10.  Timeless tackling of topical topics.  Like the  episode about O.J., which you can see a great clip from here.

9.  Celebrities bringing their “real life” issues out on the show.  I’m thinking mostly of Ellen Degeneris’ spot, in which she is so fed up with peoples’ speculation about her sexuality that she sleeps with Larry.  Larry, guileless as ever, thinks this means she’s straight . . . Until he finds out that “lesbians can sleep with guys?!?”  Or the one where Sean Penn talks to Larry about what a horrible actor Gary Shandling is.

8.  Larry’s agent on Extra interviews: “They never edit out the crying.  It’s the cum shot!”

7. It even had great music! The show interwove musical spots and storyline brilliantly, and spotlighted worthy performers like Warren Zevon, Shawn Colvin, The Butthole Surfers, Paul Westerberg–and many, many others.

6. David Duchovny’s willingness to play Larry’s gay crush. The show repeatedly got its big-named guests to take risks and cut loose–a testament to their talent.

5. Jon Stewart. He was young, he looked ridiculous, but his repeated role was to Larry what Joan Rivers was to Johnny Carson. Only in this one, Joan wins.

4.  “Wow!  He looks so young!”  Getting to see folks like Vince Vaughn, Jeremy Piven, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Sarah Silverman, and Bob Odenkirk back when their stars were just beginning to rise.

3. Artie. Rip Torn in his greatest role of all time, the foul-mouthed producer who always knows how to handle Larry’s neuroses.

2.  “Hey now!” Hank Kingsley.  The oblivious, foul-mouthed, egomaniac-with-an-inferiority-complex sidekick with the greatest catch phrase ever, who is always willing to go to war with someone.

1.  Gary Shandling is fearless.  The show is so clearly him, all his fears, all the things he hates, and the one he clearly hates the most: People stopping him to ask for favors every time he enters a room, exemplified in scenes/storylines like: Larry being unable to run the gauntlet from his desk to his bathroom without running into sycophants and wannabes; his girlfriend, who was in love with, dropping him for the network exec who is out to kill his show; and, to beat all, Larry’s own psychiatrist asking him to shop a script for him.

This week, let’s start with news about . . .

COMICS!

SALES FIGS FOR ’10. One of my favorite sites, CBR posted its roundup of annual sales with the lead: “2010 was both a good year and a bad year for comic book sales.”  It’s a fascinating article if you’re a total nerd (guilty!), and in it they describe how Marvel and DC are able to offer alternate covers—but only to retailers who order a certain number of books—thus inflating their sales, but doing so artificially and at the expense of retailers who are left with unsold, and unreturnable, copies of the issue that they ordered solely to qualify for the alternate cover.   Also, although Marvel/DC superheroes dominated (exclusively) the top 400 single-issue sales, with books like Avengers, X-Men, Blackest Night/Brightest Day and the Batstuff (no surprises so far), the opposite was true in the trade arena.  The only Marvel/DC book to crack the top 10 was DC’s original graphic novel, “Superman: Earth One.”  The rest was all Walking Dead, Scott Pilgrim and Kick Ass (which is on a Marvel imprint, but is creator-owned).  In other words: Movies and TV move trades of indie books, but not Marvel/DC books.  (No Iron Man, no Avengers, no Batman).  In fact, the only other Marvel/DC superhero book to crack the top 25 was Blackest Night, which had no movie/TV tie in at all.  We’ll see what happens this year, with major films about Green Lantern, X-Men, Captain America and Thor all slated to hit mid-year.

THE AMAZING FANTASTIC FOUR. Spider-Man will replace Johnny Storm–who is dead but probably not really (see this hilarious page, e.g.).  Ugh.  I know it’s temporary (despite this *hilarious* theory otherwise), but I’ve seen the new costumes (pictured at right) and that’s what I have to say: Ugh.

MATT FRACTION AND OLIVER COIPEL ON THOR. Oliver Copiel is one of the best artists around, and Matt Fraction is (at times) one of the best writers.  I haven’t read his Thor stuff yet—it’s on my shelf—but since he has a big hammer, I’m hoping it will be closer to Matt’s quality Iron work (Fist and Man) and far removed from his surprisingly dull team-based books (X-Men).  Anyway, they’ve announced a new, out-of-continuity Thor title to be released in April.  I wonder why they’re doing a self-contained series on Thor in April?  Hmmmm.  Anyway, it won’t be an adaptation of the movie, but clearly it’s designed to capitalize on it.  Rumor is: Thor fights Galactus.

Secret Six #30. If you’re not reading Gail Simone and Jim Calafiore’s masterpiece, you’re missing Bane going on his first date of his life . . . With a hot stripper.  That’s right: BANE DATES A STRIPPER. This is the book Ellis promised us when he started Thunderbolts, but left too soon to deliver.  It’s about bad guys trying to be good but being unable to be good because, well, they’re bad.  It’s brilliant and hilarious.  Seriously.  Go scoop up the trades.  Now.

AVENGERS ACADEMY GIANT-SIZE #1. If you’re not reading Avengers Academy, you’re missing out on what is probably the best of the Avengers books right now.  Paul Tobin (writer) and David Baldeon (pencils) had created an Avengers Academy/Spider-Girl/Young Allies vs. Arcade three-issue arc (the regular writer of the title is Cristos Gage), which Marvel seemed to have no place for.  Turns out, it’ll be not an annual but an $8 “giant size” book.  I haven’t shelled out
for any of these “big” books in the past because they’ve been collections of shorter stories grouped with reprints, and I haven’t felt the need.  But for this one I might—especially since I’m not sure how they’d ever release it in trade.

HOWARD STERN. True confession: Howard Stern is my father.  Or he might as well be.  I’ve listened to every hour of every show (and that’s actually close to
non-exaggeration) since 1985, which cumulatively means I’ve probably spent more time with him than my father, mommy, wife and kids combined.  And now my favorite person to listen to is coming to my favorite medium: The man with a face for radio will have a bio-comic fromBluewater Productions titled “Orbit: Howard Stern.” Says Howard (who does not endorse the product): “Nobody wants to buy that.”

ZOMBIES.  Trying to capitalize on all the zombieness, publisher IDW is infesting its titles (G.I. Joe, Transformers, Star Trek, and Ghostbusters) with the undead this week.  Will that actually make anyone buy their books?  And speaking of GI Joe, it can’t possibly be a coincidence that GI Joe Cobra #12 looks like another very famous #12, can it?

FLICKS!

THE AVENGERS. Soon after Samuel Jackson leaked that there’s going to be a female sidekick for Nick Fury, the studio confirmed that Cobie “How I Met Your
Mother” Smulders is cast as Maria Hill.  Jackson has also said he’s got appearances in Thor and Captain America, but the scenes aren’t shot yet.  I truly hope they don’t make it one of several alternate post-credits scenes—because when they did that for Wolverine I got the boring one in the bar, not the one with Deadpool, and man was I pissed.  Oh.  And there’s also a new rumor that Ms. Marvel might be in the movie after all, but I think that’s pretty specious.  Joss Whedon has confirmed again and again that Wasp will be the only Avengerchick.

THOR AND CAP. Yeah, the Superbowl trailers have been seen by all.  Thor was a bit of a let down really, since we had pretty much seen it all in prior trailers.  Cap showed us a bit more–Chris Evans’ head on little bitty Stevie, Cap swimming, Dum Dum Dugan and Union Jack.  That was cool.

Meanwhile, Bucky pix have leaked to the web . . .

WOLVERINE.  See, now I enjoyed the first Wolverine movie, but according to Hugh Jackman, director Darren Aronfosky told him to get bigger for the next one, saying that he was too long and tall—which is the opposite of Wolverine.  It’s a good sign that Darren seems to understand the character from a comic-fan point of view.

R.I.P.D. Rumors circulate of a film version of this Hellboy spinoff with Ryan Reynolds (which would mean no Deadpool film of course) and Zack Galifianakis.

BLACK PANTHER. Documentary-maker Mark Bailey (“Ghosts of Abu Ghraib”) has been hired by Marvel Studios to write a screenplay.   Obviously, we’re still a long
way away from anything actually developing.

V.I.C.E. The Top Cow comic has been picked up for development into a feature film.

IDIOT BOXING!

WONDER WOMAN. No sooner did David E. Kelley announce that the pilot was too expensive for TV than NBC picked the show up, and then started juggling it like a hot potato.  Feminists are still sore about Ally McBeal, expecting the show will be an anti-woman T&A fest.  (Frankly, I never thought Ally McBeal was antifeminist, but what do I know?  I’m just a man.)  Comic fans are concerned, too, because the titular heroine is being touted as “reimagined” as a vigilante crime fighter in Los Angeles.  Basically, the origin is the same: Steve Trevor lands on Paradise Island and for some unfathomable reason leaves the place where he’s the only guy among hundreds of chicks who all look like Linda Carter, takes Diana with him, but the show starts after they’ve broken up and she’s on her own.  This could be a tired one-joke show about how this perfect chick doesn’t need men and doesn’t understand how to work a Blackberry.  It doesn’t look good folks.

THE CAPE. Anybody still watching it?  Because they’ve already shortened the season from 12 to 10 eps.  Cancellation can’t be far behind.  I’ve been hanging in with it, but I have to say: It’s not very good.

For best “musical or comedy” film, we’ve got RED competing against a bunch of crap.  RED—which I loved—will never win because the prize will go to The Kids Are All Right or Alice in Wonderland.  But can someone please explain how Burlesque even got a nom?

And how did Un Prophet not get nominated for Best Foreign Language Film?  There’s a huge head scratcher.

It was nice to see The Walking Dead nominated for best TV Drama, but how did Dexter get in there?  Talk about running on fumes, this year’s story was outlandish even by that show’s standards and, frankly, the quick wrap up didn’t even make sense.  And nominating Hugh Laurie for best actor on House?  Was there just nobody else to nominate this year?  And speaking of running on fumes: 30 Rock?  The Office?  Come on.  And why is Glee all over the place?  That show is trite and stupid.  I do agree with Laura Linney as Best Actress for The Big C, though—she is amazing.

Of course many of my favorites didn’t get picked for anything: It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Community, Scott Pilgrim, The Regular Show, Caprica . . . But nobody likes what I like.  Except, apparently, for The Walking Dead.

TOP 10 REASONS FOR COMIC BOOK FANS TO OWN T.V.s AND GO TO THE MOVIES 2010

10. Smallville. The show was on fumes last season, but it’s picked up. It’s getting annoying, though, waiting for Darkseid. And they better bring it. Because if they don’t, it’ll be the biggest cop out since Rise of the Silver Surfer, in which you never got see Galactus. I’m still pissed about that.

9. D.C. Showcase: Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam. Toss in the other two bonus features–12 minutes shorts about The Spectre and Green Arrow, and this is a keeper. Also check out this year’s Superman/Batman DVD, Apocalypse. Pretty damn good.

8. Iron Man 2. Nowhere near as good as the first, but still pretty damn good.

7. Young Justice. All we got was an hour teaser of the series to come, but it was almost as good as the best DC cartoon ever (Teen Titans Go!). The nods to Super Friends were much appreciated by the geeks in my house.

6. RED. Not as vicious as the comic, but lots of fun.

5. Kick Ass. Kicked ass.

4. The Regular Show, Mad TV, and Robotomy. Cartoon Network’s new “prime time” lineup is impressive as hell–Mad is 15-minutes that recall everything every pubescent boy ever loved about the magazine itself: Irreverent, juvenile, and flatulent. Just like me. The Regular Show, with it’s slacker stupidity and bizarre, cell-phone time travel tribute to Bill and Ted’s, is another favorite. And Robotomy is a random, bizarre mess of fun.

3. Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Finally! A Marvel cartoon that’s better than X-Men!

2. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Pure genius. The most fun I’ve had in the movies in years.

1. AMC’s The Walking Dead. Best new show on TV, and one of the greatest ever.

Honorable mentions: The Losers; Planet Hulk (DVD Animated Release).

• Luke Cage/Hero for Hire—But no Iron Fist!
• The Eternals—Based on Jack Kirby’s vision of Gods posing as humans, not the Neil Gaiman reworking.
• Agents of Atlas
• A show called “Alter Ego” featuring Jessica Jones in her private eye role,
• investigating superhumans—sounds like X-Files.
• Moon Knight
• The Red Hood: The guy with the demon-cloak from Dark Reign, but it sounds like it would focus more on Brian K. Vaughan Marvel Max series.
• Ka-Zar Goes to New York
• Punisher—pitched as a more mature cable offering.
• Four anime series, reportedly already in development, about Iron Man, Wolverine, X-Men and Blade.
• Daughters of the Dragon–Misty Knight and Colleen Wing

Clearly they can’t go ahead with all of these shows, but the interesting thing will be to see whether they continue to try to interrelate the universes, the way they do with their movies.  The four anime series are definitely planned to overlap, but if they shop their characters to different networks—especially ones outside of the Disney/ABC family—I don’t see how they can tie them together.  And will there be movie/TV continuity?  Animated/live continuity?

It’s great that they’re exploring their options, but if it were up to me, we’d also be seeing plans for:

• A Justice League live-action spin-out of Smallville.
• A new Teen Titans cartoon.
• Punisher—yeah, that could definitely work well on cable.
• Luke Cage with Danny Rand, not without him.
• A “Sleeper” live action show.
• A “Sweet Tooth” TV animated movie, like the high-quality ones they did for
• Hellboy.

• Nextwave!  The best anti-hero comic ever!  Who doesn’t want to see an animated Wover-MODOK?  I smell Adult Swim!
• Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius as a kids cartoon.
• A new Legion of Super-heroes ‘toon.
• A Daredevil regular drama—I think it would work better than a film.
• A ‘Mazing Man cartoon!  Come on!

What would you all like to see on the small screen?

- In 2011, G4 will be running a new Iron Man “anime” animated series, produced by anime studio MadHouse.  It will take place in Japan.

- Other upcoming Marvel anime projects discussed by Jeph Loeb at Comicon International included Wolverine, X-Men, and Blade.

- D.C./Warner Bros. Animation announced a November 9 DVD release of animated “shorts” (10-20 minute stories) featuring Superman, Captain Marvel, The Spectre, Green Arrow and Jonah Hex.

- Also from D.C. on November 9 will be the Secret Origin: The Story of D.C. Comics DVD release.  It’s a doc narrated by Ryan “Green Lantern” Reynolds about the history of the publishing company.  But it’s also produced by the publisher, so don’t expect unbiased poop.  Sounds more like promotional material in advance of the GL movie.

- And Smallville is definitely ending this season.  And it’s about time.

- The AMC official bloggers are working overtime on news about The Walking Dead.  Now, the artist of the comic, Charlie Adlard, is confirmed as a zombie extra.  I hope he plays one that dances like Michael Jackson.

- Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that the new Spider-Man will be a complete reboot based on Brian Michael Bendis’ incredible Ultimate Spider-Man series for Disney XD.  Now, they’re talking Ultimate Cartoon as well, with the involvement of Eisner/Emmy winner Paul “Batman TAS” Dini (and Bendis, of course).  They’ve said there will be lots of team-ups (a la Batman: Brave and the Bold).  I don’t think there’s even the remotest possibility that this could be bad.

- One last thing: I happened to come upon the pilot episode for The Amazing Screw-On Head (a 22-minute cartoon based on the Mike Mignola/Dark Horse comic from 2002).  It’s brilliant.  Really.  It’s available on DVD and all of you should see it.  Animation for grown ups.
-I lied–one more last thing: The Avengers!

1.  THE DEXTER COMIC. Bill Sienkiewicz—of Moon Knight, Elektra: Assassin and Stray Toasters, and one of the best comic book artists of the last century—will be doing a web-based motion comic about the earlier years of Dexter Morgan, with voicework by series star Michael C. Hall.

2.  JOSS AVENGERS. It’s confirmed: Joss “Buffy” Whedon will direct the Avengers movie.  Boo-ya.

3.  AND SPEAKING OF VAMPIRE SLAYERS . . . Van Jensen and Dusty Higgins plan to release the sequel to their terrific indie book Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer in time for Halloween.  Hooray!

4.  NEW MARVEL SERIES. At San Diego Comi-Con, Marvel let the world know that wants no money left on the table when the Captain America movie comes out next year.  In addition to the character’s appearances in Secret Avengers and his own book, as well as Steve Rogers’ presence in Avengers, Marvel will release “Captain America  and the Korvac Saga,” “Captain America: Hail Hydra,” “Captain America: Fighting Avenger,” and “Captain America: Man Out of Time.”  That last one will be by Mark Waid, one of the best writers in comics right now, and will take place right after Cap got thawed.  Sounds like the most interesting of the bunch, although the Korvac retcon has potential.  Oh, and Jeph Loeb said Captain America: White will finally be finished.  Too bad.  If it was being released years ago, before Jeph Loeb ate the suckification fruit, I would have been excited.  They also announced “Rocket Raccoon and Groo,” which I was excited about until I realized it was really “Rocket Raccoon and Groot.”  Now, not so much.

5.  WOLVERINE BEST THERE IS. Charlie Huston, who had an impressive run on Moon Knight a few years ago, will launch another Wolverine series, but this one actually sounds interesting.  It will have nothing to do with Wolverine’s past, and will pit him against The Unkillables: a new supervillain team consisting of several esoteric Marvel villains including Madcap.  (I remember when he fought Captain America back in the 1980s, and God, was he lame.)  The main villain will be a new character, Contagion, who is not susceptible to Wolverine’s form of slice-and-dice justice.  This one definitely has potential.  The art will be by Juan Jose Ryp, who has done some projects with Warren Ellis; Robocop with Frank Miller; and (get this) a graphic novel about the Vivid Girls.

6.  BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND BOLD WII GAME. I like the TV show.  It’ll be a fighting game, like Mortal Kombat, only funny.  Playable characters will include Robin, Guy Gardner or Hal Jordan as Green Lantern, Blue Beetle, and Bat Mite!  For the Wii it’ll be a 1- or 2-player game, but there will be a 1-player DS version.

That’s all!

10.  It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, “Sweet Dee’s Dating a Retarded Person” (2007). The one with Night Man and Day Man, and the apparently retarded rapper, that inspired a live musical performance.  This is politically incorrect TV at its best-the only show that comes close to being this wonderfully offensive was Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show, Great Job.

9.  Larry Sanders, “Off Camera” (1993). In this episode, Warren Zevon visits the set and pleads with Larry not to make him perform Werewolf.  So he’s allowed to play (my absolute favorite Zevon song) The French Inhaler instead.  When he’s done, Larry is so thrilled with the performance that he requests an encore.  Werewolves, naturally.

8.  Battlestar Galactica, “33″ (2004). The BSG miniseries was good, but not greatly good, but this, the first episode of the ongoing series, was edge-of-your seat excitement all through.  The ship must “jump” every 33 minutes or be destroyed by the Cylons.  Some of the greatest TV and Movie drama is based on chase-scenes, and this entire show was one long chase.  This episode set the tone.

7.  King Of The Hill, “Bobby Goes Nuts” (2001). “That’s my purse! I don’t know you!” ‘Nuff said!

6.  The Office (UK), “Downsize” (2001). The one where Brent pretend-fires Dawn for stealing Post-its.  To quote the master himself: “Brilliant!”

5.  The Sopranos, “Pilot” (1999). The first episode of the Most Important TV Show Ever introduced each character indelibly. It also evoked the family side of the show while, in a single scene, exposed the horror and violence that would come. Of course, I’m talking about the scene where Tony beats the crap out of the poor slob who owes him money, after running him down with his car.

4.  The Simpsons, “Bart the Daredevil” (1990). From season two, this episode is inexplicably censored on the DVD release. What made it so magnificently Simpsonic was the part where Homer tries to jump the gorge, fails, and is airlifted out. His head slams the sides of the gorge on the way up, he’s put into the ambulance, the ambulance crashes, his stretcher rolls out and, of course, he falls back down the gorge. Then the stretcher falls after him and hits him in the head. This scene is cut off of the DVD, and I can’t even find it on youtube. Fox are bitches. Anyone know why they did that?

3.  Homicide: Life on the Street, “Subway” (1997). The team is called to a subway station where a guy is pinned between the platform and the train. If the train moves, he will instantly be cut in half and die. If it doesn’t move, he may die anyway. The thing that made this episode so brilliant is Vincent D’Onofrio’s portrayal of the victim as a compete and total a-hole. You want to sympathize for him, but his character is so mean to the detectives that one immediately stops asking why this happened to him. He kinda deserves it. But on the other hand, does anyone really deserve that? The ep won all kinds of Emmys and a Peabody, too.

2.  The Shield, “Pilot” (2002). The Shield has the unique distinction, in my view, of being the only TV series to last a long time that never had a single bad episode. But the first was classic. Or, I should say, the last five minutes of the first episode. If you haven’t seen it, I won’t ruin it, but suffice to say it was the standard-bearer for the series: Unpredictable, brutal violence.

1.  Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Once More With Feeling” (2001). If you only watch two hours of TV in your life, watch this episode and “Hush.”  The latter is a silent episode and the former, well, it is simply the greatest single hour of television ever created.  Buffy and the gang are in the throes of a demon who forces them to sing and dance, until they die.  The episode has everything that makes this show great: Brilliant one-liners, creative wordplay, humor, powerful moments that will break your heart, and acting that’s so good you believe that the devil will make you sing.  I’ve seen this episode about a dozen times, and each time it’s better than before.  Even the album is great.

RUNNER UPS:

Survivor: Borneo, “Season Finale” (2000). Because a naked, drug-dealing tax evader winning a million bucks epitomizes everything that is wrong (and right) with reality TV.

Lost, “Pilot” (2004). That opening plane crash and the horror that followed stayed with me for days. We had ever seen anything like it before on network T.V. The show gradually lost its footing and its way when it became clear that the writers knew how to start a story, but it had no middle or end.

• The NJ Underground writes about The NJ Pop Punk revival Tour, and offers a free compilation, here.

• Wow.  I never thought my kids would see the day when The Rolling Stones, ACDC, and a Marley all had albums in the Billboard top 20.

• Go here to learn about why rappers hold their guns sidewayze.

• I don’t support the vandalism, but I do support this sentiment.

• This guy says he’s a Republican for a buncha reasons that don’t even makes sense . . . I’m not saying I’m anti-Republican, but self-righteous hypocrites drive me crazy.  He says:

* I believe in freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. But prominent Republicans like Pat Robertson and Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann openly ridicule the Muslim religion and attempts by the Obama administration to hire Muslims.

* I do not believe in big government; and * I believe higher taxes are part of the democratic agenda and lead to a dependence upon a large government.  But the Bush administration grew government more than any administration since FDR (he created a whole new Cabinet-level Department!), and he also raised taxes to a higher per capita rate than Bill Clinton and spent way way waaaaaaaay more money!  At the same time,  Obama has delivered the biggest tax cut since before Ronald Reagan, yet workers are worse off than ever.

* I believe government control of the healthcare industry will destroy the best healthcare in the world; and * I believe that a large standing army is the best deterrent to violence in the world today.  Yet increases in the budget of the Department of Veterans Affairs–Government-run healthcare–are always supported by Republicans (and in fact VA health care has been found by independent international review agencies to be the best run large health care system in the world).

* I believe that marriage has always been and should always be between one man and one woman.  Yet Republicans in Congress divorce at a higher rate than Democrats–and many of them get re-married.

• Is it too soon to note that Gary Coleman died of a stroke?  Get it?

• I love the idea for this post–”popscurities“….

• The Rolling Stones get the Covered in Folk treatment.

• Cover Me has wisely left Blogger before Blogger killed the site.  Update your bookmarks, and check out the terrific new look.

• Keane-My Shadow (Danny Dance remix)

2.  DEADPOOL IS GREAT THIS MONTH!  (ALL THREE OF THEM!) This May, Marvel’s Heroic Age begins–the antidote for the “Cynical Age” which began (formally) with Civil War.  Exploring the difference between a hero and a cynic is Deadpool, who hung up his mercenary status (but only in his main book—“Deadpool Team Up” and “Merc with a Mouth” seem to exist in their own continuity) and tried to join the X-Men (DP #15-18).  Needless to say, it didn’t take.  So now, he’s harassing Spider-Man, trying to learn how to be a solo hero.  Deadpool #19 was laugh-out-loud funny, and although many will complain about Hitmonkey, I thought he was perfect villain for this madcap, unpredictable series.  Daniel Way is terrific—I can’t figure out why I dislike his “Wolverine” work so much—at weaving in Deadpool’s schizophrenic internal dialog and Pool-O-Vision.  Art-wise, we got Carlo Barberi, who was also behind the Deadpool: Suicide Kings
miniseries.  Very solid stuff.

3.  UNBREAKABLE 2???? Bruce Willis let it slip recently at MTV that there might be an Unbreakable 2.  I think he was fishing for work—U2 won’t ever happen.  Don’t get me wrong, the first film is one of my all-time favorite flicks.  But it’s a little late for the sequel, and M. Knight hasn’t made a really good film in quite a while.  Or at least a really good dark film—Airbender looks like it may be good.  I remember reading an interview with M. a long time ago where he said that Unbreakable was actually a trilogy.  If so, I think he’d be better off releasing it as a comic book.  Willis is long in the tooth for the role, unless the sequel takes place many years later . . . Aw, who am I kidding.  I’d sleep outdoors to see the sequel to Unbreakable!

4.  SUPERMOVIE. David S. “Batman Begins” Goyer has, supposedly, written a script for the next Superman movie, “The Man of Steel,” modeled after John Byrne’s classic 1980s take on the character.  Words can’t express how disappointed I was with “Superman Returns.”  I mean, there’s been great Superman films (the first two Richard Donner ones), terrible ones (Richard Pryor??) but never before had there been a boring one.  DC should forget that film ever existed.  Goyer’s script is not an origin story, which is a good thing.  We’ve had too many of those on the screen, and book-wise we just got one last year from Geoff Johns and we’re getting another one next year from JMS.  Enough!  Let’s see Superman be super, already!  The rumor is this one will have both Braniac and Luthor, and Christopher Nolan may also be involved if he finishes with Batman 3 first.  But then again, this could all just be rumor.

5.  RINGS. What isn’t a rumor is that DC is going to be adding White Lantern rings to the rainbow of Green Lantern promo plastic.  I’ve got all seven so far, hanging on the staff of my wife’s statue of the Mayor from Nightmare Before Christmas.  Woo-hoo!
6.  CAPTAIN AMERINERD!  I’ve said before that I’m not impressed by director Joe Johnston’s public statements about the greatest superhero of all time, Captain America.  I’m very nervous about the film.  And now I’m reading that John “The Office” Krasinski is in the running as Steve Rogers?  Please, God, no.  Captain America is supposed to be huge.  I could break Krasinski in two with one hand tied behind my back.  He’s also supposed to be inspiring, not a squishy, loveable goofball.  John K might make a good Fabian Stankowicz, though.  (Anybody catch his clash with Deadpool this month?  Hilarious!)

7.  THE LOSING TEAM. There’s a whole bunch of trailers for The Losers floating around now.  Am I the only one who thinks it looks less interesting than The A-Team?  I might be . . .

8.  SPIDEY (AGAIN). I talk a lot about Amazing Spider-Man here because none of you ever comment on it, which makes me think you’re not reading it, and you should be.  And a good place to start is with this week’s #622, a one-and-done interlude in the “Gauntlet” series, which is bringing back and rebooting all of Spidey’s classic foes.  This issue is about Morbius The Living Vampire, who is an old but not exactly “classic.”  The art chores are picked up by Joe Quinones (there are rotating creative staffs on the Spidey book) and the writing is by Fred Van Lente, who is fast becoming one of my favorite new writers.  (He worked with Greg Pak on Incredible Hercules, picked up the Marvel Zombies series and made it go from just good to great, and has done some really solid kid-oriented comics in the Marvel Adventures line.)  It’s far from the best issue of AmSpM, but it’s a nice introduction into how they’re handling Marvel’s best
character these days.

9.  BLACKEST NIGHT #7. The penultimate issue arrived this week.  This is a series that started out waaaaaay too slow.  I know it’s an epic, but give us some meat with our exposition, please!  Then it picked up speed (almost too quickly) more than halfway in.    Now, just about every dead DC character worth raising (and many who aren’t) is back, has a ring, and is looking for . . . What exactly?  Like most DC epics, I have a hard time understanding why I’m supposed to care about all this, and what the villain really wants.  Marvel does this so much better.  Call it simplistic if you want, but the stakes in everything from Secret Wars (the first of these kind of gang bang sagas) to Siege have always been clear.  Now, we see that Black Lantern Luthor is kind of an idiot—I guess the ring makes you lose IQ points along with any shred of morality, decency, or good hygiene); are told that the real goal of the “evil” lanterns is not evil but death, which is apparently the status quo for the universe (life is unnatural and fleeting, death is a constant); and the meaning of life is nothing more than a collection of our most extreme and identifiable emotions: Rage, Fear, Love, etc.  At first I thought this was deep, but now I see it as just facile.  It’s not that Blackest Night is bad, it’s definitely one of the best DC stories in many years, it’s just that it doesn’t look like it’s really going to change much of anything.  Except that, at the end, Guy Gardner will get his own book, alongside my favorite Green Lantern–Kilowog.  I even have a mini-mate of the snout-nosed powerhouse.  So at least that’s something.