Wolfpack (Marvel Comics)

The Wolfpack are fictional characters in the Marvel Universe.

Fictional team history

They are a group of five teenagers that reside in the South Bronx, in New York City. They were originally selected for their extraordinary abilities and aptitude by a retired Naval officer known only as Mr. Mack. He trained each of them separately from adolescence into their teen years in hand-to-hand combat, strategy, stealth, speed, endurance, and raw strength. When they were ready, he introduced them to each other.

According to ancient legend, the Wolfpack has existed for at least two millennia, and serves as a cosmic balance to a group of mortal men completely devoid of compassion, love or charity, known as the Nine. The new Wolfpack soon began battling the forces of the Nine in the Bronx and continue to protect and patrol the Bronx, and battle the forces of The Nine.

Other versions

The Wolfpack appear in the House of M, as a gang of superpowered teens in the Bronx; in which Luke Cage made a treaty with the group. Members include Robbie Baldwin, Turbo, Darkhawk, Rage, Alex Power with his sister Julie and Raphael Vega, who is their leader. The team were seen later arranging a meeting with one of the Pride's kids; but this turns into a trap by Federal Agent Boom Boom, in which the Wolfpack were easily defeated by her, the Blob and Typhoid Mary. The team is apprehended and Vega surrenders. Vega, alongside Shang-Chi are charged with terrorism. The team were later freed by Luke Cage (along with the Dragons), in which they join in with the Avengers against Thunderbird's Brotherhood.

Free (The Party album)

Free is The Party's second studio album. Teddy Riley wrote three songs for the album, including the new jack swing-tinged title song, "Free," which was also remixed by house-music legends Steve "Silk" Hurley and E-Smoove. Dr. Dre produced the song "Let's Get Right Down to It," and the group itself also got involved in the writing and producing of the album, which would once again land it another concert tour opening spot with Color Me Badd, its last special for the Disney Channel, "All About The Party," and an appearance on Blossom. However, the album was not as successful on the charts as previous ones, which prompted Damon Pampolina to leave the group.

Track listing

Free: The Future of a Radical Price

Free: The Future of a Radical Price is the second book written by Chris Anderson, Editor in chief of Wired magazine. The book was published on July 7, 2009 by Hyperion. He is also the author of The Long Tail, published in 2006.

Overview

Free follows a thread from the previous work. It examines the rise of pricing models which give products and services to customers for free, often as a strategy for attracting users and up-selling some of them to a premium level. That class of model has become widely referred to as "freemium" and has become very popular for a variety of digital products and services.

Release

Free was released in the United States on July 7, 2009, though the night before, on his blog, Chris Anderson posted a browser readable version of the book and the unabridged audiobook version. Anderson generated controversy for plagiarizing content from the online encyclopedia Wikipedia in Free. Anderson responded to the claim on his The Long Tail blog, stating that there were disagreements between him and the publisher over accurate citation of Wikipedia due to the changing nature of its content, leading him to integrate footnotes into the text. Also on his blog, he took full responsibility for the mistakes and noted that the digital editions of Free were corrected. The notes and sources were later provided as a download on his blog.

Gratis

Gratis /ˈɡrɑːtᵻs/ or /ˈɡreɪtᵻs/ is the quality of an action where the action is willingly provided without any requirement by the provider for compensation or monetary remuneration. It is often referred to in English and Dutch as free of charge (FOC), complimentary, or on the house. Companies, producers, and service providers often provide certain things free of charge as part of a larger business model, pricing strategy, or as a donation.

Etymology

The English term gratis has its origins in late Middle English; from Latin. A contraction of gratiis, meaning 'as a kindness' or 'a show of goodwill', which in turn stems from the root gratia meaning 'grace' or 'kindness'. It is widely used in the Afrikaans, Slovakia, Czech, Hungarian, Croatian, Serbian, Polish, French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Indonesian, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, German and some of the other Germanic languages, with the same meaning.

Marketing

In a standard business model where goods and services are exchanged for a monetary compensation, pricing of the goods is a fundamental element of the marketing process. While it would defeat the business model if companies provide all of their goods and services free of charge, it is common for them to provide limited amount of free goods in their promotional mix. Many companies often provide free samples to the press in order to generate media coverage for their products. Depending on the product, companies may provide free samples to prospective buyers.