One of the first questions that's worth asking is "Is anyone left?" It's hard to top the much-stated 5000+ characters contained in Marvel's IP, and it'd be a tough argument to suggest that there are any other comic publishers available who could offer anything even vaguely similar, especially considering that the larger companies that aren't DC or Marvel don't own the majority of their IP (Dark Horse, Image, and IDW all predominantly offer creator owned or licensed material); although purchasing one of those publishers may offer existing relationships with creators, it doesn't necessarily translate into anything that Disney (or any other company with large pockets) could immediately take advantage of.

(That said, if I were looking for a publisher purely for the IP rights and wasn't specifically looking for superheroes, I'd probably see if either Boom! Studios or Tokyopop were looking to be bought out; neither has an IP farm anywhere close to the size of Marvel's, but both have had some success coming up with new series and concepts that could easily be adapted into movies or television - at least, until Tokyopop's cutback "restructuring" last year, on their side. Or, of course, Rebellion, who own the 2000AD rights, which could definitely use some exploiting.)

If IP is really what's being looked for, Disney might want to follow Hollywood and go for toy and game companies; Hasbro has been positioning itself as more of a intellectual property generator than toy company since their deal with Universal Studios last year, after all, and with already successful properties like Transformers and GI Joe, they must be looking pretty tempting to any company wanting to buy an immediate in to existing markets right about now. Perhaps not as obvious, but arguably more worthwhile, a videogame publisher like Electronic Arts - owner of The Sims and Dead Space, amongst others - or Valve may not bring the instant brand awareness of Hasbro or Marvel, but unlike both, is currently creating new properties as successful as their Greatest Hits, which might be a better investment in the long run.

All of this conjecture, however, ignores the Bantha in the middle of the room: Lucasfilm.

The privately-owned Lucasfilm may not own have as many separate franchises as Marvel, but it has Star Wars and Indiana Jones, and there's definitely an argument to be made that Star Wars alone is worth as much as the entire Marvel Universe (Containing almost as many characters, and with the ability to spin out as many sub-franchises as it has, after all). More to the point, unlike Marvel, Lucasfilm is much more than an IP factory; alongside the movie studio, publishing arm, online division and animation department - all of which a self-respecting media juggernaut like Disney also has - it includes industry leaders Skywalker Sound and Industrial Light & Magic, making them almost unique in terms of value add (Yes, Marvel may be the industry leader in comic book publishing, but how important is that to Disney's core business?).

It's extremely unlikely that Lucas would sell Lucasfilm, especially as he seems to have become interested in the possibilities television offers to him and the company. But everyone has their price, as the saying goes. The question is just how high Lucas' price would be - and whether anyone could afford it.

The Hollywood Reporter's Risky Business blog noted that the studio is developing Rick Remender's Dark Horse comic as part of the overall development deal with the Oregon-based publisher set up following the two companies' partnership on Hellboy II: The Golden Army last year. Fear Agent was created in 2005 by Remender and artist Tony Moore as a series that its author describes as "a mix of our favorite three EC genres, Horror, Sci-Fi and War" that focuses on Heath Huston, one of Earth's last Fear Agents - men and women trained to defend the planet from alien attacks, and his none-too-glamorous attempts to live up to that legacy despite himself.

Will Dark Horse's 'Fear Agent' ride into theaters? [THR Risky Business]

Academy - created by My Chemical Romance's Gerard Way and artist Gabriel Ba - follows the adult lives of former child superheroes following the death of their adoptive father and mentor, as they try to reunite to carry out his plan to save the world. Mixing deconstruction with affectionate parody and influences from things like Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol and even Mike Mignola's Hellboy, the comic reads at times like Watchmen as written by the Monty Python team, which may be a tall order for screenwriter Mark Bomback (Race to Witch Mountain) to replicate onscreen (Then again, he also wrote the absurd Live Free Or Die Hard...).

The movie will be co-produced by Universal and Academy publisher Dark Horse, and is the first project from the three year deal between the two signed as a result of the success of last year's Hellboy II (also a Universal/Dark Horse co-production).

Universal to make 'Academy' film [Variety]

Richardson told SciFi Wire,

The most immediate is R.I.P.D. ... David Dobkin [Wedding Crashers] is directing. We're doing it over at Universal Studios. We have a great script by [Matt] Manfredi and [Phil] Hay. R.I.P.D. stands for Rest in Peace Department. It's based on a graphic novel by Peter Lenkov. It's about dead cops that died in the line of duty that are sent back basically to get people who don't want to come peacefully, people who stayed behind. It's a lot of fun. ... It has a few of the elements of something like a Men in Black, except this one has real scares in it. It's not sort of a cartoon scares. A lot of humor, but real scary stuff going on.

The 2003 comic was less Men In Black and more of a revenge tale, as RIPDetective Nick Cruz tracked down the man who killed him, but the potential for thrills, chills and most importantly box office boffo is definitely there.

This isn't the first time that Dark Horse has gotten a foothold in the movie business; a similar push in the 1990s gave the world The Mask, Timecop and Barb Wire - showing that the publisher's new movie initiative doesn't have too high a bar to try and reach.

Dark Horse, Universal, In Deal [SciFi Wire]

According to our comics expert, Graeme, the Terminator franchise actually has four different licenses in comics. Dark Horse has a license to publish comics based on the original film. Dynamite has a license to do comics based on Terminator 2. And IDW has a license to do comics based on the upcoming movie Terminator: Salvation. Who has the license to do comics based on The Sarah Connor Chronicles TV show? We're not sure. Maybe you, if you act fast.

It's not clear what the Dark Horse series will focus on. The Dynamite series, written by Simon Furman, will feature tons of time-traveling shenanigans, including Terminators trying to kill Kyle Reese as a teenager before he can father John Connor. The IDW series will tie in with the movie. No creative teams, or details, have been announced for the new Dark Horse series. Dark Horse's Terminator comics, at their best, featured more of a horror feel, as you can see from the image above. The creative teams have included writers like Alan Grant and James Robinson.

The big question is: Does the revival of the Dark Horse Terminator comics mean we'll get another Aliens. Vs. Predator Vs. Terminator showdown? [Pop Culture Zoo]

A source close to the project, co-produced by Dark Horse Entertainment, insists that “there is a movie deal on the table… but the option hasn’t actually been signed." According to Way, Universal wants Juno scribe Diablo Cody for the unfilled scripting gig, and adds that Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men) sits atop his wish list of directors—though, according to the source, there is no solid commitment yet from Cuarón. Meanwhile, not one to waste time, Way has already approached wardrobe consultant Colleen Atwood (Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd) about outfitting the still-uncast Umbrella characters. "I think the costume designer already said yes," says Umbrella artist Gabriel Bá (who previously drew Casanova). As for his role in the feature film? “Gerard said he would want me to get involved with the production art, approval, etc.… [But] they’re trying to get a director before going forward with this."

Gerard Way photo courtesy of CassieWay

Release of the week (if you exclude Oni Press' brilliant, worth-30-bucks, and totally non-SF Local hardcover) is probably Dark Horse's first two trade paperback collections of Astro Boy. These give new fans a very cheap ($14.95 for 400+ pages each) chance to experience Osamu Tezuka's wonderful series for themselves, in advance of the upcoming movie version. Almost equally recommended is the final issue of DC's All Star Superman series, wherein Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly demonstrate the eternal power of the Man of Steel even after killing him off last issue.

Dark Horse also offers Abe Sapien Volume 1: The Drowning for fans of Hellboy's merman best buddy, and DC are going for the topicality vote with the first issue of DCU: Decisions, in which we get to find out whether Batman is really a Republican or not once and for all, because... well, God knows why, really. If you're looking for a better way to spend your DC-bound dollars, consider the worth of Superman: Kryptonite, a new hardcover collecting a story by The New Frontier's Darwyn Cooke and Heroes's Tim Sale about Superman's first run-in with the glowing green stuff.

Over at the House of Ideas, they're pretty much taking the week off, unless you're looking for stories about kid supergroup Power Pack (They have both their Skulls vs series and a digest collection of Day One out this week). Jeff Parker and Paul Tobin's fun retro mini The Age Of The Sentry debuts, and the Silver Surfer gets an unfortunately somber, humorless send-off in the paperback version of Silver Surfer: Requiem. Much more fun can be found in Red5 Comics' Abyss, which releases its first collection this week.

If you're hit by the desire to see what else is going to be hitting your store shelves this week, you should head here, before checking out the Comic Shop Locator Service to locate your local comic store. Just remember to style your hair in an appropriately pointed direction before going in, just to honor everyone's favorite atomic pinocchio.

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.

Serenity: The Other Half continues the twin traditions of working with Joss Whedon (the company publishes the Buffy Season 8 series, and has also put out a couple of earlier Serenity series) and also putting Whedon-related content in their free online anthology, Dark Horse Presents (In addition to featuring the first appearance of Dr. Horrible's Captain Hammer last month, the anthology started with a brand new Whedon creation, Sugarshock). The short strip, written by Jim Krueger and illustrated by Will Conrad, also acts as a preview to a brand new Serenity comic due at the end of the year, The Shepherd's Tale, by the same creators.

Serenity: The Other Half [Dark Horse Presents]

Both issues of the Dark Horse companion comic will have variant covers. One will be drawn by Drew Struzan, and the other by Hugh Fleming, but it isn't clear who created this piece. Since Struzan designed the teaser poster, this could be Fleming's artwork, since the style looks fairly different. But only the crystal skull knows for sure. Plus you'll notice three different Indianas on this image, something they haven't done since Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Maybe they just really want you to know that Harrison Ford is definitely in this movie. [Ain't It Cool News]