April 27, 2025: How My Brain Works – A Cautionary Tale

There are a lot of pieces I'm putting together here for a long anecdote. You have been warned.

I recently had reason to sort through a number of comics I've purchased in the past several months. Some of those comics included the Crisis on Infinite Earths "Facsimile Editions," reprinting the original 12-issue DC miniseries from 1985-1986 with snazzy foil covers. Crisis on Infinite Earths is, briefly, a comic story about a super-powerful good guy – called the Monitor – bringing together all the heroes he can from across the multiverse to fight against the even more insanely powerful (and evil) Anti-Monitor. The story was also adapted a few years back for the various "Arrowverse" TV series on The CW; I haven't watched the whole thing, but the images I've seen for the Monitor and Anti-Monitor looked pretty cool and comic-accurate. (Nikki Vrtis is a big Arrowverse fan, and she enjoyed the series.) They were cool cosmic characters who made an impression on me as a young comic fan.

The other day, I was poking around various reprints we've done recently and came across Munchkin Pony Excess. On the Warehouse 23 page for Munchkin Pony Excess, there's a link to Munchkin Babies (at least, it was there when I clicked on the page . . . I'm not sure how dynamically generated those are). For anyone who isn't aware, Munchkin Babies is about beloved Munchkin action, only the heroes are babies. It's an adorable concept.

Still with me? I'm so sorry.

Anyway, I also recently came across an article on Slate about using baby monitors to keep tabs on kids while at a hotel restaurant or bar on vacation. It was an interesting article, including deepish dives into the history of the devices, the morality of using them, and so on.

Some of you might know what my brain did . . . but – if not – I'll connect the dots.

Munchkin Babies –> characters as babies –> baby monitors –> Crisis on Infinite Earths —> character named "Monitor" and "Anti-Monitor" —> "Baby Monitor."

My cursory Google searches of "Crisis on Infinite Earths" and "Baby Monitor" have not revealed this to be a common connection; I'm not sure anyone has explicitly made it. But now I can't help but think of baby versions of that series' villains.

And now I've inflicted it on you. Again, sorry. If you'll excuse me, I need to dig up my copy of Munchkin Babies and Super Munchkin and see if that's enough to knock it loose from my brain.

-- Steven Marsh