Geekmas II: Gimcrackery.

Every year my department at work has a pot luck luncheon combined with a Secret Santa gift exchange. One of my co-workers is very much a Christmas person, and as such invests a lot of time and effort* into decorating our boardroom and arranging the Secret Santa draw and so on. However, this year there was some discussion about the continuation of the Secret Santa tradition.  As someone quite accurately pointed out, “We’re all adults who make a reasonable wage, we can buy ourselves a $25 bottle of wine if we want to.”

The sad truth behind their observation is that it can be very difficult to buy a small gift for someone that you only know through work, which leads a lot of people to fall back on alcohol, the gift that keeps on giving.  I've been quite fortunate - my public reputation as a geek has done quite well by me with Secret Santa, as I’ve pointed out in previous postings.  This is the first year that I’ve received anything close to a duplicate of an existing possession – I received another figure from the CubeBot line – but that was followed up today by what I assume to have been the contents of a late-arriving parcel.   Coincidentally, when I came back to my desk after discussing the efficacy of the Secret Santa concept, I discovered a Doctor Who Floating TARDIS Pen on my desk.

Now, let’s be brutally honest.  The little collection of pop-culture geek gimcrackery that adorns my computer desk at home would be considered trash by most people, a pointless collection of dusty toys.  But for me they all have little stories. There are icons and memorabilia from my longstanding hobby, echoes of my childhood that would otherwise be forgotten, and, in the case of things like the Doctor Who pen, some of them represent a little bit of recognition from someone who has gotten to know me well enough to get me a little piece of shared memory – even if it is in secret.

Thank you, Santa.

- Sid

P.S.  The licensed manufacturers of this pen have a lot of confidence in their product, even if they've taken a slightly old school approach to it.  The packaging includes a twelve month guarantee for the pen, which is a long time to expect a pen to survive.  Surprisingly, pen owners seeking restitution cannot simply send an e-mail, but must write a letter - presumably using another pen.

* Time and effort which does not receive enough acknowledgement - thanks again, Meadd!

"No, you'll shoot your eye out."

For fans of A Christmas Story, I give you Superman #14, with an ad for the infamous Daisy Red Ryder Cowboy Carbine on the back cover, "ready for Christmas".

- Sid

The Infinite Reference.

 After seeing Guardians of the Galaxy in August, I made the following comment:

To my educated eye, it's not so much a movie as a huge teaser for Avengers 3 - and yes, I realize that the second Avengers movie isn't even out yet.

and posted the following comic book cover:

 

Since then, Marvel Comics has boldly announced its Cinematic Universe movie lineup all the way up to May of 2019, which includes, among other things, the third Avengers movie, the two-part Infinity War.

All evidence indicates that the Infinity War storyline is going to deal with Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet - kudos to me for figuring that out in advance.

Patting myself on the back now out of the way, let's look at the logistics.  In my August post, I also listed a lot of the background information that I felt Marvel would need to deal with in order to lay the groundwork for the epic struggle that will take place with Thanos the mad Titan.

Guardians of the Galaxy makes a good start on that process.  We finally get some more information about Thanos, who makes his first appearance in the end scene from the first Avengers film, we meet his daughters Gamora and Nebula, we are introduced to the Kree*, and generally get an introduction to the universe that lies beyond the boundaries of our solar system.

However, if they want to stay close to the original plot of the Infinity Gauntlet story, there is still a lot of ground to cover, and that's what four of the other seven movies in Marvel's post-2015 lineup will probably be taking care of.

One of the central characters in the Infinity Gauntlet story is Marvel's Master of the Mystic Arts, Doctor Stephen Strange**.  Check, the Doctor Strange film, starring noted otter-lookalike Benedict Cumberbatch as the Sorcerer Supreme, is scheduled for November of 2016.  In May of 2017, we'll see the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel, which will undoubtedly continue to explore the extraterrestrial milieu introduced in the first film.  The first Infinity War film will debut in May of 2018, followed by Captain Marvel in July.

Captain Marvel is an interesting character - or characters, more accurately.  The original Captain was an officer in the Kree military who later gained cosmic awareness, battled and defeated Thanos, and then died of cancer.

However, during one of his adventures on Earth, he was caught in an explosion with a U.S. Air Force officer named Carol Danvers, who gained super powers as a result, eventually joined the Avengers as Ms. Marvel***, and later took over the name of Captain Marvel after his death.  In fact, over time three or four different people have used the name, but I gather that the movie version will feature Ms. Danvers in the titular role.  This confuses me a little, since the cosmic awareness Captain Marvel is the one who spent the most time dealing with Thanos, Gamora et al. It will be interesting to see how they reconcile the different versions of the character.

Following Captain Marvel will be The Inhumans in November of 2018, paving the way for the second Infinity Wars film in May of 2019.

This particular part of the lineup was quite a surprise to me - the Inhumans, leaders of a hidden race of experimental superbeings created by Kree experiments millions of years in Earth's past, have always been somewhat marginal characters in the Marvel Universe.  On the other hand, so are the Guardians of the Galaxy, and that gamble worked out very well for Marvel.

Personally, I would have replaced The Inhumans with a movie featuring Adam Warlock: the gold-skinned character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, who was recreated as a tortured anti-hero by Jim Starlin in the 70s and was a pivotal element of the Thanos/Infinity Gauntlet plotline.  There are a couple of visual references to Adam Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy during the scenes that take place in the Collector's lair.

This entire process has been a field day for long-term comics fans. As this posting makes clear, Marvel been loading up the movies to date with all kinds of overt and covert references to what's going to happen - provided that you're in a position to recognize them.  However, not all of the Easter Eggs are part of the game.  For example, I'm completely confident that Howard the Duck isn't making a return to the big screen.

- Sid

* In case people weren't paying attention, Ronan the Accuser, the villain in Guardians, is a rogue member of the Kree Empire.

**  In case people weren't paying attention in The Winter Soldier either, Stephen Strange is one of the people that Jasper Sitwell lists when discussing Zola's Algorithm in the rooftop scene.

*** Ms. Marvel is currently a 16 year-old Pakistani-American girl from New Jersey named Kamala Khan, Marvel's first Muslim character. Times change.