Looking over a decade of superhero storylines, it's easy to see two things: The repetition of ideas, and the genre trying to come to grips with what's happening in the real world (and often failing badly); just look at the increase of terrorist attacks post-9/11. The headlines below - matched to publication date where possible - may not be exactly how the last ten years played out in the real world, but it's possibly the way it happened in our collective subconscious. Well, apart from restarting reality four times, of course.

2000
January - Part of America literally becomes city of the future thanks to time-traveling evil robot (Superman: Y2K storyline).

February - Humanity defeats, kills "God," who is revealed to be a gigantic organic pyramid responsible for life on Earth. 20th Century ends late/early depending on who you talk to with death of Jenny Sparks (The Authority #12).

February - All of humanity temporarily gains superpowers as result of superhero from another dimension powering miracle machine that enables humanity en masse to defeat extra-dimensional being driving the world to the brink of destruction (JLA #41).

June - Earth is hit by artificially-induced natural disasters (New York hit by giant tidal wave, San Francisco partially destroyed by volcano, areas of Africa and Australia face plague of insects, etc.) as result of insane criminal with godlike power (The Authority, "Earth Inferno" storyline).

June-July - World transformed into alternate reality ruled by cartoon laws of physics as result of insane criminal receiving godlike power (Superman: Emperor Joker storyline).

July - New York attacked by alien terrorist whose path of destruction, when viewed from above, spells out "Fuck You" (Marvel Boy #2).

October-November - Earth temporarily designated a prison planet by consortium of alien races, becomes overwhelmed by amount of extra-terrestrial criminals (Maximum Security storyline).

November: Lex Luthor becomes President of the United States of America (Superman: Lex 2000 storyline).

2001
May - A time-traveling despot reveals horrific future if he is not given control of Earth, resulting in international wars as nations disagree on response (Avengers #42).

June - A terrorist attack decimates the homo superior population of Earth, killing hundreds of thousands in one sweep (New X-Men #115).

June-August - Earth becomes centerpoint for alien attempt to destroy the universe, resulting in universe-wide war (Our Worlds At War storyline).

September - The World Trade Center and Pentagon are targeted by terrorists, resulting in the destruction of the former and a worldwide reaction and rescue effort (Amazing Spider-Man #36).

September - A time-traveling despot declares war on humanity (Avengers #46).

October - Large numbers of people/animals become infected by "Joker" virus temporarily, resulting in worldwide insanity (Joker: The Last Laugh storyline).

2002
January - Earth surrenders control to time-traveling despot; large numbers of humanity placed within concentration camps (Avengers #50).

June - The mythical realm of Norse Gods, Asgard, takes up temporary residence above New York City (Thor #50).

July - Every male of every species on Earth dies suddenly. Well, almost every male (Y: The Last Man #1).

August - Capital cities across the globe disappear, only to be revealed to have become part of a giant uber-city as the result of a cosmic entity representing the concept of order (Avengers #57).

October - LA is attacked by giant black sperm as the result of a terrorist attack on behalf of an insane former pornstar (The Filth #5).

December - Mutant terrorists attack New York City, destroy the Brooklyn Bridge and kill eight hundred (Ultimate War #1).

2003
January - Norse Gods invade European nation to ensure religious freedoms (Thor, Iron Man, Avengers: Standoff storyline).

March - 1 in 1000 Americans gains superpowers due to alien virus (Action Comics #801).

March - Mount Rushmore and other areas of South Dakota are attacked by biological weapons (Avengers #65).

May - The island of Micronesia is destroyed in a nuclear explosion, an act that launches an invasion on Earth by alien forces (The Ultimates #10).

September - World transformed into alternate reality with alternate history merging it with parallel Earth as result of godlike beings indulging in wager (JLA/Avengers #3).

September - Mutant terrorists attack New York City, killing thousands and also manage to reverse the polarity of Earth's magnetic poles (New X-Men #147).

2004
February - San Diego plunges into Pacific Ocean, renamed "Sub Diego" after some inhabitants survive as mer-people (Aquaman #15).

February - The White House is attacked by superpowered terrorists (Ultimate Six #5).

February - American Government overthrown by superpowered terrorists (Coup D'Etat storyline).

April - One million people mysteriously vanish from Earth suddenly (Superman #204).

June - Superpowered beings invade Arab nation of Mazikhandar, depose ruler and install new democratic government (Avengers #83).

July-October - New York is attacked by indestructible robots, terrorist organizations and aliens as the result of a delusional superhero with godlike powers (Avengers: Disassembled storyline).

August - New York is invaded by aliens (Fantastic Four #517).

August - Thousands of people kill themselves as result of international broadcast from unknown source (Ultimate Nightmare #1).

2005
March - Europe erupts into riots against a newly announced European Union plan to create super-powered soldiers (Ultimates 2 #5).

March - Military installation is attacked by aliens seeking to prevent humanity from achieving space travel (Ultimate Secret #1).

April - Tens of thousands of people discovered to be nanotech-controlled drones in service to evil satellite orbiting the Earth (The OMAC Project #1).

June-October - World temporarily transformed into alternate reality as result of insane superhero with godlike powers (House of M storyline).

October - Genetic evolution is reversed worldwide by insane superhero with godlike powers, undoing homo superior strain granting superhuman abilities to thousands of people worldwide (House of M #8).

November - Tokyo is attacked by a collection of giant monsters (Fantastic Four/Iron Man: Big In Japan #1).

December - Earth overrun by zombie plague (Marvel Zombies #1).

2006
January - Multiple Earths appear in orbit around Earth (Infinite Crisis #4).

April - Reality is restarted, resulting in a new Earth with altered history (Infinite Crisis #7).

May - Humanity defeats "Galactus," a swarm of alien ships known for destroying planets (Ultimate Extinction #5).

May - Hundreds die in Stamford, Connecticut as a result of superhero negligence; in response, the US Government announces the Superhero Registration Act which will regulate superhuman activity (Civil War #1).

June - Reality is restarted, resulting in a new Earth with altered history (Captain Atom: Armageddon #9).

September - "The Everyman Project" is announced, which can give people synthetic superpowers (52 #21).

October - A cosmic event known as "The White Event" occurs, resulting in people around the world manifesting superpowers (newuniversal #1).

2007
January - All participants in "The Everyman Project" simultaneously lose their powers, resulting in worldwide destruction and death (52 #35).

February - The 50-State Initiative is unveiled, with each state of America given its own superhero team (Civil War: The Initiative #1).

April - Washington DC is invaded by mythical, warlike women (Amazons Attack! #1).

May - Earth is discovered to be one of 52 parallel Earths with alternate histories (52 #52).

August - Earth is invaded by alien gladiators led by the Hulk, returning from interplanetary exile (World War Hulk #1).

August - The mythical realm of Norse Gods, Asgard, takes up temporary residence above the state of Oklahoma (Thor #2).

September - November: Earth is invaded by aliens with magical rings (Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War storyline).

December - History is altered after ill-considered pact between satanic demon and naive superhero and wife (Amazing Spider-Man #545).

December - Alien body-snatching conspiracy is uncovered (New Avengers #37).

2008
April - Alien body-snatching conspiracy turns into full-blown invasion of Earth by shape-changing aliens (Secret Invasion #1).

July - Earth becomes a post-nuclear wasteland (Number Of The Beast #8).

July - Humanity loses free will as result of arrival of godlike entity on Earth (Final Crisis #3).

August-November - World temporarily transformed into alternate reality with alternate history as result of criminals assuming godlike power (Trinity series).

August - Now an endangered species, homo superiors declare San Francisco, CA, to be their new home (Uncanny X-Men #500).

October - Earth becomes home to 1,000,000 refugee aliens (Action Comics #870).

November - Alien shapechanging invasion is finally repelled, ushering in a new era of corrupted authority in incredibly ill-timed political metaphor (Secret Invasion #8).

November - The world is hit by multiple seemingly-natural disasters, including a tidal wave that floods and partially destroys New York City, as first wave of attack by superpowered terrorists (Ultimatum #1).

2009
January - Reality is restarted, resulting in a new Earth with altered history (Final Crisis #7).

March - The United Kingdom is invaded by a vampire army (Captain Britain and MI-13 #11).

August - (ongoing): Earth becomes overrun by reanimated corpses of the dead (Blackest Night storyline)

Greg Cox is one of the most prolific, and successful, authors of media tie-in novels, and he's won a loyal following for his many Star Trek books, including a trilogy filling in the backstory of much-loved villain Khan Noonien Singh. He's also written tie-in novels based on Alias, The 4400, Roswell, Underworld, Fantastic Four and Iron Man. He's also novelized the movies Ghost Rider, Daredevil and several others, plus DC Comics' big crossovers.

We talked to him about his new Terminator Salvation tie-in novel Cold War, out now from Titan Books, plus some of his other recent projects.

Cold War uses the same timeline as McG's recent movie, but only includes a couple of characters from the film: The main character is Losenko, the Russian general who appears briefly in the film, mentioning that Skynet is looking for Kyle Reese, and we learn all about Lysenko's backstory. Says Cox, "When I watched the movie, I was probably the only person who was mentally hanging on every scene with general Losenko," watching for every detail about the character to include in the book. Also in the book is General Ashdown (Michael Ironsides), the resistance leader who lives on a submarine. John Connor only pops in the book as a sort of mythological figure, giving inspirational speeches over the radio.

The new book takes place in Alaska and Russia, in two different time frames: 2003, right after Judgment Day, and then 2018. In 2003, the survivors are coping with the aftermath of the nuclear war, and Skynet is attacking them with really primitive Terminators, and the technology is close to what really existed in 2003. And then in 2018, Skynet has all the same tech it has in the movie — plus snowmobile Terminators, to navigate those frozen northern areas. It sounds like Cox had a lot of fun with the frosty settings:

My big gimmick was snowmobile Terminators. There's also a giant Terminator train. The trick is to try to find stuff in the [same] universe, that's slightly different. What haven't we seen yet? We haven't seen a Terminator train. The main reason for setting it in Alaska [was to include things like] dogsled chases, grizzly bears, avalanches, volcanos... We've seen so many chases on California highways, with fire trucks and emergency vehicles. I was looking for a whole different environment, not just recapitulating what people had done before.

Cox is somewhat surprised that the Terminator/grizzly bear fight has been the main thing people have talked about in his novel. "You can't have a Terminator in Alaska and not have him fight a grizzly bear. Okay, it's gratuitous, but how can I resist having a grizzly bear fight a Terminator?" And now that people have been so excited by it, "from now on, I put a grizzly bear in all my books." Spoiler alert: The bear doesn't stand a chance against a Terminator, says Cox.

There's also a Western-style train heist and loads of detail on a Russian submarine, plus lots of gritty war-movie-style action. Cox watched tons of World War II movies on TCM, read every Tom Clancy novel for the submarine details, and did loads of research on the world right after a nuclear war.

Cox says he watched Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles "religiously," but Titan Books and Halcyon were adamant that his book couldn't contain any references to T:SCC continuity. So don't expect Cameron to show up, but if anyone ever green-lights SCC novels, Cox will be first in line. The Terminator people were very keen to make sure Cox's book fit in with their vision of the universe, including making sure Skynet wasn't developing high technology too early after Judgment Day — and that meant loads of conference calls, notes and intensive feedback at every stage of the process.

Wrapping up The 4400

The amount of feedback you get from the licensors on a licensed property depends heavily on whether it's an ongoing concern, says Cox. With The 4400, for example, Cox wrote one tie-in novel while the series was on the air, and went through four different drafts in response to feedback. But when Cox wrote the first of two novels wrapping up the series after it ended, Welcome To Promise City, he got a more-or-less free hand. (The other novel, available now, is written by David Mack.) Cox, Mack and their editor cooked up an ending to the series together.

Except for tons of feedback from the fans. Cox says as soon as it was announced that he was writing a 4400 novel explaining what happened after the show's cancellation, he was bombarded with emails from fans all over the world demanding to know what he was going to do with their favorite subplots and characters. "I can't claim we wrapped up every loose end, but we tried to wrap up the important one," says Cox. He and Mack debated with their editor whether to tie up the end of the series with a neat bow, or leave a few things slightly open-ended in case they ended up doing more novels. They settled on the second approach, so if the books sell amazingly well, you might see further continuations of the story.

Novelizing Final Crisis

Cox novelized Infinite Crisis, 52 and Countdown for DC Comics, and now he's novelized Final Crisis, Grant Morrison's narrative-shredding uber-crossover starring the evil Darkseid. How on earth do you take Morrison's loopy storytelling and convert it into a single novel?

There was a lot of condensing involved, Cox admits:

There's not a lot of connective tissue in that series. [There are] a lot of scenes that jump from place to place. I've got to admit, the book is probably a bit more linear than the comic book, especially issue seven, which was jumping all over time. I actually just tried to tell it a bit more in chronological order, and maybe simplify it a bit.

The biggest problem with novelizing one of these sprawling DC crossovers is figuring out what subplots and tie-ins to leave out. The first week Cox was working on the Infinite Crisis novelization, he was trying to include all of the spin-off issues, including things like Rann-Thanagar War One-Shot, and every other miniseries and crossover issue, "and I realized this book is going to take me ten years, and it's going to be the size of The Wheel Of Time." So he began paring things down. Similarly, the Final Crisis book ignores a lot of tie-ins, sadly including the 3-D Superman tie-in series. "I apologize if your favorite scene is not in this book, but there's no way I can get in the 3-D tie in superman issue and the Batman issues and the special tie-in issue of Secret Six."

With novelizations of comics crossovers, "it's all about streamlining." It's the opposite of novelizing movie scripts, which is all about fleshing out the story and characters and adding new stuff to turn a 90-page script into a 300-to-400-page novel. "The script for Ghost Rider was not a terribly long script," notes Cox. He recalls coming across the novelization for Snakes On A Plane and marveling that Christa Faust had managed to get 400 pages out of that film. He felt like sending her fan mail.

Should Khan Come Back?

As the author of three Khan books, Cox is conflicted about whether Khan should appear in the next Star Trek movie. On the one hand, recasting Khan seems almost impossible, given how much Ricardo Montalban put his stamp on the character. On the other, Cox might have said the same thing about recasting Kirk, Spock and McCoy — and J.J. Abrams and crew pulled that off. The real question is, "do you do Botany Bay Khan, or crazy burned-out Wrath Of Khan Khan? There's the young virile but not quite crazy Khan, and then there's the obsessed spent-15-years-in-Hell Khan. And then there's the whole messy [subject of the] Eugenics Wars — when exactly did they take place? Did they take place during the Bill Clinton years?"

Cox is writing one of four new novels that take place in the movie's continuity, picking up where the movie left off. He's written a draft of his novel, but hasn't gotten feedback from Paramount yet, so everything is subject to change. But at least for now, his novel takes place six months after the end of the movie, and follows Captain Kirk and his crew on a stand-alone adventure. And he hints that, if Paramount approves, the fact that the Vulcans are refugees scattered across the universe will play a part in his novel's plot.

Wired's Underwire blog premiered these two clips from Patrick Meaney's upcoming documentary on the Scottish writer, teasing his particular take on George Bush (and world leaders in general) and why our Earth would seem like hell to fictional characters:


Featuring not just a lengthy interview with Morrison about his life and work - including the alien abduction that led to his 1990s series The Invisibles - but also contributions from friends and collaborators like Blackest Night and Green Lantern writer Geoff Johns, Seaguy and Invisibles artist Cameron Stewart, and DC Executive Editor Dan Didio, Meaney plans to have the movie (tentatively called Grant Morrison: The Documentary Film) complete in time for a world premiere at SDCC 2010. We'll see you in line.

Counterculture Comics Hero Grant Morrison Gets a Biopic [The Underwire/Wired]

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.

The Mole Man
The Fantastic Four's first villain, the Mole Man's modus operandi switched up from attacking humanity because they weren't monsters to one of ecological conservation, trying to get humanity to leave Monster Island alone and stop bringing the monsters therein to the brink to extinction. Who can't get behind that? He's like a shorter, uglier Al Gore who just happens to command an army of near-unstoppable genetic accidents. If we just let him win, who knows what kind of era of ecological paradise we could be letting ourselves in for?

Zoom
The second Reverse-Flash, Hunter Zolomon was a former police criminal psychologist who became unstuck in time and mind after an accident involving the Flash's Cosmic Treadmill. Obsessed with making heroes "better" by forcing personal tragedies on them so that they'll try harder, he's the poster boy for tough love... But he really is trying to make the world a better place, albeit in a twisted manner. Instead of beating him up for that, why not try and just convince him to soften his methods and let him run free? What's the worst that could happen? Well, besides him trying to kill your family as motivation, of course.

Lex Luthor
For years, Lex has been telling us that, if Superman would just get out of the way, he's turn the world into a beautiful utopia, curing diseases and ending all problems with science. Hell, he's even managed to cure cancer before, even if it was just a ploy to lure Superman into a false sense of security. All I'm saying is this: Would Superman really mind that much if we just asked him to step aside for a bit and let Lex run things his way? If nothing else, the recent Superman/Batman: Public Enemies movie suggested that he could sort out this whole financial disaster thing within weeks...

Magneto
All he wants to do is end genetic persecution! Is that really so wrong? Sure, you can argue with his ways of going about it - I don't think anyone here would be fully supportive of his controversial "enslave and destroy the human race" agenda - but the man's lived through Nazi concentration camps, been acquitted by an international court of evildoing and, if nothing else, is fully dedicated to his beliefs. Is there really any proof that a world controlled by Magneto wouldn't be one less filled with hate? We don't think so... even if it's because most of us would be dead.

Doctor Doom
Those unconvinced of Victor Von Doom's leadership potential need only look to his kingdom of Latveria for the proof: Crime is nearly non-existent! Illness equally so! And the people love their leader (Admittedly, because to admit otherwise may result in death, but still: Details, people). Sure, evidence also points to our having to put up with a merciless police force of Doombots and having to dress and act like Eastern European villagers from the late 19th century, but aren't those prices we're willing to pay for a reduction in crime and illness? Admit it: Maybe we could all benefit from being ruled by an iron (clad) hand or two.

Darkseid
Last year's Final Crisis showed a world under self-styled Ultimate God of Evil Darkseid's will-sapping regime, and aside from the complete absence of free will and slow devolution of the planet into a red-skied radioactive wasteland patrolled by mutated dogs and men with tiger heads, we can't help but notice that those submitting to the Anti-Life Equation seemed much less in emotional turmoil or upset about the direction that their lives had taken - In fact, they seemed confident and assured, unlike those who'd chosen to resist. And, yes; those who resisted eventually assisted in the recreation of existence itself, but still. Isn't having even will-sapped piece of mind about your place in the world worth some sacrifice?

Universo
Here's one we know works from experience. Futuristic hypnotist Universo managed to hoodwink the entire planet under his command in the 1987 Legion of Super-Heroes storyline "The Universo Project," and the result was a peaceful planet where superheroes weren't needed at all. Easily the best case scenario we've seen, it didn't even involve Darkseid-esque worldwide mind control - Only figures of authority (and some superheroes) were hypnotized, meaning that the common man and woman would happily have freedom to toil and work for The Man as usual, without knowing that it was a different The Man all along. Win win!

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.

Taken as individual issues during their initial release, Final Crisis felt weirdly insubstantial, as if they needed to be experienced as a whole to gain the weight that you were somehow convinced that they secretly had, hidden away somewhere - and, to an extent, that's true... It's just that the whole they need isn't the whole that DC's new collected edition gives to you. Yes, the handsome $29.99 edition collects all of the Grant Morrison-written issues of the storyline, and puts them all in chronological order, but in doing so it entirely disrupts the experience of reading either the core Final Crisis storyline or the Superman Beyond tie-in series that's also included here (There's a third story, the one issue Submit, but the less said about that, the better; when placed beside the other stories, it feels even more unnecessary and inconsequential than it did originally).

The plot of Final Crisis, for those who missed the original serialization, is essentially that Earth is invaded by Darkseid and his minions, the few remaining "New Gods" from the 1970s Fourth World comics by comic great Jack Kirby, and that Darkseid takes over the world, eradicates free will, and in doing so, brings about the end of everything. Included within this are sequences about divine intervention bringing fire to humanity, Superman transcending reality to save the love of his life and the universe - in that order - the return of the Flash and the death of Batman, amongst many others, and if that description makes it seem very scattered and overly busy, then that's not entirely an unfair complaint (Add in that deadlines on the original publication meant that multiple artists draw the core Final Crisis series, and that their styles aren't always a good match for each other, and you have another complication, although I admit that this particular one didn't bother me at all).

Sadly, one of the things that saved the series in its original format - the consistency of tone, despite the (intentionally) choppy storytelling - is sacrificed here, as Final Crisis itself takes a break after three issues for the Submit and Superman Beyond issues; while Submit is in keeping with the increasingly bleak, disturbing feel of Crisis, Superman Beyond is a much more inspirational story, and ends with a moment of triumph entirely at odds with the continuation of Crisis that immediately follows (In its original release, Superman Beyond's conclusion was released concurrently with the final episode of Crisis, which makes more sense, tonally); reading the collection straight through, there's a wrench going into, and coming out of, Beyond that damages the coherency of the overall story in a way that it struggles to recover from for a long time afterwards.

Like the majority of Morrison's superhero work, this isn't a story that will satisfy fans of the literal; it's very much an allegorical, lyrical story (Literally, on that last point, by the time you reach Darkseid's final confrontation with Superman), with narrative clarity sacrificed on occasion for artistic effect - It's very much a story you feel as much as anything, and because of that, re-reading it becomes a strange celebration of the successful moments with an increasing awareness of its faults; you notice the plots that disappear, or moments that defy sense more clearly, but throughout the entire thing, there's something so ambitious and self-aware about its own superhero comic nature that you can't help but be won over at times nonetheless (The amount of times may rely on how much you enjoy the melodramatic dialogue patterned after Jack Kirby's, or the importance of the spectacle over the minutiae, however). Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream, as one of his heroes once advised, and you'll be fine.

(A word or two about the art: Morrison has spoken, since the series ended, about the shift from original artist JG Jones to Doug Mahnke, who went from the Superman Beyond two-parter to the final chapter of Final Crisis, saying that he felt that the change was organic, and that Mahnke's art suits the more dynamic conclusion as much as Jones' more realistic style suited the downbeat, mundane beginning. He's right, and there are scenes at the end that I can't imagine working under Jones' more photo-realism-tinged brushwork. Although the discontinuity between the artists - and additional artists Carlos Pacheco and Marcos Rudy, lending hands in between - is the kind of thing that'll annoy some purists who'd rather imagine what could have been, everyone involved in the art in this collection offers amazing work, bringing their own strengths to the page without overshadowing anyone else, and Alex Sinclair's coloring throughout manages to hold everything together without becoming too obvious on the page.)

It's difficult to wholeheartedly recommend Final Crisis, especially in this particular form; I wish that they'd placed Superman Beyond later in the collection (Between the fifth and sixth issues of Crisis, perhaps), and can't help but feel that pushing the "Director's Cut" extra material of the original script to Final Crisis #1 to the paperback Final Crisis Companion is a cynical marketing move that lessens this collection, as is the weird inclusion of only a few pages of the Final Crisis Sketchbook preview, which reads as if they just needed some filler material to close out the book and grabbed some pages at random. It's certainly not anyone involved's best work, nor even Morrison's best superhero work (His Seven Soldiers cycle is much, much more successful, although the Mister Miracle arc pretty much belongs at the opening of this story). But, at the same time, there's enough of interest, and enough raw ambition and unfulfilled potential, here that I can't help but feel as if it's something approaching a (at times severly) flawed masterpiece. It's a story, and a collection, that will entertain, inspire, frustrate and potentially even move you, and for that alone, I find myself loving it, even if it's not what it could have - and should have - been.

Final Crisis is released today, and available in all good - and some evil - comic book stores.

Dipping our collective toes into the cross-media area of the pool for awhile, Doctor Who: Autopia is a new one-off story to keep you in the Who mood while you're waiting for The Waters of Mars. Also, Joss Whedon's Runaways run gets a cheap ($9.99 for six issues!) collection as Runaways: Dead End Kids Digest.

If you're looking for a new take on old science fiction tropes, the second series of Warren Ellis' Anna Mercury launches with a different look at the multiverse. And Marc Guggenheim's Resurrection also launches a second series, letting you return to an Earth post-alien invasion, where no-one is quite sure what kind of world they're living in any more.

For those needing their superhero fix, DC's Red Robin takes Tim Drake - the former Robin - off around the world as he tries to prove that Bruce Wayne isn't as dead as many people think he is. (Go, Tim! But you may need a time machine before you're finished!) And you can find out Bruce's true fate in the hardcover collection of Final Crisis (and pick up some other stories from the same era in the Final Crisis Companion coming out the same day).

Marvel, meanwhile, are indulging a Chris Claremont jones, with the X-Men: The End Trilogy collection of Claremont's 18-issue finale to the franchise. (Be warned: He spun another series out of it, so it's not a final finale.) There's also the first issue of X-Men Forever, a new series that lets Claremont pretend that he never stopped writing the characters in 1991, by ignoring every story that came afterwards. If you'd like something less wordy and more bloody, Christos Gage's Absolution offers up another take on the "When a superhero crosses the moral line and decides that doing so was kind of fun" story.

But let's face it; everything else this week may pale beside the release of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan #1, a movie adaptation 27 years in the making (Yes, the movie was that long ago); IDW, realizing that STII was the one movie that had never been made into a comic, have finally fulfilled someone's dreams and offered a chance to see Spock die again.

But if you'd rather watch something come back to life, Dynamite's Buck Rogers #1 brings back the classic pulp hero for an all-new audience, offering space thrills and even some spills along the way. But sadly, no Twiki.

All of these books - and many more, as evidenced in this week's shipping list - can be found at your local comic store, which can be found using the Comic Shop Locator. Just do us a favor and spend a quiet moment when ringing up your week's purchases for the loss of Buck's annoying metallic friend. Bidi bidi bye, old buddy.

Even before most people had heard of Erwin Schrödinger, we knew that there were plenty other Earths out there; we'd seen Star Trek's Mr. Spock with a goatee, or watched the Justice League and Justice Society meet up thanks to a crystal ball. I've already written about my undying love for the concept, and I'm not alone; sci-fi loves to offer glimpses of the roads less taken, whether they're character-based or somewhat more... epic. Consider the following while planning a summer trip to another world:

What Mad Universe
If you're looking to get away from it all, you could do much worse than decide to take a break on the parallel Earth from Fredric Brown's 1949 novel. Admittedly, you'd have to avoid being accused of being an alien spy when you try to spend your money, but isn't that a chance you'd want to pay to visit a world where spaceflight was accidentally discovered in 1903, and astronauts are pin-up girls?

Eye in the Sky
Of course, you'd have to be careful of your own subconscious if travel to parallel Earths followed the rules of Philip K. Dick's 1957 novel, where alternate realities were entirely subjective manifestations of your own state of mind. Unless, of course, your state of mind was completely relaxed because you're going on vacation. Oh, the tangled web we weave...

Doppelgänger/Journey To The Far End Of The Sun
Who doesn't wish that scientists could still discover a parallel Earth on the opposite side of the sun, as in this classic 1969 movie written by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, creators of Thunderbirds, UFO and Space: 1999? The idea was recycled three years later in Marvel Comics' Warlock stories (and later in their Heroes Reborn arc), but Doppelgänger's world - where everything is reversed from ours, including writing, thanks to the wonders of flipping film - remains the one to beat. Imagine getting away from it all in a world where everything is backwards.

The Eternal Champion
Michael Moorcock's Multiverse works slightly differently than most, in that each world includes facets of people, instead of multiple versions of the same people, and each world may be vastly different from the one you're familar with. This may be a plus for your holiday, of course; experience something entirely new, and be less likely to run across a more successful, happier and healthier version of yourself in the process. (Much more traditionally multiversual, but feeling like it should be mentioned in the same breath as Jerry Cornelius: Matt Fraction's comic Casanova, where the hero is trapped in a parallel Earth, replacing the him that had died there.)

Star Trek
With this summer's movie, Starfleet's finest have finally come up with a parallel timeline (including an Earth, so it counts, thank you very much) that measures up to the show's classic Mirror Universe. Out of all the revamps and reboots that we've seen, this is one of the few that made the choice to make the revamp the center of the story and patiently explain that history may have been changed, but all that did was create a new parallel timeline. Pandering to the original show's fanbase? Sure - but doing so in such a way that it doesn't stop the movie for everyone else. Yes, the crew of the Enterprise have played around in the timestream many of times, but the new Movie-Earth lines up so well with Mirror-Earth and OriginalSeries-Earth that it's really only a matter of time before some comic or novel seeks to cross them all over in a Spock-centric altern-orgy, and I for one can't wait. As it is, Trek doesn't just offer one utopian future, but two; your choice depends on just how much time you feel like you want to spend with William Shatner.

Fringe


What was the ingredient that made this show more than just an X-Files wannabe with an eccentric scientist and a cow? The sudden, surprise introduction to a war with a parallel Earth (complete with explanation of the multiverse concept for newbies, above). Admittedly, the glimpses we've seen of the alternate Fringe world(s?) haven't been especially alluring to those seeking a quiet getaway - It all seems to be explosions, Charlies with scars and grim skies, unless you're in a shining New York with multiverse magnet Leonard Nimoy and his newspapers that mention JFK still being alive (Maybe we should call this parallel Earth-StereotypicalRightWingViewOfADemocraticFantasy?) - but there's a downside to every vacation spot.

Sliders


Like Quantum Leap (or, if your tastes run to a slightly later vintage, The Time Tunnel) before it, Sliders took the idea of characters just trying to get back home and ran with it... Ran across the multiverse, that is (A similar idea was behind the earlier, and much less successful Otherworld television series from the mid-80s). Five seasons of hopping between Parallel Earth San Franciscos on a television show budget demonstrated a wide variety of possible alternate worlds out there, including an Earth where Britain won the Revolutionary War leading to the British States of America, an Earth where a zombie plague has been unleashed, an Earth where dinosaurs are still alive, and an Earth where Ancient Egyptian is the dominant culture. Sadly, they didn't find an Earth without shitty CGI effects, but it was the 1990s. As a model for how to spend your summer, I'm torn whether or not to recommend it. Maybe you should ask yourself how much you really love San Francisco.

DC Comics
Less one potential getaway than a superpowered version of Orbitz, DC's superhero line loves the idea of a multiverse like almost none other; their original multiverse came from the company trying to come up with ways of haphazardly adding characters from other publishers without confusing things too much as much as anything, but the current version is much more structured... and finite. For one thing, there are "only" 52 Earths, now. Here are the ones we know about. Pick your favorite:

Earth 0 is the "core" Earth, the one that all "regular" stories take place on and - more importantly for the purposes of this post - the one that was the basis for the 51 alternate Earths that are known to exist within DC's current multiverse. Of those 51, the following have been identified:
Earth-1 is, essentially, the Earth that most comic fans grew up reading about - Think of it as "Earth Super Friends."
Earth-2 is an Earth that missed out on all of the Silver Age of comics, so there's no Hal Jordan Green Lantern (or Green Lantern Corps at all, for that matter), nor a Barry Allen, Wally West or Bart Allen Flash. For all intents and purposes, it's the same as DC's original Earth-2.
Earth-3 is an Earth of reversed moralities - the Justice League is the Crime Syndicate, Clark Kent is the villainous Ultraman, Lex Luthor is a superhero, and so on.
Earth-4 is as close to Earth Watchmen as you're likely to get outside of the Watchmen series; it's an Earth where only the Carlton characters who inspired Moore and Gibbons' series exist.
Earth-5 is an Earth where the only superheroes are Captain Marvel and his associated Shazam Family of characters.
Earth-6, Earth-7, Earth-32, Earth-37, Earth-38, and Earth-39 are all Earths where the variations are fairly minor, and very continuity based:"What if Batman became Green Lantern?" - That kind of thing.
Earth-8 is a parody of Marvel Comics' Ultimate Earth, where the Avengers are represented by "The Meta Militia."
Earth-9 is the home to the Tangent Comics characters, who bear the same names as the more familiar characters, but are in all other respects different.
Earth-10 is a world where the Nazis won World War II, and home to the guilt-ridden super-Nazi Uberman.
Earth-11 is an Earth where genders are reversed, so you have Superwoman, Batwoman and Wonderman instead of the more familiar versions of the characters.
Earth-12 is an Earth you're very familiar with; it's officially the world of Batman Beyond, which also means that it's the parallel Earth where all the Bruce Timm DC cartoons took place.
Earth-13 is the Earth where many of DC's Vertigo line apparently occurs.
Earth-15 used to be an Earth where all crime had been eliminated by particularly successful superheroes... but then it was destroyed by Superboy Prime, just to prove how much of an asshole he can be. Of course, it theoretically was rebuilt
Earth-16 is the home planet of the Super-Sons, AKA Batman Junior and Superman Junior. Yes, that's right; Superman and Batman got married (not to each other), had sons, and named them after themselves. Don't ask.
Earth-17 is a post-apocalyptic Earth where nuclear apes rule. I promise you, I'm not making this up.
Earth-18 is an Earth where the world is still in Wild West times, complete with cowboy versions of the Justice League.
Earth-19 is an Earth where the world is still in Victorian times, complete with a Batman who has hunted down Jack the Ripper.
Earth-20 is "Pulp-Earth" - essentially, a parallel world where everything is as if it was a pulp novel.
Earth-21 is the Earth from the wonderful DC: The New Frontier series by Darwyn Cooke.
Earth-22 is the Earth from Kingdom Come, Alex Ross and Mark Waid's cautionary tale about why superheroes can't save the world, except for when they can.
Earth-26 is an Earth of smart, talking animals; it was "rendered uninhabitable" during 2007's Captain Carrot And The Final Ark series because funny animal books apparently are silly and not what the audience wants, but then reconstituted at the end of Final Crisis.
Earth-30 is the Earth from Red Son, where Superman landed in communist Russia.
Earth-31 is the Earth from The Dark Knight Returns series, so it's all mutants with sharp teeth and old grumpy Batman.
Earth-33 is an Earth where all of the familiar superheroes are now suddenly (magically, one might say) magicians, with names like "Batmage" and "Lady Flash, Keeper Of The Speed Force."
Earth-34 is an Earth where the British Empire still exists, and is ruled by a tyrannical despot called King Jack.
Earth-40 is an Earth where there are no public superheroes, just superpowered spies who work for the government. Which, if nothing else, would make James Bond movies more fun.
Earth-43 is a parallel Earth plagued by vampires, who have managed to turn Batman into one of their number. There are all manner of other mythical beasts as well, so this is pretty much "Horror Earth".
Earth-44 is Robot Earth; the main superheroes of this Earth are robotic versions of the Justice League.
Earth-48 is, unlike Earths 18 and 19, an Earth far in the future, where humanity is extinct after an intergalactic war has wiped out all native life on the planet.
Earth-50 is the Earth of DC's Wildstorm line. Again, post-apocalyptic, currently.
Earth-51 is, post-Final Crisis, the home to all of Jack Kirby's creations for DC Comics, following it having been yet another post-apocalyptic Earth. At least this one was repurposed for something constructive.

(There are also some Non-Numbered Earths (or, to be completely correct, Earths we don't know the numbers of yet), which include an Earth where Superman and Wonder Woman are black, an Earth where everyone resembles a manga character, and an Earth "just like our own" where superheroes are just the stuff of fiction.)

Charlie Jade

The 2005 South African/Canadian co-production gave us a glimpse at the parallel Earth you should really try to spend some time in: the Gammaverse, where everything is perfect, humanity has worked out how not to squander our resources, and you'll have no trouble getting a hotel room at an affordable rate. Just remember to ignore any offer of a budget weekend in the Alphaverse; it may sound exciting ("Alpha" just sounds good in general, right?), but it's pretty much the hellhole that give you anecdotes but also various forms of disease during your short stay. And if someone suggests a stay in the Betaverse, remind them that that's where you already live and go find a new travel agent. (For more class-based alternate worlds, Warren Ellis' Anna Mercury may be what you're looking for.)

Additional research and reporting by Sarah Hope Williams.

Most Excellent Superbat - or @mosexsbat, if you want to speak Tweet - is a member of the Super Young Team, who made their first appearances in last year's Final Crisis series from DC Comics, before spinning out into their own series this week, Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance... which, instead of being filled with traditional narration, is filled with Tweetover narration, including "These clubbers don't even have superpowers. Worthless" and "I don't believe in ghosts" (followed by "But I'm also the sanest superhero I know").

Of course, you can't mention Twitter in a story without making sure that the thing exists in real life, and sure enough here it is, although the entries don't match up yet. As Dance continues to satirize the commodification of superheroes and pop culture, here's hoping that Superbat's Tweet stream continues to satirize multimedia cross-platform promotion... or at least spoil upcoming stories for us.

Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance #1 [DC Comics]

Actually, even before we get to that masterpiece, there are a few interesting oddities hitting stores this week. DC is launching the first of their Final Crisis spin-offs, the wonderfully bad-mooded Final Crisis Aftermath: Run, as well as the long-awaited first issue of Power Girl's solo series.

Meanwhile, Marvel revives The New Mutants for the first issue of their brand new series. (Also, Brian Michael Bendis' Alias gets a paperback reissue; if you haven't looked at his mature-readers private detective take on the Marvel Universe yet, it's worth checking out).

Elsewhere, you can compare the faces of horror comics through the years; Dark Horse puts out some classics with their first Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery hardcover, while Todd McFarlane's Spawn returns to its roots with an Origins collection. The modern face? Well, that comes from the wonderfully-named Jesus Hates Zombies: Lincoln Hates Werewolves, something sure to make at least one reader very happy (Hello, Bonnie!).

Otherwise, though, it really is all about Plan 9 From Space Strikes Again. Quite why anyone thought that the original movie needed a sequel, I'm not quite sure, but it's now got one in the form of this $3.99 special that promises zombies, aliens and shadowy government conspiracies... and former professional wrestlers, of course. If nothing else, you know that curiosity will make you want to take a look.

As usual, a full list of all comics reaching stores can be found here, and your closest comic store can be found by clicking here, although, of course, your iPhone could also tell you, if you want. Just remember Ed Wood when you visit.

The core problem with Dollhouse, I decided, isn't that it's not a good idea, or even a good take on a good idea (although I'll leave you all to discuss that latter one); it's that it's not an idea that can sustain itself as an ongoing television show. Either we're supposed to swallow that Echo (a) tends to break down a lot on missions, (b) tends to be given missions that are especially exciting and/or violent and (c) this is all apparently standard-operating procedure, considering the fact that, for all the weekly back-at-the-office in-fighting scenes, Echo still gets sent out on missions that will go wrong and involve her breaking down in some way week after week... or we're supposed to believe that all of this is going somewhere. The problem is, the only somewhere it can go that could be satisfying for the audience involves Echo remembering/realizing who and what she is and doing something about it, and in the most important sense - no matter what the outcome of that may be - that finishes the story. Yes, the series can continue, obviously, whether Echo suddenly has self-awareness and can access all these different personalities, or whether she gets reset, or the series shifts onto other characters... but the story we're all watching now will be finished. Same thing with the Ballard subplot - either he finds out that the Dollhouse exists, finishing the story, or he doesn't, and he's an idiot.

Dollhouse, ironically enough considering the ratings, may be too finite a story for its own good as a Friday night Fox show. For it to have the depth and weight that Whedon (and the show's fans, for that matter) think it has, it's not enough to continually show the sexism and everyday abuse that surrounds us, week after week - Surely, at some point of doing only that, the show stops being an ironic commenter on that and simply complicit in it? - but, instead, come to some kind of conclusion about it... but can it really do so in the format it's in?

Watching the show, I'm reminded of comic writer and editor Mark Waid's commentary about DC Comics' Final Crisis series:

I know that sounds like I'm splitting hairs, but I promise I'm not. I felt the same way about FC that a lot of people seemed to—I tried to follow it from issue to issue and my head hurt. A lot. And I was confused and baffled by the series. BUT—when I read it all in one sitting, I got it. Its ideas were clear to me (though they required some mental work from me, which is fine—so do stories spanning the scale of "literature" from James Joyce to J.G. Ballard to last Friday's episode of Battlestar), and I thought they were stunningly innovative and clever and, most importantly, were fresh and unlike anything else I'm gonna get from a random superhero comic... I maintain that the story itself is pretty comprehensible. Should it not have taken the form of a seven-issue series, then? In retrospect, probably not. In an entire lifetime of reading comics, I've never experienced a disconnect so astounding as what I got out of reading it as it came out versus what I got out of reading it straight through. That alone fascinates me and is something worth studying.

So is Dollhouse the Final Crisis of television; something that can't fully be appreciated until it's over? And if so, shouldn't it really be a movie...?

I'm only semi-joking with that last question. With Watchmen coming out next week, I'm getting worryingly obsessed with the idea of stories being told in the most suitable format and medium; after all, Watchmen the movie can never be Watchmen the book for too many reasons - not least of which is the fact that Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons created the book in part to explore the differences between comics and movies - but does that mean that there's no reason for the movie to exist? I'm still in two minds; while I tend to lean towards the "No" side of the argument, and wish that Zack Snyder and David Hayter had come up with something original, instead, I still harbor this vague hope that the Watchmen movie can be something as wonderful and poignant as its source in its own right. A few exceptions aside, cross-media adaptations tend to prove how well-suited stories were to their original homes, after all; even something like, say, Serenity just makes you want to watch more Firefly, if that makes sense, because of the potential for new stories that those characters and that world had.

We like to think that the creators of our favorite stories know what they're doing, or at least what they're writing for, and that after-the-fact continuations are fun, but not really the same thing because they're... well, off somehow; Buffy's comic continuation may have all the same writers, but it's lacking the performances that elevated the material, or Star Trek's 1970s cartoon dumbing down material for the kids. But, occasionally, even the greats can slip up; Morrison on the Final Crisis serialization that confused even the pros, or Whedon on Dollhouse's off-putting, repetitive format.

I keep coming back to Douglas Adams' The Hitchhikers' Guide To The Galaxy, each iteration of which - well, apart from the comic, perhaps - worked in and of itself, and added to the overall strange tapestry of the story, with Adams writing the radio shows, novels and television episodes and continually refining and reshifting the ideas to fit into the different forms. Perhaps that's what Whedon needs to do to Dollhouse; step back, rethink what he's trying to say with it, and then reapproach it from scratch with a definitive ending - or, at least, coherent point - in mind.

The talk – or, more accurately, the refusal to talk – of all the DC panels was Geoff Johns's upcoming Blackest Night, where Lanterns of every color and persuasion will throw down in a universe-spanning brawl that may or may not feature every single dead character in DC history rising up as a Black Lantern, ready to eat brains and kick butt (my money's on the Earth-2 Superman and Abin Sur). At least two characters have avoided that particular fate, however, as the various Final Crisis books have resurrected Flashes Bart and Barry Allen in preparation for Johns's other massive storyline, April's Flash: Rebirth.

The Man of Tomorrow is also facing his fair share of upheaval, as he'll be leaving Earth and, with it, both Superman and Action Comics to take a starring role in the new Superman: World of New Krypton series. James Robinson and Greg Rucka are cowriting the new book, with Robinson chronicling the many heroes who try to fill the void left in Metropolis in Superman while Rucka follows the adventures of newcomers Nightwing and Flamebird in Action Comics. At the DC Universe panel, James Robinson stressed that the fourth book, Sterling Gates's Supergirl, will no longer be just the fourth book, as her struggle to choose between Earth and new Krypton will have huge consequences throughout the Superman books. Also, because otherwise he would have to sleep, Geoff Johns is working with illustrator Gary Frank on Superman: Secret Origins. Finally, Robinson revealed that all of Superman's adventures dating back to last year are leading up to a huge event in 2010.

Final Crisis lives on in the form of Final Crisis: Aftermath, four books that senior story editor Ian Sattler promises will feature one moment in every issue so wrong that readers won't believe DC actually did it. In keeping with the central premise of Final Crisis – the day that evil won – the four books will take a look at the vilest and sleaziest parts of the DC universe. Run will follow the Human Flame, who is fleeing heroes and villains alike in a miniseries that will explore how you cope as a villain in the DCU if you're also a total idiot. Escape, pitched as a mix of The Prisoner and Saw – which are two things I never really thought needed mixing – follows Nemesis as he attempts to escape the Global Protection Agency. Ink looks at Tattoo Man, who emerged Final Crisis as a reluctant hero, as he fumblingly tries to give up his addiction to evil and do the right thing. Finally, Ian Sattler's favorite title, Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance, follows the Super Young Team as they try to balance being heroes with being celebrities, which Sattler promises will be very, very sleazy.

Elsewhere in the DC universe, fan favorite (and Dan Didio unfavorite) Keith Giffen will start work on Doom Patrol, which he promises will disappoint old school and Grant Morrison fans alike. The Teen Titans will soon finish putting together an eight-member team, although they will be immediately tested by Jericho, who has been driven insane by years of jumping inside the bodies of horrible people. They also have high hopes for Wonder Woman, as she takes on the Olympian in a story that Dan Didio hopes will allow them to build a larger presence for her in the DCU.

Perhaps the most jealously guarded secret is how the disappearance of Bruce Wayne's Batman will affect Superman/Batman. All Ian Sattler is willing to reveal is that it will still be a comic book with a combination of words and art telling stories in sequence. Frankly, I'm surprised they admitted that much.

Talking to Newsarama.com, Morrison confirmed that we'd been right on the money about Bruce Wayne's death scene earlier in January - He had, actually, been sent back in time after all (to pre-historic caveman days, to be specific). But why such a quick reveal of Bruce Wayne's current whenabouts?

[DC editorial asked me to include a particular closing scene] with Batman. I'd made it a little more ambiguous but DC editorial didn't want readers to think Batman might actually be dead for more than a fortnight, so I revised the last page to be somewhat ‘on the nose', as they say in Hollywood.

And if you're wondering if and when Bruce Wayne's future will be addressed, Morrison has a tease ready:

Newsarama: Oh, and and finally, we'd be remiss - Batmanthro? What does the Omega Sanction mean for him? Can he fall back into our world? Is he on our world? Does someone have to go find him? Does he have to live a succession of lives like Shilo? So...many...questions....

GM: I'm returning to Batman in June...

Please please please, let "Batman gets zapped back in time and maybe to a parallel Earth where he has to live with cavemen" be the plot of the Dark Knight sequel.

Grant Morrison: Final Crisis Exit Interview, Part 2 [Newsarama.com]

The black Superman - coincidentally, the President of the United States - appears in the opening pages of DC Comics' final issue of Final Crisis, alongside a black Wonder Woman, as various parallel Earths cross over before the universe is destroyed. The character may never be seen again, but that's not to say that comics are entirely devoid of black superheroes.
Admittedly, mainstream superhero comics do lack high-profile black heroes, and even they are usually relegated to supporting roles (DC Comics have only two black characters headlining their own books this month, both of which are spin-offs of their successful Justice League of America title, and both of which are mini-series; Marvel have three, one of which is a spin-off from X-Men, and two of which are mini-series). Both Marvel and DC are trying to address this, in an admittedly low-key way; DC by bringing back the characters from the 1990s Milestone line - a line focused on ethnic diversity - and Marvel with recent (re)launches of the War Machine and Black Panther titles. We asked friend of io9 - and blogger for comic site 4th Letter - David Brothers, who's written extensively about race in superhero comics, about the companies' current efforts:

The problem with both companies, and one which DC will fix if they can stick the landing of the Milestone relaunch, is that 99% of their black characters fit into a certain character type. There's not really a range of black characters. They have really generic hero motivations. There is some variation (Blade is like the Punisher, but more reasonable because he's killing vampires, Firestorm is a stone-cold newbie, Jakeem Thunder is a horny teenager), but the variation tends to be surface-level stuff. They don't really have the range of differences between say, Superman and Batman, or Cap and Hawkeye, or Wonder Woman and Black Canary. Instead, they're working from that Robbie Robertson archetype — good people in a bad world trying to make better. Sometimes they get a little extra sauce (like John Stewart and that corny "stay black" line from Sinestro Corps War, or any time a black character gets to go "There's no justice here, just us"), but what's the difference between Mr Terrific's personality and John Henry? The Falcon and Goliath? Luke Cage and Jakeem Thunder? Not all that much, I don't think. Both companies may be trying, but they're still coming up fairly short. Sometimes, particularly in the JSA, which has four black characters (none of which did anything of note in the mega-arc of the last two years, save for punching a fake god in the ankle or talking about being atheist after meeting a god), it feels more like lip service.

Of course, even lip service may be better that this:

Ah, the '70s.

Captain Obama ... Is It Time for a Black Comic Book Superhero? [Fox News]

Marvel Comics is all about the collections this week. There are some more Secret Invasion collections — don't forget, there'll be over twenty in the end, so it's not like you have to rush out and buy them this week to get the full story. Marvel is also putting out hardcovers of Mark (Wanted, Kick-Ass) Millar's Marvel 1985 series (in which Marvel characters cross over to the "real" world twenty-four years ago), Jeph Loeb's Ultimatum: March on Ultimatum prelude (in which various characters prepare for the end of the world, even if they don't know it) and X-Men: Original Sin (in which Marvel starts putting out product ahead of the Wolverine movie later this year).

DC isn't entirely letting Marvel corner the hardcover collection market this week; they're putting out the lengthily-titled DC Comics Classics Library: Superman — Kryptonite Nevermore, which collects the classic 1970s storyline where DC did the unthinkable and let Superman get over his weakness of Kryptonite... well, for a few years, at least. That's not the only thing of note that DC's releasing this week, however. In terms of single issues, the first issue of a tie-in to the amazingly enjoyable Batman: The Brave And The Bold and the final issue of confusing-yet-enjoyable Final Crisis are both arriving in stories tomorrow, and both will be worth your time.

That said, there are two books that really should be added to your shopping list no matter what; Jonathan Hickman and JM Ringuet's Transhuman finally makes it into collected form, allowing you to swallow the sly superhuman corporate satire in one sitting. And as a perfect chaser, Dark Horse's Star Wars: Vector Book One collects the first half of this 2008 crossover event, which follows one character through four different time periods in George Lucas' galaxy far, far away, and manages to make you not only a Star Wars fan again, but also kind of curious as to whether the Expanded Universe really is as exciting as it appears here.

If you're looking for a place to find your personal genetically-modified force, then the Comic Shop Locator is always a good place to start... And once you've found your nearest comic store, double check this week's shipping list to make sure that there's nothing you've forgotten. But remember: The force needs to be within your shopping basket. Always.

As those who read this week's comics have apparently already seen, Bruce Wayne is dead. He died at the end of Final Crisis #6, meeting his end while trying to save the planet from evil god Darkseid in DC Comics' much-delayed blockbuster, and if you need proof of his demise, you not only see him being hit by Darkseid's Omega Beams, Superman appears on the last page holding his corpse. Case closed.
Or is it?

Aficionados of Jack Kirby's Fourth World comics - where Crisis' villain Darkseid comes from are somewhat familiar with the Omega Beams, and the effects they have on people. Particularly the effects they had on the title characters from Kirby's Forever People, in the sixth issue of that series, where they too were hit by the Omega Beams, and apparently died... only to be sent back in time, as was revealed in the next issue. While we're not sure what the explanation is for the skeleton in the Batman costume, we're sure of one thing: Somewhere, somewhen, Bruce Wayne is alive... and waiting for whenever DC Comics are ready to bring him back.

Final Crisis [DC Comics]

In terms of SF comics, 2008 feels a bit... lacking, to be honest; there was nothing with the energy of King City or Wonton Soup, and a lot of the best books were final issues, instead of the start of something new (Collections and reprints-wise, it was a great year, however - I'd point you in the direction of Skyscrapers of the Midwest, The Babysitter and Jack Kirby's OMAC, to begin with - but they weren't really created this year...). It might just be a necessary lull; next year has new work from Paul Pope, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Brandon Graham, James Stokoe, et al, after all. But it did make this year seem curiously anemic in retrospect. So here is the pick, perhaps, of a poor bunch:

BEST
All-Star Superman
Quite simply, the best superhero comic of the last few years. Tapping into the awe-filled tone of the 1950s and '60s Superman stories while still seeming contemporary, Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's twelve-part reinvigoration of the Man of Steel finished this year with the perfect send-off: Something positive, optimistic and just a little melancholy.

Casanova
Matt Fraction's sci-fi superspy series filled its second run with time-travel, sex and gigantic reality-altering weapons before, in its final issue, folding in on itself with a reveal that, at first, felt like a cheat but ultimately recast everything that had gone before and made you need to re-read it like you need to breath. If only everything was this fearless.

(Fraction almost ended up on this list twice; his Invincible Iron Man series for Marvel was, to my mind, the ideal follow-up to the movie, finally figuring out a way to make the character interesting without making him an asshole.)

Fight Or Run: Shadow Of The Chopper
You can argue amongst yourself whether this silent series of strips is really science fiction or not, but Kevin Huizenga's videogame-inspired shorts that bring two surreal characters face-to-face to see their response works both as an exercise in comic formalism and experimentation, and as a funny, surprising reading experience. Me, I'd probably run.

Final Crisis
Yes, there have been a lot of problems with DC's big 2008 "event" - the seeming inability to hit deadlines and switching of artists midway through the story, to start with - but despite it all, Grant Morrison and company's slow-motion apocalypse has been creepy and hypnotic, all the moreso for the way in which it refuses to play by the rules.

Love & Rockets: New Stories
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis analogs slaughter aliens. Surely I don't need to say anything else.

Patsy Walker: Hellcat
I don't know if it's the lightness of Kathryn Immonen's writing, the pop of David LaFuente's artwork, or just the sass of the book's star, but there's something wonderful and unexpected in this lowkey miniseries from Marvel about a fashion model-turned-superhero fighting magical demons in Alaska. In the middle of the publisher's highly successful year, this hidden gem is easily the best thing they put out.

Project Superpowers
Again with the "unexpected" thing, I didn't expect much from Alex Ross and Jim Kruger's 1940s superhero revival... and certainly not the most strange and unusual superhero series of the year. The US government creating zombie soldiers in the Middle East? Lying ghosts with hidden agendas? An evil corporation of robots manipulating everyone that just so happens to have the same name as the parent company of the publisher? It's all here, my friends. Just don't ask me what it all means.

Teen Titans: Year One
It took animation writer Amy Wolfram and artist Karl Kerschl to finally fulfill the potential of DC's team of sidekicks, by offering a story that stayed on the right side of cartoony, but kept an undercurrent of angst and insecurity to provide characters who actually acted like teenagers, for a change. Add some of the best art to appear in any comic book this year and you have a very underrated winner.

WORST
Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes
A strange one, this. It's not really the quality of the comic strip itself that lands it in "Worst" position - although the comic strip itself was nothing to write home about, pretty much generic "alternate world"isms from Warren Ellis and friends - but the format. Charging $4.99 for 16 pages of comic book would be a bit much for a small indie company with a lot of overhead and little say in the matter... but for Marvel to do it, especially without letting fans or retailers know that that's what they were doing...? Kind of an unnecessarily low blow.

Batman RIP
It started so well, but... well, finished so badly. There's very little way to look back at RIP without getting frustrated at the lack of resolution and all the unfulfilled potential left untouched. It's called Batman RIP people - Couldn't you have done something with that that didn't have a villain who may or may not have been the Devil and the most unconvincing, inconclusive death scene ever? Or, for that matter, had a story that actually ended in its final chapter?

Countdown To Final Crisis
DC's Final Crisis may be flawed but great, but the 52-part prelude series kind of missed out the "but great" part of that idea. As well as missing out the "coherent plots, interesting dialogue and story you feel involved in" bits. And, to make matters worse, it outright contradicted multiple points of the series it was created to lead into. Worst of all, perhaps, was the fact that it took the goodwill that DC had gained from their first weekly series 52 and pissed it away in record fashion. An own goal of almost cosmic proportions.

DC Universe: Last Will & Testament
What do superheroes do when they expect to die the next day? Exactly what you'd expect them to, sadly, according to this uninspired, ponderous comic. While not as much of a disaster as Countdown, Last Will & Testament may have actually been a worse comic by dint of just being... well, not unlike well-illustrated fan-fiction.

Jenna Jameson: Shadow Hunter
From its very conception, you knew that a comic that recreated pornstar Jameson as a comic book demon hunter was a bad idea, but only the comic itself could convince you just how much of a bad idea it actually was. Confusingly written, with overwrought narration and a plot that didn't really go anywhere, this was a celebrity tie-in that made Ed Burns' Dock Walloper look like a good idea.

One More Day
This is, of course, a bit of a cheat; One More Day started in 2007, and the final issue came out in the dying days of that year (December 27th, I believe)... But nonetheless, the full effect of it was what started off this year in comics, and pretty much sabotaged the start of Marvel's (remarkably not-as-bad-as-you-think) Spider-Man relaunch - all because Peter Parker made a deal with the devil just to get a divorce (Note: This may be a somewhat biased take on what actually happened in the story itself). Who would have thought that a boneheaded, out of character move that turned your everyman character into a Satan-handshakin' single man would have been one of the big comic news stories of the year? Oh, that's right - everyone.

Secret Invasion
Yes, it was hugely successful, and yes, it was on-time (unlike Final Crisis). But if there was a point to Secret Invasion beyond "Let's try and sell lots of comics," I must have missed it. With a story that lacked plot - or, for about half the series, anything actually happening - based around a premise that was abandoned almost immediately (What if aliens had invaded without us knowi- Oh, wait, they've started blowing things up and coming to Earth as giant green monsters), this was slick, showy... and entirely hollow.

Ultimates 3
I was no fan of Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's Ultimates, but Jeph Loeb's follow-up was a mind-blowing miscalculation that offered fans of the series almost no continuity with its previous incarnation, garish art outshone only by insanely overblown dialogue and, in a reveal that still boggles the mind, a Black Panther who turns out to be the most white of all superheroes. Pretty much an entire series of WTF that led into Loeb's Ultimatum

That said, this week's comics aren't exactly the most overwhelming bunch. But I think we can chalk that up to the holidays.

DC Comics have their Final Crisis Secret Files, acting as a stop-gap for fans of the much-delayed mini-series, but the rest of their week is relatively lowkey unless you're wrapped up in a number of ongoing storylines.

Similarly, Dark Horse and Image both have weeks to keep longterm fans happy, but offer little to newcomers.

Only Marvel steps up to the four-color plate with a raft of big name specials, and new series to tempt those few with some holiday money left over — including Ultimate Hulk Annual (in which the cannibal version of the big green giant goes on a road trip across America), Fantastic Four Cosmic Special (in which the FF have to go under quarantine and don't deal with it well) and Cable, Volume 1: Messiah War (which mashes up Terminator and Lone Wolf And Cub to come up with... well, Lone Cyborg and Cub, really).

The Iron Man fans amongst you may want to check out the first issue of War Machine, which sees James Rhodes cut loose in his own set of armor, kicking ass and taking names.

Everyone else, the one comic that you need to pick up this week is Incognito, the new supervillain series from the creators of Sleeper and Criminal. If you need convincing, here's the set up:

What if you were an ex-super villain hiding out in Witness Protection… but all you could think about were the days when the rules didn’t apply to you? Could you stand the toil of an average life after years of leaving destruction in your wake? And what if you couldn’t stand it? What would you do then?

If you need more convincing, you can find a preview of the first issue here, but trust me: This will be the kind of bad-mood treat that you'll find yourself addicted to throughout 2009.

In 2009, you'll still be able to find this week's shipping list here and also use the Comic Shop Locator to find your local comic store. But that's not to say everything will be the same in the future. For one thing, this week's comics arrive in stores on Friday, due to the holiday. But don't take that as a bad omen or anything.

First, though, let's take a look at how online annotation works. For example: Footnoting the most recent issue of Final Crisis, "Submit," Wolk writes:

Before he was Black Lightning, Jefferson Pierce was an Olympic decathlete, and over the course of this story we see him doing a few decathlon-type things. Jefferson's two daughters are Anissa (Thunder of the Outsiders) and Jennifer (Lightning of the JSA). Jefferson was also a high school teacher for a while, and later the U.S. Secretary of Education under the Lex Luthor administration.

OK, so now you know who Black Lightning was. I certainly didn't know in this granular level of detail before — and nor do many casual comics readers who haven't got what amounts to an advanced degree in comics like Wolk. And yet knowing it enriches the experience of the issue, since DC Comics characters are often decades old and rather complex.

Neal Stephenson reflects the annotation urge in his recent novel Anathem. He's put part of the novel's extensive glossary online, giving readers a place to go to look up some of the words he coined to describe life among the science monks on another planet.

And these kinds of annotations transcend the world of comics and scifi nerdery. Music journalist Alex Ross released a book last year about twentieth century music called The Rest is Noise, which he supplemented by creating an elaborate, stand-alone annotation website. A massive compendium of twentieth-century musical terms, with definitions and illustrative sound files, his site can be read alongside the book to enrich the experience immeasurably. Or it can be absorbed on its own, as a musical dictionary.

There are many other examples: Some created by the authors of books, and others like Wolk's created by knowledgeable readers. These electronic footnote sites do not replace books, but they make reading feel like an erudite discussion rather than a lecture. They also make it possible for authors to write far more complicated and nuanced books. Confused readers have an easy place to go if they want to understand a crucial reference or idea, while in-the-know readers can have fun adding their own annotations to the web.

A culture of rampant annotators isn't exactly what you'd expect from the web, which is still in many people's minds antithetical to book culture. And yet it seems that our newest media have reinvigorated what often seems a lost art. The art of footnoting.