The comic series, which ran from 1994 through the year 2000 and "influenced" (which is to say, was completely ripped off by) The Matrix , personified and explained the eternal struggle between good and evil as a war between agents of the anarchist Invisible College and the Outer Church that spanned centuries and included time travel, psychic warfare and lots of things blowing up. Unsurprisingly, certain things would have to have been changed for the smaller-scale BBC Scotland adaptation but, according to Morrison, those things weren't what you'd expect:

[In the television version, protagonist] Dane has been changed to from a Liverpudlian to Glaswegian to assist the BBC SCOTLAND budget.

Otherwise, the completed scripts (two out of a planned six) stay remarkably close to the source material, adapting the first issue of the comic series and introducing newcomers to the ongoing war happening under everyone's noses without their knowledge. With rumors of a big-budget movie continually circulating, here's hoping that the project will make it into production at some point soon.

Invisibles TV [Grant Morrison]

The Mark: Rob Liefeld's near-mythical movie for Will Smith (First announced in 1997) possibly disappeared due to worries over its similarity to Marvel's Star Brand series (which is, itself, a rip-off of DC's Green Lantern): Smith was to play an average joe who would end up with ultimate power that he didn't want, thanks to a mysterious brand that is magically "transferred" to his body from the corpse of a Confederate soldier. The pitch meeting probably went like this: "Picture this, Will. You have this mark on your hand, right? And you're looking at it, wondering what it is, and then it has this laser blast that comes out of it and blasts through a wall in your apartment." "Can I look at the hole in the wall and say 'Awww hell naw'?" "Sure." "I'll do it!"

Warcop: In 1993, Madonna wanted to star in another movie, and thought that she'd make a good superhero. She asked Spawn creator Todd McFarlane to come up with an idea for her, and Todd - wanting nothing to do with it - gave the idea to Grant Morrison, who came up with a pitch involving a Judge Dredd-esque futuristic space cop who traveled in time back to the present day to catch a particular perp. In one of her last good career moves, Madonna decided against the project, but Grant apparently didn't; the title, at least, is about to be used for one of his new comic books.

Iron Fist: Is this adaptation of Marvel Comics' kung-fu fighter anything more than a hopeful dream for The Phantom Menace's Darth Maul, Ray Park? The stuntman-turned-actor has been talking about the perpetually-upcoming movie version of Danny Rand for more than half a decade now, and the movie has had multiple co-stars, directors and screenwriters attached at various points in its history but seems to be getting no closer to actually being made. This can only be a good thing, because it just increases the likelihood of teaming the character up with (the similarly movie-cursed) Luke Cage to give us the Power Man And Iron Fist movie the world needs to see.

Green Lantern: One of the greatest near-misses in cinema history is the fact that fan outcry halting pre-production of Jack Black's comedy movie version of DC's space cop superhero a few years ago. Hearing Jack talk about what we could've seen in an alternate world is enough reason to be grateful:

I was going to be making all kinds of stuff... I was going to be capturing bad guys with green, giant prophylactics. Some funny stuff.

To everyone who complained loudly enough to stop this movie being made: Thank you.

Spider-Man: I know, I know; you're all thinking "Wait, didn't they make Spider-Man? I'm pretty sure I've seen a Spider-Man movie." But I'm not talking about the Sam Raimi version; I'm talking about Jim Cameron's mooted early '90s version that would had a villain that kissed his girlfriends to death, a personality-less Sandman as afterthought thug, and Peter revealing his secret identity at the end of the movie to a surprisingly unimpressed Mary Jane. There's no doubt that it would've made a cool-looking special-effects bonanza, but it had none of the heart or quirkiness of Raimi's version.

I guess we should start with the only comic featuring the 70-year-old Man of Steel, huh? That would be Superman: Last Son, a hardcover collection of the much-delayed storyline that brought Richard Donner to comics - he co-writes the book alongside Geoff Johns - as well as returned General Zod and the Phantom Zone to current DC continuity. I could tell you more about the story, like the fact that Superman adopts a son, but I know that all you'll really care about is that there's a special 3-D section midway through the book. That Phantom Zone is trippy, man.

Elsewhere in the DC line this week, Superman's oldest rival Captain Marvel gets a new series, with the first issue of kid-targeted Billy Batson And The Magic of Shazam. Less friendly for little tykes, the Dark Knight tie-ins start properly with the first issue of The Joker's Asylum, which makes Heath Ledger's alter-ego into your host as he narrates stories about the other inmates over at Arkham Asylum. Or maybe you want even darker still, with Hellblazer: The Fear Machine collecting some of the earliest stories of magician, former punk and all-round bastard John Constantine from the 1980s, when it was cool to turn yuppies into demons.

More nostalgia comes in the form of the imported Doctor Who: The World Shapers, which brings together the little-seen mid-80s run of Grant Morrison on the British Who comic. On the one hand, yes, it's the Colin Baker Doctor, but on the other, rare Morrison... It's a tough one. Equally tough is Star Trek: Mirror Images, a new mini-series that explores one of the greatest Star Trek concepts ever, the Mirror Universe. IDW's Trek comics have been somewhat hit and miss, so the potential for disappointment here is, sadly, great. But it is the Mirror Universe. I mean, goateed Spock...what could go wrong?

If you're looking for things that will make you much less conflicted, I can heartily recommend the following three books: Boom!'s Station is a murder mystery set on the international space station right as things start to go wrong and it looks like everyone might end up dead. If you liked Greg Rucka's Whiteout, chances are you'll enjoy it. Mike Mignola gets slightly ahead of the movie curve this week with a new Hellboy series, The Crooked Man, illustrated by comics legend Richard Corben. So expect the same great writing and slightly off-putting stumpy figures (I kid because... well, because I can, really. But you'll know what I mean when you pick it up).

Pick of the week, however, is easily Buffy The Vampire Slayer #16, which sees Joss Whedon return as writer, as well as the return of his futuristic slayer, Fray. For everyone who hasn't read the Fray series and wonders why this is a big deal, all I have to say is this: Imagine Faith, but from the far future, and with an even worse attitude. I foresee carnage and futuristic cursing that you can get away with in comics, as well as quite a few battles over that weird scythe that both of them think they own.

As is the case every single week, you can see the complete list of everything hitting comic stores this week here, and find out where your local comic book store is by clicking here. Do it because Clark Kent would want you to.

After more than a year of falling sales and stories that left readers and critics cold, DC's summer 2008 flagship comic Final Crisis was seen by many to be the one book that could fix all problems and return the publisher to the #1 spot in terms of fan conversation, critical acclaim and sales. After all, it had a fan-favorite creative team (X-Men, JLA, Invisibles and We3 writer Grant Morrison and 52 cover artist JG Jones) and promised to not only provide thematic closure to, but also wrap up long-running subplots from, the last four years' worth of DC comics. Where could you go wrong?

Well, the first issue of the series (which appeared last month) could have reviews like this one, from well-respected comics critic Tom Spurgeon:

The general feeling that I had in the midst of reading it is a strange one, and not something I've seen anyone else try to put into words. The whole work feels arbitrary in a way, if I can explain it like that. For something that comes out of a shared universe and the last four years of concentrated plot maneuverings made by the company entire, much of the plot in Final Crisis #1 feels strangely impressed on top of the book like an overlay.

Or this, from former DC editor KC Carlson:

I had to find out from the internet what Anthro was drawing in the sand, and it’s a good thing I did, because I also found out that the story really ramps up in its third issue! Meaning I have to be 12 bucks into the story before anything exciting happens?

While there were some positive reviews, this review from Comic Book Resources seemed to sum up the general feeling towards the launch:

This isn't a disaster just yet, but six more issues of this caliber and this could spell the end of the sales power for a company event at DC Comics. "Final Crisis", indeed.

Part of the bad feeling people had for the book was due to the weekly 51 issue prologue series, Countdown to Final Crisis. After a year of apparently hastily put-together stories that sacrificed consistency and coherence for the ability to meet deadline, everyone was more than slightly surprised to see that Final Crisis not only seemed to ignore Countdown's plot, but also outright contradict it in places. To make matters worse, Final Crisis writer Morrison gave an interview about the discrepancy that hinted at disharmony with what was going on behind the scenes at the publisher:

Final Crisis was partly-written and broken down into rough issue-by-issue plots before Countdown was even conceived, let alone written. And J.G. was already working on designs and early layouts by the time Countdown started. There wasn’t really much opportunity, or desire, to modify our content at that stage. [W]hen Countdown was originally being discussed, it was just a case of me saying ‘Here’s issue 1 of Final Crisis and a rough breakdown of the following six issues. As long as you guys leave things off where Final Crisis begins, we‘ll be fine.’ Obviously, I would have preferred it if the New Gods hadn't been spotlighted at all, let alone quite so intensively before I got a chance to bring them back but I don’t run DC and don’t make the decisions as to how and where the characters are deployed... If there was only me involved, Orion would have been the first dead New God we saw in a DC comic, starting off the chain of events that we see in Final Crisis... The Countdown writers were later asked to ‘seed’ material from Final Crisis and in some cases, probably due to the pressure of filling the pages of a weekly book, that seeding amounted to entire plotlines veering off in directions I had never envisaged, anticipated or planned for in Final Crisis.

But, of course, it doesn't matter how you make an omelette as long as it tastes good, right? And Final Crisis was the most successful comic book of last month, as intended, right? Well... not exactly:

Secret Invasion #2 was the bestselling comic book of May, comfortably edging out the first issue of DC's big summer event, Final Crisis.

How comfortably? Well, the second issue of Marvel's Secret Invasion sold 5 copies for every 4 copies sold of Final Crisis, which tends to add up when you're talking in the tens of thousands of copies (Comic Book Resources' estimates a 41,000 difference between the books). In fact, May was a very bad month for DC overall, with main rival Marvel having 50% more market share than them, and seven titles in the top 10 selling comics of the month to DC's three.

Luckily, there's a distraction from the sales disappointment: Chuck Dixon, a long-time DC writer recently fired by the publisher, has taken to the internet to share his dissatisfaction with the situation, officially refusing to discuss the situation while also posting blog comments like

DC, currently, is run from the top down in a way that makes [1980s Marvel Editor in Chief, infamous for his interference in other people's work and ego] Jim Shooter’s aegis at Marvel look like a hippie commune... The difference between his reign at Marvel and the current one at DC is that Shooter was successful at raising circulation and longterm planning.

and

I’ve worked under tyrants and I can say that I’d prefer to work under a talented, knowledgeable tyrant with a successful plan than a directionless gladhander with a ouija board any day of the week.

Nothing like a happy work environment and former employees willing to sing your praises, is there? Not that things look set to get better anytime soon; with confirmation on Monday that concern that JG Jones won't be able to meet deadline on Final Crisis has led to another artist being assigned to draw parts of each future issue bringing yet more calls for DiDio to step down or be fired, it's beginning to look like the rumors that DC is looking for a new guy to turn the publisher around and rebuild bridges with creators, retailers, fans and anyone else who's still paying attention when DiDio's current contract expires in October (or perhaps even earlier) may be true after all.

But who would that new guy be? The loudest buzz is around Jimmy Palmiotti, currently under an exclusive contract as a writer for DC Comics, but whose previous positions include co-founding Event Comics and co-head of Marvel's "Marvel Knights" imprint, both with friend and current Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada. Palmiotti's name has been mentioned as possible replacement in comic pro circles for a while now, and a recent Publishers Weekly article about DC's troubles quickly turned into a "Palmiotti for Boss" session. What was interesting was Palmiotti's response in that same thread as to why his then-partner Quesada got the top Marvel gig and he didn't:

joe wanted the E.I.C. job and went after it while we were doing Marvel Knights…and he was the perfect guy for the job…Its obvious to everyone. I never wanted the job then because i wanted to create new characters and start writing…and to do that, i had to start from the ground up again to make it work.

Interesting use of past tense there, Jimmy: "I never wanted the job then"? "I wanted to create new characters and start writing"? Has something changed, perhaps...?

Other than Palmiotti getting sideways involved in the online chatter, it's notable that no current DC creators have spoken out in support of their boss on this subject (In comparison, when Marvel's Quesada was being called out for removing Spider-Man's marriage via deal with the devil, Marvel's top writers publicly stood behind him on message boards and news sites), adding yet more fuel to the uncomfortable atmosphere fire.

While it's unlikely that DiDio will go before the end of convention season (if he ends up going at all), that decision may just make matters more awkward in the short run for DC, who'll be seen to be unresponsive to all the bad press and have to face multiple convention panels hijacked by fans asking variations on "Why do you still have your job when you suck so bad?" One thing is certain; while it's got to be pretty good to be the guy in charge of Marvel Comics right now (Most successful American comic publisher and two hit movies this summer), if The Dark Knight isn't a box office smash and millions of nerds point the finger at DC's Executive Editor (unfairly, as he has no real control over the movies), there's no way that Dan DiDio is being paid enough money to shoulder the blame for all of DC's perceived problems this year.

Secret Invasion, Marvel's big crossover has a few things on its side. Being written by arguably Marvel's most popular writer Brian Michael Bendis - writer of New Avengers, Mighty Avengers and Ultimate Spider-Man - and the result of literally years of planning (Bendis started laying the groundwork for this storyline with his 2004 Avengers Disassembled story), the idea of aliens having infiltrated Earth by disguising themselves as superheroes and villains throughout history allows for any and all character development (including deaths - This week's second issue brought back a character by retconning the death into having happened to an undercover Skrull - to be undone without having to say that all those old stories never actually happened. They just happened to aliens, is all.

Final Crisis, on the other hand, comes somewhat out of left field. It's also the result of a long-running storyline, but one previously told in scattered titles - Who knew that Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle would be so important? - before ultimately spinning out of an unpopular, critically-panned, series (Countdown to Final Crisis). Its real problem, however, may be its lack of high concept hook; sure, it's what happens when "evil wins," but what does that actually mean?

Let's compare the two in what we do know:

The Pitch: Like all of Marvel's big event stories, Secret Invasion has a movie-conscious high concept sale: "Aliens are amongst us, trying to take over the world! Who do you trust?" Final Crisis, though, is pretty much relying on the creators' star power and a vague promise of putting favored heroes through bad times to sell itself. Evil may have won the cosmic struggle, but how does that concept translate into a story...?

Win: Secret Invasion

The Scale: Secret Invasion more or less takes over the entire Marvel line for its' run - The main series is eight monthly issues, but there are multiple spin-off titles (including Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust, Secret Invasion: Front Line, Secret Invasion: X-Men, Secret Invasion: Spider-Man, Secret Invasion: Thor, Secret Invasion: Young Avengers/Runaways, Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four and Secret Invasion: Inhumans) as well as continuations of the storyline in issues of other series; by midway through its run, the storyline will have totaled 34 comics, and that's not counting all the stories that led up to the official launch. By contrast, Final Crisis is fairly self-contained; besides the seven-issue main series, there are seven spin-offs to bear the brand (The mini-series Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge, Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds and Final Crisis: Revelations, and the one-off issues Final Crisis: Requiem, Final Crisis: Submit, Final Crisis: Resist and Final Crisis: Superman Beyond) with a minimum of crossover into regular series promised. By midway through Crisis' run, you'll have had to purchase nine comics - again, not counting all of the prologue books - to get the whole story.

Win: Depends on how you look at it; Secret Invasion is bigger, but Final Crisis is cheaper

The Creators: Invasion's Bendis and artist Lenil Yu have the fan-favorite thing sewn up, having previously worked together on New Avengers and having separate runs on books like Daredevil, Ultimate Spider-Man, Superman: Birthright and X-Men. However, they've probably not got the cache of Final Crisis' Grant Morrison and JG Jones. Having written acclaimed runs on JLA, X-Men, Animal Man, Doom Patrol, 52 and more personal projects like The Invisibles and We3, Morrison is easily one of the most highly-regarded comic writers around, and Jones' work on Wanted and the covers for 52 have made him a well-loved artist... and one who rarely does anything other than covers. Crisis will be his first sequential work in four years.

Win: Final Crisis

So, is it a tie? Can you play comics Switzerland and not choose a side? The final choice may simply come down to what kind of comics you like - Both series are, in their own way, dealing with cultural and political zeitgeists, so it may just come down to whether you want to see bad guy aliens in positions of power punching Iron Man, or the more metaphorical thrills of submission and subjugation of free will by a New, evil, God. The decision, as they used to say on Blind Date, is yours.

Final Crisis #1 [DC Comics]
Secret Invasion [Marvel Comics]

The board - a callback to a subplot from DC's successful 52 series - is made up of multiple phrases or, weirdly enough, math problems that tie into already-announced, rumored or completely unknown stories for Superman, Batman and their (super) friends. Some of them are obvious:

Submit and Resist are both titles tied in with the upcoming Final Crisis storyline, as already announced by DC. Same with Evil Won (Final Crisis taking place after evil has apparently beaten good in that traditional never-ending battle), First Boy/Last Boy (Crisis will, according to writer Grant Morrison, start with Anthro, the first boy on Earth, and end with Kamandi, the last boy on Earth), Girlfight (Morrison has promised a fight between Supergirl, the teen girl personification of all things good, and Mary Marvel, newly-appointed pin-up girl for evil) and Loneliness + Alienation + Fear + Despair + Self Worth (etc.), which is one possible version of "the Anti-Life Equation," DC's mythical way to remove free will in people (This version appeared in Morrison's 2006 Mister Miracle series, which has been named multiple times as the key book to read before Final Crisis).

Equally clear are Best Woman For Job - A Man, which ties into this summer's Wonder Woman storyline where it's decided that Wonder Woman has failed in her mission to bring peace to the world and needs to be replaced with a man called The Olympian; 1,000/3 = 1, a reference to Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds, which brings three different worlds of 1000 years in the future together; You Can Go Home Again, tying into this summer's Justice Society of America Annual, which takes Power Girl back to a version of her home planet, Earth 2; I Am Batman?/I Am Bruce Wayne?, about Wayne's identity crisis in Batman: R.I.P.; The Dead Shall Rise, the already-announced tagline of next year's The Blackest Night storyline; and Sightings All Around Us, which is a shout-out to DC's new "Sightings" branding for declared-important comics.

Everything else, though, is a little more shaky - 52 - 1 = 0 could be about DC's 52 alternate Earths, or simply pointing to last week's DC Universe Zero. Kings Reborn may be a reference to the potential return of the original Aquaman, who was, after all, King of Atlantis, and Rockin' Robins just might be about which Robin gets to become the new Batman. But the other ones...? Here are our entirely baseless guesses:

100% Alien - Something to do with the rumored death of 1950s alien-amongst-us, the Martian Manhunter.
Who is Wonder Dog? - Well, it used to be Rex, Nazi-fightin' pup, but for some reason, I'm seeing a Wonder Woman tie-in here...
There is No-One... Yet - Probably a Final Crisis mention of some sort, as is He Is The Force (The "astro-force" being a Jack Kirby invention as is Crisis badguy Darkseid) and He Wakes The World Ends.
The Son Rises - I'll be very surprised if this isn't a reference to Damien, Batman's bastard son, in the wake of Batman R.I.P.. Same with Murder/Suicide, Father/Son, although that one could also apply to Final Crisis villain Darkseid and his good guy son Orion.
The Traitor Among Us - Who better to have traitors (and, for that matter, an "us") than a gang of villains? It's either something to do with Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge or Gail Simone's new Secret Six series.
No 2 For You is more than likely another Power Girl/Earth-2/Justice Society of America Annual reference, as PG has to end up back on regular Earth in time to launch her own series this summer, but 1 (JSA) 2 probably has more to do with the team's rumored break-up this summer.
Mercy Ruling and Who Questions the Question are both very likely to have something to do with Greg Rucka's Final Crisis: Revelations series, where God's spirit of retribution, the Spectre, meets lesbian private eye the Question.
TT Have No Reception reminds us all that there isn't a Teen Titans cartoon any more. Or, perhaps, that the Titans comic will be spinning off something called Terror Titans this Summer, about some unpopular teenage badguys... whereas Titans, the other TT-spinoff book is dealing with the eeeevil reborn Trigon, who just may be 4 Times As Red in his new incarnation.
No Glory No Gold seems to be a shout-out to the Booster Gold series in some way, while Paper Not Plastic feels suspiciously like a reference to a revived Plastic Man for some reason... Better than Rocket Vs. Satellite, which suggests that the JLA's spacebound headquarters is soon not going to be alone up there.

The last two, however, are just weird: Superman: Red or Blue? is, I hope, hints that we'll finally investigate Superman's political preference (Let's face it; he's an Obama man. You know it, I know it, it's pretty obvious) instead of rehash the old Superman-gets-split-in-two storyline we've seen at least twice before, and I am convinced that Post No Bills is there purely to fuck with us.

But now that we've put ourselves out there, why don't you tell us what you think the board is all about? We shouldn't be the only ones embarrassed about how off-base our suggestions are this time next year, after all.

Dan DiDio on DC Universe #0 [Newsarama]

"Give me some sugar, I am your neighbor!" Morrison growled as we started. He jumped right in, happily answering even the most controversial questions from the audience; we've got a recap below.

To what extent do drugs play a role in your creative process?
They were very big in The Invisibles. I was a very straightedge kid until I was 30 years old — I didn't touch anything, and I was anti-drinking, anti-drugs, everything. But I got to 30 and I kind of decided to treat myself as a laboratory and become something else — I wondered how much you could mess with your own personality. I became a tranny for awhile; I used to dress up as a girl, and I was beautiful! I just started to take tons of psychadelic drugs, though I was never into amphetamines or anything. But I'm getting old now, so I don't do so much of that.

Did that also have a role in your experience in Kathmandu?
The Kathmandu thing was really weird. I had taken a little bit of hash — but just a very little bit. That experience was so profound — nothing like that has ever happened to me again. Part of taking so many drugs in the 90s was trying to recreate the experience: the clarity of everything was so much more real, the way things are made ... all this is just cheap dream compared to the place I was. I've taken DMT, high doses of mushrooms, high doses of acid — nothing took me back. I've never been able to go there again.

In the script for Arkham Asylum there's a joke about two nuns and a donkey. Is that a real joke?
That is a joke. Two nuns find this gigantic penis, and they're working away, and the Mother Superior says "Oh my God! Look what's happened to Flannen McCafferty!" The idea is that some old guy's donkey dies and the donkey's got the biggest dick in the wall, so he cuts it off and throws it over the nunnery wall, which takes me back to the punchline, and ... I can't tell jokes. That's the only joke I know and I still can't tell it.

What writers have inspired and influenced you?
There's a ton of 'em. A lot of playwrights: Peter Shaffer, David Sherwin, Alan Gamma, Timothy Leary, Tolkein, the Beatles, the Buzzcocks, the Sex Pistols ....

What's going on with the film for We3?
The film's script's actually better than the comics script. There's a lot of stuff happening at New Line right now, though. We've been through like 16 different directors, because none of them just really got the movie for me, but they've been really good about it. They really want to create the book. The animals will be CGI, but everything else will be real.

What kind of music do you listen to?
I started out as a punk, I used to play in bands. I was a weird punk, a psychedelic punk. My three favorite bands are the Beatles, the Buzzcocks, and the Sex Pistols. We used to play psychedelic music and speed it up really hard. Just psychedelic pop is my favorite music — stuff that lasts three minutes but transports my head.

Where will you be taking Batman?
To the grave. [laughs] There's a new Batmobile, and it's one of the greatest drawings ever — Daniel really surpassed himself on this. I kinda wanted to humanize the guy, 'cause he's been such a dick for awhile. But if you were Batman, you would be a dick, so that's fine. But underneath it all there's Bruce Wayne, this aristocratic kid who was just growing up and probably going to be a doctor, and then suddenly BANG BANG — so there are psychological weaknesses underneath that superman. It's a total deconstruction of Batman. I've just written the second part, where the bad guys actually take him down, and I'm thinking, "how's he going to get back from this?!" The way I'm doing this is possibly the most shocking Batman revelation in 70 years.

You mentioned putting a lot of autobiographical stuff in your comics. Have you ever considered doing a real autobiography?
Nah, you wouldn't believe it. It makes more sense in comics. They were always more like real life to me. David Lynch is more real life to me than any soap opera. All of our lives have weird shit. British kitchen sink cinema in the '60s was like that, about people having abortions and everything, but what they missed was the weird stuff — everyone has dreams and fantasies, everybody's mother's seen a ghost, everybody's got a weird witchy relative. Like — have you seen the South American dwarf on the internet? Have you guys seen that thing? That's the world we live in — filled with gaps and weirdness and strangeness. I'm just trying to be realistic. This is realism to me.

How did you get into comics?
I took some pages that I'd drawn to a convention in Glasgow — a convention just like this one — and I showed it to a bunch of guys doing a magazine called Near Myths, and they paid me for it! They paid me like 10 pounds a page. I was a poor kid, so to me that was like I was a millionaire. "Hey, I can do this, I can make money!" I thought, and then, twenty years later ... [laughs]

What do you think about the fact that you're a character in the DC Universe?
I think it's pretty cool. And they tried to kill me, but I just keep coming back!

When you were young, who did you want to be?
The Flash — he was the coolest. He was always getting turned into puppets and paving stones and stuff. It was like he was constantly tripping. Also, he's got the greatest suit — the way Carmine Infantino would draw his ass in the books! And the boots, those inch-thick treads. I still want those boots. If anyone here can make boots like that, please.

What do you find most enjoyable about your work? What are you reading right now?
The Filth is my favorite all-time thing I've written. It's the most consistent. It's really wrapped 'round its themes quite well. What am I reading — just superhero comics. I'm a boring guy. Geoff Johns' Green Lantern, Davis' Avengers. Just basic stuff. I'm just like everybody else — I like what's cool and popular.

What do you think of the different Batman movie versions?
Something like Batman can be interpreted so many ways — I love the Adam West Batman, and I love the Christian Bale Batman more than ever. That guy is good — I think that's the best Batman ever. Batman's so adaptable, you can do almost anything with it and it still works. I don't like every version. There are a lot of really good superhero movies, and a lot of really bad ones. [someone yells "Batman and Robin!"] Batman and Robin — Yeah, but the colors are brilliant! Just switch off your brain and think, "okay, I'm watching the gay Batman"!

I heard that Final Crisis begins with the funeral of Captain Marvel ...
Yeah, that's true. It was originally in a thing called "Hyper-Crisis" which I pitched years ago, at the time when I was leaving X-Men — not to say Marvel is dead, 'cause it's a colossal industry, but for me it was kind of over, so I wanted to do this thing where everyone was standing at Captain Marvel's grave. I wanted to do this thing with the Chronovore, where he had eaten the first years of the 21st century, so there was no 21st century, and Superman and his allies had to build a bridge of events across this abyss. It means you have to go tell Batman, "if you don't do this, we're all gonna die, 'cause we need this event to be rivet 205." It was kind of interesting, but I'm glad they went with Identity Crisis instead.

What are you doing next?
Next year I'm doing this thing called War-Cop, this other atomic bomb thing which is kind of psychadelic — back to being me again, a little bit.

Can this really be THE final crisis?
It's definitely the final crisis for me. But who knows? You cannot predict what these people will do in the future. If Final Crisis sells, then there will be more crises — there's no stopping it.

Your characters tend to escape the comic book and go into the real world. Does that happen in Final Crisis?
I was always fascinated with dimensions as a kid. I was five years old, trying to draw the fourth dimension: "I know I can draw a point, a line, a square, a cube ... arrgh!" There won't be any of that in Final Crisis, no. But the idea was: Superman, Batman, they're much more real than we are — created long before any of us were alive. Superman is still vital and young and communicating to people. When we're dead and gone and dust, there will probably still be a Superman. And the world that they inhabit is a two-dimensional world. You can pick up different comics from his whole span of existence, but it's all still there. I began to imagine: what if there were things above us, on a hyper-cube level, if there were people who could look down on us like we look down on Superman, and see the entirety of our lives? The same way we can see the entirety of lives in the second dimension? The experience of The Invisibles in Kathmandu was kind of an actualization of that reality — that there are things up there that can see the entirety of Earth time and Earth space like that. It's an ongoing fascination for me.

What happened in the last issue of The Invisibles? I've read it like 20 times and I have no idea.
Yes, you have. Of course, you have! What happened was that thing you read and all those words. That's what happened.

Gail Simone, the comic-writing goddess behind Wonder Woman, had to leave early, but not before announcing that a new Secret Six book was coming up, featuring Catman, Deadshot, Scandal, Ragdoll, an A-list Batman villain, and a new character, Jenet, who has a secret even the rest of the Secret Six won't know about. Simone said that it will be literally "the most ballsy DC comic out there," written and drawn by two red-headed women.

Collins further hinted about the upcoming Wonder Woman storyline: scientists in the DC Universe think that they have found the exact mathematical formula to bring down Wonder Woman. Meanwhile, someone feels that the Amazons are a failed experiment, and starts one of their own: a new Wonder Woman will be created — and will be male. Originally dubbed a "Manazon" (though Simone liked "Olympian"), the Wonder (Wo)man is as of yet unnamed, though Simone added another suggestion: "Wonder Weenie." DiDio thought that might bring up some strange web-searches.

More news:

• Catwoman has been canceled, which was unceremoniously announced at last night's DC panel.
• DiDio promised an entire "repositioning" of the DC universe with the upcoming Final Crisis series. What can writer Grant Morrison tell us about the series? "They're all dead!" he told the crowd, cheerfully. He was probably joking.
• DC's next weekly comic, Trinity, will actually be one you want to buy every week. The series, focusing on Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, will be character-driven, "about who they are." The essential natures of the characters, and how they affect the DCU, will be explored. Astro City's Kurt Busiek will write 12 pages every week for 52 weeks, with a rotating team of artists.
• Rann/Thanagar: Holy War will tie together several years' worth of storylines about the battles between the planet of fin-headed guys and the planet of the bird people. It'll also set up what's going on for the next few years for DC's "science fiction characters."
• Batman R.I.P. Asked what that title means, Grant Morrison says: "It means Rest In Peace. But it doesn't. There'll be no peace for Batman." The Joker will be the scariest new Joker we've ever, drawn as 1/2 "a road accident"), plus a bunch of new Batman villains: "If you miss this you miss your chance to say goodbye."
• Other upcoming comics: Action Comics will have a scarier Brainiac, and James Robinson is taking over soon. Birds of Prey writer Sean McKeever has "learned to love Misfit," the teleporting superhero-wannabe. The Joker's Asylumwill have the "best rogue's galleries out there." There are no plays for any kind of Batman Beyond comic at this time. In the Justice Society of America annual, Power Girl is going to Earth 2, will meet with the Huntress and Batman's daughter there, but is in for a difficult return. Booster Gold will meet Peter Platinum, who is ten times the jerk Booster used to be, and find out who time-travel svengali Rip Hunter is. An upcoming Green Lantern story, "Massacre of Sector 666," will feature the worst disaster in the universe, leading into new series Blackest Night, in which all the dead rise up and kick ass.
• DC is also launching several titles with an eye toward capturing a younger audience. Editor Jann Jones announced the upcoming Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade, with art that features a flat-chested, prepubescent Supergirl. The upcoming kid-friendly line also includes Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam. DC is excited about recreating the entry-level comic experience, no doubt anticipating the the kids who will grow up to fill future Con audiences. As for Supergirl, the first to be released, it'll have "all the fun of life in Junior High," Jones promised, which to me sounds menacing. DiDio added, for the benefit of the room: "And no boobs."

Morrison's current end-of-career fatalism for the big name superheroes is, he insists, just a reflection of the current times:

It either means that I am going to die next year or else, the way I see it, I've just been tapping into something, especially since 9/11, this sense that the whole culture feels quite dark and threatening. It kind of feels like the end of western civilization and like we're somehow all to blame for it... Superheroes are a good way of confronting this stuff head on. They're designed to deal with evil and darkness and fear and all that so it can be helpful to take these incredible, powerful characters and subject them to all of our worst fears and nightmares given form. And see what they can tell us about surviving that because superheroes always find clever ways of getting out of trouble.

I came to [Executive Editor] Dan DiDio back then and said, 'Okay. I am going to work towards this big storyline called 'Batman R.I.P.'' And he said, 'Okay. Go for it. But it just can't be 'R.I.P.' and nothing happens, we have to do something with him.' So he encouraged me to take it more literally and that's where it has ended up. This is the end of Bruce Wayne as Batman... [What happens to Bruce Wayne is] so much better than death. People have killed characters in the past but to me, that kind of ends the story! I like to keep the story twisting and turning. So what I am doing is a fate worse than death. Things that no one would expect to happen to these guys at all.

All-Star Grant Morrison II: Batman [Comic Book Resources]

Despite spinning out of his Seven Soldiers series of books, Morrison wants readers to know that you don't need to know anything about what's come before when you pick up the first issue:

I like to write things so you don't have to read anything extra... Obviously, it sells more books for me, so yes, everyone should go out and buy 'Seven Soldiers.' Particularly 'Mister Miracle,' which was the most hated of the 'Seven Soldiers' books and sold least. Stuff like that has little clues in it, but honestly, you don't have to read anything else. 'Final Crisis' is like picking up a book. It's like you're picking up any science fiction book or a fantasy book and starting from page 1. Everything you need to know about the characters will be in the book.

What would it really be like if bad gods turned up on Earth? Because as this story opens, the war between Good and Evil has been won by the wrong side and Evil is now in control of the DC Universe. And then we see what happens next as a result of that...The Gods are here to destroy everything that we hold dear, everything that has meaning to us, everything that has value for us. They want to utterly crush the human species and reduce us all to slavery and that's as big a threat as it gets. We wanted to do a primal superhero myth that would pit absolute evil against pure good in a way you don't see much of in comics these days so it's the story of the DC universe facing its apocalypse and only Darkseid could cut it as the main villain.

If you've got a favorite character, I am sure he's in it. Supergirl and Mary Marvel are in it. They have a big climatic battle to decide how femininity should be portrayed in superhero comics!

All-Star Grant Morrison 1: Final Crisis [Comic Book Resources]

Talking about the death/rebirth rumor, Morrison explained where that got started:

When we first spoke about Final Crisis, coming out of the Seven Soldiers series, I had the New Gods cast down onto Earth, and because they'd lost their former shapes, they were cast as spirits or avatars possessing human bodies, like Voodoo gods [as shown in Seven Soldiers: Mr. Miracle].

For a brief moment back in 2006, I discussed the idea that the gods could then take over the bodies of familiar DC characters - so that an appropriate hero or villain could become the new Orion or Darkseid, say, and someone equally appropriate would become the new Lightray, kind of thing.

That didn't happen because no one wanted to mess with either Jack Kirby's or Gerry Conway's intellectual property by saying Lightray was now inhabiting Firestorm or something like that. Quite rightly, no-one was willing to change existing DC characters into Kirby characters, because that would immediately confuse the ownership of the character and somebody would get cheated out of equity if that character was used in a movie or TV show or whatever. It's very much a copyright issue.

Obviously, someone heard some faint years-old echo of this discarded idea and pawned it into the notion that Bruce Wayne was going to become a New God. That was never going to happen. That's just insane. (laughs)

I can tell you this much - this is the first story I had planned when Peter Tomasi, the editor at the time, asked me to do Batman, which must have been two years ago now... longer. And the very first story title I noted down was "Batman RIP". I had a particular image for the cover, which Alex Ross has done a bang-zoom- thousand-times-better version of for the second part of the story.

So it came from there...and out of that notion came the idea for the big overarching story I've been telling since I first came on the book. Everything...the "Zur-En-Arrh" graffiti, the Joker prose story, the Club of Heroes...every detail that's been in the book for the last couple of years is significant, everything is a clue to the grand design that's unfolding.

My run on Batman is a 25-chapter novel that reaches its climax in "RIP" and maneuvers Batman into the greatest danger he's ever known, at the mercy of the world's deadliest criminal lunatics.

And yeah, I've seen all kinds of speculation about "RIP," but it's not necessarily what people think it's going to be, although there are very big changes coming to Batman. When we say that this is the story that changes the legend of the Dark Knight forever, we're quite serious about that.

In addition to Batman: Death Mask, an original manga by Yoshimori (Togari - The Sword of Justice) Natsume that will be published in authentic back-to-front format, the main DC/Wildstorm project will be DC/Wildstorm: Dreamwar that crosses over characters from both lines. Editor Scott Peterson described the project simply:

Basically, it's the DC Comics heroes versus the Wildstorm heroes, punching.

When asked about the status of the very late Wildcats series by Grant Morrison that disappeared after a mid-2007 first issue, series artist Jim Lee embarrassedly called it "the dreaded question," before admitting that "there's no way to make amends [for the delay]" but both Morrison and Lee are committed to finish the series at some point, although that may be five or ten years from now. Here's hoping that he was sarcastic on that last point. Peterson said that Morrison's other delayed title, The Authority, has had some "serious forward motion" and will be returning at some point.

In response to questions about Warren Ellis's missing titles Desolation Jones and Planetary, Peterson said that, like any publisher, they're very happy to publish work from Warren Ellis when they get it. He has written the final issue of Planetary, but they're waiting for artist John Cassaday to have time in his schedule to draw it.

Jim Lee also talked about his All-Star Batman series with Frank Miller, saying that he enjoys working on the book, and that he's surprised that Miller continues to work on the series considering his movie schedule. The book is slated to run for twenty issues, and they have around ten still to work on.

Are you ready for "Batman R.I.P."? Beginning the epic story that will change the legend of the Dark Knight forever! Everything in Grant Morrison's groundbreaking run on Batman has been leading to this story, and nothing will ever be the same again. Who will live? Who will die? Who will be Batman? The answers are sure to shock you in "Batman R.I.P.," featuring artwork by Tony Daniel & Sandu Florea and covers by Alex Ross.

The first question upon reading the solicitation should be "Who are they trying to kid?" Considering that DC are rumored to have postponed Greg Rucka's Batwoman comic until after the summer release of The Dark Knight movie for fear of offending moviegoers by daring to have a lesbian crimefighter fouling up the franchise, the idea that they'd kill Bruce Wayne before the movie even comes out sounds a little unlikely, even factoring the success of Marvel's killing of Captain America last year. But that said, Batman writer Morrison is also heading up DC's big cosmic story of the year, Final Crisis, which is also rumored to feature the death of big-name characters before restarting history and returning them all to life again, so who knows?

Let's take them at their word right now, and try to answer the third question they ask: If Bruce Wayne was to die, who would you like to become Batman, and why? Tim Drake, the current Robin? Dick Grayson, the unfortunately-name first Robin and current Nightwing (who's already had a go at the gig)? Alfred? Or someone else entirely?

First one to say Jean-Paul Valley is directed to please return to 1993 as soon as possible.

The first great reprint arriving Wednesday is Doom Patrol Volume 6: Planet Love, which finishes Grant Morrison's 1990s run on DC's freakshow version of the X-Men, complete with very '90s themes like nanotechnology and Lewis Carroll-revisionism. Despite its dated qualities, there's a surreal pop joy to Morrison's Doom Patrol that makes it one of the best superhero books of the last twenty-five years, and something that's well worth searching out, if only for the Madchester-inspired appearance of the Love Glove midway through the run.

Talking of surreal pop joy, that's exactly what Jack Kirby's comics were made out of, making Countdown Special: The New Gods - an 80-page "best of" taken from his three 1970s Fourth World series New Gods, Mister Miracle and Forever People - easily the best use of $4.99 you're likely to find this week, especially if you've never come across this material before. Pitched somewhere between the most dynamic superhero comics you've ever read and crazy religious texts, with art that's both brutishly dynamic and exquisitely designed, these are visionary works that must be read to be believed. Plus, they were Star Wars years before George Lucas made his first million, which is always worth pointing out.

If you still have money left over after picking those two books up, then you might want to look at the oddest book of the week: Marvel's Essential Marvel Saga. Marvel Saga was a mid-80s series that reprinted old comic books by cutting them up and putting expositionary narration in to replace the boring bits, resulting in this weird mash-up history of the Marvel Universe. Putting this into the cheap, phone-book-sized Essentials format seems perverse (It's a reprint of a reprint, after all), but also strangely alluring. And in a week as quiet as this at the comic store, that's enough to make it worth picking up.

As for new comics, it's a very slow week. There's absolutely nothing worth pointing out from the independent publishers' output at all. Okay, there's the third issue of IDW's Angel: After The Fall series, plotted by Joss Whedon and following on from the cancelled TV show. There's also the second issue of the same publisher's high concept series Zombies Vs. Robots Vs. Amazons. But in terms of new books? It's pretty much a dead week from the smaller houses.

Actually, the same could be said for the larger publishers as well. Marvel Comics launches a revised version of their Sliders rip-off, New Exiles, while DC launches... actually, DC doesn't launch anything at all this week.

A list of the week's releases is available in full here, and as ever, you can find your nearest comic book store here. Tell them that io9 sent you, just to see the confused looks on their faces.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Famous names: Writer Grant Morrison, artists Frank Quietly and Phil Jiminez. And Magneto who was, apparently, right.

Crunchy goodness: 4

Design breakthrough: Morrison's first issue of the series was spent partially taking the characters out of their superhero outfits, with the characters talking about the change: "Suddenly I don't have to look like an idiot in broad daylight."

Most painfully dated moment: Nano-robots threatening to eradicate an entire species? How turn of the century can you get?

Deadliest spoiler: Men with iron masks should never be trusted. What is this world of liars, Xorn?

Review of New X-Men Omnibus at Pop Matters

Famous names: Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely

Crunchy goodness: 5

Spinoffs/Sequels/Copycats: New Line Cinema has optioned We3 as a movie, with a script by Morrison. The three animal protagonists would be all CGI.

Quotable: The animals have basic speech capabilities, thanks to computer implants. The cat mostly says "stink boss," while the dog keeps asking if it is "gud dog."

Social message: Grant Morrison uses the cute (and heavily armed) beasties to preach against animal experimentation, a theme in his work going back to Animal Man in the 1980s.

9th Art Review by Matthew Craig

Famous names: Grant Morrison, JH Williams III

Crunchy goodness: 4

Conceptual breakthrough: Morrison composed the seven interlocking miniseries so that you could read each of them separately. But if you read them all together, interspersing the issues in the order they originally appeared, you can see how events in one story affect each of the others. (Luckily, the four collected editions do follow the original publication order.)

Bang for your buck: Morrison didn't just manage to make the DC Universe seem a bigger and crazier place than its usual claustrophobic clubhouse. He also revitalized tired characters like Zatanna and reinvented half a dozen new characters (like Klarion the Witch Boy) that have cropped up elsewhere.

Letdown: The final issue, Seven Soldiers #1, feels rushed and like the cliffs notes to a proper resolution. Reportedly Morrison had to cut the finale's page count by almost half.

Seven Soldiers Overview

Famous names: Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, Jamie Grant

Crunchy goodness: 5

Elevator pitch: What if instead of Superman's supporting cast "grounding" him as usual, they catapulted him into a psychedelic supernova made of cheese?

The shit: Lex Luthor, in prison, lectures Clark Kent about his hatred of Superman, never realizing whom he's talking to. Luthor is vain, deluded, petty — and more magnetic than he's ever been.

Design breakthrough: Superman's trappings look alien and cool for the first time in years. His Fortress of Solitude is huge and over-the-top, containing the Titanic, a space-shuttle and a baby sun-eater. The headquarters of PROJECT is trippy and shiny. And Jimmy gets to wear a crazy iridescent rainbow coat. It's futuristic and colorful.

All Star Superman Review