Iron Man 2

Marvel's Joe Quesada has seen a rough cut of the movie, and he's unsurprisingly effusive about the film, especially the role of War Machine:

"[Don] Cheadle is one of the greatest living American actors, what do you expect?" said Quesada of the actor playing War Machine's alter ego, James "Rhodey" Rhodes, in the blockbuster sequel. "I think fans are going to love it - especially fans of War Machine - and he does kick some major ass."

[MTV]

Thor

Quesada also talked about Kenneth Branagh's film, saying it won't be what we expect:

"It's going to be pretty epic, and regardless of what you think it's going to be, it's going to surprise people," he added. "It's an interesting piece for a superhero movie. It's going to change the conventions of the superhero movie."

[MTV]

Book of Eli

Here's a new TV spot for the post-apocalyptic film. [via Spoiler TV]

Plus, we get tons of images of the bibliophile post-apocalypse. [Fantasy.fr — Thanks Manu]

Legion

We get lots of killer angels and Frosty Treats guy in the latest TV spot for the religious Armageddon thriller. [via Spoiler TV]

Doctor Who

The Master has the Doctor all tied up in this clip from "The End of Time, Part Two." [Blogtor Who]

And here's a rumor we're calling shenanigans on. A reader wrote in claiming that a BBC source "who has ALWAYS been right about Doctor Who spoilers" says that the Doctor will not regenerate at "The End of Time." And he's calling the new season a sort of reboot, with the Matt Smith Doctor actually being the First Doctor. It's an interesting thought, but we've already seen tons of set pics showing Matt Smith wearing David Tennant's costume, plus reports on the TARDIS getting a makeover and Tennant's sonic screwdriver exploding and being replaced. So it seems clear that Tennant's Doctor almost definitely regenerates into Smith's Doctor, in spite of Russell T. Davies' hints to the contrary. Just in case you see this rumor circulating elsewhere.

Lost

E! is still playing their game where they list a bunch of spoilers and only one is true. This one involves Ilana and the survivors of Ajira Flight 316. Once again, bear in mind that only one of the following spoilers is true:

1. They were sent by Charles Widmore to kill Ben.
2. They were sent by the Man in Black (Jacob's nemesis) to find the island's time travel mechanism and destroy it.
3. They were sent to protect Jacob.
4. They were sent to revive John Locke.
5. Ilana is future Sayid in drag.

Apparently, we'll find out which one is true fairly early in the season. [E!]

True Blood

The werewolf Alcide is primed to throw a wrench into this Sookie/Eric/Bill love triangle business. Joe Magnaniello says it hasn't been decided how much the True Blood Alcide will resemble the character from the books, but we do know he's a physically large presence, strong and protective from a construction background. And his living flesh and blood and his ability to radiate heat, will prove incredibly enticing to Sookie after her experiences with chilly vampires. [EW]

The Sarah Jane Adventures

Russell T. Davies has officially confirmed that the show will return for a fourth series. [Planet Gallifrey]

Clone Wars

The New Year's Eve episodes will give us plenty of General Grievous. In the first episode "Grievous Intrigue:"

General Grievous emerges from the shadows to stir up trouble for the Jedi heroes, ensnaring them in a trap that threatens their mission and their lives. It's a deadly game – and the scheming Separatist cyborg doesn't plan on playing by the rules!

In the second episode, "The Deserter," we will see clones pit against each other in an idealogical battle.

Smallville

Just why is Zatanna kissing Clark in the promo for "Warrior?" It's not clear yet, but you can bet that Lois is less than pleased. In that same episode, which takes place at Comic Con, Lois will be in costume — possibly superhero-themed. [Fancast]

Chuck

Zachary Levi talks more about the new season. [Chuck TV]

Additional reporting by Josh C. Snyder and Charlie Jane Anders.

The First Avenger: Captain America is also aimed at a 2011 release (22 July, following Thor's May 20th release date), and Fangoria has let slip that the movie will start shooting in June next year, following Thor's principal shoot, which starts next month. We know that the movie will be directed by The Rocketeer's Joe Johnson and written by the team of Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, probably best known for both Chronicles of Narnia movies, but beyond that, everything's been kept pretty much under wraps.

IMDB's plot synopsis just reiterates the character's origins during WWII, and it's a fair bet to assume that we'll see a lot of period action in Cap's solo movie. In fact, we're wondering if that's pretty much all we're going to see, because his arrival in the present day is so linked to Avengers lore to tell too much of that story without including the Avengers ahead of their own movie, which seems pretty unlikely. We already know that Avengers scriptwriter Zak Penn is a fan of Mark Millar's Ultimates retelling of Avengers history, so perhaps we should prepare for The First Avenger to repeat The Ultimates' first issue, which told the backstory of Captain America leading up to his accidental suspended animation, allowing for the Avengers movie to continue from that point, introducing him (and new viewers) to the characters from all the other movies who'll have teamed up to form Marvel's mega franchise.

Of course, we'll have to wait for casting announcements for the movie to start surfacing, allowing for more detailed and informed guesses as to what we're going to see during the First Avenger - not to mention what timeframe we're going to see it in - but don't be surprised if Marvel's 2011 movie slate will seek to expand the superhero genre in more epic, mythical directions (Thor) and more gritty, realistic "War Is Hell" ones at the same time.

Launching next March with a reprint of 2008's Invincible Iron Man #1, Marvel's Greatest Comics will reprint first chapters of critically-acclaimed series or storylines for just a dollar. According to Marvel's VP of Sales, David Gabriel:

We're proud of the books Marvel publishes and now not only are we giving retailers a great way to promote our top collections, but also giving consumers a chance to sample some of our top comics, maybe for the first time and at an unbeatable price.

After the Iron Man reprint (which, as a special launch promotion, will actually be free), the line will move onto the first issues of Ed Brubaker's Captain America run, Marvel's (incredible) new Wonderful Wizard Of Oz adaptation, J. Michael Straczynski's Thor and Garth Ennis' Punisher Max. Given the crossmedia opportunities afforded by all so far, we'd expect Spider-Man and X-Men before too long.

Start Here with Marvel's Greatest Comics For Only $1.00 [Marvel]

Although his name may be unfamiliar to many, D'Esposito has been "President of Physical Production" for Marvel Studios since the beginning, overseeing the budget and timeline of Iron Man, Incredible Hulk and the upcoming Thor, Captain America and Avengers movies (Feige has called D'Esposito an "incredible friend and collaborator" in the past; we hope he still feels that way now that the two share job titles and responsibilities).

The most interesting part of this story is probably the questions it raises: Why does Marvel need a second Studio President now? Is Feige looking to take on more responsibilities elsewhere, or are we about to hear of an increased slate of post-Avengers plans already?

Marvel Studios appoints new co-president [Hollywood Reporter]

Spock
Died: Sacrificing himself by bringing the warp engines back online at the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, leading to his dying from exposure to radiation.
Undied: His body was resurrected in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock thanks to the Deus Ex Machina powers of the Genesis Planet, and it turned out that his soul had lived on all along thanks to mind melding with Bones.
Cause of Undeath: Mind-meld and blatant plot ridiculousness in order to keep the fans happy. Admittedly, it was all set up in Star Trek II, but still.
Does It Count As Death?: Well, his soul was alive the entire time in Bones, but his body had enough time to go through a funeral and being shot off into space, so... 50/50? But not really, let's face it.

Ellen Tigh
Died: Poisoned by her husband after (in his eyes) betraying humanity in "Exodus, Part II" at the start of Battlestar Galactica's third season.
Undied: Instantly downloaded into a new body as part of the Fifth Cylon retcon, as revealed in the fourth season's "Sometimes A Great Notion."
Cause of Undeath: Traditional cylon download/rebirth.
Does It Count As Death?: Well, she was instantly reborn, which suggests that she was never actually dead as such, but the whole Fifth Cylon thing muddies the waters... especially when she was reborn as someone who wasn't exactly the Ellen she was when she died. We're going with "Kinda, but not really."

Boba Fett
Died: Falling into the Sarlacc's mouth in Return Of The Jedi.
Undied: Climbing back out of the Sarlacc's mouth in comic sequel Star Wars: Dark Empire.
Cause of Undeath: He was swallowed by apparently never chewed or digested and climbed his way out, apparently.
Does It Count As Death?: If you believe Dark Empire, not in the slightest. George Lucas apparently disagrees, however; it's said that he edited Fett's last appearance in the special edition of Return Of The Jedi to make it clearer that it's meant to be the end of the character.

John Sheridan
Died: Avoiding certain death by nuclear explosion at the end of Babylon 5's third season finale, "Z'ha'dum," by jumping into a pit so deep that it was impossible to survive. Oh, and then there was that nuclear explosion, which presumably would've destroyed the pit and everything within it anyway.
Undied: At the start of the show's fourth season, Sheridan was revealed to be in a limbo between life and death because of his love for Delenn. With the help of - and 20 years worth of lifeforce from - helpful fellow limbo-ite Lorien, he comes back to the land of the living.
Cause of Undeath: As Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting would say, choosing life. Who knew it was that simple?
Does It Count As Death?: Nope. Think of it as getting as far as death's foyer, before deciding to turn back because you'd changed your mind.

Tasha Yar
Died: Wanting out of her Starfleet contract early, Denise Crosby got her character killed at the hands of a gloopy, ooky oil monster in the first season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation "Skin of Evil."
Undied: Thanks to time travel shenanigans, turns out never to have died in the alternate timeline of third season episode "Yesterday's Enterprise," and then manages to return to the past of the original timeline at the end of the episode in a way that still doesn't make a lot of sense.
Cause of Undeath: Alternate timelines having prevented her from dying in the first place.
Does It Count As Death?: Well, a Tasha Yar definitely died. In fact, as we learn upon the appearance of the second Yar's daughter Sela, the other Tasha was killed unsuccessfully trying to escape from the Romulans, so it looks as if any and all Tashas would end up dead one way or another.

Superman
Died: At the hands of the apparently unstoppable Doomsday in 1993's The Death of Superman storyline.
Undied: Midway through the follow-on The Return of Superman storyline, when it's been revealed that none of the four characters who've taken up the mantle are the real thing.
Cause of Undeath: He woke up. No, really; the audience is pretty much told that he'd never died in the first place, he'd just gone into superhibernation in order to heal from the fight.
Does It Count As Death?: Not at all, but it definitely counted as a moneyspinner for DC Comics, who went on to kill Green Arrow and Green Lantern within the next couple of years, as well as teasing deaths for the Flash and breaking Batman's back.

Bucky
Died: Trapped on a bomb that mentor and Nazi-fighting partner Captain America had managed to jump off of before it exploded, as explained way back in 1963's Avengers series.
Undied: In 2005's "Winter Soldier" storyline of Captain America, where he got reintroduced and prepped to become the new Captain America in 2007.
Cause of Undeath: Turns out that Bucky was, in fact, blown to bits by the exploding bomb... It's just that they were pretty large bits. Large enough to rebuild him into a brainwashed no-good commie assassin who gets put on ice between missions, until he meets Cap, goes rogue, remembers who he is, and then uses his mighty Russian technology for the good of American mankind.
Does It Count As Death?: What's brainwashed Russian assassin for no?

The Flash
Died: Which one? Barry Allen died in 1985's Crisis On Infinite Earths. Wally West disappeared and was, at various times, presumed dead/missing/no-one could make up their mind in 2004's Infinite Crisis, and Bart Allen kicked the bucket in 2007's The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #13.
Undied: Wally came back in 2007's Justice League of America #10, Barry in 2008's Final Crisis #1 and Bart in 2009's Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #4.
Cause of Undeath: Both Barry and Wally had, it turns out, never died. Barry had been swallowed into the Speed Force, which is the cosmic... thing... that gives all super-speed characters their powers in the DC Universe, while Wally's fate was ultimately (after a couple of failed attempts that were quickly contradicted) decided upon a variation of "He took his family on vacation to an alien planet and didn't tell anyone." Don't ask. Bart, meanwhile, did die, kind of... but his teenage self was trapped in a futuristic lightning rod and then magically released in the 31st century to fight Superboy Prime. Again, it's probably better if you didn't ask.
Does It Count As Death?: No question for either Barry or Wally (No), but Bart... I have no idea. I've read Legion of Three Worlds multiple times, and still don't understand the explanation that's given there; let's just never mention it again and pretend it didn't happen.

Jason Todd
Died: As the result of a real-life phone vote to see if Todd, the second Robin (as in Batman and), should be killed at the hands of the Joker. Seriously, 1988's comic industry, what the hell were you thinking?
Undied: 2004's Batman revealed that Todd was not only not dead, but had magically aged more than most other characters in the DC Universe in his off-panel absence.
Cause of Undeath: Superboy was punching the walls of reality, and things went a bit weird. You know how it is with these superheroes and their punching the walls of reality; history gets rewritten all over the place. Just be glad that Batman didn't end up as Batdinosaur. Although, now that we think about it, that'd be awesome.
Does It Count As Death?: Magically contradicting Schrodinger and his cat, Jason Todd both did and didn't die. His official history has it that he died, and then just came back to life thanks to the punching of reality, meaning that he was still alive. So, while it ultimately doesn't count as permanent death, there was a death in there somewhere.

Jean Grey
Died: In 1980's famous Uncanny X-Men #137, where she sacrifices herself for the good of the universe to stop herself from becoming overwhelmed by the godlike power she possessed that might lead her to eat a couple of planets if she got peckish.
Undied: It's revealed in 1986's Fantastic Four #286 that the Jean Grey who killed herself was never actually Jean Grey at all, but the Phoenix force, who's been cosmically imprinted with Jean's personality. Don't worry; the Phoenix force was already back by that point anyway.
Cause of Undeath: Jean hadn't died (at that point), and the resurrection of the Phoenix force was somewhat implied by the name - The official explanation was that the Phoenix force hadn't actually died either, just lain dormant until someone else (Jean's daughter from an alternate timeline. If you don't already know, don't ask) claimed it.
Does It Count As Death?: Before the retcon and ruined Chris Claremont's X-Men once and for all you bastards, it did. Now? No-one died until years later, when Jean really got the Phoenix power and then ended up dying anyway. Guess there's something unlucky about the name or something.

Thor and The Avengers

Jon Favreau might have wondered how the supernatural aspects of Thor would blend with the more scifi bits of the other Avengers movies, but Brian Bendis isn't worried:

"My advice is, has been, and will be, that much like the comics, you look at movies like the 'Oceans' movies that have all these different flavors, you put the flavors together and you cook 'em," Bendis told MTV News. "It absolutely can be done."

Like Joe Quesada, Bendis has read the Captain America script, in addition to the Thor and Iron Man 2 scripts. And he's pleased, saying they go somewhere better and different from where the comics have gone. [MTV]

Paul

To research their film about an alien and a pair of friends who tour America's famous UFO sites, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost did their own UFO tour, starting in LA and ending in Colorado. Although most of the dialogue for the alien (voiced by Seth Rogen) has been recorded, it's going to end up being tweaked and re-recorded. Why? The pair were pushed to make an R-rated film, and now Rogen's dialogue needs to be raunchier. Jason Bateman's character — an agent chasing the group — is named Lorenzo Zoil, a goof on the drama Lorenzo's Oil. [SCI FI Wire]

New Moon

Jacob and Edward face down in the new TV Spot:

Lost

The crew was filming near a school in Hawaii yesterday. Fast fingered tweeters nabbed photos of Matthew Fox and described the scene: Jack drives down the street in his old Jeep, and runs into a school called Saint Mary's Academy (is this the same as Central Intermediate School from the other day, or a different school?) in quite a hurry. [Dark UFO]

Despite rumors to the contrary, Harold Perrineau did not turn down an offer to appear in the final season. In fact, he was never asked. He has no idea if he'll be back, but says he'd jump at the chance to return and say his goodbyes. [E! Online]

Dollhouse

We've known for a while that this week's episode "Belonging" focuses on Sierra's backstory, and it will be a real nightmare; we'll learn that she's a missing and exploited woman. Plus, Adele gets to unleash her moral fury on Sierra's abuser, telling him, "You're a raping scumbag one tick shy of a murderer." But Adele and Topher will face some moral quandaries of their own.

We've seen lots of pictures of Alexis Denisof's Senator Daniel Perrin hanging out with Echo in next week's the next episode The Public Eye, and we'll actually see them in bed together. They don't actually have sex, but Echo will be in a lace bra and panties during the scene in question. Also, there's a moment that reminded the pre-reviewers at E! of the BSG episode where we find out Boomer's a Cylon. So is Daniel a doll? It would explain the Dollhouse-type pajamas we saw him wearing a while back. In fact, the episode will be full of sleeper agents, twists and turns, moral relativism, and role reversal.

Summer Glau's character Bennett will have a surprising connection to another character on the show, and Miracle Laurie will be back as Madeline, formerly November, to break Paul's heart. [E! Online]

In the ominously titled tenth episode "The Attic" (written by none other than Dr. Horrible's Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen), we'll encounter Clyde, a genius who "holds the secrets to the Dollhouse." The episode will also feature Matsu, a proper businessman. [Spoiler TV]

Fringe

Sebastian Roche is replacing Thomas Kretschmann as the head of the hybrid supersoldiers from the other dimension. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Caprica

Ryan Robbins, who played Charlie Connor in Battlestar Galactica is about to start shooting on an episode of Caprica. He'll play a character named Diego who is very important to Clarice's storyline. [Battlestar Blog]

And here's a closer look at Athena Academy, where Zoe and other members of the Caprican elite go to school. [SCI FI Wire]

V

The Wall Street Journal has a great interview with Morena Baccarin. She talks a bit about the politics of V, saying she watched a lot of political debates when modeling her alien diplomat. She also mentions that, in the pilot, we see an alien sleeper cell, and humans will get the sense that the people in their communities may not be whom they see.

Will Baccarin eat a guinea pig like Diana did in the original series? She says she hasn't eaten anything odd yet in any of the episodes she's filmed, but the producer did ask if she had any issue with rodents. [WSJ]

In the second episode, "There Is No Normal Anymore," Erica and Father Jack have decided they're anti-Visitor, and soon find they're being tracked by a V Seeker. Chad thinks he blew it with his exclusive first interview with Anna, and looks to be more investigative in his next newscast. Dale Maddox has gone missing, and both his wife and law enforcement start questioning Erica about his whereabouts. [Spoiler TV]

Also, Scott Wolf is way smiley in the episode's promo photos. [Spoiler TV]

Heroes

It looks like we're back in the Burnt Toast Diner in "Once Upon a Time in Texas." [The ODI]

The title of the twelfth episode is "Upon This Rock." [Spoiler TV]

Smallville

There have been a few small changes to the episode schedule. The two-part "Society" will be the season's eleventh and twelfth episodes, and "Persuasion" will be episode 13. [Spoiler TV]

The Sarah Jane Adventures

The Mona Lisa comes to violent life in Mona Lisa's Revenge, airing November 12th and 13th. The gang goes on a school field trip that quickly turns disastrous as art comes to life. The kids find themselves trapped without Sarah jane's help when Mona Lisa vows to release her terrifying brother from his prison. But Clyde has the key and everything will depend on him. [Blogtor Who]

And David Tennant returns! Here are images of the Tenth Doctor in The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith. [Blogtor Who]

Additional Reporting by Alexis Brown and Charlie Jane Anders.

Captain America:

Marvel's Joe Quesada says he's seen a couple outlines and an initial screenplay, and (not surprisingly) he liked them. He also said, "It's very unexpected, the kind of movie it is." (Meaning, it's not a war movie with superhero overtones, wrapped in a mad-science plot device?) And he says this movie sets up the Avengers movie "in a fantastic way." And there's a wish list of actors to play the star-spangled Steve Rogers. [Comic Book Resources]

Inception:

Talulah Riley, who plays the character referred to as "Blonde" in the cast list, says she takes part in some of the weird altered-physics scenes you glimpsed in the trailer, where people are going sideways and upside-down. "I get tilted." She says she gets scenes with Leonardo DiCaprio, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy and Ken Watanabe. [Sci Fi Wire]

And here's a set pic showing DiCaprio and Ellen Page during filming in Paris, looking utterly ordinary. More at the link. [SplashNews via Cinemablend]

Cowboys And Aliens:

Co-writer Roberto Orci describes a key concern in adapting this graphic novel to the big screen:

How do you make it so it's not too funny? You hear the title Cowboys & Aliens and think, what is it? Is it Wild, Wild West? The exact same structure and story can kill you if you have the wrong tone. That's the hard part." As Kurtzman noted, "It's not a comedy. What we came to is imagine you're watching Unforgiven and then the aliens from Alien land.

[IGN via ComicBookResources]

John Carter Of Mars:

Willem Dafoe, who plays the many-limbed Tars Tarkas, says "I know there's a period where we're going to work with movement and language." (No clue what that means.) And he say the film is political, the same way Tarzan isn't just about loincloths. [MTV]

The Fourth Kind:

How many kinds of intriguing are these new stills? Four, possibly? [IGN]

Lost:

No news is good news for Sawyer, who isn't facing any terrible maladies or other mishaps in the final season, as far as semi-informed sources know. [E! Online]

There are a ton of set reports. The show is building yet another new set — an old-looking struture at the top of the Lighthouse trail — and it may actually be the base of a lighthouse, or some other island station. Part of the building may be added later using CG.

Meanwhile, those photos we showed you the other day, of Matthew Fox in front of a building with concert banners hanging down? Apparently that building is being turned into Central Intermediate School. And Jack had scenes with a new character, Dogen (Hiroyuki Sanada) who is one of the the show's "new Others." (And good to see the show continues its tradition of naming characters after famous thinkers.) So it's interesting that one of these Others is off the island. Also, Jack and Hurley had some beach scenes with Jacob.

And finally, Fox also filmed some scenes at the Institute of Astronomy, reportedly involving Jack's estranged mother. More pics at the link. [Hawaii Weblog]

Co-creator Damon Lindelof was interviewed on a local radio station, and a caller expressed a concern that Juliet and Kate aren't kicking as much ass as they used to. Lindelof replied that if you like the badass versions of Kate and Juliet, you'll really love the show's final season. Man, here's hoping. [Lyly Ford]

Sarah Jane Adventures:

A nice new pic from the upcoming David Tennant appearance. If you don't give a quiet "W00t" when you see this pic, there is no hope for you. [David Tennant News via Doctor Who on LJ]

V:

Another new promo, focusing on Father Jack.

Supernatural:

Anna will definitely be back. Soon, we hope. [E! Online]

FlashForward:

Dominic Monaghan says episode six (airing next week) is his big episode. And his character, Simon, gets pretty messed up. Also, you'll be shocked and amazed to hear the show will keep going deeper into the rabbit hole, and spinning out more mysteries, as the season goes on, and then things will start coming together again by season's end. [E! Online]

Here's a sneak peek from this week's episode, "Gimme Some Truth" [FlashForward.pl]

Heroes:

Do you care? If you do, apparently the guy who dies is the one person many people think could never bite the dust. (So, probably not Nathan or Hiro. My money's on Sylar or Matt.) [E! Online]

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown.

Let's quickly get the superhero stuff out of the way, shall we? DC is launching a new Azrael series, mixing Batman and The DaVinci Code for a new religious hero to light Gotham's streets. Or something.

DC is also putting out a hardcover collection of the much-delayed, but much-awesome Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds series, that redefined the Legion of Super-Heroes franchise at least until the next reboot.

Marvel sees that collection and raises Captain America: Road to Reborn, another hardcover collection, this time of the Cap issues leading up to Steve Rogers' return. Marvel also offers Dark Wolverine Vol. 1: The Prince, a collection of the first solo stories starring Wolverine's bastard (in many senses of the word) son, and the special issue Dark Reign: The List - Hulk, in which gamma irradiated monsters come face to face with Marvel's current New World Order (I predict smashing).

Keeping outside of monsters for the time being, Nexus: Space Opera and Star Trek: Mission's End offer your fill of interstellar drama for the week, with the former bringing back the cult space cop superhero from its 1980s indie comic heyday and the latter offering a take on the final days of James Kirk's original five-year mission. Sticking with movies, the first issue of GI Joe Movie: Snake Eyes lets Ray Park, the movie's own silent ninja, co-write a story about his own character.

But none of those, as fine as they are - and Nexus and Star Trek are both particularly fine - hold a candle to Image Comics' reissue of Five Fists of Science, Matt Fraction and Steven Saunders' alternate-history tale of Twain and Tesla teaming up to save the world from forces more ancient and deadly than many could imagine. If ever there was a book I could eagerly recommend to the majority of io9 readers, it'd be this one. Go forth and buy.

Oh, but not yet. We've still got the Hallowe'enish books to go! You know about Angel Vs. Frankenstein after yesterday's preview, but IDW also has Frankenstein's Mobster, a pun-laden, funny gangster romp recasting of Mary Shelley's misunderstood monster, and Spike Omnibus, a collection of stories about Joss Whedon's other vampire with a soul, for horror fans this week.

Marvel, meanwhile, has the first issue of The Stand: Soul Survivors, a new series adapting part of the Stephen King novel, and DC are putting out their annual DC Universe Hallowe'en Special filled with spooky shorts starring superhero favorites. 'Tis the season, after all.

Whether you're looking for things going bump in the night, or giant steampunk inventions designed to scare the world into peace, you'll be able to find it on this week's shipping list from Diamond Distributors, and then inside your local comic store. But, seriously: At least leaf through Five Fists Of Science. You'll thank me afterwards.

Written by Avengers head writer Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Thor and House of M artist Olivier Coipel, the Siege event (launching with December's Siege: The Cabal special issue) brings the stars of Marvel Studios' next three movies face-to-face for the first time in six years.

(In the meantime, two of them have "died" and been brought back to life, and Iron Man has become the head of the US intelligence community before being forced to induce a loss of intellect in order to save the world from someone misusing the files stored in his head. Or something),

The series also brings the Dark Reign status quo to an end, closing a storyline that's been running since 2006's Civil War series. But that's not all, according to Bendis:

What people may not know is that what happens at the end of SIEGE is as big a change to the Avengers franchise as when we Disassembled them and started the New Avengers. A decisive change for the Avengers franchise coming out of it will be completely different then what went into it. And that is something I'm very, very excited about.

A decisive change that might leave a team that resembles the yet-to-be-announced movie Avengers? Somehow, we wouldn't be too surprised.

Diamond Summit '09: Siege [Marvel]

Shazam! (1974)
With one word, Billy Batson becomes the World's Mightiest Mortal... but that's about the most believable thing in this series, which creepily featured the underage Billy traveling around the country in an RV accompanied by his "mentor" and occasionally talking to the gods who gave him his powers, who all happened to be badly-animated cartoons. Add in Billy or Captain Marvel helpfully telling you the moral of the episode at the end each week, and you've got a recipe for a dull show enlivened only by the size of Billy's hair.

Electra-Woman and Dyna-Girl (1976)
I'm not really sure this one needs any explanation as to why it's on the list, once you've watched the video.

The Amazing Spider-Man (1977)
In which television revealed the truth about Marvel's favorite superhero: He looked kind of ridiculous. This short-lived series also missed the point of the comic book altogether by not using any of the character's famous supervillains, instead giving him ninjas and terrorists to fight. What was the point of that?

Legends Of The Superheroes (1978)
No expense was spared on bringing DC's biggest name superheroes to the small screen in this live action version of Super Friends - well, unless you count the money that would've been spent on a good script. Again, proving that bad writing and poor special effects can overcome even the best intentions, this two-part series (The second episode of which was a celebrity roast of the heroes led by Ed McMahon. No, really) also featured a villain more diabolical than Lex Luthor: A laugh track.

Those Terrible Captain America TV Movies (1979)
We can just imagine the pitch meeting for these two TV movies: "So, we have the rights to Captain America - You know, the guy who embodies the American Dream and fought in World War II against Hitler? I've got a great take on him: We turn him into Evel Kinivel. And let's get rid of that mask, too. Make it into a motorcycle helmet - That's much more hep." It could've been worse, we guess... We're just not sure how.

The Incredible Hulk Returns (1988)
The original Hulk series was, if you ask us, one of the few superhero shows that worked - and that's because they didn't really treat it as a superhero show at all. When they revived the series a decade later and started pairing him with guest stars from the Marvel Universe, though...? Not a good idea:

(The Daredevil appearance in the next special, Trial of The Incredible Hulk, may be even worse; especially because they seem to have gotten the character mixed up with a generic ninja who happened to be blind.)

Superboy (1988)
An attempt to spin the Superman movies into a weekly format, the Superboy series had sincerity going for it - Sincerity and the seeming inability to not try and drastically rework the series between seasons every year (Including recasting the lead role after the original Superboy asked for a raise around the same time as getting arrested for drunk driving), leading to a schizophrenic, uneven show let down by shoddy special effects.

The Flash (1990)
The Flash comic book may be populated with colorful villains, but the television show didn't have the same luck (Mark Hamill's Trickster, in the clip below, aside), presumably for budgetary reasons. Add in a leading man as stiff as his ridiculously over-sculpted costume, and it's no surprise that this show only lasted one season.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1993)
Secret identities, colorful outfits, super powers, fighting crime... These guys count as superheroes, right? Maybe it's our age, maybe our dedication to things like plot, dialogue and nuance, or perhaps it's just our aversion to cheap monsters in anything that doesn't actually involve Godzilla, but the long-running (and multiple-show-spanning: It's on its fifteenth different title right now) series always seemed... well, almost unwatchably bad to us.

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993)
It's a judgment call as to whether this show really deserves to be here. On the one hand, the Moonlighting-esque relationship between its leads was cute, and John Shea's Lex Luthor was a lot of fun... But on the other, it was a show that struggled to come up with good ideas each week and often failed, leading to an episode where Clark married a clone of Lois, who needed to eat frogs in order to survive. Or something. And what was with essentially writing Lex out after one season, anyway?

Generation X (1996)
A pilot adapting Marvel's X-Men spin-off, Generation X made it to air but never to full-series, meaning that the world was spared the low-budget high-concept struggle of teens having to live with their mutant abilities in a world that hated and feared them... because they couldn't act.

Justice League of America (1997)
Possibly the ultimate proof that TV and superheroes don't mix, this is another unsuccessful pilot that aired nonetheless, and features bad writing, bad acting, bad special effects, and some of the most literal - and most embarrassing - superhero costumes ever seen on screen. It's like a landmark of fail.

Mutant X (2001)
Marvel's short-lived television series about mutants that isn't related to the X-Men at all oh no please don't sue us Fox (They did, nonetheless) tried to swerve away from comparisons to the publisher's successful mutant franchise by underplaying everything to the point of boredom. Even Generation X would've been better than this.

Birds of Prey (2002)
It had so much potential - Batman and Catwoman's daughter teaming up with the former Batgirl to fight crime? Hello, high concept - but the execution let it down badly with shoddy writing, lack of direction and the mistaken idea that camp was better than character development. When something makes Smallville look subtle and nuanced, you know you're in trouble.

The Ones That Didn't Suck
Batman (1966)
Almost everything about it is wrong - The cheap jokes! The ill-fitting costumes! Replacing Julie Newmar with Eartha Kitt! - but it all works nonetheless; Batman's 1960s incarnation may not be the best translation from page to screen, but as a weird totem of the era, it remains a classic.

Wonder Woman (1975)
We love Wonder Woman as a character, and this show may be a lot to do with that. While the comic version was having identity issues at the time this series was being made, the TV show took her back to her heyday, added the "let me twirl into my costume" and fittingly made Lynda Carter the star she should've been all along.

The Incredible Hulk (1978)
As we said above, the Hulk show worked despite its title character - Riffing on The Fugitive with an occasional need for a giant silent strongman, the show offered a completely different take on the character from the comics, and one that was arguably better.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1996)
When it comes to television series about people with magical powers, we don't think we're alone in thinking that Joss Whedon did everything right. Mixing just the right amounts of humor and tragedy into the supernatural and superpowered stories, Buffy is everything that superhero shows like Smallville and Heroes should be trying to emulate... if only they could drag themselves away from the superficial special effects and overcooked dialogue.

The Obvious Exceptions
Anything animated
Yes, all of the above shows were live-action, and yes, we know that superhero cartoons have a long and proud history on television as well; we're partial to some Justice League Unlimited, especially if Darkseid is the bad guy. But as much as adding animated series in here may have ruined the grade curve, let's not forget things like this:

or this:

I think you know what I'm saying.

The heirs to Kirby, who co-created the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Avengers, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and Captain America - and had a hand in creating Spider-Man, pretty much completing the set - have sent out 45 notices of copyright termination to companies including Marvel Entertainment, Disney, Paramount (distributors for Iron Man, Hulk and the next five Marvel movies), Sony (the studio behind the Spider-Man movies, 20th Century Fox (X-Men and Fantastic Four) and others, expressing intent to own copyright on Kirby's creations. The notices did not only involve comic books and movies; apparently, Hasbro and Universal also received notices, for the toy and theme park rights as well.

The Kirby estate is taking the claim seriously, hiring Marc Toberoff, the attorney who's been representing the Siegel estate in the recent Superman/Superboy lawsuits. While Marvel itself has offered no comment on the notices yet, Disney issued a statement saying, essentially, that it's not a big deal:

The notices involved are an attempt to terminate rights seven to 10 years from now, and involve claims that were fully considered in the acquisition.

Considering Kirby's importance to the creation of the core characters in the Marvel Universe, losing any control over the rights of his creations could be costly at best, devastating at worst, for Marvel and Disney. Considering that the Kirby estate was on good terms with Marvel as recently as 2006, when Marvel released a series based upon the previously unseen Kirby concept Galactic Bounty Hunters, expect some form of negotiations to be taking place sooner rather than later.

In Wake of Disney-Marvel Deal, Cartoonist's Heirs Seek to Reclaim Rights [New York Times]

Talking to Comic Book Resources, Feige admitted that Samuel L. Jackson's nine movie deal with Marvel is indeed a clue as to how the Avengers are going to get toegther:

At the end of the first [Iron Man], for the people who were patient enough to wait through the end credits, they met this guy named Nick Fury. They or Tony had no idea who he was. In this movie, he opens that door a little bit more for Tony and invites him to walk through it. Tony may or may not do that in this movie. But Nick Fury is the conduit through which all the characters will connect.

When asked whether the Hulk would feature in the Avengers movie, Feige replied,

I think so. In the comics, he has.

Another character we can expect to see in Avengers is Scarlett Johannsen's Black Widow; Feige was asked whether fans could expect to see her in that movie or her own spin-off, and he said,

She's signed on for all of those should we be lucky enough to have an audience that wants to see them.

So now we know at least six characters who'll be appearing in the movie: Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk, Nick Fury and Black Widow. Given that Iron Man 2 is also introducing well-known Avengers character Hawkeye, it's a fair bet to assume he'll be a seventh... and we have a line-up that should be very familiar not only to fans of Marvel's early Avengers comics, but also Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's Ultimates rebooted version. With Avengers screenwriter Zak Penn having previously said that Ultimates was a big influence on how he approaches this material, is it too early to assume that the first Avengers movie will be an adaptation of that particular series?

Kevin Feige on Marvel Studios Slate [Comic Book Resources]

Captain America
One of Marvel's first characters - he debuted in 1941's Captain America Comics - and, for decades, one of its most underrated. Before Ed Brubaker hit upon the idea of killing him off (Well, kind of, as readers of the current Captain America: Reborn series are well aware of), Cap wasn't a huge seller for the company, but nonetheless, his various series contain some of Marvel's most memorable runs, whether it's Steve Englehart's Cap trying to find his own identity - and the heart of his country - in the 1970s, co-creator Jack Kirby's surreal return to the character (complete with cameos from dead presidents and Hitler), or the dearly-departed Mark Gruenwald's lengthy run that included such highs as the USAgent and SuperPatriot and lows as CapWolf and weird, clunky armor. Brubaker's current run may be the best the character has ever seen, and considering the competition, that's saying a lot.

The Thing
If Marvel Comics has a character that could be called the heart of the company, it's not Spider-Man, Iron Man or Daredevil. Nope, it's everyone's favorite blue-eyed Ben Grimm, AKA the guy who looks like a big pile of orange rocks from the Fantastic Four. There's just something about the character - maybe his angst-ridden inner torment over his appearance and the fact that no-one understands him, or his gruff-exterior (literally and metaphorically, just in case you missed it) that hides a selfless, kind, loving hero - that sums up all of Marvel's outsider/teenage angst/underdog themes in one perfect character. Not for nothing did he manage to make Marvel Two-In-One work throughout the 1970s.

The Hulk
On the other hand, the Hulk is like the Thing's bizarro twin in a lot of ways: Making the atomic fear implicit in most of Marvel's original wave of superheroes explicit while still hitting all those outsider/misunderstood/teenage angst notes, the Hulk has become a rorschach blot for whatever his current writer wants to write about: Childhood abuse, MPD, space barbarianism, Bill Bixby's scary eyes (Bonus points can also be had for Peter David's eleven year run on the series, wherein he kept the character in a continuous state of flux while also managing to make it all seem like an organic progression. While the Hulk may be missing a "definitive story" as such, David's decade-plus of movement may be the character's defining period in a lot of ways). Who knew a cliched angry monster could turn out to be so versatile?

Spider-Man
He's not just a tragic hero trying to atone for one moment of selfishness, he's also a corporate figurehead and franchise so lucrative that Marvel breaks out his licensed earnings separately from all their other characters. Oh, Peter Parker, you're so dreamy and able to multitask. The character that made Stan Lee's soap operatics and melodrama work like none other - and, in the process, defined the "Marvel style" as concretely as any amount of Jack Kirby artwork could have ever hoped - has seen some peaks and troughs throughout the years (The Clone Saga? That whole "Devil got me divorced, I mean, unmarried" thing? 'Nuff Said, as Stan would say), but when he's treated well - And he currently is, in three different flavors, with Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man, Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man - he offers up a timeless treatise about growing up, and trying to balance adult responsibility with self-indulgent release. With added wisecracks and web-fluid. I think you know what I'm talking about.

Phoenix
Yeah, yeah, I know; you expected Iron Man or Wolverine, didn't you? Well, tough; Phoenix - that is to say, Jean Grey before she got retconned - was, for awhile (Namely, before the retcon), the dark side of Marvel Comics made (four-color) flesh: A character who wasn't only flawed, but who succumbed to her flaws, and paid the ultimate price. Yes, there was the defining moment of self-sacrifice, and yes, you could argue - as Marvel not only did, but made canon - that it wasn't really Jean Grey but some alien-influence that had overwhelmed her inherent goodness, but still: For one brief, shining moment, there was proof that Marvel's characters were as "only human" as their creators promised, and that actions had consequences, no matter how cosmic those actions may have been.

Of course, those are just our choices, and there are literally thousands of others who could've ended up on the list - How did we manage to miss Thor? Or Galactus? Or Dazzler, or Power Pack or Longshot? and so on - but that's what the comments are for. Which character best sums up Marvel's appeal for you? And what (if anything) will you be doing to celebrate Marvel's 70th birthday?

Captain America:

The Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier says he's seen the concept art for Captain America:

It's a period piece and it's like "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and with more gadgets...[I]t's "Raiders" meets "Rocketeer" and "Saving Private Ryan." It's going to be so cool.

[LA Times]

The Avengers:

Tim Roth revealed that his has signed to play the Abomination in three films, leading to some speculation that the Abomination could appear in The Avengers film, or in some of the potentially interlocking films leading up to it. [Comic Book Resources]

True Blood:

A new promo is up for Sunday's episode, "I Will Rise Up:"

And we're told not to worry about the fates of Godric, Sookie, Bill, and Jason after the suicide bomber appeared in Sunday's episode. Eric may catch some silver shrapnel, but it will lead to an intimate moment between him and Sookie. [E! Online]

Lost:

The title of the sixth season premiere will be "LA X." The space is deliberate. [DocArzt's Lost Blog]

Eclipse:

Kellan Lutz and Jackson Rathbone say Eclipse is much heavier on the action than the previous two films, and the actors have been in horseback training and fight training. At some point, Jasper puts his fellow Cullens through fight training, so the actors have all been working on their stunts and hitting the gym. [MTV Movies Blog]

FlashForward:

Producer Marc Guggenheim talks a bit about Dominic Monaghan's character, Simon:

[He] is the smartest man in the world, and he definitely knows it. He's mysterious, but not just for story reasons. He's a mysterious kind of person. He's someone that's so intelligent that he has a difficult time interfacing with people on a human level, because he's just so much smarter than them. He's an enigmatic figure whom I hope you'll want to get to know over the course of the first season.

[E! Online]

Stargate Universe:

SGU is looking to cast a brilliant waif:

[ELEANOR PERRY] (35-40) and quite attractive. A brilliant scientist who happens to be a quadriplegic. Affected since childhood, her disability has rendered her body physically useless. However, after being brought on board the Destiny as the only person who may be able to save the ship and her crew from certain annihilation, she is given temporary powers that enable her to walk again and to finally experience intimacy.sptv050769..Strong guest lead. NAMES PREFERRED. ACTRESS MUST BE PHYSICALLY THIN. (THINK CALISTA FLOCKHART).

[Spoiler TV]

And, to sate your voyeuristic urges, Syfy will be releasing 30 webisodes centering around the kino, the sphere that floats through the Destiny, spying on members of the crew. The webisodes won't form a discrete episode, but will instead tie into aired episodes. [GateWorld]

Heroes:

The sixth episode will be called "Tabula Rasa."

There's also a new primetime promo for the new season:



[Spoiler TV]

Smallville:

The Smallville season premiere will feature a few familiar faces. Battlestar Galactica actor, Alessandro Juliani, better known as Felix Gaeta, will appear, as will Stargate
Atlantis' Amelia Banks. Banks will likely play Fiona, described as a super-tough soldier, and her role may be recurring. [GateWorld]

We'll also be visiting Zod's past this season with flashbacks to his days in Kandor, Krypton's capital city. [E! Online]

Eureka:

Eureka gets a spaceship promo for episode fourteen "Ship Happens:"

[Spoiler TV]

Chuck:

Fans of Chevy Chase shouldn't get their hopes up for the comedian's return. Chase says his character, Ted Roark, is definitely dead. [E! Online]

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown.

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.

How's the con?

Con's good! I mean, it's day one, so it's fantastic. Ask me again at the end of Saturday night, and I'll let you know.

I was going to say, today's Mondo Marvel panel went really well. I remember last year, which seemed to be pretty much fans saying "You fucked up Spider-Man, so fuck you." It felt like every single panel turned into that.

Yeah, but you know what? That was totally expected. I was totally expecting that kind of stuff, and it was the kind of thing that I could've just not gone to the con, but I was like, you know what? We gotta talk about this stuff, and it's cool. But every con has a different personality to it, so you never know until you get that very first panel and I say, how's everybody doing. You know right away, [this time] there was an energy, it was a really upbeat crowd, and it was nice to see a full room because, lately in San Diego, it's become this multimedia experience so it's become less about comics. But that was a real, solid standing-room-only panel, so that was a good thing.

The bright side is, here we are, a year-plus later, after One More Day [the storyline that controversially undid Peter Parker's marriage to Mary Jane, courtesy of a literal deal with the devil. Or a devil, at least], and it's ironic, but I've been seeing all these emails coming through from people saying, begrudgingly, "I really like the new direction."

I think there're lots of arguments you can have with One More Day as a story, but Spider-Man is better because of it.

The thing about One More Day is, and I've always said this, "Were there better ways of skinning that cat?" Absolutely. The easiest thing to do would've been to kill Mary Jane. But then you've lost Mary Jane as a character.

And then you're stuck with a Spider-Man who's going to be grieving for x amount of months...

Exactly, he's going to be grieving, he's a widower, and being a widower [makes him seem] even older than being married in the first place. And then of course, you can't really lose her as a character, she's too important. We've got books that revolve around her, we've got movies that revolve around her. So you're going to have to bring her back, and then when you bring her back, you're still going to have to deal with the aspects of the marriage, so there was no clean way to do it. We did the best we could, and there are still some unanswered questions that we're going to get to, for the continuity-minded, the people who really wrap themselves around that, we'll answer a lot of questions. You'll be surprised how little Mephisto had to do with anything.

So when you have that kind of vocal fanbase, or with Captain America coming back to life, and you know that there is an answer six months down the line...

Suck it up.

Really? There's never a feeling of, we should rush this out, or we should try to deal with this sooner?

When I took over as editor in chief, Tom DeFalco, who was the editor in chief before Bob Harras, who I took over the job from, he came into my office, smacked me on the back - Tom's a friend - and said, 'I'm gonna give you some advice. From this point on, you have a very big target on your back. You're going to have to have very broad shoulders. If you're not going to do that, you're not going to like this job.' And at the end of the day, I'm making comic books. So I have some comic book fans that're making fun of me. I'm not trying to resolve the economy, I'm not trying to solve things between Palestine and Israel, you know, it's comic books and the worst thing we do is we kill off some trees and we piss off some fanboys. But as long as we do our jobs right, at the end of the day, I want to be able to look back when I either get shown the door or I walk out of it myself, I want to be able to look back and say, we gave everybody a great ride. The story's really good. It's all about story.

We know what's going to come down the line, we know how the Mephisto thing happens, and I gotta sell comics. It's serialized storytelling. They just gotta suck it up.

Now that you're coming to the end, with Dark Reign, of a story that you've been telling since 2005. Does that feel like the end of an era for you, to reach the end of a story that's pretty much gone across all of the franchises at the company?

It doesn't feel like the end of an era, it feels like it's going to be a chance to breathe. One of the things that I really do long for, I remember when we first started - or I first started - this crazy trip of being editor in chief at Marvel, we started by taking books and characters and focusing on creative. Saying 'Okay, Joe Stracynski, go - Tell the best Spider-Man story you can,' or 'Grant Morrison, go tell the best X-Men story you can' -

You broke everything up, to fix it.

We had to. We had to, because the characters weren't defined well enough to have them intermingle again. We had to - Obviously, when Stan [Lee] created the universe, he wasn't thinking this, but we had to recreate everything while still holding all the history. And then, once we'd done that, once we'd taken ownership of it, we were able to branch out and do bigger stories.

I'd like to see the star collapse a little again, and get back to smaller stories, Now that we've reset the pieces and everything's going smoothly, let's go back to basics again, let's tell smaller stories, more family-oriented stories, see where that takes us. And I'll be honest with you, that everything we've been doing at Marvel Publishing, it's always a risk, because fans are - and this is the thing about fandom, and I understand it, I'm not criticizing it, I've been a fan for years - you know, we'll sit there and complain. We'll go, 'Oh, everything's event event event event,' but the marketshare, the numbers... tell us otherwise.

People like the events. You own half the market out there currently.

So there's a lot of fans out there saying 'Go back to basics,' but it's a matter of necessity for us also. We're just exhausted, and we need to go back to basics, regroup a bit, let our writers also take ownership of their books for awhile, because it's taxing on them, and on our artists. You know, let them tell their stories for awhile, and run their books, before we say, okay, let's get the band together again and go a little crazy.

And the other thing is, it will make the day that we go back to another event special again. I think, if we did another event following this whole culmination of stuff, it's just going to seem like white noise. I do sense that it's getting to the point where it's white noise.

I know I live in a world of hyperbole, but there has to be a certain truth in the hyperbole. So, when I say that we're coming to the third act, I didn't say that with [Secret] Invasion, and I didn't say that with Dark Reign, although Dark Reign is the beginning of that third act, when we get there, people will see what we've done. And then they'll go, cool, now let's see what you guys are gonna do next. What we have to do is come up with something compelling enough that they're going to want to go to all of our titles without having to tie them all together.

The challenge to our writers in the last summit was, come up with - If you had twelve months to live and this was the book that you're writing, give us the stories - You know, "Matt Fraction, you're writing Iron Man, give us the best effin' Iron Man story you can come up with for those twelve months. Bendis, you're writing Avengers, give us the best Avengers story you can." That's the challenge, so that each title becomes must read. Hopefully, that works, and we're going to market each one as their own thing. It's a change of gears, and most people will think that we're crazy but, I've often, I've talked to our publisher Dan Buckley about it: It's like being addicted to heroin. Something you've just got to come off.

That's an interesting analogy, "Sometimes, you've just got to come off heroin, other times, hey, let's go heroin!"

[Laughs] But they pay us in heroin!

It's a little daunting when you look at the future and say, wow, what's gonna happen? But I trust our creators and our editors to knock it out of the park.

You said at the Mondo Marvel panel that Paul Tobin was "recreating the Marvel Adventures universe," which may just be a hyperbolic way of saying "We're relaunching the line," and you have the Ultimate line being relaunched as Ultimate Comics. Is this happening because people have become so focused on the "main" universe that the other lines need a push?

It's funny, because Ultimate is almost the exploratory mission for Marvel. Like, we sent the Ultimate books out there to do some insane stuff, when Mark and Bendis were doing those books, and they did things in those books that we never would have dared to do in the regular universe. But they planted the seeds. It was the same thing at [Quesada's first editorial line at Marvel] Marvel Knights, which was an exploratory mission that took certain Marvel characters into places that Marvel never would've published before, and then by putting me in charge of Marvel, kind of took the whole line there. And then Ultimate was kind of the next step, you know, 'Go out West, kids! See if there's Indians out there!'

Ultimate was Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Millar, and then they came to the main universe...

Yeah, so now this next push in Ultimate, we're taking the Ultimate universe to places where, again, the challenge was 'Where can we go that we just can't go with the Marvel Universe right now? How can we break these characters down, and what can we do with them, and see where that takes us?' And that's really the fun of it, because it's only three or four titles, and if you break them, you break them. Spider-Man in our universe is still Spider-Man, but we can look at Ultimate and say, 'You know, I think that was the line. We shouldn't cross it.'

Is that why the Ultimate line exists, internally? Obviously, it has its fans, and it's there as an entry point for new readers, but internally, is it 'The Place Where You Can Do The Crazy Shit?'

I think so, I think that's, internally, what our writers feel when we're working on this stuff. You know, the Hulk eats people [Laughs]. That's a line we're not going to go near in the regular books, but it's an interesting take on the Hulk, and we're able to do certain things to certain characters. And at the end of the day, I hate to become redundant, but to bring up the whole Spider-Man thing again, we - all of us, the editors in chief before me - felt like Spider-Man works better as a single guy. The storyline that Stan set off in the newspaper strip of Spider-Man getting married worked perfectly for the newspaper strip, but for Marvel's publishing division, I think that we needed to get him single again. And that was at the very beginning of my tenure, even as a freelancer I used to think that all the time. You know, he's kind of dull and Mary Jane was portrayed as not very nice all the time, because that would drive tension into the relationship. And then Ultimate Spider-Man comes along, and we're like, yeah, that's kind of the way it should be. So that really proved to us that that's really where it works best. If I could've put Peter back in high school in the universe, I would've, but it's cool with him being just out of college and this young man trying to make his way through life at this point as opposed to being in high school. Those are the kinds of things that Ultimate did that we thought, it works.

So, does that make Marvel Adventures the kids line? Earlier attempts, like Marvel Age have seemed more "aimed at kids," but there's something about the Adventures books that works on multiple levels.

My theory when it comes to kids books is that, if you write down to kids, you're doomed to fail. So, the idea behind Marvel Adventures, we live in day and age today where, if you say that a book is "kid safe," that's not a message you're putting out to kids, that's a message you're putting out to parents. It's parent safe, and as a parent, I understand that. We look back on Stan's era, those early mid-60s books, and they look very kid-friendly, and they look very kid-safe, and quaint and easy to follow and stuff, but putting it into historical perspective when they came out, they were incredibly edgy. I think it was 1966, 1967, the Hulk was on the cover of Rolling Stone, and the reason the Hulk was on the cover and Rolling Stone did a six or seven page expose on Marvel was because Marvel comics were huge with college students. But the reason that they were big with kids was, when I was a kid, my dad wasn't interested in what I was reading, he didn't look over my shoulder. I didn't wear a helmet when I rode a bicycle, okay? It was called Darwinism; if I stuck my finger in a plug... there were no things on the edges of tables, there was no cover on the television to stop me knocking my head into. But we live in a different day and age.

So now you progress in time, and what was edgy back then is quaint today, and I would argue that our books aren't necessarily more or less edgy than they were back in Stan's era, but the one thing I would argue that Stan did back in his day was that he never talked down to the reader, even knowing that kids were reading them. So, with respect to Marvel Adventures, they're not "edgy," but they're not stupid. And I think what Paul's going to bring is more of a cohesiveness between all the titles, whilst continuing the "told-in-one," which is, I think, a better approach for keeping kids interested. It's hard work to keep doing told-in-ones while keeping up a linear continuity, but now that I'm working in the animation world, it's something that I see in a lot of animated shows, where each episode is a kind of told-in-one episode, but there's a larger continuity that you see at the end of each season.
You're very involved with animation, but how involved are you in the films these days?

In the films, I'm part of something called the Marvel Creative Committee, and it's - I never count, but I think it's five or six of us, we are involved in every early aspect of the movie, from the proposal of what the story's going to be, to the elongated beat sheet, to the screenplays, we sit there and we just take it apart to ensure that our movies are... They can never be the same as what's on the comic page, but that the experience someone gets is the same as what they get when they pick up that comic.

Could you, or have you, completely derailed something at a late stage?

Oh, yeah. That's our job. When we're derailing, we bring it up and say, 'Okay guys, we're derailing here.' The big difference between doing a motion picture and doing a comic book is, putting out a comic book costs us thousands of dollars...

It's one thing to fail with a comic, and another to fail with a movie.

Yeah, and by the way, if I fail with that one issue, I can fix it in three months. There'll be another issue. These movies are forever, and you're spending hundreds of millions of dollars on them. So we're taking a very careful creative approach. And the beauty of things is, when we're sitting in these meetings, we're not just sitting there and going 'We need an Iron Man floating vehicle because we need a toy here.' That's not the approach we take at all. We're all about story, and character, and driving the movie forward, and driving it towards the inevitable Avengers movie.

Do you, through working on the movies, see the comics in a new way? As in, you see something and think, we should be doing it this way in the comics?

I think that the beauty of this whole thing, and I hate to bring up a stupid corporate word like "synergy," but there really is a lot of that going on. I was up at Marvel Studios three weeks ago, and I got to see some of the designs for Asgard [from Thor], and I sat there and I turned to Dan Buckley, our publisher, and Kevin Feige [Marvel Studios president] and said, 'Two years from now, this will completely affect the way that artists render Asgard.' Because it is completely unlike anything I've ever seen, but still has that essence of the [Thor co-creator, Jack] Kirby stuff that we all fell in love with. So I think that there's always that give and take. And, as we work on stuff in publishing, I'll send stuff to Kevin Feige, just preliminary stuff, pitches that we have on books that I think might make interesting sideline stories for a Marvel movie some day, so there's a lot of give and take, there's a lot of transparency right now.

I was thinking of something like Iron Man where the movie came out and generates a lot of interest, at the same time as Matt Fraction comes up with The Invincible Iron Man, and the portrayal is so close, and it's the best portrayal of the character in comics for years.

And because of that, Matt was just flown out to consult on Iron Man as well. So he sat down with Jon Favreau and Kevin Feige to discuss Iron Man 2, the ideas and concepts behind the second movie. So, yeah, all of that stuff is involved. The only thing that I can compare it to, I remember reading a great article on Pixar, and the way that Pixar makes their movies and I remember thinking, that's the way that we do it. In a perfect world, we'll continue to do that, and - especially being a fledgling studio - I think it's going to work. From what I've been seeing in the screenplays and what I've seen of the pitches... I mean, Iron Man 2 is gonna be a lot of fun. And those guys are having a good time making it, too. But something like Thor... I mean, this has an opportunity to be unlike any movie... There're grandiose elements that're akin to something like Lord of The Rings, but it's not really anything like that, and it's not going to look anything like that.

There's a lot of speculation about what Thor is going to be like. Any and every new piece of news drives the internet wild.

I love that stuff.

Does it drive you mad, do you think "I know what's really coming up, and you're all getting upset over nothing"?

I live for it, and anytime I can fan it, I will gladly fan it.

All that stuff is good. I really do believe that any of that stuff is good. Fans are passionate. If there's no chatter out there, I'm gonna get nervous. If the chatter's bad, you know that they care. All I have to do, and all Marvel Studios has to do, is deliver. They have to deliver the goods. Because if they don't deliver the goods and we have the bad chatter, then, okay. We had it coming. But speculation is just speculation, it's not going to hurt. It drives interest. Everybody that's chattering, they're going to pay to see it. They're going to pay to see it.

Is the same thinking what drives Marvel's internet activity? The company and creators are very active on social networking, you're all about Twitter, are you trying to push that kind of chatter?

To me, it's about community, and letting people see how the gears work. Even if they get rusty and something crush people between them, you know. It's letting people behind the curtain, and that's something that, when I was a kid reading Stan's Soapbox [A regular column where Stan Lee wrote about Marvel in the Marvel books of the 1960s and 70s]... I always say that Stan was the first mutant, he didn't know he was a mutant, but he did have a magical power, and that was, in a hundred words or less he would write that soap opera and me, reading it, would get to find out all about Marvel and I would feel like he was talking to me. Not to the kid over my shoulder, meanwhile, that kid's feeling the exact same thing. And that was Stan's magical power, a short burst of dialogue that just brought you into that world. I don't have that power. But I got the internet.

I can talk until the cows come home because I love the stuff that we do, and I love what I do for a living. Taking over as editor in chief, one of the things I wanted to do, I really felt that inclusiveness was missing. Including the rivalry with Marvel and DC. There was sort of a passive and boring détente, especially after [joint Marvel/DC project] Amalgam. I looked at it, and I thought, this sucks for business. You need that passion -

But fans take that rivalry much more seriously than you do. I mean, everyone at the two companies get along -

We do, everyone gets along for the most part, but the rivalry does very well. It's funny, but when I went to see McCartney on the street in front of the Letterman theater, the DC offices were right behind me. [DC art director and editor] Mark Chiarello sends me a text saying, dude, I see you, come on up, come on up and join us. And I'm like, I got front row! As much as I want to be with you, I'm here! I have great friends up there, and all this stuff is just poking at each other, and I think it's great for business. It's great to get fans riled up, get them passionate about something. Even if they don't buy a Marvel comic because they hate me, or they hate us, they're buying their team, you know?

I'm a New York Mets fan, and I have a daughter, and I've told my wife, I said 'Look, I'm a pretty liberal-minded guy. My daughter can, she can bring home an axe murderer. She can bring home Jeffrey Dahmer or something, when she's sixteen, and that won't be as bad as if she brings home a guy who's a Yankees fan.' That's what we're talking about here. It's that kind of thing. If fandom feels something, that's great. We're keeping them engaged in our books, DC's keeping them engaged, and it's our job to get the guys who're only reading DC to come over to Marvel. It's their job to pull our guys away from us. And by doing that, you raise the level of competition between the companies. And that was the hope, let's get paste the détente, let's get past the niceness, let's start competing. Let's do Coke and Pepsi and get into it. And I think it's been healthy for the industry.

But this goes back to the original question, and the original answer, which is how Stan made people feel. And I think, as a company, we've adopted a lot of that. I learned very quickly that the dumber the thing I said online, the more hits we got, and ultimately, the viral message will get carried by the fans who're irate about it. So if someone is pissed off at me because I said something ridiculously stupid about a character, they would then go to Bendis' board, or John Byrne's board, or all these other message boards, and say 'Do you believe what this jack-ass just said?' Now, all of a sudden, something dumb that I've said - "Dead is dead," [An oft-mis-quoted line attributed to Quesada by fans, saying that if a character died in a Marvel comic they would never be seen again] - is everywhere. It's not necessarily the quote, but it's everywhere. I'll take it, you're promoting my name, you're promoting our policies, you're promoting Marvel. So, I did learn to play with the internet in that fashion. And that's always fun to do, to say, 'Okay, what can I say today that will piss people off?'

You're just poking people with the internet as your stick.

It's fun. Look, you and I are having this conversation, and you can see that my tongue is firmly in my cheek, when you type it out, a lot of people don't see that. But it's all in good fun. You'll know when I'm deadly serious about something. It's comic books I'm deadly serious about, outside of putting out a good story, there's little else I'm deadly serious about.

Who is the one character that, for people, who don't really read comics that they should pay attention to in the next year?

I really do think, before Iron Man [the movie] hit... You know, Spider-Man, the X-Men and Wolverine are pretty recognizable, and were pretty recognizable before the first movies ever hit. Iron Man was a complete challenge to us because, not only was the character not really well known, but we were a brand new fledgling movie company, and it was a pretty big risk. So we put a lot of our time and effort into making Iron Man not only a popular character in comics, but we went out there and put out viral marketing and CGI animation on websites, and I think we did a pretty good job. I mean, Iron Man is a pretty damn recognizable character [now]. I'm not gonna say that he's at Spider-Man level, but he's pretty damn close. And now, as predictable as this answer may be, we're doing the same with Thor.

And Thor offers even more unique challenges at this point. I mean, you've got mythology and all these different kind of things. So how are you going to produce a Thor movie, but also a Thor that is uniquely Marvel, wholly unique to the idea of Norse mythology to the people who know Norse mythology. How do you make it interesting, and how do you tie it into the Iron Man movie and the upcoming Avengers. We've got a pretty intense plan around Thor, including the upcoming Thor (comic creator) team, who will take on [the series] sometime after our final third act soon.

Will they be announced here?

Not here. There won't be any post-JMS team announced here, but there will be some Thor news coming up within the next few months. I think fans will really, really, love the news.

But the focus right now is Iron Man, Thor - If you're not a Thor fan, you're gonna want to start picking up the books - and then focus, while it's kind of on Cap right now, it's going to intensify on Captain America as we get closer to that movie.

What happens after the Avengers movie?

We've been talking about things. This is really a question for Kevin Feige, and I don't want to step on his toes, but we've had some discussions, there's a lot of discussion and strategizing about the future of Marvel Studios... We have to [look beyond that]. We don't stop being in business after the Avengers movie.

What's the one thing you want to do, and haven't done, at Marvel?

[Deep breath] Wow. The one thing I want to do at Marvel?

Do you even think like that, or are you too focused on the day-to-day?

I'll tell you, I no longer think like that, because the beauty of my job is that I get thrown so many different things, no day is the same for me. For example, now being chief creative officer of animation. I did not see that coming. I didn't lobby for that position, I was just helping with animation and got, you know, a promotion to that position. Which is great, it's certainly going to be an education, it's a world that I'm not familiar with.

Does that mean you're going to step back slightly from the comics?

No. I also have the chief creative officer of publishing title, but I don't use it because it just makes the title look like a resume, and it looks ridiculous. But I get a lot of things thrown at me.

I can tell you that when I got started in comics, my one goal, my one aspiration was Watchmen. I got back into comics with Watchmen and through Dark Knight, and my goal was, someday, I want to write and draw that. It's like, as a musician, I was a musician before I was in comics, and as a musician I was like, someday, I want to write and perform Sgt. Pepper. I want my Sgt. Pepper. That didn't work out.

But even in comics, no-one's ever done Watchmen or Dark Knight again. They were Sgt. Pepper of their era. But it's what I aspire to. So, someone mentioned this to me, and it's hard for me to think about because I'm still doing what I do, but someone said that my Watchmen has been my ten years at Marvel, the body of work that we created here, and where we've taken the comic industry and Marvel as a company is one of those great stories. We were bankrupt, and now... we're not.

How does that feel, to have saved Marvel?

I was not in charge of saving Marvel, there was a team. I was part of a great team of guys and girls who've really put Marvel into a prominent position where we are now a movie studio, and that's a pretty spectacular feeling. When it's all said and done, I can look back and, I think the person that said it was right: That's my Watchmen. Nobody else can do that. Give it a shot. That's hopefully what I contributed, as well as drawing some funny books.

You're sticking around for awhile as editor in chief, right?

As long as it's fun. Because I was from the outside looking in, and I saw what Marvel went through when it was approaching bankruptcy, and I was walking through the halls when the pink slips went out, a terrible terrible time. And then, being at Marvel Knights when, overnight, 40-some people were let go. To this day, the attitude I adopted, and it's not something negative, but I never want to be surprised by walking into my office and seeing a pink slip there. I remember that look on people's faces, getting the pink slip and saying 'I can't believe it's me, I never thought this would happen to me.' Even in light of bankruptcy, the surprise was still shocking, it was daunting for people who must've sensed it was coming. And I don't even want that to happen to me. I never want to take any single day at Marvel for granted.

When I turn off the lights at night, I could come back here tomorrow and all my shit could be in boxes. It's the world of business and you can't take that for granted. So I've kind of adopted that, that little mantra for myself. But I've also said, at the same time, using a baseball analogy - My father got me into the sport, and used to bring up certain athletes like Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams who retired before their skills faded. He used to say, 'Whatever you do, don't wait until your skills diminish. Leave on top.' I feel the same way; I'm still contributing to the company, but the day I feel like I can't contribute to the company, I'll be the first one to walk into my publisher's office and say, 'You gotta let me go.' Or, 'put me somewhere else.' Because there are people in line for my job, I'm not gonna have this forever who need to have it, who need to guide us into a different era. I never want to be That Guy.

You seem very aware of the history and the legacy of the company, and the position.

It's something that, in the very beginning of my tenure, especially with [Brian Michael] Bendis and [Mark] Millar, who I have a lot of affection for, because they sort of came up with me and helped build a lot of this stuff. We used to sit around and talk about all the mistakes that were done before us. Certain people that took their careers for granted, certain people who went in a particular direction, and not because they were stupid or anything, but because they were the first ones to do it. And we were sitting around saying, alright, we don't want that. We want to avoid these things at all cost.

And it's funny, because I was having breakfast with Mark this morning, and I said, 'You know what's really scary? We're kind of at a place where I think, twenty years from now, there're gonna be three guys sitting around saying "We don't want to do what Quesada did, that was a huge mistake.' I try to, at least, look forward. People always ask me, what was your greatest success and greatest mistake at Marvel, and I always stumble on that answer, I never look backwards, I can't answer it.