9. Decompression. This term refers to a more "cinematic" style in comics, in which the "lens" lingers over every moment of a scene, and the action is slowed down. There are more splash pages, or single-page panels. And a sequence which might have taken half a page in the 1960s will take half an issue. Comics' fad for "decompression" in comics coincided with the first blush of superhero movie popularity in the early noughties, and it's best understood as an attempt to copy the experience of watching a movie. Comics Should Be Good criticized this trend in 2005, and held up this page from Warren Ellis' Ocean #1 as an example: Yes it's an entire page of a guy walking out of a building and dropping a coffee cup, which dissolves. The "decompression" boom seems to be more or less over, although most comics are still slower paced than they would have been even 15 years ago.

8. Better, and fewer, costumes. Superhero movies are often loathe to cover up the faces of A-list actors, so masks tend to go out the window. You could get righteously sloshed if you drank to every occasion where Peter Parker loses his mask in Spider-Man 2. And many superhero movies avoid the gaudy spandex in general — most notably the X-Men movies, which influenced the comics to move over to the more dignified black leather uniforms... for a few years, at least. On television, Heroes chose to explore superheroic themes without any costumes at all, and it's becoming more common to see heroes in their civvies for long stretches in comics as well.

7. More Hollywood writers.
Comic book writers used to be their own breed, many of whom had started out as assistant editors at the big comic-book publishers before "graduating" to writing. But these days, you're just as likely to see a revolving door between Hollywood and comics, with writers like Jeph Loeb, James Robinson and Brian K. Vaughn working in both comics and TV/movies. And more slumming Hollywood writers, starting with comics buff Kevin Smith, have ventured into writing comics in their spare time — which has led to horrendous delays between issues.

6. Back to basics. If you liked Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movie, and you wanted to read comics about that character, you might pick up a Spider-Man comic — only to read about a married high-school teacher who's some kind of mystical spider-totem and wears exo-armor. And goes around saying things like, "I AM THE SPIDER!!". (First J.M. DeMatteis, then J.M. Straczynski, explored the "spiritual"/mystical side of Spider-Man, adding a lot of baggage.) So Marvel started putting out Ultimate Spider-Man and other Ultimate titles, which retell the origins of their classic heroes. And as writer Mark Millar has pointed out, the Ultimate version of Tony Stark ended up being a huge influence on the new Iron Man movie. And of course, every now and then there's a huge effort to go back to basics in regular continuity, like in Spider-Man's "One More Day" storyline — which erased Spidey's marriage, his exo-skeleton, his unmasking and a ton of other baggage.

5. Reconstruction. In the 1980s, the watchword in comics was "deconstruction," meaning that writers like Alan Moore, Grant Morrison and Frank Miller were dismantling comics characters and critiquing them through works like Watchmen. In the 1990s, there was a wave of nostalgia and comics creators paid tribute to the innocence classic comics — which Moore creating the "1963" series of comics that were supposed to look like they'd been published in 1963, and later the "America's Best" comics. But it wasn't until superhero movies started to take off that the trend of "reconstruction" went mainstream, and superhero comics made a concerted effort to build up their heroic characters instead of taking them apart. Take Batman, whose spine got smushed in the early 1990s and then spent the rest of the decade mired in angst and self-doubt. Grant Morrison and other writers swung the pendulum the opposite way and started turning him into an almost infallible (well, except for that "Brother Eye" business) Nietzschean demigod.

4. The movie pitch in graphic novel form. This is one way that the rise of comic-book movies didn't necessarily make comics better — comics publishers put out a lot of graphic novels that were obviously only aimed at generating new characters and ideas that could result in a movie deal. In the worst cases, the graphic novels in question didn't have much to say besides, "Here's a cool concept and some kick-ass characters. Can't you just see Brad Pitt playing this guy?"

3. (Somewhat) more realistic art. In the 1990s, the trends in "mainstream" comics art were running away from realism as fast as possible. Hot artists included Rob Liefeld, who could not draw the human body if you put a gun to his head, and Todd McFarlane, whose art got more and more scratchy and gothic. There was also a huge trend towards cartoony Manga-influenced artists like Humberto Ramos, whose work lacked the expressiveness and detail of real Manga art, and was often just confusing to look at. In the noughties, as superhero movies have exploded, a more photorealistic art style has taken hold in superhero comics. This hasn't always been a good thing, as artists like Greg Horn apparently take photos from porn magazines and trace over them to create female characters. But it's an improvement over the bug-in-a-shitstorm art styles of the 1990s.

2. Every time, it's personal. One of the defining characteristics of superhero movies is that they take place in a small world. The villain of a superhero movie is usually someone the hero knows personally. Often, the villain plays a part in the hero's origin — think Batman Begins, where ubervillain Ra's Al Ghul trains Batman to be a super-ninja. This trend has carried over to superhero comics, where newer villains are more likely to have a personal issue with the hero. Like new-ish Bat-villain Hush, who turned out to be a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne's.

1. Villain stew. In superhero comics of the 1990s and earlier, each storyline would usually feature one villain at a time. Sometimes villains would team up, and they would have to come up with a cool name for their joint venture. Like the Sinister Six. Or the Superman Revenge Squad. Villains couldn't just have an ad-hoc team-up. And you would seldom have villains just randomly running around in the same storyline, each with their own agendas. But movies, starting with Batman Returns, regularly featured two or more villains per movie, just on a "more is better" theory. And comics started to follow suit, until every Daredevil villain, from the Owl to the Kingpin, would put in an appearance in the same story arc. Instead of getting defeated and then disappearing for a few months, the villains just hang around and keep getting in each other's hair.

• Secret Invasion: Marvel showed a Secret Invasion preview video. Apparently the Skrulls have already infiltrated the entire United States of America. Plus, they've got Electra, Black Bolt, and Echo, and they're after eyepatch-wearing superspy Nick Fury. And formerly dead heroes Hawkeye and Mockingbird are on the previously unreleased cover for Secret Invasion #2, which comes out May 7.
• Secret Invasion crossovers: Thor WILL be part of Secret Invasion, and his tie-in will be written by Matt Fraction. Also, Peter David is writing a She-Hulk/X-Factor/Secret Invasion crossover! And Secret Invasion will also hit the Cosmic Heroes in another crossover. And Brian Reed writes Spider-Man Brand New Day/Secret Invasion. Also, Secret Invasion: Humans launches in August, featuring a writer from Heroes and art by Tom Raney.
• New developments with Spider-Man: the "lawsuit" storyline will be resolved in the Brand New Day special, coming soon. Also, you may want to re-read the end of the One More Day story, because there was a time lapse between Mary Jane kissed Peter and he woke up alone. Did something happen in between those two events? Also, Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada said the only thing that changed as a result of One More Day was Peter and Mary Jane's wedding day. Everything else stayed the same. Also, Mark Waid will join the writing team on Amazing Spider-Man, and John Romita, Jr. will draw 6 issues.
• New comics coming from Marvel: a new Deadpool comic, written by Daniel Way and feature art by Paco Medina, is coming in September. There'll be a new Avengers Initiative one-shot coming soon, written by Christos Gage and featuring Komodo and Hardball. Destroyer Max by Robert Kirkman and Craig Walker will be out in fall 2008. The NYX miniseries, about one of Wolverine's female counterparts, will return in September 2008. Also, editor Jim McCann says, "There are definite plans for Nick Fury — if he survives Secret Invasion."
• The Avengers: Avengers Initiative #7 is apparently a huge puzzle piece — the story features a lot of clues for upcoming storylines, and the comic itself will be worth a lot of money in the future. Dan Slott guarantees it. So if you buy that comic and it doesn't appreciate massively in value, send your invoices to Dan Slott. And after Secret Invasion is over, the Taskmaster and the Initiative will be around a lot more — so we hope you like them.
• Speedball: Quesada made a quick side comment about the return of Speedball, the formerly carefree hero who's now the guilt-ridden masochist Penance — and then did the shifty eyes. Could Speedball really be coming back?
• Upcoming Hulk comics: Greg Pak's long-awaited Skaar: Son Of Hulk is coming in June, penciled by Ron Garney. It details the life of the savage son of Hulk, left behind on a war-torn planet. Penciled by Ron Garney, this will be released in June. Both Incredible Hercules and Hulk v. Hercules, are coming soon, featuring drawings by Bob Layton! And there are more Hercules projects on the way, but the editors refused to spill.

The 1970s: 1975's Jaws is widely considered the first summer blockbuster. The original Star Wars came out in May 1977 and grossed about $307 million domestically in its first run. The other big summer blockbusters of the late 1970s were Jaws 2, Animal House and Alien, according to this site.

The 1980s: Science fiction scored about one summer blockbuster per year, or maybe two in a good year. Except for the late 1980s, when science fiction had a bit of a slump. Here's the roundup, by year. (A year with an asterisk is one where no science fiction film hit the top 10 movies of the year, box-office-wise.)

1980: Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back ($209 million)
1981: Superman II ($108 million)
1982: E.T. ($359 million) and Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan ($79 million).
1983: Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi ($252 million), Superman III ($60 million) and War Games ($80 million)
1984: Ghostbusters ($260 million) and Star Trek III: The Search For Spock ($76 million)
1985: Cocoon ($76 million) and Back To The Future ($211 million)
1986: Short Circuit ($41 million) and Aliens ($85 million)
* 1987: Predator ($60 million) and Robocop ($53 million)
* 1988: None. (Although Big and Willow were big summer hits.)
1989: Batman ($251 million), Honey I Shrunk The Kids ($131 million)

The 1990s: The number of science fiction movies in the summer's biggest movies increased slightly, with some ups and downs. Some years, the biggest blockbusters included films with a lot of special effects and action-adventure themes, but no overt science fictional elements.

1990: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ($135 million), Total Recall ($119 million), Back To The Future Part III ($88 million), Flatliners ($61 million).
1991: Terminator 2 ($205 million)
1992: Batman Returns ($163 million)
1993: Jurassic Park ($357 million)
* 1994: None. (Although True Lies, Speed and The Mask were in the top 10, and non-summer films Stargate and Star Trek: Generations were in the top 20.)
1995: Batman Forever ($184 million), Apollo 13 ($172 million), Waterworld ($88 million)
1996: Independence Day ($306 million), Phenomenon ($105 million)
1997: Men In Black ($251 million), The Lost World: Jurassic Park ($229 million), Face/Off ($112 million), Batman And Robin ($107 million)
1998: Armageddon ($202 million), Deep Impact ($140 million), Godzilla ($136 million), The Truman Show ($126 million)
1999: Star Wars Episode 1 ($431 million), Wild Wild West ($114 million)

The 2000s: It's really just in the last five years that we've seen more than two or three big science fiction movies dominating the summer pretty much every year. A lot of these have been franchises, comic-book movies and sequels, or some combination of the three. The box-office take of the top 10 movies has increased dramatically, with every year's top 10 movies each grossing well over $100 million.

2000: X-Men ($157 million)
2001: Jurassic Park III ($181 million), Planet of The Apes ($180 million)
2002: Spider-Man ($404 million), Star Wars Episode II ($302 million), Signs (228 million), Men In Black II ($190 million)
2003: The Matrix Reloaded ($282 million), X2: X-Men United ($215 million), Terminator 3 ($150 million), Hulk ($132 million)
2004: Spider-Man 2 ($374 million), The Day After Tomorrow ($187 million), I, Robot ($145 million)
2005: Star Wars: Episode III ($380 million), War Of The Worlds ($234 million), Batman Begins ($205 million), Fantastic Four ($155 million)
2006: X-Men: The Last Stand ($234 million), Superman Returns ($200 million)
2007: Spider-Man 3 ($337 million), Transformers($319 million), The Simpsons Movie ($183 million), Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer ($132 million)

Note: Data is from BoxofficeMojo.com. Dollar figures aren't adjusted for inflation. I left out movies like the original Indiana Jones trilogy, which is clearly fantasy. (Unlike the new Indiana Jones movie, if all reports are to be believed.) I also left out spy movies that might have a few science-fiction touches aren't really about a science-fictional premise. Feel free to bitch at me in the comments.

The biggest difference in Chabon's draft is the character of Doctor Octopus, who's much more complex and rich, with moments of great urbanity.

Otto doesn't have a wife who dies as a result of his octopus-arms experiment going awry. Instead, he's single and actually courts Peter's would-be girlfriend Mary-Jane, with a great deal of success. There's a great scene where they go to dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant. Says Octopus, "I like to eat with my hands." He also tells her,"I'm a little freaky."

There's also a running subplot where Harry Osborn, Peter's roommate and the son of the Green Goblin, has put extreme security measures in place in their apartment, including steel bars and retinal scanners, among other things. Harry is having weird nightmares about his dead father, and he takes out a $10 million bounty on Spider-man's head, with the help of the Daily Bugle. Spider-Man keeps almost getting killed by ordinary people whom he's trying to help, because they want a chance at that money.

Remember that whole sequence in the movie where Peter decides he's sick of being Spider-Man, and then loses his powers for no particular reason? And he suddenly needs glasses again? And it's never explained, but then he randomly gets his powers back when he needs them most? In Chabon's draft, it actually makes sense. He talks to Otto Octavius, who gives him a special "pacer chip" that will reverse his spider-encoding DNA. Because Otto worked on the super-spider project that led to Peter getting his powers, he has the ability to reverse them.

So Peter injects himself with the chip, and slowly loses his powers. By the end of the film, he's totally powerless and having to improvise using a truck and some "webbing" made out of orange fencing when he fights Dr. Octopus.

Instead of Dr. Octopus going berserk and robbing a bank, he finally loses it when he's on a date with Mary Jane. He decides to wear his cybernetic arms on the date, because of the "endorphin push" he gets from them. (The script talks a lot about the "endorphin push" and how it counteracts Otto's pain, to the point where it becomes super-creepy.) And while on the date, Otto uses his cyber-arms to beat up a couple of guys who hassle him and Mary Jane, to her horror.

Dr. Octopus doesn't become permanently fused to his exo-arms until a bit after that, when he and Spider-Man have their subway-train fight and Spider-Man is trying to disable the arms.

And the reason why Dr. Octopus wants to capture Spider-Man is not just to please Harry Osborn, but also because that "pacer chip" that took away Spider-Man's powers will also help stabilize his fusion with the bionic limbs, which is killing him. The sequence where he makes an alliance with Harry over Spider-Man's prospective dead body makes a lot more sense in Chabon's draft.

The business with Aunt May finding out that Peter could have stopped the thief that killed Uncle Ben and becoming angry is much more intense and moving in Chabon's draft. And then later in the movie, she and Peter have an incredibly poignant scene together where she tells him that feeling crushed by your responsibilities is just normal life, for everybody. It's not something you can escape, and it's not a special destiny. It's just life.

And instead of Spider-Man getting his powers back as mysteriously as he loses them, he gets them back by using a knife and some pliers to dig the "pacer chip" out of his arm. It's a gross but extremely effective scene.

And in the end, Dr. Octopus manages to capture Spider-Man and straps him to his nasty spine-extracting machine. And that's when Harry and Mary Jane both learn Spider-Man's true identity. And it's Mary Jane who gets through to Dr. Octopus, thanks to the connection that the two of them forged earlier in the movie, and convinces him to abandon his experiment. Then Spider-Man breaks free and saves her from Otto's collapsing laboratory building.

All in all, it's much more coherent and effective than the somewhat jumbled version we saw on screen, not surprisingly. Get it while you can!

Update: McSweeney's has already taken the PDF down, after just a couple of days of being online. But I would be shocked if you had any trouble tracking down a copy.

[Jeff Vandermeer]

First of all, Cook drops a few spoilers for the Spectacles to come. For one thing, we'll see two different versions of Spidey's notorious black costume — the version with webs on it, and a smoother version. Does that mean we'll get to see Venom? Cook isn't saying. Meanwhile, the cartoon's makers haven't ruled out doing the Clone Saga, but they haven't talked about it recently.

Cook promises more nods to the old comics and cartoons, with things like the half-Peter, half-Spidey face, and a sky full of webs. Also, you can definitely tell Cook has pored over the early Spider-Man characters for clues to the characters development. He says:

If you look back at the Stan Lee and Steve Ditko years, Peter is just a geek, but then when John Romita Sr. comes onto the book, Peter grows up suddenly and becomes this handsome young guy. We're trying to straddle the two a little bit.

Spider-Man is a more fun superhero than Batman, despite the fact that they both have tragedy in their pasts. And you'll see more wise-cracking banter from Spidey than you see in the Sam Raimi movies — but mostly only when he's fighting "the non-threatening guys."

The other moment of extreme art obsession comes when Cook suddenly starts discussing the color green in Spider-Man comics:

In the 1960's it seems like the majority of Spider-man's rogues gallery had green as part of their costumes and I have never gotten a complete answer as to whether that was a conscious decision or whether it was because of the printing process or if they just looked good in contrast to red. On film you have to make these choices and I decided to pick up on that and make green the color of evil or oppression on Spider-man.

Image Comics' Transhuman is a new series by Pax Romana and The Nightly News creator Jonathan Hickman and artist JM Ringuet that oozes potential joy for the faithful. A "mockumentary" about genetic engineering, superheroes and the effort to mass-market a combination of the two, the series looks set to confirm Hickman's reputation for both visually-arresting work and an ability to play well within the SF genre. If you want to know more, you can find a 5-page preview of the first issue here (PDF).

Another premiere that's worth paying attention to this week is the first volume of Flight Explorer, the kid-centric spin-off from popular anthology Flight - It may not all be science fiction, but with a new story about the top-heavy monster Jellaby, and another strip called Zita the Spacegirl, this should be considered for the childlike near you. Even if that happens to be you yourself.

(You can read some more about the book, including seeing preview pages, here).

The third book appearing for the first time on Wednesday is Star Trek: New Frontier #1, a new mini-series tying into the New Frontier novel series. Both the novels and the comics are being written by Peter David, allowing for both coherent continuity and full-on nerditry, both of which are heartily approved around these here parts.

Elsewhere, it's all about the collections. Marvel is putting out hardcover collections of their popular time-travelling 1980s Iron Man versus Doctor Doom stories in Iron Man: Doomquest and their not-so-popular "The Devil annuls Spider-Man's marriage" story in Spider-Man: One More Day.

Meanwhile, DC pulls in some of the best of their 1980s output with the complete run of Dan Jurgens' greedy jerk anti-hero in Showcase Presents: Booster Gold, and then reprints some comic history with the fourth and final volume of Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, which not only reprints Kirby's final stories starring Orion, Mr. Miracle and Darkseid, but also does its best to return Kirby's final work with the characters, graphic novel The Hunger Dogs, to the way it was before editorial forces demanded rewrites and changed the ending to make the production of more Super Powers figures that little bit easier. Previously unseen, reworked and re-inked art, and restored script and structure on the strip provides something like a Director's Cut version of one of the lost masterpieces of superhero comics by one of the greatest comic artists who ever lived... which has to be worth a look, right?

As ever, a full list of the week's releases can be found here, and the place to find your personal comics emporium can be found here. Now go and buy the Fourth World book and make a dead comic mastermind a happy ghost already.

Devil's Due is a publisher that doesn't get the most play here on io9, but its 304-page Voltron: Defender of the Universe Hardcover Omnibus may change that. Collecting the complete Voltron series — including the never-published final 12th issue - this fairly-weighty hardcover has work by 52 and Flash's Mark Waid, Ultimate Spider-Man's Mark Brooks, Dan Jolley, Kaare Andrews (the man who gave the world Spider-Man's radioactive spunk, about which more below), and many, many more, and may be the nostalgia purchase of choice for many of you this week.

For those of you who have more of a Batman fetish, this week also sees the re-release of Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's "seminal" The Killing Joke, in a newly recolored, hardcover format. If a beautifully-illustrated comic that cripples one of DC's most well-known superheroines in an offhanded manner and then lets you see her breasts later (We'll see if that detail makes it into the remastered version) isn't enough to entice you to spend $17.99 alone, then I may as well mention that the new hardback also includes a short back-up story written and illustrated by Bolland alone. If you'd rather have more kid-friendly DC superhero fare, you might want to try the first issue of Super Friends, a new series aimed at the under-10s, where superdeformed versions of the Justice League show that — hey! — friendship may be the greatest superpower of all. Or, if you don't want to patronize your kids, give them the first collection of cartoon tie-in Legion of Super-Heroes In The 31st Century instead.

Marvel is having a bit of an off-week, by way of comparison. People who want to see uncomfortably realistic older versions of favorite characters have an unexpected choice, however. On the one hand, there's the Earth X Trilogy Companion (a collection of sketches and rarely-seen work relating to Alex Ross's future Marvel universe). On the other, there's the paperback version of Kaare Andrews' Spider-Man: Reign, which rewrites Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns into a Spider-Man story most notable for including the fact that Spider-Man killed off his wife by having sex with her and poisoning her with his radioactive sperm.

No, seriously.

Yes, yes, I know. There's nowhere to go from there. That's why I'm telling you that that stroke of "genius" (or should that be "stroke" of genius?), along with everything else shipping this week, can be found here, and that you can find out where your nearest comic book store may be by clicking here.

Now, go and wash your mind out to stop thinking about radioactive spider sperm. You know you want to.

In Deadpool #11, the eponymous main character gets lost in time and ends up trapped in an 1960s issue of Amazing Spider-Man (#47, to be exact), interacting not only with that era's characters but also actual dialogue written by Stan Lee way back when. The result is a "Forest Gumping" of a fan-favorite era that parodies the excesses and stupidity with genuine affection mixed in with a healthy amount of snark, unlike the more usual cynical ripping off and trashing of fondly-remembered reputations. After all, if ever there was a way of showing that a writer gets what the creator intended for a particular character, it's making fun not only of their dialogue, but also their hair:

It's not just those who wanted to see Spider-Man classics made fun of that loved this issue - Spider-Man fansite Spider-Fan.org said the issue was

doubtless the funniest comic I have read in my life. It treads the fine line between the coarse lampooning which could be thrown at any 30 year old comic, and the over-intellectualising which can be the bane of any media which attempts to introspect. In taking this course, it puts nary a foot wrong to my mind.

Deadpool #11 [Spider-Fan]

In case you forgot the official synopsis, Dollhouse is about a group of "Dolls," or "Actives," who can be programmed to be anyone and do anything, for paying clients. When they're not out on a programmed mission, they're "blank," amnesiac and childlike in the Dollhouse. The whole shebang is illegal, and the people involved may not be that altruistic.

The pages seem to be for casting Dr. Claire Sanders, "a gorgeous older woman" (with a knife-scarred face) who works at the Dollhouse, and Sierra, one of Echo's fellow Dolls and the closest thing Echo has to a friend. (Here's our list of the show's characters, just to refresh your memory.)

We see a scene between Claire and Topher, the geek who programs the Dolls (and who's smitten with Claire.) It seems as though Topher is worried because Claire is sending the Dolls out on "pro bono" missions, and he's trying to sneak a glance at Echo's file, even though he has a perfect right to see it. One of those "pro bono" missions had Echo sit at the bedside of a sick girl for three days, putting a strain on the valuable Doll. Claire retorts that the "pro bono" missions are making the Dolls better, and there has to be more to their existence than validating the "whims of the rich," including sex and crime. Topher's not interested in improving the Dolls, and accidentally gives away how much he enjoys programming them to enjoy their dirty work.

Sierra has three scenes, showcasing how versatile she and Echo will have to be: In one, she's in the Dollhouse with fellow Dolls Echo and Victor. The dialogue is very childlike, and feels very River Tam-esque. In the second, she's been programmed to be a safecracker, and she taunts a fellow safecracker with her superior knowledge. She's in charge, the smart-assed opposite of her earlier babyish self. And then in the third scene, she's a "socialite," dropping witty lines about shoes and teasing an older woman for being too high-minded.

Bottom line: As you might have guessed, Dollhouse will probably be the most twisted thing Joss has ever done, and also pretty arty. I'm not optimistic about its chances on Fox. But fingers crossed! [SpoilerTV]

More spoilers:

• Whoever's dying soon on Lost, it probably won't be Sun, since actress Yunjin Kim bought a condo in Hawaii and producer Carlton Cuse promised her that if her character died off before the show ended, he would buy her condo from her. So barring a really steep real-estate crash, we can expect Sun to go the distance. Meanwhile, here are some not-very-revealing set pics of the Tunisian location (actually Hawaii) in an upcoming episode. [DocArzt]
• Also, Jack and Juliet will kiss some more. [SpoilersLost]
• Here's how the Lizard, aka mutated scientist Curt Connors, will look on this Saturday's Spectacular Spider-Man. [Comics2Film]

Annalee: "If you guys had to get out of those costumes really, really fast, how would you do it?"
Spidey: "You mean like, if the building was on fire? I always build secret escape hatches in here, so you can just pull and they're gone."
Spider-Woman: "Yeah, they come off in about five seconds." (We think she winked after that, but it's hard to tell behind those huge white eyecovers)
Spidey: "I mean, when you gotta to to the bathroom, you gotta go."

[/Film]

The Theremin Era (1950s-1960s). The emphasis is on weird noises and screechy howls. Sometimes, it's an actual electronic scream, as in the Doctor Who theme, or to some extent the Outer Limits theme. Sometimes, it's an actual human trying to sound like a theremin, like the Star Trek theme's crazy opera singer. Either way, the message is clear: This is some freaky shit right here.

The Disco Era (late 1970s-early 1980s). You can totally boogie down to the theme tunes of Amazing Spider-Man, Bionic Woman or Logan's Run the series. Some themes, like Buck Rogers, try to sound sort of "adventure-y" and bring up associations with John Williams' heroic theme tunes for Star Wars and Superman: The Movie. But mostly the message is: groovy times ahead!!! Put on some tight pants and boogie!

The Orchestra Era (1990s). The themes from the two Star Trek TNG spin-offs, Babylon 5, Andromeda, Seaquest and even Time Trax all feature heroic-sounding strings and soaring horns. There's a strong melodic hook, but it's not as toe-tapping as the themes from the 70s and early 80s. Message: Epic saga (with heartstring-yanking) ahead.

The Alt-Country Era (early 2000s). Okay, so this was just two shows: Firefly and Enterprise. But it still felt like a mini-trend, especially since these were half the SF shows on TV at the time. You had the twangy voice, the deep soul-searching lyrics and the guitar anti-heroing. "Take my love, take my land, but you can't take my faith of the heart." Message: It's tough out here on the frontier.

The Weird Wailing Era (mid-2000s). All of a sudden, shows like the new Battlestar Galactica and Heroes featured a Middle Eastern-sounding person in distress, or just voices going "oooh" in the background. The new Doctor Who had a boppier version of the original theme, but whenever the Doctor acted mysterious, you'd hear a distinct "ooooh" sound in the background. In many ways, it's like a throwback to the theremin era. The message it sends: This is some freaky shit right here.

Spider-Man: The original bad luck hero, Peter Parker knows what it's like to be single and unloved. Admittedly, that's only because the devil came and magic-ed away his marriage to hot supermodel-turned-actress Mary Jane Watson, but it still counts, right? Even before that happened, though, he wasn't having much success at the whole relationship thing. His first love of his life, Gwen Stacy? Thrown off the George Washington Bridge by the Green Goblin just to piss Spider-Man off. Even nowadays, the newly-single swinger still can't catch a break - his new potential girlfriend, Carlie Cooper, is an NYPD forensic expert who's working on a case that has Spider-Man as murder suspect number one.

Cyclops: Pity poor Scott "Slim" Summers. Being the stoic leader of the X-Men doesn't make you exceptionally easy to date, if his experience is anything to go by. If it's not your first girlfriend sacrificing herself for the good of the universe on the surface of the moon, it's your first wife being revealed to be a clone of said girlfriend created by a bad guy to mess with your head and, oh, by the way, your girlfriend isn't actually dead after all - that was another clone, albeit a cosmic one - and your wife is actually a Goblin Queen who wants to kill your baby son as well as a clone. Even after he sorted that mess out (the clone wife was quickly dispatched, and he married the not-dead girlfriend instead), things didn't get any easier. Failing to make his marriage work, he had a psychic affair with the X-Men's resident evil bitch telepath before his wife died again, only for real this time. Sure, now he seems happy enough with his new girlfriend (that would be the evil bitch telepath), but you know that it's only a matter of time before she betrays him and/or his first girlfriend/second wife is revealed not to have died this time, either.

Note: That first girlfriend/second wife, Jean Grey? Apparently so hot that even Professor X was in love with her, as this panel from the original '60s X-Men run shows:

The Flash: Police Scientist and Fastest Man Alive Barry Allen lived a life of speedy misery. Not only was his first wife, Iris, killed by his arch-nemesis Professor Zoom — probably in some kind of rage over the lameness of his name — but when he was preparing to marry a second wife, Zoom attempted the same trick again. This time around, things didn't go to plan; in preventing his fiancee's murder, Allen accidentally killed Zoom. And his appearance as the Flash and lack of appearance as Barry Allen led his fiancee to think that she'd been stood up at the altar, which drove her insane (Hey, some people take rejection really badly). There was light at the end of the tunnel, however, when Allen discovered that Iris hadn't been completely killed after all 00 Sensing a theme here? — but instead just spirited away to the 30th century, where technology had given her a new body. Only problem was, when Allen travelled to the future to be with her, he ended up being captured and tortured by a villain out to destroy all of existence. Trying to save the day one more time somewhat backfired, and Allen died in the attempt, leaving Iris to travel back to the 20th century and write a tell-all book about Allen before failing to prevent the death of another Flash, Bart Allen, years later. She was kind of a jinx, really.

The moral of these stories? You really don't want to be the partner of a superhero, because you'll probably be killed or have the devil rewrite your history at some point or another. But, on the plus side, if you do die? Chances are you'll come back to life before too long. So it's not all bad news, I suppose.

David Zucker has been producing and directing comedy movies sporadically since Airplane!, and most recently directed Scary Movie 3, 4, and 5. I suppose if you're on a roll, why not stick with what you know... but do people care anymore? I seriously kept waiting for something funny to happen in this trailer, thinking it would elicit at least one laugh. Well, I was wrong. It devolves quickly into tired jokes and a superhero getting partially pantsed. Whoa! You can see his skivvies! Haw haw. The trailer for Hancock had more laughs than this did. In fact, remember Will Smith talking to the mannequins in I Am Legend? That was comedy gold in comparison.

We don't want to see Leslie Nielsen brought to this. But at least now you know what Brent "Data" Spiner has been up to. Please tell us their next project isn't Science Fiction Movie.

SRK's movie will start shooting towards the end of the year, and in the meantime he'll be asking the world's greatest special effects technicians to help make it the greatest effects movie of all time. He tells Variety, "It will madcap, over the top. I want it to be as beautiful as Spider-Man in terms of effects." The movie will be about kids who wish for bad things, but "get a reality check when they come true." SRK reportedly jumped ship from Robot because he felt its storyline, about a companion robot that turns deadly, wasn't realistic enough.

Hollywood hasn't courted SRK yet, and he says he's waiting for the right opportunity for his quirky persona:

I'm waiting for someone like Steven Spielberg or James Cameron or some other great person like Ang Lee to make a film a film about a brown, thin, scrawny Indian guy who doesn't speak English too well. If they ever have a character like that and Google it, I'm sure they'll find me... Seriously, it would have to be character-specific. I'd love to do an action-comic film like Chris Rock and Jackie Chan.

[Variety]

But chances are Topher won't actually don the slimy rubber-fetish outfit again. He said last April that he wouldn't be on board for a Venom movie because spin-offs starring Elektra and Supergirl have bombed. He thinks a Venom vehicle would do similarly badly. [IESB]

Fans who aren't freaked out by the computer generated Robert Downey Jr. can also click through to a contest giving away the chance to go to the premiere of the movie in LA, allowing them the chance to be freaked out by the real thing in person. The site also offers digital comics featuring Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, as well as a chance for you to sign up for Marvel's pay-per-view Digital Comics Unlimited service.

I'd make a joke about getting them when they're young, but let's face it; the people visiting the site most often will remember when Spider-Man was on The Electric Company.

Iron Man Adventure [Marvelkids.com]

First up is Amazing Spider-Man #546, which is the first issue of the new rebooted version of the character - Now, he's single, living with his immortal aunt again, and - if the MySpace previews are anything to go by - getting some girlie action from women who're happy that his marriage was retconned out of existence by the devil himself. With art by Steve McNiven, the man who drew one of the most popular comics of 2007 (That'd be Civil War, the political allegory that involved heroes punching each other in the name of liberty, for those who didn't know), and curiosity driven by the highly negative buzz for the new status quo, expect this to be sell out quickly and for Marvel's embattled editor in chief to boast that he knew he was right all along.

Marvel's second high-profile book is Hulk #1, another relaunch of a major character in the wake of a popular storyline. With Bruce Banner having apparently died at the end of last summer's "World War Hulk", it's been left purposefully vague just who is the bright red Hulk that stars in this new series by Heroes's Jeph Loeb (illustrated by Ed McGuinness). Loeb's reputation in comic critical circles isn't the greatest, but he consistently manages to hit the general public's sweet spot of dumb but pretty action, which is pretty much all you should want from a Hulk book. Cautiously worth a look, at least.

If you're jonesing for more monster action, you might want to pick up Dark Horse's Evil Dead #1, an adaptation of the monster movie that made Sam Raimi into a household name in houses that watch cheap horror flicks, or Friday The 13th: Badland #1 from DC/Wildstorm, which attempts to resuscitate the hockey mask horror franchise with added hacking and slashing. Horror of a different kind can be found via Virgin Comics, which launches Jenna Jameson's Shadow Hunter on an unsuspecting world with a special preview "issue zero". Yes, not content with making headlines for a failed vaginoplasty, Jameson comes to comics in the guise of a daughter of demons who gets to save the world while showing a lot of cleavage. One for the bathroom readers amongst you, most likely.

If you're looking for something to buy to hide Jenna's comic behind, you could do worse than my pick of the week: Teen Titans: The Lost Annual. Written by creator of the super teen team Bob Haney, the plot of this previously-cancelled special issue involves JFK sending the teenagers into space to bring peace, love and 60s-esque good vibes to alien races the world over. Admittedly, it's may not be as violent as Evil Dead or as scarlet as the Hulk, but there's little doubt that this 64-page, $4.99, oneshot will give you the best value for money at your store this week.

And let's face it: you'd rather have Wonder Girl in those ginchy hotpants rather than Jenna's bleach blondeness any day, right? Well, aside from that whole "fictional teenager" thing, at least...

• Another phone-death movie on the heels of One Missed Call: In the direct-to-DVD Nightmare Detective, people die after dialing "0" on their cell phones. Shinya Tsukamoto (Tetsuo) directs. [Bloody Disgusting]
• The Mysterians, a forthcoming graphic novel about a group of kids who foil an alien invasion, is in development as a film from co-creator Michael Uslan, producer of the Batman films. [Production Charts]
• The Guillermo Del Toro TV miniseries of Frankenstein may combine that story with Bride of Frankenstein. [ShockTillYouDrop]
• Now that Mephisto has erased his marriage, Peter Parker will be "the amazing Spider-Slut," making out with "girls gone wild" at clubs. [Bob Mitchell]
• That Lost flash-forward showing that Jack makes it off the island doesn't mean the character can't ever die, because we will see him return to the island after that point, says actor Matthew Fox. We'll also keep seeing some flash-backs in season four. [Give Me My Remote]
• Dean Winters (Rescue Me) will play Sarah Connor's ex-fiance in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, replacing another actor from the pilot. He's chasing Sarah, and in the second episode John Connor seeks him out for some stepdad-son time. [BuddyTV]
• Torchwood season two features a much bigger role for Rhys, Gwen's boyfriend. He finds out the truth about Gwen's job and joins her Scooby Gang, getting into car chases and fistfights. And then aliens crash Rhys and Gwen's wedding. [icWales]
• More Torchwood spoilers: Captain John, played by James "Spike" Marsters, is Captain Jack's ex, and his lipgloss has a devastating on anyone who kisses him. [LovelyLadyLooks]
• Adam/Kensei in Heroes is either Nikki's great-grandfather, or he married one of her alternate personalities, or something. [SuperHiro]

Straczynski says:

In the current storyline, there's a lot that I don't agree with, and I made this very clear to everybody within shouting distance at Marvel, especially Joe [Quesada, Marvel Comics Editor In Chief]. I'll be honest: there was a point where I made the decision, and told Joe, that I was going to take my name off the last two issues of the OMD arc. Eventually Joe talked me out of that decision because at the end of the day, I don't want to sabotage Joe or Marvel, and I have a lot of respect for both of those. As an executive producer as well as a writer, I've sometimes had to insist that my writers make changes that they did not want to make, often loudly so. They were sure I was wrong. Mostly I was right. Sometimes I was wrong. But whoever sits in the editor's chair, or the executive producer's chair, wears the pointy hat of authority, and as Dave Sim once noted, you can't argue with a pointy hat.

"i don't care if they want to smash the marriage, but to have your flagship character make a deal with the devil? not cool at all Marvel. I would have preferred a straight reboot to this. Or even just having Peter wake up and it be like this with no explanation to the fans. Not cool Marvel. Not cool at all"

"This is so bad, it destroys whatever artistic credibility the book once had. There's no future, nothing matters. They did something like the unmasking, did it poorly, then threw it away like it never happened."

"Well the stomach pains continue and now I think I will go into some sort of coma after this story: good god...I knew this was going to be a nightmare but this is ******* ridiculous. As if breaking the marriage up isn't bad enough (I am probably one of the biggest supporters of the marriage and giving Peter and MJ a child) but to finally address the whole Baby May issue at last which eliminates the possibility of it ever happening again, and to bring Harry back, I am feeling my body go into some sort of shock. Man, where is Doom at to just blow Quesada back to whatever Hell he came from...mark my words, when the end days nears, the devil will turn out to be Quesada. He will start demanding all marriages to end if he was in power."

Quesada was also, of course, in charge of Marvel when Captain America died, meaning that he's not only anti-marriage but also anti-America. What's next for this man who's clearly out to undermine everything that you personally hold dear?

OMD Part 4 - Spoilers and Reactions [Newsarama.com]

Another "shocking" Marvel comic book is Captain America #33. Cap's former sidekick Bucky finally confronts the man he blames for the Captain's death, Iron Man. Rumor has it that a new Captain America will emerge at the end of this issue, as a result of a deal that Bucky makes with Iron Man. Plus check out Steve Epting's gorgeous art of the Red Skull:

Grant Morrison's Batman finally emerges from the long "Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul" crossover with issue #672. We're back to dealing with the "imposter Batmen," a big theme of Morrison's run. The "third Batman" is shooting up a police precinct, and his ultimate goal is to kill the real Dark Knight. It sounds as though we'll get some explanation for the extra Bat-guys. And since the zany imp Bat-mite guest stars, it appears that Wacky Grant will be showing up for this round.

Tom Beland (True Story Swear To God) writes a Fantastic Four one-shot called Isla De La Muerte. The Thing takes his annual "secret vacation" in Puerto Rico, and his team-mates follow him, only to confront an old enemy and the Chupacabras. Judging from the preview pages, it looks like a dose of old-school angst-free FF without much substance.

Mike Baron's crazy superhero Badger is back in a new mini-series from IDW, Badger Saves The World. How excited you are about this comic depends on your degree of 80s nostalgia. The "mentally ill superhero" thing has become such a cliche by this point, it's hard to see this comic winning much of a new audience. But it does have Pavlov, a terrorist who uses trained dogs.

Speaking of 80s nostalgia, this week also sees the collection of the Buckaroo Banzai mini-series Return Of The Screw. Original writer Earl Mac Rauch wrote the continuation of the movie's story, and director W.D. Richter was also involved. Buckaroo and his team save the world again, plus there are guitar solos, gun battles, a human pickle and a giant sombrero. In other words, if you're one of the people who quotes Buckaroo dialog to your friends, you'll probably want to grab this.

Also, there's the giant hardcover Daredevil By Frank Miller Omnibus Companion. Frank Miller's groundbreaking work on Daredevil #158-191 reinvented the character and put Miller on the map in a huge way. Those essential issues are collected in the Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson Omnibus, which came out last spring. This new hardcover contains all the other work Miller did featuring Daredevil. There's some nice stuff here, but it's basically for completists.

Finally, you can relive all of Batman's wackiest team ups from the 1950s in Showcase Presents Brave and the Bold, volume two.

We were wondering if you watch Heroes, and what you thought about it.

I love it. LOVE it! I haven't watched all of them because I don't have a lot of time with all the writing I'm doing, but I love it. I even did a cameo in the first season.

That's right, you were a bus driver who picks up Hiro. Would you come back if they asked you?

Of course! I'd be angry if they didn't. I just love doing those.

Well that brings up a good point. Watching the Marvel movies now has become a game of "spot Stan Lee." Will we see you in Iron Man?

Oh yeah, I've already done that role, and it's a very funny cameo. I'll give you just a hint of what it is: I'm dressed like Hugh Hefner, and I've got my arms around three beautiful blonde women who are as close to me as you can get without being on the other side. Plus, I'm smoking a pipe like Hugh Hefner. So when you see it, remember that you heard it here first!

If the Thor film keeps going forward and they want me in it, then they'll probably have me swing a hammer. I'd don fur and leather or do anything they wanted me to do in order to get back on the screen.

In Heroes, the people get their powers through genetics, it isn't supernatural in origin or from cosmic rays or anything. In all of the characters you've created, do you have a favorite origin story?

Well, I think they're all great. I mean... probably Spider-Man being bitten by the radioactive spider. It's so simple, and he was the first teenaged superhero, in my recollection. Plus he faced all the problems that a teenager would encounter; girls, schoolwork, friends. He was the most realistic to me and will probably always be my favorite.

Where did your catch phrase "Excelsior!" come from?

I used to have a lot of expressions that I would end my comic book columns with: Hang Loose, Face Front, 'Nuff Said, and I found that the competition was always imitating them and using them. So, I said I'm going to get one expression that they're not going to know what it means, and they won't know how to spell it. And that's where excelsior came from, and they never did take up on it, thank goodness.

Well, that's good because now it's your unofficial slogan. Thank you for your time.

It was my pleasure. Excelsior!

Famous names: Bendis and Bagley weren't the only people behind this project - Then-president of Marvel Bill Jemas was so involved that he plotted out the first seven issues of the serialized comic and acted as an additional editor on the series until he left the company.

Crunchy goodness: 5

Spinoffs/Sequels/Copycats: In addition to the entire Marvel "Ultimate" line of books (The Ultimates, Ultimate Iron Man, Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four, et al), this particular series also was the starting point for the short-lived MTV animated version of the character, with Bendis as an executive producer and spawned its own video game.

Memorable product tie-in: Around the time of the first Tobey Maguire movie, all the merchandising for the character used Bagley's version of the wall-crawler, meaning that he probably got 10c for that pair of panties that your loved one got for you that you never wear.

Most painfully dated moment: Dig the Limp Bizkit-inspired designs for Peter Parker's "contemporary" schoolmates, yo.

Ultimate Spider-Man at Sequential Art

Famous names: Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. One went on to make "Who Wants To Be A Super-Hero?" for the Sci-Fi Channel, and the other became an Ayn Rand-obsessed recluse who refuses to talk in public. Why didn't this creative partnership work out, you have to ask?

Crunchy goodness: 5

Spinoffs/Sequels/Copycats: These are the stories that not only made it possible for Marvel to launch comics like "Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man", "Spider-Woman," "Spider-Girl" and "Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham", but also countless other publishers to realize that insects might make good superheroes (Hello, Blue Beetle).

Memorable product tie-in: Who could forget the amazing rockomic version of Spidey's exploits?

Design breakthrough: Unlike the coy and handsome version of the character that's become familiar over the last forty years, Ditko's creepy and intentionally ugly artwork will make you understand why Sam Raimi was always the perfect choice for the movie.

Spider-Man in the Ditko Era

"Right now, Sony is meeting with different writers to try and bring a fresh new story and approach to the 'Spider-Man' franchise," Raimi told us, "so I've been in meetings with Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin, the producers, and Amy Pascal. Different writers have been coming in and spinning different tales of where 'Spider-Man' can go from here."

Maybe the next Spider-Man can build on the idea that Spidey's fame is corrupting him? It was one of the few compelling ideas in the third movie, but it got lost in the plot overload. Also on Raimi's to-do list: A movie of The Shadow, the pulpy character he owns the film rights to.Image by Mshades.

Sam Raimi On Spider-Man 4 And The Shadow [Superhero Hype]