Marvel Comics [hearts] El Nine

Marvel Comics enjoyed Ecuador striker Ivan Kaviedes’ masked goal celebration as much as Ecuafans. You’ll no doubt remember that after scoring the third goal in Ecuador’s 3-0 Group A win over Costa Rica, Kaviedes pulled a Spider-Man-like mask from his panatloons as a tribute to striker Otilino Tenorio, who died in a 2005 car crash. Tenorio used to don a similar mask during his own goal celebrations in Ecuador’s domestic league.

In a recent edition of Time magazine, David Maisal, a vice chairman of Marvel Studios, exclaimed regarding El Nine’s gesture, “We’ve made Spider-Man beloved in even the farthest corners of rural Ecuador.” Um, yeah, that’s sort of the point. Way to make a touching tribute a paean to commercialism.