Pariah

Hockey squared!

Jaime, bless his heart, went 0-for-the-season for me last time. I hope you have better luck with him. He's a great character.

Horse hockey!

"Glad you could make it, Dad!" -Jade

Do monkeys also have bytes?

In North America, basketball, ice hockey, and soccer have eastern and western conferences, based more our less on geography. Baseball and handegg each have American and National classifications which are nationwide.

Crafted from brass, you mean?

Same conference, different division.

All right, I'm finally ready to make my next pick now. Sorry it's taken so long; I was dealing with students all day. Bloody inconvenient. Anyhoo, we begin Round 7: The Color of Victory with Jennifer-Lynn Hayden, the superheroine known as Jade! All the powers of a Green Lantern, none of the tacky costume jewelry. Theme music: "Pulstar" by Vangelis Back to you, Lady Pariah!

The tea is gone. Why is the tea always gone?

I struggled with this pick. I knew coming in exactly who I wanted . . . and then watched Foreign Orchid snatch him away with the very first pick of the round. Kudos to you for having excellent taste. That's okay, I had backups. And then Psybolt took the one I would have leaned toward (had I had time) with the very next pick. Again, well done. So that left me with a dilemma: Who should I pick? The obvious choice was Batman . . . except that there seems to be a large anti-Batman movement here. He fared much worse than I would have anticipated last season. The hatred was surprising. He was out. Mockingbird, former agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and recent recipient of the new Super-Soldier formula, also held a certain appeal . . . but she fared poorly last season as well. Maybe residual dissatisfaction from how things ended with Hawkeye. Anyway, she was out as well. How about The Question? He's a big fan favorite, no doubt. But could he hold his own in a fight against some of the others who have been drafted in this round? I wasn't convinced. So who, then? There are plenty of square-jawed Nazi-punching mystery men from the Golden Age of comics--including the guy with perhaps my favorite superhero uniform ever--but so many of them are too obscure to draw a lot of votes. Other than Cap and, to a lesser degree, Destroyer, they generally haven't done well in the Arena. So what did I need? A non-powered hero who was instantly recognizable, skilled in combat, and universally loved (or at least respected). And then it came to me. He is one of the very first costumed crimefighters, arguably the original embodiment of the masked vigilante. His skills in combat are unparalleled, although he is just as likely to use his wits to defeat his enemies. His name brings joy to the weak and strikes fear into the hearts of corrupt leaders and criminals. He has been an inspiration for generations of other heroes, from Batman to Inigo Montoya and the Dread Pirate Roberts and beyond. And his mark universally recognized. My No Powers, No Problem pick: Don Diego de la Vega, El Zorro! Theme music: A bit of a stretch, perhaps, but I'm going with Al Di Meola's "Race with Devil on Spanish Highway". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-v__JkP3sg And now I really must get to work. I'll post the first pick of Round 7 at lunch if I can.

I smell a team-up!

I keep an extra pair of khakis (and an extra shirt) in my classroom closet, because my catastrophic spills usually involve something more unpleasant than food or coffee.

Black Panther was my anticipated choice for this round, with Moon Knight on my short list of backups. Sniped twice in consecutive posts. Shucks and similar commentary.

Is that really all you have to say?

Q: What's the difference between a riddle and a rhetorical question?

Whatever hits the fan, you may be certain it will not be distributed in an equitable fashion.

Good man!

A recent commercial here in the United States: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE0_GaLsX1Y

Sounds like an excellent time to pursue your long-held dream of becoming a pastry chef!

The last thing a frost giant ever sees....

Hillary's there.

Dorothy? Nah. She's terrible in a fight.

All right, then, let's kick off Round 5: 80s Night. This round's pick is a former New Orleans Harbor Patrol office and former Avengers chair. First appearing in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16 (1982), she is Monica Rambeau, Captain Marvel! Theme music: "Available Light" by Rush Back to you, Lady Pariah!