I can't help it; I know that zombies are/were the big thing, but there's something about the current trend for undead superheroics that leaves me more than a little bored. I've got nothing against genres mixing and matching, but the original Marvel Zombies - with its horror movie logic and sense of humor, and its lack of need to have to deal with regular continuity allowing it to actually act as a complete story as opposed to something that pretty much needs to reset to the status quo by its conclusion - aside, there's something disappointing about this particular take on the walking (and flying, and running at superspeed) dead. Namely...

None Of Them Are Real Zombies
Again, Marvel Zombies excepted, the reanimated in Blackest Night and Necrosha aren't really zombies, exactly (Something that Blackest Night's creators, to their credit, keep saying in interviews. Even so, calling them Black Lanterns feels like a dodge, because they're dead characters come back to life as undead monsters - They're so clearly zombie-influenced that the actual name doesn't matter). They're magically animated by the power of death itself, or by a psychic vampire (Don't ask), or whatever, and they don't conform to what we'd consider zombie rules: They're not slow, they don't eat brains, they're intelligent - and, in fact, generally have the personalities of their living selves - and they're all under the command of some central intelligence or leader with a specific mission. What kind of zombies are that organized, you might ask yourself? Which brings us to...

We've Seen This All Before
The dead being brought back as pawns to use against our brave heroes? Old hat for superhero comics - In fact, Marvel even has multiple characters based around this concept (the Grim Reaper, the Black Talon... You could even argue that Brother - now Doctor - Voodoo would have some familiarity on the subject). The only thing that's new about this latest wave is the overwhelming scale of the risings... which is one of the few things legitimately taken from zombie culture. Which reminds me.

Enough With The Magic Cures Already
Zombies should be pretty easy to beat. If Simon Pegg and Nick Frost can take care of some, after all, how hard can it be? But not these superhero zombies; no, they're not only gifted with magical regenerative powers that somehow don't take them to a fully regenerated state, but they also have very specific ways to be defeated, apparently: Blowing their heads off? Not going to work, it seems. Setting fire to them? Well, it keeps them busy for awhile, but otherwise... Nah. But keep calm and show no signs of emotion and they shut down (All of that from Blackest Night, which, in its defense is not only a fun superhero story but, in Blackest Night: Superman and Blackest Night: Batman has some really great examples of superhero comics ripping off some well-known horror movie cliches - If you've not seen Martha Kent be chased through a cornfield at night by an undead Lois Lane, or Commissioner Gordon use a double-barreled shotgun against an army of the undead while carrying his crippled daughter over his shoulder, you've missed out on some wonderfully enjoyable over-the-top moments of recent comics). Seriously, comic creators: what's that all about?

Death Is Never The End In Superhero Comics, Anyway
Ultimately, the problem with superheroic zombies is that the rules of death don't work the same way in superhero comics as they do in almost every other fiction. We're used to resurrection in superhero comics, and that works against the story from the very beginning; Blackest Night, for example, has to not only make the reader believe that the dead rising is not only a horrific thing, but also an unusual one - Which, considering that Superman, Green Lantern, Flash, Green Arrow, Hawkman and Robin have all "died" and been resurrected at some point in their careers, is a pretty tricky thing to do; Necrosha takes place in the X-Men series of titles, which has become so full of resurrected characters that characters within the story joke about the pearly gates having been replaced by a revolving door. Without the belief that death is the end - that it means that the person or character is gone and will never be seen again - the very idea of an army of the undead is weakened, because the possibility of a return is always there, and in many cases, expected to happen.

Mixing zombies with superheroes doesn't automatically mean failure - Despite all my "I know you've said they're not zombies and they're not acting like zombies, but come on, they're weird zombie-esque creatures, just admit it" problems with Blackest Night, it's full enough of melodrama, derring-do and humor to make me kind of love it - but of all the horror genres to bring superheroes into, it's one of the most problematic. I can get why comic publishers would want to jump onboard the bandwagon, but... Aren't there other horror monsters better suited to this kind of thing? I mean, Marvel: Paul Cornell gave you Dracula on the moon. That's a great gift right there...

What's It About?
For a series that started with the simple idea of "It's Superman as a kid," Smallville has somewhat lost its way in the eight seasons so far (in part, to be fair, because you can't really do "as a kid" eight years down the line). These days, Smallville is essentially "Superman before he finally becomes Superman": Clark Kent is already a reporter for the Daily Planet (alongside Lois Lane), commuting via superspeed from his home in Smallville, and he's already saving people on a regular basis with the help of fellow superheroes like Green Arrow and the Flash. He just hasn't put on the tights yet.

Also, this Clark Kent? Kind of a clueless dick.

So Who're The Bad Guys These Days?
This season, we're finally seeing General Zod in the flesh after years of him being a disembodied voice causing mischief from beyond. Copping an idea of two from DC's current "New Krypton" comics, Zod has arrived on Earth with an army of Kryptonians; unlike the comic, though, this is a time-traveling, younger Zod who isn't even a general yet. Don't worry; he's still a fan of people kneeling before him.

Clark and friends have good reason to be mad at him nonetheless. At the end of the eighth season, Jimmy Olsen was murdered by Davis Bloome, the clone son of Zod created to take over the world, leading to Clark deciding that being human and having friends is a bad thing (Trust us, Clark, we've thought the same thing often, especially while watching this show). As if that isn't enough, Zod has appeared before, escaping from the Phantom Zone and possessing Lex Luthor for a bit.

If you're wondering where Lex is, the answer is "supposedly dead," having apparently been blown up in a plane by Green Arrow last season. Considering that he's Lex Luthor - somewhat insane, a bit of a genius and, in Smallville continuity, completely aware that Clark is from Krypton and that kryptonite is a bad thing - we're betting that'll last until producers can lure actor Michael Rosenbaum back. In his absence, Luthorcorp was placed in the care of Tess Mercer, one of the show's two attempts at moral ambiguity (Green Arrow is the other; we'll get to him in a minute). Tess knows that Clark is an alien and has superpowers (thanks to the journal of Lex's dead dad), and is responsible for bringing Zod and his army to Earth, but still... she's not all bad. Maybe.

Why Do You Keep Talking About Green Arrow?
Because the show does. Since he was introduced in season six, billionaire Oliver Queen has slowly become more and more important to the show, becoming the Batman that the producers are allowed to use. Less unwilling to get his hands dirty to get the job done (See: Potentially killing Lex Luthor) and less embarrassed to dress up in a superhero costume and give himself a dumb name (See: Being Green Arrow in the first place), Queen and his love of archery became a series regular last year, meaning he has a life beyond the show's Justice League team (which consists of Arrow, Black Canary, the Flash and a version of Teen Titans' cyborg) - which is good, considering Clark fell out with them at the end of last season (See: Clark being a bit of a dick).

They're not the only familar faces from the DC Universe in the show, however; Metropolis police detective John Jones is actually a powerless Martian Manhunter, and last year saw the introduction of the Legion of Super-Heroes, who're rumored to return this year. Also coming this year: the Justice Society of America.

What About All The Regular Folk?
Problem with Smallville is that it's run so long that no-one is just regular folk anymore; Lana left the series after becoming (a) psychic and (b) radioactive with kryptonite, which is apparently a side-effect of Kristin Kreuk wanting a career that doesn't involve Tom Welling, Chloe - still there after eight years, and the only character besides Clark to hold that honor - turned out to have healing powers and got possessed by Brainiac, only to end up taking the codename Watchtower and acting as the Justice League (and Clark)'s unofficial official IT person, and Lois... well, she's still just Lois, really: Hard-headed investigative reporter for the Daily Planet who's fallen for Clark but somehow is still unaware that he has super-powers, demonstrating that she's not a very good investigative reporter.

For those keeping track of Clark's parents: Pa still dead, Ma still in politics, which for all intents and purposes in this show means the same thing.

So Where Are We With The Story?
Davis Bloome - AKA Doomsday, AKA a cloned Kryptonian monster created by Zod and his wife - has been defeated after trying to kill Clark and succeeding in killing Jimmy Olsen, who was Chloe's (estranged) husband. As a result, Clark has decided that he's giving up being Clark Kent because it only endangers his friends, and will only be Kal-El, wearing black and saving the day in secret while necessary, spectacularly abandoning his friends when they need him, what with that whole "mourning" thing and all. Meanwhile, Tess Mercer has accidentally brought Zod and his army to Earth after being guided by mysterious forces. Everything else? Well, you'll have to watch Smallville tonight on the CW at 8pm to find out.

Comics fandom, as any true fan knows, has always been the thinnest skin of enthusiasm wrapped around a bubbling core of controversy, and this week is no different. The latest tempest to shudder the lid on the comics world is Amazing Spider-Man #604, in which The Chameleon, a supervillain capable of imitating anyone, steals Peter Parker's identity and seems to have sex with his roommate. Many people protested that this was rape and the way it was addressed in the comic was therefore inappropriate.

Although the controversy is ameliorated somewhat in the next issue when it is revealed that The Chameleon only made out with Michelle, the woman in question, a debate sprang up about it that included comic-book-conventions-as-applied-to-reality, arguments about the justice of Massachussetts law, several angry emails, five links on When Fangirls Attack, and at least one cranky cat .gif.

It is strange, though, that other sexual assaults seem to fly below the radar of most internet fans, as well as most comics professionals. Although there have been several explicit rapes of male characters in comics, they have had relatively little acknowledgment, on and off the page.

Don't worry. This isn't a condemnation of internet fans for not being outraged enough, nor is it a ‘what about the men' diatribe. It is simply my observation that sexual assaults, in comics, are treated very differently depending on the sex of the people involved.

The first difference is acknowledgement. There have been three explicit rapes of male character in DC comics, and none of those characters have ever acknowledged what happened to them. The first is an assault on Nightwing, the grown-up Robin, by a female costumed vigilante known as Tarantula. Nightwing, at the end of his emotional and physical rope, collapses on a rooftop, where Tarantula has sex with him. Although not very coherent, he explicitly says, "No. Don't touch me."

The second was back in the eighties, when Green Arrow was shot by Shado, a female assassin. She nursed him back to health. A few issues later, she showed up at his girlfriend's home with a baby in tow. When describing the incident, Shado says that Green Arrow was raving with fever, and thought he was having sex with his girlfriend.

The third, and most recent, was the rape of Batman. Talia Al Ghul, a recurring female character, presents him with her son, Damian, who she claims Batman fathered. She asks him if he remembers a certain night, to which he replies, "I remember being drugged senseless and refusing to cooperate with some depraved eugenics experiment." She says, "You cooperated . . . Magnificently."

These are all rapes. Not one of these men has ever used the word ‘rape' in connection with them. The closest any character within the narrative has come to acknowledging them as such is Green Arrow's girlfriend, who in response to the intimation that her boyfriend cheated on her explained the circumstances of the encounter and said, "Ever wonder how he felt about being raped?"

Yes. I have. But it has become increasingly obvious that no reader will ever find out.
For female characters, rape is often used as a sort of origin story, or a restart for the character. The character will make mention of it, recognize the pain caused by it, and use it as a motivation to build up strength and toughness. For male characters, rape seems to be a by-product of the need to explain the existence of a child by an extremely inappropriate woman. Unfortunately, when modern audiences read the explanation and rightly identify the conception of the child as rape, the creators are hemmed in. They cannot explain it away, and yet they cannot have the characters deal with it. Why?

This, I believe, is the main split between the treatment of female and male characters when it comes to sexual assault.

Like the trauma inflicted on Bruce Wayne by seeing his parents murdered, or the guilt visited upon Peter Parker by, in his mind, being partly responsible for the murder of his uncle, a rape often re-writes a female character; makes her come back stronger and tougher. This is, when looked at realistically, ridiculous. And yet I can see an appeal to that kind of story. Rape is a terrible event, one that often deeply affects the life of the victim. When treated as an origin story, it can be, in a strange way, a catharsis. What comes out of that trauma is a new life, a new identity, and a new person with a metaphorically clean slate. That kind of re-birth can be an alluring concept. And, of course, since most comics writers are male, rape is a comfortingly distant idea, like the over-the-top tragedies of Peter Parker and Bruce Wayne.

The rape of a man, though, does not have the comfort of a distantly harrowing origin story. Creators are, I think, stymied by three important factors. The first is that an acknowledgment and realistic fall-out from a rape would force these characters, avatars of strength and masculinity, to admit to feelings of violation and vulnerability, something most male readers don't want to read. (To be honest, that's something most female readers don't want to read either, which explains some of the backlash against the rape of female characters.) The second is that rape is a thing that generally happens to women, and to be like a woman is to, generally, lower ones status in society. Jobs, interests, sports and hobbies that are associated with women are generally given less respect than those associated with men. Comic book characters are power-fantasies, and generally people do not fantasize about being given less status and respect. The last factor is a simple one; the perpetrators of these rapes are usually women. Part of the ‘origin story' version of rape is righteous and violent retribution against the rapist, and comics creators have always been reluctant to show male heroes beating female characters, no matter what the reason.

There is, of course, one last, ugly factor in these storylines; the rapists. When male characters rape or abuse female characters, they are often tainted forever and given their comeuppance in later stories. Female rapists receive no such treatment. Of the three rape victims, Nightwing comes closest to punishing his rapist. (Interestingly, he is the least ‘alpha' of the three heroes.) He breaks free of her influence, regains his confidence, beats her up and puts her in prison. He does all of this, though, for the murder of another character, not for the crime committed against himself.

Green Arrow has briefly met his rapist again, in the midst of events too complex to explain, and never mentioned his rape. The woman herself is treated as a villain, but a villain more honorable than most.

Batman's rapist receives a stomach-churning treatment in the text. Never rebuked by Batman or anyone else, never criticized, she goes on to play a semi-heroic part in the later storyline. Dick Grayson even remarks that he can see why Batman is interested in her. Such a thing would never, could never, happen with a male rapist and a female victim. Imagine a man crowing about the fact that he raped a woman, it felt good, and he enjoyed it, and then being treated as a hero later in the story. Never happen.

In the end it is interesting that, while sexual assault on female characters is most often used as a plot device in comics, it is sexual assault on male characters sadly, unintentionally mirrors the reality of sexual assault in life. After all, many assaults and rapes are never reported. The victims bury the event and try to continue their lives stepping around the consequences of the assault. The perpetrators go on with their regular lives as well, sometimes coming to a bad end, sometimes being celebrated. And the taboo continues.

SciFi Wire reports Hartley talking on the subject of how long the show may continue recently:

"Look, they're so busy right now, they don't know if they're doing one more season or eight more seasons or two more seasons... They have no idea. So we'll see.

Quite how that clearly-intentionally ridiculous "eight more seasons" seemed to be taken more literally than it should've been by some, we're not sure, but it seems more like Hartley was saying "anything's possible," than "this show will never end."

Then again, he blew our mind when he revealed how old Green Arrow is supposed to be in the show ("I'd say I'm playing what, 14 or 15 right now, about, roughly"), so who knows?

So now it's possible Smallville's upcoming ninth season may not be its last? [SciFi Wire]

There's a lot to recommend in the premiere episode of this new Batman series - Not least of all the colorful, retro design of the show, which channels both the Bruce Timm look of the classic '90s Batman: The Animated Series with comic artist Dick Sprang's iconic take into something that still seems curiously modern . That retro feel is helped by the fun, jazzy theme music (provided by Andy Sturmer, former Jellyfish lead and writer of the equally wonderful Teen Titans music) and writing that, while working on a couple of levels, definitely takes all characters involved back to their roots as defiantly kids' characters.

It's the smartness of the writing - that it offers the kid-friendly familiar morals about finding your inner strength and using your head to save the day, but tempers the saccharine nature with the "smart" solution being to spit on the machine and short-circuit it, or watching Batman plug an amoeba-like alien that he's trying to save into a power cable to test a half-assed theory - that really made the show such a success for me. Many shows look amazing, but few have the senses of style and humor to open a series by giving us a supervillain with a clock for a head and henchmen called "Tick" and "Tock," and then immediately follow that with an alien whose weapon is a cosmic-powered gong.

It's only the first episode, of course; everything could go downhill from hereon in... but somehow, I doubt it. This opening was confident, coherent and very enjoyable, and if every other episode is at least this good, we may just have met the best new show of the season. Sorry, Fringe.

Note: By popular demand, our polls now allow you to vote for more than one option. You can vote for all of them, if you feel like clicking all those boxes. Also, there's a write-in option, so you can let us know what slam-dunk candidates we left out. Enjoy!

Also: I don't have anything in particular against Green Arrow. I just thought that was a funny pic to use to illustrate the poll. Ollie fans, don't hate me, okay?

Obviously, Christopher Nolan's third Bat-film, if it actually happens, stands a pretty great chance of being up there with his second. But since there's officially no word on that project right now, here are the superhero films that are actually in the pipeline:

The movie: The Spirit, Frank Miller's adaptation of Will Eisner's classic comic, coming this Xmas.
Why it could be Knight-ed: It's another off-kilter look at an old-school superhero. And the focus is very much on the dark, dystopian city. (Hence the ad campaign, "My City Screams!" Aaaa!) Frank Miller pretty much invented the Christian Bale/Chris Nolan version of Batman, with The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One. and now he's finally getting to make his own superhero movie.
Why it could fall short: The trailers look campy as hell. The Spirit is not really your "dark knight" kind of hero, and he lends himself more to a certain amount of goofiness. Instead of Heath Ledger's unnerving Joker, the Spirit will give us Samuel L. Jackson in eyeliner and a fur coat, chewing the scenery like never before.

The movie: Watchmen, directed by Zack Snyder based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
Why it could be Knighted: It's another dark, twisted look at superheroes where the good guys are less than pure. In fact, there's a lot of ethical tangles that could remind people of Bruce Wayne's mass wiretapping in Dark Knight. The psychopathic vigilante Rorschach could be a bit like Heath Ledger's Joker. Nite Owl is like a Batman who can't get it up, according to director Zack Snyder. It'll be visually arresting, judging from the footage I've seen.
Why it could fail:Watchmen is trying really hard to capture the original graphic novel, keeping the 1985 setting and the Cold War themes. So it's more like an alternate historical epic. It's also more of a geek wet dream and less of a mainstream look at crime and retribution in a precarious society. Nothing in the movie will be that shocking or startling, because anyone who cares already knows what happens. I imagine most people's experience of watching Watchmen as being more like ticking stuff from the graphic novel off a mental checklist. One of the great things about Knight was that, even with all the spoilers I'd read, I still had no clue where the sequence with two boats and two detonators was going.

The movie: Wolverine.
Why it could be Knight-ed: It's another dark superhero-ish story that has connections to real-life issues like the War On Terror, thanks to a storyline about young Wolverine joining the military. Plus it includes creepy experiments and stuff, and Wolverine has to face Sabretooth, who's like his dark reflection. And it sounds as though Wolverine's girlfriend probably dies toward the end, if they're following the comics.
Why it could fall short: It's going to be as dumb as X-Men 3. We're already hearing whispers that Fox, the studio that messed up I, Robot, X-Men 3 and so many other movies, has been meddling with Wolverine as well, trying to make it less dark. Plus any actual character development or story has to make room for 1,000 cameos of X-favorites.

The movie: Green Hornet, directed by Stephen Chow and starring Chow and Seth Rogen.
Why it could be Knight-ed: Well, it's another movie that deconstructs the superhero mythos, using a hero who's sort of like Batman: a rich guy who fights crime in a mask. It'll feature a superhero (the Hornet) who's less famous than his sidekick (Kato, played by Bruce Lee in the 1960s).
Why it could fall short: Well, it's a comedy, so it probably won't be that dark. Rogen's co-writing the script, which means it could have some self-conscious superhero humor but it could also be a bit painful.

The movie: Green Lantern
Why it could be Knight-ed: Every DC Comics movie from now on is going to try and be like The Dark Knight. This one sounds like it'll be home run, in any case: a test pilot, struggling with his pain over the death of his father, gets a magic ring from space and gets thrust head-first into the battle against a superbeing named Legion, who's already killed several ring-wearers.
Why it could fall short: It's Green Lantern. It's supposed to be about the wish fulfillment of getting a ring that can do anything, wearing bright green spandex without looking like a doofus, and becoming the galaxy's greatest hero. And co-writer Marc Guggenheim already said it won't be a "dark" superhero movie.

The movies: A whole slate of Marvel comics vehicles, including Captain America, Iron Man II and The Avengers.
Why they could be Knight-ed: With Iron Man, Marvel proved it could make its second-tier characters fun and relatable, by giving them conflicts that connected them to the real world, like Tony Stark's weapons being used by the bad guys in Afghanistan.
Why it could fall short: None of these characters is really that dark, nihilistic or urban. If Marvel tries to make Captain America or the Avengers too much like Dark Knight, they'll just end up with a mess. Want a Marvel version of TDK? Make a new Daredevil movie. He's the other urban vigilante character that Frank Miller revitalized in the 1980s, and his best storylines are very Nolan-esque.

The movie: Superman: The Man Of Steel
Why it could be Knight-ed: See above, with Green Lantern. Warners wants all the DC Comics projects to be like its biggest hit. Warners execs have already suggested the next Super-film will be as dark as the character can get.
Why it could fall short: Come on, it's Superman. He wears bright colors because he's the most optimistic superhero. And the last Superman film, Superman Returns, was underwhelming in large measure because it was kinda dark.

The movie: Kick-Ass, based on the comic by Mark "Wanted" Millar
Why it could be Knight-ed: Wanted brought a kinetic, trippy action movie sensibility to the story of a super-assassin. More importantly, it was crammed with morally gray, self-centered characters and had a stark will-to-power sort of message. Kick-Ass, the saga of a wannabe superhero and a little girl who goes around hacking people to bits, looks like it'll be even more violent and nihilistic.
Why it could fall short: It's gritty, violent and amoral — but will it actually make you think, after you're done watching people get splattered? I'm not convinced there's a point to Kick-Ass, any more than there was to Wanted. (Other than, "People suck, and it's cool to be the baddest.")

The movie: Super-Max, aka Green Arrow
Why it could be Knight-ed: The pet project of David S. Goyer, who cowrote the two Nolan Bat-films. This is the story of a superhero, Green Arrow, who gets accused of a crime he didn't commit. And he gets locked into a super-prison that's chock full of supervillains who want him dead. He doesn't have his gear, and he has no special abilities without it. And he has to break out of this high-tech super-prison, teaming up with criminals along the way.
Why it could fall short: It could fail to get made for some reason. They could cast Hayden Christensen as Green Arrow. There could be an invasion of space monkeys that enslave us and force us to pick their nits.
Ding ding ding! I think we have a winner. If you're judging upcoming superhero films by the Dark Knight yardstick, the most promising of the bunch (apart from the hypothetical third Bat-Nolan outing) is Super-Max.

While I still, admittedly, find it hard to care about Green Arrow that much, there was still some fun to be had in last night's archer-centric episode... especially when it comes to the show's fascinating attitude towards science. It wasn't just the idea that putting bags of ice on top of the poisoned and in-coma Oliver Queen would somehow do anything for him, but also Clark's outburst upon noticing that Chloe could read computer screens at lightning speed: "Chloe, you're getting smarter!" as if it were the worst thing in the world. Way to be supportive, Kal-El.

It helped that even Smallville's own writers seemed to find Green Arrow's origin as dull as I did, fast-forwarding through the whole shipwrecked-on-a-desert-island-so-that-he-had-to-become-the-world's-greatest-archer-in-order-to-kill-animals-and-eat schtick in fade-in minutes in order to get to a retread of Dennis Quaid vehicle D.O.A. that proved just how small Clark Kent's world really is — His best buddy Ollie and new boss Tess Mercer were on that island together! And now they're estranged lovers! Or something (At this point, I'm convinced that the only reason that we've not met Batman in this show yet is because there's no Bruce Wayne in the Smallverse). This being the Junior Superman show, everything ended well, even though Ollie ended up drunk, complaining about mosquitos and dropping accidental Lost references; Tess even won her Eeeevil stripes by killing the bad guy in a way that would've made dear departed Lex proud.

Same as last week, the real fun of the week came from the subplots and the shoutouts to the show's fanbase ("I'd rather avoid a ride on the Clark and Lana rollercoaster," Lois said at one point, prompting cheers from the show's seven-year faithful who know exactly how she feels). Chloe's becoming Brainiac (Possibly)! Davis has a secret side (Definitely)! Tess outright acknowledges her mysterious past and the awkwardness of her sudden arrival (Making us wonder where the hell they're going with this)! It's these strange knowing winks at the audiences that redeem whatever insults the show throws at us, acknowledgement that we're not only not stupid but also in on the joke, that Heroes should learn to start tossing out once in awhile... Because, if I can see a trailer for something as dopey as next week's Maxima episode looks and think "That could be fun," they've got to be doing something right.

With Dark Horse and, surprisingly, Marvel pretty much phoning it in in terms of their major releases this week (The HC version of Stephen King adaptation Dark Tower: The Long Road Home and a rescheduled hardcover collection of Orson Scott Card's second Ultimate Iron Man series being Marvel's two exceptions), it falls to DC to pick up the slack... only they're having an equally quiet week: If you're not interested in the hardcover collection of shenanigans surrounding superhero marriage in Green Arrow/Black Canary's Wedding Album, Justice League origin Vixen: Return Of The Lion or virtual reality leading to wholescale destruction in Wildstorm's Number Of The Beast, then you're almost out of luck... but I'll keep DC's must-have book of the week until later.

Image Comics keep the interest flag flying with the first issue of Zero G, a scifi whodunnit monster movie on paper, while Avatar offer up the first official issue of new Warren Ellis superhero series No Hero.

But the two picks of the week are IDW's paperback collection of Peter David's Star Trek: New Frontier comic, and the first issue of DC's Top 10 Season Two, Zander Cannon and Gene Ha's revisit of the Alan Moore series from a few years back that puts Hill Street Blues into a room with superheroes and sees what comes out afterwards — Witty, filled with pathos and beautifully illustrated, it easily dominates the slow week (and would, to be fair, do so on a busy week as well). Add it to your shopping list immediately.

While you're adding things to lists, you can find a complete list of this week's new comic releases here to see what else you might want to think about, and then use the Comic Shop Locator Service to find out where your closest local store may be. Just... stay away from the financial news for awhile, okay?

Picking up from last season's cliffhanger, we get Clark and Lex missing and everyone looking for them - apart from Lois, who's looking for the equally missing Chloe by pretending to be a French Maid and dusting Lex's mansion. Is there any reason for this beyond the visual pleasure of Lois in a French Maid's outfit? Of course not, but reason has never been high on Smallville's agenda, something that's especially true in this episode that runs through plot so quickly that it makes Heroes look like the second season of Lost.

In a way, you have to admire the way in which the show speeds through resolving all of the cliffhangers (Clark's trapped in a Russian work camp! Even though you never really learn how he got there! And then he's rescued by Green Arrow! Even though you never really learn how he found Clark! And then they rescue Chloe, who now has a magical supercomputer brain, and Clark dies before coming back to life with all his powers back! And then everyone moves to Metropolis!) and concentrates on setting up a new status quo as quickly as possible. The show may have some of the same problems as before - like, you know, appearing to have been plotted by a hyperactive five year old (Seriously, what was with the sudden appearance of mind control juice? And why did no-one seem that bothered about it afterwards?) - but there's something oddly refreshing about the way that the characters seem to suddenly be aware of the show's failings - Hello, new character Tess Mercer's snark about Lois liking to play dress-up, or Clark realizing that there's no reason for him to stay in Smallville anymore, and hasn't been for about a year now - and at least give the appearance of moving on.

While I'm unconvinced that this year will necessarily get the creative bump that it needs - especially given the generic teaser for next week's episode, which looks like we're immediately right back to Freak of The Week plots - I'll admit that the last scene of Clark and Lois attempting some witty workplace banter felt a lot fresher than the show has for a couple of years. More of that and less of Chloe's weak The Matrix rip-off, and it might even be worth watching on a regular basis again.

Terminator Salvation:

UGO has a roundup of Terminator Salvation spoilers, most of which we've already touched on at some point. A few details that jump out at me: T4 will be about the development of the Model 101 Terminator, which looks like Arnie. The T-600s, the ancestors of Arnie's T-800 model, are like Soviet tanks. And it's rumored there will be some Terminators with human brains inside them. [UGO]

Death Race:

Why does Joan Allen's evil prison warden organize a "Death Race" as a spectator sport? Because prisons have all become privately owned corporations, and they're all geared to make money. She's a sort of high-powered CEO type. [Sci Fi Wire]

Super Max:

The movie about superhero Green Arrow inside a supervillain prison features a prison building that's almost a character in its own right, says writer Justin Marks. As you'd expect, the prison has all sorts of special features to contain the super-powered baddies locked up there, such as a cell that can neutralize Icicle's freezing powers. "So to escape from Super Max they have got to go through the most elaborate heist we've ever seen, involving superpowers. Because the prison itself kind of has superpowers!" says Marks. Also, Green Arrow's squeeze Black Canary isn't in the film at this point, but Marks hopes she'll be written in. [MTV via Comic Book Resources]

Game:

So not only does a teenager control Gerard Butler in Game, but the teen doesn't realize that Butler is a real person, a death-row prisoner who's forced to compete in deadly sports. The teen thinks Butler is just a sim character. But somehow, Butler still manages to use his incredible fighting skills to escape the Slayers game and bring down its creator, Ken Castle. [CinemaBlend]

Lost:

Lost season five has already started filming... and the show has been needing Spanish-speaking extras. [Spoilers Lost]

Heroes:

Adam aka Takezo Kensei gets dug up in episode four of the new Heroes season, and he's pissed. Ando, Hiro and the Haitian have one scene together early on in the season that will have you in a fit of giggles. (Really.) And as we've mentioned, William Katt plays a reporter who harrasses Ali Larter's character about her past as a webcam girl, which she's not aware of. [E! Online]

BuddyTV visited the Heroes set during the filming of episode six, and found Ali Larter in a car with Adrian Pasdar. Hiro is shining his sword in a magic shop for some reason, and he makes an Anakin Skywalker reference. Hiro stabs someone in the fifth episode of the season, and it's "not who you'd think." Also, Adrian Pasdar (Nathan) says it's not just about choosing between good and evil, but also between mom and dad. [BuddyTV]

And here's a preview video, that contains revelations such as "this season will be slam-packed with excitement." [Heroes The Series]

Knight Rider:

Just because I know you guys love it when we post Knight Rider stuff, here's another new video, which shows a way better look at KITT's Turbo Boost. [Knight Rider Online]

Chuck:

And speaking of upcoming NBC shows about dweebs who interface with technology, here's another Chuck promo. [Spoiler TV]

Also, apparently the mysterious guy in the Fed-Ex uniform has two targets: Chuck and Sarah. [TV Guide]

And in the Awesomes' wedding episode, Father Awesome offers to walk Ellie down the aisle because her own father isn't around, but this just freaks her out. [E! Online]

Battlestar Galactica:

Was it clear to you from watching BSG's midseason finale that the supposed Earth the fleet found had been destroyed in a nuclear holocaust? Well, apparently that was what had happened. Also, there is still some doubt as to whether it's really Earth, despite everything we've been told. [TV Guide]

Eureka:

So S.A.R.A.H., the smart house on Eureka, has her own Twitter feed. And today, she happened to mention that someone on the show is pregnant. Pressed for details, she clammed up. [Gin200168]

Warners' slow projections for 2009 have already upset fans of the Harry Potter books by pushing the release of the latest movie back from November of this year to next summer, but that's just the beginning of the studio's worries, according to the trade paper. And, as has previously been reported, Warners is looking in the direction of their comic book division for a solution:

Warner Bros. is looking for DC Comics to produce more movies.

The Time Warner comic-book arm is sitting on a stable of well-known superhero properties like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and the Justice League, but has been slow to develop the bigscreen adventures.

Getting the movies made would involve many of Warner Bros.' other divisions — including TV, homevid, consumer products, online and vidgames — that would create tie-in projects for release around the films.

"They need a lot of lead time and it all needs to be choreographed," [WB President of Production, Jeff] Robinov says.

Given the success of Marvel's Iron Man and Incredible Hulk in addition to Warner's own Dark Knight, this shouldn't come as a big surprise; after all, we already know about the planned Green Lantern movie as well as the franchise-building Green Arrow: Escape From Super Max. But with rumors persisting that the Justice League movie has been sacrificed to appease Chris Nolan and God knows what happening to the Superman movies, it looks like it'll be later than 2010 before Warners get their own superhero stable in shape, especially when they make statements like "We're going to make a Justice League movie, whether it's now or 10 years from now. But we're not going to do it and Warners is not going to do it until we know it's right.". Of course, until then, there's always the cartoons...

WB's hero hunt heats up [Variety]

The movie's writer, Justin Marks, was more than happy to share the names of some of the bad guys that will be appearing in the movie that currently calls itself Green Arrow: Escape From Super Max, and they'll not only include the Riddler, but also Green Lantern villain The Icicle, Superman's Lex Luthor and even an in-name-only cameo from the Joker, amongst many others. And the point of bringing all these villains together? To create a movie universe for DC's characters just like Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk have done for Marvel:

What we wanted to do, and I think we'll continue to do as the studio continues to push the movie forward, is to be able to [put Queen] in the center of a much bigger universe... In the same way that Marvel is starting to do, when you're in the [filmed] DC Universe [where] this world and this world and this world — they all exist in an interrelated web.

Does this mean that we may see a crossover between the Green Lantern movie and Super Max? That a sequel to The Dark Knight might include cameos from Brandon Routh's Man of Steel? Time - and the potential tanking of future Marvel movies like Thor and Captain America, which might scare off Warners from this plan - will tell.

Green Arrow to "Escape from Super Max" [MTV Movies]

Besides the Justice gang, Souders also confirmed the return of Cyborg from the Teen Titans. Will he be a new addition to DC's Super Friends?

Souders also spilled what we've all been been expecting since featured characters have been jumping off the Smallville Titanic one after the other: this season will focus on the relationship between Lois and Clark. Clark gets a job at the Daily Planet (which was hinted at in the season finale). "The camaraderie as they work side-by-side that everyone loves from the DC Comics and all the Superman lore is going to come to fruition this year," Souders told TV Guide. "The two of them are thrown together in some unfortunate situations for Clark. She becomes a little bit of an obstacle to him saving the world, when he's on a deadline."

Sounds like a predictable year. Let's hope they switch things up and let Doomsday murder the doe-eyed Clark Kent and then have his way with feisty Lois.

[TV Guide]

Latino Review was first to get an insider's look at the script. In Super Max, Green Arrow gets framed for murder, stripped of his super identity and imprisoned as just plain Oliver Queen, in the Super Max Penitentiary For Metahumans. He will be incarcerated with many of the hardened criminals that he helped put behind bars.

So what is the prison like? Latino Review got a quick look at the first part of the script and an report that Super Max is constantly changing its size and shape. Apparently it changes every night to disorient the prisoners. All of the prisoners are separated into groups: mortals, metas and geniuses. There is another group of criminals that are in permanent isolation.

Latino Review also spills that the prison is filled with tons of classic DC Comics villains, including the Joker, the Riddler, Lex Luthor, Blockbuster, Shock Trauma, Gemini, Icicle, Split, Djinn, Tattooed Man, Multiplex, Cascade, Merlyn, Floronic Man, Count Vertigo, Calculator, Iron Cross, Heatmonger, Pied Piper, and Backlash.

Queen has to work with some of these villains to escape from the prison so he can prove his innocence. Rumor has it Matt Damon is in talks take the star role as Oliver Queen. [Latino Review]

Even though I thought I was joking when I said that the tease "Superman Red or Superman Blue" was about Clark Kent's political affiliation, it turns out that I was 100% right, according to DC's Executive Editor, Dan DiDio:

We're entering a very interesting election year this year, and what I think is important about it is that it's that there's this excitement - a sense of "building"...there's change in the air in regards to the whole political process that's at play in the United States. What we want to do is tap into that emotion, and tell a story that plays in the DC Universe with our characters, while using the political backdrop we're seeing now to help to define our characters better... For the first time, we'll be having our characters make true political stands in regards to their leanings, as well as what motivates them to be heroes, and what they believe is necessary for their world and their country to move in the direction they believe to be the right one.

This is not about the actual candidates. Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton and John McCain do not appear in this comic [laughs]. These are candidates that represent particular political beliefs, and it's more about why the heroes are motivated or respond to particular candidates themselves, or the platforms of particular candidates.

The biweekly series launches in September.

Dan DiDio on DCU: Decisions

We at the io9 Space Station debated the reason why there are so many elongated countdowns in scifi. Here are a few possible theories:

1) When your ship is traveling faster than light, time appears to be moving more slowly to a stationary observer (such as the audience.)
2) Similarly, if you're traveling through time, or there's some element of time-distortion going on, it's entirely possible that two or three of our seconds could equal just one second in our heroes' continuum.
3) Every alien planet will have a day that's much longer, or shorter, than our Earth days. And if your home planet's "day" lasts 40 Earth hours, then you might evolve a clock that moves quite a bit more slowly than our Earth clocks. And who's to say whether the spaceships of the future operate according to Earth time, or Rigelian time? Eh?

So without further ado, here are some examples of the "extra Mississippi" phenomenon in scifi:

Star Trek:

I feel like there are about a hundred countdowns in Trek that last way, way longer than they're supposed to. Here's one of them. I acutally timed it — the computer says there are 25 seconds left before the ship blows up. And then 25 seconds later, Kirk is still giving his chest-thumping speech about how nothing can stop the countdown except him. (Blame Shatner's trademark mid-sentence pauses.) A few seconds after the ship should already have blown up, the computer starts its ten-second countdown. (To be fair, this could be a feature deliberately built into Federation self-destruct sequences, given how often captains use them to bluff their way out of a jam.)

Doctor Who:

Here's the exciting climax from the Doctor's first ever encounter with the Daleks, who are like mutated Nazis in mini-tanks. The Daleks are going to launch some kind of neutron bomb that will kill off everybody who's not them, and give them the nice shiny radiation that they've gotten used to. So the Doctor and his friends launch a desperate last minute attack, as the countdown ticks down to zero... but it all just takes a little too long. The countdown reaches "4" and the guy waiting patiently in the background still hasn't swung down on his rope. Not to mention the Daleks still haven't been defeated, and there's a lot of pre-choreographed mayhem still to go. In those days, Doctor Who was recorded in one take, with little chance for retakes. So obviously somebody decided to just let the countdown stop, and let the last battle take as long as it needs to. You can't rush an apocalyptic final battle between humans and machine-creatures. You just can't.

Green Lantern/Green Arrow:

When Green Lantern and Green Arrow first teamed up, based on their color schemes matching so well, their comic was all about the mismatched duo traveling around and discovering America. It was one long civics lesson, about racial injustice and smack being bad for you. But low sales drove writer Denny O'Neill to reinvent it as a crazy space-opera, where Green Lantern fights aliens with his self-righteous buddy Green Arrow along for the ride. In this sequence, Green Arrow decides he can survive in the vacuum of space for ten seconds... which is enough time for him to jump from ship to ship, get inside the other ship's airlock, make himself some lunch, and invent a whole new space dance:

Spaceballs:

Watching this scene, I feel as though Spaceballs wasn't even trying to be taken seriously or something. I mean, what is up with this final self-destruct countdown? First the computer says it'll take two minutes and 45 seconds, and some three minutes later Mel Brooks is still goofing around. And then the computer skips the number 7 and goes straight to six — and has time to make a joke about it and restart the countdown at 6. And then when it reaches zero, it still pauses to wish the soon-to-be-incinerated people a nice day. At least it's a suicidal computer with manners. But seriously, it's almost as though they were mocking the genre conventions or something.

The Fifth Element:

This one doesn't take any longer than it's supposed to, but it's still a tad unrealistic to evacuate an entire huge pleasure ship in five minutes — and it actually only seems to take three minutes, since everyone's gone by the two-minute mark. And you can watch that awesome sequence here.

More interestingly, DC are also releasing the collected edition of Faker, which deals with that college-age dilemma that we've all gone through at one point or another: "What if one of my friends isn't actually real, but instead a physical manifestation of the collective subconsciousness of my social circle?" Written by Lucifer's Mike Carey with lovely scratchy art by The Losers' and Judge Dredd's Jock, consider it the pick of a crop of DC trade paperbacks that also include the highly enjoyable second volume of 1950s sci-fi tales known as Showcase Presents: The Legion of Super-Heroes, future dystopian superhero hijinks in Wildstorm: Armageddon and Robin Hood-inspired archery in Green Arrow: Year One.

(If you're not picking up the expensive books tomorrow but have a hankering for some alternate world superheroics, DC/Wildstorm: Dream War #1 takes the superheroes-fighting-each-other trope and adds in a boost of "dream logic," which will be coming to a Jamba Juice near you soon.)

For those of you who are looking for some Iron Man action, Robert Downey Jr.'s latest meal-ticket can be found in no less than eight separate titles this week (and maybe more; is Shellhead still appearing in Avengers: The Initiative?). But the two that you really want to look for are Iron Man: Legacy of Doom #1 — which sees Iron Man fighting Doctor Doom for the title of "Biggest Asshole In Armor 2008" - and The Invincible Iron Man Omnibus, a 720-page hardcover collecting the first fifty-one stories of Tony Stark's career from the days when men were men, women were ornaments and communists were undermining life itself with their every breath.

As usual, it falls to other publishers to come up with the truly unmissable goods this week, and I'm not talking about the return of Captain Action — the 1960s action figure who could transform himself into various superheroes including Batman and the Lone Ranger — in Captain Action #0. (Although, really? It looks like fun.) I'm also not talking about Boom! Studios' new Lovecraft-inspired anthology, Cthulhu Tales. No, I'm talking about the much-delayed (by more than three years) American Flagg hardcover, reprinting Howard Chaykin's 1980s SF satire for an audience who have probably never read anything like it ever before — Brash, bold, sex-crazed (Well, it is Chaykin) and shot through with Reagan-era politics, Flagg is a great clash of old school, the origins of new school, and some crazy graphic design tricks that no-one else would dare do these days. It's 2032, and out-of-work TV host Reuben Flagg emigrates from Mars to Chicago, joining the Plexus Rangers, who enforce the law in the corrupt dystopian city. Highly recommended if you can come up with the $80 for the hardcover.

For everyone else, why not take a look at what else you could buy instead, and then find out where to buy it. Or, alternatively, rob a bank so that the American Flagg book could be yours after all. Your choice...