(in the style of Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, with regards to Watchmen the 2019 HBO adaptation, and also year-end recap lists)

It is 2026. I am watching Wonder Man. It seems “meta.” Wonder Man is also made of pure energy? Or something like that. The tachyons muddle up the continuity. Continuity up tachyons the the muddle.

It is 2025. I am watching Andor Season 2. Terrible changes are happening everywhere in the United States. And yet, we have friends everywhere.

It is 2026. I am watching Avengers: Doomsday. There has been a great catastrophe. The movie helps us avoid re-watching the catastrophe in a loop on a phone.

It is 2025. I am watching Freaky Tales. It is funny and nostalgic. It shows young people working together to fight Nazi scum. I am intrigued by this level of moral clarity. It is one of the most entertaining and relevant movies of 2025.

It is 2025. June. K-Pop Demon Hunters takes over the world. There is a subtextual and actual cast connection with Freaky Tales.

It is 2025. I am watching Fantastic Four. It is my fourth-favorite MCU movie. The Invisible Woman makes constructs of any shape out of invisible indestructible particles with her mind? I thought I was overpowered.

It is 2019. I am watching Avengers: Endgame. It is my third favorite Marvel movie. The Avengers, at last, assemble. It is the last year of the first Trump presidency.

It is 2027. I am watching Avengers: Secret Wars. Pedro Pascal wraps his stretchy body around Robert Downey Jr’s armored torso. It is everything we have been waiting for.

It is 2018. Black Panther is my second favorite Marvel movie. Thank you for asking.

It is 2015. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is my favorite Marvel movie. There are many more to come, but this one is exceptional. Apparently, Steve Rogers will return, again and again.

It is 2026. The Green Lantern series Lanterns premieres on HBO. I am looking forward to it. Or am I looking back on it?

It is 2033. AOC is POTUS. She is, as ever, NOC AF.

It is 2019. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays me in the HBO Watchmen series. The series should have signaled an evolution in the superhero show genre, with its daring to imaginatively expand on the main timeline of the source material, while also engaging relevant social issues. But then the COVID pandemic happens, and no one cares about superhero movies for a brief but crucial period.

It is 2026, January 8. Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

It is 2085. 100 years after DC Comics first publishes Watchmen, a 12-part limited series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. I have heard the Blue Man Group joke 21,676 times. They always think they are making up the joke for the first time.

It is 2024. Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League is my favorite video game. No one shares this opinion. Someone writes a song about it.

It is 2020. Winter. I am in love with the Spider-Man: Miles Morales video game. The game is something to hold onto. In 2026, a Wolverine game releases, also from Insomniac Games. Or is it 2027? Tachyons.

It is 1895. The first screening of a motion picture for a paying audience marks the beginning of what we now call “the movies.” Everything changes, again. Language changes. In Mandarin Chinese, a new word for “movie” must be invented. The Chinese word (电影) translates roughly as “electric shadow.”

It is 2030. Marvel and DC Studios collaborate on Secret Crisis, a massive superhero movie first described in Doomsday Clock by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. The film stars Leslie Grace as Batgirl, Iman Vellani as Phoenix, and Timothée Chalamet as the Beyonder.

It is 2027. A great catastrophe has been averted. Another challenge arises. AI-simulated actors threaten to replace human movie stars. The 2009 Watchmen film is re-released with the cast altered to include Regina King, Robert Downey Jr., and Robert Redford, constructed from clips of their old performances. These days, all we ever see of movie stars are their electric shadows.

It is 2029. Batgirl wins the Oscar for Best Picture.