Thank you, pschearer, for the enlightenment. After reading the Wikipedia article on sumo (the salt purification thing is quite a ways down the article), I sort of get it. Or it makes a little more sense, at least.
Actually the alloy is correct, too. At one point the comic claimed it was an “adamantium-vibranium alloy,” but keen-eyed readers realized that adamantium came after Cap’s shield was created. There was one small little backup story in the Avengers title where Jarvis is using a laptop to catch up on email traffic, and he notes that Cap’s shield does NOT contain adamantium at all; rather, adamantium was created in an attempt to recreate the unique vibranium steel alloy of Cap’s shield.
And “flair” came before Facebook. (Besides, the Pieces of Flair app is on MySpace now, too.)
And I, too, appreciated Captain Victorious (from the Ink Pen strip) making a cameo. (And he is colored correctly, since he’s not The Flash.)
It’s the return of Sammy Squirrel!