Marvel have announced that they're bringing back one-time joke characters the X-Babies for a new four issue series later this year. Surprisingly, this won't be the first time that the characters - clones of the one-time de-aged versions of the original X-Men, created to star on an alternate dimension reality show (Confusing, I know) - have had their own comic book; they'd previously headlined 1998's X-Babies: Murderama and 2000's X-Babies: Reborn. So what makes this third try so different? As writer Gregg Schigiel explains, media satire:

The new programmers have a very specific vision for what should air-[they are] more interested in 'safe, pleasant, cute, educational and moral-heavy' programming... This is distinctly different than the rock 'em-sock 'em, fight-heavy stuff more common in classic super hero stories. Obviously, the X-Babies-who've been replaced by kinder, gentler, cuter versions of themselves-think that's dumb.

The new series also offers nostalgia for the longterm fanboy, as the replacements for the X-Babies turns out to be revived characters from Marvel's 1980s kids line, Star Comics. Schigiel:

What's cool about it, to me, was that the story idea came first... And then came the 'holy moley' moment where I realized there was this untapped reservoir of characters in Marvel's publishing history that fit the story perfectly. You know, you kind of search the landscape for unnoticed or unused characters, which can be tough these days. Kind of made me glad to be old enough to remember these guys.

As someone who suffered through the adventures of Planet Terry way back when I was a kid, I can't deny that I'd be interested in seeing him get punched a few times by Kid Colossus. Or maybe more than a few times.

X-Babies will launch later this year.

Heroes Con '09: X-Babies [Marvel.com]

Barbarella:
In 2007 Dino De Laurentiis was going to produce with Robert Rodriguez as the director. Rodriguez wanted his lady-love Rose McGowan to star as the sexy space cadet Barbarella. But Universal was not enjoying the casting move and didn't want to front the cash. Could McGowan pull off "sexy nubile blonde" as well as Jane Fonda? This April McGowan spilled that the project was still on (with her in the lead) and that a bunch of pre-production work (including set construction) had already been finished. Rodriguez just has to find a studio willing to put up the $82 million he needs.

Planet Terry:
A middle-aged scifi geek discovers he is actually an alien who has been placed on Earth as part of an intergalactic witness protection program. According to production sources it hasn't been canned yet and is still something that is in development, but couldn't say if director Brian Levant (Problem Child 2) was still attached to the project or not. The story was based on an online comic series by Rob Liefeld that has yet to premiere.

Ender's Game:
As we reported, director Wolfgang Peterson moved on to direct another Chartoff Production and Orson Scott Card is still at work crafting the adaptation of his novel into the screenplay (but the first draft is done). Filming has been pushed back to early 2009. Hurry up — I need to see my super-genius army made up of children battle it out in zero gravity. Oh, and death to all bugs.

Neuromancer:
Scripts for this film have been floating in space since 1999 but could never really find a director, Mel Gibson was once rumored to be attached to the project. In 2007 Peter Hoffman announced that he would be producing the adaptation of William Gibson's novel with a $70 million budget under director Joseph Kahn. Gibson was not pleased. In January of this year a rumor made the rounds that Hayden Christensen would be playing main character Case, but as of today no official announcement has been made. Don't you dare ruin our dark hacker Case, Hayden.

Fahrenheit 451:
Yet another scifi movie Mel Gibson tried to get his claws into. Gibson was rumored to direct the adaptation of Ray Bradbury's dystopian future novel, but now it's unclear on his position. A long list of celebrity men have been pursued for the role of Guy Montag, the book burning future fireman, including Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks (screenplay writer Frank Darabont recently stated that Hanks was no longer attached to the project.) Charlize Theron was another celeb attached to the project possibly as the free-thinking rebel Clarisse McClellan. Right now it has a release date of 2010 and no cast.

Rendezvous With Rama:
The idea to adapt the Arthur C. Clark novel has been kicked around since 2001, when Propaganda films were trying to give it wings. David Fincher (Zodiac) was announced as director this year. Morgan Freeman's production company, Revelations, owns the rights to the story and Freeman is slated as a cast member. But it's not clear yet if he will be one of the exploring spacemen checking out the sun-bound spaceship. But we hear that the draft is still getting tweaked by new writers, so it could be awhile before Rama sees the screen.

Diamond Age:
The Scifi channel announced in the beginning of 2007 a pairing with George Clooney's production company to create a scifi mini series based on Neil Stephenson's novel The Diamond Age: Or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer. It was pitched as a 6-hour miniseries. Will we ever get to see the future of an overly conservative world, the future is uncertain.

With Reporting From Andrew Hudson