Low ebb

There is something about winter which is very unconducive to my usual geeky exploits. Bad weather has put the kibosh on my recurring game night a couple of times in the past month or so. It’s also pretty chilly in the basement (which is somewhat deliberate, since we’re trying to keep the heating costs moderately under control and thus have shut up all the vents on that level of the house) so the Dork Cave hasn’t been terribly inviting. Throw in a resolution to read more serious literature which implies by default less genre trash, and the previously dissected diversion of basically all free time toward getting the nursery ready in advance of April, and the also previously dissected lack at the moment of a computer hefty enough for MMORPGs or even iTunes exploration (all of which have more to do with timing and the calendar than the cold and snow per se) and it’s safe to say, the very least, my innermost sci-fi-club nerd was thrilled that today was sufficiently cloudy to permiyt the groundhog to be a harbinger of an early spring. I can’t wait.

I wanted to tie Groundhog’s Day to one of my wheelhouses like comics, because come on, animal totems are at least half of the population in those wacky worlds, but apparently superpowered characters based on Marmota monax are either non-existent or so deeply indie that I am unaware of them. Loads of other furry little critters get their four-color due, from superstars like Wolverine on down to disposable bad guys like The Mongoose, but the rodents specifically get surprisingly little love. The most prominent member of that particular order of mammals which sprang to mind was an old Marvel villain, The Porcupine:


And guys, I’m not going to lie to you – as much as I love comics I’ll be the first to say that The Porcupine is just terrible.

In any case, happy Groundhog’s Day, may we all survive the remainder of winter (however long it proves to be), and maybe by mid-next-week I’ll have taken in some new geek fodder. I hear tomorrow’s episode of Community is all about Dungeons & Dragons, so hey, things are looking up.