Variety reported that Columbia Pictures is planning the return of the flaming-headed pile of film that is Ghost Rider, with David Goyer in talks to write the script, and the man with the flaming head and crazy eyes Nicolas Cage on tap to return. Well, at least Goyer is one step in the right direction for this franchise.

Buried in the story was also the news that Fox is also working on bringing a new Daredevil film, plus the long-awaited Silver Surfer solo film, back from development hell. We're very excited about the Silver Surfer news, but it's going to take us a long while to unsee the Ben Affleck Daredevil.

These are the science-fiction universes where you can transfer your consciousness into a robot body permanently, and wave goodbye to those annoying bones and excretory organs forever. And tomorrow, we'll have a list of the ten best robot bodies you can plug your brain into, and control temporarily.

Note: To some extent, there's some overlap here with the list we did a while ago of people who died and went to cyber-heaven. So we left out a few examples from the earlier list, like Dr. Ira Graves and Juliana Soong in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Mindscan, by Robert J. Sawyer
Wealthy Jake Sullivan is dying of a rare medical condition, so he pays the Immortex corporation to scan his brain and load him into a new, immortal robot body. There, he meets a children's author, Karen, who's also gotten a robot body so she can keep her copyrights for centuries. They fall in love — but Jake's original meat body, who's still not dead yet, decides to sue to get his personhood back from the robot duplicate. And after Kate's meat body dies, her son sues to get control over her estate.

Robotrix

In this bizarre, messed-up Hong Kong movie, an evil super-rich business man loads his brain into a robot body. And a sexy crime-fighting babe gets killed trying to stop him — so two female scientists, in shiny fetishy labcoats, put her naked body on a table with an also-naked robot body, and then transfer her consciousness into the robot. So she can go out there and kick some robo-butt. (We have a couple more clips from Robotrix here.)

8th Man aka 8-Man:

In this early Japanese anime series, Special Agent Brady gets killed, but downloads his brain into a robot body and becomes the 8th Man, a robot superhero who has superior speed, strength and reflexes, and he can change his appearance at will. His alter ego is Tobor, a private detective. Watch him deal with a Godzilla-esque robot from outer space, in this awesome clip.

Stargate: SG-1, "Tin Man"
The SG-1 crew winds up on a planet where a man named Harlen copies their consciousnesses into robot bodies. In an interesting twist on the usual "minds transferred into robot bodies" concept, it turns out that the crew's original bodies are intact, and they're eventually free to go. The robot duplicates meet their original selves, and the robots are a bit jealous of the "real" crew, who get to go home. Witness this exchange between robot Jack O'Neil and the "real" Jack:

ROBOT JACK: Somebody stole my life. That's what happened.

O'NEILL: You talking about my life?

ROBOT JACK: Hey, I've got every right to it that you do. I was kind of hoping I could figure out away to undo all this, get myself back into my body, where I belong.

O'NEILL: Well it's occupied, thank you.

The "Ware" series by Rudy Rucker
Cobb Anderson is an aging computer scientist who's best known for committing treason — he gave the robots free will and liberated them from the restrictive laws of robotics. Now the robots, who are living on the Moon, have come up with a scheme for Cobb to live forever — they've created a perfect robot duplicate of his body, and they want to digitize his consciousness and load it into the new shell. The only catch: to scan Cobb's brain and duplicate it, they have to slice it up, thus destroying it in the process.

Sliders, "State Of The Art"

The dimensional travelvers visit a world where robots have taken over — and the robots' creator, James Aldohn, has found a process to transfer a human consciousness into a robot body. The only downside: it's an untested procedure, and he needs to use the visitors as guinea pigs. Weirdly, the scene where Katherine McClellan's robot body gets switched on has inspired some really odd slow-mo Youtube fetish vids.

The Outer Limits, "The Brain Of Colonel Barham"

Colonel Barham, a dying astronaut, volunteers to have his brain loaded into a robot body so he can go to Mars before the Soviets — although, in this case, it looks like they keep part of the meat brain alive, so it's an edge case. In any case, the arrogant Col. Barham goes nuts once he's in a robot body, and he starts trying to kill anyone who messes with him. Somehow, his robot body has the ability to control people's minds and turn them into zombies.

Caprica

We couldn't leave this Battlestar Galactica prequel out — that plucky Zoe Graystone gets killed in a terrorist bombing, but luckily she's figured out a way to back up her brain electronically first, because the human mind only takes up about 300 MB of disk space.

Skinned by Robin Wasserman

Lia Kahn is rich, young and beautiful — unfortunately she's also fatally injured in a car accident. So her dad pays for her consciousness to be transferred into a new robot body. She no longer eats or has any sense of smell, and she doesn't feel touch the same way she used to. Is she still the same person she used to be? Even she isn't sure, and her old "popular kids" clique at high school isn't sure whether to accept her either. Think you had a hard time fitting in in high school? Imagine doing it with a robot body, in a culture that's uncomfortable with uploaded humans. (Read an interview with the author here.) Another novel with a similar theme is Nightmare In Silicon by Colette Phair.

Star Trek: "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"

Captain Kirk's mind gets copied perfectly into an android body, except that he's obsessed with being sick of Spock's half-breed interference, because that's what Kirk was muttering to himself when his mind got scanned. I love the spinning table with the two naked Shatners on it (at around 5:20 in this video.) Of course, they don't destroy Kirk's original fleshy body, probably just because they don't get around to it.

Runners up:

The Red Skull And Zola both transfer their brains into robot bodies in Captain America Reborn

The Creation Of The Humanoids

Osama Tezuka (creator of Astro Boy) writes a story of a dying person whose consciousness gets transferred into a robot body in the Phoenix series.

Fragile Machine

Starr Saxon, aka Machinesmith, becomes a gay robotic supervillain in issues of Daredevil and the Fantastic Four. (See top image.)

Ghost In The Shell: Innocence shows a world where cyborgs have abandoned their last bits of humanity and have become fully robotic.

Battle Angel Alita also includes some of the best cybernetic bodies — thanks to Cash907Censored for suggesting it.

In Dragonball Z movie 2, Dr. Willow dies, but he downloads his brain into a robot body.

The story "The Robot Who Came To Dinner" by Ron Goulart features a detective who's downloaded his brain into a robot body.

Jens in Galidor: Defenders Of The Outer Dimension

Doozy Bots

While doing press for Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, out next week, we got to check in with geek comedian Bill Hader. In an interview we asked the man who makes it rain food about possible new comic books from him and his SNL co-star Seth Meyers, why MacGruber gets a movie and Laser Cats doesn't, and what's happening with Simon Peggs alien road-trip film Paul.

I know you and Seth Meyers wrote that Spider-Man comic, [Spider-man The Short Halloween] are there anymore comic books in your future?

We have a Daredevil idea that we'd like to do.

What's this idea about? How will it be different?

I can't tell you what the idea is. I would say it's kind of the same thing as the Spider-Man book as it's kind of a stand alone. It wouldn't be in the current Daredevil arc. It would be in it's own stand-alone story, kind of how the Spider-Man book was. It doesn't fit into any sort of...but yeah that's how it would be different. And our idea is similar to the Spider-Man one, where it also involves peripheral characters are the main character and Daredevil is influencing the story in different ways. It is that kind of similar thing to the Spider-man one. I know people were kind of mixed on it. Some people liked it and some people were like, "why isn't Spider-Man the main character?" We weren't interested in that, we found that funnier.

My favorite part of SNL these days has been all the science fiction shorts, so when is Laser Cats getting a movie? MacGruber has a movie...I feel like it's justified.

I would love to do a Laser Cats movie. Yeah, maybe... I feel like Macgruber is a little bit more of a hit than Laser Cats is. Andy [Samberg] Akiva [Schaffer] and Jorma [Taccone] really find that so funny. And that's what's great about doing that, you really get a sense of the four of us just making each other laugh at how dumb it is. Because we all grew up making videos. What makes Laser Cats so funny to me is the idea that it's being presented to Lorne Michaels each week, and we actually think it's so good. The Steve Martin one was a lot of fun, where Steve Martin is totally into it like "hey look at this video I made, and it's total shit." Yeah we love doing that.

Will there be a lot more science-fictional sketches in the new season?

I don't know, honestly I have no idea what I'm going to do up until the moment we do it. We had a character last season that we want to do again called "Greg Is Not An Alien." We want to do that again. We tried it once with Zac Efron and it didn't fully work. So we might try that idea again. That was a lot of fun to do. That's John Mulaney, Simon Rich and I, they made that thing so funny.

We're all really excited to see more from Simon Pegg's movie Paul. What's going on with your character in this film?

In Paul, I play a guy named Haggard and it's me and Jason Bateman's character and Joe Lo Truglio's character are these agents who are tracking Simon, Nick and Paul, and Kristen Wiig's character. To put it pretty well, we're kind of like the epic Kota and Midnight Run.

What were the rumors that you were supposed to be the alien in Paul? But now it's Seth Rogen correct?

I think those rumors were started because I did a test for Simon and Nick to show the studios here's what Paul will look like and here's how he will interact with the actors. And Mottola and Simon Pegg and Nick Frost called me and said, "I know this is last minute but would you want to come here and do this real quick almost as like a favor. And I said yeah sure, free trip to London. So I went to London for three or four days, we shot the test and I came back. It was totally not an audition for the character, it was just to help them out. I think that's how all those rumors got started.

Is Paul, the alien, totally human form or CG?

You'll have to see. [Laughs] No I don't know. I honestly don't know now. It's funny you asked that because I don't know — it could be a mix of both.

Until the next season of SNL you can catch Bill Hader in the movie Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, out September 11.

For almost as long as there have been superheroes, there have been superheroes who were intended to be patriotic figures representing American values by offering up inspirational speeches, standing up for the little guy and socking Hitler in the jaw whenever possible. Considering the popularity of the medium during the Second World War, it's easy to see why Real American Heroes became so prevalent, even if they've failed to find so easy a purpose ever since (Although trying to do so has produced such great stories - and such sly commentary as Captain America's 1970s villains, the Committee to Regain America's Principles... or CRAP, for short). But this isn't a day to think about troubled times... so let's salute the brave, bold and... others... of America's Fictional Finest.

The Classics
Captain America
Still the best of all of America's superheroes - or, at least, the only one who's really weathered the years and stayed in print the longest. Sure, there was that whole period he disappeared after the War, but that's because he was frozen in a block of ice. Who would've wanted to have read that month after month?

Uncle Sam
Who could be more patriotic than Captain America? Well, how about Uncle Sam himself? Oh, alright; this character, created by The Spirit's Will Eisner, wasn't the Uncle Sam, but instead the resurrected spirit of a Revolutionary War-era soldier who mystically returns in America's various hours of need, but still. Look at that beard and wonder just who could argue?

The Shield
Created more than a year before Captain America, Archie Comics' super soldier patriot may not have the name recognition of Marvel's counterpart, but DC Comics is doubtlessly hoping that J. Michael Straczynski's upcoming revival of the superpowered military man will change all of that.

The Fighting Yank
A character so wonderfully named, he's been revived not once but twice in recent years, and by no less than Alan Moore (in a 2001 issue of his America's Best Comics series Tom Strong) and Alex Ross (in his ongoing Project Superpowers series). But who could resist the lure of a man haunted by the ghost of his War of Independence-era ancestor who fights for his country's honor?

Liberty Belle
What are the odds that a woman could have a spiritual connection with the Liberty Bell so strong that it gives her superpowers and the ability to fight Nazis? if you're a comic book character from the 1940s, apparently they'd be good enough for that character's daughter to take on the same costumed identity and fight crime with the Justice Society today.

The Forgotten Heroes
Mr. America/Americommando
Reason #1 to love this 1941 superhero: His secret identity is a Texan oilman out for revenge against the Nazis. Reason #2: His sidekick's name was "Fatman." Reason #3: His Nazi-fighting technique? Dying his hair black and whipping his enemies until they surrender. Why is this character not getting multiple movies and fan worship as we speak?

Miss America
Sadly unrelated to the above, Miss America gained her powers from a dream where the Statue of Liberty came to life and gave them to her, and thankfully kept up that level of weirdness all the way through her career, whether it was faking her own aging process in order to live a quiet life or making a new body for herself from space debris and renaming herself Miss Cosmos. There's something admirable about that kind of ingenuity, wouldn't you agree?

USAgent
A much more recent patriotic hero than most, John Walker hails from the 1980s and an unsuccessful stint as a replacement for Captain America that accidentally led to his parents' death. His success as a character is perhaps best defined by the fact that he - an American-themed hero with a very American name - was transplanted to Canada by Marvel in a desperate attempt to make him a success. It failed.

American Eagle
Marvel Comics' 1981 attempt at inclusiveness resulted in this Native American hero, Jason Strongbow, whose generic origin story (Gained powers in accident caused by supervillain, seeking revenge for a dead brother) and lazy stereotypical costume didn't hint at the potential that's slowly being unlocked by more recent creators in series like Thunderbolts and War Machine.

Star-Spangled Kid
DC Comics keep trying with this name, even if the characters keep getting popular enough to outgrow it; the first SSK became Infinity Inc.'s Skyman in the 1980s, and the second became the Justice Society of America's Stargirl. Luckily, we now apparently have a third in the Teen Titans franchise, even if she does happen to be martian. Does an alien really count as star-spangled?

The Crazy Ones
The Comedian
Sure, there may be nothing particularly American about his name - or even his outfit, most of the time - but there's no doubting that Alan Moore's Watchmen character served his country - or more accurately, his country's government - better than most superheroes. Not enough to stop himself getting thrown out a window, sure, but them's the breaks.

Nuke
Frank Miller's intentionally-failed attempt to repeat the Captain America experiment may have seemed slightly out of place in the classic "Born Again" Daredevil storyline, but there's no denying that his drug-fueled, crazed Vietnam-flashback rantings made him a memorable indictment of mindless patriotism in Reagan's America.

Superpatriot
An old-school superhero captured, made into a cyborg and going insane and murderous in the process? Erik Larsen's quasi-parody may have a history that's as ridiculous as it is eventful - and that's before you've gotten to the kids he didn't remember having and his half-martian grandchild - but we're choosing to look at him as a man who's just made a few mistakes, is all.

Major Victory
Leader of conservative supergroup the Force of July - Get it? - this DC Comics character was everything some would want in a true American hero: Charismatic, attractive, arrogant and racist as all get out. Never given to complex characterization, the character's descent into political parody continued when he joined a new corporate superteam called the Captains of Industry - Get it? - before, thankfully, dying.

Captain America
Yeah, I know; Steve Rogers isn't crazy, right? But his retconned 1950s replacement most definitely was. After all, how else would you describe a man whose take on American values was deemed acceptable by Nazi supervillain the Red Skull on more than one occasion? Yes, he may think he was a patriot - and, thanks to cosmetic surgery, he even looks exactly identical to the original Cap - but this guy is not the kind of hero you want in your corner.

WTF?
Yank & Doodle
Yes, it's a crime-fighting duo called Yank and Doodle. Even during their heyday of the 1940s, there's no way that kids didn't find these two America-loving teenagers more than a little dumb. Surprisingly, they've just been revived in Dynamite's Project Superpowers series... Here's hoping that new names are forthcoming.

Yankee Poodle
Well, what else would you call the world's most patriotic crime-fighting dog? Part of DC Comics' Zoo Crew, Poodle isn't even the most America-centric of the team... That'd be American Eagle. Who, you guessed it, is an actual Eagle. Stunningly, thanks to Final Crisis, these characters are officially part of DC's main continuity these days.

American Maid
Armed with a boomerang tiara and her quick wits, The Tick's occasional partner in crimefighting stands out as being probably the most capable of all the characters in the comic/show - Dressed like Lady Liberty and working for the US government more often than not, evil will never get away with it as long as she's around.

The First American and US Angel
Alan Moore's turn of the millennium take on the idea of patriotic comic characters was this unusual duo - An overweight, incompetent superhero (The latest in a long line of First Americans) and the former stripper who dreams of taking his place. Social satire, or serious commentary on the impotence of American masculinity in the face of an increasingly revelatory society obsessed with surface glamor above all? You be the judge. But it's not the latter.

US 1
If a trucker who can pick up CB transmissions thanks to the metal plate in his head, and then gets kidnapped by aliens before opening an intergalactic diner in space doesn't sound like the very personification of the American Dream to you, then there's only one explanation: You're not an American in the first place. But even that doesn't stop us from wishing you a happy Independence Day... even if it was independence from you that's being celebrated in the first place.

MTV Splash Page reports that Sackhoff was recently seen in LA comic shop Golden Apple, buying up appearances of Marvel villain Typhoid Mary as research; according to store workers, the actress "proclaimed that she's hoping to land a role in a Marvel movie."

While we're happy to watch Sackhoff in almost anything, we're hoping that she's not going to be playing Mary in anything anytime soon. Not only because Typhoid Mary is primarily known as a Daredevil villain, and we're not exactly in favor of the planned reboot of the Daredevil franchise, but because Typhoid Mary, with her fractured past, self-loathing and psychosis feels just a little bit too similar to a superpowered evil Starbuck to us, and we're not sure we're up to that just yet. If Sackhoff really wants a role in a Marvel movie, we'd much rather see her as Ms. Marvel in the Avengers movie, anyway.

Katee Sackhoff Researching Typhoid Mary - But For What Film? [MTV Splash Page]

Doctor Who:

Those set reports we covered yesterday, involving people running around a tunnel with a charred skeleton, didn't include some casting speculation. Fans thought they saw actor Adam James, who's already appeared with David Tennant in The Extras Christmas Special, on set. Also, Glenn Doherty seems to be playing a top police officer. Also, Noma Dumezweni seems to be back as UNIT Capt. Magambo, after her appearance in the alternate-universe episode "Turn Left."Meanwhile, a DJ reported that a "really big name" will appear in the 2009 specials. Bigger than Kylie? We'll see, I guess.

Plus more scene details. Doherty sees the burning skeleton in the tunnel and shouts, "Call in UNIT, Emergency Code One!" And later, fans saw a scene where Doherty's police officer led a UNIT squad into the tunnel. The UNIT team leader is ignoring Doherty, saying she's read the file. But Doherty protests, "You don't understand. There are still people on that bus. She's fine." Also, Alun_Vega got some pics of a bunch of 1970s-looking cars with registrations from around 1972-1973.

[Den Of Geek and Doctor Who Forum]

Lost:

Here's an official behind-the-scenes video from episode 5x04, "The Little Prince." It's a Benfrontation! [Doc Arzt]

One thing we'll get a lot of this year is answers about the backgrounds of the freighter people. And if you're confused, don't worry — the show moves incredibly fast this year and resolves itself super quickly. It becomes basically a new show every six weeks. [MySpace via Doc Arzt]

The show just filmed a new scene with Charles Widmore himself, walking out of Widmore Industries and talking on the phone. Meanwhile, a second unit was off filming scenes at the Waikiki Yacht Club. [Hawaii Weblog]

Juliet's always been one to sit back and figure out how to turn things to her advantage, but this season there's no sitting back for her. She's constantly reacting to danger. And maybe the Others wanted Juliet's help because they don't age but can't reproduce — a dilemma which she might be able to sort out for them. [NY Mag]

Christopher Jaymes will play a character named "Doc" in episode 5x08, "LeFleur." [SpoilersLost]

Dollhouse:

Another casting call. The show's twelfth episode will feature a young woman named Wendy, who's "average and appears vulnerable." She's a huge guest star. Also heavily featured is a yuppie business man in his thirties or forties. There's also a handler in the Dollhouse, Samuelson, a friendly older male doctor, and Nita Walsh, a twentysomething woman. [SpoilerTV]

Star Wars: Clone Wars:

Here are some new pics of Lok Durd, the unfortunately named character played by George Takei in Friday's episode. [Comic Book Resources]

Supernatural:

Dean's mission from Heaven is connected to the time he spent in the Bad Place. And there's more story coming connected to what Dean did in Hell. And Sam has a very strong reaction to those revelations — one which has repercussions for the rest of the season. Castiel will be back soon and often — a drinking game may be indicated. We'll also learn what that demon meant when he said, "We've got everything just the way we want it." Lilith is "very active behind the scenes" this season, but we'll also be seeing her in the flesh again. [TV Guide]

Kyle XY:

Here are five clips from next Monday's episode. OMG Kyle saw Jessi's boobs!

Marvel Comics:

Writer Ed Brubaker shared some hints about the Captain America and Daredevil comics. Cap is moving towards an explosive 50th issue, which will include a huge shock. Meanwhile, there'll be an issue devoted to Sharon Carter and her memories of the day Steve Rogers died, which may change how you view those events. And Bucky, the new Captain America, is still dealing with his past as the Winter Soldier, and that's going to come to a head. In Daredevil, there'll be a solo issue dealing with the Kingpin in Spain, and then he'll come back to New York City. [Sci Fi Wire]

True Blood:

In episode 2x03, "Scratch My Back," we'll meet Missy, a "recovering fangbanger" who has bite marks all over her neck and roots growing out of her goth dye job. She makes one speech in the episode. Meanwhile we also meet Lindsey, a twentysomething who "puts the moves on Eggs" and gets topless. [SpoilerTV]

Additional reporting by Alasdair Wilkins.

A new Predator movie, with or without a post-governorship Arnold Schwarzenegger? Why not. A new Fantastic Voyage remake? In development. (And it won't be as campy as the original, he promises.) A sequel to Hitman? Maybe. A new Die Hard movie? "Never say never." A third X-Files movie, in spite of the second one's poor showing? It's entirely up to Chris Carter. A stand-alone Silver Surfer movie, building on Fantastic Four 2? It's in the pipeline. Independence Day 2? If Roland Emmerich wants to do it, Fox is on board.

And, as previously reported, Rothman also told IESB he's already thinking of Avatar in terms of "franchise potential," so we could be seeing Avatar 2 or 3, directed by someone else, in a few years. And then there's the Daredevil reboot, which is "something we are thinking very seriously about."

To be fair, at least half of the above-listed projects are probably just being tossed around or just not being "ruled out." But if even half those films get made, and other studios think the same way, our current deluge of contempt-breeding familiarity could look like a trickle by comparison. [IESB]

Fox, which is making some Marvel Comics movies including next year's Wolverine, has a few other projects on the slate. One possibility is Young X-Men, a movie following the main X-Men characters as teenagers studying at Professor Xavier's school — similar to the X-Men: First Class comic or the animated X-Men: Evolution. (Which would be cool, but couldn't include Wolverine, thus possibly halving its commercial potential.)

Another possibility is a solo film for Deadpool, the wisecracking deformed mutant mercenary played by Ryan Reynolds in the Wolverine

And a third possiblity would be a "reboot" of Daredevil, who only just had a movie starring Ben Affleck five years ago. Given how well that worked out with the Hulk, I'm not sure if people are really clamoring for a reinvention of the blind lawyer who's sort of like Batman but not quite.

Meanwhile, what's up with Wonder Woman? Talking to io9 contributor Nisha Gopalan over at MTV, producer Leonard Goldberg hinted that the Wachowskis might still be interested in working on a Wonder Woman film. At one point, the Matrix auteurs had been working on a WW picture at one point, but then they got diverted to another project. But they could still come back to the Amazon Princess with their own take on her story.

Meanwhile, writers Matthew Jennison and Matt Strickland are retooling their WW spec script, which Goldberg and Joel Silver bought a few years ago. It takes place during World War II, and Goldberg wouldn't go into specifics about what needed tweaking. He did say that he doesn't want to spend too much time on the same old story of Col. Steve Trevor crashing onto Paradise Island and almost getting executed, since it's been done to death. If it appears at all, it'll be in "an abbreviated fashion." Also, Goldberg says he doesn't want to see Wonder Woman too "sexed up," since she's an icon, and she's not meant to be Catwoman.

(And yes, we know Wonder Woman isn't really scifi, except when she's traveling into outer space, wielding the purple death ray, flying in her invisible jet, or joining a crew of aliens and scifi characters in the Justice League.)

[MTV

Let's get everyone else's books out of the way first, shall we? Dark Horse ask what may be the unexpected question of the week - "Who wants to relive Pamela Anderson's second-greatest hit?" - with their Barb Wire Omnibus release. But then they make up for it with the particularly awesome MySpace Dark Horse Presents anthology, collecting the best of the first year of their web anthology, including the deservedly award-winning Sugarshock by Joss Whedon and Fabio Moon. Image Comics are offering the first collection of their new-age illuminati supervillain book New World Order, and Marvel continue their alien war story with the first issue of Secret Invasion: Amazing Spider-Man. Much more interesting from the House of Ideas is the first issue of the third volume of Runaways or the first hardcover "omnibus" collection of Brian Michael Bendis' Daredevil run.

But, as I said, DC just plain have everyone else beat this week. They have the collection of mind-bending Duncan Rouleau's time-traveling robot Metal Men, which was completely underrated when originally released and will reward anyone willing to put the time and effort into it. Same goes for the Brave And The Bold: The Book Of Destiny collection, which features time travel, parallel worlds and more super-heroes than you can shake multiple sticks at.

If you're following the Final Crisis storyline, then you might want to check into Brad Meltzer's DC Universe: Last Will And Testament, which shows what happened to your favorite characters on the last night before Darkseid took over. Then skip over to Grant Morrison's sure-to-be-awesome Final Crisis: Superman Beyond, in which everyone's favorite corporate icon breaks free of reality's bounds in order to save his true love. (And if you find that Morrison's take on the Man of Steel agrees with you, then you should definitely pick up this week's paperback release of All-Star Superman, if you've somehow missed it until now.)

More Morrison can be found in the first hardcover re-release of his over-the-top JLA run, which features alien invasions, robots learning about humanity and the trouble with falling for your own dreams, all dispatched with humor and surprising speed. Somewhat stunningly, each of these - well, maybe with the exception of the Meltzer book, and that's only because of my personal distrust of any man who has a crush on Terra - is well worth your time and money. They're the kinds of books that reawaken your love of superheroes, science fiction or just comics that like to tackle their subjects with imagination and a sense of humor. Go forth and spend your hard-earned dollars with only a little bit of fear.

As you may have heard by this point, a full list of this week's books can be found here, and you can take that list to the comic books store closest to you... which you can locate by going here. Just remember to tell your local store clerk that, like Elvis, you were born standing up and talking back.

Writing about the near-miss that was the planned Daredevil cartoon from the early '80s, Brevoort explained the problem:

As in the comics, Matt Murdock is a blind lawyer who is secretly Daredevil. (Unlike the comics, he has dark black hair, at least if the presentation drawing is anything to go by.) By day, he pals around with his teenaged niece and his seeing-eye-dog. But when evil strikes, he becomes Daredevil, his dog becomes Lightning, the Super Dog ( I love teh way, in teh production drawing, Lightning affects a pose of mild-manneredness in his civilian guise as Matt's seeing-eye dog...), and the three of them take to the streets in Daredevil’s specially-equipped van.

Now, stop and think about this for a minute: who’s driving the van? Is it the blind guy, the underage girl, or the seeing-eye dog?

Anyway, once they find a crime in progress among the rooftops—which is where most of the crime in New York City typically takes place—Matt moves to the back of the van to the giant cannon, which unfolds from the top. And then, his niece launches him skyward…like a Daredevil…

Stunningly, the project wasn't killed by common sense, but instead by Frank Miller's classic Daredevil cover where the character is pointing a gun at the reader. Because, you know, being fired out of a cannonball by your teenage niece is one thing, but a blind man with a gun? That's just dangerous...

Like a Daredevil... [Marvel.com]

Another "shocking" Marvel comic book is Captain America #33. Cap's former sidekick Bucky finally confronts the man he blames for the Captain's death, Iron Man. Rumor has it that a new Captain America will emerge at the end of this issue, as a result of a deal that Bucky makes with Iron Man. Plus check out Steve Epting's gorgeous art of the Red Skull:

Grant Morrison's Batman finally emerges from the long "Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul" crossover with issue #672. We're back to dealing with the "imposter Batmen," a big theme of Morrison's run. The "third Batman" is shooting up a police precinct, and his ultimate goal is to kill the real Dark Knight. It sounds as though we'll get some explanation for the extra Bat-guys. And since the zany imp Bat-mite guest stars, it appears that Wacky Grant will be showing up for this round.

Tom Beland (True Story Swear To God) writes a Fantastic Four one-shot called Isla De La Muerte. The Thing takes his annual "secret vacation" in Puerto Rico, and his team-mates follow him, only to confront an old enemy and the Chupacabras. Judging from the preview pages, it looks like a dose of old-school angst-free FF without much substance.

Mike Baron's crazy superhero Badger is back in a new mini-series from IDW, Badger Saves The World. How excited you are about this comic depends on your degree of 80s nostalgia. The "mentally ill superhero" thing has become such a cliche by this point, it's hard to see this comic winning much of a new audience. But it does have Pavlov, a terrorist who uses trained dogs.

Speaking of 80s nostalgia, this week also sees the collection of the Buckaroo Banzai mini-series Return Of The Screw. Original writer Earl Mac Rauch wrote the continuation of the movie's story, and director W.D. Richter was also involved. Buckaroo and his team save the world again, plus there are guitar solos, gun battles, a human pickle and a giant sombrero. In other words, if you're one of the people who quotes Buckaroo dialog to your friends, you'll probably want to grab this.

Also, there's the giant hardcover Daredevil By Frank Miller Omnibus Companion. Frank Miller's groundbreaking work on Daredevil #158-191 reinvented the character and put Miller on the map in a huge way. Those essential issues are collected in the Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson Omnibus, which came out last spring. This new hardcover contains all the other work Miller did featuring Daredevil. There's some nice stuff here, but it's basically for completists.

Finally, you can relive all of Batman's wackiest team ups from the 1950s in Showcase Presents Brave and the Bold, volume two.