Let's get everyone else's books out of the way first, shall we? Dark Horse ask what may be the unexpected question of the week - "Who wants to relive Pamela Anderson's second-greatest hit?" - with their Barb Wire Omnibus release. But then they make up for it with the particularly awesome MySpace Dark Horse Presents anthology, collecting the best of the first year of their web anthology, including the deservedly award-winning Sugarshock by Joss Whedon and Fabio Moon. Image Comics are offering the first collection of their new-age illuminati supervillain book New World Order, and Marvel continue their alien war story with the first issue of Secret Invasion: Amazing Spider-Man. Much more interesting from the House of Ideas is the first issue of the third volume of Runaways or the first hardcover "omnibus" collection of Brian Michael Bendis' Daredevil run.

But, as I said, DC just plain have everyone else beat this week. They have the collection of mind-bending Duncan Rouleau's time-traveling robot Metal Men, which was completely underrated when originally released and will reward anyone willing to put the time and effort into it. Same goes for the Brave And The Bold: The Book Of Destiny collection, which features time travel, parallel worlds and more super-heroes than you can shake multiple sticks at.

If you're following the Final Crisis storyline, then you might want to check into Brad Meltzer's DC Universe: Last Will And Testament, which shows what happened to your favorite characters on the last night before Darkseid took over. Then skip over to Grant Morrison's sure-to-be-awesome Final Crisis: Superman Beyond, in which everyone's favorite corporate icon breaks free of reality's bounds in order to save his true love. (And if you find that Morrison's take on the Man of Steel agrees with you, then you should definitely pick up this week's paperback release of All-Star Superman, if you've somehow missed it until now.)

More Morrison can be found in the first hardcover re-release of his over-the-top JLA run, which features alien invasions, robots learning about humanity and the trouble with falling for your own dreams, all dispatched with humor and surprising speed. Somewhat stunningly, each of these - well, maybe with the exception of the Meltzer book, and that's only because of my personal distrust of any man who has a crush on Terra - is well worth your time and money. They're the kinds of books that reawaken your love of superheroes, science fiction or just comics that like to tackle their subjects with imagination and a sense of humor. Go forth and spend your hard-earned dollars with only a little bit of fear.

As you may have heard by this point, a full list of this week's books can be found here, and you can take that list to the comic books store closest to you... which you can locate by going here. Just remember to tell your local store clerk that, like Elvis, you were born standing up and talking back.

According to Sci-Fi Wire, Silver said:

Maybe after I saw Spider-Man or whatever, I thought that it should be a genesis story. And then I had to kind of go back to the drawing board, because I had a version that the studio wanted to make that was not a genesis story . . . [But] I've got to find a way to tell it. Because whenever I got into the stuff, you know, Paradise Island and stuff, it was kind of goofy. But I've got to find a way to do it where it's effective. I mean, I thought some of the stuff they did in 300 was great. I don't know if I want to make it that way, but, I mean, I think there's a way to do this where the audience is going to accept it. But I've got to figure it out.

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

Super Friends: Worried about potential accusations of jingoism, ABC didn't think Justice League of America had the right ring as the title for its 1973 Saturday morning JLA cartoon. But judging by the seven name changes that the series went through in its 13-year run, obviously Super Friends wasn't the right choice either.

Despite character designs by animation giant Alex Toth, this Hanna-Barbera series was limited by some shitty animation and even shittier storylines, even when Jack Kirby's Darth Vader-prototype Darkseid came in to mess with the heroes in later seasons. The show's main drawback, however, may have been the kid sidekicks forced upon the heroes by worried TV executives; Wonder Twins Zan and Jayna may have been annoying, but they were nothing compared to the non-powered Marvin and Wendy. And don't get me started on Wonderdog.

Legends Of The Superheroes: Oh, Adam West, must everything you touch turn to camp? Apparently, if this 1979 two-part live-action special (also starring Burt Ward as a somewhat older than usual Robin, as well as Ed McMahon as himself) is anything to go by. If the laugh track on both shows wasn't enough to let you know that things weren't being taken too seriously, the fact that the second episode of the series was a roast in honor of Batman where brain-dead undead villain Solomon Grundy kept punching Ed McMahon every time he said the word "swamp" might clue you in to the abuse the Justice League endured in their prime-time debut.

Justice League of America: Things, of course, could get worse. This 1997 live-action pilot for a show that thankfully never got produced focused around the successful late-80s version of the comic devoid of big names - that's how we got M*A*S*H's David Ogden Stiers as green-skinned leader J'Onn J'Onzz, fighting Miguel Ferrer's villainous meteorologist, The Weatherman. Not so much camp as just plain bad, this show was unaired in the States, but ended up getting released to unlucky viewers overseas as a TV movie.

Justice League/Justice League Unlimited: Leave it to the animators to finally get it right. The five year run of Justice League — which changed format twice, and name once, during that time — was brought to the Cartoon Network in 2001 by the people who'd created the groundbreaking Batman cartoon in the 1990s, and used stories by animation and comics veterans (including Warren Ellis and Wonder Woman's Gail Simone) to create with a show that was as respectful to the fans as it was friendly to a regular audience. It also featured classic scifi actors (including Mark Hamill, Michael Ironside, Rob Zombie and almost everyone who had ever appeared in a Joss Whedon show. Also, Ed Asner played Granny Goodness, which always amuses me.)

With some of that show's staff behind New Frontier — as well as working on more direct-to-DVD animated features for DC — it's good to know that, even if George Miller does go ahead with casting Seth Cohen as Wally West in the live action movie, there's still potential for some good Justice League movies in our future.

First showcased on our sister site Gizmodo, Sillof's custom action figures are a highly detailed labor of love that he creates in his spare time. Just check out his Dune and Star Wars Re-Vision projects. He also have a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen set, but these Justice League figures done up in steampunk-style really take the Victorian-era cake. He used the Gotham by Gaslight graphic novel as the model for Batman, and extrapolated what the other members of the Justice League might have looked like. Check out the detail on Hawkgirl's mechanical wings, and Aquaman's helmet and suit, keeping him hydrated. These figures are so well-made that we want to buy the whole set right now. Instead, we'll have to just focus our telepathy circuits on making Hollywood turn the aborted movie into something like this.

Gaslight Justice League Models by Sillof [Brass Goggles]

• The budget: According to several different sources, the budget on the film was spiraling out of control. Although we wonder what "out of control" really means, because the effects powerhouse Weta was onboard to do the costumes, and "maybe" some digital effects... if they had time. If a studio waves a $25 million dollar check at you, we have a feeling you'd make the time.
• The rumblings from the Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman camps: Christian Bale was not happy that they were making a movie that would feature another Batman in it, saying it'd screw up what they'd been working on as part of the whole Batman Begins / The Dark Knight series. Plus with the constant rumors that Warners wants to return to basics with a new Superman movie (sans Bryan Singer and Brandon Routh), and a Wonder Woman flick, then it doesn't make any sense to populate a big budget film with other actors playing the parts of the Big Three members of the JLA.
• The cast: Director George Miller wanted this film to be huge, which could account for the budget being pushed up, but his cast was cast with a slew of B-list actors, at best, and didn't feature a name that would draw masses of people to the theaters. Did you want to shell out $12 bucks to go see some unknown amateur magician play Batman, or would you rather wait for Christian Bale? That's what we thought.
• The script: Apparently everyone and their mom thought the script needed work, and this will probably be the ultimate reason for the movie coming to a dead stop. Due to the strike, no rewrites can happen no matter how hard anyone begs. It's the kryptonite to this project, and maybe that means we'll get a quality JLA movie sometime down the road. Probably after Marvel releases The Avengers and it rakes in a boatload of cash.

• The new Wonder Woman could be a supermodel whose acting experience mostly consists of playing herself in Italian films. Megan Gale also served as a "fashion commentator" for the Logies, Australia's charmingly named TV awards show. It's all part of director George Miller's scheme to pack Justice League with Australians. Another Ozzie rumored to be in the running to play a superhero: Gabriel star Andy Whitfield. [Moviehole]
  
• The new Star Trek movie will reference so many obscure story points from the franchise's past that most viewers will be lost, judging from a leaked outline.

The rumored storyline will pay homage to so many classic episodes (plus Wrath of Khan) that you might as well just watch a clip reel instead. [IESB]

• A prequel to Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes is said to be in the pipeline. We can only hope it'll trace the evolution of Helena Bonham Carter's awesome ape fashion sense. [Quiet Earth]

Image by Splash News