Okay so clearly we just had some fun with Nic Cage and Superman toys, but why stop with the Tim Burton movie? What if he was Cyborg Superman, or Zombie Superman... and so on. And while we're at it, what about these guys for the big red-and-blue blur? Just throwing it out there: Jon Hamm as Superman seems like a good idea:

But in all seriousness we want to know what you think about the original image, which we ran the other day. Real, or bad Photoshop job?

io9 movie pitch photoshopping by Julia Carusillo.

Admittedly, fans of beefcake may find the amusingly titled Milo Ventimiglia Presents Berserker #1 - All Beef Edition more to their liking. (I promise, I am not making that title up.) But I'm sure there's an audience out there for Barack The Barbarian, the swords and sorcery satire launched by Devil's Due this week.

If equally ridiculous comics are your forte, then DC's Superman: Tales From The Phantom Zone reprints some stories about Superman's least favorite interdimensional prison, while William Shatner Presents Tek War promises to be ridiculous in a whole other, ego-trippical, way.

Marvel Comics's weekly haul may look very grim at first view, with so many books tying into the ongoing Dark Reign storyline. The books The Sinister Spider-Man, about Venom, Zodiac, about a new - and suitably deadly - character up to no good, and Dark Avengers/X-Men: Utopia, bringing Norman Osborn's bad guys to San Francisco to screw around with mutantkind.

But fans of ultraviolence and snark will treasure the complete collection of The Ultimates by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch, while everyone else can treasure two recent classics: Kathryn Immonen and David LaFuente's Patsy Walker: Hellcat and a hardcover collection of The Immortal Iron Fist by Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker and David Aja, both of which are as highly recommended as I can manage.

Over at DC, it's all about the ladies for their two new releases. Paul Dini brings together Catwoman, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy for the new series Gotham City Sirens. And Greg Rucka and JH Williams III launch Detective Comics into a new era of greatness, with the beautiful new Batwoman strip (and Rucka and Cully Hamner provide a Question back-up, for extra value).

Dark Horse, meanwhile, have the first issue of their great new Predator series coming out. And IDW have three GI Joe books for you to use as preparation for next month's movie: the Movie Adaptation, a Movie Prequel and the first volume of a new regular series. Who knew that military maneuvers had so much homework?

If you're still looking for more four color fantasies, you could do worse than take a peek at this week's Diamond Distributors Shipping List, which - as ever - is completely printable for a trip to your local comic store. Just make sure that your credit card is ready to take a pounding.

The new scripted webseries, titled Ultradome, hopes to settle your burning genre battle questions once and for all, in hypothetical special effects showdowns.

My whole life has been spent engaged with friends in intellectual debate ... like whether Captain Kirk is tougher than Spock, or if Middle Earth is a more difficult place to live than Tatooine," Ventimiglia said. "With 'Ultradome,' we can bring these debates to the public and settle them in the most logical way possible: through armed combat."

Ventimiglia's DiVide Pictures and Agility Studios are producing these 3 to 5 minute throwdowns with plans to release the series this summer (once it finds a home).

Good luck and good fighting. And remember, no shoes or shirts, Dumbledore.

[THR]

Firstly, show creator Tim Kring would like to reassure those worried by rumors of a Hayden/Milo feud that neither Claire nor Peter Petrelli will get the axe as a result of the actors' split; any death or disappearance will happen for other reasons entirely:

The final decision about which characters live and die on Heroes rests with me... I've made no announcement yet as to who will return and who won't.

(Psst, Tim? If you don't make an announcement, then it'll be more surprising when it actually happens on the show. Just sayin'.)

As if that's not enough, Hayden Panatierre is also denying the rumors:

Milo and I are very close... We have enjoyed and continue to enjoy working together.

But that's not all; those rumors about Ali Larter leaving the show? Also bunk, according to recently-returned producer Bryan Fuller, who told Entertainment Weekly:

She's not going anywhere... I've never seen somebody so committed to the show as Ali, and the show is absolutely committed to Ali.

Fuller also promises that the show is building to Larter's character, Tracy, ending the season in "a fantastic way." But what is the world coming to when all of these anonymous rumors turn out to be false? Is nothing sacred?

According to OK! Magazine Hayden supposedly:

refuses to be on the set at the same time as him," the insider says. "She is making it difficult for everyone involved. [Which Panettiere's rep denied].

And as for Milo well:

"He's not going to play any games or stoop to her level," said the snitch.

But think about it: what if Hayden did get former beau Milo Ventimiglia canned, and then the show's producers turned around and axed her as well for being an ungrateful little so-and-so? That would go a long way towards making Heroes watchable again. So yes, Hayden is totally right that NBC should change around it's million-dollar television series to suit the whims of her personal life. Ventimiglia should TOTALLY be fired. Hayden, please throw a tantrum and hold your breath until you turn blue, while knocking over delicacies on the craft service table. We've discovered that's always the best way to make a point.

For one thing, you can support Heroes' Milo Ventimiglia, whose new comic Milo Ventimiglia Presents Berserker gets its very own preview #0 this week. The new series - created by screenwriter Rick Loverd and "produced" by Ventimiglia, which presumably means he wants to play the lead if they make it into a movie - centers around people discovering that they're sleeper Norse Gods with all the powers that brings with it. My fingers are crossed for a Hayden Panatierre-a-like cameo by issue three.

If the television episodes of Battlestar Galactica aren't enough dystopian sci-fi for you, then you can bone up on the history of everyone's favorite messiah figure in Battlestar Galactica: Baltar, which explores the backstory that led one man to be self-centered, comedic and somewhat tragic, in his own way. Yes, it tries to add some pathos, but don't hold that against it.

But really, this is the week of the Bat. DC's pushing out the hardcover collection of uneven-but-much-better-on-second-read Batman RIP (which, to be honest, may be worth it if only for the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh and his colorful costume). But more excitingly, they're also releasing Batman #686, the first half of Neil Gaiman's Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader? send-off to Bruce Wayne. Illustrated by Andy Kubert, it looks beautiful from the previews that we've seen - and a more than worthwhile memorial to a character who isn't even pretending to be dead right now.

Even if you're not in the mood for Gaiman Gotham, you can check out the complete list of this week's new comic releases to find all the other men in tights (and other stories) available tomorrow, and then the Comic Shop Locator Service will help you find just where you should go to indulge yourself... If you're up to it after NYCC, of course.

Writing on his blog about the making of the episode, Beeman explained,

My favorite scene is the one where Peter and Nathan get in a fight, which culminates in the appearance of Jimmy Jean-Louis. The scene was very well written and had a natural escalation in the conflict between the brothers. It got to some core issues that I think haven’t been said as bluntly before. Milo and Adrian got pumped up for this one and came at it with strength. I think, in general, I was pushing for them to get angrier and grittier and yell more – to really let loose. But I’m always impressed by how much power Adrian can have when he goes soft. One of my favorite line readings of the scene is when, after being challenged by his brother, Nathan says “I’m a US Senator, you’re a nurse.” If I remember right, this line was scripted to be yelled, but Adrian went very soft and intense and I think the line is more cutting and powerful that way.

But, one story I must tell you, is that, for some reason, Milo and Adrian decided to pump themselves up for this scene by taking turns slapping each other on the back of the neck as hard as they could. I’m not sure how this brilliant idea got started, but I remember looking over and watching these two goofballs just smacking each other with all their might. There would be a loud CRACK! That echoed in the fake jungle and then, whoever had just been slapped started jumping around yelling, “Ow ow wow! Sonofab*&ch!” “Ah…” I thought to myself, “Ah, The Stanislavski method at work.” If you don’t believe me check out the pictures below. One is of the back of Adrian’s neck with welts in the exact shape of Milo’s fingers on it.

Sure enough, here's the proof:
There's something weirdly satisfying knowing that it's as painful to make Heroes as it is to watch it these days, isn't it?

[Beaming Beeman]

Talking to Comic Book Resources from the set of the show, Ventimiglia explained that this season's new characters will be there for a purpose, and will shake up the show:

I think there’s always a concern that when you bring in new people that you limit your time with the old people... I think that the producers have done a very good job this year of balancing that. I think they understood that when we were all separated in the second season, the fans weren’t too into that. When you bring in a new character, bring him in with a reason. Bring him in with a purpose. Don’t just pack it with a bunch of new faces that nobody knows.

Amongst those new faces? Peter Petrelli's father, Arthur:

I think every scene that we do, we’re discovering more than what we had just talked about. [Arthur’s] such a complicated character. He impacts everybody for his own need or want to be important and be the most powerful.

Does this mean that Petrelli Snr. is going to be the big bad of the third season? After seeing previously dealing with both Hiro's and Matt's Daddy Issues over the last couple of years, this doesn't make me too excited about the show's return on September 22nd.

On Set With Milo Ventimiglia, Part 1,

Explaining the concept of the series (which he's co-writing with Russ Cundiff; Swamp Thing vet Shawn McManus provides the art), Ventimiglia said,

If you could take a drug and never have to sleep, never be tired and always be on the top of your day would you take it?...No? What if your friend took it? He would have more time to get things done, take up a hobby, get everything done at work, play with his kids, go out with his wife, take a language, take karate...but what would your friend be like on the drug vs. other people that are not on the drug.

So it's... a crazy SF anti-drugs PSA, Milo?

There is not one, single underlying message in Rest, but many. It will be up to the reader to decide what that message is and ultimately what it means for them. As far as agendas, there is no intended social commentary in this comic; any parallels drawn by readers are purely a coincidence.

Suuuure. A "coincidence".

The comic book is based on an unproduced screenplay by Michael O'Sullivan, and it comes as no surprise that the lead character looks more than a little bit like a certain actor from NBC's Heroes. Angling for a potential movie deal, perhaps...? The series launches next month.

Ventimiglia, Powers & Cundiff on DDP's "Rest" [Newsarama]

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!