In an interesting interview with the LA Times, screenwriter/producer Goldsman seems reluctant to trash his 1997 film, which almost ruined his career along with Lost In Space. But he does admit:

"What got lost in 'Batman & Robin' is the emotions aren't real," Goldsman said, picking his words carefully. "The worst thing to do with a serious comic book is to make it a cartoon. I'm still answering for that movie with some people."

But perhaps Kevin Feige, the president of production at Marvel Studios, explained B&R's significance better, "That may be the most important comic-book movie ever made...It was so bad that it demanded a new way of doing things. It created the opportunity to do 'X-Men' and 'Spider-Man,' adaptations that respected the source material and adaptations that were not campy."

And he's got a point: it did teach us all that there is a wrong way and a right way to make campy comic book movies. And if it made future comic book screenplay adapters more careful with how they portray this world, then that's one thing it has going for it as well.

Interestingly the horrible failure of a film didn't stop Goldsman from moving forward with his career and putting out the very successful A Beautiful Mind adaptation. And now that he's established his bona fides as a more serious writer, moving on to I Am Legend and writing/directing for Fringe, he's coming back to DC Comics, working on a number of upcoming projects.

Jonah Hex is wrapped, and Goldsman described Josh Brolin's character:

He's a character that has been described as having one foot on Earth and one foot beyond the grave, that he speaks to the dead . . . at the same time he is very much [like Sergio Leone's] 'The Man With No Name.'

Along with Jonah Hex Goldsman is still hard at work on The Losers and Lobo, the movie about the super powered blue-skinned alien biker. But most importantly, he's hard at work on a new Swamp Thing:

Goldsman said will be closer in tone to the character as presented in Alan Moore's eerie, metaphysical horror comics than the rubber-suit bog creature from the 1982 Wes Craven B-movie. "We want a film with real Southern, dark horror overtones, a little bit like a classic Universal horror film," Goldsman said, knowing full well that his presence on the project will stir controversy — it's a character that filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has called one of the "few remaining Holy Grails" in comics.

But it's not just DC heroes in Goldsman's future — his big-screen directorial debut may be a version of A Winter's Tale, Mark Helprin's fantasy novel set in an alternate New York, with a thief and a flying horse.

You guys had great chemistry in the film. Were there any funny moments we didn't get to see of you two, goofing off as a couple of Joes?

Marlon Wayans: There's some stuff, but we pretty much stuck to the script.

So you guys are toys now...

Wayans: I'm about to go raid Hasbro. I saw this one doll that had the accelerator suit. It's like RoboCop. It was running. I was like, "I need this for my son."

Speaking of RoboCop and science fiction, you guys are really growing in this genre. Were there any superheroes that you two were rumored for, that didn't end up being true?

Wayans: I was actually supposed to play Robin, in Batman Returns, about 15 years ago. But there was too many characters. I was cast, I was paid and everything. I still get residual checks. Tim Burton didn't wind up doing three, Joel Schumacher did it and he had a different vision for who Robin was. So he hired Chris O' Donnell.

Are you happy that you didn't wind up being Robin in that movie?

Wayans: No, look — I get why they picked Chris O' Donnell, because it would be messed up to have Batman and you've got Robin, and his bulge is somewhat bigger than Batman's. Batman would have a serious problem with that.

Channing Tatum: [Laughs] I was rumored to play Captain America. Actually, I would love to play him, but I've read Will Smith is going to do it.

Are there and superheroes you would like to play in the future, since you didn't get to play Robin and you don't think you're up for Captain America?

Tatum: I want to get recast as Snake Eyes.

Wayans: I would like to do the Mask. Jim Carrey did one, Jamie Kennedy did two. I would like to do three.

Tatum: There's a darker superhero called Plucker. I want to do that, badly. I'm trying to set it up now. [Channing is linked to this project as the producer].

Wayans: I want to play Plastic Man — that would be fun too....

In the movie...

Wayans: I want to play the Brown Hornet, from Fat Albert. I want to play the Brown Hornet and be buff on top, and just have really skinny legs. I could get Tracy Morgan to play Stinger.

You guys do a lot of ridiculous stuff in G.I. Joe, what was your favorite moment?

Wayans: Right here [points to Tatum]. We had a great time filming together. On set, off set....

Really? That was more fun that driving a motorcycle through the rain, with sunglasses on?

Tatum: My Top Gun moment? [Laughs].

Wayans: That was so ultimate sexy. I was so like, "oh I wish that was me!" But see here's the difference. White guys in the rain look cool, if I was in the rain my afro would all small, skin would be all dry, it would not be a good sight.

After yesterday's list of sequels that don't suck — and I still cling to RoboCop 2, although maybe I should watch it again — people asked for a list of threequels that do suck. Which seemed kind of pointless, because that would be the same as a complete list of threequels. Search For Spock? Sucked. Return Of The Jedi? Blew. Spider-Man 3? Superman III? RoboCop 3? X-Men 3? It's making my head pound just to list them. Alien³?

In the non-"this movie is melting my pituitary gland" category, there's... Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade. Which isn't science fiction, and for my money isn't quite as good as Raiders. But it's way better than Temple Of Doom. There are also some movies with numbers higher than three that were decent, like Star Treks IV and VI.

So why are so many "threequels" so horrifyingly bad? Here are some possible explanations.

There's no ready-made formula.

Talking to Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman about Transformers 2 drove something home for me: there's a standard formula for the second movie in the series, just like there is for the first. In the first movie, the young hero discovers his (usually his) heroic destiny and learns from a father figure, who frequently dies or transcends somehow. In the second movie, the hero rejects his heroic mission and tries to return to a normal life — just like Superman in Superman II, Spidey in Spider-Man II and Sam in Transformers 2. Even in Star Trek II, you could argue that Kirk is questioning whether he's too old to keep adventuring.

But what happens in the third movie? Uhh... The hero gets a new hairstyle? There are more bad guys than before? What? There's no road map.

Studio interference.

Sam Raimi blames Sony for the disaster that was Spider-Man 3, and I sort of believe him. Once a movie series becomes cash-cowy enough for the studio to want to do a third go-around, I guess the suits get a bit antsy. They start insisting on shoe-horning Venom into a movie where he and his giant alien tongue just don't belong. Or they demand random rewrites of a perfectly good script, or weird stunt casting. (Hello, Richard Pryor!) The same execs who might have been willing to let a film-maker have a long leash the first couple times start tugging at that leash more, and choking the director and writers, because there's more at stake.

Just google the phrases "third movie" and "studio interference", and you'll see what I mean. Terminator 3, Alien3, X-Men 3... all blamed on studio bigshots stepping in and meddling.

Creative attrition.

Sam Raimi's presence on Spider-Man 3 was, in itself, an aberration. Normally, after directing two awesome movies in a series, someone like Raimi would have stepped out to do a serious Nazi epic or cop drama, leaving Spider-Man in the hands of Brett Ratner or Joel Schumacher. I'm actually not the world's biggest fan of Tim Burton's first two Bat-films, but compared to the Schumacher films that followed, Batman and Batman Returns look like Citizen Kane and Citizen Kane's Big Score. (Now I'm picturing Citizen Kane In Africa — sorry, in-joke.)

For some reason, very few writers and directors are willing to stick around for a third ride on the blockbuster-mobile, even if they're up for a second.

Creative exhaustion.

And even if any of the original creative team do come along, it's entirely possible to get a bit burned out after spending years of your life working on one saga. (It's probably a different matter if you're filming a trilogy all in one go, like Lord Of The Rings.) As much as any studio nonsense, I'm willing to bet that Sam Raimi's Spider-fatigue was a big reason for Spider-Man 3's problems. Raimi needed to go work on a smaller, less mainstream project, like Drag Me To Hell. (And here's hoping that his return to low-budget horror has cleansed his palate a bit, so he can come back to Peter Parker with a fresh eye.

And finally, there's always...

Problems in the source material.

A lot of these big movie series are based on comic books, television shows and older movies, which started out with a clear premise and a simple format: a guy dresses up as a bat and fights crime with the aid of fantastical tech. A guy gets bitten by a spider and gains fantastica powers, which he uses to fight crime. Etc. etc. So if your first movie is based on the early issues of the comic, or the early episodes of the TV show, you're golden. But the longer the source material goes on, the more convoluted and confusing it gets. The guy who dresses as a bat teams up with a circus acrobat and a girl librarian, plus he's got an imp from another dimension following him around, and so on. The more simple and pure the concept starts out, the more confusing and ridiculous it gets. So if a movie series tries to stick to the original, it'll run into similar problems the longer it goes on.

That's one huge problem with X-Men 3, for example — the need to include cameos from dozens of random X-people who were big in the 1980s and 1990s. Ditto with Venom in Spider-Man 3, and Robin and Batgirl in the Schumacher Bat-scursions. It doesn't really excuse those films' wretchness, but it's really true that the longer a serial goes on, the more baggage it tends to accrue. Movie-makers have be very careful to avoid shouldering that baggage as well.

There's something iconic about the title "Batman and Robin" (as well as the idea of Batman as this well-adjusted, not-entirely-fucked-up character) - With getting a new #1 and new series to continue the story you've been telling since 2006, is this your attempt to open up the character to another audience who either have never been interested in the character, or who may have strayed away as Bruce Wayne became more and more grim?

I hadn't thought of it in those terms. The 'grim 'n' gritty', noir approach to Batman has been fairly successful over the last 25 years, so I don't know if I ever imagined it keeping readers away. It's an interesting thought. If the style of Batman and Robin opens the door for new or returning readers, I'd be very happy.

You've talked before about this title being a mix of the '60s Adam West TV show and David Lynch, with Chris Cunningham's peculiar brand of wrongness thrown in as well... This seems to continue to an extent both the pop-art imagery of early in your Batman run with Andy Kubert, and the weird psychological darkness of Batman RIP - Audiences are used to seeing a screwed-up Batman thanks to things like The Dark Knight, but the comedy/brightness that you bring to the character has kind of been shied away from since, perhaps, Bob Haney and Adam West. Is it important to you that the character has that balance?

Certainly. The Bruce Wayne voice I hear in my head when I'm writing is sardonic, upper-class, absolutely self-assured and hyper-intelligent. He's seen it all, he's been desensitized to a lot of stuff the rest of us might find shocking and I've always imagined him as a man with a very refined, jet-black sense of humour.

There have been other attempts to do a 'brighter' Batman, of course. Immediately after Frank Miller reinvented the wheel with The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One, Mike W. Barr and Alan Davis launched a brilliant run of stories which owed more to Adam West than to Frank Miller. Bruce Timm and Paul Dini's Batman from the Animated Series was portrayed as a tough but psychologically-healthy individual and Miller and Lee's All Star Batman and Robin has plenty of room for comedy, so these aspects of the character have never truly gone away and form an intrinsic part of the appeal of Batman for many people. The Batman TV series was immensely popular after all and retains a certain undeniable charm even today.

I think any good, long-running thoroughly-developed fictional character will naturally come to have many faces and aspects. Batman's had 70 years to build up quite a complex and layered 'personality'.

Of course, one of my all-time favourite Batman panels was written by Haney and drawn by Jim Aparo and shows Batman strolling down the sunlit streets of Gotham, checking out the mini-skirted girls and accompanied by the line to end all lines: 'Yes, Batman digs this day!'

I'm not saying that's the Batman we want to see on every page, but I love that he might have this aspect to his character. I love the notion of a Batman who enjoys a peaceful stroll down the summer sidewalks of the city he keeps safe. There's something very human about that and it makes him much more relatable and rounded. I can certainly see the Dick Grayson Batman digging this day on a more regular basis!

To my mind, you've firmly put the sci-fi back into Batman, after years of his comics becoming more and more... mundane isn't the right word, but more of a hardcore crime book. Then you come along and suddenly there are crazy psychosomatic drug hallucinations of aliens and then Bruce Wayne gets zapped back in time by an evil god. Is this just trying to bring back all the pre-Silver Age ideas from the character's history that've been lost, or do you feel as if Batman works better as a concept when the weirdness of his rogues gallery gets amped up?

Putting Batman up against ordinary street criminals or organized gang bosses is fine but it's a bit one-sided in Batman's favour, given his training. I tend to assume that Batman goes out every single night as Gotham's Guardian and stops dozens of robberies, muggings, suicides or whatever all the time. Those 'ordinary', 'mundane' crimes are his bread and butter but they don't really challenge him and they don't necessarily make for compelling stories, so I prefer to focus on the wilder, weirder nights of his career and I like to see him facing devilishly brilliant, flamboyant psychos who can actually put him under pressure and take him to his limits. Watching a billionaire Batman disarm poorly-trained, poverty-stricken muggers effortlessly or beating up skinny junkies might be fun for a scene or two but does tend to raise thorny issues of class and privilege that the basic adventure hero concept is not necessarily equipped to deal with adequately.

As for the sci-fi elements, there's actually very little genuine sci-fi in the Batman title or in Batman and Robin. Batman RIP was certainly an attempt to recuperate those elements of Batman's long and contradictory history which no longer fit the profile of the Grim Avenger (although it's nice to see a lot of that material resurfacing in the Brave and The Bold cartoon, which features one of the most enjoyable takes on the character I've seen for a long time).

I don't have many comics in my tattered, bath-damaged 'collection' that date before 1972 when I became a 'fan' and a collector. My era of comics is the 'dark age' of the 70s and 80s, not the so-called 'silver age', so contrary to popular belief, I don't have any particular emotional attachment to 60s comics, other than John Broome's Flash stories which enchanted me as a small child.

I grew up with Neal Adams and Denny O'Neil, Len Wein, Engelhart, Starlin, Gerber, McGregor so my comic-writing style can be traced back to some combination of O'Neil' 'relevance' and Starlin 'cosmic'. Silver age, not so much.

Something that struck me about Batman RIP was the meta-deconstruction of the Batman mythos - When Jezebel Jet told Bruce Wayne that it wasn't healthy to be Batman, she may have been evil and trying to undermine his mission, but was she really completely wrong? With a new (and probably temporary) Batman who's going to not have those demons, are you trying to show how a healthier Bruce Wayne would do things?

I never really subscribed to the idea that Bruce was insane or unhealthy. As I've said before, Bruce Wayne's physical and psychological training regimes (including advanced meditation techniques) would tend to encourage a fairly balanced and healthy personality. Bruce Wayne would have gone mad if he HADN'T dressed as a bat and found a startling way to channel the grief, guilt and helplessness he felt after the death of his parents. Without Batman, Bruce would be truly screwed-up but with Batman he becomes mythic, more than human and genuinely useful to his community. I believe he began to slay his demons the moment he became a demon.

I also wanted to show a healthier Gotham City too. That whole Son-of-Sam, Rorschach-narration - 'This city is an open sewer where the rats feed on the broken dreams and filth of umm...other rats...where sneering, gnawing urban predators...blah blah...' - has become clichéd, tired and unconvincing. If Gotham was so bloody awful, no-one normal would live there and there'd be no-one to protect from criminals. If Gotham really was an open sewer of crime and corruption, every story set there would serve to demonstrate the complete and utter failure of Batman's mission, which isn't really the message we want to send, is it? You've got Batman and all his allies as well as Commissioner Gordon and the city still exudes a vile miasma of darkness and death? I can't buy that. It's simply not realistic and flies in the face of in-story logic (and you know I like my comics realistic!) so my artists and I have taken a different tack and we want to show the cool, vibrant side of Gotham, the energy and excitement that would draw people to live and visit there.

Gotham needs as many faces as Batman - it should be the loudest, sexiest, jazziest city on Earth. It has the best restaurants, the best theaters, the best art, the best criminals, the best crimefighters etc etc. People put up with the weird crime for the sheer buzz.

Why does Damian want to be Robin, if he can't show off to his dad?

Ultimately, Damian wants to be Batman. Being Robin is a step along the way.

Are you going to reference Dick Grayson's previous attempt to be Batman in the early '90s at any point in Batman and Robin?

Probably. I've tried to keep Dick Grayson's entire character history in mind, much as I did with Bruce Wayne in the earlier volumes of the story. Issue 2 has a reference to Grayson's time as a beat cop in the Bludhaven PD and the Bat-Bunker has a few trophies of his Nightwing adventures.

You've talked before about how the first year of the series works out, with artist Frank Quitely drawing the first and last three issues. What happens after the first year of the book? Are you planning on sticking around with Batman as a character, or will you be finished with Gotham for awhile once #13 rolls around?

That was the original plan but I can't seem to stop coming up with ideas for Batman, so we'll see how it goes.

Okay, last one. How would you sell Batman and Robin to people who haven't picked up a Batman comic in years?

Batman is dead. Robin is now Batman and Batman's evil son is now Robin. Everything is new again. If you ever liked Batman and don't want to see how that dynamic plays out, then may the Lord have mercy on your dry and shriveled worthless husk of a 'soul'! G'wan, g'wan, g'wan and buy Batman and Robin before the whole world starts laughing at you for missing out! Missing this is like missing your own birthday!

Batman and Robin #2 is in comic stores now.

It's a bold new Batman status quo, with a whole new lineup of crimefighters behind the various masks. In case you've been taking a break from the goings on in Gotham City (and, considering a lot of what's been coming out lately, I couldn't exactly blame you), Dick Grayson is Batman, Damian Wayne (the supposed son of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul) is Robin, Tim Drake is Red Robin, and somebody still to be revealed is Batgirl.

There's plenty more happening beyond just the immediate Batman family. Socialite Kate Kane is still Batwoman and is taking over the starring role in Detective Comics, the rogues Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn are reluctantly teaming up, and Kate Spencer (alias the lethal vigilante Manhunter) is Gotham's new District Attorney. And both the Question and the Outsiders are still doing their things.

There's a lot there to set up and establish, but with so many books (two of which even have second features), things don't get too rushed. Admittedly, it can be a little hard to remember exactly who is doing what and where. So let's break this down one book at a time.

The flagship for the relaunch really has to be Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's Batman and Robin. Considering their last collaboration was the pretty much universally beloved All-Star Superman, expectations were understandably high for this new book, which is already guaranteed to run at least twelve issues with Morrison at the helm (although Quitely will depart after just three issues).

As I mentioned in my Trinity review, I have mixed feelings about Quitely's distinctive drawing style, which despite its unmistakable energy can make some of the characters look a bit, well...ugly. Still, I'd say his work has improved with each new project he undertakes, and it's hard to imagine a better partner for his images than Grant Morrison's ideas.

Compared to Final Crisis or Batman: RIP, Morrison is downright straightforward here, eschewing a lot of his usual mystical material for a more grounded tale that's a better fit for the world of Batman. In particular, Dick Grayson and Commissioner Gordon are far too sensible to readily fit into the usual insanity of Morrison's work, and it's nice to see Grant Morrison can write normal just as well as he can the crazy.

That said, there's still a giant talking toad who is introduced as one of the main new villains and goes completely unexplained, so I'm clearly grading on a curve here. And I'd be remiss if I ignored just how creepy and horrific the final few pages are, as they introduce the utterly deranged main villain for the book's first arc. Even for those who swore off reading Morrison in the wake of his last two big events, Batman and Robin is not to be missed.

Judd Winick's first issue of Batman (and the only one to feature the art of Ed Benes) largely concerns itself with retelling the events of the last few months, starting with Bruce Wayne's death at the end of Final Crisis. This might well seem redundant, but Winick manages to do in one issue what the entire Battle for the Cowl event could not - explain what Bruce's death means to the two people closest to him, namely Alfred Pennyworth and Dick Grayson (with apologies to Tim Drake).

This first issue is long on character and emotion and short on plot, and it works beautifully. It alternates between filling in the gaps of what happened during Battle for the Cowl and simply rewriting it, and it's hard to find fault with any of the alterations. In Battle for the Cowl, Dick's character arc was that he didn't really have any big problem with becoming Batman, but Bruce didn't want him to. It's valid enough, I suppose, but distinctly less satisfying than what Winick does here, as Dick tries to figure out how he can truly be Batman, not just an impostor wearing Bruce's suit.

Great as this first issue is, it doesn't necessarily give the best sense of Winick's ongoing run on Batman. This is very much a prologue to everything that will follow, and how he handles Batman in a character piece might not the same thing as how he will use him in an action story, but there's every reason here in this first issue to be optimistic for what lies ahead. If nothing else, the art will likely be enough to justify picking Batman up on a regular basis. Ed Benes is wonderful here, and I'm expecting similar brilliance from his successor, Trinity's Mark Bagley.

I suppose the big story with Detective Comics is that DC is making a lesbian character the protagonist of their longest continuously published book. That really should be some kind of milestone, right?* But, much like Batman's death, DC really hasn't done much to publicize this development. Whatever one makes of the company's public relations, Detective Comics is at least a pretty good consolation prize for Batwoman, who was meant to get her own book shortly after she was first introduced way back in 52.

Greg Rucka played a huge role in originating this new incarnation of Batwoman in 52, and it's hard to imagine a better writer to handle the character's starring debut. Kate Kane's close relationship with her military-minded father is a real highlight of the first issue, although it's fairly clear that's about the only thing going well in her life. Still scarred emotionally and physically by being stabbed in the heart at the end of 52, Kate's life is mostly in turmoil, with only the thought of vengeance against those who stabbed her to give her purpose.

Which brings me to the villains of this and pretty much every other Batwoman story, the religious fanatics of Intergang. Their role shouldn't really come as a surprise, considering how important the Crime Bible was to her story in both 52 and Final Crisis: Revelations (both written by Rucka, and both costarring Renee Montoya as the Question, who now occupies the second feature in Detective Comics). But I must admit some disappointment that they look set to dominate her story for the foreseeable future, partially because I've never really found the Crime Bible stuff all that interesting. Mostly, however, I'd like to see her establish herself as a character independent of Intergang, particularly when there is such an iconic cast of Gotham City villains for her to interact with.

I'm also not crazy about J.H. Williams's artwork. It veers wildly between gorgeous and pedestrian, with the former style for the Batwoman sequences and the latter for those following her alter ego. It's an interesting conceit, but I didn't really enjoying looking at the Kate Kane sequences, which seems like a drawback to a medium dependent on visual storytelling. Unlike, say, Ed Benes, whose style is consistently aesthetically pleasing and well-suited to action sequences, Williams seems more interested in establishing mood and atmosphere, which at times works beautifully.

There's no denying the Batwoman parts of Detective Comics are visually stunning, and it's entirely possible Williams's style will grow on me. Although - and this may sound like a very minor gripe - I doubt I'll ever like how pale Williams has made Kate Kane. There's one panel where she looks more like V from V from Vendetta than anything else, and that was a guy wearing a mask.

*In case you doubt the special place of Detective Comics, I would remind you what the "DC" in DC Comics stands for. And, yes, that does technically mean the company's full name is Detective Comics Comics. But I digress.

When I heard all the new titles announced back at New York Comic Con, I'd have to say Gotham City Sirens sounded the most intriguing. It also sounded like it had the potential to be DC's answer to Marvel Divas, which isn't what I'd call a good thing. The presence of writer Paul Dini confirmed my initial optimism, and I'm happy to say that he doesn't disappoint.

First, Dini created Harley Quinn back in Batman: The Animated Series. Then, he paired her up with Poison Ivy later in the show's run, with fantastic results. Now, he's adding Catwoman to the mix, who provides the perfect voice of sanity for this unlikely trio. (At this rate, by 2040 Paul Dini will be writing a movie that teams up every female character in the DC universe. I can't wait.) Dini is on very firm ground here with characters he knows very well, and it shows. (Another Dini favorite, Zatanna, also puts in an appearance, and I can only hope we'll see more of her as the series progresses.)

Catwoman is still recovering from having her heart removed by Hush (long story, but a good one), and she recognizes the need for teamwork in this harsher, more deadly Gotham City. Although the new would-be supervillain Boneblaster provides the trio with some rather irritating distractions, this first issue is mainly about setting up the dynamics of the three potential partners. The article ends with Poison Ivy drugging Catwoman and forcing her to answer one simple question: "Who is Batman?" Actually, that's not such a simple question these days, and I'm not completely sure Catwoman knows the answer herself. Either way, it's a pretty fantastic hook for the next issue, and I'm having trouble imagining what scenario Dini could come up with in which the team of Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Catwoman wouldn't be massively entertaining. Plus, Guillem March's artwork is a joy to look at.

The big question for Batman: Streets of Gotham is how it's going to distinguish itself as something more than just the other, other Batman book after Batman and Batman and Robin. Reteaming Paul Dini and Dustin Nguyen, who last worked together on what was easily the best part of Batman: RIP, the Detective Comics storyline "Heart of Hush", is a good start. The series is also taking its "Streets of Gotham" subtitle seriously, as this story is as much about Commissioner Gordon and a mysterious (but seemingly benevolent) new vigilante as it is about Batman.

Indeed, Dick Grayson is only seen "in character" as Batman, and Alfred is nowhere to be seen; I wonder whether this series will tend to downplay the behind-the-scenes aspects of Batman in favor of, well, the streets of Gotham. Still, Damian Wayne is given some time in the spotlight, and he's paired with a most worrying new chess partner: the recently incarcerated Thomas Elliott, alias Hush, who has surgically altered his appearance so that now he looks exactly like Bruce Wayne. I'm interested to see where that particular dynamic takes the series, although I'm guessing it's nowhere good.

The main thrust of this first issue is that even second-rate villains have become far more creative and disturbing in their schemes, as the formerly low-level bad guy Firefly starts remotely lighting people on fire using explosive nanites. The sight of people spontaneously bursting into flames is a horrific image, and the sight of Batman shooting the victims with a gun (even if it is just loaded with foam capsules) is off-putting in an entirely different way. Dini and Nguyen clearly aren't afraid of disturbing content and imagery, something confirmed by a scene where this brutal new vigilante rescues a child prostitute.

Still, none of it seems gratuitous or exploitative, and considering Paul Dini's work on Batman: The Animated Series is a huge reason why I love superheroes in the first place, I'm definitely optimistic that he knows what he's doing. Batman: Streets of Gotham also features a second feature starring Manhunter, which picks up on some threads from Battle for the Cowl. Right now, I'm treating it strictly as a nice bonus to the main story, but I was impressed with what I saw and am interested to see how successfully a complete story can be told in this shorter format.

Red Robin is something of an oddball compared to the other five major new or renewed Batman books. It's very decidedly not set in Gotham City, as Tim Drake sets out to travel the world in search of Bruce Wayne, who he is convinced is still alive (looks like somebody read to the very end of Final Crisis). He's also struggling to make sense of Dick Grayson choosing Damian Wayne over him as Robin, forcing him to don his new Red Robin identity. Even his name is providing him with existential angst - is he Tim Drake or Tim Wayne, and what does either say about him?

Tim Drake was probably always destined to be the character who lost the most in the wake of Bruce Wayne's death. There was no way he was ever going to become Batman instead of Dick Grayson, and I'm not sure the two really could have worked as a Batman and Robin pairing. Clearly, the powers-that-be at DC agreed, as a flashback shows Dick rather unceremoniously sending Tim on his merry way, primarily on the grounds that Dick needs to keep a close eye on the probably psychotic Damian Wayne. Dick has a point, but it doesn't make it seem any less unfair.

Not to belittle Chris Yost's writing or the artwork of Ramon Bachs, but I suspect Red Robin will become more interesting down the road. This is clearly being set up as the key book in Bruce Wayne's ultimate return, but that isn't going to happen for at least a year or two. Much as I like Tim Drake, I'm not sure his angst-ridden solo adventures can really maintain consistent quality before the series reaches its natural conclusion, in which Tim finds his adoptive father.

Tim states explicitly in this issue that he became Red Robin in part because it is not closely associated with Batman, meaning he can cross lines without reflecting poorly on Dick and Alfred. He is clearly headed for a darker place, and DC's recent track record in taking characters to darker places gives me serious concern. (I'm still not over what they did to poor Mary Marvel.) That said, this first issue pulls off the new, darker Tim fairly well, and placing at the end of the issue a reveal of Ra's al Ghul (who is fast becoming Tim Drake's archenemy) is a pretty good way to keep my interest.

Finally, Outsiders seems barely related to the rest of these Batman books, and it's almost surprising that this month's issue actually carries the "Batman Reborn" banner. As though to remind casual readers of the connection, issue 19 features Alfred and the Batman-influenced Owlman on the cover, but this is the only book of the seven in which Batman isn't even really referenced.

That said, writer Peter Tomasi is crafting a worthy followup to his work on final Nightwing and Robin books, and if the somewhat tenuous Batman connection was highlighted to drive up sales, at least readers are being pointed in the direction of a good book. It's refreshing to see a superhero team that can actually work together effectively (although the angst gets ratcheted up in this issue as Geo-Force looks for some even more final vengeance against Deathstroke).

The ongoing story pits the Outsiders against the very appropriately named Insiders, a mysterious quintet with greatly extended lifespans who are looking to achieve true immortality. To do this, they need to recover fragments of the meteorite that gave supervillain Vandal Savage his immortality 52,000 years ago. The story becomes significantly more interesting in this issue, as Savage himself turns up, followed by DC's other immortal supervillain, Ra's al Ghul, whose appearance will hopefully push this into more solidly Batman-related territory. (Also, if you're scoring at home, that means two different books in this month's "Batman Reborn" showcase end with last page Ra's al Ghul reveals. That guy sure gets around.)

So with all these various launches, relaunches, and continuations, which books are actually worth buying on a regular basis? Honestly, I'm excited for all seven of them (I'm also excited about my impending bankruptcy). But for those looking to be a little more selective, I'd have to say Batman and Robin, Batman, and Gotham City Sirens are the most promising series thus far and the ones most deserving of your immediate attention. It's been a long road back, but it looks like Batman is finally in safe hands once again, even if Bruce Wayne is still nowhere to be seen.

Tuesday marks the exact anniversary (June 23rd) of Burton's movie - a film that broke box office records despite many people expecting it to disappear without trace as soon as it opened. Instead, it opened the door for three sequels with different levels of diminishing return, a classic cartoon series, numerous bad superhero movies and a summer where it seemed like everything had a Bat logo on it. If there truly was life before Burton's Batman (and we only have science's word and our own faulty memories that there was) one thing's for sure - it was certainly a lesser place without the sounds of Prince's "Batdance" available for us to listen to.

To do our part to mark the 20th anniversary of the movie, we've looked back at the making of the movie, remembered some of our favorite merchandise from the Summer of the Bat, thought about the disasters that were made as a result of its success, and tried to think of the good things about each of the sequels. Feel free to join in, but if we hear someone doing the "this town needs an enema" line, we're turning this nostalgiafest around right now.

Batman Returns

There are many who think that Burton's second Batman is his best, and I have to admit that I'm one of them. For one thing, it's just weirder, dropping a lot of the compromise from the first to form a messier, funnier movie where Keaton doesn't have to fight for attention next to a scenery-chewing Nicholson (Not that Danny DeVito's Penguin isn't almost as bad). Yes, it doesn't have the clearest narrative in the world, but I fully and only slightly shamefully admit that the 17-year-old me didn't care about that as long as Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman was onscreen.

Batman Forever

Burton vacated the director's chair for the third movie (He stuck around as producer, however), leading to Keaton also leaving the series to pursue "more interesting" roles. Enter Joel Schumacher and Val Kilmer, and the beginning of the end. You can see the potential in all of their choices, even as the execution didn't live up to it: Trying to go for a new visual aesthetic instead of aping Burton was a good idea, but the neon dayglo look they came up with definitely wasn't. Similarly, the media-mocking of the plot (The Riddler's television-replacement device literally being an idiot box and sapping the intelligence of its audience) had potential, but the overly broad acting of Jim Carrey as the Riddler and Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face brought everything down to a farce-like level that reminded people a little too much of the Adam West days.

Batman and Robin

...And this was where the franchise ended, thanks to Schumacher's attempts to "homage" Adam West and Dick Sprang going horribly awry. To his credit, the director apparently wanted the movie to be much more like a cartoon than the earlier installments, but with toy companies having input into the design of the movie's costumes and characters this time around, maybe things got a little out of hand from his original intentions (Whether the toy companies were in favor of the much-ridiculed nipple additions to the Batsuits is unknown, if unlikely). Not helping things was the arrival of Batgirl, bringing the lead cast to a cramped five characters (Batman, Robin, Batgirl and two villains Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy, the last two masterclasses in overacting from Arnold Schwarzenegger and Uma Thurman). And yet, despite Schumacher himself apologizing for the movie on an extra from the recent DVD reissue, there's something weirdly compelling about it. I demand a critical re-appraisal!

(There's arguably a case to be made for the idea that Batman's success drove new readers and, perhaps more importantly, movie and television producers to the medium, leading to the early 1990s speculator boom and subsequent bust, but that's another article in itself.)

The Movies
If there's one thing Hollywood likes more than a hit, it's a formula for more hits, and Batman's success convinced movie executives that they could do exactly the same thing with whatever comic character they wanted (Even if, in Robert Townsend's case, he had to make him up). The result? Lots of bad movies, made with less love and less talent than Burton brought to Batman. Exhibit A: Warren Beatty's garish, flat Dick Tracy:


Also, see The Phantom:


...And Meteor Man?


Not all of the comic-based movies were terrible, of course; I still adore The Rocketeer:


Goths the world over loved The Crow:


And who can forget Marvel Comics' ill-fated early attempts to get into the movie biz? Look! Here's the direct-to-video Captain America:


Or even better, the direct-to-bootleg Roger Corman Fantastic Four:


Looking at some of these, I'm kind of glad that Batman and Robin accidentally killed the genre for a few years.

The Best Thing To Have Come From The Success Of The Movie
Surely there's no contest, right...?


Batman: The Animated Series (AKA The Adventures of Batman & Robin and The New Batman Adventures, amongst other names it had during its brief but wonderful life) may have gained from the success of Tim Burton's movies - it premiered in 1992, following the release of Batman Returns, but had been in the works long before - but it wasn't a copy by any stretch of the imagination. Dark without being humorless, endlessly stylish thanks to the talents of Bruce Timm, Dan Riba and many others and much smarter than other Saturday morning cartoons (or, for that matter, many other incarnations of Batman), Batman: The Animated Series defined the character for a generation, and remains an example of how good an animated series can be.

Maybe you'd like to see the original animation that got the series greenlit...?

That summer was huge. You couldn't turn around without seeing the Bat-Signal somewhere. People were cutting it into their fucking heads. It was just the summer of Batman and if you were a comic book fan it was pretty hot.

Contemporary estimates suggested that over $500 million worth of merchandise was sold for the first movie, with some suggesting the number was closer to $750 million - but then, there was a lot of bootleg merchandise available at the time. While merchandise had been a large part of the summer movie business since George Lucas made a fortune from Star Wars' ancillerary products, the blanketing of the Bat was something different: Starting, perhaps, as uncertainty on behalf of Warner Bros over whether the film itself would recoup costs, it became a genuine craze somewhere along the line - leading to all manner of random Batproduct on the market. Even before the movie opened, analysts knew something big was happening:

''Batman'' does not reach theaters until June 23, but market research surveys have shown an extraordinary awareness on the part of moviegoers for the last month. '' 'Batman' is the movie equivalent of 'Phantom of the Opera,' '' said Jack Brodsky, the president of marketing and distribution at Morgan Creek. ''It jumped onto the research charts in first place. That's like being No. 1 on the best-seller list your first week.''

Mr. Vogel thinks ''Batman'' could sell $300 million worth of merchandise. The comic-book character has been around for 50 years and the Caped Crusader appeals to adults as well as children. Although Warner Brothers has been secretive about the merchandising of the movie before it opens, Licensing Corporation of America, a subsidiary of Warner Communications Inc., has already mailed out thousands of catalogues hawking everything from Batman playing cards to a $499.95 jacket with the Batman logo ''studded with rhinestones.''

And, even if you weren't willing to pay $500 for a rhinestone jacket - or just had enough taste to not want a rhinestone jacket in the first place - there was still an embarrassment of Bat-riches available. For example, you could buy a bumper sticker allowing you to pretend that you were really Bruce Wayne:

Alternatively, if you really wanted, you could just buy the Batmobile itself. It even has "2 concealed rockets"!

If you were hungry, there was always some Bat-cereal to get your day started properly -


- and if you needed a snack during the day, your Bathead candy dispenser was sure to help you out:


Batman could also help with your leisure activities - you could play the arcade game or the pinball game...


... and, if you felt the need to spend your evening dancing instead of fighting crime, Prince was there to help you out with what may have been one of his last hurrahs before disappearing into self-pleasuring obscurity (Sorry, Prince fans. But you know that I'm right):

And then, you could unwind before sleep with the movie's second soundtrack release, the Danny Elfman score. Which, I have to admit, reminds me much more of the animated series now than the movie... But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Images from Batman Movie Online

If Burton as director was seen as a risky move because of resume up until that point, his casting of Michael Keaton as the lead character was assumed by many to just be outright suicide. It also wasn't just the comic fans who were scared about the idea of someone known more as a comedic actor taking on the role (50,000 letters of complaint were apparently sent to Warner Bros as a result), as executive producer Jon Peters recalls:

One of the most powerful men in Hollywood went as far as to call Warners' chairman Steve Ross and tell him casting Michael was such a horrible idea it would bring Warners to its knees... The entire studio would crash. Heaven's Gate revisited.

(I have to wonder what the response would have been if Bill Murray, another of the actors under consideration for the role alongside more traditional candidates like Mel Gibson, Pierce Brosnan and Kevin Costner, had been cast.)

The casting of Jack Nicholson as the Joker, however, met with much less anger (Other actors considered included Robin Williams, James Woods and, in what could have been either awesome or the worst decision ever, David Bowie), even if many - including screenwriter Sam Hamm - disliked the retcon that revealed that Jack Napier, the young Joker, was the man that killed Bruce Wayne's parents; that change in the story happened during shooting, when the 1988 WGA Writers Strike prevented Hamm from working on rewrites himself.

(Here's the first production draft of the script and, for fun comparison, Hamm's original 1986 draft.)

The production was troubled, to say the least. As well as the Writers Strike, the four month shoot - described later by Burton as "[t]he worst period of my life" - also saw producers change the end of the movie without telling Burton, the budget spiral out of control - it was rumored to end up more than 50% higher than it was when it started - and footage stolen from the set, as the press fought to be the first to have pictures from the secretive set. Even in the movie's pre-release publicity, the stress was clear as this Time Magazine story demonstrates:

As in all megaprojects, the Batman people were just happy to have survived. "Tim is a pale guy," his friend Keaton says. "Put him in England and add the demands of the shoot, and he becomes transparent." But Burton soldiered on, and now offers a cautious commendation of his own work: "Given the scale, the number of people involved and how quickly we did it, it still has a personality, which big movies often lose. It doesn't feel like a cardboard clone."

Early reviews for the movie were mixed; while some enjoyed the dark tone, others felt as if the darkness overwhelmed everything else. Roger Ebert, for example:

[D]id I care about the relationship between these two caricatures? Did either one have the depth of even a comic book character? Not really. And there was something off-putting about the anger beneath the movie's violence. This is a hostile, mean-spirited movie about ugly, evil people, and it doesn't generate the liberating euphoria of the Superman or Indiana Jones pictures... The movie's problem is that no one seemed to have any fun making it, and it's hard to have much fun watching it. It's a depressing experience.

Time Magazine's take was similarly damning:

Batman's style is both daunting and lurching; it has trouble deciding which of its antagonists should set the tone. It can be as manic as the Joker, straining to hear the applause of outrage; it can be as implosive as Batman-Bruce, who seems crushed by the burden of his schizoid eminence. This tension nearly exhausts the viewer and the film.

Nonetheless, the film was a runaway success, much moreso than Warners had anticipated - its opening broke box office records (It was the first movie to earn more than $100 million in its first ten days), and by the end of the year, it had become the sixth most successful movie of all time. The moral of this story? Perhaps, to let Tim Burton do whatever he wants - unless that happens to be remaking Planet of the Apes.

Let's get that Batbook out the way first; Grant Morrison attempts to make up for the sturm-und-drang of Batman RIP with the first issue of Batman And Robin, his new series starring the new Batman (Dick Grayson, formerly the original Robin) that he's likened to both Crank and the old Adam West show mixed with David Lynch. His All Star Superman partner Frank Quitely is drawing this one, so expect beautifully-designed pages of madness, and a superhero comic that, if nothing else, is unlikely to be dull.

Leaving the superheroes behind for now - Well, apart from pointing out that Marvel's putting out a collection of the retro-with-a-twist Age Of The Sentry quasi-parody series, and DC have both Batgirl: Redemption and Green Lantern Corps: Sins of The Star Sapphire to fulfill your superpowered needs - it's time for vampires to take the stage with a couple of books from Oregon-based Dark Horse. There's Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Tales Of The Vampires lets the wonderful Becky Cloonan and Vasilis Lolos tell a story about a young impressionable kid hanging out with a bad crowd (Hint: They drink blood) in the Buffy-verse (You can find a preview here). And then Werewolves On The Moon Versus Vampires pretty much tells you all you need to know with its title alone.

Even that, however, is not the high-concept must-have of the week. No, that honor belongs to Chew, the new series by John Layman and Rob Guillory that offers up a detective who gets psychic impressions from what he eats, living in a future where bird flu has led to the banning of poultry. Oh, and he works in homicide... which means he eats dead people. Given Layman's enjoyably dark sense of humor, his citing of Y The Last Man and Monk as influences and his enjoyably dark sense of humor, I can't see a way that Chew could disappoint.

In case you're looking for some more aperitifs for your reading palate, this week's list of new comics will, I'm sure, offer something for every palate. To keep the metaphor going, consider the Comic Shop Locator your menu for a particularly store-like cuisine. Just remember to tip your waiter before you leave. It's always safer that way.

Talking to IGN, Morrison explained what to expect from his new Batman series (and new Batman in general; this is former Robin Dick Grayson under the cowl, remember):

The only way I can explain the tone is that I had this idea of recapitulating the television show in a certain way... I was thinking of what other aspects of Batman are completely out of favor - that people tend to hate and don't seem to work anymore. The Batman 60s TV show was one of those. Obviously it was camp and a product of its time. But when I was a kid I thought it was really serious. [laughs] So I wanted to take some of that bizarre, psychedelic feel. I wanted to take the idea of very short, punchy stories that just kind of existed on their own terms. Rather than Batman RIP, which was a big, epic story that had a lot of secret subtext and hidden meanings and stuff, these are just crazy stories that are pretty upfront.

It was taking that aspect of the Batman TV show and then trying it in with David Lynch and Twin Peaks. [laughs] And creepy European cartoons and marionettes and stuff like that. That bad dreamlike feeling of a Marilyn Manson video in the '90s, or like Chris Cunningham's video for 'Windowlicker'. [laughs] Again, it was about trying to fuse those two things together into a bad trip, Lewis Carroll kind of world.

And that's exactly why we can't wait to read it. Batman And Robin #1 is released next week.

According to Variety, Warner Bros. has officially purchased the Primeval screen rights in a "high-six-figure deal," and Akiva Goldsman and Kerry Foster are set up to produce, along with Emily Cummins. Goldsman is planning to hire a writer to draft the script, which will transplant the action of the film from the U.K. to the U.S.

And the U.S. version will ramp up the action, probably thanks to an amped-up effects budget. Says Foster:

There is a solid mythology to the series, but the movie has the dinosaur element of ‘Jurassic Park' and the time travel element of ‘Lost,' and it just feels like the kind of big movie that Warner Bros. does well.

While the big-screen production is clearly a ways away still, the new season of Primeval begins airing on BBC America tomorrow, May 16 at 9 ET (8 Central).

Warners follows 'Primeval' urge [Variety.com]

Admittedly, the solicitation text doesn't really reveal a lot about the new Batman. Take the advertising copy for Batman #687:

This 40-page issue explores the final moments of the Battle for the Cowl as the new Batman learns that winning the Cowl comes at a high price! Witness the new Batman taking to the streets of Gotham City for the first time! Putting a new man inside the Bat-suit was the easy part – now the fun begins! Guest-starring Superman and Wonder Woman, this issue is a must-read for any Batman fan.

Similarly, the solicit for new series Batman: Streets of Gotham doesn't help much:

As a new Batman rises on the streets of Gotham City, the heroes, villains and citizens take notice. How will the police feel about this new Batman, and can he control the crime in Gotham the way the old Batman did?

If nothing else, the solicitation for a second new series - All Star Superman's Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's Batman and Robin - tells us about their mode of transport and promises answers:

The new Dynamic Duo hit the streets with a bang in their new flying Batmobile as they face off against an assemblage of villains called the Circus of Strange. They also tackle their first mission investigating a child who's been abducted by the mysterious Domino Killer. But will everything go smoothly? And who exactly are the new Batman and Robin? The newest era of The Dark Knight begins here!

(Honestly, anyone who doesn't get a little bit excited or amused by "their new flying Batmobile" is a little bit dead inside.)

If you want a real clue who the new Batman and Robin are, however, it's better to just talk to Morrison himself, whose hints are just a little bit too easy:

I don't want to give away who they are just yet with [writer-artist] Tony [Daniel] still doing "Battle for the Cowl." But what we've got is a more light-hearted, more spontaneous Batman and a real bad-ass, violent Robin. So I think people are going to enjoy it. It's a very different dynamic between the two characters... It's the classic buddy thing. It's the original partnership. And it's always worked. And I think it's going to work in even more interesting ways in this book. Their personalities are very, very different. So where we saw Batman before in a leadership role, a mentor role, this shows Robin as having some big ideas of his own. It's the sparks that fly between the characters in this incarnation that makes it very interesting. It's a real fresh kind of feel.

A light-hearted Batman? A bad-ass violent Robin? That sounds ridiculously like Dick "Nightwing" Grayson is taking over as Batman (a hunch accidentally confirmed by one of DC's writers in his blog - thanks, Rajiv!), with Damien, Bruce Wayne's slightly psychopathic son, taking on the Robin guise. But if you're wondering where that leaves Bruce Wayne and Tim Drake, the former Batman and current Robin, then I'd suggest that new series Red Robin may be the place to look:

Someone believes that Bruce Wayne may still be alive…and that someone is Red Robin. But who is wearing the Red Robin costume, and why is he traveling the globe looking for a dead man? Whoever he is, he's not alone in his search!

Never mind the flying Batmobile, this may be the series to follow for science fiction thrills. After all, we know that Bruce Wayne is alive, and trapped in the past... and Morrison himself admits that "We're not really entertaining the notion that Bruce won't be back at some time. This isn't like 'Captain America' with the Winter Soldier story and Cap's really gone." Open the sci-fi closet, Alfred. Strange times may be ahead.

DC Comics in June [DC Comics]

You see, Schwarzenegger isn't just an action hero, he's our guide to the worlds of the fantastic and bizarre. His acting skills are as prodigious as his pecs, but they've gone unappreciated — until now. I recently sat down and watched pretty much every Schwarzenegger science fiction epic, and I came away with a new appreciation for his acting skillz. Here are the moments where he rises above his situation, no matter how dire, and manages to shine.

1. No eyebrows, in The Terminator.
Major challenge: Arnold is a killer cyborg from the future, and he uses his eyebrows convey a subtle menace — until his eyebrows get singed off halfway through the movie. He looks like Bob Geldof at the end of Pink Floyd's The Wall.
Massive solution: Arnie is up to the task, scowling and grimacing and turning his forehead into a gnarled mask of terror. Until he finally gets some big sunglasses, which solve the problem for him.

2. Covered with mud, in Predator.
Major challenge: At the end of this alien hunter movie, Arnie gets slathered with mud, which hides him from the creature. Not only is he deprived of his eyebrows, but you can't even make out his sharp jawline and jutting chin.
Massive solution: Arnie's eyes go into maximum overdrive, bugging out, rolling around and finally bursting out of his sockets. "Cmawwn! Kill me!" He yells.

3. The yellow unitard, in Running Man.
Major challenge: Accused of a crime he didn't commit, Arnie is dropped into a maze of death for the amusement of the dystopian masses. Worst of all, he's wearing a bright yellow spandex unitard.
Massive solution: You can't repress Arnie's masculinity just by putting him in a bizarre aerobics outfit. You'll only make him more manly. And indeed, the moment the unitard goes on, Arnie gets mean. He grins with delight as he strangles his attackers or castrates them with a chainsaw, and his face finds four new outer quadrants of expression, expanding to convey the full scope of his rage as he threatens to rip out the producer's spine.

4. Danny DeVito chemistry, in Twins.
Major challenge: Arnie is paired with comedian Danny DeVito, as they pretend to be twins, the result of a weird genetic experiment. How can Arnie bring his usual gravitas opposite this sleazy clown?
Massive solution: He basically goes for the "overgrown child" thing, grinning and acting super eager in contrast to DeVito's world-weary scumbag. Arnie is super smart but ignorant of the "real" world, and doesn't know what tossing your cookies means.

5. The crotch kick, in Total Recall.
Major challenge: Sharon Stone wearing aerobics gear (considerably cuter than Arnie's in Running Man) kicks Arnie in the crotch over and over. How can Arnie convey the wounded masculinity? How?
Massive solution: Luckily, Arnie has had a hundred extra teeth added to his mouth for this film, and he uses all of them, in a grimace so massive it disrupts the gravity of Mars. Little known fact: Arnie and his many teeth were the model for Rob Liefeld's art.

6. Slave robot, in Terminator 2.
Major challenge: Arnie's back playing a killer cyborg, but this time he has to obey everything a punk kid tells him to do.
Massive solution: He brings a quiet dignity, underplaying the role for once and letting Edward Furlong and Linda Hamilton spaz out around him.

7. Getting hormonal, in Junior.
Major challenge: Not only is he acting opposite DeVito once again, but he has to play a pregnant man, who gets all emotional on massive doses of female hormones and starts to cry while watching a Lifetime TV movie. And then he finally has to go undercover and pose as a woman. Can Arnie bring his sensitive side?
Massive solution: Score! Arnie reaches deep inside himself, a little fold of softness under the five thousand layers of muscle. His eyes crinkle up, his mouth twists into an S-shape, or maybe that mysterious symbol that's on Hiro's sword in Heroes, and he looks like he's experiencing the joys and sorrows of every mother, everywhere. Mothers, Arnold Schwarzenegger is you.

8. Covered with goop, in Batman And Robin.
Major challenge: His greatest struggle yet. This time, he's got no eyebrows, like in Terminator. He's covered with gunk, like in Predator. And he's wearing weird dance wear, like in Running Man. What can he do?
Massive solution: He can't act with his eyes, or his jaw, or his teeth, or his chin this time around. The only thing Arnie has left is his voice, and he just works it, shouting at the top of his lungs. With dialogue like "You're not sending ME to the cooler!" and "Tonight, Hell freezes over!" it's probably the best option.

9. Too many facelifts, in The Sixth Day.
Major challenge: It's like a futuristic science fiction nightmare. Medical technology has advanced to the point where you can give Arnold Schwarzenegger a whole new face. It just may not be a good idea. Gone are Arnie's trademark grimaces, scowls and eye-pops, because the skin on his face has been stretched so tight he can barely see any more.
Massive solution: Arnie just relaxes and goes with it. It's a more laid-back Arnie, even after a clone takes his place and sleeps with his wife. He has one facial expression, a rigid grin, and it sometimes expands to turn into a cracked-out leer. It sort of works, as the maniac who's on the run from the evil clone heads.

10. Obsolescence, in Terminator 3.
Major challenge: Arnie is kind of old to be playing a super-advanced ageless cyborg from the future, a fact he references by referring to himself as an "obsolete design." Plus, he's stuck acting opposite an annoying Nick Stahl, who isn't nearly as fun as Edward Furlong was.
Massive solution: Arnie just sort of zones out, acting way more robotic than in the first two Terminators.

And here's our video compilation of Arnie's greatest science fiction moments:

It's a weird moment to be appreciating Arnie. For one thing, it's the run-up to a big election, when my fellow liberals are gleefully contemplating the destruction of GOP politicians big and small. And he hasn't exactly been a heroic success as governor of California, saddling the state with more debt just as we were roaring towards another economic sugar-crash.

And Arnie's style of action movies are out of style lately. Today's action heroes are more like Will Smith or Jason Statham, regular guys who often seem a bit out of their depth. (Both of those guys have bulked up lately, but still look a bit wiry and gawky, compared to Arnie and the other body-builder action stars of the 80s. And they seem grouchy and occasionally cocky, not larger-than-life like Arnie.) We've almost gotten used to seeing weaselly stars like Shia LaBeouf smirk their way through giant-robot movies, so it's weird to look back and see an Ubermensch who is never wrong, except when he's programmed to be bad.

But I feel as though a new round of Schwarzenegger love is over due — and not just because he starred in some of the most memorable science fiction movies of the past 20 years.

Watching eight or nine Arnie movies in a row, I'm really struck by how much manic energy he puts into everything he does. Being a killer cyborg, fighting a camouflaged alien hunter, dealing with his own clone... whatever it is, Arnie is 100 percent there. His eyes squint or bulge enormously, his neck tendons expand, and his mouth? His mouth is a whole separate actor in itself, along with his jaw. In a difficult spot, Arnie's teeth grit into a grimace the size of a Humvee. When he's thrilled, his open-mouthed smile appears about to devour the camera. Seriously, at the end of Total Recall, when Arnie has brought a breathable atmosphere to Mars, here's what I wrote in my notes: "There is AIR on Mars now, and Arnie is going to EAT it like a cheeseburger." His mouth is that huge, that full of appetite.

Look at those teeth!

Arnie brings conviction, in other words. Other actors can concentrate on being understated, or relatable. Anybody can be naturalistic, and try to build a real persona in the midst of unreal events. But Arnold is one of the few actors who ups the ante. He's in the midst of a crazy, unreal situation... and he's the most unreal thing about it. He totally believes in the space monster or the evil clonemasters. But more importantly, he's bigger than they are. You could drop a mothership next to Arnie, and he would still be bigger than it is. He's larger than unreal life.

The other thing that really jumps out at me about Ahnuld after watching so many of his films: he's the good guy, in a way that we don't see so much any more. Sure, he's occasionally kind of a bully, and he enjoys laughing at people who are physically weaker than him, including most women. But in every one of his movies, there's at least one moment where he chooses to do the right thing in a moment of jaw-jutting drama. He's willing to let his head be cut open. He won't shoot his own clone. In Total Recall, he clings to his identity as the white knight, even after he's told he's really an agent of evil. In Predator, he snarls that he doesn't do black ops. Etc. etc. etc. He's flamboyantly moral, even if he's not always a nice guy.

In short, he's everything I used to wish John McCain could be: genuine, honorable, and a little bit of a maniac in the cause of justice.

Maybe it's time for a return to Schwarzenegger values in our big scifi adventures?

Here's my rundown on every Arnold Schwarzenegger science fiction movie, based on having just watched all of them in one go. (I seriously watched Arnie while blogging about other stuff, watched in bed on my laptop, and even took my laptop into the bathroom and watched while I brushed my teeth. I dreamed about Arnie last night.)

The movie: Terminator (1984)
Arnie plays: A killer cyborg from the future, sent back to the 1980s to kill Sarah Connor, who will give birth to a leader of the resistance against the machine oppressors.
His performance: It's a slower, more purposeful Arnold, moving in slow-motion a lot of the time. He starts out not just naked, but shining in the blue light, all of his 10,000 muscles glowing bright indigo. His hair is super 1980s, almost a yuppie hairstyle, and he puts on disco jacket to stalk around frowning at everyone. When he closes in on Sarah Connor in the nightclub, he sways his pelvis like he's preparing to lambada with her, and his eyes bulge enormously when he shoots his gun.

When he says his famous line, "I'll be back," he leans in slowly, as if he's sharing a personal confidence with the random cop.

Taking away Arnie's eyebrows later in the film poses an extra acting challenge, but he's up to it. He scowls and grimaces even harder, and makes his forehead gnarl like an old tree. It's almost a mercy when he gets big sunglasses and doesn't have to act with his eyes any more.

The movie: Predator (1987)
Arnie plays: A super-commando named "Dutch," who's the best there is at what he does... just don't blow smoke up his ass. He's sent to the jungle on a bogus rescue mission, and winds up facing an inhuman killer that comes out of nowhere.
His performance: Our first glimpse of the jolly Arnie comes at the start of the movie, as he spontaneously arm-wrestles in mid-air with his old friend and they compare each other's bulging muscles. But once he gets to the jungle, he's grim and intense, believable as a combat veteran in a tough spot. Delivers lines like "You cooked up a story and dropped the six of us into a meat-grinder" with gusto. He squints a lot, until finally his eyes bug out and he screams, "Nooooooooooooo! Get to the choppa!"

Covering Arnie with thick mud poses another acting challenge, but he overcomes: his eyes go into overtime, since they're all you can see of him. Arnie's peepers roll around, bug out, and finally explode out of their sockets. "C'mawn! I'm here! C'mawn! Kill me!" At the end, it's a thoughtful, withdrawn Arnie being lifted off in the choppa.

The movie: The Running Man (1987)
Arnie plays: Ben Richards, a man accused of a crime he didn't commit, who has to survive his "public execution," staged in the form of a televised game show, in this Stephen King adaptation.
His performance: Arnie is jutting and gritting his jaw more than ever in this film. He seems a bit more sadistic, especially when he's bullying the woman he takes hostage, and later when he's killing and mutilating the thugs that are after him. But he gets a great moment where he says he won't kill a defenseless human being. It's very Captain Kirk in "The Arena." He stares intensely a LOT. He spends a lot of the movie being flat-out pissed at the people who set him up, lied to him, and put him in this fake game show, and it works. He's not just pissed, he's outraged.

The movie: Total Recall (1990)
Arnie plays: Douglas Quaid, a construction worker who pays to have false memories of a Martian adventure implanted in his head, only to find himself on a real Martian adventure. Or is it?
His performance: There's no ramping up. Arnie's eyes and tongue are bursting with energy from the first scene, where he dreams about Mars. He has the yuppie hair again. He grimaces constantly. In one scene, his "wife" kicks him in the crotch like 20 times, and he just keeps the same grimace he had before she started. He looks crotch-kicked pretty much the whole time in this movie. "Shit! Shit!" He yells. Is Arnie constipated? Watching Arnie at the end, clinging to a rope over an abyss and his grimace gets bigger and bigger, I'm hit with a thought — he really is the big-screen version of William Shatner.

The movie: Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Arnie plays: Another killer cyborg from the future. But this time he's been reprogrammed to protect Sarah Connor and her son, John Connor. He winds up being a sort of father figure to the troubled John.
His performance: He's actually more mellow, and yet more robotic, than he was in Terminator. Instead of just wreaking mayhem, he has to do stuff like stand on one foot and have long conversations with John Connor over humanity's self-destructiveness. He transforms into a sort of grumpy daddy halfway through, and seems a bit world-weary. More of an understated performance, and it totally scores.

The movie: Junior (1994)
Arnie plays: Dr. Alex Hesse, a scientist who agrees to carry a pregnancy inside his own manly body, as part of a fertility experiment.
His performance: Oh dear. At some point in the 1990s, somebody thought it would be a great idea to explore the chemistry between Danny DeVito's wise-guy and Arnold's big stiff. And it was a horrendous, multi-movie mistake. For one thing, they have no chemistry. For another, Arnold should be the wise-cracking guy, not Danny. Arnold is playing against type, trying to be first a lifeless nerdy scientist and then a weeping sentimental pregnant guy. He doesn't quite pull either of them off. Total misfire.

The movie: Batman And Robin (1997)
Arnie plays: Dr. Victor Fries, aka Mr. Freeze, a supervillain who can only live in sub-zero temperatures and gives out with wise cracks like "You're not sending ME to the cooler."
His performance: Arnie faces his biggest acting challenge yet: he's got no eyebrows, just like in Terminator. And he's covered with crap, just like in Predator. What can you do with that? He pretty much just bellows his lines at the top of his lungs, secure in the knowledge that whatever happens, his will be the best performance in this death-trap of a movie.

The movie: The Sixth Day (2000)
Arnie plays: Adam Gibson, a pilot who discovers that he's been illegally cloned — or is he the clone, and the other Adam is the original???
His performance: This is the plastic surgeried Arnie in full effect, and he can't do all the crazy facial expressions he used to. But that's okay, he can smile bigger than ever, and his eyes still bug out in spite of his stretched out skin. He gives his sidekick lessons on manliness, including having a big chest and a flat stomach. He starts out manically jolly — "I had the breakfast of champions today!" — but then gets freaked out after he discovers the evil cloning scam thing. When he gets worked up, he sort of leers.

Watching this movie, I'm struck by a couple of thoughts: Arnie has managed to be both an Everyman and a Superman — he's superhuman, but he's also a regular guy who's victimized by the man. Also: Arnold Schwarzenegger is Charlton Heston. He's the manly dude who's always getting thrust into dystopian messes by damn fools.

The movie: Terminator 3: The Rise Of The Machines (2003)
Arnie plays: Yet another killer cyborg from the future, once again reprogrammed to protect John Connor (and John's future wife.) But this time, Arnie is the "obsolete" model, and the cyborg attacker is far more advanced and slicker.
His performance: I hate to say it, but Arnie seems bored in this movie. The film seems intent on turning his famous character into a joke, stealing clothes from a male stripper, wearing Elton John glasses and grabbing John Connor's head to look for brain trauma. "Talk to da hand." Arnie sleepwalks through the whole exercise, only waking up a bit for the fight scenes. Most painful is when Arnie tries to dispense "basic psychology," like "anger is more useful than despair." He seems a bit sad when he announces that he is an obsolete model. A hint of the old Arnie zing when he tells the more advanced robot T-X, "You are TERMINATED!"

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If you're not satisfied with Robin Williams' head, you can also get his eyes and arm (also from Bicentennial Man) as well as some sort of weird animatronic prop. Also on eBay:

• A ton of props from Southland Tales, including a belt worn by Sarah Michelle Gellar, Gellar's character's business card, an American flag, dog tags worn by Janeane Garofalo's soldier character and a wedding cake topper.
• A weird-ass tumbler that John Travolta drank out of in Battlefield Earth. Probably still coated in his saliva.
• A sign from the precog police station in Minority Report.
• A crew-member uniform from Star Trek: Generations You could wear it to a Halloween party. But instead you'll probably just keep it in an acid-free box and fondle it occasionally.
• The "tachyon admitter" the Fantastic Four used to separate the Silver Surfer from his surfboard in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
• Conference-room furniture from the Transformers movie. Just think, you could, ummm... use it in your conference room.
• A rubber pick-axe and crampons from Alien vs. Predator.
• A sign, in some alien script, from Ultraviolet.
• A zombie plague victim mask from Resident Evil: Extinction.