Samsung Spider-Man

[Abishai100]

The recent flurry of vigilantism-daydream themed comic book adapted films has people talking about how urbanization-related civics paranoia makes dystopia-themed characters/avatars such as Electro (Marvel Comics), a mutant who can use electricity as a weapon, and Pyro (Marvel Comics), a flame-thrower wielding arsonist and anti-democracy maniac, symbolic of anxieties regarding Darwinian theory.

Who started the 'paranoia-storytelling' trend? Was it Orwell? Was it Hitchcock? Was it as early back (in cinema history) as Orson Welles?

Modern era films such as Iron Man and Darkman explore a new age focus on the consequences of strength enhancement (artificial or natural). Such storytelling represents a human interest in 'evolution reactionary' questions (e.g., "Is man evolving to become savagely obsessed with technology and power?").

Here's a pro-civilization short-story I wrote about Pyro and Electro trying to terrorize NYC land/tech grids and threatening the security of urban thruways. Can the 'civilization-chic' Samsung Galaxy (phone) save the day?

I wonder if superheroes play video games, and if they're impressed with the muscular video games you can download and play these days right on your smartphone! I always preferred Asimov to Orwell...


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Peter Parker was given the assignment at the Daily Bugle by his boss to investigate a new series of strange terrorism incidents in Central Park. For four straight weeks, someone has been leaving burned-earth markings in Central Park on Saturday nights. No one knows who the culprit is, but the Bugle received a note from two strange individuals referring to themselves as Pyro and Electro:

"We will continue to vandalize Central Park with fire and electricity unless the city fathers agree to leave us $30 million in a marked chest in the park along with a fancy free Samsung smartphone and a deal with Samsung to have the deed marked in the Yale University library!"

Peter realized that Pyro and Electro were trying to trick New Yorkers into thinking they were intellectually shrewd about consumer electronics (so people thought villains were very 'educated'), so Peter donned the mantle of his heroic vigilante secret-identity 'Spider-Man' and went soaring into the city on his cobweb shooters and spider-suit looking for the two evil-doers. Spider-Man considered the possibility that Pyro and Electro were hiding out on the Yale campus, waiting for the Samsung representatives to post their official newsletter in the main university library. Spider-Man staked out the campus, waiting for developments.

Samsung representatives arrived at Yale to post their testimony: "If Pyro and Electro leave with the ransom-money, peacefully, Samsung pledges to honor its deal to gift them with a smartphone, and we hope this will affirm the interest of Samsung to be involved in the cares and concerns of American pedestrians." Spider-Man was hiding on a roof of the building where they were to give their address. That's when Pyro and Electro showed up (on jet-gliders stolen from Oscorp Institute), requiring Spider-Man to tie them up in cobwebs.

Peter Parker covered the entire Yale incident. He told New Yorkers in his Bugle piece that Pyro and Electro would be studied at Oscorp for their mutant and mental eccentricities and criminal insanity patterns and hopefully be rehabilitated for their extreme anti-civilization fanaticism. Peter relayed how Spider-Man swooped in to prevent the evil-doers from creating anarchy at the Samsung presentation. He also suggested wisely that Samsung would benefit in American society, since New Yorkers naturally care about the beneficial advertising education and technology can receive (ironically) from otherwise tragic events (e.g., the Challenger NASA disaster).

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Self-Cooling Samsung Phone Processor

 

[Abishai100]

Chapter 2: The Robot Dream


What came first, the technology paranoia or the socialism omens?


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Peter Parker had a lucid dream about being transported to another dimension where he encountered an alien race of robots. He met two 'classes' of robots called Insecticons and Combaticons who seemed at-odds with each other on the proper use of technology and energy. The Insecticons were more autocratic (reflecting civilization ambitions for empire-building), while the Combaticons were more individualistic (reflecting civilization instincts for profiteerism). Peter listened to their civilization-choreography 'debate,' and when he woke he felt more confident about the prudent management of intellectual property on Earth. The following is a transcript of the great Insecticon-Combaticon Debate that Peter Parker (Spider-Man) would never forget (even though it was all...just a dream!).

INSECTICON: On a planet called 'Earth,' mobile wireless 'telephones' are popular!
COMBATICON: Mobile connectivity is like telekinesis facilitating commerce.
INSECTICON: On our planet of robots (Cybertron), we communicate with transmitters in our central processors.
COMBATICON: We utilize radio waves with the frequency our transistors and circuits can corral.
INSECTICON: Would we be able to 'communicate' with the species on Earth?
COMBATICON: These 'humans' use 'prosthetics' to create electronic communication grids.
INSECTICON: Correct. They use smartphones and 'Facebook.'
COMBATICON: The two Korean companies, LG and Samsung, make popular mobile/smartphones.
INSECTICON: With so much time spent on communication, who governs over the management of intellectual property?
COMBATICON: Information is energy in the computerized world...
INSECTICON: Regulating the 'gates' and 'rates' of information flow creates the structure of the 'market.'
COMBATICON: The market must constantly be 'reinvented' to suit the demands of the energy-consumer.
INSECTICON: What is best is to have a central leader narrating over the consumption of energy and division of labor.
COMBATICON: No! We need distributed leadership to cater to our most basic instinct --- self-survival.
INSECTICON: A central leader such as a dictator or emperor will suit the needs of those who crave religion.
COMBATICON: A fascist or tyrant is simply an overly-ambitious 'citizen profiteer.' Why not cut out the middle man?
INSECTICON: Without authority, there is only anarchy, and hence no scope for 'organized competition.'
COMBATICON: Do you think LG and Samsung compete 'ethically' on Earth?
INSECTICON: Supervising market competition is the job of the energy analyst and 'priest.'
COMBATICON: Capitalism is fostered when priests come second to investors.

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Insecticon

Combaticon

 

[Abishai100]

Chapter 3: Transylvania 6-5000


This one is about the challenge of modernization (as it relates to pure pedagoguery).






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Peter Parker was given an assignment to investigate the intriguing case of a mysterious masked vigilante operating on Transylvania (Romania), trying to tackle a ruthless crime syndicate known as Red Triangle. The vigilante was being called The Arrow (since he carried a crossbow), and his soft-tip arrows were not fatal but rather tipped with a tranquilizer chemical which rendered people numb after touching their skin! Parker hopped on a TWA flight to Romania and settled into his hotel room. After the first few days of settling into Transylvania and doing background research into the cultural dynamics of the 'Dracula-folklore' town, Peter started scouring the area at night as Spider-Man.

Spider-Man met Arrow a few days later, and Arrow was surprisingly congenial. The masked archer explained to Spidey that he believed a Hollywood (USA) celebrity (Tom Cruise) was prowling around Transylvania on Saturday nights costumed as the Pied Piper of Hamelin (a German folklore character signifying a spiritual wrestling with betrayed social contracts). Spidey asked Arrow what 'Piper's' intentions were, and Arrow explained that Cruise was most likely trying to stir up media attention for his Church of Scientology by advocating a 'street-research' empiricism approach to modern urbanization and population flow complications (e.g., urban crime syndicates). Arrow was right, and when he and Spidey met Cruise face-to-face, the American celebrity confessed that his 'pseudo-vigilante' deed was meant to invite the question, "Can pedestrian fervor mixed with empirical street work dismantle the social 'prestige' afforded to profiteering crime syndicates such as Red Triangle?"

Spider-Man, Arrow, and Cruise (who was given the nickname 'Glitter-Man' for his Piper allegory cleverness) decided to work together to deal with Red Triangle. They each carried a Samsung Galaxy smartphone so they could keep in touch with each other while working in separate parts of Transylvania. They called their phone-network The Crusade Circle. Each member was responsible for making sure his phone was on and battery-charged. Arrow had a special solar-powered cell installed in his Samsung phone to give him some edge. Glitter-Man would walk around Transylvania, playing an electronic flute for kids who were impressed by the musical toy. He would then send in notes to the Transylvania Gazette with message such as, "The spirit of the Pied Piper of Hamelin is resurrected and is inspiring the youth of Transylvania to refuse the moral temptations of the Red Triangle!"

The Red Triangle was led by a cunning 'mad scientist' named Udo Lars (a native of Eastern Europe). Udo's girlfriend Shelbye was the gang's official lawyer and crime consultant (so they nicknamed her 'Baroness'). Shelbye was both beautiful and bad. Udo soon got wind of the activities of 'The Crusade Circle' and ordered his henchmen to hunt down Spider-Man, Arrow, and Glitter-Man. Shelbye/Baroness went on a personal quest to find Arrow, whom she found intriguing secretly. Red Triangle's last shipment of opium from Moscow was confiscated by the Transylvanian police after The Crusade Circle looted the transport and tied up the goons employed for the job. Baroness was sure the raid was planned by Arrow and wanted to meet the man brave enough to challenge Udo and Red Triangle.

When Baroness tracked down Arrow's apartment after some street-gossip research, the two instantly exhibited a natural attraction and chemistry. Baroness (Shelbye) did not tell Arrow who she really was (and only the inside members of Red Triangle knew her personal information) and entertained a brief love affair. Arrow felt like he was in love but got the nagging feeling he was being distracted away from the necessary work against Red Triangle. When Baroness finally confided in Arrow, he was horrified and told her not to call him anymore. Baroness was devastated and enraged and swore that if she could not have Arrow, no woman would. Baroness instructed the Red Triangle engineer (a computer and electronics wizard) to create a scrambling signal which would destabilize The Crusade Circle's phone-network (since Arrow once told her of his 'special' phone ring with his two 'pals').

As Red Triangle tried to hack away at The Crusade Circle, Cruise used the media attention afforded to the now-adored three masked vigilantes to send a notice to the Hollywood Reporter which read, "Transylvanian vigilantes doing work to make democracy and crime-free zones a reality for the place, encouraging the kind of social and religious pluralism conducive to the dissemination of differing world-views (such as those of the Church of Scientology!)." As Cruise hyped the work of The Crusade Circle in the American media, Spider-Man and Arrow continued to investigate ways of destabilizing the grip of the Red Triangle. Meanwhile, Baroness's 'wizard engineer' devised a special electronic virus which would autonomously short-circuit the three vigilantes' special phone-network. The virus did just that but it also created a super-virus that functioned as a predatory singular being (which the engineer named 'Video-Man').

When Arrow told the Transylanian Gazette that Red Triangle's engineer developed a super-virus which can destabilize mobile phones, the Red Triangle engineer wrote to the Gazette, "Red Triangle has given birth to 'Video-Man,' which will forever seal the dominion of the organization and frighten away disobedient overly-idealistic 'vigilantes'!" Video-Man, meanwhile, had effectively scrambled half the mobile phones in Transylvania. Spider-Man was enraged, so he decided to plan a full-on assault on the fortress of Red Triangle. The assault was a success, and Red Triangle was devastated by a barrage of tear-gas grenades, auditory bombs, and muscle work by The Crusade Circle and about 50 members of the Transylvania Police. Udo was killed during the assault. Baroness was imprisoned but never gave up her now deranged obsession with Arrow.

Red Triangle was defeated, and Cruise (Glitter-Man) proposed that The Crusade Circle become an 'underground propaganda network' and insert political fervor (for democracy) through the media in Transylvania (without ever having to disclose their identities!). Spider-Man thought this was a dangerous plan, since it would simply substitute one form of idol-worship with another. "Our job here is done, Glitter-Man. Let's allow the people of Transylvania to govern themselves now!" When Arrow sided with Spider-Man, a schism in The Crusade Circle occurred which would lead to the great 'Street-Spirit Civil War.' This 'war' was not socially resolved until a peace-promotional Halloween Eve event in Transylvania (during which all three members of The Crusade Circle got into costume and played flutes for children) changed the way people were talking about 'passionate politics/civics.' Samsung made a deal with Hollywood to make a movie of the entire ordeal, since The Crusade Circle all carried Samsung phones and therefore served as terrific 'sales-adventure spokespersons.' Would this become an ironic achievement in pedestrian marketing?

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[Unkotare]

Self-replying plagiarism thread

 

[Abishai100]

Self-replying plagiarism thread

Haha, very sardonic Unkotare. I know I'm not very eloquent, but as per plagiarism, I definitely plead not-guilty. Much of my writing is focused on a 'personalization presentation' so I leave things open-ended for people to interpret what they like, sort of like those 'choose-your-own-adventure' youth novels (which I read and enjoyed growing up).

This 'style' of storytelling is akin to the theme-presentation approach found in atmospheric films such as Pleasantville.

Besides, one of the joys for me with comic book stylized storytelling is that you can have fun with it (even when you're addressing real-world complexities). So I apologize if I sounded irreverent or haphazard, and perhaps the ideas (regarding metropolitan claustrophobia) presented in this thread will justify why it all sounds just a tad...nutty.

I'll work on using other approaches to storytelling, however (so I appreciate any criticisms). Unkotare, are you a fan of Isaac Asimov? I've found that much of modern entertainment invests in a storytelling that is nearly like 'street chatter' (so it sounds very pedestrian). I know it doesn't always seem my writing is pedestrian intentionally (so perhaps verbose/mundane unintentionally!).

I care about the idea presented here, so I wanted to clarify my position on the minor 'plagiarism' critique. I never plagiarize.

Cheers,