Tag: Internet

Posted on

One skeptic is Christopher Priest, a former Marvel staffer who in the 1980s became the publisher’s first black editor (under his former name, Jim Owsley) and has written a “Falcon” miniseries and “Captain America and the Falcon” series.

“It feels like a stunt,” he told Hero Complex in an email interview. “It would have felt like a stunt had I done it.” He added that Wilson, as he understands him, wouldn’t become Captain America – and that for the story to work it needs to feel different from Rhodes’ stints as Iron Man.

“Putting the black sidekick in the suit, when everyone knows sooner or later you’re going to switch things back to normal, comes off as patently offensive,” Priest said.

Adding that he’d be “delighted” to be wrong about the Cap change being a stunt, Priest laid out what his former employer is facing: “Marvel’s challenge is to deliver something so affirming and positive that the work overcomes that cynicism. I assure you, Black America will be watching: Does this have real depth, or is it just surfacey costume-switching?”

And he had some other advice for Marvel: “Hire some actual black people.”

From here.

The same story also credits Marvel with “mainstream comics’ first same-sex wedding in ‘Astonishing X-Men,’” which might come as a surprise to both Archie Comics and DC. 

Posted on

“Ebonics” may no longer be a socially acceptable punchline for a joke but the Time word-banishment polls reveal that little has changed in terms of white culture’s underlying attitude toward vernacular used by people of color, namely that it is only acceptable so long as it is entertaining.

From here.
Posted on

Can I ask a quick question—why does the air suddenly have calories? Because that is the only way I understand this weight-gain bullshit. I’m doing the same things I’ve always done—not working out and eating a lot of pizza.

What? I can’t do that at this age anymore? What kind of game is this? Isn’t there enough shit already going down in my life? I need pizza as a coping mechanism, and suddenly it’s snatched from me. That is completely unfair.

I am starting to suspect that ThoughtCatalog.com is an Onion-esque parody of self-obsessed millennial memes, because there’s almost no other way that articles like the one quoted above could legitimately be seen to have reason for publication.

It’s not just that article, either; there’s also 33 Weird Thoughts Every Woman Starts Having In Her Mid 20s, 17 Books To Get You Through Your Quarter-Life Crisis, Watching People You Know Get Married When You’re 25 and Single and roughly a million others.

There’s also an astounding amount of hilariously random dating advice, from “How to Survive The Walk of Shame” and “I’m A Slut – And Proud of It” to “Science Proves The Best Dads Have Small Balls” and, maybe my favorite, “How To Date Guys With Beards.” If it is a parody site, it’s flawless in its self-obsession.

Posted on

Horror movie Annabelle has been withdrawn from several French cinemas after the spooky prequel about a demonic doll saw teenage filmgoers rioting in auditoriums.

Managers in Marseille, Strasbourg and Montpellier have cancelled screenings until further notice for security reasons after under-16s began fighting, throwing popcorn and even ripping up theatre seats.

…It’s not the first time a horror film has sparked teenage riots in France. According to Le Parisien, a similar phenomenon took place during screenings of Paranormal Activity and Sinister, with the latter film pulled from more than 40 screens in 2012.

Okay, that’s unexpected. From here.
Posted on

Finally, the promise of a truly commercial-free social network is probably never going to happen. (To be fair, this isn’t what Ello is promising; they’ve simply published a “manifesto” saying they will never show you advertising or promoted posts.) There’s two reasons for this.

One, barring extremely vigilant moderation, every social network will see users twisting it towards commercial ends. (MetaFilter and, to a lesser degree, Reddit have been successful at keeping this type of activity to a minimum, but even they offer up advertising and have users clandestinely working behind the scenes to help brands sell.)

Two, social networks eventually have to pay for themselves. So far, no major social networking site has found a way to make people pay for the privilege of talking to their friends. Which, inevitably, leaves advertising. Ello may want to be pure as the driven snow, but engineers and servers don’t come cheap, and social networks can’t simply putter along with a few thousand (or even a few hundred thousand) users and be useful. If Ello is successful and grows, the site’s initial promise—that it will not be a place to sell but a “a place to connect, create and celebrate life"—will give way to economic reality. After that, it’s either endless rounds of VC funding, a quiet shuttering, or advertising and promoted posts.

From here.

Related.

Posted on

I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

Eliot’s meditation on growing older meets the Internet. “Rolling up your trousers is cool now!”