Iron Man 2:

So you've noticed that press clippings about Tony Stark are a big part of this sequel — and three of them have been appearing on various sites. The clippings talk about Tony Stark "coming out" as Iron Man, but they each have a different word highlighted: Secret, Stark, and Confession. Is Tony going to confess something else besides being Iron Man in the next film? [MTV]

John Carter Of Mars:

Mark Strong plays the villain, Matai Shang, and he's not doing any motion-capture — although his character is a shape-shifter, so he's had to be photographed by a 360 degree camera, so he can shift into things. He mostly turns into other people, says Strong. [ComingSoon]

Avatar:

Here's a new clip of dragon-flying excitement. [MTV]

And Sam Worthington and Sigourney Weaver were talking the film up on The View:

Dangerous Species:

Apparently Eli Roth's Cloverfield-esque film is no longer called Endangered Species. Or else somebody misheard him. [Collider]

Daybreakers:

Wondering just how crazy it gets when the future vampire population starts to run out of blood? Behold for yourself, in a new clip:

Doctor Who:

Another new trailer includes a bit of new footage of John Simm's Master rocking the weird bottle-blond/hoodie/collar look. [Thanks again CJ!]

Lost:

Michael Emerson says:

I think next year, after the conclusion of the final season, when people see the strength and style of how we go out, I expect Lost to have more recognition.

And he says Terry O'Quinn is continuing to do staggering work in the final season, and Josh Holloway is also having a really strong final season, with a gripping, moving storyline. [TV Guide Magazine]

Says Carlton Cuse:

I think we're doing something new in this final season narratively, so we have that combination of fear and giddiness. The fear is, oh, what if people don't like it, what if the audience doesn't like what we're doing?

[TV Guide]

The show was filming a beach scene with Locke, Ben, four scientists... and Widmore? Is this on the Island, or just some random beach? [SpoilersLost]

Apparently clues in the latest Lost posters include a flaming ankh in Hurley's hand, and an upside-down Oceanic logo. [SpoilersLost]

Dollhouse:

Felicia Day says the final episode, which she co-stars in, "wrap[s] up the storyline in an amazing way and I'm blown away by the writing." But doesn't really go into specifics. [TV Guide Magazine]

Supernatural:

Rejoice! Ash, the mullet-sporting nerd, will be back soon, says actor Chad Lindberg via Twitter. [Twitter via SF Universe]

Chuck:

Chuck's new abilities may include speaking Thai and sky-diving, among other things. Someone else besides Awesome will learn Chuck's secret this season (my money's on Morgan). Robert Patrick is playing a soldier from Casey's past, and Stone Cold Steve Austin is a baddie that Chuck gets trapped on a plane with. [Sci Fi Wire]

And here is a sneak peek, plus some new promos!

Caprica:

Here are some new featurettes about this BSG prequel:

Heroes:

Remember this series? Well, it remembers you. And here's what's coming up when it returns:

As Claire becomes immersed in the world of the carnival, she becomes increasingly suspicious of Samuel's motives; Hiro goes on a mission to rescue one of his own; H.R.G. recruits Matt to help him take down Samuel.

[SpoilerTV]

Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths:

William Baldwin (Dirty Sexy Money) plays Batman, and here are some pictures of Bats from this new original animated film. [Warner Bros.]

Additional reporting by Mary Ratliff.

Doctor Who:

The cast list for the upcoming David Tennant swan song, "The End Of Time," went up on IMDB. And there are some notable surprises in there. (Assuming this is accurate.) Here's the cast list for episode one:

John Barrowman (Captain Jack)
Brian Cox (The Elder of the Ood)
Timothy Dalton (The Narrator)
Lachele Carl (Trinity Wells)
Jessica Hynes (Verity Newman)
David Harewood (Joshua Naismith)
Jacqueline King (Sylvia Noble)
Alexandra Moen (Lucy Saxon)
Sylvia Seymour (Miss Trefusis)
Catherine Tate (Donna Noble)
Russell Tovey (Midshipman Frame)
John Simm (The Master)
Jimmy Vee (Monster)
June Whitfield (Minnie Hopper)
Paul Kasey (Ood Sigma)
Silas Carson (Ood voice)

Verity Newman, of course, is the woman who wrote a book about the Doctor (judging from the filming reports) while Jason Naismith has written a very differnt book. And Midshipman Frame was last seen in the Titanic episode, "Voyage Of The Damned." Most of those people also appear in episode two, except for the Ood Elder. Plus:

Roger Bailey (Time Lord)
Teresa Banham (Governor)
Brid Brennan (Visionary)
Camille Caduri (Jackie Tyler)
Tommy Knight (Luke Smith)
Billie Piper (Rose Tyler)
Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith)
Matt Smith (The Doctor)
Penelope Wilton (Harriet Jones)

So we'll be getting our first glimpse at Matt Smith as the Doctor in this episode. Plus, we'll meet another Time Lord. Rose Tyler, of course, will be back for a brief cameo with her mom from before she met the Doctor (at least judging from filming reports.) But perhaps the most surprising will be the return of Harriet Jones — could the dying Doctor be trying to undo his past mistakes, including unseating Prime Minister Jones? One can only hope. [Den Of Geek]

Dollhouse:

Here are three new clips from Friday's two-hour Summer Glau-tastic outing.

Lost:

Here's another new promo for season six. [Doc Arzt]

Spider-Man 4:

I don't think we've featured this quote from Tobey Maguire about why he's excited about doing a fourth outing:

Hopefully I'll be able to evolve the character in a new direction. He'll still be Peter Parker, but I hope I can move him forward a bit and take him to a place where there will be new challenges for me as an actor.

[MTV]

Zombieland 2:

Producer Gavin Poulone says the second movie will probably be 3-D, and director Ruben Fleischer is already back, with the stars in talks to return too. [Variety via Wired]

Nightmare On Elm Street:

We already showed you your first look at the new Freddy the other day, but now here are a few new promo pics that look remarkably like the original. [Omelette via SpoilerTV-Movies]

Fringe:

Here's a sneak peek of Thursday's episode, "Snakehead":

Smallville:

Here's your first look at Steve Bacic as — bwa ha ha — the Dark Archer. [KryptonSite]

True Blood:

I don't think this'll be a surprise to anyone who's been paying attention, but it's official that Theo Alexander will be playing Talbot, the boyfriend of the Vampire King of Mississippi. Talbot is intensely beautiful and has an acerbic sense of humor — and he loves to cook, even though vampires aren't supposed to cook. And Grant Bowler will play Coot, the werewolf leader of a menacing biker gang. [THR]

Star Wars: Clone Wars:

Here's what happens in Friday's new episode, "Brain Invaders":

Reunited after the Battle of Geonosis, Padawans Ahsoka Tano and Barriss Offee are assigned to take a supply ship back to Republic-controlled space. But their routine mission becomes a fight for survival when they discover that the ship has been overrun by a horde of deadly stowaways – Geonosian brain worms with the grotesque ability to control the thoughts and actions of their clone hosts. It is impossible to tell friend from foe when dealing with deadly "Brain Invaders."

With their clone comrades controlled by the gruesome Geonosian brain worms, the Padawans must confront their greatest challenge yet. Though faced with a deadly threat to life and limb, it is their commitment to the Jedi teachings that is truly put to the test; with former friends as enemies, the two young women are forced to weigh the fate of the Republic against their own personal attachments.

And here's a new pic and clip from the episode:

Chuck:

Episode 3x12, which would have been the penultimate episode of the season before it was extended, will be called "Chuck Vs. The American Hero." [ChuckTV]

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths:

In this direct-to-DVD movie, we see a different side to one of the DC Universe's worst villains:

A "good" Lex Luthor arrives from an alternate universe to recruit the Justice League to help save his Earth from the Crime Syndicate, a gang of villainous characters with virtually identical super powers to the Justice League. What ensues is the ultimate battle of good versus evil in a war that threatens both planets and, through a diabolical plan launched by Owlman, puts the balance of all existence in peril.

And here are a couple pics:

Additional reporting by Mary Ratliff.

Let's start with Electropolis, the new Dark Horse collection of Dean Motter's Retrofuture Deco Noir story (Preview here). Filled with robot detectives, femme fatales and the power of electricity, it's just one of many off-beat genre books appearing at comic book stores this week.

And if Electropolis' pulp fiction is your thing, then maybe the Batman/Doc Savage Special (Dark Knight Detective versus Man of Bronze!) will also float your boat, after all. Or maybe Sky Doll: Doll Factory, a collection of unseen material from the awesome European strip Sky Doll, will provide your reading material for the next few days.

But if you prefer your heroines a little less suggestible than Sky Doll, the first issue of Tank Girl: Skidmarks is probably more your speed. Unsurprisingly, we'd also point you in the direction of the debut of Locke & Key: Crown of Shadows, but we're biased.

Maybe you're looking for something you've already seen in major motion pictures? That's okay; not only is there a preview issue of the new series of Wall-E, but there's also Star Wars Purge: Seconds To Die, which follows a young Darth Vader killing off as many Jedi as possible, post Revenge of The Sith. And that's not all! There's also a paperback collection of DC/Wildstorm's recent The X-Files series.

For those who can't get enough of those superheroes, then I'd recommend the first issue of Warren Ellis' Supergod, his latest "What if superheroes were bastards?" series. Or, on the opposite end of the superhero spectrum, the Absolute Justice hardcover, collecting Alex Ross' expansive love letter to the Super Friends (No, really).

In between those two extremes, there's Dynamite's Project Superpowers: The Black Terror Vol. 1 collection, DC's Green Lantern: Agent Orange collection, which leads into the current Blackest Night storyline, Supergirl: Who Is Superwoman? (in which Sterling Gates and Jamil Igle manage to undo years of abuse and make Supergirl a likable, working character again - good job, people) and the Authority: The Lost Year Reader (reprinting Grant Morrison and Gene Ha's two completed issues of their abandoned run, ahead of Keith Giffen and other artists aiming to complete the story in their absence).

There's also Marvel's PunisherMax (Yes, one word. It's the new "mature readers" title for the character, and maybe Marvel thinks pushing words together is more adult?), Green Hulk/Red Hulk collection (Heroes' writer Jeph Loeb writes a couple of gamma-irradiated monsters in a couple of adventures), the first issue of Strange (Mark Waid's reboot of the former Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme). And also, there's all manner of X-Men books: the Dark Avengers/X-Men: Utopia collection, as well as collections of Wolverine: Tales of Weapon X, Wolverine Weapon X: Adamantium Men and Wolverine/Gambit. All your Wolverine needs should definitely be met this week, let's face it.

If there are any other needs looking unserviced, I'd recommend checking out the complete list of books shipping from Diamond Distributors this week, and then remembering that your local comic book store can be found here. If this week seems overly expensive, don't worry; there's an entire skip week at the end of the year to get some of that money back. Look at it as a loan. Or something.

Superman:

For the umpteenth time, James McTeigue, rumored director of the next Superman film, said that while he's had "some discussions" with Warner Bros., the movie isn't happening any time soon. But as always, McTeigue was happy to talk about what his approach would be if he did take on Big Blue:

Superman is probably ripe for a bit of a change up. I think society has changed around the core idea of what Superman was... And I'm not saying you do the ubiquitous dark Superman, I'm not saying that… I'm just saying that I think there are some things that you could excise from the Superman mythology that people would get into it, if you took the world that he was in and changed that a bit, and maybe even project that into the future a bit. I think you don't really have to play into the origin story anymore. I think there's a whole bunch of things you could do to make that film more alive and exciting again.

So it sounds like McTeigue is backpedaling slightly from the idea he floated a while back, of a darker Superman. But more importantly, it sounds like he wants to put Clark Kent a few years into the future — which might allow for a more science-fictional take on our favorite visitor from space. Color us intrigued. [FirstShowing]

Avatar 2:

If Avatar does well enough, we're bound to get a second helping — and producer Jon Landau offers one suggestion for what the next movie will be about: the first movie only explores the surface of the planet Pandora. "The interior remains to be seen." So there could be some Na'Vi spelunking and subterranean exploration. [Slashfilm]

Paul:

Jane Lynch, who's my new favorite actor thanks to Glee, says she's in one scene of this Simon Pegg film — she's the proprietor of the Ailey-Inn, an alien-themed restaurant that caters to nerds who are drawn to the vicinity of Area 51. (So, just like the alien-themed restaurant in Roswell.) Pegg and Nick Frost show up in the diner, reading their "cartoon books." Adds Lynch:

There's some trail in Nevada that's supposedly [where aliens have landed], and they're on the trail. [My character] owns the Ailey-Inn and she's way into it. She's profiting financially from [all these alien-hunting tourists], so she's their good friend.

[MTV]

Resident Evil: Afterlife:

The fourth Resident movie just started production officially, and the official press release offers just a snippet of new plot info, courtesy of producer Paul W.S. Anderson: "Alice's battle with The Umbrella Corporation isn't finished. Last time we saw Alice, she let them know she was coming after them. It's time to settle the score." [Bloody Disgusting]

Lost:

Another new character we'll be meeting is Detective Rasmussen, who makes a visit to the hospital where Kate brings the pregnant Claire. There's speculation that Rasmussen is investigating Kate, who's still a fugitive in this alternate timeline. [SpoilersLost]

A visitor to Hawaii, Jenni Ranee, posted some pics of this show's set, which include a glimpse of some returning characters: Frank Lapidus, Ethan, and Aaron's nanny. Notice the trailer for "Admitting Nurse" and "OB Nurse" for the hospital scene (as well as one for "Detective Rasmussen," see above.) Also, most of the camp set has been struck, but the ramshackle structure where the castaways kept their Dharma food is still kind of intact — could there be a reason it's been preserved? [JenniRanee on Flickr, via SpoilersLost]

Supernatural:

In episode eight, we'll get to learn what this show would look like as a sitcom. "Laugh track and all." [EW]

Fringe:

Is Walter going back into an institution? The show is seeking an actor to play this role in the tenth episode of the season:

[DOCTOR WEST] In his OR her 40s. He or she is intelligent and is the Director/Doctor in charge of a large mental institution. Guest Star. OPEN TO ALL RACES AND ETHNICITIES.

[SpoilerTV]

FlashForward:

John Cho will need to spend some time playing Sulu in the next Star Trek movie, so does that mean his TV character Demetri is doomed to die? (After all, Demetri didn't see any vision of the future.) Cho says he doesn't know, and in any case the producers of both projects will work it out somehow. (And presumably, the same dilemma applies to Zachary Quinto, unless the inevitable undertakes Heroes first.) [Sci Fi Wire]

Stargate Universe:

Producer John G. Lenic talks about watching Robert Carlyle film an intense scene from early in the series:

[Carlyle] walks into a room, puts his iPod in a docking station, it starts playing. He goes over the side of the bed, looks at a picture, and starts crying. There was about six of us behind the monitors at that moment and we were all in tears. All had watery eyes and it was like, "Holy crap. What an amazing sensation to feel that."

[Gateworld]

Actor Brian J. Smith says his character, Lt. Matt Scott, goes through a lot in the episode "Life," and it's a "real heart-breaker." And the episode "Faith" takes place in a "breathtaking" location. [Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog]

Heroes:

The title of the 11th episode of this season will be "Thanksgiving." [The ODI]

Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths:

Here's a sneak peek at the next DC animated movie, which includes a glimpse of... Justice League Detroit? [MTV]

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.

Oolong Island
Does an island count as a city? Possibly not, but as anyone who read DC Comics' 52 knows, Oolong is no ordinary island. Populated almost entirely by mad scientists (and maybe a couple of sane ones, too), Oolong Island is a place where the old laws (of physics) no longer apply, and there's no such thing as a bad scientific breakthrough, only one that needs to be stopped from destroying the world as we know it by resident superteam, the Doom Patrol. But what else could you expect from a place where scientists are encouraged to indulge in mind-altering substances to further free their minds?

Platinum Flats
Whereas the real world has Silicon Valley, former Batgirl Barbara Gordon and her Birds of Prey have Platinum Flats, which proclaims itself as "America's High-Tech Capital" and home to all manner of upstart start-ups like YouSpace, MacroWare, NetCracker, Findster (Well, it is an alternate Earth, after all) and has eradicated problems like crime and urban decay thanks to its well-heeled and inventive inhabitants. Better living through technology indeed.

Haven
What's the quickest way to suddenly have a city full of advanced technology in your backyard? Have an alien spacecraft crash into it. That's what happened in the DC Universe's version of California (As if having Green Lantern's "Coast City" midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles wasn't enough), which suddenly found itself with an extra-terrestrial prison full of political prisoners dumped onto its coast in the early '2000s series Haven. On the plus side, the US Government granted them city status, in exchange for some of their tasty new technology. Let's just work on that whole "retro-engineering so we can use it without tentacles" thing, shall we?

Big Town
In 2000, Marvel Comics wondered what would've happened if, instead of using their genius to fight crime, Reed Richards, Tony Stark and the rest of their superheroic scientist buddies actually invented things to benefit society. According to Fantastic Four: Big Town, the result is a futuristic New York, which quickly becomes the center of civilization, expands to include nearby cities in other states, and destabilizes society as we know it. But, on the plus side, unstable molecules really cut down on your laundry costs.

Atlantis
Whether it's Marvel or DC Comics, there's an undersea city of Atlantis, and they're more technologically advanced than us. Marvel's Atlanteans prefer to travel is super-science submarines while they consider their latest plans to invade the surface world for whatever unconvincing reason they've been duped into believing this week, while DC's undersea dwellers have the distinction of having a civilization that started long before man had even crawled from the sea, and therefore having a head-start on the rest of us. Of course, if they were really that smart, they'd have worked out how to stay out of the water for more than an hour at a time, but apparently they were too busy telepathically communicating with whales to be troubled by such thoughts.

Attilan
Maybe the only people who can deal with the world of tomorrow today are scientifically-advanced themselves... like Marvel Comics' Inhumans, whose millennia-old city is so advanced that it has not only withstood being transported throughout space (literally; for awhile, it existed on the moon) but has also proven capable of physically transforming itself into a spaceship when needs be. See? Humans end up turning scientifically-advanced cultures into disasters, but Inhumans are apparently smart enough to turn change to their advantage.

Electropolis
Dean Motter's most recent take on the idea of the futuristic city (from his 1999 series of the same name) offered a different take on the idea: the retrofuturistic city, founded on decades old ideas about the future that're still ahead of their time. "Cathedral-sized Van Der Graaf generators and towering Strickfadden machines" may sound oddly outdated to us now, but this city still managed to have robot detectives, flying cars and an on-time metro service unlike the modern world we live in.

Metropolis
What better home for the Man of Tomorrow than the self-declared City of Tomorrow? Superman's adopted hometown may be best known for its major metropolitan newspaper, but consider all of the mad scientists that Superman faces on a regular basis, to say nothing of the alien technology, scientific establishments to clean up after superbattles and even the wonderfully-named Science Police, and it's pretty clear that there's more to this forward-thinking city than depending on print media. The city even has a street dedicated to scientific institutions called The Avenue of Tomorrow. What could be more perfect than that?

Syndrome (The Incredibles)

You, sir, truly are Mr. Incredible! You know, I was right to idolize you. I always knew you were tough, but tricking the probe by hiding under the bones of another super?! Oh, man! I'm still geeking out about it!

Fannish Traits: Fashioning himself as Mr. Incredible's sidekick Incredi-Boy for one, but even the business of making the ultimate superhero-killing machine and luring Mr. Incredible to his island lair to fight it was fannish in its own warped way.
What Drove Him to Evil: A demoralizing rejection at the hands of Mr. Incredible left him with a inferiority complex and bitter grudge against the superpowered community.

Henchman #21 (The Venture Bros.)

Dude I can't believe we didn't get blown up. We're like those guys on TV who never get shot. Yeah we're like main characters.

Fannish Traits: He keeps a closet full of collectible weapons, has a side job with the Atomic Comic Collection Connection, and debates whether the Smurfs are mammals. Fortunately, #21 lives in a comic book world, and his genre savvy is one of the things that keeps him alive.
What Drove Him to Evil: #21 was actually kidnapped and pressed into the Monarch's service at age 15, but he keeps up his henching because he finds it kind of awesome.

The Trio (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Warren: What the hell is that?
Andrew: Death Star, dude! Wicked, huh?
Jonathan: Uh, thermal exhaust port's above the main port, numbnuts.
Andrew: For your information, I'm using the Empire's revised design from Return of the Jedi.
Jonathan: That's a flawed design!

Fannish Traits: In addition the van with the Death Star mural, dialogue amongst the Trio (Andrew and Jonathan in particular) is a constant stream of science fiction and comic book references (notably, Jonathan claims fluency in Klingon). And their attempts at bank robbery and Slayer killing are pretty much straight out of the supervillain handbook.
What Drove Them to Evil: Repeated social, scientific, and mystical missteps, which required the Scooby Gang's constant meddling. That, and they hoped it would get them girls.

Superboy-Prime (DC Comics)

On my Earth, I read all about you, Polar Boy. You were a substitute Legionnaire who was let into the clubhouse because people felt sorry for you. Y'know, I almost feel sorry for you. Almost.

Fannish Traits: Raised in our universe reading comic books (and named after Clark Kent), Superboy-Prime is so distraught with the current direction of the DC Universe, that he tries to retcon the universe so it resembles the DC comics of his childhood.
What Drove Him to Evil: Pretty much the entire DC writing staff.

Control Freak (Teen Titans)

All these would've worked on the real Titans. It's just, your powers are... stupid! I don't wanna fight you anymore.

Fannish Traits: It's no surprise that, with his obsession with science fiction and television, Control Freak becomes an accidental fan of the Titans themselves. He's genuinely miffed when he has to face off against the Titans East instead of the main Teen Titans, and he's pissed when he realizes he's not on the list of their most notorious villains — after all, he's a recurring character.
What Drives Him to Evil: Mostly, because villains look cool.

Joe Jackson Stevens (Powers)

Every time they report about her, they ruin her. Every time they say her name, they chip away at her soul. The Indians say that a photograph steals your soul. Imagine if they are right. The world has no rights to her soul. If only I could get her attention.

Fannish Traits: Despite an avowed hatred of capes, Stevens has a profound obsession with Retro Girl, as evidenced by his diary entries and some rather sticky photos found in his apartment.
What Drove Him to Evil: Stevens is just plain unbalanced. He goes Mark David Chapman on Retro Girl because he wants to preserve her unblemished memory for the masses.

Red Mist (Kick-Ass)

Seriously. This whole superhero thing's been bubbling away for years, but you were the first to get out there and have the balls to do it, man. I'm your biggest fan. This is like meeting Elvis or something.

Fannish Traits: Mist claims to be such a huge fan of Kick-Ass (and superhero comics), that he follows Kick-Ass's lead and dons a ridiculous red suit to fight crime.
What Drove Him to Evil: It's not clear that Red Mist was ever on Kick-Ass's side, but whatever the case, he was probably getting paid good money to turn on his fellow vigilante.

Tim the Fanboy (Fans!)

These guys are the president and vice-president of a very cool club! They've fought a vampire, a mind-control conspiracy, and an ancient god! Share in the coolness! Join now!

Fannish Traits: Whereas most members of Bilberg University's Science Fiction Club are fans of science fiction, Tim is a devotee of the Club itself, turning down a spot at Harvard so he could worship at their feet. That, and he dresses like Harry Potter.
What Drove Him to Evil: Tim tends to become utterly devoted to a cause, only to turn on it completely when it lets him down in the slightest. When the Science Fiction Club is overwhelmed by the time traveling warlord General Maximillianna, Tim decides that she must be the superior moral force, and quickly joins her forces.

Ray Thompson (Justice League "Legends")

"Holy hijacking, Catman!"

Fannish Traits: Ray is so nostalgic for the superheroes of his childhood, that after they perished in a nuclear holocaust, he psychically resurrects them so they can continue their adventures.
What Drove Him to Evil: The sole survivor of the nuclear holocaust, Ray just wants to recreate the world of his idealized childhood. But when his illusion is shattered, he goes on a rampage that threatens to destroy reality.

The Mad Hatter (Batman)

As the great Lewis Carroll said: "One, two, one, two, and through and through the vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head, he went galumphing back!"

Fannish Traits: Jarvis Tetch is so obsessed with Lewis Carroll's Alice books that he dresses as the Mad Hatter, only eats hat-themed food, and constantly quotes Carroll.
What Drove Him to Evil: Psychosis. The Hatter has trouble distinguishing between Wonderland and reality, and has developed a frightening obsession with girls named Alice.

Mock Turtle (Astro City)

There was Narnia, with Caer Paravel. And Alice's Wonderland. And more. And children could find them, children like me. If I could find the right wardrobe, go through the right looking glass —

Fannish Traits: Like the Batman villain above, Martin Chefwick was obsessed with fantasy realms, including Wonderland, Narnia, and Oz. And, while he didn't mistake the real world for Wonderland, as a child he often went off in search of a gateway to a fantastical realm all his own.
What Drove Him to Evil: He wanted to impress a girl.

Stewie Griffin (Family Guy "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven")

No way, I'm getting Patrick Stewart to sign it. Picard has it all over Kirk. He's poised and measured and doesn't wear a cheap rug. Rather, he accepts even baldness with a quiet cool that says, "I am in command. You are safe with me. I will cradle you in my arms through any crisis in any galaxy."

Fannish Traits: From our list of convention disasters, Stewie built a working transporter for the sole purpose of kidnapping the entire cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
What Drove Him to Evil: Stewie has always been evil, but in this case, he was simply annoyed he didn't get to ask his question at the convention.

Melllvar (Futurama "Where No Fan Has Gone Before")

Fry: Melllvar's got a spaceship.
Melllvar: Yes, in mint condition... and you made me take it out of the package!

Fannish Traits: Another from our convention disasters list, Melllvar creates a paradise for the cast of the original Star Trek so he can hold his own private convention. Then he makes them battle the Planet Express crew to the death for his fanboy affection.
What Drove Him to Evil: Non-corporeal beings only seem evil until you learn that they're harmless 34 year-olds still living in their parents' basements.

Ben Meyers (Smallville "Action")

I'm sorry, Lana. But there's a hero living among us, and there's only one way he'll accept his calling. You need to die.

Fannish Traits: A fan of the Warrior Angel comic books, Meyers is upset when he learns that the hero's love interest won't die in the film adaptation like she does in the book. To maintain the purity of the movie, Meyers decides to simply kill off the actress playing the love interest himself. And, when he discovers Clark's unusual abilities, he believes Lana must endure the same fate.
What Drove Him to Evil: Hollywood's obsession with happy endings.

Mysterious Fan Boy (X-Statix)

If we're really being honest here, and I hope we are, I'd started to love the new X-Force, even though their high mortality rate did unsettle my bowels. And now they go and change the whole thing. If that was all they'd done I might be able to forgive them. But they have done the unforgivable. They've killed the best of them. I mean, how do those people expect us fans to react?

Fannish Traits: Arnie Lundberg wears his fandom proudly. He is such a huge fan of X-Force in general and U-Go Girl in particular that when his favorite team member gets killed off, he takes an entire town hostage, controlling and disfiguring its citizens, a la the Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life."
What Drove Him to Evil: A combination of childhood taunting, relative omnipotence, and U-Go Girl's death. But it all works out for him since he joins the newly renamed X-Statix team so they can keep an eye on him.

Comic Book Guy (The Simpsons)

Lucite...hardening. Must end life...in classic...Lorne Greene pose...from...Battlestar Galactica. Best...death...ever!

Fannish Traits: There's very little in the Comic Book Guy's life that doesn't center around fandom. And, in the Treehouse of Horror episode "Desperately Xeeking Xena," he becomes a villain known as "The Collector," who steals his favorite celebrities and places them in PET bags for safe keeping.
What Drove Him to Evil: The desire to preserve his favorite actors in mint condition.

The Catgirl Menace (Something Positive)

I'm tired of you comic creators thinking just because you make something you own it! You don't! It's ours the minute we read it! And the fans know better than you do what's right, otherwise we'd be making comics, not reading them!

Fannish Traits: Not precisely scifi, but too powerful to be ignored, the Catgirls walk around in adorable cat ears and will read anything with the word "Neko" in the title.
What Drove Them to Evil: Someone dissed their obsession du jour, Neko Neko Holy-Chan. Fortunately, they lost interest when they realized the comic creators were changing the comic in a way that disagreed with their fan fiction and shattered their little yaoi fantasies. Some creators just like their straw fans to smack you in the face.

Even before most people had heard of Erwin Schrödinger, we knew that there were plenty other Earths out there; we'd seen Star Trek's Mr. Spock with a goatee, or watched the Justice League and Justice Society meet up thanks to a crystal ball. I've already written about my undying love for the concept, and I'm not alone; sci-fi loves to offer glimpses of the roads less taken, whether they're character-based or somewhat more... epic. Consider the following while planning a summer trip to another world:

What Mad Universe
If you're looking to get away from it all, you could do much worse than decide to take a break on the parallel Earth from Fredric Brown's 1949 novel. Admittedly, you'd have to avoid being accused of being an alien spy when you try to spend your money, but isn't that a chance you'd want to pay to visit a world where spaceflight was accidentally discovered in 1903, and astronauts are pin-up girls?

Eye in the Sky
Of course, you'd have to be careful of your own subconscious if travel to parallel Earths followed the rules of Philip K. Dick's 1957 novel, where alternate realities were entirely subjective manifestations of your own state of mind. Unless, of course, your state of mind was completely relaxed because you're going on vacation. Oh, the tangled web we weave...

Doppelgänger/Journey To The Far End Of The Sun
Who doesn't wish that scientists could still discover a parallel Earth on the opposite side of the sun, as in this classic 1969 movie written by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, creators of Thunderbirds, UFO and Space: 1999? The idea was recycled three years later in Marvel Comics' Warlock stories (and later in their Heroes Reborn arc), but Doppelgänger's world - where everything is reversed from ours, including writing, thanks to the wonders of flipping film - remains the one to beat. Imagine getting away from it all in a world where everything is backwards.

The Eternal Champion
Michael Moorcock's Multiverse works slightly differently than most, in that each world includes facets of people, instead of multiple versions of the same people, and each world may be vastly different from the one you're familar with. This may be a plus for your holiday, of course; experience something entirely new, and be less likely to run across a more successful, happier and healthier version of yourself in the process. (Much more traditionally multiversual, but feeling like it should be mentioned in the same breath as Jerry Cornelius: Matt Fraction's comic Casanova, where the hero is trapped in a parallel Earth, replacing the him that had died there.)

Star Trek
With this summer's movie, Starfleet's finest have finally come up with a parallel timeline (including an Earth, so it counts, thank you very much) that measures up to the show's classic Mirror Universe. Out of all the revamps and reboots that we've seen, this is one of the few that made the choice to make the revamp the center of the story and patiently explain that history may have been changed, but all that did was create a new parallel timeline. Pandering to the original show's fanbase? Sure - but doing so in such a way that it doesn't stop the movie for everyone else. Yes, the crew of the Enterprise have played around in the timestream many of times, but the new Movie-Earth lines up so well with Mirror-Earth and OriginalSeries-Earth that it's really only a matter of time before some comic or novel seeks to cross them all over in a Spock-centric altern-orgy, and I for one can't wait. As it is, Trek doesn't just offer one utopian future, but two; your choice depends on just how much time you feel like you want to spend with William Shatner.

Fringe


What was the ingredient that made this show more than just an X-Files wannabe with an eccentric scientist and a cow? The sudden, surprise introduction to a war with a parallel Earth (complete with explanation of the multiverse concept for newbies, above). Admittedly, the glimpses we've seen of the alternate Fringe world(s?) haven't been especially alluring to those seeking a quiet getaway - It all seems to be explosions, Charlies with scars and grim skies, unless you're in a shining New York with multiverse magnet Leonard Nimoy and his newspapers that mention JFK still being alive (Maybe we should call this parallel Earth-StereotypicalRightWingViewOfADemocraticFantasy?) - but there's a downside to every vacation spot.

Sliders


Like Quantum Leap (or, if your tastes run to a slightly later vintage, The Time Tunnel) before it, Sliders took the idea of characters just trying to get back home and ran with it... Ran across the multiverse, that is (A similar idea was behind the earlier, and much less successful Otherworld television series from the mid-80s). Five seasons of hopping between Parallel Earth San Franciscos on a television show budget demonstrated a wide variety of possible alternate worlds out there, including an Earth where Britain won the Revolutionary War leading to the British States of America, an Earth where a zombie plague has been unleashed, an Earth where dinosaurs are still alive, and an Earth where Ancient Egyptian is the dominant culture. Sadly, they didn't find an Earth without shitty CGI effects, but it was the 1990s. As a model for how to spend your summer, I'm torn whether or not to recommend it. Maybe you should ask yourself how much you really love San Francisco.

DC Comics
Less one potential getaway than a superpowered version of Orbitz, DC's superhero line loves the idea of a multiverse like almost none other; their original multiverse came from the company trying to come up with ways of haphazardly adding characters from other publishers without confusing things too much as much as anything, but the current version is much more structured... and finite. For one thing, there are "only" 52 Earths, now. Here are the ones we know about. Pick your favorite:

Earth 0 is the "core" Earth, the one that all "regular" stories take place on and - more importantly for the purposes of this post - the one that was the basis for the 51 alternate Earths that are known to exist within DC's current multiverse. Of those 51, the following have been identified:
Earth-1 is, essentially, the Earth that most comic fans grew up reading about - Think of it as "Earth Super Friends."
Earth-2 is an Earth that missed out on all of the Silver Age of comics, so there's no Hal Jordan Green Lantern (or Green Lantern Corps at all, for that matter), nor a Barry Allen, Wally West or Bart Allen Flash. For all intents and purposes, it's the same as DC's original Earth-2.
Earth-3 is an Earth of reversed moralities - the Justice League is the Crime Syndicate, Clark Kent is the villainous Ultraman, Lex Luthor is a superhero, and so on.
Earth-4 is as close to Earth Watchmen as you're likely to get outside of the Watchmen series; it's an Earth where only the Carlton characters who inspired Moore and Gibbons' series exist.
Earth-5 is an Earth where the only superheroes are Captain Marvel and his associated Shazam Family of characters.
Earth-6, Earth-7, Earth-32, Earth-37, Earth-38, and Earth-39 are all Earths where the variations are fairly minor, and very continuity based:"What if Batman became Green Lantern?" - That kind of thing.
Earth-8 is a parody of Marvel Comics' Ultimate Earth, where the Avengers are represented by "The Meta Militia."
Earth-9 is the home to the Tangent Comics characters, who bear the same names as the more familiar characters, but are in all other respects different.
Earth-10 is a world where the Nazis won World War II, and home to the guilt-ridden super-Nazi Uberman.
Earth-11 is an Earth where genders are reversed, so you have Superwoman, Batwoman and Wonderman instead of the more familiar versions of the characters.
Earth-12 is an Earth you're very familiar with; it's officially the world of Batman Beyond, which also means that it's the parallel Earth where all the Bruce Timm DC cartoons took place.
Earth-13 is the Earth where many of DC's Vertigo line apparently occurs.
Earth-15 used to be an Earth where all crime had been eliminated by particularly successful superheroes... but then it was destroyed by Superboy Prime, just to prove how much of an asshole he can be. Of course, it theoretically was rebuilt
Earth-16 is the home planet of the Super-Sons, AKA Batman Junior and Superman Junior. Yes, that's right; Superman and Batman got married (not to each other), had sons, and named them after themselves. Don't ask.
Earth-17 is a post-apocalyptic Earth where nuclear apes rule. I promise you, I'm not making this up.
Earth-18 is an Earth where the world is still in Wild West times, complete with cowboy versions of the Justice League.
Earth-19 is an Earth where the world is still in Victorian times, complete with a Batman who has hunted down Jack the Ripper.
Earth-20 is "Pulp-Earth" - essentially, a parallel world where everything is as if it was a pulp novel.
Earth-21 is the Earth from the wonderful DC: The New Frontier series by Darwyn Cooke.
Earth-22 is the Earth from Kingdom Come, Alex Ross and Mark Waid's cautionary tale about why superheroes can't save the world, except for when they can.
Earth-26 is an Earth of smart, talking animals; it was "rendered uninhabitable" during 2007's Captain Carrot And The Final Ark series because funny animal books apparently are silly and not what the audience wants, but then reconstituted at the end of Final Crisis.
Earth-30 is the Earth from Red Son, where Superman landed in communist Russia.
Earth-31 is the Earth from The Dark Knight Returns series, so it's all mutants with sharp teeth and old grumpy Batman.
Earth-33 is an Earth where all of the familiar superheroes are now suddenly (magically, one might say) magicians, with names like "Batmage" and "Lady Flash, Keeper Of The Speed Force."
Earth-34 is an Earth where the British Empire still exists, and is ruled by a tyrannical despot called King Jack.
Earth-40 is an Earth where there are no public superheroes, just superpowered spies who work for the government. Which, if nothing else, would make James Bond movies more fun.
Earth-43 is a parallel Earth plagued by vampires, who have managed to turn Batman into one of their number. There are all manner of other mythical beasts as well, so this is pretty much "Horror Earth".
Earth-44 is Robot Earth; the main superheroes of this Earth are robotic versions of the Justice League.
Earth-48 is, unlike Earths 18 and 19, an Earth far in the future, where humanity is extinct after an intergalactic war has wiped out all native life on the planet.
Earth-50 is the Earth of DC's Wildstorm line. Again, post-apocalyptic, currently.
Earth-51 is, post-Final Crisis, the home to all of Jack Kirby's creations for DC Comics, following it having been yet another post-apocalyptic Earth. At least this one was repurposed for something constructive.

(There are also some Non-Numbered Earths (or, to be completely correct, Earths we don't know the numbers of yet), which include an Earth where Superman and Wonder Woman are black, an Earth where everyone resembles a manga character, and an Earth "just like our own" where superheroes are just the stuff of fiction.)

Charlie Jade

The 2005 South African/Canadian co-production gave us a glimpse at the parallel Earth you should really try to spend some time in: the Gammaverse, where everything is perfect, humanity has worked out how not to squander our resources, and you'll have no trouble getting a hotel room at an affordable rate. Just remember to ignore any offer of a budget weekend in the Alphaverse; it may sound exciting ("Alpha" just sounds good in general, right?), but it's pretty much the hellhole that give you anecdotes but also various forms of disease during your short stay. And if someone suggests a stay in the Betaverse, remind them that that's where you already live and go find a new travel agent. (For more class-based alternate worlds, Warren Ellis' Anna Mercury may be what you're looking for.)

Additional research and reporting by Sarah Hope Williams.

Looking like a bulkier, meaner version of a Kubrick, the new range of toys from DC Direct - due to debut next year - is explained thusly by the company:

Kick off 2010 with a powerful and cute new look for your favorite DC Comics heroes - BATMAN, GREEN LANTERN, AQUAMAN - and more. Blammoids, a new wave of boldly designed toys from the team at DC DIRECT are unlike anything you've experienced before, but you'll definitely want to experience them again. A striking, energetic and kinetic take on the heroes you hold dear, how could you not want to collect them all? They bounce. They BOOM. They're collectible. They're Blammoids. They're fun.

I have to admit, I kind of love the weird cubiness of the Superman, and the other characters are if anything even better (Come on, look at that Aquaman):
Also, it's worth noting that Blammoid Superman is apparently a mean son of a block - Look what he's done to poor Blammoid Lex Luthor:
Blammoids will invade your lives starting next year. Watch your arms.

"A Little Something For Us Tempunauts" by Philip K. Dick features the classic time-loop storyline. A time-travel program is supposed to send some time-travelers forward 100 years, but instead only sends them a few days forward... where they learn that they died on their return from the future. But it gets worse, when one of them realize they're actually living the same few days over and over again, and so is the rest of humanity:

It felt like a deja vu thing, and then it hit him. We're in a closed time loop, he thought, we keep going through this again and again, trying to solve the reentry problem, each time imagining it's the first time, the only time... and never succeding. Which attempt is this? Maybe the millionth; we have sat here a million times, raking the same facts over and over again and getting nowhere. He felt bone-weary, thinking that. And he felt a sort of vast philosophical hate toward all other men, who did not have this enigma to deal with.

How do you break out? You don't. You're basically screwed. On the other hand, it's a kind of immortality.

Replay by Ken Grimwood. Jeff Winston dies of a heart attack at age 43, in 1988. Then he wakes up in 1963, when he's eighteen years old. He keeps reliving the years between 1963 and 1988 over and over again, making different choices each time, but nothing changes the stability of the loop, even committing suicide. Each time, he remembers his previous trips through the loop. Eventually, his loops get shorter and shorter, and meanwhile he tracks down another looper, Pamela. They finally go public, and the government forces them to provide intelligence on foreign developments.
How do you break out? It's not clear. The novel ends with Jeff and Pamela still looping, not sure if this will be their last time around.

"Time And Again" by David James won Science Fiction Magazine's short-story contest in the 1970s, with a classic time-loop story, but I haven't been able to find out much else about it.

The Twilight Zone, "Death Ship." Three astronauts discover a crashed spaceship that is an exact replica of their own. Eventually, they figure out they're actually dead, and then they snap back to the moment they discovered that crashed ship, in an endless loop. (This episode is supposedly becoming a big-screen movie.)
How do you break out? There's no way.

Groundhog Day is still the all-time classic, to the point where people now describe time loops as "Groundhog Day events." Bill Murray spends either about ten years, or millennia looping through the same day. (Director Harold Ramis has said both.) Each iteration of that one day, he learns a bit more and masters all of the variables a bit better.
How do you break out? Once he manages to have the absolute perfect day, he's free of the loop. That includes saving people's lives, fixing a flat tire, putting on a piano show, and getting Andie McDowell to fall for him.

12:01 (1990 Oscar-nominated short film): Myron Castleman (Kurtwood Smith) is trapped for all eternity, reliving the same hour of his life. (Even suicide doesn't help, which is a common theme in these stories. It would be hilarious to find a time loop that you can break by killing yourself.) This half-hour film aired as part of Showtime's 30-Minute Movie series.
How do you break out? You try to sue the makers of Groundhog Day, only to get trapped in endless lawyers' conferences.

12:01 (1993 TV movie): I actually saw this when it was on originally, and enjoyed it a lot. The same day repeats over and over, due to a "time bounce" caused by a particle accelerator gone wrong. Only lowly H.R. employee Barry is aware of the time trap, and he has to get close to a lovely scientist, Lisa (who keeps dying) to discover the truth. Finally, it turns out that the main scientist behind the project (Martin Landau) is ebil.
How do you break out? By disposing of Landau, basically.

"Endless Eight" in The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya: In this Japanese novel series, schoolgirl Haruhi Suzumiya can change reality. In one installment, she makes her friends, known as the SOS Brigade, relive the same two weeks over again because they were so perfect.
How do you break out? After 15,498 repetitions (or about 600 years) Haruhi finally has enough.

Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Cause and Effect": The U.S.S. Enterprise gets caught in a loop where roughly the same day repeats over and over again – always ending with the ship blowing up. For the Enterprise, the loop lasts 17 days. For the USS Bozeman, the other ship in the loop, it lasts 80 years.
How do you break out? Finally, Data is able to "remember" enough to know that Riker isn't always a total moron. Just usually.

X-Files, "Monday": It's one of those days when everything goes wrong - and worst of all, it keeps repeating. Only one woman is aware the entire world is stuck in a time loop.
How do you break out? Mulder pulls a Data, and finds a way to send a reminder to himself, so he'll do things differently the next time around.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Life Serial": Buffy's working at the Magic Box, where a customer orders a live mummy hand. Her attempts to retrieve the hand invariably end with her killing it, which means the sale can't go through. How do you break out? She finally solves the puzzle by ordering a hand be delivered.

Stargate SG-1, "Window of Opportunity": O'Neill and Teal'c get stuck in a time loop for three months, and the only way they can get out is to translate the Ancient writing on an altar so that they have the necessary information to break out of the time loop. In the meantime, O'Neill and Teal'c enjoy their freedom from consequences by biking through the base, playing golf through a Stargate, and, in O'Neill's case, resigning from the Air Force so he can kiss Major Carter.
How do you break out? They finally translate the writing, which explains how the Ancients tried to prevent a disaster by building a time machine.

Day Break: This short-lived series starring Taye Diggs had him framed for murder and reliving the same day over and over until he could solve everything. At least one other person appears to be experiencing the same repetition. Digg's character, Detective Brett Hopper, seems to be able to cause some slight changes to the next loop, such as making people wake up with a strange sense of foreboding that something is about to happen.
How do you break out? The show got canceled before we saw it happen.

Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, "Twas the Night before Mxymas": Mr. Mxyzptlk makes Christmas Eve repeat endlessly, each time around making things worse and worse until, before long, Clark and Lois (the only two aware of what's going on) are staring at nuclear annihilation as Mr. Mxyzptlk slowly removes all hope from humanity.
How do you break out? Lois and Clark finally manage to banish Mxy back to the fifth dimension, restoring hope.

Supernatural, "Mystery Spot": Such a classic example of the Groundhog Day trope that Dean actually references Groundhog Day several times. Sam keeps reliving the same day over and over again, and it always ends with Dean dying. At first he thinks it's due to their visit to a Mystery Spot, where the laws of physics don't apply, but as Dean's deaths get more and more demented, Sam starts to suspect otherwise.
How do you break out? Sam eventually figures out the reality-warping Trickster is behind it all.

Blood Ties, "5:55": This Canadian series about a cop with failing eyesight who becomes a P.I. (and teams up with the illegitimate vampire son of Henry VIII) featured an episode where the cop in question, Vicki Nelson, keeps reliving the same day over and over, in search of an antique.
How do you break out? Vicki finally opens a box that releases her from the time loop.

Outer Limits, "Déjà vu": A teleportation experiment goes wrong and sends a bunch of scientists back to the day before, with only Dr. Mark Crest remembering what happened. Trying to figure out what went wrong and created the loop, he ultimately discovers his friend Lt. Colonel Lester Glade altered the experiment by turning it into a bomb in the hopes of saving his career.
How do you break out? Crest finally traps Glade in a time-loop of his final second of life.

Doctor Who, "Meglos": The British time-travel comedy soap featured a lot of time loops, but none quite as ridiculous as Meglos, where the Doctor and Romana relive the same five minutes or so over and over again, at the hands (??) of an evil cactus, who wants to impersonate the Doctor.
How do you break out? It makes almost no sense. They start reenacting the events of the time loop a minute early, so the space/time vortex gets confused. Or something. I know!

Torchwood: Captains Jack and John spent five years in a two-week timeloop.
How do you break out? Probably by having so much sex, they broke time and space.

Sealab 2021, "Lost in Time": In a parody of the TNG episode, Quinn and Stormy keep getting blown back 15 minutes by an explosion that destroys Sealab. And when they try to warn Captain Murphy, they keep getting mistaken for doppelgangers and thrown in the brig.
How do you break out? They finally contact their other selves and abort the mission (to steal cable TV) that led to Sealab blowing up. And then all the duplicate Stormies and Quinns have to fight each other, gladiator style.

Justice League Unlimited, "The Once and Future Thing": Batman defeats the time-traveling Chronos by forcing him to trap himself in a time loop of the very second where he first started time-traveling, forcing Chronos and his wife to bicker for all eternity.
How do you break out? If Batman traps you, you stay trapped.

The Twilight Zone – "Shadow Play": Criminal Adam Grant is stuck in an eternal time loop, as he prepares for his execution. He desperately tries to convince people that none of this is real and that it will all fade to nothing once they execute him, but to no avail: he's killed before the governor's stay of execution can come through. It all restarts with a new itineration of the loop, although this time different people pay different roles in Grant's nightmare.
How do you break out? He doesn't.

Eureka, "I Do Over": It's Allison and Nathan's wedding day, and due to some kind of wibbly wobbly timey whimey thing, Carter ends up reliving the day over and over and over again.
How do you break out? Nathan Stark finally sacrifices his own life.

Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut: The entire world is forced to relive 1991-2001, and nobody has any free will to change events, despite remembering everything they did last time. Thus, everyone has to watch all the sadness and mistakes all over again.
How do you break out? The loop only goes around once.

Seven Days, "Come Again?": A glitch makes our time-jumping hero, Frank Parker, loop back to his arrival time.
How do you break out? Eventually, Parker figures out the glitch and prevents it from recurring.

More lists of time loops are at Wikipedia, Me Loops, and TVTropes.

Additional reporting by Alasdair Wilkins.

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello spilled the beans about the upcoming doom, and also revealed that one of the soon-to-die is a Smallville veteran, and another isn't... which, to me, sounds like we're going to lose Chloe and Davis, thereby bringing the season's Doomsday storyline to an appropriate climax, while also tying in with that "No Davis, Only Doomsday" rumor from Morning Spoilers yesterday.

I hope I'm wrong; Chloe is still one of my favorite characters in the show - Honestly, I don't care about Davis, and doubt the rest of you do, either - but she's also the only expendable veteran, because she's the only character left in the show who doesn't play a role in the Superman mythos as we know them; as much as I'd want to show to take a leap into the unknown by killing Jimmy Olsen, Lana (oh, please kill Lana) or Lois and making a definitive "All bets are off" statement about what the audience assumes is Clark's future, it's most likely never going to happen because the show, to its benefit and detriment, is completely devoted to Superman and the world around him that everyone knows about. Chloe is, sadly, the only long-running character who can be killed without changing the Superman stories that we love so much.

Thing is, I kind of want them to change the Superman stories that we love so much.

One of the main problems with Smallville, especially now that it's heading into its ninth year and has so much of the Superman world already in place (Metropolis, the Daily Planet, Lois) is that the sense of inevitability has completely overpowered any sense of real dramatic tension. We know who's going to live and die each week, because we "know" that Superman's best pal is Jimmy Olsen and his girlfriend is Lois Lane... or, for that matter, that Clark Kent will grow up to become Superman. And, really, there's no real reason that has to be the case.

Look at it this way; Smallville has already screwed up a lot of what we "know" about Superman - For one thing, there's already a Justice League going around fighting crime, and for another, Lex Luthor seems to have disappeared and been dealt with, alongside Brainiac, Zod and, by series' end, Doomsday. Jimmy is a contemporary of Clark's, and not a younger, overly-excitable cub reporter. Perry White is a washed-up hack, and not editor of the Daily Planet, and so on. So why can't Smallville go for broke in what must, surely, be its last season and completely throw out everything we think we know about the show and its characters in order to give us exactly what we don't expect? It's be a ballsy, unexpected move, and it could completely backfire - Let's face it, Smallville doesn't have the greatest track record for succeeding on the few occasions that they really have tried risks - but it would give Smallville something it's not had for years, if ever: The feeling that anything could happen at any moment, and that you should pay attention, just in case.

So here's hoping that Chloe survives, and that it's Clark's mom or someone who bites the speeding bullet that Clark wasn't faster than at the end of this season. It may not be what we'd expect, but that's kind of the point.

'Smallville' exclusive: Two characters will die [EW.com]

What's making us curious about the validity of the news is that all of the reports we've seen are crediting website Dark Horizons with the scoop - and linking to a story that has nothing to do with Miller whatsoever. In fact, at time of writing, the news story seems to have disappeared off Dark Horizon's site altogether.

Does this mean that it's untrue, and Miller didn't announce that he was off the movie because Warners wanted "bigger stars in their superhero movies now"? Not necessarily - but the sudden disappearance of the story seems more than a little bit unusual... and leaves the story without a source (The official website of Sunrise, the show that Miller apparently made the announcement doesn't seem to mention it, but it may just be in need of updating).

If the news is true, then it wouldn't be surprising - Warner Bros. have been known to be reapproaching their superhero franchises in the light of The Dark Knight's success, so trying to make a bigger deal of Justice League wouldn't be an unexpected move. We'll just wait to see if Miller actually said it or not before wondering whether the movie has become any more likely or not.

First Showing reports that producer Donald De Line has confirmed that “a new draft of the script came in,” and it’s so promising they're “gearing up to start shooting early next spring.… We’re really close — really close.”

[Note: possible spoilers ahead.]

Close to what story exactly? In the past few months, a couple of script pirates have reported that the film—a DC Comics origin story about how Hal Jordan came to wear the vert ring—will start with the death of Green Lantern Corps member Abin Sur on Earth after a battle with the intergalactic baddie Legion. (The latter will appear as one of the movie’s villains.) The dying Abin Sur snubs Clark Kent to pass the potent bauble — its power swells with its holder’s imagination — along to Jordan, a civilian grappling with the death of his father.

Once anointed, Jordan finds himself busy romancing aerospace businesswoman Carol Ferris, all the while gaining an enemy in Hector Hammond—who obtains powers while performing a government-sanctioned autopsy on Abin Sur. Facing certain defeat, Jordan journeys to the Green Lantern motherland, Oa, to ask for help in defeating the tenacious Hammond.

Sound enticing? According to both sources, the movie looks like it’ll be somewhat steeped in space travel and, as such, is a total fanboy pleaser.

Image courtesy WraithTDK

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

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

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

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

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

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

WB's hero hunt heats up [Variety]

Enough With The Guest-Stars Already. Hey, I'm as big a DC Comics nerd as you're likely to find, but having the entire Justice League continually drop in (and making Green Arrow a regular cast member in this new season)? It's a little much. It's one thing to make it seem as if Clark's less alone in his meandering battle for truth, justice and looking confused while he fails to actually solve any problem himself, but it's another when he's constantly being outshone by everyone else around him. That said...

When You Have Guest-Stars, Make Them Count. Having the Legion of Super-Heroes show up this year has a lot of potential, because - unlike teenage Green Arrow, teenage Aquaman, teenage Flash, Cyborg, Black Canary and the Martian Manhunter - they're an established and important part of the Superman mythos (Yes, I know the other characters - well, with the exception of Cyborg - are all members of the Justice League with Clark, but that isn't really the same thing). Similarly, if teenaged Bruce Wayne ever appeared in the show (or even Diana Prince, for that matter), that would also be an event. But more importantly, if/when those characters appear in the show, have them appear for a reason that is more than just "guest stars who are also easter eggs for the comic fans," and have their appearance mean something to Clark.

Stop Repeating Storylines That No-One Cares About. Seriously. We all get that the Luthors were not to be trusted, but that doesn't mean that Lex and/or Lionel had to have roughly several million secret labs, projects or experiments that they feel compelled to hide from everyone they know until it threatens the fate of the world. Let's move on from that kind of thing, especially now that both Luthors seem to be gone from the show. Similarly, any plot that turns a regular cast member into someone with a dark secret that generally involves superpowers? We don't want to see it. Especially if it involves someone getting magical Kryptonian tattoos and then becoming a ninja.

Start Making Your Stories Count. I'm not looking for Lost-style continuity here, but Smallville seems to happen in this weird soap operatic world where nothing anyone does ultimately has any meaning whatsoever: Bad guys die and no-one seems that bothered about it. Friends betray each other on a regular basis, and once the melodrama has died down, it's never mentioned again. The state of relationships change as the plot dictates, and the viewer is left not really caring about anyone anymore because it'll probably all be different next week after all. Remember that whole continuity thing that Buffy was so good at, Smallville writers? How's about trying that for awhile?

Most importantly, Let Clark Be The Star Of Your Show. Look, I know that Tom Welling's limited acting ability makes it harder than you'd probably like (Reason number seven that Lex was the most interesting character in the show? Michael Rosenbaum could act the pants off've Welling. And, in the fevered imagination of many 'shippers, probably did on a regular basis), but you've got to give him something to work with. Throughout the seven years of Smallville so far, Clark has been the most passive hero imaginable. For the first couple of years, that worked because - hey! - he was still learning, and also, he was the only one with all the superpowers. But now that it's seven years later and it seems that almost everyone around Clark has either had powers at one point or is related to someone with them, you can't use that excuse anymore. Another problem is that, the longer the show's gone on, the more we've learned that Jor-El and the rest of the Kryptonians seem to have had dealings with Earth before Clark's arrival. The intention was probably to deepen the whole Krypton mythology, but all it really did was make Clark less special; suddenly, it wasn't luck that brought him to Earth, but his dad's plan, and by the way, he's not even the first (or, with Kara's arrival, the last) Kryptonian to come to the planet. When your protagonist is surrounded by characters who seem more interesting, likable and powerful than he is, why are we supposed to care that much about him?

Alternatively, you could just ignore all of this and have Clark and Lois go undercover as a couple to investigate some random crazy dude. I'm sure that'll work as well.