Caleb Paullus' Super Not Super is a series of brief photo comics exploring the not-so-superheroic trials and tribulations of caped crusaders. Batman finds even he is not immune to the economic meltdown, the Flash fails at physical intimacy, and Catwoman unwinds with a little *ahem* catnip. Sadly, Wonder Woman and Supergirl couldn't be given anything more interesting to do than household chores.

You can read the full comics at Super Not Super.

[via Geekologie]

Spock
Died: Sacrificing himself by bringing the warp engines back online at the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, leading to his dying from exposure to radiation.
Undied: His body was resurrected in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock thanks to the Deus Ex Machina powers of the Genesis Planet, and it turned out that his soul had lived on all along thanks to mind melding with Bones.
Cause of Undeath: Mind-meld and blatant plot ridiculousness in order to keep the fans happy. Admittedly, it was all set up in Star Trek II, but still.
Does It Count As Death?: Well, his soul was alive the entire time in Bones, but his body had enough time to go through a funeral and being shot off into space, so... 50/50? But not really, let's face it.

Ellen Tigh
Died: Poisoned by her husband after (in his eyes) betraying humanity in "Exodus, Part II" at the start of Battlestar Galactica's third season.
Undied: Instantly downloaded into a new body as part of the Fifth Cylon retcon, as revealed in the fourth season's "Sometimes A Great Notion."
Cause of Undeath: Traditional cylon download/rebirth.
Does It Count As Death?: Well, she was instantly reborn, which suggests that she was never actually dead as such, but the whole Fifth Cylon thing muddies the waters... especially when she was reborn as someone who wasn't exactly the Ellen she was when she died. We're going with "Kinda, but not really."

Boba Fett
Died: Falling into the Sarlacc's mouth in Return Of The Jedi.
Undied: Climbing back out of the Sarlacc's mouth in comic sequel Star Wars: Dark Empire.
Cause of Undeath: He was swallowed by apparently never chewed or digested and climbed his way out, apparently.
Does It Count As Death?: If you believe Dark Empire, not in the slightest. George Lucas apparently disagrees, however; it's said that he edited Fett's last appearance in the special edition of Return Of The Jedi to make it clearer that it's meant to be the end of the character.

John Sheridan
Died: Avoiding certain death by nuclear explosion at the end of Babylon 5's third season finale, "Z'ha'dum," by jumping into a pit so deep that it was impossible to survive. Oh, and then there was that nuclear explosion, which presumably would've destroyed the pit and everything within it anyway.
Undied: At the start of the show's fourth season, Sheridan was revealed to be in a limbo between life and death because of his love for Delenn. With the help of - and 20 years worth of lifeforce from - helpful fellow limbo-ite Lorien, he comes back to the land of the living.
Cause of Undeath: As Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting would say, choosing life. Who knew it was that simple?
Does It Count As Death?: Nope. Think of it as getting as far as death's foyer, before deciding to turn back because you'd changed your mind.

Tasha Yar
Died: Wanting out of her Starfleet contract early, Denise Crosby got her character killed at the hands of a gloopy, ooky oil monster in the first season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation "Skin of Evil."
Undied: Thanks to time travel shenanigans, turns out never to have died in the alternate timeline of third season episode "Yesterday's Enterprise," and then manages to return to the past of the original timeline at the end of the episode in a way that still doesn't make a lot of sense.
Cause of Undeath: Alternate timelines having prevented her from dying in the first place.
Does It Count As Death?: Well, a Tasha Yar definitely died. In fact, as we learn upon the appearance of the second Yar's daughter Sela, the other Tasha was killed unsuccessfully trying to escape from the Romulans, so it looks as if any and all Tashas would end up dead one way or another.

Superman
Died: At the hands of the apparently unstoppable Doomsday in 1993's The Death of Superman storyline.
Undied: Midway through the follow-on The Return of Superman storyline, when it's been revealed that none of the four characters who've taken up the mantle are the real thing.
Cause of Undeath: He woke up. No, really; the audience is pretty much told that he'd never died in the first place, he'd just gone into superhibernation in order to heal from the fight.
Does It Count As Death?: Not at all, but it definitely counted as a moneyspinner for DC Comics, who went on to kill Green Arrow and Green Lantern within the next couple of years, as well as teasing deaths for the Flash and breaking Batman's back.

Bucky
Died: Trapped on a bomb that mentor and Nazi-fighting partner Captain America had managed to jump off of before it exploded, as explained way back in 1963's Avengers series.
Undied: In 2005's "Winter Soldier" storyline of Captain America, where he got reintroduced and prepped to become the new Captain America in 2007.
Cause of Undeath: Turns out that Bucky was, in fact, blown to bits by the exploding bomb... It's just that they were pretty large bits. Large enough to rebuild him into a brainwashed no-good commie assassin who gets put on ice between missions, until he meets Cap, goes rogue, remembers who he is, and then uses his mighty Russian technology for the good of American mankind.
Does It Count As Death?: What's brainwashed Russian assassin for no?

The Flash
Died: Which one? Barry Allen died in 1985's Crisis On Infinite Earths. Wally West disappeared and was, at various times, presumed dead/missing/no-one could make up their mind in 2004's Infinite Crisis, and Bart Allen kicked the bucket in 2007's The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #13.
Undied: Wally came back in 2007's Justice League of America #10, Barry in 2008's Final Crisis #1 and Bart in 2009's Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #4.
Cause of Undeath: Both Barry and Wally had, it turns out, never died. Barry had been swallowed into the Speed Force, which is the cosmic... thing... that gives all super-speed characters their powers in the DC Universe, while Wally's fate was ultimately (after a couple of failed attempts that were quickly contradicted) decided upon a variation of "He took his family on vacation to an alien planet and didn't tell anyone." Don't ask. Bart, meanwhile, did die, kind of... but his teenage self was trapped in a futuristic lightning rod and then magically released in the 31st century to fight Superboy Prime. Again, it's probably better if you didn't ask.
Does It Count As Death?: No question for either Barry or Wally (No), but Bart... I have no idea. I've read Legion of Three Worlds multiple times, and still don't understand the explanation that's given there; let's just never mention it again and pretend it didn't happen.

Jason Todd
Died: As the result of a real-life phone vote to see if Todd, the second Robin (as in Batman and), should be killed at the hands of the Joker. Seriously, 1988's comic industry, what the hell were you thinking?
Undied: 2004's Batman revealed that Todd was not only not dead, but had magically aged more than most other characters in the DC Universe in his off-panel absence.
Cause of Undeath: Superboy was punching the walls of reality, and things went a bit weird. You know how it is with these superheroes and their punching the walls of reality; history gets rewritten all over the place. Just be glad that Batman didn't end up as Batdinosaur. Although, now that we think about it, that'd be awesome.
Does It Count As Death?: Magically contradicting Schrodinger and his cat, Jason Todd both did and didn't die. His official history has it that he died, and then just came back to life thanks to the punching of reality, meaning that he was still alive. So, while it ultimately doesn't count as permanent death, there was a death in there somewhere.

Jean Grey
Died: In 1980's famous Uncanny X-Men #137, where she sacrifices herself for the good of the universe to stop herself from becoming overwhelmed by the godlike power she possessed that might lead her to eat a couple of planets if she got peckish.
Undied: It's revealed in 1986's Fantastic Four #286 that the Jean Grey who killed herself was never actually Jean Grey at all, but the Phoenix force, who's been cosmically imprinted with Jean's personality. Don't worry; the Phoenix force was already back by that point anyway.
Cause of Undeath: Jean hadn't died (at that point), and the resurrection of the Phoenix force was somewhat implied by the name - The official explanation was that the Phoenix force hadn't actually died either, just lain dormant until someone else (Jean's daughter from an alternate timeline. If you don't already know, don't ask) claimed it.
Does It Count As Death?: Before the retcon and ruined Chris Claremont's X-Men once and for all you bastards, it did. Now? No-one died until years later, when Jean really got the Phoenix power and then ended up dying anyway. Guess there's something unlucky about the name or something.

I can't help it; I know that zombies are/were the big thing, but there's something about the current trend for undead superheroics that leaves me more than a little bored. I've got nothing against genres mixing and matching, but the original Marvel Zombies - with its horror movie logic and sense of humor, and its lack of need to have to deal with regular continuity allowing it to actually act as a complete story as opposed to something that pretty much needs to reset to the status quo by its conclusion - aside, there's something disappointing about this particular take on the walking (and flying, and running at superspeed) dead. Namely...

None Of Them Are Real Zombies
Again, Marvel Zombies excepted, the reanimated in Blackest Night and Necrosha aren't really zombies, exactly (Something that Blackest Night's creators, to their credit, keep saying in interviews. Even so, calling them Black Lanterns feels like a dodge, because they're dead characters come back to life as undead monsters - They're so clearly zombie-influenced that the actual name doesn't matter). They're magically animated by the power of death itself, or by a psychic vampire (Don't ask), or whatever, and they don't conform to what we'd consider zombie rules: They're not slow, they don't eat brains, they're intelligent - and, in fact, generally have the personalities of their living selves - and they're all under the command of some central intelligence or leader with a specific mission. What kind of zombies are that organized, you might ask yourself? Which brings us to...

We've Seen This All Before
The dead being brought back as pawns to use against our brave heroes? Old hat for superhero comics - In fact, Marvel even has multiple characters based around this concept (the Grim Reaper, the Black Talon... You could even argue that Brother - now Doctor - Voodoo would have some familiarity on the subject). The only thing that's new about this latest wave is the overwhelming scale of the risings... which is one of the few things legitimately taken from zombie culture. Which reminds me.

Enough With The Magic Cures Already
Zombies should be pretty easy to beat. If Simon Pegg and Nick Frost can take care of some, after all, how hard can it be? But not these superhero zombies; no, they're not only gifted with magical regenerative powers that somehow don't take them to a fully regenerated state, but they also have very specific ways to be defeated, apparently: Blowing their heads off? Not going to work, it seems. Setting fire to them? Well, it keeps them busy for awhile, but otherwise... Nah. But keep calm and show no signs of emotion and they shut down (All of that from Blackest Night, which, in its defense is not only a fun superhero story but, in Blackest Night: Superman and Blackest Night: Batman has some really great examples of superhero comics ripping off some well-known horror movie cliches - If you've not seen Martha Kent be chased through a cornfield at night by an undead Lois Lane, or Commissioner Gordon use a double-barreled shotgun against an army of the undead while carrying his crippled daughter over his shoulder, you've missed out on some wonderfully enjoyable over-the-top moments of recent comics). Seriously, comic creators: what's that all about?

Death Is Never The End In Superhero Comics, Anyway
Ultimately, the problem with superheroic zombies is that the rules of death don't work the same way in superhero comics as they do in almost every other fiction. We're used to resurrection in superhero comics, and that works against the story from the very beginning; Blackest Night, for example, has to not only make the reader believe that the dead rising is not only a horrific thing, but also an unusual one - Which, considering that Superman, Green Lantern, Flash, Green Arrow, Hawkman and Robin have all "died" and been resurrected at some point in their careers, is a pretty tricky thing to do; Necrosha takes place in the X-Men series of titles, which has become so full of resurrected characters that characters within the story joke about the pearly gates having been replaced by a revolving door. Without the belief that death is the end - that it means that the person or character is gone and will never be seen again - the very idea of an army of the undead is weakened, because the possibility of a return is always there, and in many cases, expected to happen.

Mixing zombies with superheroes doesn't automatically mean failure - Despite all my "I know you've said they're not zombies and they're not acting like zombies, but come on, they're weird zombie-esque creatures, just admit it" problems with Blackest Night, it's full enough of melodrama, derring-do and humor to make me kind of love it - but of all the horror genres to bring superheroes into, it's one of the most problematic. I can get why comic publishers would want to jump onboard the bandwagon, but... Aren't there other horror monsters better suited to this kind of thing? I mean, Marvel: Paul Cornell gave you Dracula on the moon. That's a great gift right there...

TOYIB's Gallery [DeviantArt via Nerdcore]

Greenham Airfield,June 5, 1944
Neuschwanstein 1945
Yalta Conference 1945
Cherbourg 1944
Unknown Location, 1945

The Mole Man
The Fantastic Four's first villain, the Mole Man's modus operandi switched up from attacking humanity because they weren't monsters to one of ecological conservation, trying to get humanity to leave Monster Island alone and stop bringing the monsters therein to the brink to extinction. Who can't get behind that? He's like a shorter, uglier Al Gore who just happens to command an army of near-unstoppable genetic accidents. If we just let him win, who knows what kind of era of ecological paradise we could be letting ourselves in for?

Zoom
The second Reverse-Flash, Hunter Zolomon was a former police criminal psychologist who became unstuck in time and mind after an accident involving the Flash's Cosmic Treadmill. Obsessed with making heroes "better" by forcing personal tragedies on them so that they'll try harder, he's the poster boy for tough love... But he really is trying to make the world a better place, albeit in a twisted manner. Instead of beating him up for that, why not try and just convince him to soften his methods and let him run free? What's the worst that could happen? Well, besides him trying to kill your family as motivation, of course.

Lex Luthor
For years, Lex has been telling us that, if Superman would just get out of the way, he's turn the world into a beautiful utopia, curing diseases and ending all problems with science. Hell, he's even managed to cure cancer before, even if it was just a ploy to lure Superman into a false sense of security. All I'm saying is this: Would Superman really mind that much if we just asked him to step aside for a bit and let Lex run things his way? If nothing else, the recent Superman/Batman: Public Enemies movie suggested that he could sort out this whole financial disaster thing within weeks...

Magneto
All he wants to do is end genetic persecution! Is that really so wrong? Sure, you can argue with his ways of going about it - I don't think anyone here would be fully supportive of his controversial "enslave and destroy the human race" agenda - but the man's lived through Nazi concentration camps, been acquitted by an international court of evildoing and, if nothing else, is fully dedicated to his beliefs. Is there really any proof that a world controlled by Magneto wouldn't be one less filled with hate? We don't think so... even if it's because most of us would be dead.

Doctor Doom
Those unconvinced of Victor Von Doom's leadership potential need only look to his kingdom of Latveria for the proof: Crime is nearly non-existent! Illness equally so! And the people love their leader (Admittedly, because to admit otherwise may result in death, but still: Details, people). Sure, evidence also points to our having to put up with a merciless police force of Doombots and having to dress and act like Eastern European villagers from the late 19th century, but aren't those prices we're willing to pay for a reduction in crime and illness? Admit it: Maybe we could all benefit from being ruled by an iron (clad) hand or two.

Darkseid
Last year's Final Crisis showed a world under self-styled Ultimate God of Evil Darkseid's will-sapping regime, and aside from the complete absence of free will and slow devolution of the planet into a red-skied radioactive wasteland patrolled by mutated dogs and men with tiger heads, we can't help but notice that those submitting to the Anti-Life Equation seemed much less in emotional turmoil or upset about the direction that their lives had taken - In fact, they seemed confident and assured, unlike those who'd chosen to resist. And, yes; those who resisted eventually assisted in the recreation of existence itself, but still. Isn't having even will-sapped piece of mind about your place in the world worth some sacrifice?

Universo
Here's one we know works from experience. Futuristic hypnotist Universo managed to hoodwink the entire planet under his command in the 1987 Legion of Super-Heroes storyline "The Universo Project," and the result was a peaceful planet where superheroes weren't needed at all. Easily the best case scenario we've seen, it didn't even involve Darkseid-esque worldwide mind control - Only figures of authority (and some superheroes) were hypnotized, meaning that the common man and woman would happily have freedom to toil and work for The Man as usual, without knowing that it was a different The Man all along. Win win!

I'm not terribly optimistic that comic books will ever regain the kind of popular readership, particularly among young people, that the medium enjoyed in decades past, but Wednesday Comics seems like the sort of thing that has the best shot of reaching new readers. With so many different characters and creative teams to choose from, even the most skeptical readers will likely find at least a few stories that pique their interests, and the (mostly) continuity-free stories provide an ideal entry point for those just discovering the DC universe.

That said, Wednesday Comics is more than just a clever gimmick. DC has put together some great writers and artists for the stories, including Neil Gaiman and Michael Allred on "Metamorpho", Kurt Busiek and Joe Quinones on "Green Lantern", and the current Power Girl team of Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner on "Supergirl". Throughout, there is a palpable sense that these stories are labors of love for the writers and artists; even the stories that don't work seem to be made with more care than some perfunctory fill-in book, and I'm more likely to revisit these stories to see if I missed something than some gratuitous, pointless event tie-in. (Countdown: Arena, I am, as always, looking at you.)

The best stories in this anthology are those that make the best of their unique format. Gaiman and Allred's "Metamorpho" makes great use of the 14" X 20" dimensions the broadsheet pages give them, crafting entire days as a single panel that its characters then wander through. Such a trick might be jarring on a smaller page, but it works brilliantly here. "Metamorpho" also features a support feature where three children answer what they claim to be reader questions about the Element Man. The fact that these children seem to come from a strange alternate universe where Metamorpho is absurdly popular only adds to the charm.

Similar structural trickery can be seen in "The Flash." Under the banner of "Flash Comics", we see multiple small comics in the various issues, including "The Flash", "Iris West", and "Gorilla Grodd". Karl Kerschl and Brenden Fletcher have put together an entire world within a world here; there's a real sense that "Flash Comics" has run in the Sunday newspapers for years, largely unchanged since the 1960's, and this is simply the first time we've noticed. It's a fun device, particularly when much of its story relies on some of the wackiest comic book science this side of the Silver Age.

There are a bunch of other stories in Wednesday Comics that I would recommend without hesitation. John Arcudi and Lee Bermejo's "Superman" is both gorgeous to look at and manages to tell its story in the grandest, most iconic brushstrokes possible. It's a story that feels huge, even if the story only moves forward at a pace of three or four panels per week. My personal favorite, however, might just be "Supergirl", if only because there's something so gloriously, deliriously awesome about devoting most of the story to Kara chasing after her misbehaving pets. The fact that Streaky and Krypto are absolutely adorable probably helps, too.

Not every story is a triumph, though. Ben Caldwell's "Wonder Woman" is probably guilty of overreaching, trying to cram a cryptic, lyrical take on the Amazonian princess into such a small amount of space. The fact that each week features twenty to thirty panels on just one broadsheet page is probably the most obvious indication that he is trying to do too much in not enough space. I didn't really care for Paul Pope's take on "Strange Adventures", but part of the point of something like Wednesday Comics is to try out a wide variety of creative styles; I suppose it would be unlikely that I would be a fan of all of them.

Wednesday Comics is a breath of fresh air in an industry where superhero stories are increasingly stuck inside some fairly well-defined strictures. Its anthology approach and innovative format make sure that Wednesday Comics is quite unlike anything we've seen in quite some time, which should be more than enough to earn it a recommendation. The fact that the stories inside are actually quite good feels almost like a bonus.

Kid Flash 1
What Seems To Be The Problem? After gaining his powers in a recreation of the same accident that gave Barry Allen his, Wally West went through something his mentor hadn't - super-powered puberty. The same changes that made Wally a man also made the superspeed chemicals toxic, which meant that each time he used his powers, he took another step closer to death.
Is Death Guaranteed? Nope. In what can only be described as "lazy plotting," Wally was zapped by a villain's energy blast that managed to cure him of this ailment, a fact he celebrated by taking on the role of the Flash after Barry Allen's apparent death.

Impulse/Kid Flash 2
What Seems To Be The Problem? Even if puberty doesn't kill you, being a super-speedster comes with other deadly problems if Bart Allen is anything to go by: He's suffered from a hyper-metabolism that ages him much faster than he should on two separate occasions, now.
Is Death Guaranteed? Only kind of. After the problem was apparently solved the first time by forcing Bart to overload his own metabolism by running really fast (No, I'm not really sure how that works, either), it came back to haunt him in later life, and he died from it - except that his younger self was somehow stolen away into the future and brought back to life. I'm not sure how that worked, either, but at least it undid the character's unfortunate (and somewhat sensationalistic) death.

Spawn
What Seems To Be The Problem? Al Simmons was a murdered soldier who returned to Earth as a Hellspawn, with seemingly unlimited magical powers. Problem is, those powers are limited depending on the lifeforce of the symbiote he's become attached to on the process - Using his powers too often could result in its death... and his.
Is Death Guaranteed? Not in the slightest. As the series continued, creator Todd McFarlane and others came up with numerous workarounds, including new power sources, and various metamorphoses for the symbiote instead of deaths. As long as McFarlane can continue to make money from Spawn, expect death to be avoided.

Warlock/Doug Ramsey
What Seems To Be The Problem? It's the ultimate buddy movie waiting to happen: He's a techno-organic entity who requires other beings' lifeforce to survive! He's a nerd with a mutant gift for languages who'll happily give up his lifeforce to be part of the New Mutants! Talk about an enabling relationship.
Is Death Guaranteed? For Doug? Yes, although it wasn't Warlock's fault - He jumped in front of a bullet meant for fellow New Mutant Wolfsbane. Warlock lives on (and for awhile, even thought he was a re-animated Doug), helping to defeat alien invasions in Marvel Comics' Annihilation: Conquest and is due to return to the revived New Mutants series soon, as is Doug... as a zombie.

Kid Psycho
What Seems To Be The Problem? The wonderfully-named Legion of Super-Heroes wannabe Kid Psycho can use his advanced will power to move objects with his mind, and even travel through time thanks to the entirely unexplained telekinetic power of mind-time-travel (No, we really don't know about that either). The only problem is that, with each use of his magnificent mind, he takes one year off his life.
Is Death Guaranteed? Sadly, yes; he sacrificed himself during DC Comics' 1985 Crisis On Infinite Earths. The 31st Century is a lesser place for his loss.

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.

Fans of Marvel Comics' ongoing Dark Reign storyline will be happy this week. In addition to Dark Reign: The List - X-Men, there's also Dark X-Men: The Confession (which, in the mighty Marvel tradition, ties into Dark Reign, X-Men and the recently completed Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia) and Dark Reign: Made Men, which looks at what's happening for the villains not in the center of Norman Osborn's scheme to villainize America.

For those who prefer a brighter Marvel Universe, Joss Whedon's entire X-Men run gets a collection in the Astonishing X-Men Omnibus. And the X-Men Origins hardcover brings together some beautifully illustrated retellings of the earliest days of the mutant franchise. Spider-Woman #1 is the paper version of the motion comic, but the oddest release from Marvel this week is Pet Avengers Classic Vol. 1, which offers up an anthology of stories about Marvel's Mightiest Pets. Yes, really.

DC aren't the kind of publishers who'd pull a lame stunt like pet superheroes (Well, apart from the Legion of Super-Pets, and Krypto and Streaky and, okay, never mind). DC would much rather pull lame stunts like phone votes to decide the fates of long-running characters, and in the DC Comics Library: A Death In The Family hardcover, you can relive that bold, classy experiment that ended with Robin being blown up by the Joker. Prouder moments of classic comics get collected in the first volume of Flash Chronicles, reprinting (again) the first appearances of the Silver Age Flash. And the Push trade paperback collects the comic book prologue that was much better than the movie it tied into.

Luckily, and unusually, the two best books of the week are both single issues, allowing you to sample both before running back in a month for seconds. (And they're openings of mini-series, so you don't have to worry about making a long-term commitment.)

Superman: Secret Origin lets Geoff Johns and Gary Frank go to town on the Man of Steel, taking six issues to tell the story of how a baby rocketed from a dying planet could grow up to make the tights and cape combo work in a way that will doubtless entertain and hint at what's to come in the character's future.

Underground brings together the obscenely talented Jeff (X-Men First Class, Agents of Atlas and countless other wonderful books) Parker and Steve (Whiteout, which I promise is better than the movie) Lieber for a series that makes up in adventure and fun what it lacks in science fiction. Check out a preview of the first issue here to be convinced.

As always, all of these books and more can be found on the official Diamond shipping list for the week, and your local comic store can be found using your friendly neighborhood Comic Shop Locator. Just promise us that you'll believe that a man can fly and go underground all at the same time, huh?

[Back to Mark Waid interview]

[Continue Reading]

[Back to Mark Waid interview]

The Unknown feels similar to television shows like Warehouse 13 or Fringe - Rational people investigating the irrational. Did you have this mild semi-X-Files-revival zeitgeist in mind when coming up with the idea behind the series?

Nope. The Unknown was created largely in one night, in one telephone call with my friend Christine Boylan, a stage and TV writer whose talent far eclipses mine. I was venting to Christine that I knew I wanted to do another detective/impossible crime series LIKE Ruse, but other than switching up the master/apprentice genders, I didn't see anything that would make it even remotely new or intriguing. "A female Sherlock Holmes" isn't the most original pitch in the world if that's all there is to it. But Christine wisely pushed me on the question of, "Okay, what kind of crimes would she be solving?" and I shot back with "If I'm gonna throw a new detective in the mix, the only mystery I want to write about is the biggest, most unsolveable mystery of all, which is what happens when we die. HEY, WAIT A MINUTE." A few seconds later, my lead character's motivation—that she has only six months to live—fell into place, and the next morning, I had my new series to pitch to BOOM! publisher Ross Richie: "WHATEVER REMAINS" — as in the Arthur Conan Doyle quote.

Ross loved the concept, hated the name. I think it was editor Matt Gagnon who pitched out "The Unknown," and this is a good example of the reasons we have for keeping that guy in his job. Another is that Matt's the one who found our spectacular artist, Minck Oosterveer, about whom I cannot say enough complimentary things.

Just so we'd all have a good, mutual understanding of my vision, I typed out a quick one-sheet, and at the top, I wrote "Doc Savage by way of David Lynch" as a yardstick for tone—fast-paced pulp adventure with a genuinely unsettling air to it and without the familiarity of the traditional pulp-adventure structure that's so ingrained in all of us who read or write comics.

I'm amused and unsurprised at the Doc Savage reference, because the "Science Detective" subtitle that Doc's magazine had has been one I've used when talking about Catherine before. She really seems like a descendant to both Holmes and Savage, and Doyle serves as a Watson/Johnny sidekick. Was that an intentional nod to the familiar pulp detective set-up, or was it just easier and more fun to write exposition as conversation, instead of monologue or narration?

I write good conversation, so that just makes it more fun to script. Dialogue is one of the easiest ways to get character conflict across immediately in comics. Plus, having written hundreds of comics stories using first-person narration and having read ten thousand more, I'm bored to tears by the device and haven't seen it used well, uniquely, or suprisingly in years and years. It's very much become the tool of the Lazy Writer because it's so easy to fortify the page with giant, tedious blocks of first-person text in the voice of someone I haven't learned enough about yet to give a rat's ass about. ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz.
On the surface of it, The Unknown can be taken as a science vs. faith story - Catherine Allingham seeking to categorically define what is (should be?) a personal, spiritual experience. It's more complicated than that (Doyle's "You sound like you WANT it to be true," in the second issue seeming like the core of the story, at least for me), but do you have a particular horse in this race? Where do you fall on the science/faith scale, or is working that out that point (for you) of the book, beyond telling a good story?

Working that out IS part of the point of the book. If you come into any creative project without questions, you're gonna bore yourself and it'll show on the page. While it may not show on the page, I probably did more research on this series than on anything I've handled since, well, Ruse, my last "weird, impossible crimes" book (and my favorite fiction subgenre to read). And, like Catherine, I have a very irrational, almost romantic need for there to be some form of afterlife, because the idea that we're all just sophisticated electrochemical batteries who'll eventually run down is too horrible for me to accept. So, like Catherine, I want it to be true that there's something beyond this. But also like Catherine, I'm one of the least spiritual human beings you'll ever come across; the phrase "faith in a higher power" is like nails on a blackboard to me, partly because my life and my interests are defined by science and hard knowledge, and partly (I'm sure) because as a kid growing up in the Bible Belt, I had a lot of first-hand experience with seeing how often "faith in a higher power" becomes an excuse to not take responsibility for your own decisions. (That's a generalization, and I know that, but we're talking about the programming I received as a kid, which is hard to shake.)

I do believe that any sort of electromagnetic energy that can be measured beyond the moment of death is, by the definition of energy, eternal. But I cop to the fact that calling it a "soul" and presuming it sustains our consciousness in any form is, to put it kindly, a leap. I need to be shown something irrefutable; I confess that my eagerness to WANT to be shown something irrefutable is as much an act of faith as is attending the church down the street—except that, ultimately, as science marches on where faith never does, we get closer all the time to proving (or disproving) something.

Or, Graeme, to put it all way more succinctly than that—on a personal level, I have little if any use for faith. Therefore, so does Catherine. Unlike Catherine, however, I'm far less judgmental of those who use faith as their engine to get through the day.

When writing a story like this, do you have to keep your personal beliefs in check, then? If the writing of the story is in some way you exercising and exploring your personal struggle between fact and faith, and you have an inclination away from the faith part of that argument, do you find yourself fighting a tendency to end the story with a variation on "No soul for you, ha ha ha"?

Not in any thunderbolt moment of epiphany, but what I write very often helps me refocus my own attitudes and arguments—and, in doing so, sometimes shows me more clearly the fallacies I've been suffering under.

How much does real science (or real scientific curiosity, at least) feed into this series? There may not be a scale as sensitive as the Faderbauers', but not for want of trying, after all. On a series like The Unknown - versus something like Irredeemable, or The Flash - do you feel constrained by the world as we know it (even if you do extrapolate slightly)?

"Constrained," is, to me, the exact antonym of the descriptor I'd use. Real science is the greatest, most exciting springboard I have available to me as a writer, and I don't feel the least bit constrained by it. When Catherine gives her big speech in issue two about the history of assigning weight to souls, that's all fact, every word. So is the conceit that the only thing holding modern science back from building a Faderbauer apparatus is financing. The Catholic Church gets in the way, it's said—I've read report after report that funding for afterlife research is (shall we say) "interfered with" by religious officials who claim it to be a "waste of money." (Feel free to substitute the words "danger to our fundaments" for "waste of money." I do.)

Anyway, even with Flash or Irredeemable, I try to stay somewhere in the general ballpark of recognizable science (outside of the standard superhero "gimmes" that a guy can run at near-lightspeed or sink the island of Singapore). It just gives the work a verisimilitude that's integral to helping readers connect with the story.

Do you keep up with science news? Is there part of your day that's spent reading New Scientist's website and thinking "Man, I could tell a GREAT story about THAT"?

Always. Constantly. It's part of the morning routine, surfing the science sites and bookmarking interesting phenomena for later use. In fact, I probably spend more time reading that sort of material as a hobby than I do anything and everything else put together.

There's a follow-up series, The Unknown: The Devil Made Flesh, already solicited for later this year. Without spoiling the end of the first series, is The Unknown an open-ended concept for you? As a reader, I'm happy to know that there's more coming, but also kind of worried that this means that there's either going to be no climax to the first series or else a deus ex machina ending that'll see Catherine's illness suddenly healed or magically in remission (Assuming, of course, that Catherine survives the first series).

Trust me, when Ross said he wanted to do a follow-up series, I thought the same thing: "What now? Do I say she has FIVE months to live? And, oh, yeah, didn't I promise myself and the readers that she'd find an ANSWER to the mystery of the afterlife, seeing as how any orangutan with a keyboard can write a detective story in which the detective DOESN'T solve the case?" I can't say much of anything without spoiling the last issue, but the solution to all those problems came in a giant, sudden, totally unexpected bolt of inspiration that, in one second, turned what was a nice little four-issue story into the potential foundation for a whole mythology—which was never the plan, BUT I'LL TAKE IT. I will say this, though—there are no cheats in issue four, no deus ex machina cures, no magic wands. Nor in Series Two, Issue One—the first words of which are, "One Year Later."

Which means, as per your parenthetical comment, that you are assuming maybe too much. (God, I hate having to write Previews Catalogue copy four months ahead of time.)

The Unknown #4 is released on Wednesday. A hardcover collection of the first series follows next month, accompanied by the first issue of The Unknown: The Devil Made Flesh. For a chance to read the entire first issue of The Unknown, click here.

Legion flight rings in Legion Of Super Heroes. The super-powered teenagers have a whole variety of powers and special gifts, but they can all fly — thanks to these gravity-negating rings. And ne'er-do-well time traveler Booster Gold also got hold of one of these rings and took it back to our time, using it to become a superhero.

Time Ring in Doctor Who, "Genesis Of The Daleks" Despite the name, it's more of a bracelet — when the Doctor gets separated rom his time machine, the TARDIS, his people give him a special bracelet that allows him to travel through time and space. That way, he can visit the birthplace of the Daleks without bringing along a conspicuous blue phone booth.

The Planeteers' rings in Captain Planet and the Planeteers. These five rings give the Planeteers control over the four elements, plus Heart. (The band, I guess.) And when you put all five rings together, you can summon Captain Planet himself.

The tiara, bracelets and girdle in Wonder Woman. Diana has many amazing powers, but chief among them is the ability to accessorize. Her bracelets can repel bullets, her lariat is the only effective lie-detector William Moulton Marston ever came up with, and her tiara can be thrown much like a Batarang. In some versions, her girdle is also superpowered.

Frodo's ring in Lord Of The Rings. Not really science fiction, but still an important piece of super-powered jewelry. It lets you turn invisible, but too bad about the "corrupting your soul" and "letting Sauron's evil minions know where you are" stuff. I'll let Flight Of The Conchords explain it to you.

Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem in Harry Potter. This tiara-like thing was supposed to increase the wisdom of the wearer, but after Helena Ravenclaw stole it, it fell into the hands of Voldemort, who used it to make one of his horcruxes. So yeah, not all that wise really.

Pancho's jewelry in The Silent War by Ben Bova. Pancho, who's a woman despite her male name, has a whole set of weaponized jewelry, including an explodng necklace she can throw at bad guys, and earrings packed with miniature instruments of death.

Eddie Murphy's ring in A Vampire In Brooklyn. Apparently it not only turned whoever wore it next into a vampire, it also gave you bigger male endowment. Which makes total sense. Sort of.

Karolina's medic alert bracelet in Runaways. The alien Karolina Dean looks quite different from her fellow adventurers — unless she wears her special alien bracelet that allows her to appear perfectly human. Eventually, she learns to live without it.

The Flash's ring in The Flash. Almost forgot this one. Wally West would be naked without this piece of jewelry, since it contains his entire costume, super-compressed. The costume expands to clothe Wally almost instantly when he presses his ring. Or something.

The Mystical Amulet of Right in Captain Britain. I guess if you're wearing something with a name like that, you'd better know what you're doing. Wearing this turns Brian Braddock into Captain Britain, and it's part of the power to reshape the Multiverse.

Congo Bill's ring, from Congorilla. Congo Bill and the gorilla known as Congorilla wear matching rings, and when Congo Bill needs a little gorilla strength, or just a little "me" time, he can transfer his brain into Congorilla's body, and vice versa, by rubbing the ring. And no, "rubbing the ring to unleash the gorilla" is not a euphemism for anything.

The brooch in Beast Master's Quest by Andre Norton and Lyn McConchie. Laris, like most people on Arzor, carries her personal communicator disguised as a brooch or pendant. This saves her from having it taken away. "Even the detestable V'a'een must have assumed the communicator to be only a brooch and chosen not to take that away from her."

The tiara in Sailor Moon. I'm not exactly sure what Sailor Moon's tiara does, but it's pretty disco-tastic, and you probably wouldn't want her to throw it at you:

The pendant in "A Little Peace And Quiet," The Twilight Zone. Harrassed housewife Penny finds a pendant that stops time whenever she screams "SHUT UP!" But then she stops time just as nuclear missiles are about to wipe out her town. What to do?

Mrs. Brisby's amulet in Secret Of N.I.M.H. The old rat named Nicodemus finds a gold amulet which has mysterious powers, and he eventually passes it on to the meek field mouse Mrs. Brisby, in this film adaptation. Eventually, she's able to use it to jack up a house.

Necklaces in The Urth Of The New Sun by Gene Wolfe. Before going on deck in one of the "ships that sail between the suns," you must put on an artificial personal atmosphere, which consists of a necklace of linked cylinders. Throughout the novel, Severian is constantly worrying about his necklace and whether it's been damaged, since it's a lifeline.

The Foxhead Medallion in The Wheel Of Time by Robert Jordan. Another fantasy one — Mat Cauthon gets this nice piece of bling after passing through the Rhuidean twisted-door ter'angreal. It protects against the One Power.

Necklaces in Ragamuffin by Tobias Buckell. Nashara has a necklace that seems pretty all purpose. You can put the pendant in your ear to use it as a communication/translation device. It also has some computer read-outs that let you know your status among the alien Gahe, and there's a remote-control function as well.

The Gem of Amara in Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel. In the big cross-over episode between Buffy and Angel, a magical ring allows Spike to become invincible, and to wander out in the daytime. Too bad it falls into the sweaty hands of an evil sadist whom Spike hires to terrorize Angel.

The Thing's ring in his 1970s cartoon. Apparently instead of being stuck as the rocky-skinned Thing, Ben Grimm had a ring that allowed him to change back and forth. He would chant, "Thing Ring, Do Your Thing!" Okay then.

The Eye Of Agamotto in Doctor Strange. That's some serious glam-booty jewelry right there. Doctor Strange sports a nice brooch holding his cloak together, which is also one of the major sources of his awesome powers. Plus it helps him blend in in Greenwich Village.

The bracelet in Dial H For H.E.R.O. It's sort of a bracelet, sort of a watch. Mostly, it's a dial that turns you into a different superpowered being every time you use it.

The quantum bands in Quasar. This superhero wears fancy bracelets (sort of like wrist braces for RSIs) with super-powered jewels on them that allow him to tap into the Quantum Zone. They're fused to his wrists, but he eventually loses them to various other characters, including Phyla-Vell. In similar fashion, Captain Marvel and Rick Jones wear "Nega-Bands" that enable them to switch places.

Freedom Ring's ring in Marvel Comics. Apparently he was a short-lived gay superhero in the Marvel Universe, who only existed long enough to get killed off and make for some yummy pathos. He gets hold of a ring that alters the very fabric of reality, which a supervillain named the Patternmaster dropped, and finds out its special abilities when he accidentally creates an ice-cream sundae. Later, he uses the ring to restore his legs after he loses them, and then to make himself stronger and faster. But then he dies. Oh well.

The Mandarin's ten rings in Iron Man. This somewhat caricaturish Asian villain has ten rings that give him absolute power, except when he's facing a guy in powered armor. I do like the "anti-technology field" though.

Lex Luthor's kryptonite ring in Superman. The bald eagle of evil makes a special ring with a kryptonite setting, so he can bring the Man of Steel to his knees. But it costs Lex his hand due to radiation exposure. Later, Batman gets hold of it, and keeps it in his belt pouch, where the radiation will only affect body areas adjacent to Batman's belt. Nothing to worry about.

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown. Thanks also to Kaila Hale-Stern, Hiya Swanhuyser, Meredith Woerner, Dorian Katz, Mathtew Cokeley, S. Bear Bergman, Rachael Parker, Morgan Johnson, Brian Williams, Rus McLaughlin, Austin Grossmna, Douglas Wolk, Kiala Kazebee, Luis Alberto Urrea, Cindy Urrea, Genevieve Valentine, and @CleverUserName, @Soapboxx, @Dahveed76 and @Nightwyrm on Twitter. And, as is always the case with these sorts of articles, I found this great round-up of comic book rings at Comics Should Be Good right when I was about to be done researching this piece. But it's great stuff.

Why bring back Barry Allen?

Because the world needs heroes.

Bringing back Barry Allen, that was something that grew out of everything we were doing with Final Crisis with Grant [Morrison] and everything. You know, Grant and I had talked a lot about this, too, when we were working together on DC Universe Zero way back when, about what was going on with the Flash Universe, and more specifically the DC Universe.

With Final Crisis, it was a full circle from Crisis on Infinite Earths, and with Darkseid representing the ultimate evil, and Grant really playing the theme that Darkseid really is evil incarnate without room for any grays, Barry Allen was by all accounts considered the greatest force for good in the DC Universe, and so he was brought back to combat that as a signal of ushering in the new age of heroes back in the day with Showcase #4. Barry represents that.

My, and a lot of fans', opinion about this is that Barry Allen was almost more powerful being dead, because he was this figurehead, this person who made the ultimate sacrifice. He became this almost Guardian Angel for the DC Universe. By bringing him back, do you lessen that?

That's what the story's about: If Barry Allen is back, what does that mean to what he sacrificed, what does that mean to what he was seen as, what does that mean to the Flash universe... It's a very different situation to [Johns' previous series] Green Lantern: Rebirth.

To my mind, Green Lantern was broken in a way that Flash wasn't. Green Lantern missed Hal Jordan, missed the Corps.

I wrote the Flash for five years. I wrote Wally West for five years, I love Wally West, I love the Rogues. I think the Flash universe has continued on, though it's recently tripped. Whereas Hal Jordan's return brought the entire [Green Lantern] universe back. You know, the Green Lanterns had become kind of complacent. You only had Kyle Rayner and John Stewart flying around, really. But the Flash universe, it progressed. Wally West became a great Flash, you had a new Kid Flash, Jay Garrick was still around, new speedsters showed up. Even Iris West moved on. That's not to say there's nothing to build up or nothing new to add. There is.

Did you approach this as "I love Barry Allen, and therefore he's going to be the Flash"? I mean, like you said, you wrote Wally for years.

Not at all. I grew up reading Wally West comics, I read Barry Allen comics in back issues. I like the Flash; whenever I put a name down, listing my favorite characters, the Flash was always number one. I'm getting into Barry Allen now, so it's really a process of rediscovery, for me, of that character. But it's the concept, and the idea of the Speed Force, that is at the core of it all for me.

For me, the Barry Flash is much more of a science fiction,science hero, and Wally was more the superhero. Is the book returning to its science fiction roots?

There's definitely a lot of science fiction in it, absolutely.

And another major difference with Wally was, he never had much of a life outside of being the Flash.

Yeah, that defined his character once he became the Flash, his life became about living up to Barry's legacy and everything else was a part-time job.

Yeah, it was always about living up to Barry's legacy. And then, beyond that, he became his own character, his own hero, his own Flash, but he was never really out of the uniform very much. Barry is, or was.

So what do you think about complaints about DC being retro, with bringing Hal back and bringing Barry back? How much of that is because [DC] is being nostalgic, and how much is because the concepts just didn't work that well without those characters?

Well, I think Green Lantern is anything but a retro book. And you have a whole new, young audience reading about Green Lantern. That's a good thing.

I grew up reading comics in the late '80s and the '90s. Is it nostalgic that Cyborg Superman is prominent again in Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War or Bane in Secret Six. I don't think it's a case ofcertain characters like Hal and Barry coming back because they want to be retro, everyone has their favorites, and a lot of these characters are valuable to the DC Universe from all eras. The 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's. Booster Gold has made a big return to prominence. The JSA continue to have characters from all eras, including several new ones. Is it nostalgic for Barry to be back? For some people it will be, but for others - for most readers, Barry Allen is new to them. I'm a believer that all eras, including this one, are valuable to DC. I hate limiting anything in comics.

Barry's been dead as long as he'd been alive, so there's a whole generation who've never read Barry Allen as the Flash.

Yeah, but to me, that's exciting as hell. Barry Allen is "new" to most readers.

How much of this is open to people who have never read a Flash comic before?

100%. Just like Green Lantern: Rebirth. Green Lantern: Rebirth was a jumping-on point for a lot of people who'd never read a Green Lantern comic before. That was their first comic. I mean, not everyone's read comics for 20 years, a lot of people forget about that. This is definitely for fans of the Flash, but also for new readers who've never read the Flash, have never met anyone in the Flash universe.

Is Flash: Rebirth all about laying the groundwork for what's coming? How much of it is a story complete in and of itself?

It's a story in and of itself that obviously sets up the status quo for a lot of these characters. There'll be a couple of new characters coming out of it.

In the same way that Green Lantern: Rebirth set up pretty much the remainder of your Green Lantern run?

It has a definite ending, just like Green Lantern: Rebirth had a definitive ending, with an open road ahead. The last issue doesn't end "To be continued." It ends.

Is that the way you tend to think, in terms of character and stories? Is the point of Flash: Rebirth, to you, to relaunch a franchise?

It's a story about a guy who's come back, but feels the seconds slipping away,everything moving at breakneck speed and he isn't quite sure which way to turn at the fork in the road. Sure, there's going to be people who'll say "My favorite Flash is Barry Allen" or "My favorite Flash is Wally West" or "My favorite Flash is Bart Allen." Same with GreenLantern, everyone has their favorite characters, but...

But with Green Lantern, you almost get to the point where you can please everyone, because there are multiple Green Lanterns...

You can never please everyone, but there have been multiple Flashes since Barry Allen met Jay Garrick.

But there can only be one fastest man alive, surely. Doesn't there have to be a Flash in a way that there doesn't have to be one Green Lantern?

You'll see what makes each of them individual, just like you did in Green Lantern, through Flash: Rebirth. I think that'll become pretty clear.

Flash in all his incarnations has become somewhat of an avatar for the DC Universe. Barry ushered in the Silver Age, but Wally, to an extent, the changes he went through mirrored the direction of comics at the time, from Mike Baron's quasi-mature approach to Mark Waid's updated silver age run that set the tone for DC's superhero books for the next five years or so. Do you feel a similar pressure with Rebirth?

Of course, but I'd rather go for it or not. I believe in the Flash, I believe it can grow, and Ethan is doing an amazing job. Barry Allen ushered in a lot of heroes, but the world could always use more imo.

You're bringing back Bart [Kid Flash, who was killed in 2006] as well, right?

Bart comes back in [Final Crisis:] Legion of 3 Worlds - Sorry for the delay, but the art is worth it, it's freaking amazing! - but in Flash: Rebirth, he's back from the future and his attitude is "Wally's the Flash, I'm Kid Flash, Now Barry's back. What's going on? If Barry's back, where is everyone else?

"If everyone's coming back from the Speed Force, where's Max?"
Is the tone similar to Green Lantern: Rebirth? Because Green Lantern has a tone of, I don't want to say "space opera," but it's been very grandiose and the stakes have never been small.

Green Lantern is to Space as the Flash is to Time.

The backdrop is, big and epic. But it's a little bit more character-focused, though, the difference being, I gotta get into Barry Allen's history more because he's more of an unknown to people.

Barry didn't really have much of a personality, either. He died before the trend for giving your heroes more of a personality than just a schtick - in Barry's case, being late - kicked in.

Hopefully, you'll feel different as the series progresses.

Starting with Hal Jordan and bringing him back, even back then, was this great thing... I remember the skeptics on that, but it turned out well and I'm hoping to do the same thing with this.

By this point, Barry's better known for that legacy, for dying.

Yes. And why there's an ominous or reluctant attitude in Barry will become clear.

Do you think Flash is one of the more inviting of the DC superheroes to new readers?

Absolutely. Absolutely.

We've got Green Lantern being made into a movie, all the talk about Wonder Woman back and forth, and obviously Superman and Batman...

The Flash is undoubtedly one of the most popular characters that the DC Universe has. I think he's one of the most popular characters in comics. Superspeed is one of the most amazing powers that I think people can get into and explore. Speed is something, today... everyone wants things to go faster, downloads to go quicker... No-one has anytime for anything. Speed is something that, today, we're always trying to get everything to go faster. As our society "progresses," everyone is wanting things to move faster, everyone is texting, using Twitter, all this stuff, all this constant communication and interaction, it's all about speed.

It used to take weeks to deliver a letter, and now you can communicate with someone in, like, two seconds. You can communicate with two or three thousand "friends" about what you're having for lunch immediately, all at once. It's pretty amazing.

In that case, is the Flash more suited to the modern world?

Absolutely. I think Barry Allen is more relevant now than he was back then, including his identity outside of the uniform... And not just because CSI is a TV show, but because the technology and the world has progressed.

Criminals are caught because of DNA, and Barry Allen hasn't been operating in a modern world since, what, twenty-plus years ago.

So what's your one-line pitch to io9 readers to read Flash?

He's the fastest man alive. If you've ever wished you had more time to do everything you wanted to do, here's a story about a guy who has that ability.

And then you can go and pitch that as a movie.

[Laughs] Who knows...

For those who like your superheroes square-jawed and old-fashioned, the book of the week has to be DC's Flash: Rebirth, which brings Barry Allen - the character whose creation sparked the industry's "Silver Age" superhero boom - back on a regular basis, courtesy of Green Lantern's Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver. The preview pages released so far promise a fast-moving (fittingly, for the fastest man alive) old-school superhero book, and if Johns and Van Sciver can achieve half of what they managed for GL, it'll be a fun ride.

DC is also releasing the first issue of Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye this week, Grant Morrison's latest deconstruction of modern culture through a superhero lens, which promises to be weird, wonderful and probably more than a little confusing for most folks, but that's okay; they could always look to DC's Wildstorm imprint, which has two videogame tie-ins coming out, Prototype and a special Resident Evil collection called Fire and Ice.

Marvel looks to the past this week with Wolverine Omnibus, a movie tie-in collecting some of the X-Man's greatest hits in advance of next month's movie. It's filled with all manner of guest-stars like the Punisher, Spider-Man, the Hulk and Captain America. Talking of the star-spangled Avenger, he's celebrating the 70th birthday of the publisher with the special Captain America Comics #1 70th Anniversary Special.

If your tastes run to the more comedic, then you might prefer the Marvel Assistant-Sized Spectacular, which shows what happens when editorial assistants get to run the show, and fans of European space war can comfort themselves with Universal War One: Revelations, a new series of the translated French space opera.

But that's not all; Dark Horse releases Who Wants To Be A Superhero: The Defuser, reminding us all about Stan Lee's terrible reality show for hopefully one final time.

And Boom! Studios make their bid for being publisher of the week for the second consecutive week with the first issue of Cars: The Rookie, a new mini-series based on the Pixar movie, and Irredeemable, a compelling new superhero series from Kingdom Come's Mark Waid that looks at what happens when the world's greatest superhero goes too far... Consider it the other end of the spectrum from Flash: Rebirth, but just as good.

Even if you find superheroes to be a blight on today's consumer society, the complete list of this week's new comic releases is sure to contain at least one thing that you'll want to pick up at your local comic store... which you can find by using the Comic Shop Locator Service, in case you've never been there before. But, still, go on: believe a man can fly.

Screen Rant is buzzing about a possible Neil Patrick Harris Flash, which we completely support 100% even though we know it will never, ever happen. Why? Because it's a brilliant idea, and because our dreams-coming-true quota was all used up when they cast Christian Bale as John Connor.

But NPH isn't the only blondie with his hand in the Flash pie. According to Think Mcfly Think, Scott Porter is in the racing for the role as well. You may remember Porter as Jason Street, the handicapped quarterback in Friday Night Lights. If Porter gets this role that would mean two FNL stars are now superheroes of sorts, with Taylor Kitsch as Gambit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

And speaking of Origins, what happened to the Ryan Reynolds as The Flash rumor? I assume gone with his Deadpool casting because, well, why would you want to be The Flash when you could be Deadpool?

While we're really sold on NPH as The Flash we have to toss in a few more members of Hollywood into the mix, and here are our suggestions for the man in the red spandex suit:

Ben Foster:


Why He's A Front Runner: This character actor is just dying for a lead role. He can pull of completely deranged sidekick (3:10 to Yuma) and sweet faced Angel (X-Men). I would love to see Foster put a little heat behind the eyes of The Flash and give him some depth.
Why He'll Lag Behind: He's just not big enough yet to star in a tentpole production, which is sad (and the same fate I forsee Topher Grace being handed for the Venom spin-off).

Ryan Gosling:


Why He's A Front Runner: Women love him (The Notebook) so it will drive the ladies into the theater, plus he has that hero look about him. He'll be cast as a big screen hero yet; Hollywood won't let that chin go to waste.
Why He'll Lag Behind: I could see this opportunity being passed up by Gosling; he's been rumored as so many other heroes before (Green Lantern, anyone?) that he may be sick of the speculation and say, "no thanks" ...which would be a huge mistake.

This week, Marvel offers the centerpiece of their current Dark Reign branding, Dark Avengers (the premise of which has been kept secret by the publisher, but appears to be "What if the bad guys dressed up as the good guys and got to do whatever they wanted?") Also intriguing: the first issue of villain-centric series Doctor Doom And The Masters Of Evil, (which is worth checking out based on the creative team alone; Paul Tobin and Patrick Scherberger have done some very fun work on the Marvel Adventures titles before)

Meanwhile, DC has a couple of collections that you should consider picking up: The Strange Deaths Of Batman lets you relive seven near-death experiences for the Dark Knight in light of last week's (not-really) death in Final Crisis. And The Flash: Emergency Stop brings back some of Grant Morrison and Mark Millar's enjoyable run (no pun intended) on the scarlet speedster's comic from the mid-90s.

Not to be outdone, Image Comics offers up a couple of classics, in their own way. Frank Frazetta's Moon Maid continues the publisher's trend of adapting well-known Frazetta paintings into full-length comics. The Ted McKeever Library: Eddy Current brings McKeever's wonderful series about a lunatic asylum-escapee who fights crime back into print, in luscious hardcover format.

IDW, meanwhile, continues to have your movie needs covered, with the first issues of Star Trek prequel Countdown and Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen Movie Prequel: Defiance both waiting for you on the shelves tomorrow.

But, as wonderful as all of these books are, none of them are as essential to your happiness this week as the first issue of Mysterius The Unfathomable. This new series, from DC's Wildstorm imprint, comes via writer Jeff Parker and artist Tom Fowler, who mix spiritual fathers Doctor Who and Dirk Gently to come up with what Parker calls "a book about an unlikable magical guy" who doesn't age, adopts (and discards) new assistants with worrying frequency and investigates the unknown... well, for a price. There's a six page preview of the series here, but really: This one you need to read.

The doubters amongst you can look at this week's shipping list to be convinced, and then consult the Comic Shop Locator just to remind themselves where to buy such fine four-color-funnies. Luckily, I know that you aren't a doubter... I'm sure that you're already working out how many copies of Mysterius you can pick up for friends and family, you're so convinced. Congratulations. We like people like you.

Asked by MTV's Jennifer Vineyard about the on-again-off-again movie that would bring DC's Fastest Man Alive to the big screen, Morrison - who brought the 1960s version of the character back to life in Final Crisis - suddenly got surprisingly cagey:

Yeah, that’s the kind of thing I can’t talk about... Yes, I have talked to them. I’m deeply involved in those discussions. I know what’s going down with all of that, and it’s actually really exciting. But beyond that, I can’t say anything. I wish I could tell you. I’m sure announcements will probably be made at some point, but I can’t say anything.

Someone should explain to Morrison that "not saying anything" generally involves not telling people that you're "deeply involved in discussions" or that "announcements will probably be made at some point," but we have to admit - We're even more excited about a possible Flash movie now that we know that Morrison may be involved. After all, any man who thinks that the cover below is one of the greatest comic covers of all time is clearly a man of taste.
What Does Grant Morrison Have To Do With A ‘Flash’ Movie? He’s Not Telling…Yet [Splash Page]

The TARDIS: It's possibly not the most famous time machine in science fiction (yet) - that would probably be a certain car that you'll meet below - but it's definitely the most distinctive. Doctor Who's stylish acronymtastic (its name stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space) mode of transport may have started life as a means of keeping the show's 1963 first episode budget down thought up by BBC staff writer Anthony Coburn, but it's since become one of the most recognizable images in SF TV. Something that the BBC must be happy about, having trademarked the familiar blue box in 2002.

The Cosmic Treadmill: A glorious example of Silver Age comic book (il)logic, the Flash's self-built "cosmic treadmill" allowed him to travel backwards and forwards in time - as well as through parallel universes - by running so fast that he'd hit the perfect vibrational frequency that would allow him to zip away. Created by Flash and Green Lantern writer John Broome, the somewhat ridiculous gimmick has stayed around in the Flash books ever since, proving that some ideas are so dopey that they cross the line into permanently awesome.
Doc Brown's DeLorean: What is it about the time machine from Back To The Future that makes it so perfect? That it was one of the first green time machines (after that whole plutonium thing, of course)? The very specific need for a very particular speed? The fact that it put the already spacey look of one of the '80s most impractical cars to good use? Perhaps all of the above, but what will always single it out for our love and adoration was the fulfillment of Doc Brown's promise that, where we're going, we won't need roads.

The Time Bubble: Ah, the simplicity of 1950s design. The Time Bubble - so named because it's a clear bubble that travels through time - first appeared in 1958's Adventure Comics #247 as the 30th century's favored method of time-travel, and who can deny something with such sleekness and beauty? Thank creators Otto Binder and Al Plastino for what must surely be the objet d'art aesthetic of purity that all other time machines should aspire to.

The Time Tunnel: On the one hand, I should be more worried that they never really got the time tunnel to actually work properly, but on the other, dude. It was a time tunnel, an honest-to-goodness man-made version of the Guardian of Forever, but with less Joan Collins - You didn't need to operate any funky machinery or maintain your internal vibrational frequency, you simply needed to enter the tunnel and off you went. The only drawback, if the experience of Tony Newman and Doug Philips is anything to go by, is that you'll never get to come home again. But if you liked your present-day life so much, why would you time travel in the first place, right?

Let's start with the most fun book of the week: Harper Collins' Method Man graphic novel, written by and starring the Wu-Tang rapper as Mosely Paine, a Hellboy-esque monster hunter in a city known only as "One Bad Ghetto, USA." I smell potential movie deal...

Oddly enough, this isn't the first Wu-Tang comic - that would be 2002's The Nine Rings of Wu-Tang - nor will it be the last. GZA and Ghostface Killah are both working on their own graphic novels.

It's a big week for Devil's Due Publishing. They're releasing the first issue of a new Voltron series, Voltron: A Legend Forged as well as the alien abduction book NYE Incidents, which we've written about before. More mysterious alien lifeforms can be found in Boom! Studios' virus-from-beyond-the-stars Dominion trade paperback.

Wanting more zombie fiction? Then check out Red5 Comics' ZMD: Zombies Of Mass Destruction series, where the undead are used as the last resort in our ever-ongoing war against terrorism. As you may expect, things don't quite go to plan. If your taste for the undead leans more towards vampires, then IDW probably invite you to sample their new Spike: After The Fall series, showing you just what James Marsters' alter ego has been up to post-Angel season 5.

I know, I know; you're wondering what Marvel and DC are doing with themselves during this indie-heavy week. DC is playing it cool, with its flagships both being the work of Geoff Johns: His very enjoyable Superman And The Legion of Super-Heroes storyline gets a hardcover collection, bringing Clark Kent back to his 31st Century teenage hangout, while Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge sees him return to the world of the Flash and attempt to redeem the villains therein (much to the gratitude of those of us who've read Countdown to Final Crisis). Marvel, meanwhile, is pretty collection-centric in terms of interest, with World War Hulk's spin-off series, Warbound, getting a paperback collection and Steve Gerber's classic run on Howard The Duck finally getting the oversized hardcover it's always deserved.

Just like every other week, you can read about each and everything hitting comic stores on Wednesday right here, and then go and find out where your local store is by clicking on this here link. Just remember that, like the Wu Tang Clan, comic book stores are not, in fact, not something to fuck with.