As people (including me) have been speculating for months, a press release from Marvel Entertainment yesterday made things official: Spider-Man will join the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Looks like it’s a collaborative arrangement, with Sony continuing to produce and finance the Spider-Man films, though in collaboration with Marvel Films, who will help to shape the creative direction of the franchise, and integrate it into the larger Marvel film universe, with opportunities for cross-over across studio boundaries. This is a big deal, and it looks like it gives all parties a bit of what they wanted.

Marvel has shifted it’s phase 3 release dates around a bit, presumably to allow for the next Spider-Man film to land in July 2017 (a spot formerly held by Thor: Ragnarok), though the talk is that the “new” Spider-Man (presumably re-cast) will first appear in an MCU film, potentially even the fast-approaching Captain America: Civil War. I expect that such an appearance wouldn’t be more than a cameo (I still like my suggestion from a little while back for a post-credit tag, but that’s my ego showing), but it would open the door.

I expect more details in coming days and weeks, but overall, I think this is good news; it’s time for Spider-Man, arguably Marvel’s biggest character, to come in from the cold, though I’m glad it’s taken a while, allowing other characters to develop first.

It’s an exciting time to be a comic fan.

Let’s hope so.

Things started settling down at the office by Thursday afternoon (in case you hadn’t figured it out, we had what you can euphemistically call an “IT emergency” involving a shift into round-the-clock crisis management mode and contingency planning for a couple of days). I managed to get my regular Friday off (after having logged over 40 hours on the clock by Wednesday afternoon), and though I was “on call” all weekend, the call never came.

On Friday, I got to breathe a bit; or was at least a different kind of busy. Not so much crisis-management as “catching up on life.” I paid some bills (as well as allocated my tax refund to it’s mundane but noble purpose – paying down debt), did some shopping (including getting a new pair of Doc Martens, which I’ve been suffering to break in all weekend), and took my spouse out for a wonderful, amazing, relaxing meal at Ipanema Cafe, a neat little hole-in-the-wall basement establishment downtown that serves amazing vegetarian food for her birthday, which was on Tuesday (and got subsumed into the crisis wrangling last week).

Really, it was the being at work all day well into the evening on Tuesday that threw me the most – I’ve been pretty consumed with trying to get acclimated to the new job and learn everything as quickly as possible since the new year ticked over, and I haven’t exactly been the most available in other aspects of life, which has been the source of a lot of inner turmoil. Getting caught up in a crisis (not of my making) that kept me from doing something nice for Colleen’s birthday (or even seeing that much of her that whole week) hit me hard.

However, I think it’s getting better.

This week coming up looks normal, so far. We might even get some musical adventures in, as some folks we know are trying to get a beginning ukulele group going: I’m jumping in as a slightly-better-than-novice, and this weekend’s shopping adventures involved a stop by the music store to pick up a cute little soprano uke for my lovely wife, who’s expressed an interest in trying it out.

So, yeah, let’s visualize “normal”…I could use some.

Lots of things going on occupying most of my time this week that I can’t really talk about. I’m kind of forgetting how to be a whole person rather than just a professional reacting to continual workplace crises. When I do remember how to be a person, it’s not too long before I realize I’m failing at proper relationship maintenance. Those affected are understanding and patient, though I still feel bad about the circumtances.

Let’s just say there haven’t been a lot of laughs these last couple of days.

But, I saw this image this morning, and it kind of broke the seal for me:

After this little kitten came into my life, I managed to have a laugh with a co-worker, then I kicked ass in a briefing. I’m feeling a bit better.

Thanks, steampunk bazooka kitten, thank you.

“The most important thing about the Fantastic Four is that this is a movie about a family.”
-Josh Trank

So I watched that teaser trailer the other day. It was interesting; it sure looked pretty, even if it didn’t quite look like the Fantastic Four (I refuse to acknowledge FANT4STIC at all except to dismiss it in this parenthetical sentence). If anything, it looked rather generic, in an early 21st century prestige science fiction film sort of way.

I don’t dislike it, necessarily – 90 seconds doesn’t give you a heck of a lot to work with. That one quick shot of the team (including an apparently pantsless Ben Grimm), as you can see above, looks nice and iconic, at any rate. If there’s any comics link here, it’s to the early issues of Ultimate Fantastic Four, which was an interesting take on the property, if not my favorite*.

I guess you could say I’m intrigued, if not completely enthusiastic. I do like the quote from the director highlighted above (taken from this filmmaker commentary on the teaser trailer, which is apparently a thing now), which hints at the fact that they maybe get it, even if this aspect doesn’t show up in this trailer full of dour voiceover and maudlin piano.

show me a little more of the family dynamic, and I might buy into this yet.

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*-I’m not a huge FF reader/collector, though I did enjoy Matt Fraction’s recent run with dueling Fantastic Four and FF titles (especially FF, with the alternate Four of Ant-Man, She-Hulk, Medusa, and Darla Deering, mostly for the Allred art).

Because some significant superhero media news came out on Monday, and I have thoughts!

♦- David Tenant as Zebediah Kilgrave/Purple Man in AKA Jessica Jones (I’m calling it that, even if it doesn’t end up being called that; it’s a great title for a long-in-development property) series going to Netflix is really good casting. I’m going to assume you probably don’t know who either Kilgrave or Jones are, which is a safe thing to do. Jessica Jones was the lead in Alias, a Marvel comic series a few years back about a broken down former superhero coming back on the scene as a private detective; very noir-ish. Jones went on to become a mainstay of Marvel comics (at least as written by Brian Michael Bendis, who writes lots of ’em), getting her groove back a bit, and marrying Luke Cage. Kilgrave is an early Daredevil villain with pheromonal mind-control powers. More modern interpretations have him as a manipulative, awful, and rapey bastard, who was largely responsible for Jones’ breakdown.

I like it, because Tenant can definitely play the charismatic manipulative bastard pretty well; his Doctor wasn’t far off, as much as the fangirls would hate to admit. I expect him to go to some pretty dark places, which should really work. My interest is further piqued.

♦- The other big bit that I care about is the bit of news leaking about Fantastic Four, which is out in just a couple of months and no one’s seen a damned thing, except for a couple of strange statements about containment suits, Doctor Doom as a blogger, and some against-type casting. It’s not been that long since the FF left the screen (two fun, but flawed and relatively unsuccessful films), and Fox needs to get another one out there in order to not lose the film rights. this one’s directed by Josh Trank, who did Chronicle, which was an interesting low-fi “found footage” superhero flick. It sounds like the same “grim and gritty” aesthetic is being applied to the First Family of Comics, and that has a lot of fans (including me) worried, especially since things are generally so quiet.

A bit of stuff came out recently, including descriptions of the suits (not sure what to think, but they seem dark and sci-fi), and Trank throwing around adjectives like “Cronenbergian”, powers as “disabilities” and citing filmic influences like The Fly and Scanners. Now, I can trace the lineage of this influence; Lee and Kirby were definitely influenced by the 50s and 60s monster and horror comics and movies when they came up with the FF; lots of pre-Marvel comics (go look up the first appearances of Ant-Man and Groot as “the monster from Planet X” sometime) were just that. A 21st century reboot looking back to 80s horror flicks and playing up the body horror creep factor makes a certain sort of sense. It could be interesting, but it won’t be the Fantastic Four without the family dynamic or inherent optimism of discovery, which nobody’s mentioned thus far, and that’s what concerns me.

I’m curious, but I maintain that the best FF adaptation would be a 60s period piece. Interestingly, if the FF ever end up back at Marvel, the 60s is an era they haven’t done much with just yet – an era of super-science exploration might slot into the MCU nicely between Agent Carter’s 40s, the upcoming Hank Pym 70s flashbacks, and the modern era.

UPDATE – with a link to today’s FF trailer I haven’t actually watched yet.

♦- And finally – a hate group has managed to place a bunch of islamophobic ads on buses in San Francisco. Some practitioners of civil disobedience have taken to “improving” these ads by covering them with more positive messages and images of Ms. Marvel, the perky teenage superhero currently headlining one of Marvel’s best ongoing books (who just happens to be muslim). I would never condone vandalism, though if I were to condone vandalism, it would be this kind of vandalism. 😉

So…another one of those lamented (at least by me) “look at what I did on my weekend!” posts.

Had an okay week at work. I have an actual assigned desk now, which is something; the box of office supplies and documentation is now out of the back of my car and reinstalled in the new office (forty feet from my old one), at least for the moment. The biggest challenge is that my lead contractor rep (the genius who does or coordinates all the actual work) is out for a while because his wife had a baby; his team is awesome and competent, but none of us have the depth or breadth of knowledge that he does, so we’re all playing catch-up a bit, especially since I’m still learning.

The good news is that I’m learning a lot, and quickly, and am quickly getting a picture of what my job actually entails (rather than just the official job description – you all know how it is), and I’m keeping the ship afloat, and not taking on too much water. Happily, my management chain seems to think I’m doing fine, so for the moment, I’m good.

I did have to come into the office on Friday for a couple of hours for some meetings (hopefully not a regular thing), but it was all relatively painless, and I managed to hand off something from my old job properly, rather than just sticking my replacement with something without explanation or instruction.

I believe in the campsite rule – leave things better than you found them*.

Friday night, we (Colleen, Mary, and I) met a few friends at The National Theater downtown for a new talent showcase for local bands, including, in particular, our friends Griff’s Room Band, who are awesome and you should totally check them out if they play near you. Give it a year, and these guys are going to be huge (they’ve got some big stuff working in the early stages).

The rest of the weekend was quiet, yet still productive. Saturday, it seems the con crud that had been running through the house finally took it’s turn with me, if only for a day (I got lucky on this one), so I stuck around the house, laid low reading the new Sanderson and doing laundry. Sunday I felt a bit better, but still stayed close to home. Did some grocery shopping, made some chili, edited another story for Local Magic (Which will be out soon, from Antimatter Press!), and did my taxes, since all the various players managed to get my stuff to me really quickly this year.

Not sure what’s on the docket this week. Probably more of the same, which, I suppose is okay. It’s life, and it’s maybe settling into a pattern again, assuming this weather system up north doesn’t crawl too far down into the mid-Atlantic. We’ll see.

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* – an easy thing to do, as most of my jobs involve getting hired to pick something up that somebody dropped and ignored for a year or more. That’s my life and career: cleaning up other people’s messes. Could be worse; I suspect as long as I maintain that skill set, I’ll never want for work.

So yeah, life’s getting in the way around here; not much in the way of time to tend to this little corner of the internet. I guess I should be honest; I haven’t been tending to this space with much real depth for a while now. I guess there are a couple of reasons for that.

The first thing I can think of is that I’m busy doing other things; maybe this place isn’t the outlet it used to be for me. I’ve got a vibrant social circle out there that I spend a lot of time doing things with in meatspace; most of my writing here anymore isn’t think pieces so much as “I did this cool thing over the weekend” or whatever; I like to think I’m still thoughtful, but I only have so many brain cycles to parse out amongst my various constituencies.

Secondly, I have more constituencies now. Besides home and family, work is eating up a lot right now; I’ve switched jobs on some level every year for the last four years, and the last two switches were a bit more drastic than most, as I jumped agencies and then job series – I’m spending a lot of brain power just figuring out my place in the work world, since the fruits of that labor let me do all the other cool stuff, plus sort of important things like food and clothing and shelter. The new job is shaping up; I’m learning lots, and don’t feel quite so lost, but in all honesty, it’s going to take a while to figure out how to be in charge of the program instead of just a cog within it.

Beyond shuffling the day jobs around with alarming regularity, I’ve picked up a couple of side gigs along the way. The cool stuff on the weekends and the vibrant social circles have turned me into a developmental editor of cool science fiction and fantasy stories, which is still kind of exciting. I’ve also fallen in with some excellent creative musician types, where I get to be a wrock star with some regularity, including this weekend, where in addition to a pretty kick-ass band show, I got to be part of some excellent jam sessions with the likes of Mikey Mason, Griff’s Room Band, and Valentine Wolfe. I’m getting to exercise my creative muscles in different ways, which is very cool, but doesn’t always lend itself to time to carve deep thoughts upon this canvas of electrons.

And finally, I guess, I’ve been doing this bloggy thing for almost twelve years. I wonder sometimes if I’m running out of things to say. When I do feel like saying something, it feels like I end up repeating myself quite a bit. I don’t know, maybe a decade and change is the most anyone can expect from one of these things?

So? Does this mean I’m done? I don’t know. I kind of doubt it (for one thing, my hosting bill is paid up for at least a year), but maybe I’ve come around to giving myself permission to let this space turn into something else. I’ll be just as surprised as anybody else.

So folks, tonight’s the Annual State of the Union address, as proscribed by Article II, Section III of the U.S. Constitution:

He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient

This “annual message to Congress” has been happening since the earliest days of the country, and became the traditional and largely formalized “State of the Union” address under FDR’s watch in the 1940s. it’s developed something of a pattern since then, enough to be somewhat predictable, at least enough to make a game out of it…like BINGO or something a bit more lubricated.

With that in mind, as I do every year, I post the rules to the annual State of the Union drinking game. Please be both civically engaged socially responsible.

Thanks to this story on NPR Sunday morning, my family has discovered PenguinWatch.org, a project through which researchers crowdsource science, appealing to the public to help classify hundreds of thousands of photographs of penguins taken all over the world via remote camera installations.

Basically, people can visit the web site, where they’re presented with photos, usually containing penguins. By clicking on the penguins to identify adults, chicks, and eggs, vistors help scientists to collate the images, and by doing so, track penguin populations’ size, movements, and breeding behavior.

My youngest child is currently obsessed with clicking on penguins; we’ve spent the last two evenings clicking on penguins to help the scientists. It kind of feels like a game; or at least it works like one, but the simple act of clicking on penguins gives us a chance to help animal researchers do valuable science, playing some small part in something bigger.

…apologies for the shitty transition

After two and a half weeks off, I returned to the office Monday, perhaps refreshed from my holiday staycation, though mostly wracked with low-level anxiety about the prospects of my new job, which also began Monday (the fourth time I’ve changed positions in four years…I hope to slow that down a bit moving forward). Going in, I rationally knew that I was qualified for this position, and that I’d be able to succeed, given my skills and experience. However, being not 100 percent sure what I’d be doing (or even where I’d be sitting) when I returned, I spent the last several days of my leave-taking sleeping fitfully, living with tension, and having lucid dreams about wandering lost around conference centers not knowing where the meeting I needed to attend was being held, and encountering spirits of jobs and careers past, all of them providing conflicting or nonsensical information…

I suspect most reading this have been there at some point. Right now, though, I’m waving hello from the cunningly-placed photo-op verandah. Hi!

All in all, though, the first day could have been worse. Sure, my supervisor of record wasn’t here, my (for lack of a better term) mentor* started the week working three states over, I still don’t have a desk assigned (I camped out in my old desk because as nobody scheduled a move, all my computer and phone hardware was still there), many simple housekeeping questions remain unanswered, and much of the org chart stuff that manifests via the email system and other things still show me assigned to my old job; but, with a few phone calls, pleasant conversations and emails, I managed to be sort of useful to an ongoing test effort, got a few security forms and access requests for all the new computer systems I’m going to need to get into filed, figured out where I need to show up on Tuesday, and most importantly, verified that Human Resources processed the promotion paperwork on time, so if nothing else, I’m getting paid the properly agreed upon higher salary this job brings with it.

All in all, I really do think this is going to be a good move. Eventually, the details will get sorted out and I’ll become a productive and useful member of my new team. Eventually.

If anything, I don’t necessarily recommend changing jobs right at year-end when most of the workforce is off on holiday. Should’ve seen that one coming.

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* – I’m not sure what he is, really, besides overworked. My position was created in part to take some of the workload off of his, and he’s the one who’s going to be providing most of the direction I receive until I get brought up to speed. He’s also the origin of the blockquote at the beginning of this piece. Imagine said line delivered with a bit of good natured shrug to punctuate things. Could be worse.