#Avengers4 trailer: #AvengersEndgame

10 years, over 20 movies (IIRC), and it all comes down to this.

This is gonna hurt.

Death Cult is coming. The official release is next week, so you might want to pre-order it now.

Avengers: Infinity War Trailer

Time to take a look at what next big thing Marvel has in store for us.

Okay, we're going to open with a bit of recap to Avengers 1,

Let's see, Strange and Wong finding a confused Banner -- which means it's probably something that takes place after the Ragnarok tag scene....


Scarlet Witch giving ... a human-looking Vision a look that might lead to some comic-book related spoilers.

Ugh, black Black Widow? Oh well. There were a half dozen or so in the comics.

Hulk, Iron Man, with Strange in the Sanctum Sanctorum.  Heh heh heh. Though the stairs need work.  In the original Infinity War comic, it did pretty much start with Strange.

Spider Man ... are the hairs standing up on his arm supposed to be Spidey-Senses? I didn't see Homecoming.

Hmm, Loki handing over the Cosmic Cube to (probably) Thanos. Who could have seen that coming... oh, yeah, everyone who saw Thor: Ragnarok.

The CGI on Thanos is ... not bad. He looks like a video game character. Though I'm surprised they went with him without the headpiece he usually wears in the comics.

Oooh, the Iron-Spidey armor! Not the gold on red from the comics, but I like it. Somehow, it looks even more canonical than the clothe version.

"Evacuate the city, engage all defenses, and get this man a shield" .... Okay, that's cool.

... Okay, Thor in space. Whatever.

Okay, and the Vision is sort of screwed. I just hope that taking the gem out of his skull isn't going to be the end of the character. I actually like what Bettany has done with him, and I'd like him to come back.

We also have Thanos with the gauntlet, but he hasn't yet collected the whole set. Which is good, because that might be the moment we get a lot of actors retired from the MCU.

There's also Bucky standing with Wakanda soldiers. Again, not a surprise. Even I guessed there might be something to that after Civil War happened... And then there's the Falcon joining in the same battle, with Hulkbuster Iron Man, and I see War Machine. Yeah, if Wakanda doesn't have an Infinity stone, I will be shocked.

Heh. And Thor, with the Guardians of the Galaxy.  Heh heh heh. Well, this is going to get strange.

If I'm going to lay money on this, I'd say there's an infinity stone in Wakanda, and much of the movie will be to get the band back together in order to stop Thanos from getting the last stone. But that's just a guess on my part.

Either way, looks like it's going to be fun.

Marvel at #SDCC 2017: Captain Marvel, Thor, and Infinity War

This will not be a comprehensive look at everything Marvel had at San Diego Comic Con this year.

In part because they dropped an Avengers trailer during SDCC .... and it's been leaked, and taken down in short order. It's come back and forth from being released online, and taken down.

So, to start with, the most important piece of news ... Punisher will be in The Defenders.

And if he isn't, they've got a trailer to explain (the 60 second mark)

Well, that didn't add much ... but show us that Stan Lee is still alive. Good for him.

And now, we've got Thor: Ragnarok

I was a little worried that they were going to be focused on the wrong things in this one. I like that Bruce Banner appears in the trailer as Bruce Banner. It could have been all too easy for them to have the not so jolly green giant have all the screen time. But seeing Mark Ruffalo is reassuring. And ... is that Hulk versus Fenris? Really? Huh.

Though I'm amused that Jeff Goldblum is even in the franchise now.

I especially like how Loki is revealed here. I was wondering how they were going to handle it. Also, gee whiz, they're using GUNS. Heh.

But, damn it, I want to see how Doctor Strange shows up in the film. I'd rather it would be more than just a glance at the end.

Again, we've got more of a humor vibe here, with our opening to the trailer. Definitely more of a Guardians, over the top vibe here.

Also the Avengers Infinity War trailer opened with the Guardians running into space debris ... Thor. Who looks pretty much like he does here, only far more run down.

Speaking of Avengers Infinity War, it's got some poster art.

So, there's that.

In other news, they're discussing Captain Marvel. In the comics, Carol Danvers, air force fighter pilot, was kidnapped by aliens called the Skrulls, experimented on, and turned into a neigh-invincible, flying juggernaut who shoots lasers out of her hands.

In the Cinematic universe .... Captain Marvel will be set in the 1990s.

... What?

Okay, it's been confirmed that the Skrulls will actually show up. They've been wary about showing another alien race here. Though I'm wondering why they haven't used the Skrulls before this, given that they've had ample excuses and opportunities to do so. Especially since, in the Comics, the Skrulls have been at war with the Kree (of Guardians) forever ... why were the Kree at war with the Nova Corps in Guardians? But I suppose that legal issues have been settled, and Captain Marvel will settle the Kree-Skrull war? Who knows?

The film will also star Samuel L. Jackson with two eyes. Because the 90s.

Yeah, I have no idea why they'd set it in the 90s. The actress they have for Captain Marvel, Brie Larson, looks like she's 12. Unless they're going to say that the powers have slowed down her aging ... but if that's the case, where the bleep has she been through: three alien invasions, a robot army, and a SHIELD meltdown?

The answer is probably ... IN SSSSSPPPPPPAAAAAAAAAACCCCCEEEE.

But we'll see.

All in all, it looks like Marvel is going to stay on top for a while. As long as you don't count their network TV shows. Those just look like they suck.

Marvel after Guardians 2: Where do we go from here?

After Age of Ultron, I did a post on the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Where would it go, what would we see? What would the movies consist of?

I did the same thing after Captain America: Civil War ... which was only last year. Huh.

I didn't do anything after Doctor Strange ... though I don't recall why. Probably because it didn't have a lot to add.

It goes without saying that everything from here on out is going to have spoilers for the franchise to date. If you've seen Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2, the only spoilers will be speculation that I might get right. Also, perhaps some comic book spoilers.

If you don't want spoilers, STOP NOW.

Now then, where were we....?

After Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2...

Infinity Gems in The Line up

Throughout the series the Infinity Gems have been the major MacGuffin devices: The Tesseract / Cosmic Cube, the "mind gem" in Vision's head, the "Aether" of Thor: The Dark World, Guardians of the Galaxy delivered one to the planet of the Nova corps.... and Doctor Strange showed us a gem in the amulet of Agimotto.

Which means there is still one infinity gem left out there.

Given everything that's happened thus far, I'm surprised how little Phase 3 has been about the build up to Avengers: Infinity War.  Especially considering how little Thanos has made an appearance. The main villain, Thanos, has been a background character in three films: Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Age of Ultron, and that's about it. And yet, he's barely been involved. A little more on this later, but ... Thanos is supposed to be the villain behind everything since Avengers (okay, not everything, he's not Moriarty, but still): he provided Loki an army, unleashed a crazed Kree on the universe, and .... he showed up for a second after the credits of Age of Ultron. That's it.

On screen, we know nothing about his character, his goals, or why he wants the gems.

At this point, I'm seriously wondering just how much screen time Thanos is going to have in the upcoming films. By the time Inifinity War comes up, we will have been building towards him for a decade. (Iron Man came out in 2008).

The lineup thus far is

• Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
• Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
• Black Panther (2018)
• Avengers: Infinity War Part I (2018)
• Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
• Captain Marvel (2019)
• Avengers: Infinity War Part II (2019)

If you're wondering what happened to the Inhumans movie, Agents of SHIELD happened, that's what.

And yes, Spider-Man, even though he's shared by Sony, will be part of the MCU from here on in.

We'll also know that there is one Infinity gem left in play.

I'm going to cut out everything that isn't new, so check out the previous post to get the full story.

Where is Thanos? 

My mind is blown at how we didn't see any hint of Thanos or the infinity gems in Guardians 2. Nebula complained about how Thanos abused her growing up. But he's barely been in this franchise. Despite his appearances, even in Ultron, all he's done has been to back Loki in Avengers and the Kree in Guardians. He's had a handful of lines in the three films we've seen him in. If he's had a full page of dialogue, I'd be surprised. At best, he's a consulting supervillain.

I expected that Guardians 2 would at least have had Thanos attacking the Nova Corps to get the MacGuffin gem from GotG.

The last Gem

I was surprised that they didn't use a single gem as a plot point in Guardians 2.

Infinity gems we've done:

• The Cube (Captain America, Avengers) currently in Asgard
• The Eye (Doctor Strange), currently with the rest of the sorcerers.
• The Aether (Thor: The Dark World), last seen with the Collector
• Mind Gem (Age of Ultron), last seen with Vision, 
• Purple Gem, (Guardians of the Galaxy), with the Nova Corps  

There is still ONE MORE GEM kicking around.  So where the bleep is it.

Is it possible that we can see the last gem in...

• Thor: Ragnarok (2017)? Possible, but I doubt it. Asgard already has the Cube. Though I suppose Hel could be using a gem to trash Asgard.
• Black Panther (2018)? Gee, what does Wakanda use for a power supply?
• Avengers: Infinity War Part I (2018)? Could they be holding off until this film to reveal the last gem? Not impossible ... not sure if it's likely. I'm told that Thanos will have the whole set by the end of this film... but they could be lying.
• Captain Marvel (2019)? It's not impossible, given the premise of Captain Marvel. More on her later.
• Avengers: Infinity War Part II (2019)? Again, Thanos should have everything by the end of the first part. So we'll see. Marvel lies.

I suppose that they could easily hold off on the last gem until Infinity War part one. That way, we can unite Marvel cosmic with Earth bound Marvel.

Adam Warlock

There was only one reason for the the writers to have brought out the Sovereign race (the gold people) to be in this film, and it's setting up Adam Warlock, as I said last time.

Who?

This guy.

As I predicted, they're following enough of the original 1991 Infinity Gauntlet storyline that Adam Warlock made a cameo. Who is he and what does he do? Well, having read the Infinity Gauntlet comic ... I have no idea. He was designed to be the perfect creature, and was trapped in one of the infinity gems for a while, giving him a tight connection to the Gauntlet.

.... A connection he won't have time to develop at this point. Which is going to be strange. But then, it's Marvel Cosmic. It's all strange.

Celestials / Watchers

Stan Lee's cameo in this one is stranger than usual, as he's talking to a race of large, big-headed creatures. They're called Watchers and they're supposed to observe reality, even though they're really powerful, and could probably warp reality whenever they like. Earth's watcher is named Uatu.

The Watchers are Celestials, which Ego, the Living Planet, is. A celestial is, as it sounds -- a celestial being. They're all powerful, beyond reason, even. Galactus, who literally eats planets, is one of the least powerful Celestials. One of the other Celestials makes a cameo appearance in the movie, mostly by name -- Eternity. Yes, In the Marvel Cosmic universe, there is an entity called Eternity, which is the embodiment of all of space and time.

In the original Infinity Gauntlet storyline, the celestials went up against Thanos, armed with the gauntlet. This included Eternity.

Thanos won.

Consider this a moment, and just consider how deeply everyone is screwed.

The Ravagers

Yondu's people, the Ravagers, are either space pirates or space rednecks, depending on who you listen to. The cameos included Sylvester Stallone, Ving Rhames, Michelle Yeoh, as well as a magic user.

Does anyone think that Marvel wants to waste these three actors on cameos? They are heavy hitting actors, after all.  And one of them uses Doctor Strange level magic.

I don't think so either.

My best guess right now is that they're an army that they're holding in reserve for yet another end-film epic space battle. I had originally considered that, if anyone uses the Defenders in a film, they'd basically be holding off footsoldiers. It could be that they use Ravagers instead, depending on the context.

But yeah, I could see another space battle with the Ravagers to the rescue. We could see them in anything involving Marvel Cosmic -- Ragnarok or Captain Marvel.

Ragnarok

From what I can see, Thor: Ragnarok will serve as I predicted -- performing the same purpose as Civil War by moving players off of the chess board.

At least PART of Ragnarok should have Thanos. At the very least, it should have him in a final, post-credit scene in which he goes through the wreckage of Asgard, coming up with the Infinity gauntlet, and probably the Tesseract. It would basically be the final post credit scene from Age of Ultron. 

Since GotG 2 only talked about Thanos, this must be the movie that shows off what a threat level he truly is. Yes, I know that the one attacking Asgard in the trailer is a woman named Hel, or Hella, but if she's sent there by Thanos ... well then, if she's a lacky, imagine what he's like as the boss?

Doctor Strange

Again, Strange has an infinity gem.

But, more importantly, we know that Strange ends up helping Thor (and Loki) in the post-credit scenes of Strange's film.

So....

1. Does Thor come to Strange in the middle of Ragnarok?
2. Does Thor meet up with Strange between Ragnarok and Infinity War and we don't see what happens? Thor just shows up and bellows, "This is Strange! He is a mighty warrior and friend! Who helped me find Odin!"
3. Or do Thor and Loki come to Strange during Infinity War?

Good questions. No idea. It all depends on how they want to play it. I'd like to see Strange in act 3 of Ragnarok, but I can't guess too

Black Panther

Again, check the previous post on this one.

Again, possibly, this might have Infinity Gem #6. Because let's face it, Wakanda has to run on something  as a power source.

Avengers: Infinity War, Part I

Depending on how this plays out, by the time this film opens, Thanos will at least have one out of the 6 gems-- and my bet is on the Cosmic cube.

It might be easy for him to get #2 from the Collector.

It'll be trickier to get #3 from Xandar. In short order, the Nova corps will be under attack in the first half of this film. Unless Thanos is going to bluff and trick his way into the good graces of the Nova corps -- however, since some people already know the name Thanos (like Drax) I think it's unlikely he can just smile and charm his way through the front door.

In short: expect a full on war as the opening gambit.

Obviously, it won't be too much like that. Remember, Thanos is playing a long game, and the opening of Infinity War could be similar to the opening of the first Avengers: a little bit of a monologue about the plan. Maybe they'll show us Thanos as a villain connected to the rest of the films, and his motivations along the way?

But after Asgard, the Collector, and the Nova corps, Thanos should be on his way to Earth. Vision has the Mind gem, and Strange has a gem of Time. If Thanos wants to collect the whole set, he has to go through the wielder of at least one, if not two gems.

Which means Thanos is going to have to go through a half dozen low rent Avengers (ie: Iron Man's Avenger team)and the sorcerers of Doctor Strange.

As I said last time, I suspect the bulk of this movie will be picking up the pieces of Civil War, bringing everyone back on board. I suspect it will also bring Stephen Strange into the Avengers (whatever may or may not be left of them).

Expect the last scene of the movie to have a money shot of every last superhero gathered in one space with the obligatory "Let's get to work" or even, maybe,just maybe, "Avengers, ASSEMBLE!" Yes, that would be one crowded room.

If I took Marvel seriously when they insisted that Coulson would be back for Avengers 3, right after "Avengers Assemble," Coulson should appear out of nowhere and answer "Whatever you say Captain."

.....But I don't have have that much confidence in them.

For all I know, this one could open with Thor crashing into Earth after Ragnarok, and playing Paul Revere: Thanos is coming, Thanos is coming! It's time to mount up.

At the end of the day, part one should be about getting the band back together.  The Russo brothers (in charge of the franchise right now) have already said that more characters will be coming in with this one. That would make a certain level of sense.

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

The fact that this sequel takes place in between films makes me think that Thanos may not be on Earth by the end of Infinity War Part I. Otherwise, nothing else would be going on.

Though it's possible that the film will take place before the opening of Infinity War, but who knows?

Though the end of this one might have an Avenger knocking on his door saying "Suit up. We have work to do."

Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers is, essentially, an Inhuman (as seen on Agents of SHIELD) an alien weapons program that tried to turn other races into living weapons of death.  In the AoS franchise, the official Inhumans license is due to the Kree ... in the comic books, the Skrulls created Captain Marvel, but we haven't seen the Skrulls, because Fox still has the license for them.

If we're going to do yet another flipping origin story (please God, no), we may start with Carol Danvers being abducted by aliens to be experimented upon. She gets powers, she gets loose, she goes to town on her captors as she fights her way back to Earth.... or she can get a ride back to Earth in an after-credits scene with Christ Pratt. Perhaps.

If the GotG aren't already in Infinity War part 1, I will lay money, right here, right now, that Carol Danvers will be given a ride home (in a post-credit scene), by the Guardians. Because this is another way to bring this particular band of misfits to Earth.

Right now, we need a link between Marvel Earth and Marvel Cosmic. Thor and Marvel are really the only places that it can happen outside of Infinity War.

Infinity War Part II

Welcome to the End of All Things.  This should be the biggest, baddest, most epic shootout ever.

Again, I've heard that Thanos will have every gem by the end of Infinity War Part 1. Yes, I know it's not the title anymore, so shoot me. I don't have a better one, unless it's Infinity Quest.

But since we were told one thing and got another for Guardians 2 (Facebook remembers all), I'm not going to place money on being told the truth from anybody at Marvel.

So my options are.

1. The Avengers are in a beat-the-clock chase to collect all the Infinity Gems before Thanos can get them, 
2. We're going to defend the gems of Earth!
3. "Thanos has all the gems, and the gauntlet, and we're screwed."

If it's #3, this might be their excuse to start recasting certain actors (like Robert Downey Jr., who is both awesome, and getting too old for this, and reaching 9 Marvel films by this point).

Yes, Infinity War #1 could end with Thanos getting the final infinity gem. Except I've read the original comic book. Think of it this way: any one of these gems seen thus far can destroy a planet, if not the universe. Now collect all six....

It will be bad for our heroes. In the comic, when Thanos had all six gems, he won. Against everybody. And then he did something truly stupid.

Obviously, the people who have gems will feature heavily in this one.  Vision and Doctor Strange may not be enough, even if they're both at their full potential.

If they're lucky, this battle will take place in outer space, and not on Earth.

If it takes place on Earth, let's hope it takes place in a desert that doesn't have a lot of people.

Also, remember all of the street-level fighting that happened in The Avengers? If the Russos really want to play ball with every character ever, then we should have NetFlix meet up with The Avengers. Especially since The Defenders show up this year. They could dealwith the street-level, "Save the civilians" work while the heavy hitters try to stop the threat. However, given how little interaction there has been, I'm not holding my breath.

My money is more on the Ravagers acting as the infantry.

I think that's all I have right now. We'll see if I'm right about any of this. But there are pieces of the puzzle starting to emerge, though I'm surprised at how many are still in the shadows.

We'll see.

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The Love at First Bite series. 

    

Thor: Ragnarok, a Teaser falls

For all those women who have been awaiting the latest in the Shirtless Hemsworth series, I give you: Thor: Ragnarok

In the original comic books, the Ragnarok storyline was all about getting Thor off the map for the Civil War event of 2005.

Mysteriously enough, at the same time, also before Civil War, Hulk was shipped off planet, via rocket ship, to land on an alien world where he would eventually rise to become ruler.  The title of THAT event was Planet Hulk.

I guess that the films decided that they were going to do two of them at the same time.

For those people who remember, when we last saw Loki, he was taking over Asgard disguised as Odin. And here, we see Hela, queen of Hel trashing Asgard. This version may or may not be related to Loki, like the original myths, but it's a really long story or Marvel doing whatever they like with mythology.

So, Hela trashes Asgard. Thor becomes a gladiator on an alien world but by Jeff Goldblum, and runs into Hulk. There will be smashing.

I suspect that the three act structure of this one will be-- Asgard is toast at the 40 minute mark, Thor, Banner and Loki are able to get away from the alien gladiator world by the end of act 2, and act three will open with Strange consulting/

Yes, Cumberbatch is confirmed to be in this movie as Doctor Strange. In fact, if you look at the IMDB page, the cast list starts with Loki, then Strange, Idris Elba's Heimdall, Cate Blanchett's Hela, and THEN, Chris Hemsworth.  He's getting fifth billing and he's the title character? Oy.  Obviously, this will not be in the credits for the film, they'll have a different arrangement, but still....

SPECULATION: As I said before, just going off of the title, this will enable Thanos to get his hands on the Tesseract / Cosmic Cube from Avengers. Or, as I said,

This means that Ragnarok will either have Thanos attacking Asgard, or will have Thanos in a final, post-credit scene in which he goes through the wreckage of Asgard, coming up with the gauntlet, and probably the Tesseract.

Now that we know Thanos is not attacking Asgard (directly), I expect that his post-credits scene from Age of Ultron will be the actual end of Ragnarok. 

With Thor going to other planets in this one, will Marvel take this opportunity to has him run into the Guardians of the Galaxy? I would, if only to bring them more into the fold.

Also, right now, we have five Infinity gems accounted for, there's one outstanding. When last we looked, Dr. Strange has one, Vision has one (putting two on Earth), The Collector has one, Asgard has one, and the Nova corps has one.

Guardians 2 and Ragnarok are perhaps the best opportunity for Thanos to get three out of six -- but there is Captain Marvel and two more Avengers films that should provide ample opportunity. At the very least, I expect to see the final infinity gem revealed this year. (Yes, I also said that it's possible it could show up in Wakanda. If it doesn't show up in the main MCU films this year, that's the only option left)

But we'll see.

Speaking of superhero like topics
My books
The Love at First Bite series. 

    

Movie Night: Rehearsal for Murder

This was a made for TV movie from the 80s that was a star-studded mystery, from the actors to the writers.

The writers are Levinson and Link, the men who created Columbo and Jessica Fletcher,

The lead actor is Robert Preston (The Music Man), starring as a writer who suspects that his wife's suicide was really murder. A year after her death, he has assembled the men and women of his wife's final performance in order to not only prove she was murdered, but also prove who did it.

This stars Lynn Redgrave (yes, one of those Redgraves), William Daniels (1776, Night Rider) as the producer, Patrick Macnee (Steed of The Avengers) as the last leading man she worked with, as well as a very, uh, uh, very, uh, young uhhhhhh, Jeff Goldblum.

This is one of the most brilliant pieces of writing you will ever see. And I know it's not Christmas-themed, but I'm not able to post Die Hard on the blog.

Also, if you haven't already, check out some of the books below. You might see some similarities in the writing. Heh heh heh.

Marvel after Civil War

After Age of Ultron, I did a post on the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Where would it go, what would we see? What would the movies consist of?

If Civil War is anything to go by, every film from now on has the potential to be an Avengers movie, so I should probably do another one.

It goes without saying that everything from here on out is going to have spoilers for the franchise to date. If you've seen Civil War, the only spoilers will be speculation that I might get right. Also, perhaps some comic book spoilers.

If you don't want spoilers, STOP NOW.

Now then, where were we....?

After Civil War, I am curious about how much the future films will be Avengers tie-ins.  Especially the Black Panther movie. But we'll get to that.

The Line up

As we've seen in the previous films, the Infinity Gems have been the major MacGuffin devices in the series. The Tesseract / Cosmic Cube was the main plot device in Captain America and The Avengers. The "mind gem" was in Loki's staff in The Avengers, and was responsible for Ultron. The "Aether" of Thor: The Dark World turns into a third. And Guardians of the Galaxy was driven by a fourth (held on the planet of the Nova corps).

For the record, there are two others out there. And there's a reason Why Avengers 3 is Infinity War, part one and two.

Phase 3 will be all about the build up to Avengers: Infinity War.  Why? Because it has to. To this point, the villain, Thanos, has been a background character in only three films: Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Age of Ultron, and that's about it.

Thanos is supposed to be the villain behind everything since Avengers ... okay, not everything, he's not Moriarty, but still, he provided Loki an army, unleashed a crazed Kree on the universe, and .... he showed up for a second after the credits of Age of Ultron. That's it. On screen, we know nothing about his character, his goals, or why he wants the gems.

From now on, Thanos has to appear in several of the upcoming films. Must. Why? Because by the time Inifinity War comes up, we will have been building towards him for a decade. (Iron Man came out in 2008).

The lineup thus far (and it's been changed in last year) is

• Doctor Strange (2016)
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
• Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
• Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
• Black Panther (2018)
• Avengers: Infinity War Part I (2018)
• Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
• Captain Marvel (2019)
• Avengers: Infinity War Part II (2019)
• Inhumans (TBA)

If you're wondering what happened to the Inhumans movie, Agents of SHIELD happened, that's what.

And yes, Spider-Man, even though he's shared by Sony, will be part of the MCU from here on in.

We'll also know that there are two Infinity gems left in play.

Dissassembled

They're all still running.

Civil War split the Avengers team right down the middle. In fact, odds are that Captain America won't be seen again in any film until 2018, because he and his people will be on the run. Bucky's on ice. Hawkeye will probably go back to retirement. Ant-Man is a fugitive on a good day anyway. In short, none of these people will be able to pop their heads up without getting it shot off.

Now imagine what happens when Avengers comes up again. That's a lot for them to overcome, considering the events of Civil War. Because trust me, what I know of Thanos, and the Infinity Gems, they're going to need all hands on deck. And then they'll need even more.

Which leads us to ....

Doctor Strange

With the infinity gems, supposition is that one of them is the "Eye of Agamotto," a talisman that Doctor Strange uses. He'll have #5 of 6.

Gotta catch them all.

Other data is TBD. I suspect there will be little tie-in to the rest of the series, outside of having an infinity gem.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

We're now at the point where Thanos must be explored as a character. Why? Because this is the Marvel Cosmic Universe, where Thanos mainly exists. And if Thanos isn't brought in at this point, well, he's barely been in this franchise.  Despite his appearances, even in Ultron, all he's done has been to back Loki in Avengers and the Kree in Guardians. He's had a handful of lines in the three films we've seen him in. If he's had a full page of dialogue, I'd be surprised. At best, he's a consulting supervillain.

GotG 2 would give him his moment to shine, and show off just how much of a badass he is.... Oh, hell, one of the last lines in the GotG movie was about Thanos. We should at least get a CV on this guy.

Personally, I think at least part of the plot should have Thanos attacking the Nova Corps to get the MacGuffin gem from GotG, if not getting his hands on gem #6.  However, if they're following the original 1991 Infinity Gauntlet storyline, I expect a man named Adam Warlock to appear here. Then they're really going to get strange ... Stranger, anyway.

Spider-Man: Homecoming

... Pass. I have nothing.

Seriously, how is Spider-Man going to have something that impacts the MCU? Beuller? Beuller?

Short version is that this will be a thorough introduction film, without any origin story. Thank God. That's the best part about Civil War -- Spider-Man will have already been invented. I don't have to see yet another Uncle Ben die. And they've done their best to avoid the line "With Great Power comes great responsibility."

We'll have to see what happens.

Ragnarok

Dollars to doughnuts, Thor: Ragnarok will serve the same purpose as Civil War did. It's going to start moving players off of the chess board. It'll at least be something else to overcome for Avengers: Infinity War. Because not only will this have Thor, it will also have Bruce Banner in the cast.

Yes, I know Natalie Portman won't be back for the next film, and honestly, who needs her? When We last saw Thor fly off, he was going to investigate his visions in Age of Ultron, with the potential end of Asgard and the Infinity Gems. Honestly, where would Jane Foster fit in all this?

Where would Bruce Banner fit? Easy. The "Tesseract" (the Cosmic Cube of the comics) emitted gamma radiation (Avengers), so expect the other gems to have something similar.

I suspect that part of Ragnarok will, in some instance, feature Thanos. Let's face it, right now, the Tesseract is being sheltered in Asgard. In fact, last time we saw the Infinity Gauntlet (the user interface for all six Infinity Gems), it was in the vaults of Asgard. Thanos has to get his hands on it somehow.

This means that Ragnarok will either have Thanos attacking Asgard, or will have Thanos in a final, post-credit scene in which he goes through the wreckage of Asgard, coming up with the gauntlet, and probably the Tesseract.

One way or the other, Thanos should end up with the Cosmic Rubix Cube, and we should see Asgard falling apart under the rule of fake-Odin. If GotG 2 just talks about Thanos, this must be the movie that shows off what a threat level he truly is.  If an entire civilization of aliens who are all on the level of Thor are going to get trounced by Thanos, what hope does everyone else in the universe have?

Black Panther

This will be ... interesting, depending on how they want to play it.

Option 1: Civil War 1.5.  Large chunks of Captain America's Avenger team (Secret Avengers, if you will) are hiding out in Wakanda. Since Wakanda is basically an entire country running on Stark-level technology, anyone who wants to get their hands on it will want a piece. This could be Hydra, AIM, or any other sinister organization.

Option 1a: People discover Bucky, on ice, in Wakanda.

Option 2: This has nothing whatsoever to do with Civil War, and will involve T'Challa dealing with people a) stealing Wakandan technology or b) peddling Wakandan tech on the black market. Expect to see Andy Serkis' character from Age of Ultron make an appearance. Probably with a cybernetic hand. After all, Serkis' character was a Mister Klaue (pronounced "Claw"). Insert your own joke here.

(Side note: In Age of Ultron, when Serkis has to deal with a CGI motion-capture character, you have to wonder if he thought So this is what it feels like to be the real character when the other is a green screen effect. He and James Spader must have an some interesting conversations. All I'm saying.)

My money is on some variation on #2. If Serkis isn't in the film at all, I'll be a little disappointed.

Unless...

Option #3 (a joke post): Black Panther moves to Hell's Kitchen to take over for Charlie Cox's Daredevil.

..... BWAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA.  It'll never happen.

(PS: If it does happen, I was only making a joke based off of Black Panther doing the same thing in the comics)

Possibly this might have Infinity Gem #6. Because let's face it, Wakanda has to run on something  as a power source.

Avengers: Infinity War, Part I

If my previous guesses are correct, by the time this film opens, Thanos will have 2 out of the 6 gems.

This should either bring Thanos to Earth, or he should be on his way by then. We know that Earth has the Mind Gem with Vision. If we're right about Doctor Strange, he's also got a gem.  If Thanos wants to collect the whole set, he has to go through the wielder of at least one, if not two gems.

As I said last time, the bulk of this movie will be picking up the pieces of Civil War, bringing everyone back on board, bringing Stephen Strange into the Avengers (whatever may or may not be left of them). Expect the last scene of the movie to have a money shot of every last superhero mentioned above gathered in one space with the obligatory "Let's get to work" or even, maybe,just maybe, "Avengers, ASSEMBLE!" Yes, that would be one crowded room.

If I took Marvel seriously when they insisted that Coulson would be back for Avengers 3, right after "Avengers Assemble," Coulson should appear out of nowhere and answer "Whatever you say Captain."

But I don't have have that much confidence in them.

In short: this one should open with Thor crashing into Earth after Ragnarok (assuming he hasn't been blasted into another plane of existence by then), and playing Paul Revere: Thanos is coming, Thanos is coming!

It's time to mount up.

At the end of the day, part one will be about getting the band back together.  The Russo brothers (in charge of the franchise right now) have already said that more characters will be coming in with this one. That would make a certain level of sense.

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

Will this feature Ant-Man on the run? No idea. Seriously, no idea. Though Scott Lang has been a fugitive so long, being wanted by the government might not be a deterrent.

But the fact that this sequel takes place in between films makes me think that, no, Thanos will not be on Earth by the end of Infinity War Part I. Otherwise, nothing else would be going on.

Scott Lang will probably be off doing something else of minimal importance in the middle of all of this.

No, Ant-Man doesn't impress me. Civil War was the first time I really liked him.

Though the end of this one will probably be an Avenger knocking on his door saying "Suit up. We have work to do."

Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers is, essentially, an Inhuman (as seen on Agents of SHIELD) an alien weapons program that tried to turn other races into living weapons of death.  In the AoS franchise, the official Inhumans license is due to the Kree ... in the comic books, the Skrulls created Captain Marvel, but we haven't seen the Skrulls, yet (or we have seen them, as the Chitauri, depending on who you listen to).

This can go a few ways.  The film can start with Carol Danvers being abducted by aliens to be experimented upon, and the powers she's given cause her to break loose and wreak havoc upon her captors as she fights her way back to Earth, thereby causing another uniting factor between Marvel Earth and Marvel Cosmic.

.... or she can be a bit player freed by the Guardians of the Galaxy in their sequel. Which may work. Maybe. 

Otherwise, if the GotG aren't already in Infinity War part 1, I will lay money, right here, right now, that Carol Danvers will be broken out, or given a ride home (in a post-credit scene), by the Guardians. Because this is another way to bring this particular band of misfits to Earth.

Infinity War Part II

Welcome to the End of All Things.  This should be the biggest, baddest, most epic shootout ever.  I'm not sure if it's going to be (1) the Avengers in a beat-the-clock chase to collect all the Infinity Gems before Thanos can get them, or (2) if it's them defending the last gem, or (3) if it's "Thanos has all the gems, and the gauntlet, and we're screwed."

If it's #3, expect casualties. A lot of them. In fact, this might be their excuse to start recasting certain actors (like Robert Downey Jr., who is both awesome, and getting too old for this, and probably reaching 8 Marvel films by this point, if not more).

Originally, I thought that the Infinity War #1 could end with Thanos getting his hands on the final infinity gem. Except here's the problem. I've read the script ... okay, I read the original comic book. Why will this be "bad" if Thanos has all of the gems?  Think about it: Any one of these gems seen thus far can destroy a planet, if not the universe. Now collect all six.  Yeah. It will be bad for our heroes. Unless someone can trick Thanos into being very, very stupid.

In the comic, when Thanos had all six gems, he won. Against everybody. And then he did something truly stupid.

Obviously, the people who have gems will feature heavily in this one.

In Civil War, Vision wanted to master the gem he wears. Expect Vision to master his gem here. Really master it.

Also expect Doctor Strange to feature heavily. He'll be on Thor-level power by then.

Also? Both of those might not be enough.

If they're lucky, this battle will take place in outer space, and not on Earth.

If it takes place on Earth, let's hope it takes place in Nevada, or the Sahara, or some other location that doesn't have a lot of people.

Also, remember all of the street-level fighting that happened in The Avengers? If the Russos really want to play ball with every character ever, then we should have NetFlix meet up with The Avengers. Especially since The Defenders show up the year before -- with Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, et al. They should be dealing with the street-level, "Save the civilians" work while the heavy hitters try to stop the threat. However, given how little interaction there has been, I'm not holding my breath.

If done well, this will be epic, with each Infinity War film being 3 hours or so.

If done poorly, expect a train wreck. But after Civil War, my money is on epic.

Inhumans

Who cares? We'll see if it even happens. Agents of SHIELD will have probably killed that franchise possibility, especially since the ratings keep dropping each season.

And let's face it, after the Agents of SHIELD and Infinity War, who will give a damn?

And that's ... all the guesswork I can come up with.

Strong Female Character Problems

You have probably already seen this Rogue One: A Star Wars Story trailer, but in case you missed it, here it is.

This inspired the question among some friends of mine: what the hell is it with these really freaking tiny women adopting the "strong female character" trope?

Now, if you've read my novels, you know that I have no problem with strong, kick ass women. I've defended against that stupidity from feminazis often enough. Look at my defense of women in military science fiction. Or my article on SFCs. Or when I beat up on the idiocy of Tor writer Liz Bourke.

On the other hand, there is a major problem with the Strong Female Character that's being used lately. Because, sorry, when I create a woman character who is ALSO a bad ass, I also make certain that these women are either a) not a size zero, or b) fighting in creative, indirect ways.

Why? A few reasons. To start with, even among well-skilled (and equally skilled) male fighters, the bigger fighter is probably going to win -- the odds are nearly certain. There's a good reason that Loki rarely, if ever, directly engages with Thor -- Thor has got at least fifty pounds of muscle on him. Depending on the comic, the Joker is not squaring off against Batman and exchanging punches most of the time, because Batman is twice Joker's weight.

Hell, if you have two pro-wrestlers, how many of them fight exactly the same? When you get out of different weight classes, the changes are extreme. But you're not going to have a 5'6" wrestler like Rey Mysterio take on the 6'11" Undertaker in a direct fight -- the smaller wrestler will be bouncing around the ring like a ping pong ball, and trying to catch him is a pain in the ass. Small people fight different than bigger people. Simple as that. If you're small, you go in, strike something critical, then get away from them as soon as possible. If you're big, you close with the opponent, and crush them.

So, why are women being treated so much differently than men in this area? Seriously, there are weight differences between men, but somehow, all women are allowed to fight exactly the same way as men in media, even though women are naturally 50-100 pounds lighter.

Granted, in some cases, this works -- when these well-trained kick ass females are going up against untrained hoodlums, there is no contest. That's superior skill versus brute strength. I'd take a dozen marines with handguns versus three dozen MS-13 members armed with SMGs any day of the week.

But, somehow, as I go through my collection of media, which grows larger with each passing day, the kick ass woman are getting smaller, and their opponents (many of whom are supposed to be of equal talent and ability) are getting bigger.

For example, look at Jaimie Alexander, who is basically playing Jason Bourne on Blindspot -- who can kick the ass of almost everyone she comes across. She is possibly better known as the Lady Sif in the Thor films.

Okay, yes, she's very pretty. But I didn't pick this photo for the underwear value. Look at her arms. Now look at her legs. Where's the muscle? She's 5'9", but she's also a toothpick. I am never happier than when she's using weaponry, because her shooting someone feels more believable than her bringing down a 6'3" thug with her bare hands.

Enter the other 5'9" female bad ass who has spent her days swinging a sword.

Yeah, I know Xena is a stereotype, but please look at these two actresses, and riddle me this, Batman, which one looks more believable in terms of being able to hold her own in general?

She's not a toothpick, she's not "a guy with breasts," and she had this bright light in her eyes right before she wiped the floor with everyone in a berserker rage, and she looked like she was having fun. (Yes, I'm ignoring some of the later seasons. I think I ditched the show somewhere around the time she met Lucifer ... or when she was crucified by Julius Cesar, after having only met King David ... yeah, that show hurt my brain after a while).

And even after all you do the compare and contrast in build, why are the "strong women fighters" straight-up brawlers? When you consider that not even all men fight like this, why are all women fighting like this? Are the stunt coordinators that stupid? (Unlikely). Or are the directors and writers? (That's where my money is).

Hell, the closest we have to a Lucy Lawless type these days is Adrianne Palicki. She, sadly, was wasted on a Wonder Woman pilot from David E. Kelly (seriously, who allowed the lawyer show guy to make Wonder Woman?), and is currently being wasted on Agents of SHIELD.  People who have better things to do with their lives might recognize her as Perkins from John Wick.

Note, from this photo, three things.

1) Her body type is not "Toothpick."

2) She is 5'11" in body armor.

3) She is holding an improvised weapon, because people who fight have weaponry.

Thank you. Was that so hard?

Frankly, I think I would have preferred her to being Wonder Woman in the films than Gal Gadot. Why? Because Wonder Woman was many things, but never a toothpick. Heck, I would have even taken Hayley Atwell (Agent Carter), who is 5'7", and not a size zero.

Does anyone remember Antje Traue from Man of Steel? I mean, look at this woman.

Oh wow, look! Muscles!

Height? 5'6"

Can we have her in some of these films? I know everyone in Star Wars is British, but still, can we make an effort here, people?

Seriously, Hollywood, what are you doing to get these toothpicks as actresses? It's very offputting. There's "thin" and then there's "good God, please eat a hamburger, I'm expecting you to break."

This is why, at the end of the day, the most believable kick ass woman in current  media is, well, Scarlet Johansson's Black Widow. Why? Because despite her being 5'3" (yes, she's that tiny), she's 1) not a toothpick and 2) she fights in so many varied and sundry methods and styles, she never takes someone on directly and / or bare handed. She's jumping on people and breaking necks, or dropping them with a gadget, or just shooting them.

Hell, remember Black Widow in Avengers, where she just stood square against Hawkeye and exchanged blows with him? Of course you don't, because it never happened. She jumped all over the place like a freaking rubber ball, and catch her if you can.

Don't get me wrong, there are places and points where not only should these smaller women be used, the can, and have, been used WELL.  Black Widow is brilliantly and intelligently executed. Remember Rey in The Force Awakens? She was tiny, short, and the managed to be victorious in her light saber duel because she fought smart -- she spent most of the fight strategically maneuvering to better positions, using her environment, and was fighting a partially trained Sith who had already been shot with the SciFi equivalent of a howitzer.

Frankly, the best points where getting these tiny, tiny women to perform great feats of strength is, really, science fiction or fantasy. Whether it's the Bionic Woman or Summer Glau as a Terminator, or Buffy the Vampire slayer, it's impressive because they're so small. Supergirl is fine, because, well, she's a freaking alien. But this isn't how normal people operate.  Hell, Buffy was supposed to be stronger than your average bear, and she still jumped around all over the place.

Why is Buffy the Vampire Slayer better executed than some of these more "serious" thrillers, like Blindspot?

(Hell, I'm actually surprised that Jaime Alexander isn't better built, considering she has to carry what looks like at least twenty pounds of plastic armor in the Thor films. I didn't expect her to be that tiny.)

For a moment, let's look at my books ... with normal characters, because I'm not counting the vampire as "normal." That's covered under my "science fiction and fantasy" exception.

(Though I should note, Amanda Colt is not the toothpick Jaimie Alexander. I think I would rather have Scarlet Johansson, if she were a little taller. Anyway...)

If you haven't read / don't recall The Pius Trilogy, I have three women who have gotten into fights.

Exhibit A) Wilhelmina Goldberg: Five-feet tall (really 4'11") Goldberg is a computer nerd. She used to work for the NSA, but went over to the Secret Service to audit security, since she's not tall enough to jump in front of Presidents. Her fights included: punching someone in the balls, and dropping low and cutting their Achilles tendons.

Exhibit B) Maureen McGrail: somewhere around 5'9 (because I don't recall), imagine Jaimie Alexander with about thirty pounds of muscle on her, and a broader frame. She's ridiculously over skilled. Even though she has more black belt levels than Chuck Norris, her fighting style boiled down to: attack joints, attack eyes, and deflecting, rather than blocking attacks.

Exhibit C) Manana Shushurin: 5'7" or so. Also insanely well-trained. Her primary form of fighting?Shooting people in the head. Yes, really. She may have gotten into three actual physical altercations in the entire trilogy, but most of the time, she just shot her enemies. Because bullets are your friend.

Seriously, at the end of the day, can we have a collection of characters and actresses who look, well, healthy? I'm tired of the cliche. It's getting problematic, and the execution is getting more and more lazy as things go on. At least in the Thor films, Alexander's Lady Sif is covered in body armor to bulk her up. But in general, the actresses seem to be getting smaller and shorter, and becoming more like empty-handed, bare-knuckle brawlers. And it really needs to stop.

6 Years. and 800 Blogs later, Still alive

When I started this blog five years ago, it was to drum up publicity for A Pius Man: A Holy Thriller, book one of what would become The Pius Trilogy

After a while, it was the only way to sell my books.

Then I went rogue from my agent, and did the entire Pius trilogy myself. Books two and three came out in 2014.

Now, six years since we have started, and 800 blog posts later, I guess we should be looking back and asking: what the hell are we still doing here?  Especially now that the Puppies have taken over the blog?

You'd think that this would be something obvious.  Look above, under the giant blog banner. You'd think I don't get much clearer than that.

But, when I posted one of my Sad Puppies Bite Back posts over in the comments of a blog called File 770, I was met with some ... interesting replies in the comments. Including derision, people who thought that SPBB was about threatening the anti-Puppies, and people who wondered what the site was even about.

And people wonder why I don't read comments on most websites. The term "cesspool of stupid" comes to mind. Who allows these people out in public? There should be a license to be on the internet some days.

Not that I'm cynical or anything.

But, it did occur to me that there would be some people confused about what this site's common thread was, considering we've veered so wildly from the original point of glorified marketing.

So, what's it all about?

It's about stories. How do you create them? How do you shape them?  How do you assemble dreams when the world is so busy trying to stomp on them and take them away from you? That's why I dissect political opinions of Superheroes, or examine bad comic book storylines, or try to predict where things are going.  That's why I look at faith in fiction, to see just how much of the writer goes into the story, and how much should go into the story.  This blog will also address the Catholic faith in particular because, well, I'm Catholic -- it's part of me, and who I am, and part of my stories, so it comes with the package.

But, as fiction is not just about how a story is made, but also about the process of selling it. That's why I look at women in fiction, or the politics of publishing, etc.

Also ... it's about marketing. I'm not dead yet and I'm still writing and publishing books. I have a publisher now, and I'm not afraid to use them.

(Honor At Stake, now #2 suggestion for best novel for Sad Puppies 4 -- subtle plug, subtle plug).

That's why I allowed my brain to be taken over by a parody universe that won't leave me alone. I mean, it's not like I can make money on Sad Puppies Bite Back yet, despite how popular it is.

Okay, I may not be able to make money on it at this point. May. Not.  Why not?  Because I use the real names of real people, like George RR Martin, and Scalzi, and the Haydens, David Gerrold, Moshe Feder, and additional psychos.

Yes, they're parody -- and boy, are these guys a parody -- but there are also lawyers, and you don't need to have a leg to stand on to file a lawsuit. And while I would probably win any lawsuit, and any countersuit, the legal fees would probably kill me before we got to the countersuit phase.

However, there might be a few ways in order to rub the serial numbers off of this. Only if I scrub really, really hard. If you've looked at Set to Kill, you probably have a good idea of what I can do for Sad Puppies Bite Back, if I work at it.

And, of course, now that Sad Puppies Bite back is up for two different Hugo awards? I should at least consider publishing it.

If it gets a Hugo Nomination? It's more than likely I will publish it. Why? Because it would be a Hugo nominated work, and I don't think anyone would want to draw attention to the fact that they are so thin-skinned, they can't take a joke.

But, one disaster at a time, folks. One disaster at a time.

However, even if I can't sell it, Sad Puppies Bite Back has brought hundreds of people to my blog, and has improved my sales a lot. It won't get me into the big money territory, but it's a lot more than I've been getting.

It's also gotten me some interesting friends along the way, which is an improvement for an introvert like me.

So, to the trolls who lurk under the bridge at File 770, that's what the blog is about.

As for all you newcomers who want a laugh, or want a book recommendation, or some music to listen to as you pen your destruction of an alien civilization, or comic book trivia, or just want to look into the brain of a deeply deranged writer, welcome, my friends, to The Pius Geek.

The party is just warming up.

Because of this mischegas that is my life, I've made some great friends, like Sarah Hoyt,  Ann Margaret Lewis, Karina Fabian, Daniella Bova, Daria Anne DiGiovanni, Margot St. Aubin, Dawn Witzke, and Matt Bowman, the Novel Ninja.

I've read some awesome books, like Amy Lynn, Ordinance 93, The Watson Chronicles, the Book of Helen, Stealing Jenny, and a whole slough of others. Slew? Slough? Oh, you get the idea.

Kia

And these people.  Wow.

Heck, due to Kia Heavey, I have a new model for Manana Shushurin, now that the previous model is far, far too respectable to be associated with the likes of me.  She was before, but I guess she finally figured that out. :)  Kia is an author, and I recommend her books. Heck, I have.

Ann and Karina have been responsible for dragging me into the Catholic Writer's Guild. And if they weren't (it's been so long, they may not have), they're a large chunk of the reason I've stayed.

There's the CLFA, and that's also a long story.

Margot was largely responsible for the gun shop visit of 2014, and accompanied me to the first Catholic Writers Guild conference that I was a guest at.

I've lost some good friends.  One of my first beta readers for A Pius Man died before it was published. The first artist for the site, with whom I was acquaintances since college, and I drifted apart.

This blog caught me one of my best friends, author Rebekah Hendershot, and we managed to burn that bridge, with each other still on it. Heck, we burned that bridge so thoroughly, I think I've completely edited her out of the history of the website, with perhaps one exception.

Yeah. When things go badly, they go badly.

This blog has gotten me some of the best things in my life, and has taken away a few.  It's been a bumpy ride, almost from day one.

Along the way, I've shared with you how I invest myself in my work, dissected my life to show you how it enters my writing, given you the story of everything that has been important in my life. You folks know when I'm single, when I'm hurting, and when I'm going to lose myself in video games.

Mandy

I've shared my wonder at emerging technology, my irritation at politics and the comic book industry, my love of reading and even the music du jour.

I'd like to thank you all for putting up with me that long. I never thought I was that interesting.  This blog has lasted has still longer than some relationships I've had.

And now, I have an almost constant readership of over 4000 people a month, give or take a few hundred.

Now if only you would all buy The Pius Trilogy, Honor at Stake and Codename Winterborn....

Yes, I'm joking.  But you can't blame a guy for trying, can you? :)

Looking back on some of the strangeness, these are the all-time top blogs ever read on this site as of this minute.

1) Who would Captain America vote for? An election special:
This one is still on top. Odd though, huh?  Written back for the Presidential election of 2012, I was fed up with politics, and thought it much more amusing to speculate on what comic book characters would vote for who. I still like it better than most modern politics.  The hits on this one used to equal an entire month of viewership on the blog....

But then #2 happened.

2) Sad Puppies Bite Back.
The first journey down the rabbit hole. Yes. It was a one-shot that spiraled so far out of control, I really don't see the end of it. But people are still coming to the blog just to read them.  I'd publish these, but I'd really like to avoid being sued by David Gerrold or John Scalzi, or any of the other Puppy Kickers.

This is where it started, with Larry and Brad and Sarah.  And from what I've found? All of them I've SWATted found it funny.  Who knew?

3) Sex, DC Comics, and ... wtf?
Yup, it's still here. Right after the dawn of DC's New 52 Universes in 2011, the comics had gone into a sideways spiral of strange. I think this had something to do with sex being in the title.

4) This one is also still here.  Waaaay back in 2010, I ripped apart all of the Disasters to Marvel At: A Comic Discussion, with every stupid decision that Marvel comics had made for the previous 5 years.  Sadly, some of those decisions are still going strong.

5) Sad Puppies Bite Back (Part two)
This is where things start going really odd. And I probably should have seen it coming that things were going to really go sideways ... "sideways" as in "The Puppies have taken over my blog."  I think part one got suggestions of nominating this for a "Best related" award from the Hugos.

6) Cry Havoc! And Let Slip the Puppies of War!
This was after the Entertainment Weekly's libelous article about Sad Puppies, written and published without talking to anyone within Sad Puppies. At all. Yes, really.  Believe it or not, in retrospect, this was not what got me really into the Sad Puppies bandwagon. That was when someone decided to go after Brad Torgersen's wife. Then, then I had a meltdown, and decided someone needed a stern talking to.

7) Puppies Come to WorldCon  (SPBB III)
This was going to be The End. Period. Dot. Final. The last straw. The Puppies were going to come to the Hugos, and it would have to end there. Why? Because there would be nothing left for me to write until the Hugos came out. It was a perfect out, right? Right?

8) Snarky Theology 4: "Things that go boink in the night."
Yeah, this one is still here.  From the Easter of 2011, it's still on the top ten list. I can't get rid of the damn thing. I had tried to play nice and explain my faith, and tenets of Catholicism to the average person.  That ended in disaster and a flame war, and a few other things going wrong along the way.

But, once again, Sex scores well on the site.

This is still freaking strange for a blog all about Catholic thrillers.

9) Sad Puppies Bite Back XI: Puppies with Teeth

Yeah ... I'm not sure what part brings people to this chapter of SPBB than any of the others. Is it SWATting Jim Butcher or Peter Grant? Shadowdancer? Having a final reckoning with Andrew Marston?

Yeah. I have no idea.

10) And a surprising newcomer, a post I only published about three weeks ago: #SadPuppies ask -- who's rabid? It was a brief look at some of the psychosis among Puppy Kickers ... maybe Puppy Kickers adjacent ... and John C. Wright, Vox Day, and File 770 linked to it.

This is going to be an interesting year.