A rubric of four factors for engaging fictional choices, looking at the March issue of Empire magazine, the five chapters of the Dr. Pepper promotional comic, two Zack Snyder interviews, and more.

Answers, insights, and commentary on:

* Exchange, Stakes, Context, and Preference (ESCaPe)

* Who came first: Darkseid or Thanos?

* Batman as the Bad Guy

* Naughty Wonder Woman?

* Are promo comics canonical?

* Batman's relationship to Gotham PD

* Superman's impact on geopolitics

…and more.

March 2016 Batman v. Superman Exclusive | Empire

"From the World of Batman v. Superman" promo comic | Dr. Pepper

The Hall of Justice Podcast #28 Zack Snyder | Seth Everett

Zack Snyder on 02/04/2016 | Opie with Jim Norton

$5 Fandago Credit with proofs of purchase | Dr. Pepper

Batman v. Superman Collectible Cans | Dr. Pepper

Justice League Unlimited | Warner Home Video

Justice League: Doom | Warner Home Video

All Star Superman | Warner Home Video

Wonder Woman | Warner Home Video

Sid Meier on Interesting Decisions | Gamasutra

Comic Book Artist magazine | Wikipedia

Batman v Superman To Get Day-And-Date China Release | Variety

History of Ideas - Failure | School of Life

Season 5 Episode 14: The Ring | Last Man Standing

Web: ManOfSteelAnswers.com

Twitter: @mosanswers

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Happy Lunar New Year! - Version 2.0

Warner Bros. Pictures and DC Films presents: Dawn of the Justice League on the CW. Analyzing DC's strategy, rebranding as DC Films and the Justice League Universe, new Batman v. Superman footage, first look at Wonder Woman, and breaking down the first official Suicide Squad trailer set to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.

Answers, insights, and commentary on:

* Bridging the gap from Man of Steel to the Justice League

* DC Films and the Justice League Universe

* Superman and Batman from conflict to comrades

* Wonder Woman and the pedigree of epicness

* The influence of rock on Suicide Squad

* Suicide Squad trailer breakdown

…and more.

DC Films Presents: The Dawn of the Justice League | CW

Suicide Squad Official Trailer 1 | WB Pictures

Suicide Squad Official Trailer 1 - High Bitrate | 3GB warning!

Charles Roven Talks Character Balance | Collider

Queen: The Story of Bohemian Rhapsody | BBC

Debbie Harry and Harley Quinn Comparison | DCCU

David Bowie & Grant Morrison's Joker | ComicBuzz

Neil Gaiman Writes a Final ‘Love Letter to Batman’ | Wired

Urban Search and Rescue - X-Code | Wiki

De gustibus non est disputandum | Wiki

Under Pressure | Queen and David Bowie

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Twitter: @mosanswers

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Stay warm!

Reaction to the first two Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice television spots.

Answers, insights, and commentary on:

* Humor in TV spots

* Kevin Smith on the CW special

* Spoiler definition and policy

* Riding the wave into BvS

* Marketing

* Audience and family react to BvS during TFA

* Lex Luthor sponsored content

* Mad scientists and Tesla

* David Goyer on fatherhood and Man of Steel

* Joseph Campbell quote in Superman's costume

…and more.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - TV Spot 1 | WB Pictures

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - TV Spot 2 | WB Pictures

The Suicide Squadcast | Tim & Scott

Variations on Shylock by David Suchet & Patrick Stewart | Matt Bracksieck

FAT MAN ON BATMAN 009 | Kevin Smith

The Lowdown interviews Zack Snyder | Obsev

Anne Hathaway's Batman advice to Jesse Eisenberg | Total Film

Nikola Tesla: Strange Genius

American Icons: Superman | Studio 360

The Writers Panel #238: David Goyer | Nerdist

Michael Wilkinson at CCXP 2015 | Omelete

Building Better Cities - TED Radio Hour | NPR

The Power of Myth | Joseph Campbell

Skullcrusher Mountain | Jonathan Coulton

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Twitter: @mosanswers

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A breakdown and analysis of the Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice Trailer 2.

Answers, insights, and commentary on:

* Viewing this as a villain trailer

* Unpacking Superman and Batman's views

* The merits and faults of each hero's position

* Lex Luthor's performance

* Deferring to military expertise on the battlefield

* Defending Doomsday

* Setting expectations

* Analyzing the sneak peek

…and more.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - Trailer 2 | 3.4 GB warning!

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - Official Trailer 2 | WB Pictures

Batman v Superman - Exclusive Sneak | WB Pictures

Batman v Superman Trailer Introduced by Ben Affleck | GMA

Blitz Spirit: Britons Who Refused Shelter | BBC History

Turns Out Spoilers Are Good For You | NPR

Pluto, Pixels, & The Psychology of Spoilers | Verge ESP

DC Graphic Novel and DCU MFV Uber Collection | Warner Home

Teen Titans Go! - Two Parter: Part Two | Amazon Video

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A shorter holiday episode.  Being thankful, grateful, and appreciative.  Diving into the mailbag.

Answers, insights, and commentary on:

* UFC 193: Rousey vs. Holm

* Lois's hair color

* Superman's character arc in BvS

* Will Superman be a moral ideal in BvS?

* Does the title Batman v. Superman denigrate the heroes?

* Seeing the Fortress of Solitude again

* PG-13 Rating for Suicide Squad

* Magic's effect on tone and realism

* Maintaining suspense for nonlinear stories and period pieces

* Steve Trevor in modern day

* Setting Wonder Woman during The Great War

...and more!

How to make a smart TV ad | Freakonomics

Dana White & Tony Hinchcliffe | Joe Rogan

How can you drive across Antarctica | BrainStuff

How to create suspense | Freakonomics

Cosmic Queries Science Fiction | Star Talk Radio

Justice League Unlimited Complete Series Blu-Ray | Warner Archive

Juvenoia | VSauce

The Professor in the Cage | Jonathan Gottschall

Producer Charles Roven Reveals the DC Brain Trust | Collider

What's the Meaning of Life | Where There's Smoke

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Twitter: @mosanswers

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How can Jor-El fight or beat Zod?  How could Clark fight and win?  We look at Kryptonian culture in the first five minutes of the film for some answers and challenge the assumptions raised by these questions.  Insight into Zod's character and Clark's perseverance.

Answers, insights, and commentary on:

* Martial arts driven by genre and tropes

* Having genre literacy before criticizing

* What we learn in just the first 5 minutes

* The many martial trappings of Krypton

* Jor-El and Zod were friends

* Jor-El proves he can fight

* Krypton relies on projectile weaponry

* Feudal and warrior culture influence on Man of Steel

* Are scientists and warriors are mutually exclusive on Krypton?

* Jor-El as Kryptonian nobility

* Would Zod have different training than Jor-El

* The folly of Kryptonian society

* How does Kal-El know how to fight?

* How Zod's training contains disadvantages

* How the final fight inspires

* Speculating on Batman and Wonder Woman's fighting styles

...and more!

Torquasm-Vo | wikia

Torquasm-Rao, Klurkor, and Horu-Karu | io9

The Professor in the Cage | Jonathan Gottschall

Why Men Fight | RadioWest

The Brain: The Story of You | David Eagleman

The Brain with David Eagleman | PBS

Man of Steel Blu-Ray Release Q&A | Yahoo Movies

Jesse Eisenberg on Diane Rehm Show | Scott Brooks

Snyder at Bob Kane Walk of Fame Ceremony | Variety

Nerdist Podcast: David Goyer | Nerdist

Producer Charles Roven Reveals the DC Brain Trust | Collider

Kelly McGonigal: How to make stress your friend | TED

Free Throws | Surprisingly Awesome

Web: ManOfSteelAnswers.com

Twitter: @mosanswers

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Creative choices.  The tornado scene intended a "cave of questions" to organically shape Clark's character, rather than 12-years in an actual literal cave.  Exploring why the alternatives of Jonathan living, saving a child, or dying of natural causes frustrate this intention.  How to find themes and how this scene fits-into and supports those themes.

"If you wanted and expected sameness, perfection, tradition, and safety... why in the world would you ever invite an alien immigrant into your life?  The alien immigrant represents something new, different, foreign, and challenging."

Answers, insights, and commentary on:

* Jonathan dying a hero or in a clearly unavoidable way issues

* What the tornado teaches Clark better than the heart-attack

* Nonlinear telling softens tragedy and sets the stakes for following acts

* Interpretation beyond creator intent

* The pain of birth is worth the potential

* Organic is better than engineered

* How the film shows multiple facets to every profession

* Defying film formulas to set stakes

* Japanese art of Kintsugi and its philosophy

* How Superman and Batman approach brokenness differently

* Remembering brokenness and restoration in religion

* Should Superman be more unbreakable than Jesus?

* The climate of angst that gave rise to Superman

* How an immigrant hero in 1938 causes cognitive dissonance

* Superman's heritage of controversy and questions

* Kintsugi applied to the tornado scene and Batman v. Superman

...and more!

A Thesis on Man of Steel | Reel Analysis

Bring On The Learning Revolution - Ken Robinson | TED

Introduction to Kintsugi | Unknown

Kintsugi: The Art of Embracing Damage | Nerdwriter1

Why Superman Will Never Be Cool | Cracked

Cognitive Dissonance | Wikipedia

Commentary! "Heart Broken" LIVE | This American Life

Dr. Horrible Commentary! "Heart Broken" | Joss Whedon

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Judgment.  How emergency decision-making works; Judging those decisions with justice, fairness, and reason.  Compassion, empathy, grace, understanding, open-mindedness, and the willingness & imagination to entertain other perspectives definitely helps... but we systematically analyze the unconscious processes that account for fast, intuitive decisions with science and real-life examples.

Primarily a diegetic analysis, we use seven questions as our framework:

Why didn't Martha let Hank out?

* Why did they go for the overpass?

* Why go back for Hank?

* Why didn't Jonathan send Clark?

* Why didn't Clark act?

* Why did Jonathan hold up his hand?

* Why did Clark abide by that?

Answers, insights, and commentary on:

* The wisdom of knowing that you don't know and uncertainty

* The Dunning-Kruger Effect and the Impostor Effect

* Cognitive biases like hindsight bias, anchoring effect, priming, risk aversion, etc.

* Deliberate and elemental analysis for fair judgments

* Reasonable Person Standard with the same knowledge, experience, and circumstances

* Why don't we use a perfect person or optimal behavior standard?

* The Emergency Doctrine

* The Myth of Overpass Safety in 1997

* Neuroscience behind why we love our dogs

* The tragic tale of Tubby and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge

* Flaws with incomplete utilitarian analysis

* Hesitation with moral dilemmas regardless of the math

* Clark as an unemancipated 17-year-old minor

...and more!

Science & Psychology of Fast Intuitive Decision-Making, Cognitive Bias:

Thinking, Fast and Slow | Daniel Kahneman

How You Really Make Decisions | BBC Horizon

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking | Malcolm Gladwell

Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics | Richard Thaler

Links:

Can You Solve This? 2, 4, 8 | Veritasium

The Dunning Kruger Effect | Wikipedia

Killing Babies, Saving The World | RadioLab

Cognition: How Your Mind Can Amaze & Betray You | Crash Course

Highway Overpasses as Tornado Shelters | National Weather Service

Oklahoma's Deadliest Tornadoes | PBS Nova

The Power of Myth | Joseph Campbell

Galloping Gertie | 99% Invisible

Cognitive Bias Song | Brad Wray

Web: ManOfSteelAnswers.com

Twitter: @mosanswers

Subscribe: iTunes / RSS /

A road map for breaking down the tornado scene, the dialogue in the station wagon, the implications of "safe", remarkable parenting, priming and its effects on the present, and a terrible-not-even-close Mark Waid impression.

Answers, insights, and commentary on:

* Getting your facts straight before judging

* Why safe is good

* Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

* Why Clark's limits weren't tested

* Assuming Superman's invulnerability

* Keeping Clark safe from what?

* Jonathan's forgiveness

* What if there was no tornado?

* What is priming?

* Ulysses Contract

...and more!

Superman Kryptonite | Darwyn Cooke & Tim Sale

Killing Babies, Saving The World | RadioLab

#Priming | YouTube

The Inquiry | BBC

Confidence Driven Decisions - Peter Atwater | TED

You v. You | RadioLab

Web: ManOfSteelAnswers.com

Twitter: @mosanswers

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Sonic booms and other collateral effects of flying at super-speed, showing Lois's investigative skills in the search for her rescuer, the cemetery scene, an analysis of the structure of the first act, and the psychology of selflessness and killing.

Answers, insights, and commentary on:

* Larry Niven's critique of Superman

* John Hodgeman and Neil Tyson on nostalgia

* Beneficial collateral effects and power evolution

* How Lois tracks Clark and shows skill

* How long the investigation would have taken

* How and why Clark tracks Lois to the cemetery

* How the first act reaches a new status quo

* How the first act structure reinforces the theme of identity

* Why heroes don't necessarily need origins

* Why film can be silent on psychology but not comic conceits

* Revisiting themes from 1988

...and more!

Science Vs. | Wendy Zuckerman

If superpowers were real: Super Speed - Joy Lin | TED Ed

What if Quicksilver Ran Past You? | VSauce3

The sonic boom problem - Katerina Kaouri | TED Ed

Flying Fast, Flying Quiet | NASA

Black Box | RadioLab

The Adventures of Superman | BBC

Are all Hotels the Same place | Idea Channel

Tips from Bob Woodward on Investigative Journalism | Washington Post

A Psychoanalysis of Clark Kent | Emory University

What makes a superhero? - Stan Lee | TEDxGateway '13

I Need A Hero | RadioLab

Soldiers of Conscience - POV | PBS

Superman on Trial | BBC

New Stu | RadioLab

Web: ManOfSteelAnswers.com

Twitter: @mosanswers

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