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prettycottonmouthlamia · 2 months

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I shouldn't have to make this post but Nintendo fans are trying extremely desperately to position the company whose cock they love the taste of in a good light and are generally doing this by spreading misinformation about the legalities of emulation so let's go over a number of the fabrications shall we?

Emulation is illegal to monetize This has so far been one of the really big ones that's taken traction, usually partnered with the sister lie that yuzu was paywalling access to early access builds. These are both lies, and are untrue. yuzu is far from the only modern emulator to be monetizing itself, plenty of mobile emulators do it, but developing an emulator for money is entirely legal. We have pretty much all of our emulation precedent set thanks to a series of lawsuits in the very early 2000s thanks to Sony suing an emulator called Bleem. There's a lot to say about Bleem, but Bleem was a commercial emulator. You could buy Bleem, in stores. At no point was there ever a court decision that Bleem was wrong to do so (despite Sony's best efforts).

Emulating current generation software or hardware is illegal. This is also wrong, and kind of fundamentally misunderstands a lot when it comes to emulation. Once again, Bleem was at the time emulating current generation software. It was a generation in its twilight, but Bleem first released in March of 1999: the Playstation 2 was not out yet. The reason why current generation software does not tend to be emulated is because we do not really have the tech or processing power to do it yet. The Switch's lower specs are entirely the reason it has had an emulator developed well ahead of the PS4 or the Xbone.

Yuzu's early access build allowed people to play Tears of the Kingdom ahead of release date This one is a couple of different statements packed together, and while I'm given to believe there's a chance other games may have been playable ahead of release, this specific statement is a lie, and maybe the funniest one on the list because it's a lie that's not even backed up by the lawsuit.

The lawsuit is extremely clear in its language that it was modded instances of Yuzu that could play Tears of the Kingdom ahead of release date, not publicly accessible builds of Yuzu. Nintendo's argument here lies in Yuzu being open source: part of the lawsuit alleges that Yuzu is responsible for any and all acts of piracy done by its users, whether or not they used official or modded builds of Yuzu. This is, of course, a fundamentally fucking insane position to argue from. It is not a particularly uncharitable reading of this as an attack on open source software to begin with, as this precedent would make any developer liable for ANY illegal action taken by someone who modified their code. Supporting this, in my opinion, makes you an asshole and liable to be clocked in the fucking mouth.

4. Literally anything involving this screenshot.

I've seen this screenshot maybe three or four times with different takes on what exactly Illegal is happening here and I'm pretty content to just call it vibes at this point. Whether this is an intelligent screenshot is a different matter, but no one has been able to point to anything actually illegal being done here. There is already precedent in allowing one to make their own back-ups of software they own, even if decryption or bypassing copy protection to do so, which is a large majority of software. Switch games are not the only games that are either encrypted or have copy protection, and this is both not the earliest generation to do it AND its not the only industry that does it.

The only point of interest here is the date, which I've seen literally no one bring up, but this correlates into another point: personal piracy is still not something Yuzu is liable for. It's a dumb thing to broadcast, but it doesn't change anything material about the software.

5. Yuzu folded because Nintendo had a smoking gun

I, I just, I'm sorry this one isn't just a lie its a really naive and incompetent view of the faults of our legal system. If anything, the settlement seems to indicate the opposite. If Nintendo was sure they had Yuzu dead the rights, they wouldn't have fucking settled. Both parties need to agree to settle! Nintendo is actively interested in trying to set legal precedent that emulation is illegal, because Nintendo is great at saying obviously wrong things with a straight face.

This could be a reason, but remember, this was a civil lawsuit, not a criminal one. Civil lawsuits have a difference in how evidence is handled, and it's pretty likely that Nintendo just has more evidence than user does on account of being able to afford a larger legal team and having planned for this lawsuit in advance, regardless of how strong that evidence actually is. It's why most of the arguments in the lawsuit read kind of insane. Civil lawsuits are not handled "beyond a reasonable doubt".

There's also the fact that legal cases can be extremely expensive, even when you know you are absolutely in the fucking right. I want to link this video by James Stephanie Sterling as evidence of this. They were completely in the fucking right, and the lawsuit still took an incredible amount of time and monetary expense to argue, and that's against an opponent who you could reasonably confuse with a scarecrow. This is ultimately how Sony eventually "won" against Bleem. Bleem never lost any of its lawsuits against Sony, in fact Sony ballsed it up twice against Bleem, but Sony continued to file lawsuits against Bleem and its company over and over, until Bleem literally could not afford it and went bankrupt.

There's also the matter of precedent. If Yuzu had taken this court, and lost, it would be really bad. There's a lot in this court case that you don't want precedent leaning towards, and due to, uh, America's current political climate and judicial regime, there's a fair chance the judge would have just sided with Nintendo anyways. Settling the lawsuit, while to be entirely clear, sucks complete ass for Yuzu as they were basically eliminated, protects the sphere of emulation as a whole.

So what was the salient parts of Nintendo's case?

The parts of Nintendo's case that hold the most weight have to do specifically with the encryption keys used to de-encrypt Switch games, and how those keys interact with the DMCA. There's no legal precedence to back this up, this is thoroughly untested grounds. This is actually where the buck stops with the Bleem cases: this one never went to a judgment for Bleem and hence never established precedent.

There's a pretty reasonable chance that Nintendo had a chance to win the lawsuit off of the back of this point. This doesn't make it a guarantee, but it's the part of the lawsuit that's actually important.

What happened with the settlement?

Well Nintendo got to legally extort the Yuzu devs and their parent company for $2.4 million. This is, strictly speaking, chump change to Nintendo but I in particular hate this part of lawsuits with a passion. In addition, as per the conditions of the agreement, all copies of Yuzu that were released and in development under the purvey of the company must be destroyed, the company and its devs can no longer work on Yuzu in any way possible, and they cannot work on any other emulation software. This is why Citra also closed down by the way: it was an unfortunate emulator in the cross fire. This in and of itself, is a tragedy, since this is basically court mandated brain drain. Undoubtedly Yuzu will be forked and someone will continue development on "Zuyu", but the loss is still felt.

Why should I care? Piracy is illegal.

This is where I'm going to wax philosophical for a moment, but Frankie my dear, I do not give a damn. Nintendo could have had full legal rights to do this, and I would still be of the opinion that Nintendo's legal team are ghouls and shouldn't feel safe showing their faces. This is how I felt when Nintendo shut down Emuparadise. Whether something is illegal does not impact whether it is right. Laws exist in a state of being able to be both just, unjust, or both.

Emulation is extremely important in the preservation of gaming as an artform, something that the game industry is extremely against in all forms. There's money to be made after all, and attempts at making sure that games are available to play are often attacked and criticized. This is part of the reason I'm so against the existence of copyright law. It doesn't matter what the intent of a system is, but it does matter what the system does, and it's transferred an overwhelming amount of power into the hands of large corporations while largely screwing small creators over.

I do not believe art has a price tag to it. I do not believe that art can and should only be enjoyed by the people a company has decided to sell it too. I do not believe that companies like Nintendo should be able to throw their legal weight around and ruin people's lives. You should be able to play Mother 3 and Shin Megami Tensei without having to wait for their parent companies to decide they actually want to sell it to you.

Piracy does not inflict meaningful damages to Nintendo. Despite Nintendo's whinging, Tears of the Kingdom sold over 20 million copies in half a years time, something that we can estimate to have made Nintendo about $1.4 billion in revenue. We live in a game industry which does not care about its game devs: it's perfectly willing to underpay them, to overwork them, and to eventually let them go. Nintendo is not innocent here. They have a history of mistreating their contract workers, and I personally know that these are not the only allegations that hold water.

In short, fuck Nintendo. Pirate all Switch games until the end of time.

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njawaidofficial · 7 years

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'Spider-Man: Homecoming' Easter Eggs and Comic Book Story References

http://styleveryday.com/2017/07/10/spider-man-homecoming-easter-eggs-and-comic-book-story-references/

'Spider-Man: Homecoming' Easter Eggs and Comic Book Story References

[Warning: This story contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Homecoming]

If there is one thing to be said about Marvel Studios and Sony’s new Spider-Man: Homecoming, it is that it is a fresh new take on the character, overflowing with new ideas, set pieces and interesting characters. For more than a decade, Marvel Studios has had to sit on the sidelines while Sony produced Spider-Man film after Spider-Man film, while the company continued to release its Spider-Man comics. Now, the two finally meet.

With their first opportunity to exercise creative control over the character, it should come as no surprise that they pumped the film full of references, callbacks and Easter eggs for fans, new and old, to enjoy. The result is a sort of Spider-Man film via remix, with various elements from all of Spider-Man’s history mixed together in a way that fans have never seen before.

Compiled below is a list of these references (heavy SPOILERS). How many do you recognize? And let us know what we missed by tweeting @HeatVisionBlog (bonus points for sharing a comic book panel and issue number).

Amazing Spider-Man No. 2

The Comics: Phineas Mason was one of Spider-Man’s earliest villains, an engineering genius that went by the name The Terrible Tinkerer. Mason could invent powerful weapons and gadgets from just about anything and outfitted a large number of Spidey’s villains. Strangely enough, he was initially revealed to be an alien in disguise, as Stan Lee slowly figured out what kind of villains would work for Spider-Man. A later writer would reveal that he was actually a human pretending to be an alien. Comics are weird.

The Movie: Mason (Michael Chernus) is Adrian Toomes’ (Michael Keaton) right-hand man, building all the tech he uses as The Vulture. He’s constantly encouraging Toomes to continue escalating his scores through the use of more sophisticated technology.

Ultimate Spider-Man No. 153

The Comics: In the alternate Ultimate universe, a younger Peter Parker was always told he would be forced to join S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Ultimate team (its version of the Avengers) when he turned 18 years old. After a number of instances where Spider-Man and his villains were involved in either saving or nearly ending the world, both Tony Stark and Captain America were tasked with training Peter as Spider-Man.

The Movie: Tony (Robert Downey Jr.) has taken Peter under his wing, both keeping him at a distance and constantly watching him to be sure he doesn’t step out of line or cause too much trouble. It’s a reluctant mentorship, just like in the comics.

Ultimate Spider-Man No. 155

The Comics: On Ultimate Peter Parker’s birthday (after their training), Tony Stark has Mary Jane pass a gift on to Peter. This gift is a pair of powered-up webshooters capable of firing all kinds of different webbing.

The Movie: Tony doesn’t stop at redesigning Peter’s webshooters but builds him a customized suit, with a very similar pair of new webshooters to the ones in the comics. The whole thing is wrapped up as a gift in a shiny suitcase.

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man (Vol. 2) No.2

The Comics: After Miles Morales replaced Peter Parker as Spider-Man in the Ultimate universe, readers were introduced to a new cast of characters, more specifically they were introduced to Ganke Lee. Ganke is Miles’ right-hand man or “guy in the chair” if you will. He loves Legos, is a bit too loose with Miles’ secret, and can’t resist nerding out that he knows a superhero. Meanwhile, Ned Leeds was a pretty bland character, introduced in the regular universe, who mainly operated as competition for Peter in regards to his love life and photography career. He was eventually falsely outted as the Hobgoblin and subsequently murdered.

The Movie: For some reason, Spider-Man: Homecoming makes Ganke Lee into Peter’s new best friend, giving him the name Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) for no real apparent reason. Who can say why they felt the need to change the names while maintaining everything that makes Ganke special, I’m just glad he’s in the film … because he’s awesome.

Amazing Spider-Man Annual No. 3

The Comics: In the earliest days of Spider-Man, comics writer Stan Lee was still trying to figure out what was going to make Spider-Man special as a character. Before seizing on the emotional core of “With Great Power Must Also Come Great Responsibility” line, Lee emphasized Spider-Man’s teenage loner status. This saw him breaking into the Fantastic Four’s headquarters and fighting the team all in a vain attempt to join them and make a solid paycheck. The same was true with the Avengers. When they reach out to him to potentially join the team, he ends up fighting them, further solidifying his reputation as an untrustworthy loner.

The Movie: The same is essentially true here, Spider-Man’s introduction to the Avengers in “Captain America: Civil War” couldn’t have gone worse for his reputation, to the point that even Iron Man doesn’t really trust him to be responsible. He’s a liability, not an asset, and is basically being held back from joining the team because of it.

Untold Tales of Spider-Man No. 2

The Comics: Jason Ionello (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.) is a part of Flash Thompson’s gang of “popular” kids who constantly bully Peter Parker. Yet, in an ironic twist of fate, he’s also one of the leaders of the Spider-Man Fan Club.

The Movie: Jason appears on a television screen in Midtown High School as one of the anchors of the school’s hastily produced morning news. He awkwardly tries to ask out his co-anchor, Betty Brant (Angourie Rice), on the air.

Amazing Spider-Man No. 7

The Comics: Betty Brant is one of Peter Parker’s best friends and his first love in high school. She works as J. Jonah Jameson’s secretary and often flirts with Peter when he turns in pictures. Their relationship was cut short when she realized she couldn’t handle Peter’s secret and the violence he seemed to be involved in. So, she ran off into the arms of Ned Leeds, then Flash Thompson, then Peter again, and on and on and on. She’s kind of notorious for having a rather frustrated love life.

The Movie: Betty appears alongside Jason Ionello as the co-anchor of the Midtown High School news program. She’s also one of Liz’s good friends and sees her off at the end of the film before Liz moves to Oregon. I think, in an intentional nod to Gwen Stacy and the remix mentality of this film, she’s wearing Gwen’s signature hair band.

Amazing Spider-Man No. 2

The Comics: The Vulture is one of Spider-Man’s first villains, but is notoriously the first to engage him in spectacular aerial combat. He’s an octogenarian inventor who devises his own anti-gravity harness and robs banks and helicopters around the city. Most notable about him is the green color scheme and vulture-like collar he wears. This would be updated to a more modern suit in the Ultimate Spider-Man comics (see bottom picture).

The Movie: The Vulture’s entire backstory is changed for the movie, but the types of crimes he commits remain largely the same. His color scheme is largely maintained, with most of the green coming through his nightvision goggles. He retains claws like the Ultimate version and even sports a featured collar of sorts with his sporty bomber jacket.

Amazing Spider-Man No. 17

The Comics: In the early Spider-Man comics, there was no power-couple more influential than the popular Flash Thompson and Liz Allan. However, the two take a notably unpopular stance by starting up their own Spider-Man Fan Club – Forest Hills Chapter. Peter learns that Liz is throwing a big party and that they are expecting Spider-Man to show up. Peter loves the dramatic irony that he could show up as Spider-Man and humiliate Flash, but at the same time knows that his lack of presence as Peter will go noticed by a number of people, namely Liz and his girlfriend Betty. Too bad his decision is made for him when the Green Goblin shows up to wreck the party, landing Peter in hot water for ducking out so quickly.

The Movie: Liz throws a party, where Flash (Tony Revolori) is the DJ, and Peter is equally divided on how he’s going to attend. He learns Liz has a crush on Spider-Man and knows he could score points confirming that Peter is buddies with Spidey … except that he’s both Peter and Spider-Man. Too bad his decision is made for him when the Vulture’s goons start toying with their devastating weaponry, landing Peter in hot water for ducking out so quickly.

Amazing Spider-Man No. 46

The Comics: The Shocker is one of Spider-Man’s early villains and eventually became one of his favorites. He wears two gauntlets that vibrate to shoot beams, land devastating punches, and allow him to shake off blows. He’s also constantly mocked for his name and strange outfit, which resembles weird bed/couch lining. In fact, it’s been pretty much confirmed that’s what it is.

The Movie: There are two Shockers in Spider-Man: Homecoming, after one (played by Logan Marshall-Green) meets an untimely end. Their weaponry is essentially identical to that of the comics, although he has only one outfit. Even better, Adrian Toomes makes fun of him for his name and dorky costume. (The second Shocker is played by Bokeem Woodbine.)

Amazing Spider-Man No. 267

The Comics: In “The Commuter Cometh,” one of the funniest Spider-Man stories of all time, Peter chases a burglar into the suburbs of New York City and quickly learns how ineffective his powers are without the urban towers of the city. One of the best moments is when he fires a web into the sky only to realize that there aren’t any buildings to latch on to.

The Movie: The same exact thing happens. Except this time my jaw hit the floor at the obscurity of the reference finding a way onto the silver screen.

Amazing Spider-Man No. 63

The Comics: Adrian Toomes can’t stand people who double-cross him. This is especially true of Blackie Drago, a fellow inmate who learns about the Vulture suit and subsequently steals it and claims the role for himself. Toomes eventually turns the tables on Blackie and reclaims the mantle of Vulture.

The Movie: This isn’t really a reference to the comics, but I couldn’t help but think of this moment when Adrian Toomes murders the original Shocker, for threatening to betray him, and passes the mantle of Shocker on to his partner (“Now you’re the Shocker”). I returned to this moment of the comics in the mid-credits sequence where Mac Gargan (Michael Mando) asks Adrian about Spider-Man’s identity. Who is to say that Mac won’t do the exact same thing as Blackie in future Spider-Man movies?

Amazing Spider-Man No. 11

The Comics: Spider-Man invents a mechanized spider-tracer that sends him signals via his spider-sense and allows him to track his enemies if they come in close contact with him. Typically, Spider-Man would fling the tracer at his enemies, trying to attach it to their clothing without them noticing.

The Movie: Peter does the same thing in the movie, just with a far more advanced system, and a robotic spider that can crawl on its own. He uses this to track down the Vulture gang to Maryland.

Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows (Vol. 2) No. 1

The Comics: Peter Parker has been operating a con for almost his entire adult life wherein he takes selfies and sells them to his publisher J. Jonah Jameson as if they were pictures he’s taken of Spider-Man. Taking selfies is difficult when you’re swinging through town and fighting villains, so he builds Buzzbee, his very own spider-drone, to do the dirty work for him.

The Movie: Peter discovers that the spider on his chest is also a drone. This drone has more capabilities than just taking pictures and operates as a fun comic foil for him during several scenes, especially when his Advanced Interrogation Mode is activated.

Amazing Spider-Man No. 231

The Comics: When Spider-Man burst onto the scene in 1962, his costume came complete with web-pits of dubious practical functionality, but clear stylistic functionality. Who doesn’t love web-pits? They would be retired years later, but they resurface every now and then depending on the artist.

The Movie: Peter eventually discovers that his suit has built in web-pits that can be retracted at will. They allow him to essentially wing-suit glide through the sky like some sort of flying squirrel. I’m just thankful that in this iteration he wasn’t bitten by a radioactive flying squirrel … or was he? What are you hiding from us Peter?

Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 4) No. 1

The Comics: Over the years, Spider-Man has experimented with changing up his webbing a lot. Sometimes he’ll mix cement in it to defeat Hydro-Man or mix it with a rubber substance to beat Electro. Recently, he’s been adding a lot of new tech into his repertoire, specifically taser webbing. The effect is devastating.

The Movie: When Peter and Ned disable Tony Stark’s control over the spider-suit, it allows Peter to activate his AI, Karen (Jennifer Connelly), and turn on Combat Mode. This unlocks hundreds of new weapons for him to utilize, including taser webbing. The comics haven’t played around with Instant Kill Mode, and I’m thankful for it.

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man (Vol. 20) No. 1

The Comics: When the Ultimate version of Peter Parker is murdered stopping the Green Goblin from harming his family, the young Miles Morales takes up the mantle of Spider-Man, inspired by Peter’s sacrifice. Unfortunately, Miles doesn’t have an inspiring uncle like Peter; his uncle is Aaron Davis, a criminal that goes by the name “The Prowler.” It is Aaron’s actions that cause Miles to be bitten by a genetically engineered spider. Aaron cares for his nephew but is eventually accidentally killed during a moment between him and Miles, as he’s trying to teach Miles to use his powers for personal gain instead of heroism.

The Movie: Aaron Davis is portrayed by Donald Glover, who publicly advocated his desire to portray Spider-Man for years. In the movie, Aaron Davis tries to buy weaponry from the Shockers, before escaping when Spider-Man interrupts the deal. Spider-Man later interrogates Aaron, whose criminal records identify him as “The Prowler” and one of his aliases as “Brian Pichelli,” after the names of his comic book creators Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli. Most notable is that Aaron helps Spider-Man out because of his concern for his “nephew.” This has hugely excited fans of Miles, as it lays the groundwork for his eventual introduction into the MCU.

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man (Vol. 2) No. 6, Amazing Spider-Man No. 20

The Comics: Mac Gargan was a private investigator who was hired by J. Jonah Jameson to follow Peter and figure out how he could take the pictures he took. Jameson then hired Gargan to be subjected to tests that would turn him into the Scorpion. As a result, the Scorpion grew to hate both Spider-Man and Jameson. In the Ultimate universe, there are two different Scorpions, but the important one is an invulnerable gang leader with a giant scorpion tattoo.

The Movie: Mac Gargan is introduced on the Staten Island Ferry as one of Toomes’ gang members, with a noticeable scorpion tattoo. After getting knocked off the ferry and hurt in the subsequent destruction, he’s captured and sent to jail, where he reappears in the mid-credits sequence to proclaim his hatred for Spider-Man.

Amazing Spider-Man No. 10

The Comics: Jackson Brice is one of the founding members of The Enforcers, a hit-squad consisting of a number of gangsters with weirdly specific talents. Montana is notable for his incredible skills with a lasso. He and his team of Enforcers would show up from time to time to make trouble for Spider-Man, mostly on behalf the Kingpin.

The Movie: Remember the guy who was the Shocker, right before he got obliterated by the not-the-gravity-gun? Well, his name was Jackson Brice. So he was the Shocker and Montana … apparently. RIP.

Damage Control (Vol. 2) No. 1

The Comics: Damage Control is a construction company specializing in fixing damage that’s caused by fights between Marvel’s heroes and villains. If you’ve ever wondered why anyone would live in Marvel’s fictional New York City, it’s because these guys do a great job of clean-up.

The Movie: Damage Control is a government agency operating under Tony Stark to help clean up after the events of 2012’s The Avengers. They take the clean-up job away from Adrian Toomes and his company, essentially sparking his working-class rage. They also operate several large containment facilities that house all this junk.

2012’s Amazing Spider-Man

The Movie: Remember when Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker had dinner with the Stacys and they offered him a branzino fish dinner, eventually sparking an internet blogging joke about the weird specificity of that moment?

The New Movie: Apparently, the new writers remembered it, because when Flash picks up Sally Avril, his date, he mentions that he had to send back his dinner because he knows what real Mediterranean branzino looks like. Talk about a really obscure reference.

Ultimate Spider-Man No. 37

The Comic: In the Ultimate Spider-Man series, Peter is often fighting in and out of his school, home, shopping mall, etc. The peak of these kinds of battles happens when Peter, out of costume, has to fight Venom on the football field behind his school, all while classes continue nearby.

The Movie: This isn’t an intentional reference, but again I couldn’t help but think of this moment when Peter fights the powered-up Shocker in the bus parking lot during the homecoming dance. There’s definite magic to be had when Peter’s life directly interacts with the fantastical world of Spider-Man.

Amazing Spider-Man No. 33

The Comic: Perhaps the most iconic moment from any Spider-Man comics, outside of his origin story, is a moment from what’s known as the “Master Planner Saga.” In it, Spider-Man is buried under tons of steel, just out of reach from a vial of medicine that would cure his dying aunt, and the room is flooding with water. It’s a hopeless moment, but Spider-Man convinces himself that he can persevere and slowly lifts the steel over his head. The way it is drawn by Steve Ditko is a master class in comic book storytelling.

The Movie: The Vulture buries Peter under a similar pile of rubble, pinning him with little option for survival. It’s visually nearly identical to the comic book sequence. In sync with the themes of the film, Peter convinces himself that he is Spider-Man, with or without the suit, repeatedly referring to himself as “Spider-Man” as he lifts the rubble from overhead. It’s a moment Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige championed for the film.

Amazing Spider-Man No. 2

The Comic: When Peter’s spider-sense is triggered or the artist wants to signify that he’s responding to something related to his Spider-Man persona, they might use the visual motif of a split-faced Peter/Spider-Man. Comic readers were initially confused by this visual, thinking perhaps that half of Peter’s body was suddenly covered in a costume, but it was quickly adopted as the perfect visual representation of his dueling identities.

The Movie: When Peter is pinned under the rubble, that visual representation is reflected back to him in a puddle of water, where his mask is floating.

Amazing Spider-Man No. 1

The Comic: Spider-Man’s first heroic adventure involved him saving J. Jonah Jameson’s son, John Jameson, from a failed launch of his space shuttle. Spider-Man had to find a way to get airborne and attach himself to the shuttle, saving the occupants and drawing the attention of the cigar-chewing media mogul.

The Movie: The comparison between this sequence and the Stark invisible jet sequence at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming is apparent, with several panels looking nearly identical to the final film. Either way, it’s fun to see Spider-Man put in an extreme-height scenario with no way of landing safely if he were to fall.

Amazing Spider-Man No. 12

The Comic: In a famous moment, Doctor Octopus kidnaps Peter’s girlfriend Betty Brant and takes her to Coney Island, dangling her from the top of the Ferris wheel. When Peter confronts him as Spider-Man, Otto tears off Peter’s mask, revealing his identity to the public. Fortunately, Peter is able to spin that he dressed up as Spider-Man in hopes of rescuing his girlfriend.

The Movie: The film comes to a conclusion at Coney Island, utilizing all the elements that Peter famously fought on in the comic. While it might not be a direct reference to the original comics, the location is famous in Spider-Man lore, so it is nice to see it finally featured onscreen.

Amazing Spider-Man No. 529

The Comic: Right before the events of Civil War, Tony built Spider-Man a new suit, dubbed the Iron Spider suit. It allowed him to fly and generally do all the things Iron Man could. When Spider-Man decided to turn against Iron Man in the midst of Civil War, Tony attempted to control Spider-Man through the suit, but he wasn’t counting on Peter’s intellect to allow him to rewire it against him.

The Movie: Not only does Iron Man create the classic, but enhanced, version of Peter’s iconic suit, he presents him with his own cinematic version of the Iron Spider suit at the end of the film, in a moment that directly mimics the comics. It’s the thematic climax of the film and Peter’s denial of Tony’s offer signifies his maturation.

Civil War No. 2

The Comic: In order to get superheroes to sign up for the Superhuman Registration Act in Civil War, Tony Stark asked Peter Parker to reveal his secret identity to a crowd of reporters. Peter agreed, throwing his life into chaos and putting his family in danger.

The Movie: Tony seems to be asking Peter to do a similar thing at the end of Homecoming. He’s assembled a press briefing to at least announce Spider-Man’s role on the Avengers team. The visuals mirror those from the Civil War comic, and who could say how far Tony would have asked him to go?

The Comic: Megingjord is Thor’s enchanted Belt of Strength. When he wears it his strength is amplified considerably. He’s lost it several times in the books, eventually recovering it in a heroic moment.

The Movie: Happy Hogan mentions that they are shipping this item in his invisible jet, but he has trouble pronouncing the word … which makes total sense.

Amazing Spider-Man Annual No. 3

The Comic: When the Avengers test Spider-Man to see if he can join the team, they give him an impossible task that he is meant to fail. He’s supposed to go and wrangle the Hulk and bring him back to them. Instead, Peter discovers Hulk’s true identity and his tragic story and decides that it’d be against his morals to complete the quest. He returns to the Avengers and tells them to take a long walk off a short pier.

The Movie: Peter spends the entire runtime of Spider-Man: Homecoming trying to prove himself to Tony Stark so that he might join the Avengers team. Yet, through his time as Spider-Man he learns a valuable lesson about himself, so that when he is offered the position on the Avengers team he turns it down to continue his friendly neighborhood lifestyle. Was I the only one fist-pumping in the theater?

Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) No. 35

The Comic: After Spider-Man’s epic battle with Morlun in the “Coming Home” story, one of the best Spider-Man tales ever told, he’s beaten, bloodied and in a bad need of a long nap. He passes out on his bed, oblivious to the world, when Aunt May returns home to find him on the edge of death in his bed, his costume in tatters. It is at this moment that May discovers that Peter is Spider-Man.

The Movie: Peter returns home from Tony’s offer to join the Avengers to find a bag with his new costume in it. He dresses up, after presuming his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) isn’t home. That’s exactly when she walks in and ends the movie with a, “What the f—!”

OK web-heads. What did we miss? Tweet the comic book panel (and issue number) to @HeatVisionBlog and we will update this post with the best tweets.

Dan Gvozden, a life-long Spider-Man fan, is a Heat Vision contributor and co-host of Amazing Spider-Talk podcast.

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#Book #Comic #Easter #Eggs #Homecoming #References #SpiderMan #Story

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linguistics-society-blog · 7 years

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Texting - the funny evolution of a new language

At first sight, texting practices nowadays can be regarded as an extreme oversimplification of established spelling, grammar and literacy practices. However, it is exactly this simplification that makes texting not only extremely practical in its accessible and easy-to-read format, but also often quite funny. According to John McWhorter, simplification is one of the many tools, among abbreviations, acronyms and shorthand writing, that shape the entire structure and function of language expressed in texting. As proven by the text messages attached, texting has become not only a highly dynamic method of communication, but also the logical step in the evolution of language in our modern, high-tech environment.

Texting works by linking literary events and literary practices in such a way as to achieve a specific meaning. Literacy events, defined as “occasions in which written language is integral to the nature of participants’ interactions and their interpretive processes and strategies” (Heath 2001 as quoted in Ahearn 142) achieve a specific meaning in texts with the help of different acronyms or abbreviations. As picture 2 indicates, “wht up” and “is tht ur dog” are acronyms for “What is up” and “Is that your dog?”. In both cases, the literacy event of delivering the message in this specific acronym format allows both participants in the virtual “conversation” to understand each other perfectly well. Also, they incorporated the funny image of dog speaking on the phone that still serves the same purpose of continuing communication by means of interpretational interaction. The image of the dog is an instance of a literacy event, unique in that it can only be incorporated in an electronic communication form such as texting. The picture, although not a written form of language, is still integral to the communicators for that it provokes a funny interpretation of the message that it delivers to the conversation. These are excellent examples of language evolution, because they indicate how texting-unique literacy practices of incorporating images in written communication became “general norms regarding how written texts tend to be produced, interpreted, or discussed” (Ahearn 143). The beauty of texting is that, in this case, technology allowed for the development of the new literacy practice of interpreting pictures as part of a conversation, despite that literacy practice being nonexistent in traditional oral communication. Therefore, this case is an excellent example of linguistic evolution, which now expands to include various innovative communication opportunities with their respective technological platforms.

Sometimes, as in the texting interaction on picture 1, the introduction of certain universal-meaning words, such as “the thing” can be regarded as extreme types of “literacy events” (Ahearn 142), which in this case caused funny confusion. On picture 1, the second conversation participant typed “can I have the thing”, which sounds like a pun-like statement because it may involve some form of other social interaction, different from the initially intended conversation purpose. In turn, further clarification in the form of “history notes” followed. In this case, the word “thing” has “evolved into something that is much subtler” (McWhorter 6:17), which can lend itself to a wide range of interpretations. The beauty of the “texting language” in this case is that the word “thing” serves as a tool for simplification of the etymological complexity of many words that can be substituted by it. This is not only an instance of language evolution towards a universal simplification, but also a working example of overstepping the traditional boundaries of the “community of speakers” (Saussure 1986 as quoted in Ahearn 104) to which this message is intended to. In this case, it is the other student of presumably similar age.

Despite at first sight disregarding spelling and grammatical rules, texting achieves the purpose of still delivering a comprehensible and practical message. Therefore, there seem to be no decrease in the grammatical or writing skills of text users, in accordance with the statement “there were no significant differences between the two groups in standardized literacy scores or misspellings of common text speak words” (Drouin 46). This is also proven by the third message, where the mother (one of the participants in the conversation) uses run-on sentences with poor punctuation, such as “how make chicken”, “where buy chicken”, even “avacoda”, yet is still perfectly well understood by her communication partner, presumably her daughter. Similarly, the fifth picture has the second participant, presumably Sierra, stating “where they sell that at” with the meaning of “Where do they sell that at?” Still, she is well-understood by her conversation partner, who utilizes “grammatically correct” messages as “interpretive processes and strategies” (Heath 2001 as quoted in Ahearn 142) to achieve the purpose of presumably predisposing Sierra to talk about her feelings. Instead, this participant achieves the opposite effect with comical results. Yet another instance of funny confusion can be found in the fourth message, which has the second participant insisting on green beans without realizing the message is shared with the wrong number. The confused first participant still tries to utilize “grammatically correct” messages to explain that this is the wrong number, again to no apparent avail.

Such examples provide information about “this linguistic miracle happening right under our noses” (McWhorter 12:48). Text language can therefore be regarded as both entertaining and practical step in linguistics evolution, occurring by means of the incorporation of written, cognitive and universal linguistic interactions.

Works Cited.

Ahearn, Laura. Living Language: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology. Wiley Blackwell. 2011. Print.

Greenring, Tanner. "The 32 Funniest Text Messages Of All Time." BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed.com, 19 Nov. 2014. Web. 12 Mar. 2017.

Txtng Is Killing Language. JK!!! Perf. John McWhorter. TED Talks, 2013. Internet.

Drouin, Michelle, and Claire Davis. "R U Txting? Is the Use of Text Speak Hurting Your Literacy?" Journal of Literacy Research 41.1 (2009): 46-67. Web. 15 Feb. 2017. <http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10862960802695131>.

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