Star Trek Movie Electronic Phaser
We've always been suckers for the phaser, whether it's OG Trek, Next Gen or even Enterprise. No wonder we want one of these awesome toy phasers from this summer's movie, especially with its "authentic lights and sounds" (We're not convinced that it's as "realistic" as they claim, however). For extra authenticity, you can also pick up a communicator and Tricorder to complete the set... Although we think we prefer the original series model on that last one.

LEGO Star Wars: The Clone Wars Fan's Vote Anniversary Edition - Home One Mon Calamari Star Cruiser
It's an irrefutable fact that all LEGO is awesome, but this insane 789-piece set goes the extra distance to become uber-awesome: Rebuild the command deck of the Mon Calamari from Return Of The Jedi, complete with an A-Wing and six figures including Admiral Ackbar, Mon Mothma and Lando Calrissian. There's no way that you can't want this already unless you have a fear of bricks.

Transformers Constructicon Devastator
The movie may have defied things like logic or story, but there's no denying that the robots themselves looked cool, and the giant Devastator (made of six different Constructicon vehicles) may be the coolest of all the toys, especially with his snapping jaws and "construction sounds." It's the next best thing to being chased around the world with Megan Fox!*

(* This is, in fact, untrue.)

Superhero Action Figures
Tried and true, there are enough different variations of superhero action figure that anyone who's ever shown even the slightest interest in Batman is sure to find something they'll appreciate. From DC Direct's upscale figures to Marvel Legends, your choice of characters go from obvious (Wolverine is, unsurprisingly, well represented in the toy world) to obscure (Blackest Night supporting character Saint Walker?). Because we're fans of the old Star Wars figures, we'd plump for the similarly-sized DC Universe Infinite Heroes and Marvel Universe lines to make your choices from. And, if you're looking to get something for us, we'd love a Professor Zoom, thanks.

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.

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is available On Demand and via Digital Download, and it also comes out on DVD and BluRay today. You can get it from the WBSHOP.com here. (You can read our review here.)

Here are some more clips, that have been posted on Youtube:

And here's some promotional artwork:

To be fair, Public Enemies actually fixes a lot of the plot problems with the original comic it's adapting. We're given a better reason for Lex Luthor becoming President of the United States, and it's one that both ties in with the current economic climate and provides an unintentionally hilarious opening to the movie. Businessmen, so crushed by the collapse of the world's markets, smash up newspaper vending machines so that they can steal the coins contained within. (Really, animated moviemakers? Newspaper vending machines? We also get a denouement that actually offers closure, as opposed to the original series' more open-ended, to-be-continued-in-Infinite-Crisis, climax.

But in the process of fixing those issues, a lot of the (for want of a better way to put it) fun of the story feels skewed: When your story opens with global economic collapse prompting Americans to abandon the two-party political system in order to avoid devolving into riot-filled chaos, scenes of superheroes punching each other ad nauseum for the better part of half an hour in the middle of the movie seem somewhat... out of place. As does the climactic appearance of a rocket that looks like a giant Superman/Batman composite, with booster rockets for a cape.

The tonal dissonance is the movie's biggest problem; if you took out a couple of "bitch"s and comments about Power Girl's breasts, what you'd have left would be a great film for kids. What survives from the original comic is an ideal big, bold, childlike story: Lex Luthor becomes President, frames Superman for murder and all the other superheroes try to arrest him! And there's this massive kryptonite meteor that's headed to Earth that no-one can stop! Dude!!! (The meteor plot feels a bit unnecessary here; it's been pulled over from the original comic, where it was really a set-up for the next storyline, and without that context, becomes a little bit "We need a bigger ending — oh, why don't we use this meteor?").

But as it is, the movie is unsure of which audience it's aiming for - an adult audience who wants references to Power Girl's breast size and gets the weird quasi-Jon Stewart gag at the start of the movie (bleeped out, because... Well, I'm not entirely sure why, really?), or a kid audience for whom the idea of Hawkman, Captains Marvel and Atom, Katana, Power Girl, Black Lightning and Major Force going up against Superman and Batman is genuinely new and exciting.

On the plus side, the movie looks great; Director Sam Liu finds a way to translate original comic artist Ed McGuinness' distinctive, blocky style while keeping it familiar enough to fans of Batman: The Animated Series and the Justice League cartoons, and the voice work by old hands Kevin Conroy, Clancy Brown and Tim Daly (amongst many others) has just the right mix of sincerity and smirk.

Also enjoyable are the extras, which include a preview for the next DC Universe movie, Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths (which, despite the claims of it being all-original, seems to be a version of Grant Morrison's JLA: Earth 2 graphic novel), a fun Dinner for Five rip-off featuring animated mavens Bruce Timm, Andrea Romano, Gregory Novak and Batman himself Kevin Conroy, and extra episodes of the Superman animated series (on the DVD, at least; I believe the Blu Ray edition has different episodes in addition to everything else). While the movie itself is uneven but mostly enjoyable, when you factor in all the extras available on the DVD and Blu Ray editions, the package suddenly becomes a lot more attractive to fans of either the characters or animated superheroes in general.

Overall, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies doesn't necessarily measure up to earlier DC Universe animated movies (Wonder Woman and Justice League: The New Frontier are probably better, I'd argue), and some of the changes in the adaptation create new problems even as they fix old ones, but there are definitely worse ways to spend the couple of hours or so it'd take to watch this. Just don't expect more than a good old-fashioned superhero slugfest, with some added bells and whistles.

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is released September 29th.

Johns' involvement doesn't just bring his history with the characters to the project - it also apparently brings his sense of scale and ability to make fanboys across the world wet themselves with anticipation, if this is anything to go by:

It's almost like you have a Secret Origin. That's what I look at is as... If you're a new hero; what's your Secret Origin? Your Secret Origin is going to take you throughout the DC Universe, from one end to the next, from The Daily Planet to the inner dungeons of the Doom Patrol's castle in Prague. That's my goal, is to really have you be able to visit and interact with any corner of the DC Universe, whether it's the world of the Flash or the Suicide Squad... I'm kind of a freak when it comes to the far-reaching corners of the DC Universe, so to do that and be able to say, 'Can you build this?' or to say, like, 'can we use the Rogues?' And to have them come back and say, 'Sure! Which ones? Any Rogues you want!' It was really pretty freeing, and it was a kind of experience I'd never had in the DC Universe. It's a totally different way to write.

One of those differences is that there's no such thing as "a" story, as Johns explained:

There are lots of different stories or offshoots you can do. The story that I've created, is really just the first story but within that story, there are dozens and dozens of others... There are some things in it from [Green Lantern] that for people who know my stuff will be familiar.

But if you're worried that gaming - or his TV writing career, like writing an upcoming episode of Smallville - will steal his attention away from comics, you shouldn't be:

[M]y first love and interest is always going to be comic books. Comic books are my main focus and specifically, the DC Universe. It's where I have the most fun. It's where I find a lot of challenges in my writing. It's never boring.

Geoff Johns Joins with Jim Lee for DC Universe Online Game [Newsarama], Geoff Johns Teams With Jim Lee On DCU Online [Comic Book Resources]

I've been pretty upset about the DC characters' inability to kill in the traditional Mortal Kombat fashion, but at least it'll provide some amusement to watch Johnny Cage punch Batman's head off. That's what you get if you don't allow your kick-ass comic characters to kill: some shirtless loser who wears sunglasses to fight will decapitate Batman with his bare hands.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe will be released in November of 2008.