HAWKMAN, WONDER WOMAN, RETCON, 1337, and WIKIPEDIA

So we recently bought a lot of secondhand action figures for my 3-year-old son. They were very cheap and there were a lot of them. Among them was this badass Hawkman figure pictured below:




















Hawkman and Wonder Woman

Well, anyway, I always liked Hawkman even though I didn't read that many Hawkman comics as a kid. But with my recent interest in Hawkwind and the fact that this action figure was so awesome, I wanted to know more.

So we found ourselves at the public library this past weekend and to my great joy, I discovered that on the very last row of the kid's section, they have tons of comics--Spiderman, Batman, X-Men, anime, etc. Among them was an encyclopedia of DC Comics characters, and I picked that out for me and Zander to look at because he loves Batman and Superman.

So we read about Batman and Superman but he lost interest when we started getting into characters he was less familiar with and started playing with another 3-year-old who had come in by that time. Anyway, I read about Hawkman and then Wonder Woman caught my eye (wonder why?). Come to find out, according to this encyclopedia, Wonder Woman is an "ambassador of peace," which I don't remember reading or seeing on the TV show.

Retcon and 1337

Anyway, long story short, I wanted to read more about Hawkman and Wonder Woman today, so I went to Wikipedia and checked out some of the links they had. In one of those Wiki entries, there was mention of the term "retcon" that was highlighted as a link, so I clicked it. Turns out that retcon is, well, here's how the 'pedia puts it:

"Retroactive continuity or retcon is the adding of new information to "historical" material, or deliberately changing previously established facts in a work of serial fiction. The change itself is referred to as a "retcon", and the act of writing and publishing a retcon is called "retconning". Retconning can be done either on-purpose, or accidentally, wherein a break in continuity is not noticed until later and is then 'blessed' by later writers or editors."

I was familiar with the concept of retcon (i.e., the movie "Batman Begins") but I just didn't realize that there was a word for it.

So then I'm reading about ATHF for my entries below about that situation and run across a Wiki link to "Leet" or "Leetspeak," again, something I'd seen before but wasn't really that familiar with and didn't realize that it was so codified and colorful. For example:

Sentences
Example: 7|-|3 [,]|_|1(|< |3|20\/\/|\| |=0>< ]|_|/\/\|?5 0\/3|2 7|-|3 |_42`/ [)09.

Translation: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

Example: 1 ]|_|57 |_34|2/\/3|) \/\/|-|47 1337 /\/\34/\/5.

Translation: I just learned what leet means

More common example: 7 |-| 4 7 |\/| 0 \/ 3 \|/ 4 5 1337!!!

Translation: That move was elite!!!

A more basic form: 7h15 15 4 v3ry b451c f0rm 0f 31i73, 0nly 1nv0lv1ng numb3r 5ub5717u710n.

Translation: This is a very basic form of elite, only involving number substitution

Example: | - | 1 C@ | \ | Y0 | _| Sp#@| { | _ 3 3 1?

Translation:

Hi can you speak leet?

Anyway, I'm sure it's very uncool for me to admit that I just learned about all this, but whatever. I'm cool with being uncool...