Thor

Bad news for Brian Blessed fans: Anthony Hopkins is in negotiations to play Odin, Thor's father and the ruler of Asgard. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Avatar

We posted an international version of the official trailer the other night, but here is the high quality version:

The official Avatar website has launched with a set of high quality images. A few we've seen before, but most are new:

Mad Max: Fury Road

We told you earlier that Charlize Theron was being considered as the lead for the latest Mad Max movie. She'll be co-starring with Jean-Luc Picard's clone, Tom Hardy. [Cinema Blend]

New Moon

Tonight, MTV will air its special Ulalume: Howling at New Moon, which will include a new clip from New Moon. Naturally, MTV already has said clip and shared a few screen grabs from the clip. [MTV Movies Blog]

Doctor Who

The Tenth Doctor flees monsters with Super Soaker hands in the latest clip from Waters of Mars:

True Blood

Fans of the Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries have wondered whether the werewolf Alcide Herveaux would appear next season, and Alan Ball has finally answered them. Alcide will appear, probably by the third episode, although he hasn't been cast yet. Alcide will already come into the searies with a love interest, a very bad woman named Debbie Pelt. We won't be seeing a Sookie-Bill wedding this season, but, while the couple will have some rough patches, their connection won't disappear. As for Eric, he lost some hair last season and this season he'll lose his clothes. We'll see Eric nearly naked in the season premiere. Everyone else is exploring their identities this season. We already know Sam is seeking out his biological family, but we'll also see Sookie closer to understanding why she has supernatural abilities and Jason doesn't. Plus, Jessica will explore her vampirism and experiences a dangerous identity crisis. [E!]

Powers

Brian Bendis has an update on the live action adaptation of his comic about police detectives in a superpowered world:

"We're making a cop show with superhero elements to it, not a superhero show with other elements to it," he continued. "It's a cop show-a dark one, hopefully in the same vein as 'The Shield'-and it really seems to be shaping up that way. Fingers crossed for the green light!"

He also says that it will be akin to Dexter in terms of faithfulness to the source material (which is to say, there will be some deviations), but that the first arc will involve Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim solving the murder of Retro Girl. And the first arc will also set up all the mysteries Walker and the other officers will be solving in the series. [MTV]

Lost

The new promo teaser is up, and, as promised, it contains no new footage. [via Lyly Ford]

Looks like Juliet is indeed dead. Damon Lindelof said the decision to kill her was "brutal," but she did go up with the hydrogen bomb. Of course, on Lost, dead doesn't necessarily mean gone, and we'll see Juliet in a few episodes this season. [NY Mag]

The producers are looking to cast the possibly recurring role of Kendall, a beautiful and intellectual woman in her mid-30s with a sharp wit. She gets caught committing corporate espionage and has to lie her way out. [EW]

Fringe

We get a glimpse of the Observer in the promo for the return of Fringe on November 5th (if the World Series doesn't go to Game Seven). [Fringe Television]

Stargate Universe

Water levels are low on the Destiny in tonight's episode, "Water."

V

With just a few days before the Vs arrive, ABC releases a new promo:

The Sarah Jane Adventures

We're going ghost hunting in these images from "The Eternity Trap." [The Doctor Who Image Archive]

And in the 11th and 12th episodes, the two-part serial "The Gift," the crew will face off against the green Slitheen once more. Once the Slitheen have been foiled, however, the Blathereen, rivals of the Slitheen, will appear on the scene to declare piece between the planets. They offer Sarah Jane a civilization-changing gift, one that quickly runs amok. Soon Sarah Jane will be battling for her own son, Luke. Clyde, Rani, and K9 become trapped in a school under siege, London is facing yet another alien threat, and there will be a final showdown in the attic, one that could end someone's life. [Blogtor Who]

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.

The Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company raises funds for the New York chapter of 826 National, a non-profit founded by authors Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida that helps students with creative and expository writing. Each outlet has its own fantastical shop, such as the Echo Park Time Travel Mart we've mentioned in the past.

The Brooklyn shop sells everything from capes to robotic sharks to secret identities, but there's something especially wonderful about the understated packaging of their home-brewed superpowers, which also come in Immortality ("not an effective strategy for putting off student loans"), Chaos ("not as fun as it sounds"), Cloning Fluid ("You'll only have to buy one bottle. Ever."), and Omnipotence.

[Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company via Lovely Package]

Mixing police procedural with superheroes, Powers manages to explore the traditions (and cliches) of comic book superheroes in a way that Heroes has never quite accomplished (instead, the NBC drama mostly chooses to imitate them. Especially if they're old X-Men comics), and just may be the superpowered TV show you've always waited for.

Created in 2000 by Ultimate Spider-Man and Avengers writer Bendis - In fact, it was his first superhero comic - and Bulletproof Monk's Oeming, Powers follows two detectives in a police department that investigates homicides that are connected to superhumans... one of whom used to be a superhero himself. Mixing a variety of influences from both inside and outside comics — amongst them Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets, the novel that the TV series Homicide: Life On The Streets was based on — has allowed the series to stay fresh while changing subjects, scope and even publishers throughout its long history.

This isn't the series' first run-in with moving pictures; before news of the FX deal broke this weekend, the comic had been optioned by Sony Pictures as a potential movie for director Frank Oz, but things didn't exactly work out, as Bendis told MTV's Splash Page:

We had to sit through waves of screenplays that were just inappropriate for the product, and for fans of the book. There were whole drafts of the screenplay without [one of the series' two leads] Deena Pilgrim in them. They'd hand me the screenplay and go, "What's wrong with this?" and I'd go "He has no one to talk to!

This time around, that won't be a problem; Bendis himself is writing the script for the FX pilot:

I just handed in a draft to the network and we're getting our notes from the network as soon as [New York Comic Con] is over. So next week I'll get the notes, and as long as they don't involve sock puppets and some sort of orgy scene that I'm not interested in, then hopefully it will go in the right direction.

We're hopeful that there aren't any sock puppet notes because, handled correctly, Powers could be exactly what we wanted from Heroes all along, before we learned to settle for fast-moving schlock: A smart, funny, suspenseful drama that just happens to feature people able to do amazing things. Keep your fingers crossed.

NYCC: Brian Bendis Confirms Live-Action ‘Powers' TV Series On FX, Draft Completed [MTV Splash Page]

Assassinated in the Act

The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross: Some people have a monkey on their back; Ramona Random has a succubus. If Ramona doesn’t have sex, the demon gnaws at her mind. If she does have sex, it devours her partner. It makes her questionable girlfriend material, but a highly effective assassin.

Goldeneye: Bond henchwomen often use their seductive powers to get what they want, and what Xenia Onatopp wants is a good orgasm. Unfortunately for her partners, she nothing brings Xenia to ecstasy quite like squeezing a man to death between her powerful gams.

Worshipping the Queen of Sheba (American Gods by Neil Gaiman): Bilquis, an incarnation of the Queen of Sheba, doesn’t get loving any more from the worshippers who once prayed to her and held sexy fertility rites in her temples. So she maintains her power the best way she knows how: by posing as a prostitute, having sex with her johns, and promptly devouring them with her vagina. Judging by the screams of ecstasy, it’s not an entirely unpleasant way to go.

Getting it on with Alien-Possessed Women

Torchwood “Day One”: Cardiff is ground zero for alien mischief, so when a beautiful woman leads you into the bathroom for some anonymous love, stay on your toes. She might have a fetish for sexy time in the stalls, but she might also be possessed by an alien gas that wants to suck the sperm – and all the energy – from your body.

The Outer Limits “Caught in the Act”: Chaste Hannah wants to wait until marriage before going all the way with her boyfriend Jay. When an alien lifeform takes control of Hannah’s body, premarital abstinence flies quickly out the window as she starts seducing every man on campus. But this isn’t sexual liberation; it’s a hunger for man-meat that goes way beyond genitalia. When Jay starts tailing his suddenly unfaithful love, he discovers that she’s absorbing men into her body during the act.

Death by Snoo Snoo (Futurama “Amazon Women in the Mood”): After all the men died out on Amazonia, the Amazon women devised a method of punishing male trespassers that fulfills the needs of the hetero sex-starved population: Snoo Snoo. Evidently, dying of a crushed pelvis only sounds like fun.

Alien Sex Vampires

Liquid Sky: The aliens who land on the roof of artist Margaret’s loft find human endorphins especially tasty. Initially, they’re content to nibble on the endorphins released during heroin use, but they quickly learn that the orgasmic variety is far more satisfying. So they start murdering Margaret’s partners at the height of their sexual pleasure, leaving Margaret behind to deliver avant-garde monologues in her neon makeup.

Lifeforce: When a beautiful naked woman found imprisoned in the tale of Hailey’s Comet crawls on top of you and starts kissing you wildly, it’s probably not because she thinks you’re neat. It’s much more likely that she’s searching for a convenient orifice through which to suck out your soul, leaving you a desiccated, undead ghoul.

Angel “Lonely Hearts”: Angel & Co. hunt down a demon that kills its host when close to another naked body. But it’s not looking to snag its host’s energy; it’s just leaping from body to body during sex, looking for the perfect body to inhabit forever.

Having Sex with Your Proxy Self (Kaiba): In a future where memories can be stored, traded, and implanted in someone else, having sex with someone who shares your memories can be a form of near-masturbation. But the experience is so intense that it can make your head (and the rest of your body) explode.

Death by Rapid Pregnancy

Fringe “The Same Old Story”: When you’re a human specially designed for rapid aging, and your sperm is similarly designed, it’s best to use protection when sleeping with a fertile female partner. But even condoms fail from time to time, and those rapidly gestating pregnancies tend to kill the mother.

Species II: The same rules apply to men infected with alien DNA. Female alien hybrids can handle nine months’ worth of pregnancy occurring in the span of a few minutes. Female humans just don’t have the wombs for it.

Magically Boinked to Death

Dresden Files: Storm Front by Jim Butcher: When Harry Dresden is sent to investigate a pair of lovers whose hearts exploded in the act, he comes across a wizard who draws his energy from sex and lust. The wizard sent his target a coital heart attack, and her unfortunate partner got his own dose of cardiac overload.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer “Where the Wild Things Are”: Buffy and Riley’s repeated and enthusiastic lovemaking literally wakes the dead, freeing a crew of sexually repressed poltergeists. Once freed, the poltergeists try to ensure that they’ll have a steady supply of sexual energy by getting Buffy and Riley to continue their round-the-clock shtupping until they die of exhaustion. Fortunately, the rest of the Scoobies come to the rescue with a spell to pry the lovers apart, at least temporarily.

Kryptonite Condom (Wanted by Mark Millar): Perhaps taking a cue from Mallrats’ speculation on how Clark Kent and Lois Lane might copulate, supervillain Professor Seltzer once devised a kryptonite condom to take down his own Superman-like nemesis. Apparently, the hero’s girlfriend never quite got the radioactive rubber on him, leaving us to wonder whether a kryptonite diaphragm would have been more effective.

The Classic Coital Coronary

Star Trek: New Frontier: Vulcans are known for their remarkable stoicism, which breaks down spectacularly every seven years during an individual’s pon farr, during which a maddened Vulcan must mate or perish. But not every Vulcan has the constitution for the intense consummation. The Vulcan Voltak had a heart attack while between the sheets with his new wife, Enterprise Dr. Selar, leaving Selar widowed and throwing off her pon farr cycle.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine “Let He Who Is Without Sin…”: Curzon was a great diplomat and a notorious womanizer. So it’s apt that he irreparably strained himself with attempting the sexual ritual of jamaharon on the pleasure planet of Risa, although he didn’t give up the ghost (or, in this case, the symbiont) until several days later.

The X-Files “Gender Bender”: The alien Kindred lead a life of quiet isolation in a rural Massachusetts community. But when one of the Kindred ventures into the outside world, their intense alien pheromones both attract a constant stream of willing partners and give them coronaries in the throes of passion.

The Tick “The Funeral”: Many superheroes hope to go out in a blaze of glory, felled by some worthy opponent. Famed superhero the Immortal meets his fate on a mattress in Captain Liberty’s apartment, felled by her vagina. Although judging from the pending paternity suits, he died pretty much how he lived.

Powers “Little Deaths”: Philandering superhero Olympia has a similar exit, albeit accompanied by a literal blaze of glory. His alter ego's wife commits suicide over the ensuing tabloid coverage, but the woman who was on top of him at the time gets half a million dollars for the TV movie rights.

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• Originally titled The Wiz Kid, this 1982 movie was meant to be a parody of Carrie. They both end at a dance, although Carrie's ending was quite a bit darker.
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• The plot of Zapped! is pretty simple: Science student Barney is working on a experiment, and through a series of events that he isn't aware of, other things (like whiskey) get added to his formula, and eventually this leads to a lab explosion. However, as a result both Barney and his lab rat (who we never see again) have developed telekinesis. Barney uses his powers to make Heather Thomas' shirt pop open, helps buddy Peyton (Willie Aames) woo Heather, makes his baseball team win, and finally lands a girlfriend. However, his girlfriend doesn't think he should use his powers for "evil", and this leads to a rift between Peyton and Barney. All is patched up in the end, however, and there's a huge naked scene to top it all off, as seen above.
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• Scott Baio played the lead character Barney Springboro, although the role of the rich boy best friend Peyton was supposed to be played by Greg Bradford. The producers decided to cast Willie Aames instead, hoping for a little more star power (Aames had just come off of Eight is Enough, and was also cast in Paradise with Phoebe Cates... a sort of Blue Lagoon ripoff with more T&A and Willie's willy). Bradford apparently held a grudge against the producers for this.
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• Baio and Aames would go on to star together in Charles in Charge, and Aames would also go on to appear as... Bibleman.
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• Heather Thomas was cast as snooty cheerleader Jane Mitchell, but she was never into the nudity in the film. In fact, she had the producers put a line in the credits stating that they used a body double for her topless scenes. That wasn't enough, however, and she later sued them, stating that no one reads the credits anyway, and people would assume those were her breasts on screen. Um, duh?
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• To that end, Thomas wears a body stocking in the famous scene at the end where Baio makes her dress fly off. Thanks the the wonders of DVD (which this film just appeared on for the first time in February), you can see this pretty clearly.
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• Even more bizarre was the fact that when an advertisement came out in the Los Angeles Times, readers complained that the characters in the poster could see up the girl's skirt. Now mind you, the advertisement didn't show that, and the complaints were based on the point of view of the painted versions of Scott Baio and Willie Aames. As a result, the artist had to go back and extend the skirt, so even Baio and Aames can't quite see up it. Stupid, but true. See the main image up above for the modified artwork, then weep for humanity.
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• The film has a couple of scifi cameos, including Merrick Buttrick who went on to play Captain Kirk's son David in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and Eddie Deezen who would later be ubernerd (the only role he played) Malvin in WarGames.
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• There's also an entire Star Trek parody scene in the movie when Barney comes home after the lab explosion and his parents think he's on drugs. He gets grounded in his room, and uses his new powers to make a model spaceship fly, apparently through an aquarium, and into his dog's mouth.
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• The most bizarre role in the film probably belongs to Scatman Crothers, who had worked on The Shining just a year or two before. Imagine going from working with Stanley Kubrick to playing a pot-smoking baseball coach. There's a truly bizarre scene where he gets high and imagines he's with Albert Einstein and fleeing from his wife, who is chasing after them with a salami-firing bazooka. Strange, but true.
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• There's a whole fan club devoted to Zapped! at MSN Groups, and they feature things like in-depth analysis photos of all the different versions of the movie. Particularly whenever Jane's clothes pop open.
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• Oddly enough, Zapped! spawned a sequel in 1990, Zapped Again!. In this update, a student finds Barney's old formula hidden in a wall, and uses it to more naked abandon. Linda Blair stars as a fairly hot teacher, and the only cast member to return was was Sue Ane Langdon, who played randy teacher Rose Burnhart.
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• The Onion covered it best when they published this image from their Alternate History newspaper:

These crimfighters have their own MySpace pages, an online costume shop that builds their custom wear (whatever happened to people sewing it themselves, like Spidey did?), and are seriously into the gig, including the long hours of doing nothing. Like "Superhero" who patrols the highways of Florida in his 1975 Corvette, ""What I do is 80% boredom punctuated by 15% helping and 5% terror."

So you've got your crazy characters who try to fight crime on their own, deluded by the existence of comic books and heroes in the movies. Give them sort sort of baddie to go up against, like the couple who were inspired to become criminals by their goth books, have them go toe to toe. In the end, someone learns a heartwarming lesson about life, and that everyone is a hero on the inside, yadda yadda yadda, and bang, there's your movie.

Actually, we're surprised none of these people have ended up dead in an alley somewhere and splashed on the local news. Then the studios and comic book publisher could just brace themselves for the slew of lawsuits that would inevitably pop up with people saying, "Gee, Batman did it in a movie, so I copied him and lost my arm in the process! You owe me a million bucks!" So beat 'em to the punch already, Hollywood. Put them in your movie.

"Real" Villains In Need of A "Real" Superhero [Hardcore Math User]

Will you be getting a real name at some point instead of just being referred to as "The Haitan"?

I have a name, actually. They were going to use it on the second or third episode, but then they realized that "The Haitian" was catchy, and it added a lot of mystery to the character. My partner's name is Noah, so maybe you'll find out that I'm Moses! They might be using my real name soon.

Are you hoping they'll continue to expand your backstory?

I hope so, because he's a very interesting character with a lot of depth. They'll probably have to because we don't know what he's up to or what his relationship is to the other heroes, with Mama Petrelli, with Bob at the company and all the other people. But at the same time, they can do whatever they want!

Who would win if you went head to head with Sylar? He wouldn't have his powers then, so who would come out on top?

I don't know if you've seen that scene with Peter and the Haitian, but if The Haitian can take Peter down, then I'm sure he probably can take Sylar down as well.

The other thing is that I have a feeling that The Haitian is very dangerous, which is why they have to play him very slowly. Otherwise, he might become slightly "too big." Right now we know he can erase people's memories, and he can stop their powers, but what else can he do? It's very exciting and hopefully we can find out after the writer's strike!

• Telekinesis: This power is the most common among the three. While the X-Men had "Marvel Girl" Jean Grey who could move things just by thinking about them, The 4400 have Richard Tyler and his mega-powered daughter Isabelle, both of whom share telekinesis. Of course, the first ability that Sylar ever took from anyone on Heroes was also telekinesss, which he put to extreme use by opening up people's brain cavities.
• Healing: Woverine's enviable healing ability has spawned numerous knockoffs, including both Claire and Takezo Kensei on Heroes. On The 4400, Shawn can't heal himself, but he does have the ability to heal others, and in a clever twist he can reverse this ability and injure others as well. While it doesn't have the instant pizazz that Wolverine and Claire get when they grow their own face back, it's a nice adaptation of that ability.
  
• Telepathy: The ability to read minds and project thoughts has long been a mainstay in the X-Men books, and The 4400 seem to have most of their powers stem from the mind. Last year police officer Matt Parkman on Heroes was the only person who could read minds, but this season he seems to be able to project his thoughts outwards to others as well. Isabelle on The 4400 is something of a wunderkind among the 4400, and counts telepathy as just one of her many abilities.
• Precognition: The ability to tell the future always seems to be popular, but it also always seems to come with a price. On Heroes, Isaac Mendez could paint visions of the future, but he couldn't escape his own death at Sylar's hand, which he had painted previously. The 4400's young Maia can see visions of the future, which she records in diaries. This is similar to the X-Men character called Destiny who also recorded her visions in diaries. Although she is now dead, her diaries were one of the main plot points of the 2001 — 2004 series "Xtreme X-Men."
• Creating illusions: Creating illusions and different realities for people happens in the X-Men with Psylocke, Candice does it on Heroes (until Sylar bashes her head in) as does Matt's father, and Alana on The 4400shares this trait. Matt's father can actually trap people in that reality, leaving their body in a comatose state, making him particularly nasty.

• Until Claire pops some claws out of her hands, or Isabelle starts calling herself Marvel Girl, we'll consider them more as loving tributes instead of a direct knockoff. Although The 4400 needs to stir things up a bit and start handing out some alternate powers. Heroes has them beat in that area, with new powers popping up every week. Of course, with Heroes' "Volume Two" wrapping up very soon, we'll see who survives the cut.