One of the main reasons Spider-Man: Homecoming was such a delightful success was how young it felt. For the first time, the stars were actually believable teenagers, and it really felt like a young, fresh high school movie. A recent bit of marketing leans into youth culture the movie so accurately captured with a reference to a famous meme.
In a tweet posted on Thursday, the official Twitter account for the film gave their take on the “This is Fine” dog meme, which originated in a comic by K.C. Green. Unsurprisingly, the image depicts Spidey saying “This is Fine” while sitting in a chair on a rooftop surrounded by flames, with the Vulture looming in the background. Clearly, things are not fine.
This is not the first time Spider-Man: Homecoming has referenced the meme. In the film, Ned Leeds (played by Jacob Batalon) has a “This is Fine” sticker on his laptop, along with stickers for memes like “Me Gusta,” created by illustrator Matt Oswald, and “Glorious PC Master Race,” which stemmed from a video review by The Escapist.
The tweet doesn’t give credit to Green for creating the meme, a problem the comic artist has encountered in the past. Green’s fans recently called out The Daily Show’s Twitter for using the meme, although in that case they actually used a modified version of his original art, rather than a newly illustrated homage. Perhaps that’s why Green’s cool with the Spider-Man shout out. When asked over Twitter if he had thoughts on their riff on his creation, Green said, “not really.” In the past, Green has largely accepted that his creation is going to be used without him getting paid or properly credited, but it’s still indicative of a larger issue within the online art world.
Ned Leeds' laptop is decorated with several stickers of memes in 'Spider-Man: Homecoming'.
Luckily, in this case, things appear to be fine between Green and Spider-Man: Homecoming. But, they should know that with great power comes great responsibility, so maybe give artists credit next time just the same.
