Shazam

Screenwriter Bill Birch says that while the Captain Marvel movie will have an edge to it — but it won't be Dark Knight gritty, and will probably have a PG-13 rating. He admitted that Dwayne Johnson could be a possibility for Captain Marvel, given Johnson's relationship with director Peter Segal. Birch says he always saw Ryan Reynolds in the role, but that's out now that Reynolds is playing the Green Lantern. [Cinema Blend]

The Hobbit

Guillermo del Toro will have a cameo as a background monster in the film. He says he'll have a line or two, then die quickly. He says many of the movie's monsters will be majestic, especially Smaug and the Great Goblin. [/Film]

The Green Hornet

Tipster Kyle discovered the Green Hornet crew was filming on Wilshire Boulevard in LA, and snagged a photo and got a good look at the set:

It is an Armed Forces Recruiting center. Inside there are a bunch of low cubicles set up and in the back was a podium flanked by various state and organizational flags. They are hanging up a sign in front (picture attached) for the center as well as a shoe store next door. I'm not sure how the shoe store fits into things, but it's there!

[Thanks Kyle!]

X-Men Origins: Magneto

David Goyer says the script for Magneto is "brilliant," but it's unlikely it'll go to production any time soon, especially if Fox wants to make another Wolverine movie. [MTV]

Breaking Dawn

Robert Pattinson says he's heard the final Twilight movie will shoot in Portland, and in his wildest dreams he'd like to see Portland-based director Gus Van Sant at the helm. [MTV]

Doctor Who

A new behind the scenes featurette for "Waters of Mars" takes us inside the biodome and shows us one of the water creatures. [Blogtor Who]

And shots from a handful of TV magazines offer a little more insight into the episode. [Blogtor Who]

A poster on the Gallifrey Base forums has a solid theory on how "Waters of Mars" will end. Poster the_silver_shade suspects that the Doctor will rescue Adelaide from her fated death, but in order ensure minimal disruption of the timeline, Adelaide will have to take on a new identity and never see or interact with her daughter or granddaughter again. If so, expect it to be a tearjerker. [Gallifrey Base]

We mentioned yesterday that creatures who may or may not be Silurians appear in the eighth and ninth episodes of the new season. Here's an alleged glimpse of one of those creatures. One message-board poster claims, based on hearsay or inside sources, that the episode takes place 15 years in the future, when global warming has greatly reduced the human population and we're searching for a cure. And a new form of energy involves recycling old mines, which disturbs lizards under the ground — and the lizards start eating corpses. Also, something (possibly a spaceship) blots out the sun. Take this, of course, with a grain of salt. But here's that picture. [Gallifrey Base]

Lost

The producers have filled the role of Kendall, previously mentioned as a sharply witty, intellectual beauty who is caught committing corporate espionage. The corporate spy in question will be played by LA Law's Sheila Kelley. [Ausiello]

And the word is that either the bomb did go off at the end of last season or the show will reset with Oceanic Flight 815 landing safely, not both (the explanation is "it's complicated"). But hasn't it already been established that the bomb went off? [E!]

The DocArzt Lost Blog has a virtual tour of Lost's Hawaiian film locations using Google Maps. You can check out the building from which Locke was thrown, where Jin first saw Sun, Hurley's mansion, the spot where Bernard and Rose met, and the Beach Camp. [DocArzt]

Dollhouse

Summer Glau's character has an unsurprising tendency to speak in riddles, but she will make one shocking direct statement, and it will bring us closer to the origin story of one of the show's most important characters. [E!]

Supernatural

Anna will come back in an episode next year, and she'll want to kill Sam so he doesn't say yes to Lucifer. She'll travel back in time to kill Mary and John Winchester (sadly, they'll be "young Mary and "young John," so no Jeffrey Dean Morgan), and Sam and Dean will naturally have to go back and stop her. [E!]

Clone Wars

In this week's episode, Ahsoka and fellow Padawan Barriss Offee will embark on a mission to destroy Poggle the Lesser's Geonosian droid factory without their masters. Barriss is Luminara Unduli's Padawan, and Luminara is a very by-the-book master. Barriss takes a similarly structured approach to her duties. But as she spends more time with Ahsoka, Barriss will come to trust her instincts more and we'll see more of her vulnerability and curiosity.

Here's a clip of their daring break in:

V

Morena Baccarin says that the Visitors have emotions, but they're very zen about it and don't get caught up in the drama of things. She also says that the relationship between humans and Vs changes by the fourth episode. [Korbi TV]

Scott Wolf says Chad isn't a shady dude, and that he has a sense of journalistic integrity. He says that Anna is control for the time being, but Chad has a few tricks up his sleeve. [Korbi TV]

Elizabeth Mitchell talks a possible Erica/Anna smackdown. [Korbi TV]

FlashForward

Here's a fresh promo for Thursday's episode, "Playing Cards with Coyote." [Flashforward.pl]

Chuck

Chuck vs. The Terminator? Robert Patrick, former T-1000 and X-Files FBI agent, will appear in the midseason episode "Chuck Versus the Tic Tac." He'll be playing Col. Keller, a mysterious figure from Casey's past. [Ausiello]

Brandon Routh and Kristen Kreuk will be coming between Chuck and Sarah this season. Kreuk's character Hannah shares a kiss with Chuck, and the pair go at it in the Buy More's Home Theater Room. But she's not what she seems. As for Routh's Shaw, he and Sarah will find themselves in a moment of peril where they confess their love for one another. [E!]

Heroes

We'll get to see the young HRG in the eighteenth episode. Here's the casting call:

[YOUNG HRG] 20 Male. Caucasian. Free spirit. Hippie turned used car salesman in the late 70s. Newlywed naively invites a stranger into his home and tragedy ensues. We are looking for someone to play the young version of the actor Jack Coleman sptv050769. CO-STAR / POSSIBLE GUEST STAR/

[Spoiler TV]

Peter uses his fancy new healing power on Parkman in the promo for next week's episode, "Brother's Keeper."

And we have the official description for episode twelve, "The Fifth Stage."

Unexpected visitors greet H.R.G.; Samuel's plan starts to come to fruition; struggling to accept the truth, Peter takes extreme measures to get what he wants; Claire's journey leads her to an unexpected destination.

[Spoiler TV]

Smallville

Things will be looking a bit greener in the two-part Justice Society arc in January. Phil Morris' Martian Manhunter will play a role in the first part, "Society," but it's the "Legend" episode where he'll really shine. [Fancast]

Additional reporting by Josh C. Snyder and Charlie Jane Anders.

Shazam! (1974)
With one word, Billy Batson becomes the World's Mightiest Mortal... but that's about the most believable thing in this series, which creepily featured the underage Billy traveling around the country in an RV accompanied by his "mentor" and occasionally talking to the gods who gave him his powers, who all happened to be badly-animated cartoons. Add in Billy or Captain Marvel helpfully telling you the moral of the episode at the end each week, and you've got a recipe for a dull show enlivened only by the size of Billy's hair.

Electra-Woman and Dyna-Girl (1976)
I'm not really sure this one needs any explanation as to why it's on the list, once you've watched the video.

The Amazing Spider-Man (1977)
In which television revealed the truth about Marvel's favorite superhero: He looked kind of ridiculous. This short-lived series also missed the point of the comic book altogether by not using any of the character's famous supervillains, instead giving him ninjas and terrorists to fight. What was the point of that?

Legends Of The Superheroes (1978)
No expense was spared on bringing DC's biggest name superheroes to the small screen in this live action version of Super Friends - well, unless you count the money that would've been spent on a good script. Again, proving that bad writing and poor special effects can overcome even the best intentions, this two-part series (The second episode of which was a celebrity roast of the heroes led by Ed McMahon. No, really) also featured a villain more diabolical than Lex Luthor: A laugh track.

Those Terrible Captain America TV Movies (1979)
We can just imagine the pitch meeting for these two TV movies: "So, we have the rights to Captain America - You know, the guy who embodies the American Dream and fought in World War II against Hitler? I've got a great take on him: We turn him into Evel Kinivel. And let's get rid of that mask, too. Make it into a motorcycle helmet - That's much more hep." It could've been worse, we guess... We're just not sure how.

The Incredible Hulk Returns (1988)
The original Hulk series was, if you ask us, one of the few superhero shows that worked - and that's because they didn't really treat it as a superhero show at all. When they revived the series a decade later and started pairing him with guest stars from the Marvel Universe, though...? Not a good idea:

(The Daredevil appearance in the next special, Trial of The Incredible Hulk, may be even worse; especially because they seem to have gotten the character mixed up with a generic ninja who happened to be blind.)

Superboy (1988)
An attempt to spin the Superman movies into a weekly format, the Superboy series had sincerity going for it - Sincerity and the seeming inability to not try and drastically rework the series between seasons every year (Including recasting the lead role after the original Superboy asked for a raise around the same time as getting arrested for drunk driving), leading to a schizophrenic, uneven show let down by shoddy special effects.

The Flash (1990)
The Flash comic book may be populated with colorful villains, but the television show didn't have the same luck (Mark Hamill's Trickster, in the clip below, aside), presumably for budgetary reasons. Add in a leading man as stiff as his ridiculously over-sculpted costume, and it's no surprise that this show only lasted one season.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1993)
Secret identities, colorful outfits, super powers, fighting crime... These guys count as superheroes, right? Maybe it's our age, maybe our dedication to things like plot, dialogue and nuance, or perhaps it's just our aversion to cheap monsters in anything that doesn't actually involve Godzilla, but the long-running (and multiple-show-spanning: It's on its fifteenth different title right now) series always seemed... well, almost unwatchably bad to us.

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993)
It's a judgment call as to whether this show really deserves to be here. On the one hand, the Moonlighting-esque relationship between its leads was cute, and John Shea's Lex Luthor was a lot of fun... But on the other, it was a show that struggled to come up with good ideas each week and often failed, leading to an episode where Clark married a clone of Lois, who needed to eat frogs in order to survive. Or something. And what was with essentially writing Lex out after one season, anyway?

Generation X (1996)
A pilot adapting Marvel's X-Men spin-off, Generation X made it to air but never to full-series, meaning that the world was spared the low-budget high-concept struggle of teens having to live with their mutant abilities in a world that hated and feared them... because they couldn't act.

Justice League of America (1997)
Possibly the ultimate proof that TV and superheroes don't mix, this is another unsuccessful pilot that aired nonetheless, and features bad writing, bad acting, bad special effects, and some of the most literal - and most embarrassing - superhero costumes ever seen on screen. It's like a landmark of fail.

Mutant X (2001)
Marvel's short-lived television series about mutants that isn't related to the X-Men at all oh no please don't sue us Fox (They did, nonetheless) tried to swerve away from comparisons to the publisher's successful mutant franchise by underplaying everything to the point of boredom. Even Generation X would've been better than this.

Birds of Prey (2002)
It had so much potential - Batman and Catwoman's daughter teaming up with the former Batgirl to fight crime? Hello, high concept - but the execution let it down badly with shoddy writing, lack of direction and the mistaken idea that camp was better than character development. When something makes Smallville look subtle and nuanced, you know you're in trouble.

The Ones That Didn't Suck
Batman (1966)
Almost everything about it is wrong - The cheap jokes! The ill-fitting costumes! Replacing Julie Newmar with Eartha Kitt! - but it all works nonetheless; Batman's 1960s incarnation may not be the best translation from page to screen, but as a weird totem of the era, it remains a classic.

Wonder Woman (1975)
We love Wonder Woman as a character, and this show may be a lot to do with that. While the comic version was having identity issues at the time this series was being made, the TV show took her back to her heyday, added the "let me twirl into my costume" and fittingly made Lynda Carter the star she should've been all along.

The Incredible Hulk (1978)
As we said above, the Hulk show worked despite its title character - Riffing on The Fugitive with an occasional need for a giant silent strongman, the show offered a completely different take on the character from the comics, and one that was arguably better.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1996)
When it comes to television series about people with magical powers, we don't think we're alone in thinking that Joss Whedon did everything right. Mixing just the right amounts of humor and tragedy into the supernatural and superpowered stories, Buffy is everything that superhero shows like Smallville and Heroes should be trying to emulate... if only they could drag themselves away from the superficial special effects and overcooked dialogue.

The Obvious Exceptions
Anything animated
Yes, all of the above shows were live-action, and yes, we know that superhero cartoons have a long and proud history on television as well; we're partial to some Justice League Unlimited, especially if Darkseid is the bad guy. But as much as adding animated series in here may have ruined the grade curve, let's not forget things like this:

or this:

I think you know what I'm saying.

We know, we know: the Hollywood development cycle is a slow, lumbering beast. It can take anywhere from a couple years (for a "fast-track" project) to a decade for a movie to see the light of day. But given how many people were saying, this time last year, that The Dark Knight had changed everything, you'd expect there to be at least some films in development, if not in pre-production or actually filming.

And there don't seem to be any movies in "the pipeline" that seem consciously influenced by TDK. Here are a few possible contenders:

• Super-Max. Written by TDK co-writer David S. Goyer, this film has obvious elements in common with Knight. From the scraps we've gleaned, it's about the snotty trust-fund superhero Green Arrow, who gets sent to prison, probably for a crime he didn't commit. And he has to escape from the world's toughest, most advanced prison by teaming up with a host of DC Comics supervillains. Gritty dark action? Check. Moral ambiguity? Check. Heroes who cross the line? Pretty much. Too bad that every time we hear about this film, it sounds more and more like it's stuck in limbo.

• 

• Superman Returns (Again). Every time someone mentions doing another Superman movie in the wake of 2006's underwhelming Superman Returns, they say it'll feature a "dark" take on the Last Son Of Krypton, influenced by Christopher Nolan's take on Batman. Says Warner Bros. president Jeff Robinov, "We're going to go dark, to the extent that the character will allow." More recently, rumored Super-director James McTeigue said something similar. But this "darker" Man Of Steel movie is still stuck in limbo, and Warner Bros. execs told a courtroom that they don't see much box-office potential in another Superman movie. (Granted, they were trying to get out of having to pay Superman's creators' heirs tons of money for Hollywood rights.) In fact, when they talk about doing a "darker" Superman movie, it's usually said with an air of "Well, nobody really wants to make a Superman movie, but if you put a gun to our heads, we'd do a darker one." The confusing copyright situation with Superman means they have to start development on a new Superman film in the next few years, but assuming Warners gets more enthusiasm for the cinematic Man Of Steel again, they'll probably rediscover their love for his fun, escapist side.
• 
  
  
• The Fantastic Four. News sites started claiming last spring that Fox was considering rebooting this super-family series as a darker, "less bubble-gum" version. And now, just the other day, Fox announced it was definitely rebooting the Fantastic Four. On the other hand, they tapped the decidedly non-dark Akiva Goldsman (Batman And Robin, I Am Legend) to produce the new movie, and
  Michael Greene, writer for Smallville, Heroes and the upcoming Green Lantern movie, will write the script. I am having a hard time imagining that team creating a "dark" FF movie. Plus everyone assumes Fox's sudden interest in moving forward with Reed Richards & Co. was motivated by Disney's purchase of Marvel, and the fact that Disney reportedly wants to take back all of the Marvel properties' movie rights as soon as outside deals expire. If Fox wants to impress Disney, a misguided "dark" Fantastic Four doesn't seem a likely approach.
• 
  
  
  
• Shazam. It's hard to believe, but yes, they were talking about a dark Shazam movie in the wake of The Dark Knight. This is the story of a little boy who discovers a magic cave full of statues of the Deadly Sins, plus an old wizard who teaches him a magic world that will transform him into a big galoot whose nickname is The Big Red Cheese. And then he fights an evil mad-science worm with the help of a talking tiger. Actually, screenwriter John August and director Peter Segal wanted to do a fun, upbeat take on Shazam, but Warner Bros. wanted something more like The Dark Knight. So August rewrote his fun script to make it darker:

  This wasn't "Big, with super powers" anymore. It was Black Adam versus Captain Marvel, with a considerable push into dark territory and liminal badlands like Nanda Parbat. It wasn't the action-comedy I'd signed on to write, but it was a movie I could envision getting made.

  But then Warners pulled the plug on the Shazam movie altogether — remember how I said the enthusiasm for "dark" stories often seems to coincide with a lack of enthusiasm for making the movies at all? And now Shazam is back on track, with Bill Birch writing and comics scribe Geoff Johns pitching in. Says Variety, "The studio is now looking to go back to the original DC Comics source material for inspiration." Going back to the original comics source material is slang for "not fucking it up with a dark reimagining."

So what happened? There are a few theories.

Watchmen happened. You could argue that The Dark Knight changed everything, and then Watchmen changed it all back. Zack Snyder's movie version of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' classic graphic novel was everything the studios were saying they wanted: dark, controversial, morally gray, challenging — and it didn't resonate that well with audiences. It had a so-so opening weekend, followed by a steep drop-off. (Sample headline from the L.A. Times: "Watchmen is going largely unwatched.")

Another "dark" movie that came out this summer, Terminator Salvation, did similarly badly. (It wasn't strictly a superhero film, but it had superhero-ish themes, and starred Bruce Wayne himself, Christian Bale.) And while Frank Miller's The Spirit was more goofy than dark, it did have a noir-ish look to it and was the handiwork of the original "Dark Knight" reinventer.

Meanwhile, movies like G.I. Joe and Wolverine, which were fluffy and bubbly and only challenged you to avoid giggling at their ridiculous dialogue and acting, did great. Audiences didn't suddenly stop liking braindead fun just because they liked one smart, bleak movie.

Also, the economy happened. Suddenly, people were hurting and depressed, and there were a spate of news stories saying that people in an economic shitstorm want upbeat, happy films. They want escapism and a pick-me-up, not a dreadful reminder that life is full of no-win situations and suffering. Whether that theory is true or not, it's one that seems to have a lot of currency in Hollywood.

And finally, looking back through those articles where execs are saying "I want a dark Shazam! I want a dark Dazzler! America needs a dark Howard The Duck!", I can't help noticing that this is usually accompanied by a lack of enthusiasm for whatever superheroic properties they're discussing. Sure, superheroes are big right now, but not every superhero movie is a huge hit, and characters like Superman and the Fantastic Four have fallen squarely into the second or third tier of big-screen spandex-flexers in the past decade or so.

Execs cast about for ways to make those lame fillies run again, and the "dark" thing is one of the ideas they hit on. But at this point, nobody seems to think "dark" is a cure-all for tired superheroes. At least, let's hope not.

August, who had been tapped as the screenwriter on Shazam!, announced in January that the film was dead and buried, citing the sense that movie executives want more superhero movies like The Dark Knight. But producer Michael Uslan quickly assured us that a Captain Marvel movie was still in the works, and it looks like he was telling the truth.

Warner Bros. has announced that Bill Birch (now being affectionately called "Billy" Birch by media outlets to make him sound more like Marvel's alter ego Billy Batson) is on board to write the script. Otherwise, the movie's lineup remains the same, with Get Smart director Peter Segal set to direct.

This may be Birch's first foray into writing for a feature film, having spent most of his Hollywood career as an actor, but he'll have some help along the way. Geoff Johns, who most recently brought the Shazam! family of characters back into DC's limelight with the Justice Society of America arc "Black Adam and Isis," will be co-writing the story with Birch.

[The Hollywood Reporter]

Michael Uslan - also one of the producers behind Frank Miller's The Spirit movie - told MTV that we shouldn't write off the movie prospects for DC Comics' Big Red Cheese just yet:

I will only say one thing — and all I will do is quote Samuel Clemens to you... This is direct from Captain Marvel himself: ‘The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.’

Firstly, I think someone should tell Uslan that Captain Marvel isn't actually able to quote Mark Twain, not being real and everything. Secondly, it'll be interesting to see whether Uslan's tease has anything to back it up, or whether he's just not willing to admit publicly that the project is as dead as screenwriter John August thinks it is.

Interestingly enough, it may be the day for "dead" movies turning out to be more alive than thought; Marc Guggenheim also told Newsarama.com that David Goyer's comment about DC Comics movies all being on hold doesn't include Green Lantern: "I think David was referring to other properties. That doesn't jibe with the information that I've been getting," Guggenheim is quoted as saying.

Captain Marvel/Shazam Movie Still Alive? Producer Michael Uslan Hints At Film’s Future [MTV Splash Page]

Writing on his blog about the death of the Shazam movie, John August knows just what caused the movie to pass through multiple drafts, contradictory notes from the studio, and other forms of torture, leading to its slow death:

In retrospect, I can point to two summer Warner Bros. movies that I believe defined the real issue at hand: Speed Racer and The Dark Knight. The first flopped; the second triumphed. Given only those two examples, one can understand why a studio might wish for their movies to be more like the latter. But to do so ignores the success of Iron Man, which spent most of its running time as a comedic origin story, and the even more pertinent example of WB’s own Harry Potter series.

With August initially describing his view of Shazam as "Like Big, but with superpowers," it's no surprise that a Warner Bros. looking for movies to be closer to The Dark Knight than Speed Racer's whimsical eye candy, but that doesn't necessarily stop us from wistfully wondering what could have been.

Shazam! It ain’t happening. [John August]

The Captain Marvel movie - currently titled Billy Batson And The Legend Of Shazam!, both due to legal issues over the ownership of the "Captain Marvel" name and to bring it closer in line with the current DC comic featuring the character - has been in the works for a long time; the current script, written by Tim Burton collaborator John August (who wrote the screenplays for Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride, amongst other movies), has been finished since before last year's writer's strike, and Dwayne Johnson has already announced that he'll be playing the movie's bad guy, Black Adam.

While Segal is already scheduled to direct 2010's sequel to this summer's Get Smart next year, it's possible that The Legend of Shazam! may be the next movie he directs; he's currently also developing a tennis-pro comedy as part of the deal, but Shazam! may be further along the development cycle. Will 2011 see the Big Red Cheese take on the Avengers at the box office? Between this news and Warners' stated focus on superhero fare in years to come, that's beginning to look very likely.

Segal, Ewing set first-look deal at WB [Variety]

I guess we should start with the only comic featuring the 70-year-old Man of Steel, huh? That would be Superman: Last Son, a hardcover collection of the much-delayed storyline that brought Richard Donner to comics - he co-writes the book alongside Geoff Johns - as well as returned General Zod and the Phantom Zone to current DC continuity. I could tell you more about the story, like the fact that Superman adopts a son, but I know that all you'll really care about is that there's a special 3-D section midway through the book. That Phantom Zone is trippy, man.

Elsewhere in the DC line this week, Superman's oldest rival Captain Marvel gets a new series, with the first issue of kid-targeted Billy Batson And The Magic of Shazam. Less friendly for little tykes, the Dark Knight tie-ins start properly with the first issue of The Joker's Asylum, which makes Heath Ledger's alter-ego into your host as he narrates stories about the other inmates over at Arkham Asylum. Or maybe you want even darker still, with Hellblazer: The Fear Machine collecting some of the earliest stories of magician, former punk and all-round bastard John Constantine from the 1980s, when it was cool to turn yuppies into demons.

More nostalgia comes in the form of the imported Doctor Who: The World Shapers, which brings together the little-seen mid-80s run of Grant Morrison on the British Who comic. On the one hand, yes, it's the Colin Baker Doctor, but on the other, rare Morrison... It's a tough one. Equally tough is Star Trek: Mirror Images, a new mini-series that explores one of the greatest Star Trek concepts ever, the Mirror Universe. IDW's Trek comics have been somewhat hit and miss, so the potential for disappointment here is, sadly, great. But it is the Mirror Universe. I mean, goateed Spock...what could go wrong?

If you're looking for things that will make you much less conflicted, I can heartily recommend the following three books: Boom!'s Station is a murder mystery set on the international space station right as things start to go wrong and it looks like everyone might end up dead. If you liked Greg Rucka's Whiteout, chances are you'll enjoy it. Mike Mignola gets slightly ahead of the movie curve this week with a new Hellboy series, The Crooked Man, illustrated by comics legend Richard Corben. So expect the same great writing and slightly off-putting stumpy figures (I kid because... well, because I can, really. But you'll know what I mean when you pick it up).

Pick of the week, however, is easily Buffy The Vampire Slayer #16, which sees Joss Whedon return as writer, as well as the return of his futuristic slayer, Fray. For everyone who hasn't read the Fray series and wonders why this is a big deal, all I have to say is this: Imagine Faith, but from the far future, and with an even worse attitude. I foresee carnage and futuristic cursing that you can get away with in comics, as well as quite a few battles over that weird scythe that both of them think they own.

As is the case every single week, you can see the complete list of everything hitting comic stores this week here, and find out where your local comic book store is by clicking here. Do it because Clark Kent would want you to.

Okay, so back to those Amazon-fightin', zombie-hatin' robots. As you may be able to guess, Zombies Vs. Robots Vs. Amazons is a hardcover collection of the sequel to Chris Ryall and Ashley Wood's Zombies Vs. Robots, and just like its predecessor, it pretty much does what it promises in the title. As the solicitation for the book explains:

When last we visited the Zombies vs. Robots world, nuclear war had decimated the population of the entire globe, including zombies and robots alike. So who is left to fight? And how is an island of Amazon warrior-women involved this time around?

Elsewhere in the world of comics, one of Judge Dredd's most popular stories gets the deluxe treatment with the release of Judge Dredd: The Complete America, showing just why freedom and democracy are bad ideas in the 23rd century land of the free (Here's a clue: He is the law). Fans of dystopian British pulp SF may also want to pick up Warren Ellis' new series, Anna Mercury, which mixes Lara Croft, the Shadow and — apparently — Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon together to come up with five issues of potential good stuff.

(Also worth checking out in the same vein, but not necessarily SF: Holmes, an alternate-history take on Arthur Conan Doyle's favorite dick, which gets a collection courtesy of AiT-PlanetLar this week.)

For those who find all that dystopian crap too much to deal with, then DC Comics has you covered. You can follow the adventures of the original Last Boy on Earth in the Planet Of The Apes-inspired Countdown Special: Kamandi oneshot. Or you could go for the cute with Shazam - The Greatest Stories Ever Told, which collects more Captain Marvel magic than you could ever want to see.

Of course, it's possible that you would rather avoid old men inviting children into caves, but thankfully, there's a world of other wonders in this week's shipping list, and as for where to buy those beauties of amazement? You can track down your nearest store right here.

When you were young, did any particular science fiction inspire you to get into writing?

I'm sort of embarrassed to say... well, I'll just lay all my cards on the table here: Isaac Asimov's stuff. Isaac Asimov's science fiction stuff which was, in retrospect, is juvenile and clunky and has much better ideas than style. But, I didn't care about style then I was 12 years old. The cleverness of the mysteries, they don't hold up very well for me as an adult, but as a kid that's the stuff that sparked my imagination.

Do you have a favorite science fiction book of a film?

I honestly think that, even though this is fairly recent, The Matrix was the greatest science fiction movie I've ever seen, and I've seen them all.

Did you like all three?

The other two made my head hurt. I went in cold not knowing anything, completely cold, and it just blew my mind. Going back, I'm a big fan of Phillip K. Dick. Always have been. I'm a big fan of Alfred Bester, and I know a lot of his stuff is out of print now, which kills me. Those formative guys from the 50s and 60s, and any of those guys that Harlan assembled for Dangerous Visions, J.G. Ballard... all those guys are just phenomenal.

And Alfred Bester wrote for comics too, right? Didn't he write Green Lantern?

That's right, he wrote Green Lantern for awhile. He did some pulp stuff before the comics, but he didn't really become big until the 40s and 50s during his run in comics.

What are you writing these days?

I'm currently writing The Brave and the Bold at DC Comics, where I just finished up a run on The Flash. I'm also doing a lot of work at Boom! Studios where I'm the editor in chief.

That's right, and they're based out here in Los Angeles. What titles have you worked on there?

I wrote a miniseries called Potter's Field which came out last year, and I'm working on some more creator-owned stuff for them next year. In the meantime, that's my night job. My day job is the full-time editorial gig. I started there in July of last year, and I couldn't be happier. It's after 20 years of writing, it's cool to flex different muscles editorially because I'm finding that while I'm teaching new writers to do their stuff, it's forcing me to flex muscles that I hadn't used for awhile. Or to sort of articulate things in a way that I only know instinctively.

So were you a fan of Y: The Last Man?

Absolutely! I've been reading Y since the beginning, ever since Brian was a little kid with a stick and a hoop and a crown hat coming by my house going, "Mr. Waid! Mr. Waid! I want to grow up to be just like you!' No, I've known Brian for 10 years or better, and I've been reading his stuff all along. I couldn't be happier for him.

So you follow his work on Lost?

Definitely, and although I know it's a big room with a big group of writers, I can sometimes see flashes of Brian every now and again with the humor.

Do you think anyone could do a good film or television version of Y: The Last Man?

I think if they took enough time with it they could, if they didn't try to cram it into a 90 minute movie, sure. But we'll see... it doesn't matter whether it's faithful, it just matters if it's good or not.

What upcoming comic book films are you looking the most forward to?

Well, Dark Knight. That's the one that's going to rock the house. That's the one that's going to be amazing. Iron Man looks cool, but I was never a huge Iron Man fan, although it's inspired casting. Perfect casting. But Dark Knight... if they can get under the eclipse of the Heath Ledger story, will do really well for them. What I've seen ahead of time looks phenomenal. I just don't think you can say "Why So Serious?" anymore.

Is there any comic book property that you haven't worked on, but would love to?

From Archie Comics to DC Comics to Marvel Comics, I've written pretty much everything, but the one thing I haven't touched is Captain Marvel, the Shazam! version. Some day, at some point in my future, that's somewhere on the line.

Everybody who gets their hooks into it knows it's a great property, it's just that nobody has found a way to translate it. I don't know that you can write it for 40 year old fanboys, I don't know that there's an audience for it there. But it's the perfect young adult property, and it's just waiting to break out. He doesn't have to come from Krypton, and he doesn't have to train for years and years or become a scientist, he just says a magic word. When I was a kid, that's all I wanted.

Inspired by Shazam, Ben 10 is about ten-year-old Ben Tennyson coming into accidental contact with a powerful alien device, The Omnitrix. Looking like a clunky wristwatch, it allows Ben to transform into one of the 10 aliens in his repertoire when he gives the dial a spin. The effects are short-lived, but each alien race has different powers that aid him in his quest to bust the alien baddies that come looking for the Omnitrix.

The show has been airing for the past year on the Cartoon Network, and its high ratings finally paid off: the channel greenlit a live-action adaptation with Alex Winter (Bill S. Preston, Esquire from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure) directing, and the Six Million Dollar Man himself, Lee Majors, playing Grandpa Max. With numbers this big, you can bet they'll order up a sequel. In the meantime, if you like campy animation with cool alien tech, then you can spend some time catching up. At the very least, you'll know what one of the must-have toys for kids will be this year.

'Ben 10' A Winner For Cartoon Net [Variety]

They clamored for him to play Black Adam, who's had a lot of play in DC Comics' 52.

Johnson's decision to play Black Adam means scriptwriter John August has to revise the Shazam script to beef up Johnson's role. What's next? Fans doing costume design via webcam? It's yet another sign that Hollywood takes fan opinion way too seriously when it does cult (or sub-cult, in the case of Shazam) franchises. The result? Bland movies that leave their pulp roots visible. In the case of Shazam, the fan-chosen casting will actually mean a total rewrite of the film's script after the strike ends.

Dwayne Johnson talks Shazam [About.com, via Moviehole]