It began with my making Captain America popular enough to warrant two bad TV movies being made about somebody with that name, and Dr Strange magical enough to warrant a mediocre TV movie that made him a doctor of psychiatry.

It hit its stride with my making The Batman and his world something movie audiences would pay to see, and being brought into the scripting process to make that happen as a movie (though that did not end well).

It got running with my creating The Night Man, having him adapted quite faithfully to the television screen, and becoming a regular writer for that series.

It hit a wall when my latest Batman runs were adapted for The Dark Knight  trilogy and I was deliberately ripped off for it. I'd thought, by that time, that I'd become a real Hollywood guy, with two near-misses on TV series to my credit, but a complete rip-off on a film obviously moved me into "REAL Hollywood guy" territory.

On the series, my agent did a deal with Greenblatt/Janolari for a concept called Ghost Harbor. G/J hooked me up with a writer from Chicago Hope to do the pilot, but she had a death in the family and we missed the selling deadline. Before the next selling season opened, the exec who'd bought the idea left for MTV and the project never revived.

Next, I was given the nod to become a staff writer on Charmed - but first they had to sign the bigger-ticket writers. And once they had, they'd used up their budget and could no longer afford me.

But then Captain America showed people superhero stories about the people in the costumes could be real movies, and not simply fan service.

Then the Avengers brought a bunch of those people together, as a team and as the people, to make the universe move forward. They created the largest-grossing film of 2012, and the largest-grossing of 2019.

Then Guardians of the Galaxy came completely out of left field to become the largest-grossing film of 2014, leading to two sequels (adding Mantis!) — and an animated series.

Then Silver St. Cloud, or at least a teen version of Bruce Wayne's perfect adult woman (?), joined Gotham.

Then Dr. Strange got the perfect magician and palpable magic.

Then WandaVision told my favorite story about my favorite couple, in the suburbs with their kids, sort of.

Then Shang-Chi was the largest-grossing film of 2021.

Then…

I lead a crazy life. I really do.