First, a little bit of history of the Superman/Batman teamups. The two first joined together in 1952, and quickly learned each other's secret identities. Their monthly teamup comic, World's Finest, lasted until the mid-1980s. They were best friends, and their stories often had a sort of boys' clubhouse feel, with Robin along for the ride. Occasionally a girl like Supergirl or Batgirl would want to join the club. Or either Superman would get a new "best friend," leaving Batman to feel sad and rejected. Or some mean boys, like the Composite Superman or Anti-Batman and Anti-Superman, would show up and ruin everything. But the stories would always end with the club intact again.

And then in the mid-1980s, Frank Miller and John Byrne came up with the idea of making Superman and Batman uneasy allies, who didn't trust each other. Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns ends with the two slugging it out, and Byrne's Superman: The Man Of Steel has the young Superman meeting the unsavory vigilante Batman for the first time. Batman thinks Superman's a callow boy scout, and Superman disapproves of Batman's violent methods. This is the one where Batman tells Superman that he's implanted a deadly bomb in "an innocent" that will go off if Superman tries to grab Batman... and then it turns out the bomb is actually in Batman himself, which means Batman is an innocent. I keep waiting for Superman to pat Batman on the back or brush against him accidentally. (Why couldn't Batman have just implanted the bomb in a chihuahua? Chihuahuas are people too. But maybe Batman doesn't believe chihuahuas are ever innocent.) In fact, there are approximately 1,000 DC comics from the late 1980s where Superman says that he disapproves of Batman's methods, before teaming up with him.

Now, the two are back to being friends, more or less, although Superman/Batman always shows that they have very different perspectives by giving us thought captions from both of them. Superman is bright and optimistic, Batman is dark and brooding. So occasionally, Superman will think to himself, "Wow, Bruce is so dark and brooding." And Batman will think, "Oh Clark, I could never be as optimistic and bright as you are." (It's all about the first names nowadays.) And now DC is working on a weekly Superman/Batman/Wonder Woman team-up comic, written by Kurt Busiek.

So in a nutshell, the dynamic between Batman and Superman has always been a tad cartoonish and oversimplified, based on whatever the prevailing version of Batman has been at the time. (Fun caped crusader, grim 'n' gritty avenger, or paranoid-but-brilliant member of the superhero family.) Superman hasn't changed nearly as much as Batman has.

So here's how I'd make the dynamic between Superman and Batman more interesting: I'd turn them into Lethal Weapon.

Superman is the cautious one, the straight arrow who does everything by the book despite (or because of) his almost limitless power. Batman is the crazy, out-of-control risktaker who keeps dragging Superman into situations he's not equipped for. Batman is the guy who sends Superman and himself diving into a black hole on a spaceship with one dud engine. He's the one who drags Superman and himself into a nest of trolls, whose magic weapons can hack Superman to pieces. He seems to make impulsive, rash decisions, but always turns out to have a plan. Sort of.

And yes, I know that since Grant Morrison's JLA Batman has been portrayed as the uber-control freak who always plans twenty steps ahead in every situation. But he's also the non-powered guy who dresses up in a bat costume, with his face unprotected, and jumps off rooftops into gunfire every night of the week. He's the crazed, half-suicidal Mel Gibson to Superman's Danny Glover.

Every Superman/Batman storyline should start with Superman being totally on top of things as usual, crushing a rogue giant robot with one hand while using his heat vision to stop a falling satellite from crashing on a populated area. And maybe using his super-breath to avert a tsunami at the same time. And then suddenly, Batman comes zipping up in his Bat-plane and is like, "time to go, boy scout!" Superman starts to protest, but he knows Batman only resorts to asking for his help when it's a serious problem. The next thing he knows, he's lost control over his superpowers and Batman is sending the two of them in a tailspin into a magical soul-eating volcano. "This volcano is connected to a crime that happened in Gotham City, which means it's MINE," Batman explains helpfully.

Instead of looking at Batman and thinking, "I don't approve of his methods," or "He's my pal," or "Bruce, why are you so grim and dark?" Superman should be shouting "Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuce! What have you gotten me into this time?" at the top of his super-lungs, while Batman cackles.

So with the strike dragging on and...

Jeph: Strike? What strike? You mean, it might last longer? What?

Well, since you've completed a whole volume before the strike, will NBC be putting that out on DVD a bit sooner to give fans something in the interim?

Tim: Well, there are really no plans for that, and we're not talking to NBC right now. But, it seems like a very logical thing to do since we have a whole volume with a completed story.

Jeph: Great, I can see the headlines tomorrow. "NBC Releasing Heroes DVD Early!"

There's been a great effort in the show to tie powers to genetics, but at some point will you look to other methods for people getting their powers?

Tim: I shied away from that idea initially, but I also said I reserve the right to have it morph and change into other theories. There have been other theories posited, like that maybe someone made them and that this was all experimental. Since we know the company is a big nefarious operation, you could definitely come to that conclusion.

Jeph: I think it's God. I've always thought it was God!

Tim: And there has been some talk about the possibility of the spiritual aspect of the powers.

Suresh has been the human voice of the series and been used as a framing device. Will that continue when the series comes back?

Tim: Yeah, we didn't lean on it as heavily in Volume Two as we did in Volume One. There is an omniscience to that voice, as if he's talking from some distant knowing place in the future, and that idea is still good for us.

The Heroes graphic novel has been the first foray at taking the show into the comic book realm. Jeph, are you still writing comics?

Well, we didn't really do a graphic novel. Every week we put out a comic book online, so it's a webcomic. This was just a collected volumes of those issues, but it was all recolored by artists, and it looks a lot different on paper.

And, I'm proud to say that I have the number one comic book in the world right now, the new Ultimates that has just been relaunched, and next month I'm relaunching The Hulk.

Well, thank you both, we love the show.

Tim: Thank you very much!

Jeph: Yes, thanks a lot, and good luck with io9!

With this week's release of the final issue of the World War Hulk series - which saw the Hulk return to Earth from a year in space with the aim of kicking humanity's ass, only to get his own ass well and truly handed to him - Marvel also released three preview images for upcoming Hulk-related comics. First up is Hulk, which sees current Heroes and former Lost producer Jeph Loeb writing a new monthly comic starring a mystery bright red Hulk, while the existing Incredible Hulk comic gets a new star and new title, becoming Incredible Herc as Greek god Hercules takes over for a few months. Most soap operatic of all is the announcement of Skaar: Son of Hulk, another new monthly comic based around the bastard son the Hulk spawned during his year in the stars.

What do these changes say about Norton's movie plans for Dr. Robert Bruce Banner and his Gamma-spawned alter ego? Probably very little, but if any of this raises the possibility of stripping Norton naked and painted bright red, then really, who will complain that loudly? Image courtesy of Marvel Entertainment

The Hulk To Come? [Newsarama.com]