Souvenirs of Geekdom: Marvel Guess Who

No X-Men, pro-registration heroes only. Yes, I know. Tough.

Manchester. One February not too long ago. Me, Jared (runs OK Comics) and Michael Valentine McAndrew were at the airport, waiting on a plane to Toronto so some marriage could happen (not to each other). The plane was delayed by something like nine hours and the boredom ground Marvel Guess-Who into existence.

It's like the Guess Who? game you know and possibly love, but instead of a set of cards you have three nerds with an intricate knowledge of the Marvel Universe. Here's an easy one:

"I'm a Marvel superhero."
"Are you a mutant?"
"No."
"Do you have a secret identity?"
"Er... not really."
"Have you ever been, or are you currently, dead?"
"...Yes?"
"Are you Hawkeye?"
"Yes."
"But, I mean, was Hawkeye technically 'dead'?"
"F**k off."

Etc, etc...

Flash forward too many hours to around 6:00am the next day UK time. None of us had slept. Jared was now responsible for driving us down a quiet Canadian highway to Sarnia, a few hours South of Toronto, in the wee small hours. Apocalypticly-large snowflakes were falling, the only illumination came from the radio dial, telling us we were listening to some forgotten DJ slowly losing his mind on a country station^*.

"I'm a Marvel supervillain."
"Do you typically operate outside of New York City."
"No."
"Balls..."

Etc, etc...

And that, I am firmly convinced, is how Jared stayed awake and avoided driving us off the road to (tragic) early deaths.

I don't have to say that creating a game based on demonstrating superior knowledge of a science-fictional universe as a mechanism for survival is about as nerdy as it's possible for a human to be, do I? No. Good.

^{*I was half-delirious from lack of sleep by this point, so it's possible I've romanticised this a smidge. Sue me.}