It’s been a while, due to snow and slush and sludge and general hell here on the East Coast, but the News is back . . .

1. DVDs COMING SOON . . . DC and Marvel have been outdoing themselves, and sometimes each other, quite a bit lately. Marvel’s DVD movie line has been of exceptional quality, with the latest solid release being Planet Hulk (co-starring Beta Ray Bill!). DC’s new Justice League DVD “Crisis on Two Earth,” arrives in a few days (can’t wait!), and it will be followed by “Batman: Under the Red Hood.” The script is actually penned by Judd Winick (who authored the 2005 comic book story arc upon which it is based). This was one of the best, and least nonsensical, Batman stories of the past decade, and I think it’s going to be the first DC DVD featuring Nightwing as a main cast member. The next Marvel DVD will be Thor. Not looking forward to that so much—it’s very hard to make Thor good. Only two creators have succeeded, in my book: Walt Simonson and JMS. We’ll see how Matt Fraction does on the book, post-Seige . . .

2. THE BOOK OF AKIRA. All of the reviews I read of The Book of Eli were bad, but I liked the movie. I thought the way it was filmed was interesting, the story was as inventive as post-apocalypse stories can be (sort of a cross between Fahrenheit 451, Road Warrior, and The Road), and who doesn’t like Denzel? Of course, I think most Hughes Brothers projects are good—but I admit that they can be hard to get into. The team is now negotiating an adaptation Atsuhiro Otomo’s “Akira” done as a futuristic Western.

3. SPIDER-MAN IN 3D. The reboot will be in 3D. Ugh. I hate 3D. Stupid glasses. The screen is enough for me, thank you very much. I may actually have to sit this one out. I can’t believe I just wrote that.

4. ANT MAN! Stan Lee discussed (via Twitter) Edgar “Shaun of the Dead” Wright’s work on the Ant Man movie. With him at the helm, it will have to be good, right?

5. NOT ULTIMATE, ASTONISHING! Marvel has announced a new “Astonishing” line, geared towards new readers. Joss Whedon and John Cassaday did this with the X-Men a while back, to great effect (best X-Men run ever, in my view). I’m not a huge Warren Ellis fan, which may be why I haven’t thought much about the Astonishing X-Men post-Joss, but the new books will be two miniseries. The first is Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis by Ellis and artist Kaare Andrews (3 issues). The second, a 6-issue miniseries called, “Astonishing Spider-Man/Wolverine.” The book will be created by Jason Aaron and Adam Kubert. I’m a big fan of Kubert but Aaron, not so much. I don’t get all the hubub over his Wolverine stuff. I find it pretty unimaginative. The Astonishing mini will take place within the regular Marvel Universe continuity but will be self-contained, so new readers can jump right in. Seems like Marvel’s real plan to attract top talent to do a short stories about their favorite characters, which, if true, is a terrific idea.

6. TOO FAT TO FLY. Lastly, I couldn’t resist reporting that director/former Daredevil scribe Kevin Smith was ejected from a Southwest Airlines flight on Saturday because he was too fat to fit in one seat. The airline later apologized. Apologized? I wish they’d do this more often! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat next to someone who pushed me half into the aisle!

Tags: Movies, Spider-Man, Superheroes, Television, The Caped Crusader