title: Masculinity

text: Second-wave pro-feminism paid greater attention to issues of sexuality, particularly the relationship between homosexual men and hegemonic masculinity. This shift led to increased cooperation between the men's liberation and gay liberation movements developing, in part, because masculinity was understood as a social construct and in response to the universalization of "men" in previous men's movements. Men's-rights activists worked to stop second-wave feminists from influencing the gay-rights movement, promoting hypermasculinity as inherent to gay sexuality.


title: Masculinity

text: Masculinity has played an important role in lesbian culture, although lesbians vary widely in the degree to which they express masculinity and femininity. In LGBT cultures, masculine women are often referred to as "butch".


title: Masculinity

text: Traditional avenues for men to gain honor were providing for their families and exercising leadership. Raewyn Connell has labeled traditional male roles and privileges hegemonic masculinity, encouraged in men and discouraged in women: "Hegemonic masculinity can be defined as the configuration of gender practice which embodies the currently accepted answer to the problem of the legitimacy of patriarchy, which guarantees the dominant position of men and the subordination of women". Connell (1987) placed emphasis on heterosexuality and its influence on the construction of gender. From this perspective, there is a dominant (hegemonic) and idealized form of masculinity in every social system and an apotheosized form of femininity that is considered proper for men and women. This idealized form of masculinity (hegemonic masculinity) legitimates and normalizes certain performances of men, and pathologizes, marginalizes, and subordinates any other expressions of masculinities or femininities (masculine and feminine subject positions). Alongside hegemonic masculinity, Connell postulated that there are other forms of masculinities (marginalized and subordinated), which, according to a plethora of studies, are constructed in oppressive ways (Thorne 1993). This is symptomatic of the fact that hegemonic masculinity is relational, which means that it is constructed in relation to and against an Other (emphasized femininity, marginalized and subordinated masculinities). In addition to describing forceful articulations of violent masculine identities, hegemonic masculinity has also been used to describe implicit, indirect, or coercive forms of gendered socialization, enacted through video games, fashion, humor, and so on.


title: Masculinity

text: Researchers have argued that the "precariousness" of manhood contributes to traditionally-masculine behavior. "Precarious" means that manhood is not inborn, but must be achieved. In many cultures, boys endure painful initiation rituals to become men. Manhood may also be lost, as when a man is derided for not "being a man". Researchers have found that men respond to threats to their manhood by engaging in stereotypically-masculine behaviors and beliefs, such as supporting hierarchy, espousing homophobic beliefs, supporting aggression and choosing physical tasks over intellectual ones.


title: Masculinity

text: In 2014, Winegard and Geary wrote that the precariousness of manhood involves social status (prestige or dominance), and manhood may be more (or less) precarious due to the avenues men have for achieving status.


title: Masculinity

text: Although often ignored in discussions of masculinity, women can also express masculine traits and behaviors. In Western culture, female masculinity has been codified into identities such as "tomboy" and "butch". Although female masculinity is often associated with lesbianism, expressing masculinity is not necessarily related to a woman's sexuality. In feminist philosophy, female masculinity is often characterized as a type of gender performance which challenges traditional masculinity and male dominance. Zachary A. Kramer argues that the discussion of masculinity should be opened up "to include constructions of masculinity that uniquely affect women." Masculine women are often subject to social stigma and harassment, although the influence of the feminist movement has led to greater acceptance of women expressing masculinity in recent decades.


title: Masculinity

text: Women who participate in sports, especially male-dominated sports, are sometimes derided as being masculine. Even though most sports emphasize stereotypically masculine qualities, such as strength, competition, and aggression, women who participate in sports are still expected to conform to strictly feminine gender norms. This is known as the "female athlete paradox". Although traditional gender norms are gradually changing, female athletes, especially those that participate in male-dominated sports such as boxing, weight lifting, American football, rugby, ice hockey, and motorsport, are still often viewed as deviating from the boundaries of femininity and may suffer negative repercussions.


title: Masculinity

text: Women face a similar paradox in the business world, as corporate leadership roles are widely associated with stereotypically masculine characteristics. Women who adopt these characteristics may be more successful, but also more disliked due to not conforming with expected feminine stereotypes. According to a study in the UK, women with stereotypically masculine personality traits are more likely to gain access to high-paying occupations than women with feminine personality traits. According to another study conducted in Germany, women who fit the stereotypical masculine gender role are generally more successful in their careers.


title: Masculinity

text: Evidence points to the negative impact of hegemonic masculinity on men's health-related behavior, with American men making 134.5 million fewer physician visits per year than women. Twenty-five percent of men aged 45 to 60 do not have a personal physician, increasing their risk of death from heart disease. Men between 25 and 65 are four times more likely to die from cardiovascular disease than women, and are more likely to be diagnosed with a terminal illness because of their reluctance to see a doctor. Reasons cited for not seeing a physician include fear, denial, embarrassment, a dislike of situations out of their control and the belief that visiting a doctor is not worth the time or cost.


title: Masculinity

text: Studies of men in North America and Europe show that men who consume alcoholic drinks often do so in order to fulfill certain social expectations of manliness. While the causes of drinking and alcoholism are complex and varied, gender roles and social expectations have a strong influence encouraging men to drink.


title: Masculinity

text: In 2004, Arran Stibbe published an analysis of a well-known men's-health magazine in 2000. According to Stibbe, although the magazine ostensibly focused on health it also promoted traditional masculine behaviors such as excessive consumption of convenience foods and meat, alcohol consumption and unsafe sex. Masculinity and sexual health is also a complex issue in the Global South, as well. In South Africa, HIV transmission was one of the significant reasons for the development of masculinities research. Risky actions commonly representative of toxic masculinity are also present in Western and Chinese male clients' attitudes and behaviors toward female sex workers in China's commercial sex industry. While many male clients frequently exhibited physical violence toward the female workers, in order to more overtly display their manliness, some men also admitted to being more sexually aggressive at times and purposefully having unprotected sex without the worker's knowledge.


title: Masculinity

text: Research on beer-commercial content by Lance Strate yielded results relevant to a study of masculinity. In beer commercials, masculine behavior (especially risk-taking) is encouraged. Commercials often focus on situations in which a man overcomes an obstacle in a group, working or playing hard (construction workers, farm workers or cowboys). Those involving play have central themes of mastery (of nature or each other), risk and adventure: fishing, camping, playing sports or socializing in bars. There is usually an element of danger and a focus on movement and speed (watching fast cars or driving fast). The bar is a setting for the measurement of masculinity in skills such as billiards, strength, and drinking ability. Men engage in positive health practices, such as reducing fat intake and alcohol, to conform to masculine ideals.


title: Masculinity

text: Men, boys and people who were assigned male at birth face gender policing from people who think they are not masculine enough. Gender policing can increase the risk of alcoholism, anxiety, and depression.


title: Masculinity

text: Study of the history of masculinity emerged during the 1980s, aided by the fields of women's and (later) gender history. Before women's history was examined, there was a "strict gendering of the public/private divide"; regarding masculinity, this meant little study of how men related to the household, domesticity and family life. Although women's historical role was negated, despite the writing of history by (and primarily about) men, a significant portion of the male experience was missing. This void was questioned during the late 1970s, when women's history began to analyze gender and women to deepen the female experience. Joan Scott's seminal article, calling for gender studies as an analytical concept to explore society, power and discourse, laid the foundation for this field.


title: Masculinity

text: According to Scott, gender should be used in two ways: productive and produced. Productive gender examined its role in creating power relationships, and produced gender explored the use and change of gender throughout history. This has influenced the field of masculinity, as seen in Pierre Bourdieu's definition of masculinity: produced by society and culture, and reproduced in daily life. A flurry of work in women's history led to a call for study of the male role (initially influenced by psychoanalysis) in society and emotional and interpersonal life. Connell wrote that these initial works were marked by a "high level of generality" in "broad surveys of cultural norms". The scholarship was aware of contemporary societal changes aiming to understand and evolve (or liberate) the male role in response to feminism.John Tosh calls for a return to this aim for the history of masculinity to be useful, academically and in the public sphere.


title: Masculinity

text: Two concerns over the study of the history of masculinity are that it would stabilize the historical process (rather than change it) and that a cultural overemphasis on the approach to masculinity lacks the reality of actual experience. According to John Tosh, masculinity has become a conceptual framework used by historians to enhance their cultural explorations instead of a specialty in its own right. This draws attention from reality to representation and meaning, not only in the realm of masculinity; culture was becoming "the bottom line, the real historical reality". Tosh critiques Martin Francis' work in this light because popular culture, rather than the experience of family life, is the basis for Francis' argument. Francis uses contemporary literature and film to demonstrate that masculinity was restless, shying away from domesticity and commitment, during the late 1940s and 1950s. Francis wrote that this flight from commitment was "most likely to take place at the level of fantasy (individual and collective)". In focusing on culture, it is difficult to gauge the degree to which films such as "Scott of the Antarctic" represented the era's masculine fantasies. Michael Roper's call to focus on the subjectivity of masculinity addresses this cultural bias, because broad understanding is set aside for an examination "of what the relationship of the codes of masculinity is to actual men, to existential matters, to persons and to their psychic make-up" (Tosh's human experience).


title: Masculinity

text: According to Tosh, the culture of masculinity has outlived its usefulness because it cannot fulfill the initial aim of this history (to discover how manhood was conditioned and experienced) and he urged "questions of behaviour and agency". His work on Victorian masculinity uses individual experience in letters and sketches to illustrate broader cultural and social customs, such as birthing or Christmas traditions.


title: Masculinity

text: Stefan Dudink believes that the methodological approach (trying to categorize masculinity as a phenomenon) undermined its historiographic development. Abigail Solomou-Godeau's work on post-revolutionary French art addresses a strong, constant patriarchy.


title: Masculinity

text: Tosh's overall assessment is that a shift is needed in conceptualizing the topic back to the history of masculinity as a speciality aiming to reach a broader audience, rather than as an analytical tool of cultural and social history. The importance he places on public history hearkens back to the initial aims of gender history, which sought to use history to enlighten and change the present. Tosh appeals to historians to live up to the "social expectation" of their work, which would also require a greater focus on subjectivity and masculinity. This view is contrary to Dudink's; the latter called for an "outflanking movement" towards the history of masculinity, in response to the errors he perceived in the study. This would do the opposite of what Tosh called for, deconstructing masculinity by not placing it at the center of historical exploration and using discourse and culture as indirect avenues towards a more-representational approach. In a study of the Low Countries, Dudink proposes moving beyond the history of masculinity by embedding analysis into the exploration of nation and nationalism (making masculinity a lens through which to view conflict and nation-building). Martin Francis' work on domesticity through a cultural lens moves beyond the history of masculinity because "men constantly travelled back and forward across the frontier of domesticity, if only in the realm of the imagination"; normative codes of behavior do not fully encompass the male experience.


title: Masculinity

text: Media images of boys and young men may lead to the persistence of harmful concepts of masculinity. According to men's-rights activists, the media does not address men's-rights issues and men are often portrayed negatively in advertising. Peter Jackson called hegemonic masculinity "economically exploitative" and "socially oppressive": "The form of oppression varies from patriarchal controls over women's bodies and reproductive rights, through ideologies of domesticity, femininity and compulsory heterosexuality, to social definitions of the value of work, the nature of skill and the differential remuneration of 'productive' and 'reproductive' labor."


title: Masculinity

text: According to a paper submitted by Tracy Tylka to the American Psychological Association, "Instead of seeing a decrease in objectification of women in society, there has just been an increase in the objectification of both sexes. And you can see that in the media today." Men and women restrict food intake in an effort to achieve what they consider an attractively-thin body; in extreme cases, this leads to eating disorders. Psychiatrist Thomas Holbrook cited a recent Canadian study indicating that as many as one in six people with eating disorders are men.


title: Masculinity

text: Research in the United Kingdom found, "Younger men and women who read fitness and fashion magazines could be psychologically harmed by the images of perfect female and male physiques." Young women and men exercise excessively in an effort to achieve what they consider an attractively-fit and muscular body, which may lead to body dysmorphic disorder or muscle dysmorphia. Although the stereotypes may have remained constant, the value attached to masculine stereotypes has changed; Todd Reeser has argued that masculinity is an unstable phenomenon, never ultimately achieved.


title: Masculinity

text: In January 2019, the American Psychological Association warns that conforming to traditional standards of masculinity can cause harm to mental health.


title: Masculinity

text: In 1987 Eisler and Skidmore studied masculinity, creating the idea of "masculine stress" and finding three elements of masculinity which often result in emotional stress:


title: Masculinity

text: Because of social norms and pressures associated with masculinity, men with spinal-cord injuries must adapt their self-identity to the losses associated with such injuries; this may "lead to feelings of decreased physical and sexual prowess with lowered self-esteem and a loss of male identity. Feelings of guilt and overall loss of control are also experienced." Research also suggests that men feel social pressure to endorse traditional masculine male models in advertising. Brett Martin and Juergen Gnoth (2009) found that although feminine men privately preferred feminine models, they expressed a preference for traditional masculine models in public; according to the authors, this reflected social pressure on men to endorse traditional masculine norms.


title: Masculinity

text: In their book "Raising Cain: Protecting The Emotional Life of Boys", Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson wrote that although all boys are born loving and empathic, exposure to gender socialization (the tough male ideal and hypermasculinity) limits their ability to function as emotionally-healthy adults. According to Kindlon and Thompson, boys lack the ability to understand and express emotions productively because of the stress imposed by masculine gender roles.


title: Masculinity

text: In the article "Sexual Ethics, Masculinity and Mutual Vulnerability", Rob Cover works to unpack Judith Butler's study of masculinity. Cover goes over issues such as sexual assault and how it can be partially explained by hypermasculinity.


title: Masculinity

text: A theory of masculinity in crisis has emerged; Australian archeologist Peter McAllister said, "I have a strong feeling that masculinity is in crisis. Men are really searching for a role in modern society; the things we used to do aren't in much demand anymore". Others see the changing labor market as a source of stress. Deindustrialization and the replacement of smokestack industries by technology have allowed more women to enter the labor force, reducing its emphasis on physical strength.


title: Masculinity

text: The crisis has also been attributed to the questioning of male dominance and rights granted to men solely on the basis of sex following the feminist movement. British sociologist John MacInnes wrote that "masculinity has always been in one crisis or another", suggesting that the crises arise from the "fundamental incompatibility between the core principle of modernity that all human beings are essentially equal (regardless of their sex) and the core tenet of patriarchy that men are naturally superior to women and thus destined to rule over them".


title: Masculinity

text: According to John Beynon, masculinity and men are often conflated and it is unclear whether masculinity, men or both are in crisis. He writes that the "crisis" is not a recent phenomenon, illustrating several periods of masculine crisis throughout history (some predating the women's movement and post-industrial society), suggesting that due to masculinity's fluid nature "crisis is constitutive of masculinity itself". Film scholar Leon Hunt also writes: "Whenever masculinity's 'crisis' actually started, it certainly seems to have been in place by the 1970s".


title: Masculinity

text: In 2008, the word "herbivore men" became popular in Japan and was reported worldwide. Herbivore men refers to young Japanese men who naturally detach themselves from masculinity. Masahiro Morioka characterizes them as men 1) having gentle nature, 2) not bound by manliness, 3) not aggressive when it comes to romance, 4) viewing women as equals, and 5) hating emotional pain. Herbivore men are severely criticized by men who love masculinity.


title: Masculinity

text: In Chinese and Taiwanese popular culture, phrases such as "" (), "" (), and "" () are used as pejoratives referring to men exhibiting misogyny, dominance, and homophobia.


title: Masculinity

text: During Margrethe Silberschmidt's research of urban and rural men in East Africa, she concludes that men experience disempowerment when they cannot not fulfill their role as breadwinner and feel inferior to women when they cannot provide for their family. The changes in East Africa's cultural and economic framework can partially be attributed to British colonial rule because it altered the gender division of labor. There was an increase in wage labor which led to a demand for more skilled workers in an environment where there were primarily unskilled workers. Eventually, there was a shift to growing cash crops and the emphasis was put on men to be the breadwinner. A man's social value is traditionally connected to his ability to provide so when he can no longer do that, it negatively impacts his ego. Masculinity is seen as en entity to be protected, and when a man feels disempowered, he finds other ways to reaffirm their masculinity. Research that examines the struggles among men and look into their personal experiences can help to understand the social structures of masculinity.


title: Masculinity

text: Masculinities as depicted in the media of countries categorized as the Global South can depict stereotypical gender roles in various ways. In India, such roles have been pushed through Bollywood films. Additionally, there is some indication that Westernized views of masculinity have been pushed onto a global audience through print media advertisements, as well. This has been observed in India with the expansion of availability of transnational men's magazines. While there is some evidence of Western and specifically, North American, influence in advertisements found in Chinese and Taiwanese men's magazines as well, it seems that more often than not, those countries' magazines have just adopted a globally uniform perception of masculinity. This theme also presents itself in visual depictions of men in Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.


title: Masculinity

text: Sports media outlets have not necessarily promoted a completely "Westernized" version of masculinity, and white, male sports icons may have had an impact when presented alongside those players of other races, such as Asians or black people. A 2019 study found that in Major League Baseball, for example, Korean players and their respective accomplishments tend to be pushed to the side when compared with white, male players in print media and online news outlets.


title: Masculinity

text: Novels may be affected by Westernized perceptions. Amjad Alsyouf argues that African novelists Tayeb Salih and Chinua Achebe, for example, bring some Western influence to the gender roles portrayed in their respective novels.


title: Masculinity

text: Masculinity is also an important concept in advertisement branding in the Islamic culture. In Kuwait, Muslim men must remain vigilant in making sure that their consumption decisions are representative of the socially accepted masculine norms — particularly in regard to their fashion choices. Additionally, advertising in fashion branding choices and its effectiveness has been examined in the context of Chinese male consumers' choices. Men interested in wearing luxury fashion brands were often more concerned with making sure their choices were visually representative of a more professional and refined person, as opposed to someone that simply looked tough or strong. This kind of focus on visual portrayals can also appear in media depictions. In the Japanese film "Sooshokukeidanshi", one of the main characters is made to appear like more of an outsider than the other male characters because of his unique style choices being seen as less traditionally masculine than the cultural expectation is, in Japan.


title: Masculinity

text: Adharsh Raj and Manash Pratim Goswami write that in India, young people often copy negative behaviors seen as being traditionally masculine in Bollywood films. Turkish young people can also fall prey to such negative media influence, According to Özlem Akkaya. In a 2018 study, young males often thought that the violent behavior displayed by the main character, "Behzat," in the Turkish television crime series, "Behzat Ç. Bir Ankara Polisiyesi", was relatable to what they already experienced in their own day to day lives (and therefore, saw violence as a seemingly reasonable thing to occur in the series).


title: Masculinity

text: Amongst secondary school students in New Zealand, a 2017 study found that when examining print media advertisements, young girls occasionally fall back into a preconceived idea of what constitutes "typical" masculine behavior.


title: Masculinity

text: In the Global South, many societies still follow very patriarchal norms. Through media depictions and real-life scenarios, men are seen as being the head of the family — those that provide financially, have decision making power, and really are in charge. The image of the nuclear family being the societal norm is also ever-present in many places. When men are not able to fulfill that traditionally masculine, fatherly role, they may have a difficult time proving themselves as being worthy enough to have relationships with their children. In South Africa, for example, females often take on more of a culturally masculine role in providing for the household, due to the high percentage of absent fathers in some communities. Unfortunately, fathers' decision to desert the mother and their biological child is fairly common in South Africa, particularly with regard to those fathers who are younger and come from lower income families. They are often trying to provide for their own nuclear families and cannot also fulfill the cultural obligations commonly attached to fatherhood.


title: Masculinity

text: While gender equality has not been achieved, changes are happening in regard to these commonly believed gender roles, particularly with gender justice work in the Global South. In New Delhi, India, males are more frequently becoming involved in this work, while also trying to remain mindful of how their privileged status as men affects the public perception of what they are doing. In Pakistan and Afghanistan, the tide is also turning, and men's involvement in opposing violence against women is generally seen as being very positive, a good thing for all. However, there are some who still very much see conflict and violence against women as simply going hand in hand with the those cultures.


title: Masculinity

text: Some want to shift the focus from specifically viewing females as the ones deserving of stronger rights to everyone deserving the opportunity to be viewed as an equal; however, this can create the potential for men to fall back into the mindset of "male victimhood," as opposed to focusing on female oppression. Although gender equality is becoming a more acknowledged topic in South Africa, for instance, fathers would often rather still hold on to the more traditional gender roles — and pass those ideas down to their sons.


title: Masculinity

text: The International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES) has also been developed and the results from countries in the Global South studied more in recent years. Although the survey indicated areas for further improvement, a significant recent finding comes in regard to men's childhood upbringing and their attitudes surrounding gender equality. If men were raised seeing more equal division of household labor tasks, older female relatives working in non-traditional occupations, less violence toward females, etc., those behaviors and attitudes had a tendency to carry over into their adult lives, according to the survey.


title: Masculinity

text: A 2012 study found some evidence that youth have perhaps, inadvertently, made contributions toward greater acceptance of gender equality. Popular culture consumed by youth and those of lesser social status in East Asia, including manga, singing competitions, bands, and more are starting to showcase more modernized males that combine some stereotypically masculine and feminine aspects in their behaviors.


title: Masculinity

text: In South Africa, stricter governmental policies are being put into place regarding abuse and violence. Additionally, initiatives like the "One Man Can" program were formed, which aim to provide HIV prevention and an anti-violence program to men in the country. The 'We Can End Violence against Women' campaign is another anti-violence initiative in Pakistan, developed by the Oxfam GB group in South Asia. In 2019, the program garnered much voluntary male participation in its gender equality work out of Afghanistan and Pakistan.


title: R.I.P.D.

text: R.I.P.D., also marketed as R.I.P.D.: Rest in Peace Department, is a 2013 American supernatural action comedy film starring Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds. The film was directed by Robert Schwentke and written by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, based on the 1999 comic book "R.I.P.D." by Peter M. Lenkov. The film also stars Kevin Bacon, Mary-Louise Parker, Stéphanie Szostak, and Marisa Miller.


title: R.I.P.D.

text: Filming was completed on January 28, 2012, and the film was originally set to be released on June 28, 2013 in the United States by Universal Pictures, but was pushed back to July 19, 2013.


title: R.I.P.D.

text: The film was a box-office bomb, grossing $78 million on a $130 million budget, and was met with negative reviews. A direct-to-DVD prequel, "R.I.P.D. 2: Rise of the Damned", was released on November 15, 2022.


title: R.I.P.D.

text: Boston Police detectives Nick Walker and Bobby Hayes steal gold during a drug bust. Nick regrets the theft and tells Hayes that he will turn it in as evidence. Hayes shoots and kills Nick at the next drug bust. Time stops around Nick and he is drawn into a vortex, depositing him in an office. Nick meets Mildred Proctor, who explains that he is dead and was headed to judgment. She recruits him into the R.I.P.D., whose job is to find and capture Deados - the souls of people who died but escaped judgment. Nick is partnered with Roicephus "Roy" Pulsipher, a lawman from the Old West. Roy takes Nick to watch his own funeral and Nick talks to his wife Julia but she does not recognize him. Roy explains that the R.I.P.D. officers have their appearance changed and are blocked from revealing their true identities. Nick now appears as an elderly Asian man while Roy appears to be a beautiful blonde woman.


title: R.I.P.D.

text: Roy takes Nick to question a suspected Deado named Stanley. They ask Stanley questions until he "pops" and is exposed as a Deado. Stanley tries to escape and throws up a bunch of gold he swallowed before being shot by Roy. Roy and Nick argue and Nick throws Roy in front of a bus, causing Roy to lose his cowboy hat. Nick and Roy return to headquarters and book the gold as evidence. Nick wants to investigate the gold further and asks Roy to take him to an informant. Roy takes Nick to meet a Deado named Elliot, who claims the gold is junk. Nick leaves the gold with Elliot and watches as he gives it to Nick's old partner Hayes. Roy and Nick tail Hayes to Nick's house and watch him dig up Nick's gold before following Hayes to the airport. Hayes gives the gold to a Deado who gets stopped by Roy and Nick while leaving. The Deado refuses to talk and instead pops himself, becoming a hulking monster. It leads Nick and Roy on a public chase that ends with Nick getting the gold but the Deado escaping. Nick and Roy return to headquarters and book the gold before being taken to Eternal Affairs to be punished for the Deado escaping. They learn the gold is part of an artifact called the Staff of Jericho, which can reverse the tunnel to the afterlife. Nick and Roy are also suspended from duty pending a hearing.


title: R.I.P.D.

text: Nick leaves and tries to reveal himself to Julia, but she runs away from him. Roy and Nick argue again but make up after Nick apologizes. They decide to track down the rest of the gold despite their suspensions. They confront Hayes at home and he reveals he's a Deado. They arrest him and seize the rest of the gold. At headquarters, Hayes triggers a device that freezes R.I.P.D. officers while the Deados steal the gold back and escape. The Deados block off the streets and begin assembling the Staff of Jericho on the roof of a building. Nick and Roy fight their way to the building as Hayes fatally wounds Julia to use her blood to power the Staff. The dead begin to rain down on Earth as Nick distracts Hayes and Roy destroys the Staff. The vortex closes and Nick shoots Hayes in the head, erasing him. Time stops around Julia as she dies and sees Nick's true self. They share a passionate goodbye and Nick tells her to move on with her life without him.


title: R.I.P.D.

text: Julia wakes up in the hospital where Proctor, who appears as a doctor, checks on her. Proctor tells Nick that Julia will be fine and that he owes her a favor. Proctor tells Nick and Roy that Eternal Affairs had their hearings without them. Nick is given a warning while Roy has fifty-three more years added to his service. Proctor takes Roy aside and returns his cowboy hat as they share a tender moment and make up. Roy gives Nick a new identity and Nick is excited until he sees that he now appears as a Girl Scout with orthodontic headgear on.


title: R.I.P.D.

text: Zach Galifianakis was originally cast as Roy Pulsipher, but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. Jodie Foster was originally considered for the role of Proctor, but in the end, Mary-Louise Parker was cast.


title: R.I.P.D.

text: In April 2006, following the success of "Wedding Crashers", director David Dobkin was set to helm an in development adaptation of the comic book "R.I.P.D." for Universal with Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi positioned to write the script


title: R.I.P.D.

text: In September 2010, Universal officially greenlit with Robert Schwentke to direct with Ryan Reynolds in the lead role as David Dobkin had since dropped out. The following April, Jeff Bridges entered talks to star as the co-lead in the film following Zach Galifianakis turning down the role. In July of that year, Kevin Bacon was cast to play the villain, with Stephanie Szostak and Mary-Louise Parker rounding out the cast in August.


title: R.I.P.D.

text: The film was originally set to be released on June 28, 2013, but was pushed back to July 19, 2013 in the United States.


title: R.I.P.D.

text: On July 16, Adult Swim's YouTube channel uploaded an animated prequel short, which was produced by Titmouse, Inc. and featured the voice work of Reynolds and Bridges.


title: R.I.P.D.

text: An Atlus published video game based on the film and titled "R.I.P.D. The Game" was released on July 16, 2013, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. The game is a co-op third-person shooter, set around a survival mode. It was developed by Old School Games and features gameplay similar to their previous game, "God Mode". Like its film counterpart, "R.I.P.D. The Game" received mostly negative reviews.


title: R.I.P.D.

text: The film grossed only $12.7 million in its opening weekend and ended its theatrical run with $78.3 million worldwide, including a $33.6 million domestic total and $44.7 million in other territories. According to "Deadline.com", the budget was more than the $130 million the studio claimed, and was $154 million even after $28.1 million in tax rebates. The film is considered a box-office bomb.


title: R.I.P.D.

text: "R.I.P.D." received generally negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 13% based on 104 reviews with an average rating of 3.70/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "It has its moments — most of them courtesy of Jeff Bridges' rootin' tootin' performance as an undead Wild West sheriff — but "R.I.P.D." is ultimately too dim-witted and formulaic to satisfy." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 25 out of 100 based on 27 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: R.I.P.D.

text: Film critic Roger Moore gave the film one-and-a-half out of four stars, calling it "the worst comic book adaptation since "Jonah Hex"." Kyle Smith of the "New York Post" gave the film a half-star out of four, writing: "For a movie that so strenuously rips off "Ghostbusters" and "Men in Black", "R.I.P.D." manages to come up with fresh new ways of being absolutely terrible. The plot manages to be fully predictable and freakishly bonkers at the same time, seemingly born of the same kind of brainstorming-on-L.S.D. session that must have given us "Howard the Duck"."


title: R.I.P.D.

text: In August 2022, it was announced that a prequel reboot film titled "R.I.P.D. 2: Rise of the Damned" had been filmed, produced by Universal Home Entertainment. The film was released directly to Blu-ray and DVD on November 15, 2022.


title: Injustice 2

text: Injustice 2 is a 2017 fighting video game it is the sequel to 2013's "" and is the second installment in the "Injustice" franchise based upon the DC Universe. It is developed by NetherRealm Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The game was initially released in May 2017 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One; a Microsoft Windows version was released later in November 2017. An expanded version of the game, titled "Injustice 2: Legendary Edition", was released in March 2018 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows. Similar to the previous installment, a companion mobile app was released for Android and iOS devices. A prequel comic book series of the same name, written by Tom Taylor, was also released beginning in April 2017.


title: Injustice 2

text: The core gameplay remains similar to its predecessor, albeit with minor adjustments to returning game mechanics. "Injustice 2" introduces a new feature called the Gear System, a loot-dropping system that rewards players with costume pieces and equipment that can be used to customize characters' appearances and modify their abilities and stats. According to developers, the idea for implementing a role playing game (RPG)-style progression system into a fighting game had existed since before the fall of Midway Games, the original publisher for the "Mortal Kombat" series. Director Ed Boon also sought to incorporate gameplay mechanics used by multiplayer shooter games, such as personalization, character creation, loot, and leveling up, into the fighting game genre, which led to the development of the Gear System.


title: Injustice 2

text: "Injustice 2"s storyline centers around Batman and his insurgency's attempt to restore society after the fall of Superman's Regime; however, the arrivals of the newly formed supervillain group "The Society" and the alien Brainiac force Batman to consider freeing the imprisoned Superman to help combat the threats. The game won numerous awards and received positive reviews from critics, who praised its story, presentation, improved gameplay mechanics, abundance of in-game content, and character customization options, while criticizing its random loot and microtransaction systems.


title: Injustice 2

text: "Injustice 2" is a fighting game in which players compete in one-on-one combat using characters from the DC Universe and other third-party franchises. Using different combinations of directional inputs and button presses, players must perform basic attacks, special moves, and combos to try to damage and knock out the opposing fighter. "Injustice 2" retains numerous gameplay mechanics from "Injustice: Gods Among Us", including environment interaction, stage transitions, clashes, and character traits. The trait system, like before, provides a temporary buff or ability that complements each character's playstyle. The super meter, which allows players to execute enhanced special moves and unlock powerful "super moves" when fully charged, also returns. Players can expend meter to perform new techniques, such as an evasive forward roll, which provides a way to overcome enemy keep-away tactics, or an air recovery, which lets characters escape an opponent's combo early. Most environmental attacks, which were completely unavoidable in the first "Injustice" game, can now be blocked or dodged; however, certain environmental attacks with large amounts of startup, such as throwing a car, remain unblockable.


title: Injustice 2

text: "Injustice 2" introduces a loot-dropping system, known as the "Gear System", which offers character-specific costume pieces and equipment with status-altering effects. The Gear System uses RPG-like mechanics to reward players with experience and loot after every match. Every playable fighter is given four base stats: strength, defense, health, and ability, the latter of which impacts special attacks. As players collect experience points and subsequently level up, their characters' base stats will increase. Players can enhance their base stats even further by equipping gear obtained through loot drops, which also lets players customize the look of their characters. Rarer gear can include one or more bonus augmentations, which range from new visual effects for special moves to higher yields of in-game currency or experience points. Players can receive additional bonuses by equipping their characters with all five pieces of a single gear set. Gear comes in three varieties: equipment, shaders, and abilities. Besides the random loot earned at the end of a fight, all three types of gear are available to purchase in loot crates, known as "Mother Boxes", using in-game currency. Each character has five equipment slots for donning new costume pieces, which include their head, torso, arms, legs, and an accessory; two ability slots for equipping new or modified special attacks; and one shader slot for altering their color scheme. The game will also include five separate gear loadouts for each character, allowing players to switch between their setups at the beginning of each match.


title: Injustice 2

text: The game also includes a microtransaction system. Players can buy "Source Crystals" using real-world money to purchase cosmetic adjustments for fighters, such as premier skins and shaders, instead of waiting to obtain them through normal play. Source Crystals can also be used to buy "Transform Gear". Transform Gear lets players apply the visuals of one piece of gear to another, allowing them to match their preferred stat modifiers with their preferred costume pieces. Lastly, once players have reached Level 20 with at least one character, Source Crystals can be used to level up other characters to their maximum levels. NetherRealm representatives clarified that any purchases made with Source Crystals are strictly cosmetic and offer no gameplay advantages.


title: Injustice 2

text: In addition to the campaign, online, and arcade modes, "Injustice 2" introduces a new "Multiverse" mode. Similar to the "Living Towers" mode from NetherRealm's previous title, "Mortal Kombat X", the Multiverse allows players to travel through series of parallel worlds within the DC Universe and battle against opponents with various handicaps, stipulations, and goals. Online multiplayer will feature the option to disable Gear System upgrades and modifications, reducing all base stats to their default levels, turning any equipped gear into purely cosmetic items, and providing more balanced gameplay for competitive matches. Players can also form online "guilds" with up to 50 other players. Guild members can collaborate to complete daily and weekly cooperative objectives to earn and share gear exclusive to guild gameplay and climb the worldwide leaderboards.


title: Injustice 2

text: The game begins with Kara Zor-El's and an infant Kal-El's escape from Krypton during Brainiac's attack on the planet. Aided by Kara's mother, they manage to escape aboard pods headed to Earth, but Kara's ship is knocked off course. Years later, prior to the events of the , Batman and his son Robin attempt to stop Superman's Regime from executing Arkham Asylum inmates. Failing to dissuade Superman, Batman fights him but is attacked by Robin, who prefers Superman's methods. Batman defeats Robin, but the latter leaves with Superman to join the Regime anyway after executing Victor Zsasz.


title: Injustice 2

text: In the present, two years after the Regime's fall, Batman and his Insurgency are attempting to rebuild society. They learn of a new faction, the Society, composed of villains spearheaded by Gorilla Grodd, who seeks global domination. Black Canary, a parallel universe version of Green Arrow, and a reformed Harley Quinn, are tasked by Batman with stopping the Society, and track them down to Slaughter Swamp, where they form an alliance with Swamp Thing. Following the villains to Gorilla City, the heroes are warned by Doctor Fate of an incoming threat. Black Canary and Green Arrow are abducted by Brainiac, the mastermind behind the Society, who intends to add Earth to his collection of shrunken planets. After Brainiac takes over Batman's communications hub, Brother Eye, Batman searches for allies to defeat him.


title: Injustice 2

text: While Catwoman, a double agent for Batman in the Society, rescues Harley, the reformed Flash and Green Lantern join Batman to take down Brainiac. Green Lantern is sent to recruit Aquaman, who agrees to help after Brainiac attacks Atlantis. Meanwhile, Black Adam, Wonder Woman, and Kara (who was rescued by Adam years prior and adopted the Supergirl alias) break Nightwing and Cyborg out of prison in an attempt to re-establish the Regime and defeat Brainiac. They are defeated by Blue Beetle and Firestorm before Batman arrives. Batman frees Superman and forms a reluctant alliance with the Regime members on the condition that no one is killed in the upcoming battles.


title: Injustice 2

text: Cyborg, Catwoman, and Harley go to the Batcave to free Brother Eye from Brainiac's control and defeat Society members sent to stop them. Meanwhile, Wonder Woman and Supergirl fight the remaining Society members in New Metropolis; when the former almost kills Cheetah, Harley interferes, causing Wonder Woman to attack her. Supergirl goes to the Fortress of Solitude to confront Superman over the incident, and learns of his tyranny. As Brainiac prepares to destroy Earth after collecting enough cities, the Insurgency and the Regime attack his ship, but fail to get through its shields, and seemingly lose Superman. The group decides to weaken the shields by using Aquaman's trident as a conduit for the magic of the Rock of Eternity, which Aquaman and Black Adam go retrieve. They are followed by Grodd, who has brainwashed Black Canary, Green Arrow, and Blue Beetle, but they defeat them, and Aquaman executes Grodd.


title: Injustice 2

text: Aquaman and Black Adam weaken Brainiac's shields enough for Batman and Supergirl to board his ship. They are captured, but a still-living Superman rescues them and helps Batman defeat the brainwashed Firestorm and Swamp Thing. Doctor Fate, ordered by the Lords of Order to help Brainiac, fights them, but he is defeated and freed from the Lords' control before Brainiac kills him. After defeating Brainiac, Superman takes control of the ship to restore the stolen cities, but inadvertently destroys New Metropolis and Coast City. As the others join them, they become divided over Brainiac's fate: the Insurgents and Supergirl want to keep him alive so they can learn how to restore the cities, while the Regime and Aquaman want him dead. The tension between them escalates into a fight, prompting the player to choose whether to fight as Superman or Batman.


title: Injustice 2

text: The base roster for "Injustice 2" includes 28 playable fighters, consisting of both new and returning heroes and villains. The game also features 10 additional characters available as downloadable content (DLC). Red Hood, Starfire, and Sub-Zero made up Fighter Pack 1, while Fighter Pack 2 brought in Black Manta, Hellboy, and Raiden, and Fighter Pack 3 introduced Atom, Enchantress, and the TMNT. Darkseid was a Pre-Order bonus and later made available as standalone DLC from the Fighter Packs.


title: Injustice 2

text: Additionally, several characters are playable as "premier skins", which transform characters from the existing roster into other characters from mostly DC Comics Universe with unique voices, dialogue, and in certain cases, altered normal/special/super moves and character powers.


title: Injustice 2

text: Several characters from the first Injustice game were dropped, including Ares, Arkham Knight, Batgirl, Doomsday, Hawkgirl, Killer Croc, Killer Frost, Lex Luthor, Lobo, Scorpion, Sinestro, Solomon Grundy, Static, Zatanna, and Zod.


title: Injustice 2

text: "Injustice 2" was announced by NetherRealm Studios and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment on June 8, 2016. Following the release of "Injustice: Gods Among Us", NetherRealm Studios sought to do "something unexpected and long-term" for its sequel, as well as give players "a level of control that makes playing [their] games a truly personal experience." Ed Boon also wanted to infuse various gameplay mechanics used by recent multiplayer shooter games, such as personalization, character creation, loot, and leveling up, into the fighting game genre. According to producer Adam Urbano, the idea of creating a fighting game utilizing a role playing game-like progression system had been floating around the studio since before the fall of Midway Games, the original publisher for the "Mortal Kombat" series. Due to the success of the original "Injustice", which earned NetherRealm Studios the trust of Warner Bros. and DC Comics, the development team decided to pitch their progression concept for the sequel, which was approved, leading to the implementation of the Gear System.


title: Injustice 2

text: The Gear System was designed to encourage players to develop unique personal playstyles, while consistently rewarding them for investing time into the game. According to Senior Marketing Game Manager Brian Goodman, the developers wanted the Gear System to cater to both the casual and hardcore audiences. They hoped that hardcore players would appreciate the different mechanics offered by the system and create new strategies and fighting styles for each character, while casual players would enjoy the variety of visual customization options. NetherRealm also foresaw the potential issue with newer players being dominated by veteran players who have obtained rarer gear sets. To address this, the developers attempted to implement various solutions, such as giving players the option to disable stat modifiers during matches and the ability to buy rarer gear through the assorted tiers of Mother Boxes. A "balance team" was also consulted during development to try to prevent players from clustering around a small number of optimal builds.


title: Injustice 2

text: NetherRealm Studios collaborated with DC Comics throughout "Injustice 2"s entire development process, including conceptualizing characters and determining the direction of the story. As with "Injustice: Gods Among Us", NetherRealm was afforded extensive freedom with DC Comics' properties when designing characters. Lead Designer John Edwards stated that all of their design ideas had to pass through DC Comics' approval process; though, the company had rarely rejected them. This allowed the developers to create a large variety of costume variations and visually distinct items inspired by decades of source material. “It's a mutual respect,” explained Art Director Steve Beran. “They respect what we do, and we respect all their characters. We are fans of their characters and, I think, art-wise and design-wise, we put a lot of detail that hardcore fans will like. We tried to really honor every character.”


title: Injustice 2

text: "Injustice 2" continues the storyline established in "Injustice: Gods Among Us". Unlike the previous game, which centered on a multi-universe conflict, the plot for "Injustice 2" takes place entirely within the alternate, dystopian universe. According to "Injustice: Gods Among Us" Cinematic Director Dominic Cianciolo, the story from the first installment provided a solid foundation for adapting the canonical histories of the game's newer cast, allowing the writers to fit their stories within the "Injustice" universe. The biggest challenge presented to the writers was extending the series' narrative without repeating the core Batman versus Superman conflict. This led to the inclusion of Brainiac as the game's central antagonist, as there were few characters in the DC Universe that could top "Dictator Superman" as a foe for Batman.


title: Injustice 2

text: According to Goodman, the playable characters were decided upon by NetherRealm Studios in collaboration with DC Comics, similar to the previous title. The developers considered the characters' lore, personalities, abilities, popularity, participation in the story, and relationships with other characters during the roster selection process. Creative Director Ed Boon stated that "Injustice 2"s roster would contain more relatively obscure characters, since "Injustice: Gods Among Us" had covered most of DC Comics' most notable figures. He teased the possibility of third-party DLC characters, which were well received in "Mortal Kombat X", eventually resulting in the inclusions of Hellboy from Dark Horse Comics created by Mike Mignola and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from Nickelodeon, originally created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. Due to the success of Scorpion in the previous installment, who was the most downloaded DLC fighter, Boon also entertained the likelihood of NetherRealm including other "Mortal Kombat" characters as downloadable content, leading to the inclusions of Sub-Zero and Raiden. As with Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Raiden were given new costume designs by comic book artist Jim Lee.


title: Injustice 2

text: Characters' facial animations were created with a custom photogrammetry facial scanner, which utilized 44 DSLR cameras with 50 mm fixed lenses. Character Art Lead Brendan George stated that 16 facial expressions were captured to create a single character; the 16 scans then took two to three days to process through their workstations. The data from their new scanner allowed the artists to produce a more advanced facial rig. All motion capture was performed in-house at NetherRealm Studios in Chicago, Illinois. According to Senior Technical Artist for Cinematics Andy Senesac, the animation team used four head-mounted camera systems in its motion capture shoots, each equipped with a choice of three different 4 mm, 5 mm, or wide-angled lenses that were used depending on the actor's head shape. The motion capture was then modified with manual animations to obtain the final result.


title: Injustice 2

text: The online infrastructure for "Injustice 2" utilizes the same rollback-based netcode introduced to "Mortal Kombat X" in its XL update. An online multiplayer beta test for both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions was announced on January 19, 2017, which began soon afterwards on January 24 and lasted until February 21. The game's original soundtrack was composed primarily by Christopher Drake, with additional compositions from Richard Carle, Dan Forden, and Dynamedion. "Injustice 2" runs on the "Mortal Kombat X" engine (Unreal Engine 3), with the mobile version running on Unreal Engine 4.


title: Injustice 2

text: "Injustice 2" released in North America on May 16, 2017; Australia on May 17, 2017; and most European countries including the United Kingdom on May 19, 2017, for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Aside from the standard edition of the game, a "Digital Deluxe Edition" and an "Ultimate Edition" were available for purchase. The "Digital Deluxe Edition" included three downloadable content (DLC) characters, the Power Girl premier skin, and one exclusive gear shader pack; the "Ultimate Edition" included nine DLC characters, the Reverse-Flash, John Stewart, and Power Girl premier skins, and two exclusive gear shader packs. Pre-orders of the game featured Darkseid as a playable DLC fighter.


title: Injustice 2

text: On May 8, 2017, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced the "Injustice 2 Championship Series", a global eSports program. The series offered amateur and professional players throughout North America, Europe, and Latin America a chance to compete in different programs for a portion of a prize pool. These included the "Injustice 2 Pro Series", an international tournament; the "GameStop Hometown Heroes" tournament, set in the United States; the "Path to Pro" tournament, set in Europe; and the "Liga Latina", set in Argentina, Chile, Mexico, and Peru. The top players from each program qualified for the "ELEAGUE Injustice 2 World Championship", which featured a prize pool. The event took place in Atlanta, Georgia, from October 21 through November 10, and was streamed worldwide through the ELEAGUE website, Twitch, and YouTube; matches were also broadcast live on TBS in the United States. On April 10, 2018, NetherRealm announced that the "Pro Series" would return for a second season.


title: Injustice 2

text: On October 24, 2017, Warner Bros. announced that a Microsoft Windows version developed by QLOC, who had previously taken over development for "Mortal Kombat X"'s PC port from High Voltage Software, was due for release in Q4 2017, with an open beta stage beginning on October 25. However, the beta was postponed for unspecified reasons, ultimately running between November 6 and November 11. The Microsoft Windows version was released on November 14, 2017. Creative director Ed Boon has also discussed the possibility of a Nintendo Switch version.


title: Injustice 2

text: Like its predecessor, a free-to-play mobile app based on "Injustice 2" was released for iOS and Android devices on May 11, 2017. The app was soft launched in the Philippines App Store in February 2017. It maintains several gameplay features from the original, including the swipe-based fighting mechanics, card collection, and three-on-three battles, but introduces various changes to the game's overall formula. Players are now given the ability to move around the stage freely during combat, as well as use jumping and crouching attacks. The stamina management system returns; however, instead of each character receiving their own allotment of stamina, the player is given a single pool of stamina which depletes after every match. Fights also require higher levels of stamina than the previous game. The app includes login bonuses; daily objectives, which offer experience and coins; and achievements, which are long-term goals that reward players with premium gems and "hero shards" used for unlocking and leveling up characters. It also features game mechanics similar to those found in the console versions, such as ability and gear upgrades. The app includes a story mode, which will be unfolded chapter by chapter in subsequent updates. According to Google Play, the Android version of the app has been downloaded at least ten million times since its release.


title: Injustice 2

text: According to Boon, NetherRealm Studios planned to take a more "aggressive approach" for downloadable content in "Injustice 2" compared to their previous games. "One of the things we’ve been doing, trying to do more and more with every game...is to support it for a longer period of time," Boon stated, "With DLC characters, we’ve had four with "Mortal Kombat", six with "Injustice", eight with "Mortal Kombat X", and with "Injustice 2" we plan on continuing that pattern." On May 5, 2017, NetherRealm Studios announced "Fighter Pack 1", which includes three DLC characters: Red Hood, Starfire, and "Mortal Kombat"s Sub-Zero. Red Hood was released on June 13, 2017; Sub-Zero was released on July 11, 2017; and Starfire was released on August 8, 2017. "Fighter Pack 2", consisting of Black Manta, "Mortal Kombat"s Raiden, and Dark Horse Comics' Hellboy, was revealed on August 23, 2017, at Gamescom. Black Manta was released on September 12, 2017; Raiden was released on October 3, 2017, alongside the Black Lightning premier skin; and Hellboy was released on November 14, 2017. On October 3, 2017, during the finale of The CW's documentary television series "Chasing the Cup: Injustice 2", Atom was revealed as the next DLC addition. The third DLC pack, "Fighter Pack 3", was unveiled during the finals of the ELEAGUE "Injustice 2" World Championship on November 11, 2017, which includes Atom, Enchantress, and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (TMNT) protagonists Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael. Atom was released on December 12, 2017; Enchantress was released on January 9, 2018; and lastly, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were released on February 13, 2018. Players can select which TMNT member to play as using the Gear System; equipping one of four weapons — katana, bō, nunchaku, or sai — swaps between Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael, each with their own unique move sets. In tournament and online modes, where Gear System loadouts cannot be used, players can choose each turtle individually through the character select screen. At one point, NetherRealm had considered developing a "Fighter Pack 0", which would consist of returning characters from "Injustice: Gods Among Us", including Ares, Batgirl, Doomsday, and Shazam; however, the idea did not come to fruition. In April 2019, nearly two years after the game's release, Ed Boon revealed on Game Informer that he wanted to include Neo from "The Matrix" as a guest character, but plans fell through for his inclusion.


title: Injustice 2

text: During NetherRealm Studios' "Injustice 2" panel at San Diego Comic-Con International on July 22, 2016, Boon announced a digital comic book series which will detail the backstory to the events of the game. The series is written by Tom Taylor, who had previously worked on the tie-in comic books for "Injustice: Gods Among Us". Bruno Redondo is its lead artist, with contributing artwork from Juan Albarran, Daniel Sempere, and Mike S. Miller. Beginning on April 11, 2017, the series was released in weekly chapters through various digital retailers, including ComiXology, Google Play Books, the Kindle Store, and DC Comics' own mobile app. Print versions became available for purchase on May 3, 2017, each containing multiple digital chapters.


title: Injustice 2

text: It was announced on April 26, 2018, that the game would cross over with Mattel's "Masters of the Universe" series as a comic sequel to the game's "Superman's side" ending. The comic received six issues, from July 18, 2018, until January 2, 2019.


title: Injustice 2

text: On February 28, 2018, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced "Injustice 2: Legendary Edition". Similar to the "Ultimate Edition" for "Injustice: Gods Among Us", the "Legendary Edition" includes all previously released downloadable content for "Injustice 2". It also introduces new features, such as an expanded tutorial system called the "Learn Hub", new gear items, and an increased character level cap. In addition, those who pre-order the "Day One Edition" of the "Legendary Edition" received a collectible coin, a steelbook case, a "comic exclusive download steel card", and 11,000 Source Crystals to use in-game. The Legendary Edition was released on March 27, 2018, for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows.


title: Injustice 2

text: "Injustice 2" received generally favorable reviews, according to Metacritic. Reviewers lauded "Injustice 2"'s story and presentation. "Eurogamer" Wesley Yin-Poole praised the game's narrative and visuals, describing them as "impressive" and a "significant step up" from "Injustice: Gods Among Us". Yin-Poole commended the story mode on a technical level, praising the motion capture, action choreography, voice acting, and facial animations. "Destructoid" Nick Valdez shared similar views, stating that the visuals were "leagues above the first title". Valdez also complimented the game's improved writing and "more engaging narrative". In contrast, while "Game Revolution" James Kozanitis said the visuals were "absolutely jaw-dropping" and "set a new high bar for the [fighting game] genre", he lambasted the story campaign, which he labeled as "poorly written" and "contrived".


title: Injustice 2

text: Reviewers also praised "Injustice 2" improved gameplay mechanics and abundance of in-game content. "Game Informer" Andrew Reiner praised the game's faster walk speed, the additions of the evasive roll and air recovery maneuvers, and the ability to block environmental attacks, stating that the game "[felt] tighter as a whole" and "offers a higher level of strategy". "The Games Machine" Danilo Dellafrana stated that "the subtle changes to the combat system made for deeper gameplay". These points of praise were mirrored by "IGN" Darry Huskey, who remarked that "Injustice 2" "[struck] a fine balance between retaining the strengths of "Gods Among Us" and making smart changes to improve mechanics." Huskey applauded the "incredible amount of content", declaring that "hour for hour, "Injustice 2" may have more content for solo players than any fighting game ever released." Reiner also praised the amount of content, acknowledging its "lengthy story-based campaign...great fighting experience, and...nearly endless supply of notable loot." Yin-Poole wrote that NetherRealm Studios "once again [proved] it's the best in the business at that old chestnut: content."


title: Injustice 2

text: While the customization options offered by the Gear System received praise, critics expressed frustration with receiving random, undesired gear through loot drops and the game's microtransaction system. "GameSpot" Peter Brown found collecting gear and outfitting characters to be enjoyable, stating that "watching a character's traditional outfit transform into something fresh or unexpected, and seeing their stats grow through leveling up and equipping gear, grants a satisfying sense of ownership over your accomplishments and possessions." On the other hand, Brown criticized the Gear System's use of currency, particularly Source Crystals, saying that spending real money seemed to be a "necessary evil" for players to have complete control over their inventories. "Kotaku" Mike Fahey described the ability to create custom versions of characters as "quite satisfying"; however, he found the Gear System to be "complicated" and criticized the randomness in receiving desired costume pieces and equipment, uttering "sometimes random chance really sucks." "VideoGamer.com" Alice Bell also called the microtransaction and loot systems "needlessly complex", which require players to keep track of several different types of currency. In contrast, "Polygon" Michael McWhertor called the interface "elegant", enjoying the simplicity of managing and selling of gear for each character.


title: Injustice 2

text: "Injustice 2" topped the United Kingdom's multi-platform physical sales chart during its first two weeks after launch, with the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions simultaneously taking the first and second spots, respectively. This marked the first time a fighting game had taken the top spot since "Mortal Kombat X" in April 2015. Launch sales for the game in the United Kingdom were also roughly one-third higher than the debut of "Injustice: Gods Among Us". Likewise, "Injustice 2" was the top-selling game across all platforms in Australia and New Zealand during its first two weeks, and the best-selling game in the United States for the month of May 2017. It became the PlayStation Store's most downloaded PlayStation 4 title for May 2017, with Darkseid being the third best-selling DLC of the month. The "Ultimate Pack" and "Fighter Pack 1" were both in the Top 10 downloads in June 2017. Three months later, "Fighter Pack 2" also made the Top 10. By the end of May, "Injustice 2" was the ninth best-selling game of 2017. Time Warner declared the game as "the highest-grossing console game in the second quarter of 2017," selling approximately 1.5 million copies in the first three months of its release.


title: Injustice 2

text: In June 2016, "Injustice 2" received "Best of E3 2016" awards for "Best Fighting Game" from the "Game Critics Awards", "IGN", "Game Informer", and "GamesRadar". The game won "Best Fighting Game of 2017" awards from The Game Awards 2017, IGN, and Game Informer. "IGN" also nominated the game for "Best Xbox One Game" and "Best Spectator Game". The game was nominated for "Best International Game" at the 2017 Ping Awards, for "Best Xbox One Game" in "Destructoid" Game of the Year Awards 2017, and for "Best Multiplayer Game" and "Studio of the Year" (NetherRealm) at the Golden Joystick Awards. In "Game Informer"s Reader's Choice Best of 2017 Awards, the game came in first place for "Best Fighting Game", third place for "Best Competitive Multiplayer" and fifth place for "Game of the Year". EGMNow ranked it eleventh on their list of the 25 Best Games of 2017, while "GamesRadar+" ranked it 23rd on their list of the 25 Best Games of 2017. The game was also nominated for "Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design", and won the award for "Fighting Game of the Year" at the D.I.C.E. Awards; it was also nominated for "Game, Franchise Fighting" at the 17th Annual National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards.


title: Visual arts

text: The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts also involve aspects of visual arts as well as arts of other types. Also included within the visual arts are the applied arts such as industrial design, graphic design, fashion design, interior design and decorative art.


title: Visual arts

text: Current usage of the term "visual arts" includes fine art as well as the applied or decorative arts and crafts, but this was not always the case. Before the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain and elsewhere at the turn of the 20th century, the term 'artist' had for some centuries often been restricted to a person working in the fine arts (such as painting, sculpture, or printmaking) and not the decorative arts, craft, or applied Visual arts media. The distinction was emphasized by artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement, who valued vernacular art forms as much as high forms. Art schools made a distinction between the fine arts and the crafts, maintaining that a craftsperson could not be considered a practitioner of the arts.


title: Visual arts

text: The increasing tendency to prefer the painting styles, and to a lesser degree sculpture, of technique or style over another has been a feature of artist throughout the ages. In many instances painting has been seen as relying to the highest degree on the imagination of the artist, and the furthest removed from manual labour – in Chinese painting the most highly valued styles were those of "scholar-painting", at least in theory practiced by gentleman amateurs. The Western hierarchy of genres reflected similar attitudes.


title: Visual arts

text: Training in the visual arts has generally been through variations of the apprentice and workshop systems. In Europe the Renaissance movement to increase the prestige of the artist led to the academy system for training artists, and today most of the people who are pursuing a career in arts train in art schools at tertiary levels. Visual arts have now become an elective subject in most education systems.


title: Visual arts

text: Drawing is a means of making an image, illustration or graphic using any of a wide variety of tools and techniques available online and offline. It generally involves making marks on a surface by applying pressure from a tool, or moving a tool across a surface using dry media such as graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoals, pastels, and markers. Digital tools, including pens, stylus, that simulate the effects of these are also used. The main techniques used in drawing are: line drawing, hatching, crosshatching, random hatching, shading, scribbling, stippling, and blending. An artist who excels in drawing is referred to as a "draftsman" or "draughtsman".


title: Visual arts

text: Drawing and painting goes back tens of thousands of years. Art of the Upper Paleolithic includes figurative art beginning between about 40,000 to 35,000 years ago. Non-figurative cave paintings consisting of hand stencils and simple geometric shapes are even older. Paleolithic cave representations of animals are found in areas such as Lascaux, France and Altamira, Spain in Europe, Maros, Sulawesi in Asia, and Gabarnmung, Australia.


title: Visual arts

text: In ancient Egypt, ink drawings on papyrus, often depicting people, were used as models for painting or sculpture. Drawings on Greek vases, initially geometric, later developed to the human form with black-figure pottery during the 7th century BC.


title: Visual arts

text: With paper becoming common in Europe by the 15th century, drawing was adopted by masters such as Sandro Botticelli, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci who sometimes treated drawing as an art in its own right rather than a preparatory stage for painting or sculpture.


title: Visual arts

text: Painting taken literally is the practice of applying pigment suspended in a carrier (or medium) and a binding agent (a glue) to a surface (support) such as paper, canvas or a wall. However, when used in an artistic sense it means the use of this activity in combination with drawing, composition, or other aesthetic considerations in order to manifest the expressive and conceptual intention of the practitioner. Painting is also used to express spiritual motifs and ideas; sites of this kind of painting range from artwork depicting mythological figures on pottery to The Sistine Chapel to the human body itself.


title: Visual arts

text: Like drawing, painting has its documented origins in caves and on rock faces. The finest examples, believed by some to be 32,000 years old, are in the Chauvet and Lascaux caves in southern France. In shades of red, brown, yellow and black, the paintings on the walls and ceilings are of bison, cattle, horses and deer.


title: Visual arts

text: Paintings of human figures can be found in the tombs of ancient Egypt. In the great temple of Ramses II, Nefertari, his queen, is depicted being led by Isis. The Greeks contributed to painting but much of their work has been lost. One of the best remaining representations are the Hellenistic Fayum mummy portraits. Another example is mosaic of the Battle of Issus at Pompeii, which was probably based on a Greek painting. Greek and Roman art contributed to Byzantine art in the 4th century BC, which initiated a tradition in icon painting.


title: Visual arts

text: Apart from the illuminated manuscripts produced by monks during the Middle Ages, the next significant contribution to European art was from Italy's renaissance painters. From Giotto in the 13th century to Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael at the beginning of the 16th century, this was the richest period in Italian art as the "chiaroscuro" techniques were used to create the illusion of 3-D space.


title: Visual arts

text: Painters in northern Europe too were influenced by the Italian school. Jan van Eyck from Belgium, Pieter Bruegel the Elder from the Netherlands and Hans Holbein the Younger from Germany are among the most successful painters of the times. They used the glazing technique with oils to achieve depth and luminosity.


title: Visual arts

text: The 17th century witnessed the emergence of the great Dutch masters such as the versatile Rembrandt who was especially remembered for his portraits and Bible scenes, and Vermeer who specialized in interior scenes of Dutch life.


title: Visual arts

text: The Baroque started after the Renaissance, from the late 16th century to the late 17th century. Main artists of the Baroque included Caravaggio, who made heavy use of tenebrism. Peter Paul Rubens, a Flemish painter who studied in Italy, worked for local churches in Antwerp and also painted a series for Marie de' Medici. Annibale Carracci took influences from the Sistine Chapel and created the genre of illusionistic ceiling painting. Much of the development that happened in the Baroque was because of the Protestant Reformation and the resulting Counter Reformation. Much of what defines the Baroque is dramatic lighting and overall visuals.


title: Visual arts

text: Impressionism began in France in the 19th century with a loose association of artists including Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Paul Cézanne who brought a new freely brushed style to painting, often choosing to paint realistic scenes of modern life outside rather than in the studio. This was achieved through a new expression of aesthetic features demonstrated by brush strokes and the impression of reality. They achieved intense color vibration by using pure, unmixed colors and short brush strokes. The movement influenced art as a dynamic, moving through time and adjusting to newfound techniques and perception of art. Attention to detail became less of a priority in achieving, whilst exploring a biased view of landscapes and nature to the artist's eye.


title: Visual arts

text: Towards the end of the 19th century, several young painters took impressionism a stage further, using geometric forms and unnatural color to depict emotions while striving for deeper symbolism. Of particular note are Paul Gauguin, who was strongly influenced by Asian, African and Japanese art, Vincent van Gogh, a Dutchman who moved to France where he drew on the strong sunlight of the south, and Toulouse-Lautrec, remembered for his vivid paintings of night life in the Paris district of Montmartre.


title: Visual arts

text: Edvard Munch, a Norwegian artist, developed his symbolistic approach at the end of the 19th century, inspired by the French impressionist Manet. "The Scream" (1893), his most famous work, is widely interpreted as representing the universal anxiety of modern man. Partly as a result of Munch's influence, the German expressionist movement originated in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century as artists such as Ernst Kirschner and Erich Heckel began to distort reality for an emotional effect.


title: Visual arts

text: In parallel, the style known as cubism developed in France as artists focused on the volume and space of sharp structures within a composition. Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque were the leading proponents of the movement. Objects are broken up, analyzed, and re-assembled in an abstracted form. By the 1920s, the style had developed into surrealism with Dali and Magritte.


title: Visual arts

text: Printmaking is creating, for artistic purposes, an image on a matrix that is then transferred to a two-dimensional (flat) surface by means of ink (or another form of pigmentation). Except in the case of a monotype, the same matrix can be used to produce many examples of the print.


title: Visual arts

text: Historically, the major techniques (also called media) involved are woodcut, line engraving, etching, lithography, and screen printing (serigraphy, silk screening) but there are many others, including modern digital techniques. Normally, the print is printed on paper, but other mediums range from cloth and vellum to more modern materials.


title: Visual arts

text: Prints in the Western tradition produced before about 1830 are known as old master prints. In Europe, from around 1400 AD woodcut, was used for master prints on paper by using printing techniques developed in the Byzantine and Islamic worlds. Michael Wolgemut improved German woodcut from about 1475, and Erhard Reuwich, a Dutchman, was the first to use cross-hatching. At the end of the century Albrecht Dürer brought the Western woodcut to a stage that has never been surpassed, increasing the status of the single-leaf woodcut.


title: Visual arts

text: In China, the art of printmaking developed some 1,100 years ago as illustrations alongside text cut in woodblocks for printing on paper. Initially images were mainly religious but in the Song Dynasty, artists began to cut landscapes. During the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1616–1911) dynasties, the technique was perfected for both religious and artistic engravings.


title: Visual arts

text: Woodblock printing in Japan (Japanese: 木版画, moku hanga) is a technique best known for its use in the ukiyo-e artistic genre; however, it was also used very widely for printing illustrated books in the same period. Woodblock printing had been used in China for centuries to print books, long before the advent of movable type, but was only widely adopted in Japan during the Edo period (1603–1867). Although similar to woodcut in western printmaking in some regards, moku hanga differs greatly in that water-based inks are used (as opposed to western woodcut, which uses oil-based inks), allowing for a wide range of vivid color, glazes and color transparency.


title: Visual arts

text: Photography is the process of making pictures by means of the action of light. The light patterns reflected or emitted from objects are recorded onto a sensitive medium or storage chip through a timed exposure. The process is done through mechanical shutters or electronically timed exposure of photons into chemical processing or digitizing devices known as cameras.


title: Visual arts

text: The word comes from the Greek φως "phos" ("light"), and γραφις "graphis" ("stylus", "paintbrush") or γραφη "graphê", together meaning "drawing with light" or "representation by means of lines" or "drawing." Traditionally, the product of photography has been called a photograph. The term "photo" is an abbreviation; many people also call them "pictures." In digital photography, the term "image" has begun to replace "photograph." (The term "image" is traditional in geometric optics.)


title: Visual arts

text: Architecture is the process and the product of planning, designing, and constructing buildings or any other structures. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural symbols and as works of art. Historical civilizations are often identified with their surviving architectural achievements.


title: Visual arts

text: The earliest surviving written work on the subject of architecture is "De architectura", by the Roman architect Vitruvius in the early 1st century AD. According to Vitruvius, a good building should satisfy the three principles of firmitas, utilitas, venustas, commonly known by the original translation – firmness, commodity and delight. An equivalent in modern English would be:


title: Visual arts

text: Building first evolved out of the dynamics between needs (shelter, security, worship, etc.) and means (available building materials and attendant skills). As human cultures developed and knowledge began to be formalized through oral traditions and practices, building became a craft, and "architecture" is the name given to the most highly formalized and respected versions of that craft.


title: Visual arts

text: Filmmaking is the process of making a motion-picture, from an initial conception and research, through scriptwriting, shooting and recording, animation or other special effects, editing, sound and music work and finally distribution to an audience; it refers broadly to the creation of all types of films, embracing documentary, strains of theatre and literature in film, and poetic or experimental practices, and is often used to refer to video-based processes as well.


title: Visual arts

text: Visual artists are no longer limited to traditional Visual arts media. Computers have been used as an ever more common tool in the visual arts since the 1960s. Uses include the capturing or creating of images and forms, the editing of those images and forms (including exploring multiple compositions) and the final rendering or printing (including 3D printing).


title: Visual arts

text: Computer art is any in which computers played a role in production or display. Such art can be an image, sound, animation, video, CD-ROM, DVD, video game, website, algorithm, performance or gallery installation.


title: Visual arts

text: Many traditional disciplines are now integrating digital technologies and, as a result, the lines between traditional works of art and new media works created using computers have been blurred. For instance, an artist may combine traditional painting with algorithmic art and other digital techniques. As a result, defining computer art by its end product can be difficult. Nevertheless, this type of art is beginning to appear in art museum exhibits, though it has yet to prove its legitimacy as a form unto itself and this technology is widely seen in contemporary art more as a tool rather than a form as with painting. On the other hand, there are computer-based artworks which belong to a new conceptual and postdigital strand, assuming the same technologies, and their social impact, as an object of inquiry.


title: Visual arts

text: Computer usage has blurred the distinctions between illustrators, photographers, photo editors, 3-D modelers, and handicraft artists. Sophisticated rendering and editing software has led to multi-skilled image developers. Photographers may become digital artists. Illustrators may become animators. Handicraft may be computer-aided or use computer-generated imagery as a template. Computer clip art usage has also made the clear distinction between visual arts and page layout less obvious due to the easy access and editing of clip art in the process of paginating a document, especially to the unskilled observer.


title: Visual arts

text: Plastic arts is a term for art forms that involve physical manipulation of a plastic medium by moulding or modeling such as sculpture or ceramics. The term has also been applied to "all the visual (non-literary, non-musical) arts".


title: Visual arts

text: Materials that can be carved or shaped, such as stone or wood, concrete or steel, have also been included in the narrower definition, since, with appropriate tools, such materials are also capable of modulation. This use of the term "plastic" in the arts should not be confused with Piet Mondrian's use, nor with the movement he termed, in French and English, "Neoplasticism."


title: Visual arts

text: Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard or plastic material, sound, or text and or light, commonly stone (either rock or marble), clay, metal, glass, or wood. Some sculptures are created directly by finding or ; others are assembled, built together and fired, welded, molded, or cast. Sculptures are often painted.


title: Visual arts

text: Because sculpture involves the use of materials that can be moulded or modulated, it is considered one of the plastic arts. The majority of public art is sculpture. Many sculptures together in a garden setting may be referred to as a sculpture garden. Sculptors do not always make sculptures by hand. With increasing technology in the 20th century and the popularity of conceptual art over technical mastery, more sculptors turned to art fabricators to produce their artworks. With fabrication, the artist creates a design and pays a fabricator to produce it. This allows sculptors to create larger and more complex sculptures out of material like cement, metal and plastic, that they would not be able to create by hand. Sculptures can also be made with 3-d printing technology.


title: Visual arts

text: In the United States, the law protecting the copyright over a piece of visual art gives a more restrictive definition of "visual art".


title: Visual arts

text: (1) a painting, drawing, print or sculpture, existing in a single copy, in a limited edition of 200 copies or fewer that are signed and consecutively numbered by the author, or, in the case of a sculpture, in multiple cast, carved, or fabricated sculptures of 200 or fewer that are consecutively numbered by the author and bear the signature or other identifying mark of the author; or


title: Visual arts

text: (2) a still photographic image produced for exhibition purposes only, existing in a single copy that is signed by the author, or in a limited edition of 200 copies or fewer that are signed and consecutively numbered by the author.


title: Visual arts

text: (A)(i) any poster, map, globe, chart, technical drawing, diagram, model, applied art, motion picture or other audiovisual work, book, magazine, newspaper, periodical, data base, electronic information service, electronic publication, or similar publication;


title: Visual arts

text: (ii) any merchandising item or advertising, promotional, descriptive, covering, or packaging material or container;


title: Symbiosis

text: Symbiosis (from Greek , , "living together", from , , "together", and , bíōsis, "living") is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasitic. The organisms, each termed a symbiont, must be of different species. In 1879, Heinrich Anton de Bary defined it as "the living together of unlike organisms". The term was subject to a century-long debate about whether it should specifically denote mutualism, as in lichens. Biologists have now abandoned that restriction.


title: Symbiosis

text: Symbiosis can be obligatory, which means that one or more of the symbionts depend on each other for survival, or facultative (optional), when they can generally live independently.


title: Symbiosis

text: Symbiosis is also classified by physical attachment. When symbionts form a single body it is called conjunctive symbiosis, while all other arrangements are called disjunctive symbiosis. When one organism lives on the surface of another, such as head lice on humans, it is called ectosymbiosis; when one partner lives inside the tissues of another, such as "Symbiodinium" within coral, it is termed endosymbiosis.


title: Symbiosis

text: The definition of "symbiosis" was a matter of debate for 130 years. In 1877, Albert Bernhard Frank used the term "symbiosis" to describe the mutualistic relationship in lichens. In 1878, the German mycologist Heinrich Anton de Bary defined it as "the living together of unlike organisms". The definition has varied among scientists, with some advocating that it should only refer to persistent mutualisms, while others thought it should apply to all persistent biological interactions (in other words, to mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism, but excluding brief interactions such as predation). In the 21st century, the latter has become the definition widely accepted by biologists.


title: Symbiosis

text: In 1949, Edward Haskell proposed an integrative approach with a classification of "co-actions", later adopted by biologists as "interactions".


title: Symbiosis

text: Relationships can be obligate, meaning that one or both of the symbionts entirely depend on each other for survival. For example, in lichens, which consist of fungal and photosynthetic symbionts, the fungal partners cannot live on their own. The algal or cyanobacterial symbionts in lichens, such as "Trentepohlia", can generally live independently, and their part of the relationship is therefore described as facultative (optional), or non-obligate.


title: Symbiosis

text: Endosymbiosis is any symbiotic relationship in which one symbiont lives within the tissues of the other, either within the cells or extracellularly. Examples include diverse microbiomes: rhizobia, nitrogen-fixing bacteria that live in root nodules on legume roots; actinomycetes, nitrogen-fixing bacteria such as "Frankia", which live in alder root nodules; single-celled algae inside reef-building corals; and bacterial endosymbionts that provide essential nutrients to about 10%–15% of insects.


title: Symbiosis

text: Ectosymbiosis is any symbiotic relationship in which the symbiont lives on the body surface of the host, including the inner surface of the digestive tract or the ducts of exocrine glands. Examples of this include ectoparasites such as lice; commensal ectosymbionts such as the barnacles, which attach themselves to the jaw of baleen whales; and mutualist ectosymbionts such as cleaner fish.


title: Symbiosis

text: Competition can be defined as an interaction between organisms or species, in which the fitness of one is lowered by the presence of another. Limited supply of at least one resource (such as food, water, and territory) used by both usually facilitates this type of interaction, although the competition may also exist over other 'amenities', such as females for reproduction (in the case of male organisms of the same species).


title: Symbiosis

text: In competition, this interaction is typically seen as a lose-lose situation. Some specific interactions can be between sea sponges and coral, Jakals and small animals, and wolves and bears. For example, one or the other could take all the nutrients avaiblable (the sea sponge), which sounds amazing for the sea sponge, but in return the coral are left with nothing. When the coral are left with nothing, they die and this throws the ecosystem out of balance. The reefs needs to coral, and without the coral, the reefs will die, along with the sea sponge whom will no longer have any nutrients from the reefs. Are you seeing how this is a lose-lose situation? Each organisms will need each other. Again, with jakals and small animals. If there are no small animals, then the jakal have nothing to prey on, but if the jakals take all the water supply, then there will be no small animals and the cycle will continue. Lastly, this one is a bit different. In the sense that it is not prey and predators, but instead predator and predator. If either the bears or wolves take all the prey then the other will eventually die off. Everything will be a lose-lose situation if the environment does not work perfectly. One cannot live without the other doing their job correctly and not being too greedy with their prey.


title: Symbiosis

text: Mutualism or interspecies reciprocal altruism is a long-term relationship between individuals of different species where both individuals benefit. Mutualistic relationships may be either obligate for both species, obligate for one but facultative for the other, or facultative for both.


title: Symbiosis

text: A large percentage of herbivores have mutualistic gut flora to help them digest plant matter, which is more difficult to digest than animal prey. This gut flora is made up of cellulose-digesting protozoans or bacteria living in the herbivores' intestines. Coral reefs are the result of mutualism between coral organisms and various types of algae which live inside them. Most land plants and land ecosystems rely on mutualism between the plants, which fix carbon from the air, and mycorrhyzal fungi, which help in extracting water and minerals from the ground.


title: Symbiosis

text: An example of mutualism is the relationship between the ocellaris clownfish that dwell among the tentacles of Ritteri sea anemones. The territorial fish protects the anemone from anemone-eating fish, and in turn the stinging tentacles of the anemone protect the clownfish from its predators. A special mucus on the clownfish protects it from the stinging tentacles.


title: Symbiosis

text: A further example is the goby, a fish which sometimes lives together with a shrimp. The shrimp digs and cleans up a burrow in the sand in which both the shrimp and the goby fish live. The shrimp is almost blind, leaving it vulnerable to predators when outside its burrow. In case of danger, the goby touches the shrimp with its tail to warn it. When that happens both the shrimp and goby quickly retreat into the burrow. Different species of gobies ("Elacatinus spp.") also clean up ectoparasites in other fish, possibly another kind of mutualism.


title: Symbiosis

text: A facultative symbiosis is seen in encrusting bryozoans and hermit crabs. The bryozoan colony ("Acanthodesia commensale") develops a cirumrotatory growth and offers the crab ("Pseudopagurus granulimanus") a helicospiral-tubular extension of its living chamber that initially was situated within a gastropod shell.


title: Symbiosis

text: Many types of tropical and sub-tropical ants have evolved very complex relationships with certain tree species.


title: Symbiosis

text: In endosymbiosis, the host cell lacks some of the nutrients which the endosymbiont provides. As a result, the host favors endosymbiont's growth processes within itself by producing some specialized cells. These cells affect the genetic composition of the host in order to regulate the increasing population of the endosymbionts and ensure that these genetic changes are passed onto the offspring via vertical transmission (heredity).


title: Symbiosis

text: A spectacular example of obligate mutualism is the relationship between the siboglinid tube worms and symbiotic bacteria that live at hydrothermal vents and cold seeps. The worm has no digestive tract and is wholly reliant on its internal symbionts for nutrition. The bacteria oxidize either hydrogen sulfide or methane, which the host supplies to them. These worms were discovered in the late 1980s at the hydrothermal vents near the Galapagos Islands and have since been found at deep-sea hydrothermal vents and cold seeps in all of the world's oceans.