My Interlude:

Sometime relatively recently, I was working in the toy store and I got to talking with the vendor and a customer about upcoming Spiderman movie toys. Eventually the vendor had to leave to actually do her job, but the customer and I started talking. (I could do this because it was a slow day and the managers like us to "develop rapports" with the vendors and customers.)

It was interesting because despite what you see in Shortpacked I don't actually see adult collector-type customers come in very often. I know they come in, of course, but I'm usually too busy or not scheduled at the right time to really talk to them. This guy was only a few years older than me and not in any particular hurry so it was a good opportunity.

It was a nice conversation, fun. Wandered back and forth through different comics and characters, action figures and the like. Definitely a good way to kill an otherwise boring half-an-hour. He was friendly and polite. I had fun. In the process of the conversation however, he insulted Banshee (I have a bizarre unexplained fondness for poor Sean), mocked Ghost Rider, and proclaimed seriously that Nightwing is the greatest character in the DCU.

I will probably never see the guy again. And even if I do, the odds of me actually recognizing him given my abject lack of attention span and really poor memory for faces, are pretty negligible.

Even so, I realized. I found my nemesis. He is out there. And one day we may have to fight to the death. Or go for hamburgers.