This week sees the release of Fall Of The Hulks: Alpha, the first chapter in a story promising some level of closure to storyarcs that have stretch back to 2006 and, with any luck, thinning the Hulk Herd just a little. Because, yes, there are now seven different Hulks co-existing in the Marvel Universe, and that seems like at least five too many. We've come up with a scorecard for the Hulks of various colors, just to make it easier for you to jump onboard Marvel's latest big event.

The Originals
Bruce Banner and Jennifer Walters, these are your lives.
The Reds
Bruce Banner and Jennifer Walters, these are your potentially evil dopplegangers.
The Bastards
Bruce Banner, these are your children. Jen, you're off the hook for this one.

Fall Of The Hulks: Alpha is released on Thursday.

As the Hulk's son, he has the same enhanced strength and healing power as his dad, but is into tattoos and bad rock music.

Lyra
The result of the Hulk's DNA being stolen by a time-traveling feminist who came from a future where no man was worthy to father her child and sabotage had left technology unable to propagate the human race - I promise, I am not making this up - Lyra has returned to the present day to assure the future of her kind, Terminator-style, by breeding with Norman Osborn. Understandably, she realized that wasn't really something she wanted to do, but decided to stick around in this timezone to fight crime and find some other way to keep the future (and her past) safe.

Unlike her father, Lyra actually gets weaker as she gets angrier, as the result of genetic manipulation by her mother's race, the Femizons. Yes, the Femizons. I refer you to the part about me not making this up.

Hiro-Kala
After Skaar had left to go to Earth, Hiro-Kala was revealed to be the other Son of Hulk. Raised unaware of his parentage and as a slave, Hiro-Kala inherited his mother's powers, and has revealed himself to be an able and more-than-a-little-ruthless little bastard; he managed to avenge Galactus' destruction of his home world by tricking him into eating another planet that he'd "poisoned". Sure, destroying an innocent civilization and planet for revenge may seem extreme, but it got the job done.

As opposed to all of the other Hulks, Hiro-Kala isn't on Earth right now - which is probably good, or else he might poison here as well - and hasn't met any of the rest of his family yet.

We're not sure whether or not the Red Hulk has some large plan behind all of his actions, or whether it's just unsubtle writing, but so far we've seen the character kill two long-standing Hulk foes (The Abomination and the Wendigo, AKA the character that Wolverine fought in his first appearance - A moment of silence, please) and cause an earthquake in San Francisco, before joining up with various time-tossed supervillains in order to prevent the Hulk from finding true love. That's right, he's definitely evil. We just don't know why.

Red She-Hulk
If little is known about the Red Hulk, even less is known about the Red She-Hulk, other than the fact that she has similar powers to her male counterpart, and may or may not be the original She-Hulk, former X-Men spin-off character Domino or even former Daredevil spin-off character Elektra in a new radioactive form.

After a particularly destructive rampage, a collection of Marvel's superheroes decided that everyone would be happier if the Hulk was sent to a nice alien planet where he could do whatever he wanted without hurting anyone. Of course, things didn't go plan, and he ended up on a planet filled with enslaved aliens that he helped free, becoming that planet's ruler and, in the process, falling in love with Caiera, who becomes his bride before being killed by the explosion of the spaceship that brought him to the planet. (All of this is from the Planet Hulk storyline, soon to be a DVD animated movie:

In many ways, that trailer hits the highpoints of the story.)

Following the death of his wife, the Hulk got together with a bunch of freed slaves and returned to Earth to punish the heroes who'd sent him to space in the first place, blaming them for the explosion and Caiera's demise. After fighting a lot of superheroes and turning New York's underground into a modern Gladiatorial battle between Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic, it was revealed that it was one of the slaves who'd caused the explosion - He was worried that a happy Hulk was a soft Hulk, and so wanted to make him mad. Never a good move with the Hulk - and the Hulk pretty much let himself get defeated, turning back into Bruce Banner and being contained by the US military (This was World War Hulk).

He was released from captivity to fight the Red Hulk, but ended up having all the gamma radiation in his body drained by his crimson counterpart, meaning that he was stuck as Bruce Banner forever... Or, at least, for a couple of months; while Incredible Hulk #600 made the "Bruce Banner forever" claim in July 2009, it only took until October for Banner to get re-irradiated for future Hulk adventures.

She-Hulk
Jennifer Walters became a Hulk when she had an emergency blood transfusion from her cousin Bruce Banner. Unlike her cousin, though, she's had no history of mental illness, and so keeps the same personality when she hulks out, meaning that she's the respectable member of the family. That probably explains why she's been a member of so many superteams, including the Fantastic Four, Avengers and Defenders.

Currently, she's missing, following an explosion. The Red She-Hulk has claimed that she's dead, but, come on. It's comics. That never works.

When a creator invents a fairly consistent set of rules, images, and characters in his or her fiction, often they get referred to collectively as a "mythos" (like the Cthulhu Mythos) or a "verse" (like the Whedonverse). Kelly has said explicitly that there are interconnected ideas underpinning his cult hit Donnie Darko, weirdo political epic Southland Tales, and forthcoming movie The Box (opening tomorrow). Kelly's movies are deliberately crafted to remain open to many interpretations. But there are a few consistent themes that form the shadowy pillars of what I've come to think of as the Darko Mythos.

time travel

In Donnie Darko, the half-mad protagonist Donnie is given a book called The Philosophy of Time Travel by one of his teachers. Reading it, he realizes that he's accidentally entered a "tangent universe" created by a rift or portal in space-time. Tangent universes diverge from reality very dramatically, are extremely unstable, and eventually come to an abrupt end. It appears that Donnie may have entered the tangent universe when a jet engine crashes into his bedroom while he's out sleepwalking with shady figure in a bunny suit named Frank (who turns out to be a figure from Donnie's future). Donnie lives in the tangent universe for a month, then travels back in time to the moment when the jet engine crashes into his room - only this time, he's in the bed. His death allows several other characters to live, and it's possible that they remember the tangent universe in dreams.

Critics have suggested that Southland Tales may also be set in a tangent universe, because the graphic novels accompanying the film describe several of the characters traveling through space-time rifts. The movie begins with two characters, Roland and Boxer, driving through a rift and traveling back in time for an hour. Southland Tales also tells the story of an alternate United States which has been attacked with nukes and hit by an energy crisis nearly as dire as peak oil. It's possible this entire vision of the United States is a tangent universe, which is destroyed at the end of the movie when the twins Ronald and Roland Tavener rise above Los Angeles in a floating ice cream truck and touch their hands together.

Time travel, in the Darko Mythos, is associated with relatively short-lived, parallel worlds headed for an apocalypse.

water flows through everyone and everything

As Kelly told us earlier today, he includes a lot of water imagery in his work because he thinks it represents a force that connects humans with each other and the water-logged Earth itself. In Donnie Darko, many of the characters (including Donnie) sprout long, watery tentacles that emerge from their chests. These watery appendages are connected with the way people move through time, and they are sometimes depicted as tunnels. You could call them souls, or simply a representation of the water that every human - no matter how despised or despicable - carries within them.

Water plays a role in Southland Tales as well. A crazed inventor at the Treer Corporation has created something called "fluid karma" that uses quantum particles to generate energy. It's touted as a replacement for oil, but also seems to be causing rifts in space-time.

Look out for water symbolism in The Box, too. A very strong theme in the Darko Mythos is that all human beings are connected. Every death leads to someone else's survival, and every crime is counterbalanced by an act of (sometimes bizarre) justice. People transform each other's lives across time and vast distances without realizing it.

mirror worlds

One of the iconic moments in Donnie Darko is when Donnie looks into the mirror and sees Frank in his bunny suit. There are several scenes where we look out of the mirror into Donnie's face, and watch him pounding against the mirror with his fists or a knife as the surface of the mirror ripples like water. In Southland Tales, the mirroring is even more bizarre. Two of the main characters are twins (or possibly just alternate versions of the same guy) named Ronald and Roland Tavener. Meanwhile, a character named Boxer (played by Dwayne "Rock" Johnson) has traveled back in time via a tangent universe, but his original self has died (which you see in this image of him looking at his own dead body).

In a world riddled with alternate universes, where everybody is connected, it's no surprise that doubling is a major aspect of the Darko Mythos. The mirror represents another version of the self, or perhaps just an imperfect way of looking at yourself. Either way, mirrors in the Darko Mythos remind us that we can never truly know ourselves. Even when we stare right into our faces, we see something mysterious.

apocalypse and redemption

The Darko Mythos possesses what you might call an agnostic form of Christianity. The trajectory of tangent universes seems to be an apocalypse that also inspires redemption: One of the notable aspects of Donnie Darko is that nearly every character is redeemed in some way, partly as a result of Donnie's actions. Even the seemingly-evil bunny Frank finds redemption in the end, when we discover that he's just a regular kid whose death in the tangent universe has turned him into one of the "manipulated dead."

Southland Tales is in some ways a retelling of the Book of Revelation from the New Testament, so it's packed with Christian imagery. But it's also full of psychic porn stars and sympathetic neo-Marxists, who seem to have claims to truth that are equal to the claims of the Bible. I'm going out on a limb here, but I'd venture to say that Kelly's view of redemption is a surreal blend of Christian spiritual love, carnal connection, and Marxist social justice. There is never any specific "God" in Kelly's work, but characters find something akin to godliness when they see and acknowledge their primal connection to other people.

Holiness and redemption in the Darko Mythos often involve a character or characters sacrificing themselves to save other people or to make the world a better place. These are not sacrifices to appease a Christian God, but rather to affirm the connectedness of all humanity. These are sacrifices even a neo-Marxist could get behind, because they aren't about going to heaven, but instead preserving the physical, carnal, human world.

military industrial entertainment complex

Southland Tales is about what happens to the United States when Republicans expand the USA-Patriot Act massively in the wake of nuclear attacks, and then institute a special surveillance agency called USIDent. It's also about how Hollywood movies and reality shows on the internet have intermingled to create a giant war of propaganda and counter-propaganda fought entirely on screen. At the same time, there are hints of government experiments with space-time that may have led to the surreal world of the movie itself, where neo-Marxists and internet porn stars are trying to subvert the surveillance state.

In Donnie Darko, the fate of the tangent universe hinges on a massive airplane engine that travels through time and eventually crushes Donnie. Even though his characters wade through mirrors and erupt with time-traveling spiritual essences, Kelly's Darko Mythos is packed with images drawn from the world of industrial technology.

You can expect to see more of this in The Box, whose main characters are part of the NASA Langley Research Center community. (In fact, The Box has a Space Age era origin in a Richard Matheson short story called "Button, Button" published in 1970.)

The Darko Mythos is also saturated with entertainment technology, from movies to the Web. During one of the pivotal moments in Donnie Darko, Frank opens a portal in a movie screen where Evil Dead is playing, and we see time/water swirling around in the center of an image from Sam Raimi's classic horror movie. One of the main characters in Southland Tales, internet porn reality star Krysta has developed precognition and written about the future of the world in a weird screenplay called "The Power," which is about a porn star trying to save the world (this subplot is mostly in the graphic novels associated with Southland Tales, not in the movie).

Ultimately the Darko Mythos is exploring mysticism in a world ruled by industry and the pseudo-rationalism of high tech propaganda. His characters, through excursions into madness and horror, always discover that beneath the trappings of modern life there lurks a primal spirit that connects all of us - across time and between mirror universes. It's a spirit that flows like water through everyone, from pornographers and NASA engineers to Christians and snotty teenage girls in the Sparkle Motion dance troupe. It's even in you.

Salon's summary of Southland Tales helped me immeasurably in writing this.

Crucial Stories

There are so many terrific, iconic stories by HP Lovecraft that no introductory list could ever satisfy completely. But here are eight stories and novellas that will introduce you to the main concepts in Lovecraft's world, as well as exposing you to some of his obsessive preoccupations. You can read the full text of all of these stories at Project Gutenberg.

"At the Mountains of Madness"
The tale of an ill-fated expedition to the mountains of Antarctica, this story explains the ancient, alien history of Earth as well as giving us a glimpse of "the Old Ones," the "shoggoths," and some backstory on the "spawn of Cthulhu." When the expedition discovers an ancient, alien-built city buried beneath the ice, they also find out what led to that city's demise. And let's just say it had to do with giant, shambling, polymorphous beings. What's great about this story is that it explains how many of the spooky, seemingly-magical beasts we encounter in other stories actually have an extraterrestrial (or biotechnological) origin.

"Call of Cthulhu"
While it may not be the very best of Lovecraft's stories, this tale introduces his most legendary monster and the madness it can bring upon the world. Just one glimpse of the tentacled visage of Cthulhu, and the non-Euclidean geometry of his city, is enough to turn an entire boat of tough sailors into shattered husks.

"Shadow Over Innsmouth"
One of my personal favorites in the Lovecraft canon, this story is also one of the more thoughtful, character-driven pieces that Lovecraft ever wrote. It's the tale of an antiquarian who comes across a forgotten, decaying New England town filled with oddly-mutated people who worship a strange deity called Dagon. Here we see Lovecraft dealing with an issue that preoccupies him in many stories - the terrifying and seductive results of a carnal intermingling between alien monsters and humans. Our hero is at first repulsed, then fascinated, by a town whose alliance with Cthulhu's spawn has resulted in a strange (and possibly beautiful) hybrid culture.

"Dunwich Horror"
Here Lovecraft delves deeply into the power of a mystical book he mentions in several stories, the Necronomicon by the "mad Arab Abdul Alhazred." A young antiquarian seeks the mysterious book at Miskatonic University (another favorite fictional institution of Lovecraft's), and then discovers that it holds a key to stopping a terrible force growing inside the barn of a local farmhouse.

"The Colour Out of Space"
One of Lovecraft's most straightforwardly science fictional stories, about a meteorite whose color begins to colonize everything around itself.

"The Case of Charles Dexter Ward"
Sometimes called Lovecraft's only novel, this story is really more of a novella. It is also, like "Innsmouth," a revealing character study as much as it is a tale of historical terror whose claws reach into present-day Providence, Rhode Island. Ward, a young antiquarian (yes, Lovecraft has a lot of these), becomes interested in the papers of his ancestor Curwen, a man who grew rich trading in mysterious items from overseas, as well as in the slave trade. Curwen also built a house outside town, atop a vast underground catacombs devoted to nefarious experiments with the undead. Slowly, Ward is consumed by his obsession with Curwen, eventually attempting a dangerous experiment that will allow him to communicate with this once-powerful wizard from beyond the grave. There are several autobiographical flourishes here too, as Lovecraft sets the story in places familiar to him in Rhode Island, as well as bringing in characters who resemble historical figures in Providence history. It's an incredible, must-read Lovecraft story, full of the historical details that he loved as well as an alternate history of the slave trade that involves spirits as well as people.

"The Horror at Red Hook"
This is Lovecraft's classic story of the ghoulish goings-on beneath the cosmopolitan streets of New York City, where the writer lived for a few years in an immigrant neighborhood known as Red Hook. Here you'll see Lovecraft's usual obsessions - the horror of miscegenation/hybrid cultures, ancient forces from prehistory - set in an urban landscape rarely glimpsed in his generally-rural tales.

"The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath"
This is another of Lovecraft's near-novels, and is a crucial part of the author's surreal "dream cycle" of stories that involve the swashbuckling dream hero Randolph Carter. Unlike Lovecraft's usual heroes, who tend to be nerdy antiquarians or shivering half-monsters, Carter knows how to use a sword and trick the gods. In this adventuresome tale, we follow Carter through the dream world, from a city of cats (Lovecraft was very fond of these furry creatures), all the way to the Moon where a god of space (an "outer god") known as Nyarlathotep or the Crawling Chaos tries to trick Carter into abandoning his quest to dwell one day in a perfect city he once dreamed about.


Crucial biographical details

Though his stories are fantastical, Howard Phillips Lovecraft often pulled bits of his real life into them. Raised in Providence, Rhode Island, at the turn of the twentieth century, Lovecraft was a sickly child who was passionate about both ancient history and astronomy. Some of his first writing is about astronomy, in fact. His fixation on history was related in part to his fascination with pure Nordic cultures, and he once described himself in an essay as a "chalk-white racist."

But he was also a bundle of contradictions. When Lovecraft became a young man, he began contributing to - and eventually editing - the premiere pulp science fiction/horror zine of his day, Weird Tales. Through the group of friends he made while contributing to Weird Tales, he met an independent businesswoman named Sonia Greene. A Jewish immigrant to New York City, she brought Lovecraft to the city and they eventually married. So despite Lovecraft's horror at miscegenation, and his protestations that he was a racist, the one romance of his short life was with a Jewish immigrant.

After their marriage deteriorated, Lovecraft returned to his hometown of Providence in the mid-1920s, where he wrote some of his very best stories. Though he was poor, he was happy living with his aunt in a large house, and often spent his days hiking around Providence and writing in the city's beautiful, light-filled library called The Atheneum. When his aunt died, and then his good friend Robert E. Howard (author of the Conan books and a Weird Tales contributor) committed suicide, he fell into what today we would probably call clinical depression. He grew steadily more destitute, ate poorly (he mainly consumed bread, candies and coffee), and his health declined. He died at the age of 47, in 1937, shortly after completing his novella "The Shadow Out of Time."

The definitive biography of H.P. Lovecraft is S.T. Joshi's H.P. Lovecraft: A Life.

Crucial literary connections

Two of Lovecraft's best friends and correspondents were Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith, both contributors to Weird Tales and famous pulp authors in their own rights. Howard's work is probably remembered more today, with the help of the Conan movies, but Smith's work is usually deemed of higher literary merit. Prime Books is about to issue a handsome collection of Smith's stories called The Return of the Sorcerer.

Another of Lovecraft's great friends and literary champions was the writer and editor August Derleth, who kept Lovecraft's work in print long after the writer had died. In fact, it is probably Derleth's editorial efforts we have to thank for Lovecraft's cult status today.

One of Lovecraft's greatest influences was the Irish fantasist Lord Dunsany, who wrote about faeries and dreams in a poetic style that finds its way into Lovecraft's work as well. Like Dunsany, Lovecraft wrote reams of poetry but is largely remembered for his fantastical stories.

Crucial adaptations of, and immersions in, Lovecraft's tales

There are so many amazing stories, comic books, and movies that have been influenced by Lovecraft - not always in a good way - that it would be impossible to list them all. But here are some standouts.

Dreams in the Witch House
This was Stuart Gordon's entry in the "Masters of Horror" series on TV, and it's a great, modern-day adaptation of the Lovecraft story. There is even a moment when we see some terrifying geometry that is, in fact, sort of terrifying. Gordon has adapted several other Lovecraft tales, some more faithfully than others. While Gordon's Re-Animator is a true cult classic, it shares almost nothing with the Lovecraft story that inspired it, other than the main character's name, Herbert West. Same goes for Gordon's film From Beyond, which was inspired by Lovecraft too.

Dagon
A truly great Stuart Gordon adaptation, however, is Dagon - based on the short story "Shadow Over Innsmouth." While some of the movie is by necessity campy - sorry, but there is just no way to represent the church of Dagon without some seriously goofy outfits - it captures the poignancy of the original story. The ending of this movie is possibly the most truly Lovecraftian moment I've ever seen committed to film. (See a NSFW clip from the movie here.)

The Resurrected
Based on "The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward," this horror movie is true to the original, but occasionally uneven in execution.

Call of Cthulhu (movie)
This silent film is set during the era when the story is supposed to take place - the mid-1920s. So the modern-day filmmakers have tried to create what they imagined a movie of the story would have looked like if it had been released at the same time as the short story itself. And they succeed incredibly well. This is retro-futurism at its finest, with gorgeous, expressionistic sets that look like something out of 20s horror classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Call of Cthulhu (RPG)
My favorite role-playing game ever, in which you can choose to be in a 1920s Lovecraftian scenario, or a contemporary one. Either way, you have to try to finish each quest without losing too many sanity points. Yes, the game has sanity points. Need I say more?

Hellboy (comics)
While the Hellboy comics created by Mike Mignola are not directly retelling any particular Lovecraft story, they are set in the world of the Lovecraft mythos. Several Lovecraftian monsters and wizards make appearances in Mignola's comics, and Mignola's illustrations are in my opinion the very best way to climb inside Lovecraft's crawly, dark imagination. (The image at the top of this post is a portrait of Lovecraft by Mignola.)

The Atrocity Archives
The first book in Charles Stross' Lovecraftian "Laundry series" of stories and novels, this set of stories takes us into a Lovecraftian world where a secret group called The Laundry deals with otherworldly phenomena and Nazis try to harness the powers of Cthulhu.

Evil Dead Trilogy
Sam Raimi's splatstick homage to Lovecraft begins with people who decide to mess around with a copy of the Necronomicon - and find out what it's like to do battle with the dead, from our dimension and others. The series begins with the movie Evil Dead, and ends with Army of Darkness.

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.

Fringe follows the FBI's Fringe Science Division — FBI Agent Olivia Dunham, fringe scientist Walter Bishop, Walter's son Peter Bishop, and lab assistant Astrid — as they investigate bizarre occurrences related to the fringes of current scientific knowledge. Last season left us with a bioterrorist group, an alternate dimension, and supersoldier program to prepare us for the looming interdimensional war:

The Pattern

The FBI's Fringe Science Division was set up to investigate the Pattern, a series of bizarre occurrences happening all over the world. From a contagion that causes a plane full of people to literally melt to children disappearing and then reappearing years later, apparently unaged, the Pattern has been described as a series of experiments where the whole world is the laboratory.

It becomes increasingly clear that the Pattern is linked to Zerstörung durch Fortschritte der Technologie ("Destruction through Technological Progress") better known as ZFT. More on them below.

Walter Bishop

Agent Olivia Dunham quickly links one incidence of the Pattern with Walter Bishop. Once a respected Harvard biochemist, Walter worked for the US government on developing "fringe" sciences — teleportation, genetic engineering, and the like. But after a lab accident killed one of his research assistants, Walter's ethics were called into question, and he was accused (rightly so) of experimenting on human test subjects. As a result, he spent several years in a psychiatric facility until he was liberated by Olivia and his estranged son Peter to investigate cases with the Fringe Science Division.

Many of the cases related to the Pattern involve Walter's research, but Walter walks about in a personal fog that leaves him often unable (or perhaps unwilling) to recall his exact connections to the cases — to the extent that he can't remember whether he authored the ZFT Manifesto.

ZFT and the Alternate Dimension

Bioterrorist group ZFT is responsible for many of the experiments the Fringe team investigates. ZFT's extensive network of scientists perform bizarre and often deadly experiments on other human beings — like infecting a woman with a form of vampiric syphilis or growing fast-aging humans. In addition to their biohacks, ZFT possesses some technologies developed by Walter Bishop, including a teleportation device.

But there's also a method behind ZFT's biological madness. ZFT members operate according to a manifesto that states two key things: there is another dimension more scientifically advanced than our own, and in the coming interdimensional war, only one dimension can survive. ZFT is out to create an army of biologically enhanced supersoldiers who will fight for our dimension in that war. But there's also a chapter missing from ZFT's manifesto — one that outlines ethics.

The face of ZFT has been David Robert Jones, a genetic weapons trafficker with an obsession with Olivia. Jones was bisected in the season finale when the gateway between dimensions closed on him, but we also learned there is an even more powerful figure behind ZFT: William Bell.

William Bell and Massive Dynamic

William Bell was Walter Bishop's lab partner back in their Harvard research days, helping him develop the fringe sciences. After Walter is sent to the psychiatric facility, Bell starts on a far more lucrative career path, founding "We Make Everything" conglomerate Massive Dynamic. His company, and its COO Nina Sharp, seem to have ties to the pattern, but little is known about Bell himself until the season finale, when it's revealed that he not only is funding ZFT, he authored the ZFT Manifesto and has been chilling out in the alternate universe.

Olivia's Supersoldier Powers

Agent Olivia Dunham soon discovers that Walter isn't the only one on the Fringe Team with shades of ZFT in their past. Before he was incarcerated, Walter experimented with a drug called Cortexiphan, giving the drug to children — Olivia among them. Olivia doesn't remember the experiments (perhaps because she was instructed to forget), but after an encounter with Jones, she begins to manifest strange abilities, including the power to switch off lightbulbs with her mind and glimpse the alternate dimension.

Peter's Extradimensional Origins

Peter Bishop's strained relationship with his father improved over the first season, but Walter's sitting on a secret that could destroy not only their relationship, but Peter as well. Walter has mentioned that Peter was deathly ill as a child, something Peter has no memory of, and mentions that he once traveled to the other dimension to retrieve something he had lost. In the season finale, it's revealed that our dimension's Peter died of his illness, meaning Peter himself must be from the other universe. One imagines that somewhere there is an alternate Walter Bishop who's pretty pissed off.

The Observer

Sitting in the background of every episode is the Observer, a bald fellow who watches the Fringe Team and their investigations. Very little is known about the Observer — he has little sense of taste, the ability to communicate telepathically, and a notebook where he records his observations. He's not alone in his mission, having contacted someone upon viewing a mysterious beacon, and he's apparently been watching Walter and Peter a long time. He saved the pair from falling through the ice when Peter was a boy.

The Cow

Gene the Cow is a permanent fixture of the Fringe lab. Walter has explained that cows are genetically similar to humans and frequently uses her as his bovine guinea pig. She hasn't shown any mysterious qualities yet, but this being Fringe, I wouldn't rule it out.

With its finely-drawn characters, snappy dialogue, and smart-but-not-boring moral dilemmas, Supernatural is quite simply one of the best shows on TV. And it's only gotten better over the years, so now is as good a time as any to jump into the story of two brothers on a quest to stop the Apocalypse - and kick the asses of some dickish angels who started the whole thing.

So what do you need to know before watching tonight's episode? Let's start with the relevant characters we've met on the road so far . . .

The Characters

Dean Winchester
One of the two "hunter" brothers whose life calling is rooting out supernatural evil before it can destroy human life. (Or at least destroy more human life than it already has.) Of the two Winchester brothers, he's the goofier, tougher, ladies' man type. He drives a black Chevy Impala, loves classic metal, and spent a pretty long time in Hell before getting busted out by some angels. He and his brother Sam were born in Kansas, and spend a lot of time hunting in the midwest, where their hunter father taught them to kill demons before they could drive.

Sam Winchester
Before joining Dean as a hunter, Sam was trying to lead a normal life as a law student at Stanford. But when his girlfriend was murdered by the same demon who killed the boys' mother, he left all that behind for the hunter life he once scorned. He's the more thoughtful, educated, emo brother. He's also got demon blood running in his veins, which gives him some psychic powers but also means he takes a lot of walks on the dark side.

John Winchester
Sam and Dean's hunter father John taught the boys everything they know about destroying evil, but also forced them to spend their childhoods on the run, always moving from town to town. His life as a hunter began when a yellow-eyed demon called Azazel killed his wife Mary (the boys' mother) when Sam was a baby. Azazel also fed Sam some of his blood, unbeknownst to John. Hunting didn't come to John out of nowhere: Mary and her father were hunters too, but she had tried to leave the life behind. When Dean's life hung in the balance at the beginning of season 2, John made a deal with Azazel - his soul for Dean's. For a while, John burned in hell and Dean felt really guilty about it. Then he manages to break out when the brothers break open the gates to Hell briefly - and John vanishes in a puff of smoke. Did he go to Heaven? Someplace better? We don't know.

Castiel
After Dean is pulled out of Hell at the beginning of season 4, he meets the trenchcoat-wearing angel Castiel, who is to be his guardian on a "mission" whose true purpose is revealed little by little as the season goes on. Nicknamed Cas, the angel is stoic at first but slowly comes to sympathize with Dean and Sam as he realizes that there may be a conspiracy in Heaven to destroy Earth and all of humanity. At the end of season 4, Cas has openly begun to doubt the goodness of the archangels whom he's supposed to obey unquestioningly.

Bobby
A father figure to Sam and Dean, Bobby is a resourceful hunter who has helped the boys on many of their missions. He was a friend of John's. Bobby looks like a stereotypical hillbilly in his baseball cap and flannels, but is actually a wily brainiac who has an amazing collection of occult books and weapons at his disposal in his backwoods cabin.

Zachariah
An archangel who admits to Dean that the angels wanted to bring on Armageddon as a "planetary enema" to get rid of all the pesky, annoying humans on Earth. He also says "God has left the building," which makes it seem as if Zachariah is part of an angelic coup in Heaven.

Anna
An angel from Castiel's garrison who rebelled against Zachariah and his co-conspirators, Anna hides on Earth and occasionally offers advice to Castiel when he's in doubt. She urges him to question heavenly authority. There are also hints that she and Castiel have some kind of history together, but we never know what it is.

Ruby
A demon who pretended to be on Sam and Dean's side last season when they were hunting for the demon Lilith. She fed Sam her blood to enhance his psychic powers, and the two of them had a very gothy, weird sexual relationship for most of the season. Needless to say, Dean did not approve. And he was right: It turned out that Ruby was working for Lucifer all along, and wanted to get Sam strong enough to defeat Lilith. Only by killing Lilith would Sam break the 66 seal and free Lucifer from Hell. After Sam and Dean realized what she'd done at the end of season 4, Dean killed her with his special demon-eliminating knife.

Meg Masters
A demon adversary of the brothers throughout the show, Meg has killed a number of hunters and their allies. The brothers send her to Hell at one point, which focuses all her wrath on them. At one point she possessed Sam and tried to turn the brothers against each other, but Bobby managed to help them exorcise her. She's still really pissed at the boys, and is going to show up as one of their tormentors in season 5. It's not clear whether she has any connection to the Lilith/Ruby/Lucifer conspiracy. She has occupied several bodies, and will occupy the one you see here in season 5.

Azazel
The yellow-eyed demon who killed the boys' mother and Sam's girlfriend was sent on a mission from Lucifer to select special children (including Sam) who could help in the coming Apocalypse. He calls Lucifer his "father," but that may just be an honorific and not an actual family relationship. Sam is one of several kids that Azazel gifts with special powers, and at the end of season 2 the demon forces all the children to face off in a battle royale to figure out which one is the strongest. Sam is one of the only survivors. The boys finally kill Azazel after the battle royale, but his influence lives on in Sam's blood - and in the success of Lilith and Ruby's plan to release Lucifer with the help of "gifted child" Sam.

Chuck
Chuck is a prophet whose cheesy graphic novels about the Winchester Brothers will - according to Zachariah - eventually become scripture. For now, however, Chuck is a neurotic, drunk shut-in who basically writes fanfic about Sam and Dean. His visions of the future, which he writes down in his novels, play a role in some of the decisions that Sam and Dean make in season 4.

Ellen and Jo Harvelle
A mother-daughter hunter team, Ellen and Jo run a bar frequented by hunters and also fight demons once in a while. Ellen and her late husband were friends of John's. Ellen has tried to keep daughter Jo out of the hunter life, but Jo has a natural aptitude for it - which she demonstrates in an episode where she helps Dean fight a monster. She and Dean also have romantic feelings for each other, which Dean refuses to act on. Ellen's bar is burned down when the demons start striking out at hunters in season 2, but Ellen and Jo remain at large and will return in season 5.

The Supernatural Style
Supernatural has developed a stylized way of depicting demons, angels, and hunters. Here are a few things to watch out for.

1. When you're exorcising a demon, the possessed person vomits up the demon in the form of black smoke.
2. You always know a demon because its eyes turn completely black. Very powerful demons have alternate colors: Azazel had swirling yellow eyes, and Lilith's eyes turned completely white.
3. Angels all seem to wear skinny black ties, white shirts, and khaki trenchcoats. When they die, you see their huge wings like giant stencils on the ground around their bodies.
4. Angels take possession of human bodies just like demons do. When you exorcise an angel, light bursts out of the possessed person's face.
5. Demons can be "trapped" by weird symbols drawn on the floor or ceiling. Angels can be banished if you draw a symbol in blood and then slap the symbol with your bloodied hand.
6. You can't kill demons by conventional means, but a few weapons can: An enchanted knife that Dean has, and an enchanted Colt gun which has been lost. We still don't know how to kill angels, but I'm sure we'll find out during this season.
7. Hunters like Sam, Dean and Bobby are not part of some official "x-files" unit. They are renegades and have to fake their identities to do investigations. Sam and Dean live on stolen credit cards.

The Major Plot Arcs

Here I'll just focus on the plot arcs you need to know to get into season 5.

The Yellow-Eyed Demon
Everything starts here, really. The Yellow-Eyed Demon, whose real name is Azazel, has been trying to raise Lucifer for a while - at least since the 1970s, when he entered the body of a priest and slaughtered a roomful of nuns in order to set up a telephone connection to Hell. At that time, Lucifer told Azazel to create a bunch of special children, one of whom could help set him free. Azazel fed each of these children some of his blood, giving them superpowers of various kinds - Sam got a kind of premonition, as well as some telekinetic abilities and (when he drinks more demon blood), he can cast demons out using the shaky pointing hand technique.

Seems as if these special kids were going to be some kind of Satanic army, but Sam's special destiny was to break the 66th seal on Hell by killing Lucifer's daugther (and the first demon) Lilith. This eventually comes to pass at the end of season 4, and will provide the main arc for season 5.

Sam and Dean stalked Azazel throughout season 1 and 2, to get revenge for their mother's death, Sam's girlfriend's death, and later their father John's death too. (John gave Azazel his soul so that Dean could live.) The brothers eventually kill Azazel with a magical Colt gun that can destroy demons. Unfortunately, during the scuffle that kills Azazel, they also manage to open the gates to Hell for a short time, releasing hundreds of demons. Among these demons are the 7 deadly sins, who will play a big role in season 5.

Highway to Hell
It turns out Sam is mortally wounded in the scuffle with Azazel and his army of special children, so at the beginning of season 3, Dean makes a deal with a crossroads demon. If the demon will bring Sam back to life, Dean will give the demon his soul in one year. The deal goes smoothly, and the rest of season 3 is a countdown to Dean's death. The two brothers have to stop the demons they've released through the Devil's Gate while also looking for a loophole in the deal Dean made with the crossroads demon.

The brothers discover that Lilith holds Dean's contract, and in addition that Lilith walks the Earth after escaping Hell through the Devil's Gate. To fight Lilith, Sam enlists the help of the demon Ruby, who claims that she's on the boys' side. But even with her guidance, there is no way they can defeat Lilith. At the end of season 3, Dean is dragged to Hell, where he experiences decades of torture before finally breaking. To avoid more torment, he becomes a torturer himself. Before he can go completely demonic, however, Dean is rescued by the angel Castiel and pals. Season 4 begins with Dean finding himself alive on Earth again, completely confused, with a vague mission from the angels to save the world - or possibly to end it.

Chasing Lilith
While Dean was in Hell, Sam cozied up with demon Ruby. She's told him that the only way to stop Armageddon is to kill Lilith, and she's feeding him her blood and training him in anti-demon ninja skills so he'll be ready to face Lilith. Things get really complicated when Dean returns from Hell: Dean is being given mixed messages by his angel companion, and he's suspicious that Sam has gone darkside. At one point, Dean and hunter/father-figure Bobby lock Sam in the basement of Bobby's house and try to get him to "detox" from the demon blood he's drunk. That goes fairly badly, and ends with Sam and Dean fighting so much that they go their separate ways.

Dean has a falling out with Castiel too. The angel refuses to tell Dean what the angels have in store for him because he wants to be a good, obedient angel. He seems about to tell Dean what's really going on when he's captured by other angels and sent to a reeducation camp in Heaven. Now Dean doesn't trust his angel, and doesn't trust his brother either.

As the brothers close in on Lilith - separately and sometimes together - it's clear that the fate of Earth hinges on whether they can heal the rift that's growing between them. Unfortunately they aren't able to heal the rift soon enough. Sam heads to a final confrontation with Lilith, not realizing demon pal Ruby is actually leading him astray. She's been working for Lucifer all along, and wants Sam to kill Lilith to open the 66th seal.

As this is happening, Dean is swept into a "green room" by Castiel and archangel Zachariah (pictured), who finally spills it about the Apocalypse. Turns out "God has left the building" and the angels wanted Sam to kill Lilith to start the Apocalypse so they can purge the Earth. There was never any plan to stop the Apocalypse after all, we still don't know exactly why the angels rescued Dean from Hell to serve with them. Still, Zachariah says, Dean has a special purpose. It just doesn't involve saving the human race, most of whom will be destroyed in the fight between demons and angels.

Castiel helps Dean escape the "green room" eventually, rebelling against Zachariah in the process. But they're too late. Sam has killed Lilith, and her blood is seeping into the floor, opening a burning gate to Hell. Dean kills the perfidious Ruby with a demon-vanquishing knife, and the two brothers flee before Lucifer arrives. And that, my friends, was the cliffhanger we were left with as season 4 ended. Tonight, we'll see what comes next.

In an interview with Publisher's Weekly about a month ago, Geoff Johns provided one of his clearest explanations for the mechanics of the various colors. Each of the seven represents a different aspect of the emotional spectrum, something that sentient life created simply by existing.

Green is the central color, a fulcrum point between the three negative emotions (the ROY half) on one side and the positive emotions (the BIV half) on the other. Its status as a pivot point is partially why, despite the colors representing an emotional spectrum, the stated quality of the Green Lantern Corps - willpower - isn't technically an emotion at all. Instead, it's the color of life itself, which balances out all the other colors. So, let's take a look at the various colors, and we might as well go in rainbow order.

Red: The color of rage, red is easily the most chaotic part of the emotional spectrum. The Red Lantern Corps was brought into being by Atrocitus, who in the recent "Secret Origins" retcon arc in Green Lantern was revealed as the killer of Abin Sur and the archenemy of then Green Lantern Sinestro. Billions of years old, Atrocitus was one of the five survivors of Sector 666, which was massacred by the Guardians' robotic servants the Manhunters due to a programming error. (It was this tragedy which led to their replacement by the Green Lantern Corps.) Upon induction to the Corps, Red Lanterns have their blood replaced by the rage energy of the Red Power Battery. This generally makes them creatures of pure instinct, and it has the added bonus of allowing Red Lanterns to shoot liquid rage out of their mouths as a projectile weapon.

Orange: The color of avarice, the orange light has only one wielder, the ageless thief Larfleeze. Though Hal Jordan compared his looks to the Muppet Gonzo (I guess I can see the resemblance), Larfleeze and the Orange Power Battery are really just the Gollum and One Ring of this War of Light. He jealously guards his precious treasure, living in complete isolation on the assumption that anyone he encounters is out to steal the orange light from him. The Guardians of the Universe negotiated a non-aggression pact with him eons ago, stating he would never unleash the orange light on the universe in exchange for the Guardians leaving him alone, which led to the longstanding prohibition on Green Lanterns entering the Vega System, where he resided. Recent events have seen this pact shatter, and Larfleeze (or, as he also calls himself, Agent Orange) has unleashed the terrible power of the orange light, which allows him to create deadly avatars of those he has slaughtered, allowing him to create entire Orange Lantern armies from his victims.

Yellow: The color of fear, yellow has been a major part of the Green Lantern mythos since a dying Abin Sur warned Hal Jordan of the yellow impurity in the very first Silver Age Green Lantern story. The role of yellow has evolved quite a bit since then, and it's a fairly long story (I tried my best to recap it all over here). Heading into Blackest Night, the Sinestro Corps is undergoing a leadership crisis, as the alien warlord Mongul has usurped Sinestro's rightful place as leader of the Corps (I mean, the thing is called the "Sinestro" Corps, after all). Having escaped his death sentence for the umpteenth time, Sinestro has a pretty long to-do list at the moment, which include reconnecting with his long lost daughter, challenging Hal Jordan to confront who he really is, further his absurdly complicated masterplan (whatever it is), and regaining control of the Sinestro Corps.

Green: The color of willpower, the role of green in all this is hopefully fairly obvious at this point. One thing that might be worth keeping in mind is the very fact that willpower isn't an emotion, as some critics have pointed out. The Guardians of the Universe very explicitly rejected emotions billions of years ago, and their recent actions have only driven them further down the path of senseless devotion to supposedly logical principles. Blackest Night will certainly deal with the legacy of the Guardians' rejection of emotion, and I suppose it's possible green may ultimately take on a more clearly emotional character as the new status quo slowly comes into focus.

Blue: The color of hope, the blue light is controlled by the now renegade Guardians Ganthet and Sayd, who abandoned their comrades to pursue a path in tune with their natural emotions (which included, among other things, their love for each other). The Blue Lanterns have no offensive capabilities of their own, but can instead allow Green Lanterns to experience vastly heightened power levels and instill in their comrades the hope needed to attain victory. The Blue Lantern Corps grows slowly, as Ganthet and Sayd devoted their time entirely to finding one being from Space Sector 1 worthy of the blue light, who in turn would then spend his time finding a suitable candidate from Space Sector 2, and so on. (Considering there are 3600 sectors, this could take a while.)

Indigo: The color of compassion, that's almost all that is known about those who wield (or, as the Ganthet puts it in Green Lantern #25, "weave") the indigo light. Like the color indigo itself, this corps has been the forgotten faction in Blackest Night's rainbow of warriors. All we really know is that they're not technically a corps so much as a tribe, and that the Indigo Tribe is led by a woman named, well, Indigo. I don't mean to sound glib here, but that's a whole lot of "indigo" right there. Anyway, they're also unknown to the DC universe at large, the image of them in Blackest Night #0 suggested tattoos and body paint are an important part of their appearance, and it's thought that the Blue Lanterns will need to form an alliance to them. The miniseries Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps, which unfolds over the next three weeks, has promised to reveal more.

Violet: The color of love, violet is controlled the Zamarons, the female counterparts to the (mostly) male Guardians. In past incarnations, the Zamarons had granted power to women through violet crystals that contained their psionic energies, turning whoever held the crystals into the superpowered Star Sapphire. The most notable Star Sapphire was Carol Ferris, Hal Jordan's one-time girlfriend and probable true love, who was possessed by the crystal on numerous occasions and forced to fight the Green Lantern. Geoff Johns has reconfigured the Zamarons and their violet power to better suit the notion of a corps along the lines of their Green Lantern and Sinestro counterparts, complete with its own energy entity along the lines of Ion and Parallax, which has been named the Predator. Thus the Star Sapphire Corps has now appeared, which thus far has been exclusively female. Carol Ferris has accepted a position in this new corps, as have several other women from throughout the galaxy who have lost their true love. The Zamarons are also recruiting from less reputable places, as they have begun using the emotional energy of the violet light to reform several female supervillains, including John Stewart's former nemesis Fatality, lone survivor of Xanshi, a planet Stewart allowed to be destroyed in a regrettable moment of arrogance.

Black: The color of death (assuming you consider black a color at all), the black light flows forth from the Black Lantern Power Battery, formed from the husk of the Anti-Monitor in the aftermath of Sinestro Corps War. The Guardian known as Scar, so-named for the injury she suffered at the hands of the Anti-Monitor during the conflict, has become enraptured by the black light, and is now a servant of Death. The Green Lantern villain Black Hand, previously best known for his device that could mimic the abilities of power rings, was retconned in the "Secret Origins" arc as a witness to the first battle between Atrocitus, Sinestro, and Hal Jordan. Atrocitus recognized in Black Hand, then simply mortuary assistant William Hand, a gateway to absolute blackness that existed within him. In Green Lantern #43, he finally made full contact with Death, killing his family and at last himself as the final part of his journey towards death. He arose as the first of the Black Lanterns, designated by Scar as the herald of the Blackest Night.

I may just be an eternal optimist (or, you know, a fool), but Blackest Night might just be the comic book event that actually delivers on all the hype. It's got what is fundamentally a compelling, straightforward premise (every dead superhero - scratch that, every dead character rises from the grave). The backdrop is suitably epic (a war between eight different Lantern Corps). The creative team has an encouraging track record (main writers Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi have been doing some of DC's best stuff in recent years, and the art is being handled by the likes of Ivan Reis and Ed Benes). And, if nothing else, Blackest Night is the conclusion of what has thus far been a very satisfying trilogy, with both Green Lantern: Rebirth and Sinestro Corps War standing as bright spots in DC's recent history.

All that said, it's probably not going to be the easiest event to pick up without any background knowledge. After all, this is the culmination of a story at least five years in the making, and there are at least two dozen plot lines already in motion before the series even begins. So here's our Blackest Night primer, which will attempt to cover all the basics as well as highlight a few of the more obscure details that might just prove crucial to the entire epic.

How did we get to this point?
You could trace the roots of Blackest Night to a whole lot of places. Obviously, there's Green Lantern: Rebirth and Sinestro Corps War, Geoff Johns's two previous epics that both laid important groundwork for what's going to play out over the next eight months. There's also "Tygers", Alan Moore's 1986 story from Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual #2, which prophesied much of what Geoff Johns brought to pass in Sinestro Corps War and has provided (with some minor revisions) one of Blackest Night's major antagonists. But, for my money, all of this really goes back to the death of Superman.

What are the different Lantern Corps, and what do they want?
Even if you've got a good handle on the admittedly complicated backstory to Blackest Night, that still leaves seven new Corps to keep track of. The colors themselves are actually fairly easy to remember, as they're the same as the colors of the rainbow. That's right - it's time to bust out the old ROY G BIV mnemonic, because it's pretty much the entire key to Blackest Night. Well, that and the black light of the Black Lantern Corps. That's probably important as well.

Who's coming back to life?
It would probably be easier to list which dead characters aren't coming back as Black Lanterns. If I had to guess, maybe Jor-El is safe, if only because Krypton's explosion probably didn't leave a body behind. Everybody else? They're all fair game. (And honestly, I'm not all that sure about Jor-El either.)

What roles are the various human Green Lanterns going to play?
Since the "mantle" of Green Lantern is actually a position in an intergalactic police force, it makes sense that there are so many active claimants to the title. With five human Green Lanterns currently operating (only the four Flashes come close to matching this), Blackest Night has the difficult job of giving all of them something to do. Fortunately, the preceding arcs in Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps (not to mention some peeks ahead at DC's solicitations for the next few months) provide a good sense of what we can expect for each Green Lantern.

With all that in mind, what books do I actually need to read?
DC Comics has gotten into a good habit in recent years in making its events fairly easy to follow, with one main book and a limited group of supporting titles. Final Crisis, for instance, was pretty much completely contained to books that actually carried the "Final Crisis" banner, and Blackest Night will be similar.

To be honest, it can all be summarized fairly simply - figure out which dead characters meant the most to each Lantern (particularly if they were named by Death in Green Lantern #43), and assume they'll be meeting those particular Black Lanterns very soon.

Hal Jordan will, of course, be the star of the show. The most recent Green Lantern arcs found Hal struggling with his own despair and hopelessness, and one can only hope he can find something worth fighting for (not to mention worth truly living for) in the pages of Blackest Night. Beyond his own emotional arc, there's his relationship with Carol Ferris, who is now a member of the newly formed Star Sapphire Corps. I'm guessing the two of them are going to find some time to talk things out, although it'll probably be in the midst of some massive interstellar battle.

There are a lot of potential Black Lanterns that would likely hit him close to home - his Justice League teammates Aquaman and Martian Manhunter are obvious examples - but I think two potential candidates really stand out in my mind as having particular meaning to Hal Jordan. More obviously, there's Abin Sur, his predecessor as Green Lantern, whose death is integral to Hal's origin story. Even more emotionally crushing would be his father Martin Jordan, a test pilot whose plane exploded in front of young Hal's eyes. Geoff Johns's run on Green Lantern, from Green Lantern: Rebirth to the "Secret Origins" arc, has taken great pains to define Hal as a person whose fearlessness and brashness are in reaction to the terror of witnessing the death of his father. I'm guessing Blackest Night will feature the payoff to all that setup.

(Oh, and I can almost guarantee they will find some way to get all eight rings onto Hal Jordan at the same time, if only because that cover from "Emerald Twilight" is so iconic.)

John Stewart has one really obvious deceased character in his past - his wife, the Green Lantern Katma Tui. Their reunion is pretty much a certainty, considering the Star Sapphire Yrra Cynril (formerly his nemesis Fatality) has already foretold their meeting. (It's also mentioned in one of DC's upcoming solicitations). Speaking of Yrra Cynril, there's also her entire planet of Xanshi, which John Stewart infamously allowed to be destroyed in the Cosmic Odyssey story back in the eighties. He's more at peace with his mistake than he has been in the past, but it's possible Blackest Night may give him an opportunity for some real closure, even if it involves an entire planet of Black Lanterns.

Kyle Rayner has dealt with a whole lot of death in his time, particularly during his tenure as the last Green Lantern in existence. He still grieves over the death of his mother, whose memory helped him through his imprisonment within the Parallax entity during Sinestro Corps War. His girlfriend Alexandra DeWitt was notoriously killed off and stuffed in a refrigerator, which became emblematic of the often shoddy treatment of female characters in comic books in general. (There's also his girlfriend Jade, but I think she's better dealt with when we get to another Green Lantern on this list.) In the here and now, there's his current lover Soranik Natu, the Green Lantern of Korugar and quite probably the long lost daughter of Sinestro. I'm guessing their fates will be intertwined as Blackest Night plays out.

Guy Gardner is probably the least touched by death of all the Green Lanterns. Admittedly, quite a few of his comrades from his time in Justice League International are not only dead but also mentioned in Green Lantern #43, including Ted Kord, Ralph and Sue Dibny, and Maxwell Lord. Even so, Guy has come a long way from his days as a violent idiot in the Keith Giffen Justice League (well, he's still kind of violent and idiotic, but he's more respected now), and I'm not entirely sure those characters would have even close to the same emotional impact of some of the others I've mentioned.

Instead, I suspect Guy Gardner's central interest in Blackest Night will be protecting his beloved Ice, who was recently resurrected and was named by Death as one of the heroes it wants back. For all their recent failures to make their relationship work, Guy Gardner cares about Ice probably more than just about anyone in the DC universe, and I'd be shocked if he doesn't do everything in his power to protect her.

Then there's Alan Scott, the Golden Age Green Lantern who isn't even part of the Corps at all. His roles in both Green Lantern: Rebirth and Sinestro Corps War weren't much more than glorified cameos, but there are a couple of reasons to think he will have more to do in Blackest Night. For one thing, the second batch of tie-in miniseries will include Blackest Night: JSA, and with all due respect to the rest of the Justice Society, you would have to think Alan Scott will take center stage there. Besides, while he didn't necessarily have the clearest stakes in the previous two stories, Alan Scott is arguably the Green Lantern most affected by the prospect of dead characters returning from the grave.

As a Golden Age character who was active in World War II, his chronological age is probably somewhere in the early nineties, even if various plot contortions have kept him considerably younger. As such, most of his would-be contemporaries are dead simply because of the march of time, meaning there are considerably more potential Black Lanterns in his past than the younger Green Lanterns. But above all, there's his daughter, Jenny-Lynn Hayden, better known as Jade. During the recent "Thy Kingdom Come" arc in Justice Society of America (written, incidentally, by Geoff Johns), Alan Scott openly wondered whether the godlike being Gog could bring his daughter back to life. Of all the Black Lanterns I hope ultimately receive a proper resurrection, I'm probably hoping for Jade more than anyone else.

Four heroes have already been confirmed as rising from the grave as Black Lanterns. The most prominent is probably J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter, whose murder was one of the key opening acts of Final Crisis. The original Aquaman, whose status has been more than a little confusing in recent years, is the other iconic Justice Leaguer who has returned from the grave. Ronnie Raymond, the original Firestorm, is also coming back, which hopefully will make up for his utterly throwaway demise in Identity Crisis.

But arguably the most intriguing resurrection is that of Kal-L, the Superman of the pre-Crisis Earth-2 who perished in Infinite Crisis. For all the silliness that comes with the multiverse (particularly the multiverse that predated Crisis on Infinite Earths), that's still the Golden Age Superman we're talking about, the same character who began the entire superhero genre over seventy years ago. Here's hoping he gets a role and final fate worthy of his status as the original superhero.

After that, almost anybody who has ever died in the history of DC Comics could make an appearance, and I can pretty much guarantee there will be at least one full-page battle scene crammed with impossibly obscure cameos. For what it's worth, the voice of Death in Green Lantern #43 singles out a whole bunch of dead characters, all of which are now pretty much guaranteed to appear. These characters include, along with the previously named heroes, the original Aquagirl, the Golden Age Atom, Ralph and Sue Dibny, the original Captain Boomerang, Ted Kord, Maxwell Lord, the Freedom Fighters Phantom Lady, Black Condor, and Human Bomb, the Psycho-Pirate, Vic Sage (the original Question), Jean Loring, Arthur Light, Deadman, Terra, Wesley Dodds, Jade, and Jonathan Kent. The inclusion of Superman's recently deceased father makes one thing abundantly clear - Blackest Night is not going to shy away from bringing anybody back. By the way, there's actually one more name on that list, but I'll come back to that in a moment.

Then there are all the dead Green Lanterns. Considering Hal Jordan's origin story is inextricably tied up in the death of his predecessor, I think it's safe to say he's going to face off against a Black Lantern Abin Sur at some point in Blackest Night. Then there's the reunion of John Stewart with his dead wife Katma Tui, an event already foretold by the recently reformed villain turned Star Sapphire Corps member Fatality. There are plenty more, including Tomar-Re, Ch'p, and Jack T. Chance, although none of them have quite the same impact as the likely returns of Abin Sur and Katma Tui (although don't underestimate the emotional heft of a Black Lantern super-intelligent chipmunk).

The big question, at least as far as I'm concerned, is how Blackest Night is going to handle Bruce Wayne, the final name in Death's list in Green Lantern #43. In fact, the cover of that issue prominently feature's Bruce Wayne's tombstone (which is inaccurate, as Batman is buried in an unmarked grave). Blackest Night #0, the preview issues released on Free Comic Book Day, ended with Black Hand, the newly minted herald of the Black Lantern Corps, unearthing Batman's grave. There's a lot there to suggest Bruce Wayne will be involved as a Black Lantern, but I'm frankly unconvinced.

After all, Final Crisis ends with the pretty clear implication that Bruce Wayne is still alive somewhere, albeit most likely lost in prehistory. To be sure, Superman recovered a skeleton in the Batman costume at the end of Final Crisis, but it's anyone's guess whether that skeleton is actually Bruce Wayne in any real sense. Besides, Batman is one of the two biggest characters in the entire DC universe (and arguably one of the three biggest superheroes in all of comics), so it's a little hard to imagine his return won't have its own event devoted to it. There have also been no concrete indications that Bruce Wayne will be a Black Lantern, and he's conspicuous in his absence from the solicitations for the Blackest Night: Batman mini-series. (I'm also not sure about Ted Kord, who I'm pretty sure was quietly resurrected in Booster Gold but hasn't yet revealed this to the world at large.)

In any event, it's probably fair to say that, with the possible exception of Batman, every major dead character will be back as a Black Lantern, and most of the minor ones too. And if there's any chance a character's return would be heartbreakingly cruel to a living superhero, I think it's a safe bet Geoff Johns will find a way to make it happen.

1992's yearlong saga of Superman's death and ultimate return had one rather obvious effect on the world of Green Lantern, as the villainous Cyborg Superman destroyed Hal Jordan's native Coast City as part of the original Mongul's plan to turn Earth into the new Warworld. That tragedy was the impetus for Hal Jordan's descent into madness and villainy, as he assumed the new identity Parallax. To make a long story short, Parallax wiped out the entire Green Lantern Corps and all but one of the Guardians, tried to rewrite time in Zero Hour, operated as a villain for a while, heroically sacrificed himself by reigniting the sun in Final Night, languished in purgatory, and then became the new host for the Spectre, God's Spirit of Vengeance, which he tried to reinterpret as a Spirit of Redemption.

Whatever the artistic merit of any of these decisions, they were widely reviled by fans of Hal Jordan, and Green Lantern: Rebirth sought to undo the damage with one of the more audacious retcons in comics history (which, considering the audacity of your average comic book retcon, is really saying something). It turned out that Hal Jordan had been possessed for years by the cosmic embodiment of fear, a yellow entity known as Parallax. It had taken Parallax years to burrow its way into Jordan's consciousness - even his stress-induced graying temples were pointed to as evidence of the internal struggle - and the destruction of Coast City was what finally allowed it to take hold.

Beyond providing a just about reasonable way to get Hal Jordan off the hook for some pretty unforgivable crimes, the introduction of Parallax also recast the larger cosmology of the Green Lantern mythos. Previously, yellow had simply been a color against which Green Lantern rings did not work. Sinestro, Hal Jordan's former mentor turned mortal enemy, was given a yellow power ring after his expulsion from the Green Lantern Corps, but this ring had been unique, a gift from the anti-matter universe Weaponers of Qward. Now, yellow was the color of fear just as green was the color of willpower, and Sinestro's ring was the basis for an entire corps.

The bloody, brutal war between the Green Lantern and Sinestro Corps was terrible enough in its own right, but its specific events suggested far worse was to come. Alan Moore's 1986 story "Tygers" featured Hal Jordan's predecessor Abin Sur traveling to the hellish prison planet Ysmault, where he learned of the future of the Green Lantern Corps from the demoic Qull of the Five Inversions. What Qull foretold in "Tygers" came to pass in Sinestro Corps War, although the Green Lanterns escaped what was supposed to be their ultimate destruction. However, it's recently been revealed that Abin Sur returned to the planet several times, attempting to learn more of the Corps's future.

He eventually learned of the prophecy of the Blackest Night, which concerned a chaotic War of Light between several different Corps that would leave the universe too badly fractured to defend against the coming of the Blackest Night. The Guardians of the Universe have attempted to prevent this from coming to pass by enacting a number of new laws for Green Lanterns to follow. These new rules, which include enabling lethal force and forbidding romantic entanglements between Green Lanterns, have seemingly had the opposite effect, sowing discord and distrust between the Guardians and some of their most trusted Lanterns. And, for all their efforts, all the other Corps have come into existence, each with their own agendas and their own roles to play, which is discussed here. It looks like the final prophecy is coming to pass after all.

That's the long road connecting the Death of Superman and Blackest Night, but there's something much more basic at work here. Superman's revival was just the first of many, many resurrections in the DC universe, something that has been much criticized. Several writers have actually sought to address this, if only obliquely, by suggesting Superman's miraculous return broke down part of the boundary between life and death, enabling what has become a revolving door of resurrected heroes. Green Lantern #43, last week's prologue for Blackest Night, suggests the driving force behind the Black Lantern Corps is Death itself, and it wants its escapees back. (So yes, the premise of Blackest Night is essentially that of Final Destination, except the protagonists are cosmic warriors instead of stupid teenagers and Death will use undead superheroes instead of ridiculously circuitous, carefully choreographed accidents. I'd say that's a trade up.)

DC Executive Editor Dan Didio has suggested Blackest Night will close the door on death as a device in the DC universe, with characters mostly either remaining alive or staying dead after all of this plays out. Retiring these admitted overused devices - the "shocking" death and the inevitable resurrection - is a laudable goal, if only because both have completely lost their impact. It's hard to say whether DC is actually going to be able to stick to this goal, but just the statement itself makes it clear that, much as Infinite Crisis had the secondary purpose of resolving some of the DC universe's worst continuity problems, Blackest Night will seek to resolve how so many characters, beginning with Superman sixteen years ago, have so routinely been doing the impossible and coming back to life.

Similar to Sinestro Corps War, Blackest Night will unfold a lot of its story in the regular Green Lantern books, Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps. Unlike Sinestro Corps War, however, there's also going to be the eight-issue Blackest Night book. Although the three titles will likely focus on different aspects of what is, after all, a universe-spanning war, you're probably going to need to read at least these three books if you want to follow the story coherently. And, even if you're planning skipping all other previous stories, it would probably be helpful to read last week's Green Lantern #43, which serves as the official prologue for Blackest Night.

To help get readers caught up on the admittedly complicated backstories of the different Corps, this month will also feature three issues worth of Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps. These books will, among other things, finally reveal some concrete details on the Indigo Tribe, easily the most mysterious and unexplored of the various factions.

There are also three supporting mini-series highlighting how the Blackest Night affects some of the most prominent characters in the DC universe. Blackest Night: Batman, Blackest Night: Superman, and Blackest Night: Titans all begin in August, and all three promise to reunite the characters with their deceased loved ones in the most heartbreaking fashion imaginable. (Four words: Pa Kent, Black Lantern.) After these finish up in October, there will be a second trio of mini-series to accompany the second half of Blackest Night. These will be Blackest Night: Wonder Woman, Blackest Night: Flash, and Blackest Night: JSA.

The exact checklist for the entire run hasn't been revealed yet, but here's everything you need for the first three months, assuming no delays (which is admittedly quite an assumption):

July 8: Green Lantern #43
July 15: Blackest Night #1, Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #1
July 22: Green Lantern #44, Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #2
July 29: Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #3

August 12: Blackest Night #2, Green Lantern Corps #39, Blackest Night: Batman #1
August 19: Blackest Night: Superman #1
August 26: Green Lantern #45, Blackest Night: Titans #1

September 9: Green Lantern Corps #40, Blackest Night: Batman #2
September 16: Blackest Night #3
September 23: Blackest Night: Superman #2
September 30: Green Lantern #46, Blackest Night: Titans #2

[Note: DC should be releasing their October solicitations in the very near future, so I'll update this once I have the exact dates for the October books.]

1984-1992: Generation One
The original, and still the best. This is the incarnation that most people still think of when someone talks about Transformers - the one where giant robots turn into vehicles, dinosaurs, cassette tapes and all manner of other unassuming objects when they're not beating the crap out've each other. It's also the one that brought the world this classic piece of music:

1992-1995: Generation 2
Essentially a reboot of the original toyline with characters and figures based on the originals, but with details and colors changed to make them both safer and, theoretically, more toy-friendly. Theoretically, in the same continuity as the original G1 line, and notable for having advertisements demonstrating some truly basic CGI:


Somewhere, a young Michael Bay saw this and thought "One day... I'll do that. But better."

1996-1998: Beast Wars


A full-out reboot of the franchise (until they started bringing in G1 characters and concepts, but that was retconning the reboot, and things get muddy from that point on), with Autobots and Decepticons replaced by Maximals and Predacons, and Primal and Megatron replacing Optimus Prime and... um... Megatron as the main characters (Honestly, the two Megatrons are different characters). Unlike the majority of the original Transformers, these characters don't transform into vehicles or objects, but animals.

1999-2001: Beast Machines
A continuation of Beast Wars, but this time the Predacons are replaced by the Vehicons, as Megatron replaces his henchbots with... well, new henchbots, but these ones turn into (other) machines, instead of animals.

2001-2001: Robots In Disguise
A curious (and short-lived) mix of G1 and Beast Wars, this line set the Autobots versus the Predacons, who then created the Decepticons out of former Autobots because... Oh, I'm still not sure. All that you really need to know what that the animated series was as if someone had wanted to remake the original for the Pokemon audience, and was every bit as enjoyable as that sounds:

2002-2004: Armada/2004-2005: Energon/2005-2006: Cybertron (AKA: The Unicron Trilogy)


A four year line co-produced by Hasbro and Japanese manufacturer Takara, this revision of the franchise started with Armada hewing closely to G1 concepts, but with the added bonus that certain characters could essentially "power up" by partnering with a power-enhancing smaller robot called a "Mini-Con".


Energon took place 20 years after Armada, with Transformers settling on Earth (including building giant robot cities to live in) and having developed the ability to combine with each other to form even larger giant robots.


Cybertron followed from Energon, but only in America - The Japanese version of the line (called Galaxy Force) was another continuity reboot - and saw the Transformers travel the galaxy looking for "Cyber Planet Keys" that could... unlock a black hole and stop the destruction of Cyberton. Hey, I didn't come up with the idea.

2002- : Transformers Universe
Pretty much a re-release line from Hasbro, Universe has featured toys from every Transformers line repainted and reissued. Lacking a cartoon series of its own, the Universe continuity as such consists of a Collectors Club-only comic that explains that this incarnation sees Transformers from different times and different parallel earths brought together to defend a peaceful, post-Beast Machines-era Cybertron from the invading Unicron.

2007- : Movies
The Transformers go mainstream, thanks to Michael Bay. To all intents and purposes, the first movie is a revised version of the classic G1 continuity, right down to the use of "Whitwicky" as the surname of the human hero... just with added Bayhem. By the second movie, it's beginning to build its own mythology, and picking and choosing which era of toys to add to the mix.

2008-2009: Transformers Animated

Yet another reboot, and one that deages Optimus Prime (as much as one can de-age a robot) into something approaching a teenager, making him the leader of five Autobots stranded on Earth, fighting Decepticons and, oddly enough, human supervillains in a future Detroit.

And don't forget...
Alternators - A toyline where the robots turned into accurate cars licensed from real world car manufacturers.
Robot Masters - A Japanese toyline accompanying Energon and Cybertron, but set in G1 continuity.
Star Wars Transformers/Marvel Transformers/Disney Transformers - A toyline where robots turn into licensed characters or vehicles from other franchises.

Wonder what the Transformers origin has to do with G.I. Joe and the tallest, most hated man in comics? Whether or not Transformers are actually alive, and just why they have gender characteristics? Or maybe you just have trouble knowing your Beast Machines from your Robots In Disguise... We cover it all in this short Backgrounder, to make sure that you'll know everything you need to - and more - when watching Michael Bay's latest example of cybernetic bayhem:

Transformer Origins
They didn't really come from Cybertron, you know. Learn about the cross-continent (and cross-corporation) origins of the robots in disguise.

Know Your Transformer Generations
Being around for 25 years requires plenty of reinvention. Here's your guide to knowing which Transformer incarnation was the one you grew up with.

Those Transformer Questions You Were Afraid To Ask
How did Cybertron get built, anyway? Why did the Transformers come to Earth? And why does Spike Whitwicky have such a foul mouth? We give you the basics.

Why Are They On Earth?
Again, it depends on which version of the franchise you're asking about. In every version other than the movie, they're here by accident; the original characters crashlanded here in prehistoric times, an origin that has stayed (almost) intact ever since. According to the movie, however, they're here intentionally, tracking down the cosmic McGuffin the All Spark, which ended up here after Optimus Prime tossed it into space to make sure that Megatron would never get his hands on it.

Why Do They Transform?
Because that's the entire point of the toy. Duh. If you're looking for an in-story reason, it's so that the robots can go about their business of Trying To Take Over The World/Trying To Save The World/Trying To Defeat Their Enemy (delete as applicable) without getting noticed too much. In some incarnations, after the robots crash-landed on Earth, they were given the ability to transform by their damaged spacecraft, looking out for their needs apart from that whole "crashing on Earth" thing; in the movie, the origin of the robots' ability seems to be as part of the side-effect of being brought to life by the All Spark, although that does raise the question of what the Transformers were before they were giant robots.

How Does A Transformer Get Born, Anyway?
In all versions of the franchise other than the movies and Transformers: Animated, the Transformers were created by a being known as Primus, who distilled his life-force into something called the Matrix, which is used to bring a Transformer into life. In movie continuity, the Matrix and Primus are replaced by the All Spark, a cube of unknown origin that can turn any object into a living, transforming robot.

Do The Transformers Have Gender?
Apparently so, as the existence of Arcee (and a surprising number of others) proves. Quite why alien robots have gender was left unaddressed until IDW's 2008 Transformers Spotlight: Arcee comic, wherein it was revealed that a Transformers called Jhiaxus, the "Chief Theoretical Strategist" of all Transformers tasked with remaking and improving their race, had introduced gender as part of his experimentation.

Does The 1986 Cartoon Movie Really Have A Character Swear In It?

"Oh, shit, what're we gonna do now?" indeed.

Launched in 1980 by Japanese toy company Takara Toys, the Diaclone line was made up of robots that transformed into futuristic vehicles piloted by figures spun-off from their successful Microman line. The Microman line, imported into America by Mego as Micronauts, was in turn spun-off from a Takara line called Henshin Cyborg, which was itself spun-of from their Combat Joe line... which was made up from toys created from Hasbro's G.I. Joe line (See how it all comes together? Don't worry; Joe will pop up again later). In 1982, Takara expanded both the Microman and Diaclone lines by adding more transforming robots - except these new robots, branded Micro Change (for Microman) and Car Robots (for Diaclone), changed into more contemporary forms, like regular cars, planes and cassette players.

A year later, representatives from Hasbro attended the 1983 Tokyo Toy Fair. They were feeling good - their G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero line, launched a year earlier, was a big success, and they were looking for the next big thing. And, as soon as they saw Takara's Car Robots and Micro Change toys, they thought they'd found it. It wasn't as simple as all of that, however; for one thing, Hasbro didn't want to launch two separate lines onto the market at the same time, and so decided to consolidate the two together under the name Transformers. Having learned from their experience with G.I. Joe, they also knew that kids wanted a story to play along with, instead of just faceless toys, and so they decided to do exactly what they'd done before, and tell someone else to come up with one.

A little-known fact about the Transformers that we know and love: Their entire backstory was created by one of the most reviled men in the comic industry alongside the man who oversaw a phone vote to kill Robin the Boy Wonder. By 1983, Hasbro had built a close working relationship with Marvel Comics through their joint work on G.I. Joe, where Marvel editor Larry Hama was responsible for naming the characters and writing the backstory for each one (as well as the monthly Joe comic), so the toy company asked Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter and editor Dennis O'Neil to come up with an entire Transformers universe prior to launching the toys, and they tried... only to see a lot of their ideas shot down by Hasbro as inappropriate. Frustrated, they gave the job to Bob Budiansky, whose revisions not only created Transformers canon, but also landed him the job of Transformers comic writer for years afterwards.

A huge success when launched in 1984, Transformers was almost too successful for Hasbro; to keep up with demand for new toys, they exhausted the Takara toys and started licensing figures from other companies, before finally coming up with original toys in 1986. While fading popularity led to the line being axed in the US in 1990, new Transformers were released internationally until 1993, when the entire line was relaunched internationally... and ever since then, they've remained in constant production under a variety of guises.

Who Makes Ultron So Great?
Well, firstly, just look at him. He's awesome. (And while we're at it, how can you not love a robot who talks like that?)

A product of the (occasionally overly-)imaginative Silver Age of comics, Ultron is much more than the average killer robot; his secret origin involves him rebuilding himself five times and then hypnotizing his creator into forgetting he existed, for one thing. Ultron first appeared in 1968's The Avengers #55 (following an in-disguise cameo the issue before) calling himself "Ultron-5, The Living Automaton" but, within a year, he'd already upgraded himself to Ultron-6 by coating his body in Marvel's unbreakable alloy Adamantium (Yes, the stuff on Wolverine's bones). That's the thing about Ultron; whereas other killer robots are content to just sit around on their metallic asses when not trying to destroy the world, Ultron is all about the self-improvement. Well, partially about the self-improvement, at least; there's also a pretty unhealthy obsession with his creator, Hank Pym and his girlfriend, Janet Van Dyne (AKA Ant Man/Giant Man/Goliath/Yellowjacket and the Wasp). According to former Avengers writer Kurt Busiek, it's that mix of self-refinement and hatred for his "father" that makes the character so wonderful:

Aside from Ultron being a really compelling visual design — there's just so much menace in that jack o' lantern face John Buscema gave him — he stands head and shoulders above other psycho killer robots because he's not just a killing machine. He's a robot with an Oedipal complex. All the coolest stuff about Ultron comes from there — the creation of the Vision (which also ties into Wonder Man's story), his complicated relationship with Hank Pym, his attraction to the Wasp and attempts to re-create her...the best villains are villains where there's a personal stake involved, and Ultron's a robot that's all about the personal. He's tied into the complex web of relationships that makes up the Avengers, and that right there makes him more compelling. Being murderous, indestructible, brilliant and obsessive just adds to the fun.

The Ultron Empire
As much a family man as a genocidal maniac, Ultron has also managed to surround himself with quite a collection of relatives throughout the years; he has built himself two "brides," Jocasta and Alkhema, both of whom have rejected him and went on to try and undo his various evil schemes, as well as two "sons," the Vision and the much less robotic sounding Victor Mancha, both of whom went on to become superheroes with the Avengers and the Runaways, respectively. It's a good thing he's obsessed with this supervillainy thing, because apparently he's not so great when it comes to creating obedient robots.

Ultron's Greatest Hits
Amongst some of Ultron's (admittedly momentary) triumphs:
* Turning Tony Stark into a woman by taking control of the Iron Man armor and doing something that was never really properly explained but had something to do with rewriting DNA sequences (Ultron seems to have a particular thing against Tony Stark; he's also re-assembled his body made out of old Iron Man armors and turned Stark into his "psycho-hypnotic" slave. Having a grudge against Iron Man can only be a good thing).
* Coming up with a plan to plunge the world into a "volcanic winter" by placing bombs underneath volcanoes around the world. I'm not entirely sure what a "volcanic winter" actually is, but I'm sure it'd involve a lot of lava, and it's hard to fault such a wonderfully James Bond Villain-esque ploy for style and ambition.
* Slaughtering an entire European state singlehandedly as a warning to the rest of the world not to fuck with him. Kurt Busiek can take credit for that one. He explained to me,

In going over Ultron's history in preparation for the story, it seemed like decades since he'd been a truly compelling menace — he'd been handled too easily, treated like a known quantity, so it didn't matter if he was kind of an afterthought in stories, or taken down without much difficulty. So we wanted to remind people of how dangerous he is, give him some impact to reestablish him as a deadly, ruthless threat.

Mission accomplished.
* In the same story as above, creating an entire army of himself to populate the world... after killing all of humanity, of course. Busiek again:

In dealing with recurring villains, I tend to ask, "What would they do _next_? How would they build on their past experiences?" I don't want to have characters just go through the same old patterns, I'd rather have them learn and grow and do something that builds on their history. And with all those familial relationships, all of them failed in one way or another, I thought it was clear that Ultron was lonely, and wanted others like him, so it would be interesting to have him skip the one-on-one and try to create a whole new race of intelligent robots, a context he could be a part of... He's a family-focused guy, so his stories are often about him trying to build that kind of connection. I just had him do it big-scale.

* Possessing an entire robotic alien race, after they try to assimilate him Borg-style, and then using that alien race to enslave other alien races and possess them, too.
* Temporarily ruining the wedding of minor supporting characters Crystal of the Inhumans and Quicksilver of the Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants, just because sometimes schemes don't have to involve much more than just pissing people off, and who doesn't love a good wedding crasher?

Essential Ultron
Convinced that you need to check out some Ultron for yourself? Here're the four books you owe it to yourself - and your future robotic master - to pick up:
Essential Avengers Vol. 3: Contains the first couple of Ultron stories, including his somewhat loopy origin and his first attempt to create robotic offspring.
Avengers: Ultron Unlimited: Probably the best Ultron/Avengers story, it's the one mentioned above where he slaughters an entire nation and builds a robot army made entirely of himself.
Annihilation: Conquest Vols. 1 - 2: Ultron goes to space and decides to take it over. And then almost succeeds.