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“Language is not merely a set of unrelated sounds, clauses, rules, and meanings; it is a totally coherent system bound to context and behavior.” — Kenneth L. Pike

The web has accents. So should our design systems.

Design Systems as Living Languages

Design systems aren’t component libraries—they’re living languages. Tokens are phonemes, components are words, patterns are phrases, layouts are sentences. The conversations we build with users become the stories our products tell.

But here’s what we’ve forgotten: the more fluently a language is spoken, the more accents it can support without losing meaning. English in Scotland differs from English in Sydney, yet both are unmistakably English. The language adapts to context while preserving core meaning. This couldn’t be more obvious to me, a Brazilian Portuguese speaker, who learned English with an American accent, and lives in Sydney.

Our design systems must work the same way. Rigid adherence to visual rules creates brittle systems that break under contextual pressure. Fluent systems bend without breaking.

Consistency becomes a prison

The promise of design systems was simple: consistent components would accelerate development and unify experiences. But as systems matured and products grew more complex, that promise has become a prison. Teams file “exception” requests by the hundreds. Products launch with workarounds instead of system components. Designers spend more time defending consistency than solving user problems.

Our design systems must learn to speak dialects.

A design dialect is a systematic adaptation of a design system that maintains core principles while developing new patterns for specific contexts. Unlike one-off customizations or brand themes, dialects preserve the system’s essential grammar while expanding its vocabulary to serve different users, environments, or constraints.

When Perfect Consistency Fails

At Booking.com, I learned this lesson the hard way. We A/B-tested everything—color, copy, button shapes, even logo colors. As a professional with a graphic design education and experience building brand style guides, I found this shocking. While everyone fell in love with Airbnb’s pristine design system, Booking grew into a giant without ever considering visual consistency.  

The chaos taught me something profound: consistency isn’t ROI; solved problems are.

At Shopify. Polaris () was our crown jewel—a mature design language perfect for merchants on laptops. As a product team, we were expected to adopt Polaris as-is. Then my fulfillment team hit an “Oh, Ship!” moment, as we faced the challenge of building an app for warehouse pickers using our interface on shared, battered Android scanners in dim aisles, wearing thick gloves, scanning dozens of items per minute, many with limited levels of English understanding.

Task completion with standard Polaris: 0%.

Every component that worked beautifully for merchants failed completely for pickers. White backgrounds created glare. 44px tap targets were invisible to gloved fingers. Sentence-case labels took too long to parse. Multi-step flows confused non-native speakers.

We faced a choice: abandon Polaris entirely, or teach it to speak warehouse.

The Birth of a Dialect

We chose evolution over revolution. Working within Polaris’s core principles—clarity, efficiency, consistency—we developed what we now call a design dialect:

Constraint	Fluent Move	Rationale
Glare & low light	Dark surfaces + light text	Reduce glare on low-DPI screens
Gloves & haste	90px tap targets (~2cm)	Accommodate thick gloves
Multilingual	Single-task screens, plain language	Reduce cognitive load

Result: Task completion jumped from 0% to 100%. Onboarding time dropped from three weeks to one shift.

This wasn’t customization or theming—this was a dialect: a systematic adaptation that maintained Polaris’s core grammar while developing new vocabulary for a specific context. Polaris hadn’t failed; it had learned to speak warehouse.

The Flexibility Framework

At Atlassian, working on the Jira platform—itself a system within the larger Atlassian system—I pushed for formalizing this insight. With dozens of products sharing a design language across different codebases, we needed systematic flexibility so we built directly into our ways of working. The old model—exception requests and special approvals—was failing at scale.

We developed the Flexibility Framework to help designers define how flexible they wanted their components to be:

Tier	Action	Ownership
Consistent	Adopt unchanged	Platform locks design + code
Opinionated	Adapt within bounds	Platform provides smart defaults, products customize
Flexible	Extend freely	Platform defines behavior, products own presentation

During a navigation redesign, we tiered every element. Logo and global search stayed Consistent. Breadcrumbs and contextual actions became Flexible. Product teams could immediately see where innovation was welcome and where consistency mattered.

The Decision Ladder

Flexibility needs boundaries. We created a simple ladder for evaluating when rules should bend:

Good: Ship with existing system components. Fast, consistent, proven.

Better: Stretch a component slightly. Document the change. Contribute improvements back to the system for all to use.

Best: Prototype the ideal experience first. If user testing validates the benefit, update the system to support it.

The key question: “Which option lets users succeed fastest?”

Rules are tools, not relics.

Unity Beats Uniformity

Gmail, Drive, and Maps are unmistakably Google—yet each speaks with its own accent. They achieve unity through shared principles, not cloned components. One extra week of debate over button color costs roughly $30K in engineer time.

Unity is a brand outcome; fluency is a user outcome. When the two clash, side with the user.

Governance Without Gates

How do you maintain coherence while enabling dialects? Treat your system like a living vocabulary:

Document every deviation – e.g., dialects/warehouse.md with before/after screenshots and rationale.

Promote shared patterns – when three teams adopt a dialect independently, review it for core inclusion.

Deprecate with context – retire old idioms via flags and migration notes, never a big-bang purge.

A living dictionary scales better than a frozen rulebook.

Start Small: Your First Dialect

Ready to introduce dialects? Start with one broken experience:

This week: Find one user flow where perfect consistency blocks task completion. Could be mobile users struggling with desktop-sized components, or accessibility needs your standard patterns don’t address.

Document the context: What makes standard patterns fail here? Environmental constraints? User capabilities? Task urgency?

Design one systematic change: Focus on behavior over aesthetics. If gloves are the problem, bigger targets aren’t “”breaking the system””—they’re serving the user. Earn the variations and make them intentional.

Test and measure: Does the change improve task completion? Time to productivity? User satisfaction?

Show the savings: If that dialect frees even half a sprint, fluency has paid for itself.

Beyond the Component Library

We’re not managing design systems anymore—we’re cultivating design languages. Languages that grow with their speakers. Languages that develop accents without losing meaning. Languages that serve human needs over aesthetic ideals.

The warehouse workers who went from 0% to 100% task completion didn’t care that our buttons broke the style guide. They cared that the buttons finally worked.

Your users feel the same way. Give your system permission to speak their language.

Today’s web is not always an amiable place. Sites greet you with a popover that demands assent to their cookie policy, and leave you with Taboola ads promising “One Weird Trick!” to cure your ailments. Social media sites are tuned for engagement, and few things are more engaging than a fight. Today it seems that people want to quarrel; I have seen flame wars among birders.  

These tensions are often at odds with a site’s goals. If we are providing support and advice to customers, we don’t want those customers to wrangle with each other. If we offer news about the latest research, we want readers to feel at ease; if we promote upcoming marches, we want our core supporters to feel comfortable and we want curious newcomers to feel welcome. 

In a study for a conference on the History of the Web, I looked to the origins of Computer Science in Vienna (1928-1934)  for a case study of the importance of amiability in a research community and the disastrous consequences of its loss. That story has interesting implications for web environments that promote amiable interaction among disparate, difficult (and sometimes disagreeable) people.

The Vienna Circle

Though people had been thinking about calculating engines and thinking machines from antiquity, Computing really got going in Depression-era Vienna.  The people who worked out the theory had no interest in building machines; they wanted to puzzle out the limits of reason in the absence of divine authority. If we could not rely on God or Aristotle to tell us how to think, could we instead build arguments that were self-contained and demonstrably correct? Can we be sure that mathematics is consistent? Are there things that are true but that cannot be expressed in language? 

The core ideas were worked out in the weekly meetings (Thursdays at 6) of a group remembered as the Vienna Circle. They got together in the office of Professor Moritz Schlick at the University of Vienna to discuss problems in philosophy, math, and language. The intersection of physics and philosophy had long been a specialty of this Vienna department, and this work had placed them among the world leaders.  Schlick’s colleague Hans Hahn was a central participant, and by 1928 Hahn brought along his graduate students Karl Menger and Kurt Gödel. Other frequent participants included philosopher Rudolf Carnap, psychologist Karl Popper, economist Ludwig von Mises (brought by his brother Frederick, a physicist),  graphic designer Otto Neurath (inventor of infographics), and architect Josef Frank (brought by his physicist brother, Phillip).  Out-of-town visitors often joined, including the young Johnny von Neumann, Alfred Tarski, and the irascible Ludwig Wittgenstein. 

When Schlick’s office grew too dim, participants adjourned to a nearby café for additional discussion with an even larger circle of participants.  This convivial circle was far from unique.  An intersecting circle–Neurath, von Mises, Oskar Morgenstern–established the Austrian School of free-market economics. There were theatrical circles (Peter Lorre, Hedy Lamarr, Max Reinhardt), and literary circles. The café was where things happened.

The interdisciplinarity of the group posed real challenges of temperament and understanding. Personalities were often a challenge. Gödel was convinced people were trying to poison him. Architect Josef Frank depended on contracts for public housing, which Mises opposed as wasteful. Wittgenstein’s temper had lost him his job as a secondary school teacher, and for some of these years he maintained a detailed list of whom he was willing to meet. Neurath was eager to detect muddled thinking and would interrupt a speaker with a shouted “Metaphysics!” The continuing amity of these meetings was facilitated by the personality of their leader, Moritz Schlick, who would be remembered as notably adept in keeping disagreements from becoming quarrels.

In the Café

The Viennese café of this era was long remembered as a particularly good place to argue with your friends, to read, and to write. Built to serve an imperial capital, the cafés found themselves with too much space and too few customers now that the Empire was gone. There was no need to turn tables: a café could only survive by coaxing customers to linger. Perhaps they would order another coffee, or one of their friends might drop by. One could play chess, or billiards, or read newspapers from abroad. Coffee was invariably served with a glass of purified spring water, still a novelty in an era in which most water was still unsafe to drink. That water glass would be refilled indefinitely. 

In the basement of one café, the poet Jura Soyfer staged “The End Of The World,” a musical comedy in which Professor Peep has discovered a comet heading for earth.

Prof. Peep: The comet is going to destroy everybody!

Hitler:  Destroying everybody is my business.

Of course, coffee can be prepared in many ways, and the Viennese café developed a broad vocabulary to represent precisely how one preferred to drink it: melange, Einspänner, Brauner, Schwarzer, Kapuziner. This extensive customization, with correspondingly esoteric conventions of service, established the café as a comfortable and personal third space, a neutral ground in which anyone who could afford a coffee would be welcome. Viennese of this era were fastidious in their use of personal titles, of which an abundance were in common use. Café waiters greeted regular customers with titles too, but were careful to address their patrons with titles a notch or two greater than they deserved. A graduate student would be Doktor, an unpaid postdoc Professor.  This assurance mattered all the more because so many members of the Circle (and so many other Viennese) came from elsewhere: Carnap from Wuppertal, Gödel from Brno, von Neumann from Budapest. No one was going to make fun of your clothes, mannerisms, or accent. Your friends wouldn’t be bothered by the pram in the hall. Everyone shared a Germanic Austrian literary and philosophical culture, not least those whose ancestors had been Eastern European Jews who knew that culture well, having read all about it in books.

The amiability of the café circle was enhanced by its openness. Because the circle sometimes extended to architects and actors, people could feel less constrained to admit shortfalls in their understanding. It was soon discovered that marble tabletops made a useful surface for pencil sketches, serving all as an improvised and accessible blackboard.

Comedies like “The End Of The World” and fictional newspaper sketches or feuilletons of writers like Joseph Roth and Stefan Zweig served as a second defense against disagreeable or churlish behavior. The knowledge that, if one got carried away, a parody of one’s remarks might shortly appear in Neue Freie Presse surely helped Professor Schlick keep matters in hand.

The End Of Red Vienna

Though Austria’s government drifted to the right after the War, Vienna’s city council had been Socialist, dedicated to public housing based on user-centered design, and embracing  ambitious programs of public outreach and adult education. In 1934 the Socialists lost a local election, and this era soon came to its end as the new administration focused on the imagined threat of the International Jewish Conspiracy. Most members of the Circle fled within months: von Neumann to Princeton, Neurath to Holland and Oxford, Popper to New Zealand, Carnap to Chicago. Prof. Schlick was murdered on the steps of the University by a student outraged by his former association with Jews.  Jura Soyfer, who wrote “The End Of The World,” died in Buchenwald.

In 1939, von Neumann finally convinced Gödel to accept a job in Princeton. Gödel was required to pay large fines to emigrate. The officer in charge of these fees would look back on this as the best posting of his career; his name was Eichmann.

Design for Amiability

An impressive literature recounts those discussions and the environment that facilitated the development of computing. How can we design for amiability?  This is not just a matter of choosing rounded typefaces and a cheerful pastel palette. I believe we may identify eight distinct issues that exert design forces in usefully amiable directions.

Seriousness: The Vienna Circle was wrestling with a notoriously difficult book—Wittgenstein’s Tractus Logico-Philosophicus—and a catalog of outstanding open questions in mathematics. They were concerned with consequential problems, not merely scoring points for debating. Constant reminders that the questions you are considering matter—not only that they are consequential or that those opposing you are scoundrels—help promote amity.

Empiricism: The characteristic approach of the Vienna Circle demanded that knowledge be grounded either in direct observation or in rigorous reasoning. Disagreement, when it arose, could be settled by observation or by proof. If neither seemed ready to hand, the matter could not be settled. On these terms, one can seldom if ever demolish an opposing argument, and trolling is pointless.

Abstraction: Disputes grow worse when losing the argument entails lost face or lost jobs. The Vienna Circle’s focus on theory—the limits of mathematics, the capability of language—promoted amity. Without seriousness, abstraction could have been merely academic, but the limits of reason and the consistency of mathematics were clearly serious.

Formality: The punctilious demeanor of waiters and the elaborated rituals of coffee service helped to establish orderly attitudes amongst the argumentative participants. This stands in contrast to the contemptuous sneer that now dominates social media.  

Schlamperei: Members of the Vienna Circle maintained a global correspondence, and they knew their work was at the frontier of research. Still, this was Vienna, at the margins of Europe: old-fashioned, frumpy, and dingy. Many participants came from even more obscure backwaters. Most or all harbored the suspicion that they were really schleppers, and a tinge of the ridiculous helped to moderate tempers. The director of “The End Of The World” had to pass the hat for money to purchase a moon for the set, and thought it was funny enough to write up for publication.

Openness: All sorts of people were involved in discussion, anyone might join in. Each week would bring different participants. Fluid borders reduce tension, and provide opportunities to broaden the range of discussion and the terms of engagement. Low entrance friction was characteristic of the café: anyone could come, and if you came twice you were virtually a regular. Permeable boundaries and café culture made it easier for moderating influences to draw in raconteurs and storytellers to defuse awkward moments, and Vienna’s cafés had no shortage of humorists. Openness counteracts the suspicion that promoters of amiability are exerting censorship.

Parody: The environs of the Circle—the university office and the café—were unmistakably public. There were writers about, some of them renowned humorists. The prospect that one’s bad taste or bad behavior might be ridiculed in print kept discussion within bounds. The sanction of public humiliation, however, was itself made mild by the veneer of fiction; even if you got a little carried away and a character based on you made a splash in some newspaper fiction, it wasn’t the end of the world.

Engagement: The subject matter was important to the participants, but it was esoteric: it did not matter very much to their mothers or their siblings. A small stumble or a minor humiliation could be shrugged off in ways that major media confrontations cannot.

I believe it is notable that this environment was designed to promote amiability through several different voices.  The café waiter flattered each newcomer and served everyone, and also kept out local pickpockets and drunks who would be mere disruptions. Schlick and other regulars kept discussion moving and on track. The fiction writers and raconteurs—perhaps the most peripheral of the participants—kept people in a good mood and reminded them that bad behavior could make anyone ridiculous.  Crucially, each of these voices were human: you could reason with them. Algorithmic or AI moderators, however clever, are seldom perceived as reasonable. The café circles had no central authority or Moderator against whom everyone’s resentments might be focused. Even after the disaster of 1934, what people remembered were those cheerful arguments.

Certain roles just feel tailor made for the actors that played them, but that’s mostly due to how we met the characters. In the planning stages of a film, many actors are considered and even offered the roles, but the final product is not always what the filmmakers envisioned from the start.

As such, we have plenty of examples of actors that could have been iconic characters, but had that chance pass by them either willingly or, as often is the case, due to a twist of fate. These are the famous stars that were almost even more famous characters.

The post Actors Who Just Missed Out On Iconic Roles appeared first on Den of Geek.

We’re still more than a year away from being able to see Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, but attendees of Sony’s panel at CinemaCon got a sneak peek last night. The rest of us have to make do with a few images from the movie, and that’s enough to fill us with warmth and a bit of dread. In addition to shots of Miles battling Miguel O’Hara, the Spider-Man of 2099, and a picture of his father Jeff and uncle Aaron in their younger days, we got an image of father and son, sharing a tender moment during the golden hour.

As wonderful as it is to see Miles getting to connect with his father, we can’t help but feel a little nervous about the picture. After all, the other Spider-People have told Miles directly that suffering was part of being a Webhead, and one gets the sense that Uncle Aaron isn’t the only important person he’s going to lose. When you consider that the other picture features Spider-Punk Hobie Brown and the words “Gonna save your dad,” then one gets the feeling that Jefferson isn’t long for this world.

Miles’s father made his first appearance alongside wife Rio in 2011’s Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli. For reasons that still make absolutely no sense, the character was originally called Jefferson Davis, a name he kept until relatively recently taking his wife’s name and becoming Jefferson Morales.

Outside of that, the character mostly resembles the person we see in the Spider-Verse movies, where he’s voiced by Brian Tyree Henry. Jefferson’s a police officer who has mixed feelings about Spider-Man. Because comics are comics, Jefferson has a crazier story, as he served under Nick Fury as an Agent of SHIELD in the original Ultimate Universe and, when that world was destroyed and the Morales family was integrated into the mainline Marvel U, he remembered his son’s superhero identity.

In the pages of Marvel Comics, Jeff Morales still lives, but that’s not the case in other realities. Most famously, Jeff dies in the PlayStation video games, motivating Miles to take up the Spider-Man mantle.

Moreover, the Spider-Verse movies are drawing a connection between Jeff and Gwen Stacy’s father, George, which doesn’t bode well for the latter man. Police captain George Stacy is introduced in the comics a few years after his daughter Gwen, and figured out Peter’s super-identity, resulting in tension between the two. Years before his daughter famously dies, Captain Stacy sacrifices himself to save an innocent from falling debris, giving his blessing to Peter with his dying words.

The Spider-Verse movies may feature a younger, stronger George Stacy (voiced by Shea Whigham) than the elderly man from the comics or even Denis Leary’s take in the Amazing Spider-Man movies. However, Across the Spider-Verse also told us that Stacy’s death is a “canon event,” something that must happen to maintain the universe’s sanctity.

According to Across the Spider-Verse, the entire existence of Miles and his powers throws off the state of canon events. And with the canon events disrupted, the universe may be trying to set itself right, especially as the Spot continues his quest for revenge against Miles.

Will things go badly for the Morales family? We won’t know until Beyond the Spider-Verse actually comes to theaters. But until then, we’ll enjoy the peaceful moment between Jeff and Miles… while we still can.

Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse swings into theaters on June 18, 2027.

The post New Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse Images Are Sweet But Foreboding appeared first on Den of Geek.

All movies want to leave their mark on the world, although some do more than just make a memorable film. Some techniques, choices or narrative devices end up forever marked in the styles of filmmaking, which leaves us with trope-setting films that elevate the medium.

Over time, the ideas presented by these films become familiar patterns, repeated so often that they feel like established rules of the craft. What started as a one-off choice can evolve into a defining trope for an entire genre. These are the movies that quietly reshaped how stories are told, often without realizing the impact they would have.

The post 16 Movies That Accidentally Created New Tropes appeared first on Den of Geek.

We’re still more than a year away from being able to see Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, but attendees of Sony’s panel at CinemaCon got a sneak peek last night. The rest of us have to make do with a few images from the movie, and that’s enough to fill us with warmth and a bit of dread. In addition to shots of Miles battling Miguel O’Hara, the Spider-Man of 2099, and a picture of his father Jeff and uncle Aaron in their younger days, we got an image of father and son, sharing a tender moment during the golden hour.

As wonderful as it is to see Miles getting to connect with his father, we can’t help but feel a little nervous about the picture. After all, the other Spider-People have told Miles directly that suffering was part of being a Webhead, and one gets the sense that Uncle Aaron isn’t the only important person he’s going to lose. When you consider that the other picture features Spider-Punk Hobie Brown and the words “Gonna save your dad,” then one gets the feeling that Jefferson isn’t long for this world.

Miles’s father made his first appearance alongside wife Rio in 2011’s Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli. For reasons that still make absolutely no sense, the character was originally called Jefferson Davis, a name he kept until relatively recently taking his wife’s name and becoming Jefferson Morales.

Outside of that, the character mostly resembles the person we see in the Spider-Verse movies, where he’s voiced by Brian Tyree Henry. Jefferson’s a police officer who has mixed feelings about Spider-Man. Because comics are comics, Jefferson has a crazier story, as he served under Nick Fury as an Agent of SHIELD in the original Ultimate Universe and, when that world was destroyed and the Morales family was integrated into the mainline Marvel U, he remembered his son’s superhero identity.

In the pages of Marvel Comics, Jeff Morales still lives, but that’s not the case in other realities. Most famously, Jeff dies in the PlayStation video games, motivating Miles to take up the Spider-Man mantle.

Moreover, the Spider-Verse movies are drawing a connection between Jeff and Gwen Stacy’s father, George, which doesn’t bode well for the latter man. Police captain George Stacy is introduced in the comics a few years after his daughter Gwen, and figured out Peter’s super-identity, resulting in tension between the two. Years before his daughter famously dies, Captain Stacy sacrifices himself to save an innocent from falling debris, giving his blessing to Peter with his dying words.

The Spider-Verse movies may feature a younger, stronger George Stacy (voiced by Shea Whigham) than the elderly man from the comics or even Denis Leary’s take in the Amazing Spider-Man movies. However, Across the Spider-Verse also told us that Stacy’s death is a “canon event,” something that must happen to maintain the universe’s sanctity.

According to Across the Spider-Verse, the entire existence of Miles and his powers throws off the state of canon events. And with the canon events disrupted, the universe may be trying to set itself right, especially as the Spot continues his quest for revenge against Miles.

Will things go badly for the Morales family? We won’t know until Beyond the Spider-Verse actually comes to theaters. But until then, we’ll enjoy the peaceful moment between Jeff and Miles… while we still can.

Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse swings into theaters on June 18, 2027.

The post New Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse Images Are Sweet But Foreboding appeared first on Den of Geek.

Movies often operate on their own rules, and most of the time, audiences are happy to go along with it. Over the years, certain patterns and shortcuts have become so common that we barely notice how unrealistic they really are.

From action scenes that ignore basic physics to everyday situations that conveniently work out perfectly, these “rules” exist to keep stories moving and moments exciting. They may not make much sense under scrutiny, but they’ve become part of the language of filmmaking. These are the strange, familiar conventions movies rely on, the ones we accept without thinking twice.

The post 18 Weird Rules Movies Expect You To Accept Without Question appeared first on Den of Geek.

We’re still more than a year away from being able to see Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, but attendees of Sony’s panel at CinemaCon got a sneak peek last night. The rest of us have to make do with a few images from the movie, and that’s enough to fill us with warmth and a bit of dread. In addition to shots of Miles battling Miguel O’Hara, the Spider-Man of 2099, and a picture of his father Jeff and uncle Aaron in their younger days, we got an image of father and son, sharing a tender moment during the golden hour.

As wonderful as it is to see Miles getting to connect with his father, we can’t help but feel a little nervous about the picture. After all, the other Spider-People have told Miles directly that suffering was part of being a Webhead, and one gets the sense that Uncle Aaron isn’t the only important person he’s going to lose. When you consider that the other picture features Spider-Punk Hobie Brown and the words “Gonna save your dad,” then one gets the feeling that Jefferson isn’t long for this world.

Miles’s father made his first appearance alongside wife Rio in 2011’s Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli. For reasons that still make absolutely no sense, the character was originally called Jefferson Davis, a name he kept until relatively recently taking his wife’s name and becoming Jefferson Morales.

Outside of that, the character mostly resembles the person we see in the Spider-Verse movies, where he’s voiced by Brian Tyree Henry. Jefferson’s a police officer who has mixed feelings about Spider-Man. Because comics are comics, Jefferson has a crazier story, as he served under Nick Fury as an Agent of SHIELD in the original Ultimate Universe and, when that world was destroyed and the Morales family was integrated into the mainline Marvel U, he remembered his son’s superhero identity.

In the pages of Marvel Comics, Jeff Morales still lives, but that’s not the case in other realities. Most famously, Jeff dies in the PlayStation video games, motivating Miles to take up the Spider-Man mantle.

Moreover, the Spider-Verse movies are drawing a connection between Jeff and Gwen Stacy’s father, George, which doesn’t bode well for the latter man. Police captain George Stacy is introduced in the comics a few years after his daughter Gwen, and figured out Peter’s super-identity, resulting in tension between the two. Years before his daughter famously dies, Captain Stacy sacrifices himself to save an innocent from falling debris, giving his blessing to Peter with his dying words.

The Spider-Verse movies may feature a younger, stronger George Stacy (voiced by Shea Whigham) than the elderly man from the comics or even Denis Leary’s take in the Amazing Spider-Man movies. However, Across the Spider-Verse also told us that Stacy’s death is a “canon event,” something that must happen to maintain the universe’s sanctity.

According to Across the Spider-Verse, the entire existence of Miles and his powers throws off the state of canon events. And with the canon events disrupted, the universe may be trying to set itself right, especially as the Spot continues his quest for revenge against Miles.

Will things go badly for the Morales family? We won’t know until Beyond the Spider-Verse actually comes to theaters. But until then, we’ll enjoy the peaceful moment between Jeff and Miles… while we still can.

Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse swings into theaters on June 18, 2027.

The post New Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse Images Are Sweet But Foreboding appeared first on Den of Geek.

A great movie still needs the right audience, and that usually starts with how it’s sold. When marketing misses the mark, even strong films can struggle to find their footing. Misleading trailers, unclear messaging, or campaigns that fail to highlight what makes a movie special can all work against it before it even hits theaters.

In some cases, audiences walk in expecting a completely different experience, while in others, they don’t show up at all. These are the films where the problem wasn’t necessarily what was on screen, but how it was presented, proving that marketing can make or break a release.

The post 18 Movies That Were Totally Failed By Their Marketing appeared first on Den of Geek.

We’re still more than a year away from being able to see Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, but attendees of Sony’s panel at CinemaCon got a sneak peek last night. The rest of us have to make do with a few images from the movie, and that’s enough to fill us with warmth and a bit of dread. In addition to shots of Miles battling Miguel O’Hara, the Spider-Man of 2099, and a picture of his father Jeff and uncle Aaron in their younger days, we got an image of father and son, sharing a tender moment during the golden hour.

As wonderful as it is to see Miles getting to connect with his father, we can’t help but feel a little nervous about the picture. After all, the other Spider-People have told Miles directly that suffering was part of being a Webhead, and one gets the sense that Uncle Aaron isn’t the only important person he’s going to lose. When you consider that the other picture features Spider-Punk Hobie Brown and the words “Gonna save your dad,” then one gets the feeling that Jefferson isn’t long for this world.

Miles’s father made his first appearance alongside wife Rio in 2011’s Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli. For reasons that still make absolutely no sense, the character was originally called Jefferson Davis, a name he kept until relatively recently taking his wife’s name and becoming Jefferson Morales.

Outside of that, the character mostly resembles the person we see in the Spider-Verse movies, where he’s voiced by Brian Tyree Henry. Jefferson’s a police officer who has mixed feelings about Spider-Man. Because comics are comics, Jefferson has a crazier story, as he served under Nick Fury as an Agent of SHIELD in the original Ultimate Universe and, when that world was destroyed and the Morales family was integrated into the mainline Marvel U, he remembered his son’s superhero identity.

In the pages of Marvel Comics, Jeff Morales still lives, but that’s not the case in other realities. Most famously, Jeff dies in the PlayStation video games, motivating Miles to take up the Spider-Man mantle.

Moreover, the Spider-Verse movies are drawing a connection between Jeff and Gwen Stacy’s father, George, which doesn’t bode well for the latter man. Police captain George Stacy is introduced in the comics a few years after his daughter Gwen, and figured out Peter’s super-identity, resulting in tension between the two. Years before his daughter famously dies, Captain Stacy sacrifices himself to save an innocent from falling debris, giving his blessing to Peter with his dying words.

The Spider-Verse movies may feature a younger, stronger George Stacy (voiced by Shea Whigham) than the elderly man from the comics or even Denis Leary’s take in the Amazing Spider-Man movies. However, Across the Spider-Verse also told us that Stacy’s death is a “canon event,” something that must happen to maintain the universe’s sanctity.

According to Across the Spider-Verse, the entire existence of Miles and his powers throws off the state of canon events. And with the canon events disrupted, the universe may be trying to set itself right, especially as the Spot continues his quest for revenge against Miles.

Will things go badly for the Morales family? We won’t know until Beyond the Spider-Verse actually comes to theaters. But until then, we’ll enjoy the peaceful moment between Jeff and Miles… while we still can.

Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse swings into theaters on June 18, 2027.

The post New Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse Images Are Sweet But Foreboding appeared first on Den of Geek.

When Dean Potter died while attempting a proximity wingsuit flight from Taft Point in 2015, he left behind a complex legacy. Potter was a pioneer and enormously influential in the worlds of climbing, highlining, and BASE jumping, but he was also a controversial figure who battled personal demons that weren’t fully understood until after his […]

The post The Dark Wizard Explores the Vulnerable Side of Climbing’s Legendary Alpha appeared first on Den of Geek.

We’re still more than a year away from being able to see Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, but attendees of Sony’s panel at CinemaCon got a sneak peek last night. The rest of us have to make do with a few images from the movie, and that’s enough to fill us with warmth and a bit of dread. In addition to shots of Miles battling Miguel O’Hara, the Spider-Man of 2099, and a picture of his father Jeff and uncle Aaron in their younger days, we got an image of father and son, sharing a tender moment during the golden hour.

As wonderful as it is to see Miles getting to connect with his father, we can’t help but feel a little nervous about the picture. After all, the other Spider-People have told Miles directly that suffering was part of being a Webhead, and one gets the sense that Uncle Aaron isn’t the only important person he’s going to lose. When you consider that the other picture features Spider-Punk Hobie Brown and the words “Gonna save your dad,” then one gets the feeling that Jefferson isn’t long for this world.

Miles’s father made his first appearance alongside wife Rio in 2011’s Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli. For reasons that still make absolutely no sense, the character was originally called Jefferson Davis, a name he kept until relatively recently taking his wife’s name and becoming Jefferson Morales.

Outside of that, the character mostly resembles the person we see in the Spider-Verse movies, where he’s voiced by Brian Tyree Henry. Jefferson’s a police officer who has mixed feelings about Spider-Man. Because comics are comics, Jefferson has a crazier story, as he served under Nick Fury as an Agent of SHIELD in the original Ultimate Universe and, when that world was destroyed and the Morales family was integrated into the mainline Marvel U, he remembered his son’s superhero identity.

In the pages of Marvel Comics, Jeff Morales still lives, but that’s not the case in other realities. Most famously, Jeff dies in the PlayStation video games, motivating Miles to take up the Spider-Man mantle.

Moreover, the Spider-Verse movies are drawing a connection between Jeff and Gwen Stacy’s father, George, which doesn’t bode well for the latter man. Police captain George Stacy is introduced in the comics a few years after his daughter Gwen, and figured out Peter’s super-identity, resulting in tension between the two. Years before his daughter famously dies, Captain Stacy sacrifices himself to save an innocent from falling debris, giving his blessing to Peter with his dying words.

The Spider-Verse movies may feature a younger, stronger George Stacy (voiced by Shea Whigham) than the elderly man from the comics or even Denis Leary’s take in the Amazing Spider-Man movies. However, Across the Spider-Verse also told us that Stacy’s death is a “canon event,” something that must happen to maintain the universe’s sanctity.

According to Across the Spider-Verse, the entire existence of Miles and his powers throws off the state of canon events. And with the canon events disrupted, the universe may be trying to set itself right, especially as the Spot continues his quest for revenge against Miles.

Will things go badly for the Morales family? We won’t know until Beyond the Spider-Verse actually comes to theaters. But until then, we’ll enjoy the peaceful moment between Jeff and Miles… while we still can.

Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse swings into theaters on June 18, 2027.

The post New Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse Images Are Sweet But Foreboding appeared first on Den of Geek.

Trailers are a key part of the marketing for movies, otherwise no one would know a given film exists. However, in an effort to showcase what a movie is about, certain trailers end up spoiling key moments, or sometimes, the very ending.

For some viewers, it doesn’t ruin the experience, but for others, it takes away the suspense that the movie worked hard to build. These are the films where the trailer didn’t just tease what’s to come, it practically laid it all out, leaving audiences with fewer surprises once they finally sat down to watch.

The post 14 Movies That Spoiled Their Own Ending in the Trailer appeared first on Den of Geek.

We’re still more than a year away from being able to see Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, but attendees of Sony’s panel at CinemaCon got a sneak peek last night. The rest of us have to make do with a few images from the movie, and that’s enough to fill us with warmth and a bit of dread. In addition to shots of Miles battling Miguel O’Hara, the Spider-Man of 2099, and a picture of his father Jeff and uncle Aaron in their younger days, we got an image of father and son, sharing a tender moment during the golden hour.

As wonderful as it is to see Miles getting to connect with his father, we can’t help but feel a little nervous about the picture. After all, the other Spider-People have told Miles directly that suffering was part of being a Webhead, and one gets the sense that Uncle Aaron isn’t the only important person he’s going to lose. When you consider that the other picture features Spider-Punk Hobie Brown and the words “Gonna save your dad,” then one gets the feeling that Jefferson isn’t long for this world.

Miles’s father made his first appearance alongside wife Rio in 2011’s Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli. For reasons that still make absolutely no sense, the character was originally called Jefferson Davis, a name he kept until relatively recently taking his wife’s name and becoming Jefferson Morales.

Outside of that, the character mostly resembles the person we see in the Spider-Verse movies, where he’s voiced by Brian Tyree Henry. Jefferson’s a police officer who has mixed feelings about Spider-Man. Because comics are comics, Jefferson has a crazier story, as he served under Nick Fury as an Agent of SHIELD in the original Ultimate Universe and, when that world was destroyed and the Morales family was integrated into the mainline Marvel U, he remembered his son’s superhero identity.

In the pages of Marvel Comics, Jeff Morales still lives, but that’s not the case in other realities. Most famously, Jeff dies in the PlayStation video games, motivating Miles to take up the Spider-Man mantle.

Moreover, the Spider-Verse movies are drawing a connection between Jeff and Gwen Stacy’s father, George, which doesn’t bode well for the latter man. Police captain George Stacy is introduced in the comics a few years after his daughter Gwen, and figured out Peter’s super-identity, resulting in tension between the two. Years before his daughter famously dies, Captain Stacy sacrifices himself to save an innocent from falling debris, giving his blessing to Peter with his dying words.

The Spider-Verse movies may feature a younger, stronger George Stacy (voiced by Shea Whigham) than the elderly man from the comics or even Denis Leary’s take in the Amazing Spider-Man movies. However, Across the Spider-Verse also told us that Stacy’s death is a “canon event,” something that must happen to maintain the universe’s sanctity.

According to Across the Spider-Verse, the entire existence of Miles and his powers throws off the state of canon events. And with the canon events disrupted, the universe may be trying to set itself right, especially as the Spot continues his quest for revenge against Miles.

Will things go badly for the Morales family? We won’t know until Beyond the Spider-Verse actually comes to theaters. But until then, we’ll enjoy the peaceful moment between Jeff and Miles… while we still can.

Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse swings into theaters on June 18, 2027.

The post New Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse Images Are Sweet But Foreboding appeared first on Den of Geek.

It’s been a couple of years since the last season of My Adventures with Superman wrapped, but fear not! A third season of the animated DC series is almost here, according to the voice of Superman himself, Jack Quaid. “First of all, I can tease that it is coming out,” Quaid told Collider. “I know […]

The post My Adventures with Superman Season 3 Gets a Welcome Update appeared first on Den of Geek.

We’re still more than a year away from being able to see Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, but attendees of Sony’s panel at CinemaCon got a sneak peek last night. The rest of us have to make do with a few images from the movie, and that’s enough to fill us with warmth and a bit of dread. In addition to shots of Miles battling Miguel O’Hara, the Spider-Man of 2099, and a picture of his father Jeff and uncle Aaron in their younger days, we got an image of father and son, sharing a tender moment during the golden hour.

As wonderful as it is to see Miles getting to connect with his father, we can’t help but feel a little nervous about the picture. After all, the other Spider-People have told Miles directly that suffering was part of being a Webhead, and one gets the sense that Uncle Aaron isn’t the only important person he’s going to lose. When you consider that the other picture features Spider-Punk Hobie Brown and the words “Gonna save your dad,” then one gets the feeling that Jefferson isn’t long for this world.

Miles’s father made his first appearance alongside wife Rio in 2011’s Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli. For reasons that still make absolutely no sense, the character was originally called Jefferson Davis, a name he kept until relatively recently taking his wife’s name and becoming Jefferson Morales.

Outside of that, the character mostly resembles the person we see in the Spider-Verse movies, where he’s voiced by Brian Tyree Henry. Jefferson’s a police officer who has mixed feelings about Spider-Man. Because comics are comics, Jefferson has a crazier story, as he served under Nick Fury as an Agent of SHIELD in the original Ultimate Universe and, when that world was destroyed and the Morales family was integrated into the mainline Marvel U, he remembered his son’s superhero identity.

In the pages of Marvel Comics, Jeff Morales still lives, but that’s not the case in other realities. Most famously, Jeff dies in the PlayStation video games, motivating Miles to take up the Spider-Man mantle.

Moreover, the Spider-Verse movies are drawing a connection between Jeff and Gwen Stacy’s father, George, which doesn’t bode well for the latter man. Police captain George Stacy is introduced in the comics a few years after his daughter Gwen, and figured out Peter’s super-identity, resulting in tension between the two. Years before his daughter famously dies, Captain Stacy sacrifices himself to save an innocent from falling debris, giving his blessing to Peter with his dying words.

The Spider-Verse movies may feature a younger, stronger George Stacy (voiced by Shea Whigham) than the elderly man from the comics or even Denis Leary’s take in the Amazing Spider-Man movies. However, Across the Spider-Verse also told us that Stacy’s death is a “canon event,” something that must happen to maintain the universe’s sanctity.

According to Across the Spider-Verse, the entire existence of Miles and his powers throws off the state of canon events. And with the canon events disrupted, the universe may be trying to set itself right, especially as the Spot continues his quest for revenge against Miles.

Will things go badly for the Morales family? We won’t know until Beyond the Spider-Verse actually comes to theaters. But until then, we’ll enjoy the peaceful moment between Jeff and Miles… while we still can.

Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse swings into theaters on June 18, 2027.

The post New Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse Images Are Sweet But Foreboding appeared first on Den of Geek.

This article contains potential spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day. While only the lucky attendees of CinemaCon 2026 got to see new footage of Spider-Man: Brand New Day that Sony showed at their presentation on Monday night, the general public does get to see a new poster for the film. It does, of course, feature […]

The post Why Spider-Man Is Fighting Ninjas in Brand New Day appeared first on Den of Geek.

We’re still more than a year away from being able to see Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, but attendees of Sony’s panel at CinemaCon got a sneak peek last night. The rest of us have to make do with a few images from the movie, and that’s enough to fill us with warmth and a bit of dread. In addition to shots of Miles battling Miguel O’Hara, the Spider-Man of 2099, and a picture of his father Jeff and uncle Aaron in their younger days, we got an image of father and son, sharing a tender moment during the golden hour.

As wonderful as it is to see Miles getting to connect with his father, we can’t help but feel a little nervous about the picture. After all, the other Spider-People have told Miles directly that suffering was part of being a Webhead, and one gets the sense that Uncle Aaron isn’t the only important person he’s going to lose. When you consider that the other picture features Spider-Punk Hobie Brown and the words “Gonna save your dad,” then one gets the feeling that Jefferson isn’t long for this world.

Miles’s father made his first appearance alongside wife Rio in 2011’s Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli. For reasons that still make absolutely no sense, the character was originally called Jefferson Davis, a name he kept until relatively recently taking his wife’s name and becoming Jefferson Morales.

Outside of that, the character mostly resembles the person we see in the Spider-Verse movies, where he’s voiced by Brian Tyree Henry. Jefferson’s a police officer who has mixed feelings about Spider-Man. Because comics are comics, Jefferson has a crazier story, as he served under Nick Fury as an Agent of SHIELD in the original Ultimate Universe and, when that world was destroyed and the Morales family was integrated into the mainline Marvel U, he remembered his son’s superhero identity.

In the pages of Marvel Comics, Jeff Morales still lives, but that’s not the case in other realities. Most famously, Jeff dies in the PlayStation video games, motivating Miles to take up the Spider-Man mantle.

Moreover, the Spider-Verse movies are drawing a connection between Jeff and Gwen Stacy’s father, George, which doesn’t bode well for the latter man. Police captain George Stacy is introduced in the comics a few years after his daughter Gwen, and figured out Peter’s super-identity, resulting in tension between the two. Years before his daughter famously dies, Captain Stacy sacrifices himself to save an innocent from falling debris, giving his blessing to Peter with his dying words.

The Spider-Verse movies may feature a younger, stronger George Stacy (voiced by Shea Whigham) than the elderly man from the comics or even Denis Leary’s take in the Amazing Spider-Man movies. However, Across the Spider-Verse also told us that Stacy’s death is a “canon event,” something that must happen to maintain the universe’s sanctity.

According to Across the Spider-Verse, the entire existence of Miles and his powers throws off the state of canon events. And with the canon events disrupted, the universe may be trying to set itself right, especially as the Spot continues his quest for revenge against Miles.

Will things go badly for the Morales family? We won’t know until Beyond the Spider-Verse actually comes to theaters. But until then, we’ll enjoy the peaceful moment between Jeff and Miles… while we still can.

Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse swings into theaters on June 18, 2027.

The post New Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse Images Are Sweet But Foreboding appeared first on Den of Geek.