like running a car into a brick wall. Something conviently ignored when Sky Captain's plane hit the water (especially when I've seen *exactly* what happens when planes of that type hit the water in a bazillion WWII documentaries and there were no visual modifications to the airframe that would suggest that plane could survive such an impact--Angelina Jolie's aircrafts made the dive much more believeably IMO), but not ignored when the others did, *exploding* from the impact as one would expect. The scene was excessively jarring to me, and the after-the-fact explanation left a lot to be desired IMO and made the scene no less jarring the second time I watched it.

******

John Byrne:

So basically you're telling us that every time Superman punches thru a brick wall, you think "That's preposterous! He would break his hand!" and every time he flies you say to yourself "How stupid! Everyone knows people can't fly!"

Because, of course, you are so much smarter than the people who create the fiction, so you can arbitrarily ignore their explanations of what's going on if they don't fit your own idea of how things work. And, of course, doing so makes it easier to be pompous and full-of-yourself, doesn't it?

You know -- I have put up with your drivel for a long time now, but this is that proverbial last straw. I don't have the patience to wade thru crap posted by someone who is too arrogant to even buy into the basic conceits of the form.

If large masses of people start commenting on The Next Caped Crusader postings, maybe we'll be able to understand John Byrne's exasperation.
  ¶ 12:29 PM