El D

That's all the difference needed though, since no one can actually prove any particular inspiration was taken in the creation of Manticore (or any other signature character). OP did this openly and in public, so for better or worse the arc will now always be 'My version of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.' At that point what they change matters less when the GMs already know it's explicitly based on someone else's IP. No amount of separation negates that admission. A GM might be able to allow wiggle room with character that could possibly be inspired by Magneto, but there's less room to work with 'So I made Magneto, and Toad, and Quicksilver, and Blob, and then changed X, Y, and Z to not get in trouble with the rules.' OP might be a fantastic writer whose AE arc for this concept could be amazing - as an X-Men fan myself I probably would enjoy playing it! - but if HC is operating under enhanced scrutiny and wants to put a better foot forward regarding these things, at a certain point someone was going to catch their attention. I will totally agree with the prior point that such threads and characters should be handled similarly and fairly going forward, though. Which may very well just be 'Hey, don't state it outright and we're all golden.'

Also possible! The cape was the only costume piece of Statesman's I couldn't find in Titan Icon, so there's no telling where the live devs hid it. It did get put in when capes were brought into the game though, so maybe it's actually slotted in the right spot.

My immediate thought is that Homecoming didn't have a direct, public agreement with NCSoft before, though I have no idea how many threads like this have been made since the announcement. Homecoming has also had a steady influx of new accounts given the amount of 'X joined the community!' automated messages I've seen, so that's also more incentive to mention that this kind of stuff is not tolerated going forward versus any new players getting the idea that it's acceptable. As for the signature characters, while some might be similar to various other fictional characters - to the point where any possible inspiration may be obvious to anyone familiar with them - the game doesn't go around explicitly stapling that to them or use it to advertise their content. An argument could be made that Manticore took heavy inspiration from certain DC heroes but he doesn't say 'Hi I'm Manticore - think a fusion of Batman and Green Arrow!' when you click on him in-game. Which is the point where OP slipped up. Regardless of how divergent the AE arc became, how much the names/costumes/gender/etc. got shifted around, the core will now always be 'INSPIRED BY MARVEL'S IP (WHICH YOU CAN MAKE IN COH)' because they outright stated that's what they were doing.

With how various NPC costume pieces work, the shoulder section and the cape might very well be a single piece. Statesman's Tights option has its own texture pattern and chest emblem, so the cloak could be a chest or shoulder detail with a special cape attached.

It's not an issue of 'like vs exact copy.' It's the matter of 'players connecting their creations in-game to an outside IP in any fashion is not allowed.' So waving a flag, shouting that they're doing it, and asking other players to help them do it, is a pretty solid recipe for HC staff to bring down the generic bat (or at least motion to it with obvious intent). Privately knowing your character or AE arc is a homage to [insert piece of media here] is fine. Everyone takes inspiration, even the original dev team that made the game did. Publicly posting about the exact IP - to the point of listing specific copyrighted characters and asking for guidance on how they could be made via in-game systems - is asking for trouble. There's no plausibility in the statement of 'Hey, how do I make Magneto?'

What Glacier Peak said, but more specifically - posting an open written record asking other players to deliberately aid in skirting copyright on the official public forum for the game is bad practice. HC doesn't need to invite any problems that might screw with their agreement with NCSoft and intellectual property is a pretty big one, so the HC devs and GMs don't tolerate or encourage any behavior of that sort among the playerbase. Also, some folks need to watch The Wire and learn the proper time and place to take notes.

Given the Valentine's Day tip, it's probably in Sally & Lusca's too.

Also: We need a DJ Lusca! Possible nebulous canon of the Valentine's Day tips aside, with DJ Zero seemingly confirming the accuracy of this and the vigilante ending of the Shauna Braun arc explicitly involving Lusca eating a dude, the idea of Sally being a known danger to the waterways around Paragon City actually has more merit than I thought (even tweaking the interpretation to them eating the tons of fish in the holds rather than the sailors). Though now I want to know how exactly Sally wrote that. Did she use her teeth? Hold a jagged bit of wood or anchor with her flippers? And how did the giant lake monster learn English? Or the giant octopus, for that matter? And why is Sally's writing style that of a teenage valley girl?

Much as the badge mechanics are arranged purely by in-engine constraints (it's a defeat badge, so something must be defeated to track it), Sally's perception in-game is odd in-general. The idea of the lake monster somehow being seen as the real myth in a zone populated with murderous fey, pumpkin men, storm witches, and moss-covered reindeer-wookies all from Celtic mythology feels really strange. Making Sally's badge be reward for vicinity and keeping her an event spawn with a timed route seems like a solid solution. It'd nix any quibbles about hitting her, allow easier badge acquisition for players, and remove a bit of the weird idea that she's somehow the most unbelievable part of Croatoa. 'Yeah, that's Sally. We have weekly sighting excursions planned on the university campus. Sometimes heroes come by and give her snacks.' makes more sense than 'Oh man, you got a picture of the mysterious Sally? After punching her in the face? I'll add this to all the others photo evidence we have and still continue to not believe she exists.' Actually, thinking about that, just make it so using /e cameraphone or /e camera near her gives the badge. That feels like a fun alternative for folks who don't want to smack the peaceful dinosaur.

Agreed! Jon Favreau would also be a very good option, especially given how involved he already is with writing and being an executive producer. Even the weaker aspects of his Star Wars content (certain sections of The Mandalorian and a hefty chunk of The Book of Boba Fett) are solid enough foundations to keep building with and showed how willing he was to work with other directors and performers. He also seems to align with Filoni in the aptitude for bringing in older Expanded Universe content, which is also a major plus.

Speculation is that should she step down then Dave Filoni will take over, possibly with more involvement from Kevin Feige, too. Whether or not that's a good thing depends on personal assessment of the MCU and current Star Wars efforts, which is a pretty fair mixed bag by this point. Filoni certainly seems to capture a strong amount of Lucas' original spirit for the franchise though and at minimum those two wouldn't go into another film trilogy without some kind of overall outline. The Mandalorian movie will probably be the make or break starting off point.

I'd argue that's what the progression of the films have already done. Connery's Bond has scenes that absolutely wouldn't have flown with Brosnan's and Craig's, for example, and that's reflection of 'Well, it's been 30+ years since the first films were made and attitudes changed.' Been the same amount of time since Brosnan now, and likely Craig once Amazon's stuff ever comes out. Though having mentioned it, I wouldn't even mind them going back to the rougher content of Connery's Bond provided they actually contextualize it in the story. Have the woman Bond 'seduces' be in on it from the start, perhaps an informant, and they're both playing a role for the mission rather than Bond having his way with the umpteenth Bond girl because the script says they just can't resist him. Bonus points if it's also to play into the expectations of the antagonists. As far as Amazon changes go, I'm willing to wait and see. Fallout and Reacher are pretty solid, earnest adaptations that don't shy away from more intense content (variances in tone aside). That makes me doubt they'd full on neuter Bond, at least not unless they do Casino Royale again...

A well-adjusted person doesn't react to horrific acts of violence - especially ones they directly caused - with a witty one-liner. It makes him a fantastic spy and action movie protagonist in that he's capable of committing incredible violence when the situation calls for it in a way that entertains the audience, but it's pretty sociopathic. As is reckless behavior, disregard for authority, rampant sexual activity, lack of empathy, likeliness to abuse alcohol, and a disregard for social norms. A lot of which is heavily enabled by MI6 and his work as a spy, certainly, but it's still a pretty solid checklist for Bond's character (really only missing 'English accent, tuxedo, and gun'). Overall that feels like splitting hairs (and not from black to blonde, like when they went from Brosnan to Craig) but I will concede that - at least in-regard to Bond's personal outlook - the distinction is fair enough. He's not a member of the He-Man Woman-Haters Club or some raging incel, but he still has a pretty steady disregard for women, mostly seeing them as sex objects or distractions. Though, that being a reflection of Bond's own MI6 warped perceptions rather than a personal belief would be an interesting avenue to explore. Bond sees himself only as a 'useful weapon' so that's how he comes to view everyone else. The Craig era went into that - Bond himself being disposable for MI6 and what the work takes from the spies - but didn't really delve into that beyond 'And thinking about that makes him quit and retire. Again. It'll stick this time, we're sure.' I don't want them to change Bond or remove these things, I just want them to do more with those aspects by this point. Explore these things in the actual narrative, rather than just go through the motions or gloss them over.

Supposedly Lord Recluse's voice was done by Sean Michael Fish AKA Manticore from the original dev team - though whether this is just for the in-game monologue or also for the trailer I don't know for certain. It definitely sounds similar enough, though. The other guy is Foreshadow. He's got a very different outfit in-game than the one used in the trailer.

If you're in combat and it's gone so badly you're spamming at icons to stay alive to the point where you hit Secondary Mutation for a random 'Save Me!' hope... You were already going to be defeated. If you're hitting it in combat just because you forgot to use it at the start of a mission and get monkey'd, well...