#robert hunter

There is a road, no simple highway, between the dawn and the dark of night, and if you go, no one may follow, that path is for your steps alone.

favourite person squirrel girl has beaten?

(this is effectively literally everyone, superhero and supervillain, and also includes herself. at least that's what she's said)

also, what is your favourite/most-believable conspiracy theory?

Did you know that Squirrel Girl repelled Galactus once? Yeah, that Galactus. Consumer of worlds, big purple guy in a funny hat, possessor of the Power Cosmic. No, there's no photos of this. Yes, all we have to go on is Ms. Green's word for it (and that of several squirrels, but none of us here speak squirrel).

But apparently Ms. Green found another planet for him to consume, one that's appropriately on-brand for her, being full of nuts. I wouldn't say Ms. Green beat him, because you don't generally beat Galactus, just redirect him somewhere else, but it's still an impressive feat.

As far as conspiracy theories go...

I don't know if it's the most believable, but one that's definitely a persistent thorn in our sides:

(promo art for the short-lived New Warriors reality TV series, featuring Deborah Fields (Debrii), Namorita Prentiss, Robbie Baldwin (Speedbal), Zachary Smith (Microbe), Richard Rider (Nova), and Night Thrasher.)

(Screencap taken from drone footage at the moment of the Stamford Incident.)

There's a fringe conspiracy theory - not as popular as it was at its height, but still a pervasive undercurrent in any discussion about the topic - regarding the incident in Stamford, CT, that sparked the push for superhuman registration and the first superhero civil war.

I shouldn't need to contextualize this too much - anyone who was around then knows exactly where they were that day - but for the sake of posterity, here's what happened. Young adult superhero team the New Warriors had recently signed to a network TV deal for a reality show documenting their adventures.

On one such routine mission, they'd tracked down a group of minor superhuman criminals to Stamford, Connecticut. One of these, Robert Hunter (alias Nitro), normally a manageable threat, had, unbeknownst to the New Warriors, been taking Mutant Growth Hormone, a drug which exponentially increased his explosive abilities.

When Nitro was confronted, his powers ignited a school bus's gasoline tank, causing an explosion much larger than anything he could typically produce. Six hundred died that day, including sixty children, and three of the New Warriors.

In the wake of all of this, the media's knee jerk reaction was to blame the New Warriors and characterize them as attention-seekers and glory-hounds - this despite them being veteran heroes who weren't at all culpable in the tragedy in the end.

But there was another narrative that still persists to this day: the idea that the TV networks or even the New Warriors themselves staged this confrontation for views. The very thought is sickening, and doesn't hold water in the face of the facts.

Nitro was a fugitive from the then-recent breakout at the Raft who acquired illegal drugs to enhance his powers. The New Warriors were professionals at their jobs who weren't privy to this knowledge, and had no way to anticipate such a large-scale disaster occurring. The TV network had no reason to want to kill people for ratings, given that the resulting controversy would and did lead to the show's cancellation.

Bruce Hornsby and Bob Weir Recorded a Hornsby-Robert Hunter Song in 2025

- “This … will stand as our mutual final collaboration, and I will always cherish it,” Hornsby says of still-unreleased number

There’s an unreleased, Bruce Hornsby, Bob Weir and Robert Hunter song sitting in a vault somewhere.

The number, a Hornsby-Hunter co-write recorded in 2025, remains unreleased; its title still unknown. The pianist revealed the song’s existence in a social-media post paying tribute to his former Grateful Dead bandmate Weir, whose death at 78 was announced Jan. 10.

“We just worked together … on some new music and had a joyful time with it,” Hornsby said. “This piece … will stand as our mutual final collaboration, and I will always cherish it, along with all the times we played together through the years, from 1988 until last year.

“Sometimes it was pretty freaking magical. I love you, Bob, and will always fondly remember our many moments, so often transcendent, throwing chords and notes around in space, through the air, together.”

Hornsby, whose Range frequently opened for the Dead before he joined the group in 1990, called Weir “one of my favorite musician friends, and for that matter, one of my favorite people anywhere,” a person with “a warm, jovial presence, but with a mischievous look in his eye.”

Weir was as unique a musician as he was a person, Hornsby said.

“Weir had a completely original take on playing rhythm guitar in a rock band … he found the ideal and unique voicings and rhythmic style to underpin (Jerry) Garcia’s flights of fancy, and kept developing it through the years,” Hornsby said.

“Often when I played with them I wouldn’t play, just lay out, because I thought that the symbiosis between the two longtime partners was so evident and anything else added was unnecessary and possibly intrusive.”

Hornsby made no mention of releasing the just-recorded song, leaving a gaping hole in his post big enough to drive a truck-in.

Sierra Ferrell and Lukas Nelson perform 'It Must Have Been The Roses' by Robert Hunter/The Grateful Dead, at the MusiCares Gala 2025.

'It must have been those roses… and maybe the rotating stage, what a special night 🌹'