The Spirit - The Octopus
Samuel L. Jackson's Octopus was probably the most insane translation of a comics character to the screen I've ever seen. Frank Miller just let the actor run wild, drawing eyeliner lightning bolts on his face and saying just about whatever the hell he wanted. At least they got the gloves right.

Bicentennial Man - Andrew Martin

From Isaac Asimov's novella/ I just wanted to know who thought it would be a great idea to make a Robin Williams robot that will last forever. That will give children nightmares.

Elektra and Daredevil

What else really needs to be said that hasn't already? This Jennifer Garner-Ben Affleck disaster was so bad, it's being remade, completely — as if the first one never even happened. Who thought, "Greek assassin? Let's get Jennifer Garner!"

Fantastic Four - Victor von Doom

With one bad film, one of the better villains went from bad-ass to just some neurotic dude muffled behind a mask.

Wolverine - Emma Frost

For years, we waited for the real, live-action version of Emma Frost. And what we got was a dorky girl, in an ugly leather coat/prison outfit. The cosplayers at Comic Con are better, and that's saying something.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas - The Grinch

Who painted my cat green and shoved it in a Santa suit? This isn't a Grinch; this is a fever dream, and there's nothing enchanting or magical about a Jim Carey gesturing about, covered in green fur, while salivating over the Whoville hussy.

I Am Legend - Vampires

They went from complex creatures with a fully realized society to zombie people who were all CG-ed to look alike. The best part of the novel was when Neville found an old friend who was too far gone. That went out the window, along with most of Neville's character, in the movie. But we missed the actual vampire people the most.

Speed Racer - Racer X

Hey, your Dad dressed up like Racer X. Cool, we guess.

Watchmen - Ozymandias

This was not actor Matthew Goode's fault. He was terribly underwritten and thrown into the part very late in the game; we understand. Sadly godlike genius Adrian Veidt, he was not. We're not sure if it was the look or the writing — either way, it just didn't work.

"The Last Man On The Planet Moon"
Will Eisner, Jules Feiffer and Wally Wood's August 31st 1952 episode of The Spirit was right in the middle of the Outer Space sequence of stories, but that didn't mean it lost its focus on small vignettes about the common man - In this particular case, about a man whose space madness meant that he hallucinated a world where he was the only man left from his mission, trapped all alone on the Moon. Forward thinking stuff from a period when Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon made space safe for newspaper comics readers.

Solaris
Stanisław Lem's original 1961 novel, that is, not the George Clooney movie. Lem imagined an alien being that prompted psychological responses in humans who tried to contact it, producing a particular strain of space madness - Trauma As Particularly Awkward First Contact. While Lem's novel depicts an unknowable and somewhat disturbing idea of such event, it was soon co-opted into cuddlier forms by...

Countless Star Trek Episodes
The various interstellar folk of Gene Roddenberry's future had a tendency to go insane every now and again, but there was always a comfortable external explanation for it all - An alien virus, mind-control of some sort, or Vulcans getting horny. Anything that could allow the Enterprise and her fine crew to leave after an hour, secure in the ultimate safety and pride of being outer space frontiersmen and insanity just being something that's akin to drunkenness:

Dark Star
Suicidal astronauts on a long-term mission who have to talk an intelligent bomb out of exploding, resorting to explaining philosophy because their cryogenically-frozen commander tells them to? No wonder that Lt. Doolittle (spoiler) surrenders to his dream of surfing to oblivion at the end of the movie. Never mind 2001, this was the movie that made a generation realize what space travel could do to your mind.

The Black Hole
...And for the kids that were too young to see Dark Star, there was always Disney's The Black Hole, in which mad Maximilian Schell (who had killed his own crew, turned them into robots, become obsessed with the black hole of the title and ends up melded to a killer robot and in Hell or something) managed to put another generation off the idea of going off into space. Those who weren't confused about the whole thing and/or distracted by the cuteness of VINCENT, that is.

Red Dwarf
1992's "Quarantine" demonstrated that it wasn't just humans who came down with space madness, when hologram Arnold Rimmer caught a virus that not only drove him quite mad, but finally introduced his latent crossdressing and puppetry tendencies. If only all other space madnesses came with their own Mr. Flibbles.

Event Horizon
Some have called Event Horizon the Pandorum or Sunshine of its 1997 day, but we prefer to think of this Sam Neill-starring SF-horror movie as The Black Hole for people who are afraid of robots. Again proving that hanging around cosmic events can lead to hallucinations and psychosis, Paul WS Anderson's thriller brought a spooky atmosphere, love of Latin and very little originality to the space madness genre, but we love it nonetheless.

Sunshine
Talking of unoriginal SF-horror movies, Danny Boyle's 2007 worst-case-scenario-fest (In turn, shamelessly ripped off by Ron Moore's failed pilot Virtuality) demonstrates yet again that, when your spaceship discovers a seemingly-abandoned spaceship floating in the void, the sensible thing to do is always to ignore it and carry on your mission. Points are subtracted for the unexpected and somewhat disappointing devolution into a generic slasher movie towards the end, but any movie where space + isolation + the sun = space madness can never be all bad.

Moon
Taking the traditional space madness ingredients (Namely loneliness, existential angst and improbable situations that can't be easily explained by what we know as science), Duncan Jones' debut movie comes up with something that, unusually, pays off without devolving into cliche or an "enigmatic" lack of answers. For that alone - as well as not succumbing to either space madness or movie hero syndrome - Sam Rockwell's Sam Bell takes the win.

The Ren and Stimpy Show
Surely the greatest example ever made of what space madness truly is. Oh my God, an ice cream bar!
See if you don't agree for yourself.

Let's get the familiar names out of the way first, shall we? Marvel have the first issue of Ultimate Comics: Armor Wars, which places Planetary and Transmetropolitan writer Warren Ellis in charge of Iron Man again, freed of too many continuity woes and watches what happens. Also out of continuity, Spider-Man Noir reimagines Peter Parker in 1920s New York, while the in-continuity (and non-Sam Jackson-esque) Nick Fury realizes the futility of existence in Secret Warriors Volume 1: Nick Fury, Agent of Nothing. Less existential pondering and more ass-kicking can be found in Hulk: Planet Skaar and Hercules: Prince of Power, both of which explain the finer points of "smashing," I believe.

Smashing may help the political state of the Romulan empire, which is somewhat shaky in IDW's Star Trek Romulans: Schism, while Dynamite add their voice to the licensed choir with what may turn out to be the surprise of the week: The first issue of Galactica 1980, resurrecting (and promising to improve) Lorne Greene's far-from-finest hour as the original Battlestar Galactica finds Earth in the middle of disco.

DC Comics have a couple of interesting collections to consider this week: Showcase Presents Warlord Vol. 1 reprints the beginnings of DC's premiere sword and sorcery comic - with some great art by Mike Grell - while Tom Strong Deluxe Edition Vol. 1 does the same for the first year of Alan Moore's retro "science hero" series which lurches from semi-parody to sincere tribute to stories gone by, with amazing art by people like Chris Sprouse, Art Adams and Dave Gibbons.

If you're looking for more Gibbons, this is definitely your week; he pops up (again working with his Watchmen collaborator Moore) alongside many other creators in the enjoyable The Spirit Archives: The New Adventures hardcover collection of a short-lived 1990s attempt to revive Will Eisner's classic character, but the motherlode for Gibbons fans - or Frank Miller fans, for that matter - is the deluxe collection The Life and Times of Martha Washington In the 21st Century, which brings together all of Miller and Gibbons' alternate future political satire, from Give Me Liberty all the way to last year's The Death of Martha Washington. Individual, powerful and weirdly compelling, it'd be the book of the week, if it wasn't for two other Dark Horse releases.
Those would be Beasts of Burden, a new series by Space Ghost (and Milk & Cheese) writer Evan Dorkin and artist Jill Thompson about the pet protectors of a particularly supernatural neighborhood (Look here for a sample of what to expect and fall in love), and Super Spy creator Matt Kindt's new graphic novel, 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man, which takes a serious and beautiful look at the old cliche of the man who was as tall as a building. Both are highly recommended.

Whether you're looking to buy all of Dark Horse's impressive slate this week or something else, the Diamond Shipping List can help you decide what you should be spending money on, and the Comic Shop Locator Service will make sure you know where to spend it. Just remember to pick up something new and unusual this week; it's a good week to go outside your norm.

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

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

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

• 

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

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

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

So what happened? There are a few theories.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The plaudit came from the 10th annual Golden Trailer Awards, held last week in LA, which gave the trailer for JJ Abrams' franchise reboot not just the "Best In Show" award, but also the "Summer 2009 Blockbuster Award." Other winners at the ceremony included Wall-E (Best Animation/Family), Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Best Video Game) and The Spirit, which won the "Golden Fleece Award," which is awarded to the best trailer(s) of the worst movie(s)." I guess it's good to know that the movie will be remembered for something...

'Star Trek' promo wins Golden Trailer [Hollywood Reporter]

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

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

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

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

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

Unfortunately, The Spirit came out too late to make the Razzie nomination ballot, according to the site:

ALTHOUGH IT FLOPPED TOO LATE to MAKE OUR NOMINATING BALLOT, WE THOUGHT ITS UNDER ACHIEVEMENTS EARNED IT a PLACE on OUR FORUM.

Frank Miller is a lucky man, but I'm not going to forget the sins this movie committed that easily. See you next year, Miller. Until then, there are a large group of science fiction movies to chose from out of this years nominations. I personally think The Happening should win worst picture for the scene where Mark Wahlberg is talking to plants or trying to outrun wind, both were equally awful.

Here are the nominees:

Worst Picture:

Speed Racer, Disaster Movie and Meet the Spartans, The Day the Earth Stood Still, High School Musical 3, The Hottie & The Nottie, Dungeon Siege, The Love Guru, Postal, Rambo, The Happening, Meet Dave, Witless Protection

Worst Actor:

Zac Efron, Dane Cook, Larry the Cable Guy, Eddie Murphy, Al Pacino, Keanu Reeves, Sylvester Stallone, Tom Cruise (Valkyrie), Will Ferrell, Ashton Kutcher, Mike Myers, Adam Sandler, Mark Wahlberg

Worst Actress:

Paris Hilton, Jessica Alba, The cast of “The Women,” Camilla Belle, Cameron Diaz, Kate Hudson, Diane Keaton, Jennifer Connelly, Zooey Deschanel, Vanessa Hudgens, Eva Longoria-Parker, Reese Witherspoon

Worst Screen Couple:

Any couple from HSM 3, Cameron Diaz & Ashton Kutcher, Paris Hilton & Joel David Moore, Kate Hudson & Dane Cook, Kate Hudson & Matthew McConaughey, Larry the Cable Guy & Jenny McCarthy, Any couple from Mamma Mia, Eddie Murphy & Eddie Murphy (Meet Dave), Al Pacino & His Hair, Mark Wahlberg & Zooey Deschanel, Mark Wahlberg & Mila Kunis, Sylvester Stallone & His Ego

Worst Director:

Uwe Boll, Scott Derrickson, Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer, Tom Putnam, Marco Schnabel, Sylvester Stallone, Jon Avnet, Diane English, Roland Emmerich, Brian Robbins, Kenny Ortega, M. Night Shyamalan

Worst Prequel, Sequel, Remake or Rip-Off:

Indiana Jones 4, HSM 3, Rambo, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Disaster Movie, Meet the Spartans, An American Carol, The Women, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Prom Night, Speed Racer, X-Files: I Want To Believe

Worst Career Achievement:

Uwe Boll, Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer, Madonna, Keanu Reeves, Sylvester Stallone

But still I must protest that rules should have been bent to include The Spirit:

[Razzies via MTV]

Digital Spy reports that the occasional auteur is "polishing" the script for a sequel to Zack Snyder's adaptation of his sword and sandals epic, while Sin City 2 is a much more immediate concern:

The word I have heard is that we are going to get into production in April and I can't wait.

While Robert Rodriguez will be returning to co-direct Sin City 2 (based on the A Dame To Kill For series), it's still uncertain whether or not Snyder would be returning for a second 300 project; he may still be tied up in court for Watchmen, after all.

Miller talks 'Sin City', '300' sequels [Digital Spy]

To put that $14million figure in some context, the top movie of the week made $10million on Thursday alone (and $82million over the same amount of time as The Spirit); on average, bad word of mouth for The Spirit has seen the movie's take drop each day (with the exception of New Year's Day, when it inexplicably made three times as much as the previous day... when it made half as much as it made made the day before). Despite being in its first week of release, the movie dropped out of the daily top ten last Monday, and is now being beaten on a daily basis by limited release indie Slumdog Millionaire, playing on less than a quarter of the screens of Miller's movie (All of this courtesy Box Office Mojo). Obviously, this is somewhat of an embarrassment for the people behind The Spirit... so the question is, what happened?

To be fair, there's more than a small case to be made for the fact that it's so bad a movie that it could never have been a massive success - You only have to look at the reviews to see that this was never going to be anything more than a cult classic at best (When even its supporters are left saying things like "The pacing and motion of the picture felt tedious. About 40 minutes in, I began nodding off. And it took Sam Jackson in a Nazi Uniform doing a crazed mad man routine to get my attention" or even "Is THE SPIRIT a good movie? No. Is it entertainingly and inventively bad? Yes," you know things aren't looking too good), which really raises the question, Why Was This A Christmas Day Release?

Cinematical called the carcrash potential of the scheduling back in May, back when it was first announced:

The move is indeed a vote of confidence, but it might up throwing the film to the wolves.

The fact is, no matter how eager the movies' studio, Liongate, may have been to show off their shiny new toy, this seems to have been a case where common sense was abandoned in favor of... what? Excitement over having buzz creator Frank Miller making his first solo movie as director? A superhero movie all of their own in a year when superheroes had ruled the box office? The promise of a popcorn-friendly movie with big-name actors? Admittedly, on paper, all the ingredients seemed to be there; it's just that no-one involved with the decision to put this movie out during one of the most high-profile, high-expectation and outright bland (Seriously, look what else was released on Christmas Day: Oscar Bait, an Adam Sandler kids' movie and a lowest-common-denominator film about beautiful people and a dog) periods of the cinematic year seems to have known what kind of a movie they were actually making. Publishers Weekly's Heidi MacDonald puts it best:

Lionsgate really shot everyone in the foot by thinking they could turn this cult movie into a Christmas film. It was originally set to be released on January 16th, in the wasteland of movie releases. At such a time, the film’s eye-poke awkwardness and weirdness might have been a welcome respite to winter doldrums and might have even made some money at the box office.

So, what lessons will be learned from The Spirit's failure? Sadly, not the ones that should be (That would be the ones where you pay more attention to the source material before ignoring it in favor of your own fetishes to the point where even coherency is a distant friend - more politely known, perhaps, as Gaiman's Law Of Superhero Movies - or consider the movie itself, instead of the talent involved in creating it, when considering how to promote and release it); more likely, the fallout from the entire experience will be twofold:

A Shift In The Way Hollywood Views Comic Books
It seems that movies based upon comic books seem to fall into three camps: The Big Name Characters (Batman, Spider-Man, Iron Man, for example), Critically-Acclaimed Sources (The Spirit, 30 Days Of Night, Hellboy), and Fodder (Almost all of the movies we report are being based on indie comics that you read and think "I've never heard of that"). While The Spirit's fall is unlikely to change the direction of Iron Man 2, it may make studios less willing to invest in something that may end up as critically savaged and abandoned by even its core fanbase; the key here is in how The Spirit's failure ends up being contextualized. Will the industry just accept that it was a bad movie, or will it be viewed as something that wasn't mainstream enough for mainstream audiences nor "comicky" enough for comicbook fans, and therefore satisfied no-one? If it's the latter, expect retiscence from studios about more comic book movies that don't have "smash" written all over them from the start.

Frank Miller's Star Will Fade
More than likely, blame for the failure of The Spirit will land squarely and firmly on the shoulders of its writer and director instead of causing the industry to think about things like screwing up the release date and misunderstanding the appeal of the movie. This is, ultimately, a good thing, though; not only was Miller's movie credibility weirdly inflated considering both his limited involvement in the movies of Sin City and especially 300, but an end to Hollywood enabling his starfuckery may see him finally given some creative impetus to move beyond his schtick that has been tired for the last decade or so.

It'll be interesting to see if Miller's Buck Rogers deal still happens in the light of the Spirit box office. If it does, then we may have to give up hope that the movie industry can learn any lessons from its failures - and resign ourselves to another shitty noir movie with a love affair for greenscreen.

Maybe it was the appalling reviews, or the unconvincing trailers. Perhaps a nation's theatergoers just realized that even Adam Sandler's Bedtime Stories would be a better way of spending an evening. Whatever the reason, Miller's movie version of Will Eisner's classic comic earned only $3,825,000 on its first day of release, coming in below movies like The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button ($11,700,000), Tom Cruise's Nazi's Aren't All Bad Honest movie Valkyrie ($8,350,000) and the surprising hit of the day, Marley And Me ($14,600,000). It even ranked lower than movies that had been released last weekend (Yes Man and Seven Pounds, to be specific).

We can only hope that this poor opening - and presumed subsequent disappointing box office, as I can't see this movie suddenly becoming a hit based on word of mouth - means that TPTB will rethink their plan to let Miller recreate Buck Rogers for a new generation.

[Box Office Mojo]

If Sin City was located in the scariest darkest portion of New York, then The Spirit's home turf is Connecticut. The monochrome style of Miller's movie makes you feel like you're watching another Sin City chapter, but this time on the good side of the tracks.

An all black-and-red palate doesn't bother me. In fact, I was amazed by Sin City's ability to burn images into my brain. I will forever remember Becky's glowing cross and earring set. Alas, the super-dark world of The Spirit never really pans out wide enough for something in CG motion to have that sort of delicate touch. Mind you this isn't a knock at the violence, as The Spirit never actually tries to be a violent film, but it looks so much like Sin City, you can't help but feel you're trapped in some terrible suburb.





Does it look like hell all the time? Certainly not. But was it distracting? Absolutely. Like one of the Spirit's many cats, I was easily distracted like a toy string by our heroe's red CG tie, along with the zoomy lines that followed Samuel L. Jackson around. But a few splatters of super red blood did remind me of the ink-on-film look they were striving for.

The Spirit follows a crusading cop named Denny Colt, who swears to protect his greatest love of all, Central City. Colt dies, but then he rises to the grave as a superhero. Sadly, the movie's lead, Gabriel Macht, never sells me on the fact that he was a super-anything. While he looks quite lovely without his shirt (which luckily takes up a large part of the movie), the Spirit's legendary sexual swagger is always just out of Macht's reach. I blame this on two things: his too-innocent-looking face, and the god-awful dialog he has to deliver. It never works, not once. I was completely ready for a hot one liner to drip from Macht's mouth, but instead he just stands there trading boring quips, or even non-sequiturs, while women around him acted much more aroused or interested than he did, despite his lover-of-women rep. Case in point:





I wanted to root for Central City's Spirit, but the only times I found a connection with this new actor was when he was paired up with the police commissioner Dolan. The hard nosed cop, who seems to be Spirit's only confidant, is played by the incomparable Dan Lauria - or, as we all know him, the dad from Wonder Years. Lauria was an absolute pleasure to watch. He encompassed the noir style that Miller was so desperately trying to force on screen, right down to his crinkled trench coat. This man is a gem, and needs to be in a detective movie/series, stat. He even works the silly one-liner fight dialogues into somewhat believable arguments between himself and his ally, the vigilante Spirit. But despite the moments of fun between those two, not all the guns (and there were plenty of them) in The Spirit could protect us from Samuel L. Jackson's interpretation of the villainous Octopus.

Our superhero patrols the land looking for eight-limbed trouble, and soon enough, he finds it. For the first 15 hours of this movie (well that's how it felt) Spirit launches into an all out battle of fists and toilets, while breaking up his evil nemesis' plans to drink the blood of Hercules (and become immortal). As I've said before, slapstick is an art, and combining slapstick and fighting apparently takes a lot more time than they were willing to spend. Instead, Jackson howls and shrieks at the camera, as if overcompensating for his lack of white gloves, and the Spirit punches the same spot over and over. It's tedious and feels like improv.

As the first actual realization of this never-before-seen bad guy, Jackson takes his character to a whole new level of crazy town, terrible eyeliner aside. His insane monologues reel out of control as he spews off putting lines like "deader than Star Trek" and obsesses about not having egg on his face, completely taking you out of the moment. Granted when coupled with his sidekick Silken Floss (Scarlett Johansson) the two seem to bring out the best in each other, and they nail the infamous Nazi torture scene. But the minute you separate this Miller-dubbed "Lucy and Ricky" team, it's all downhill for both of them. Jackson's madder than hell act starts to wear thin, waiting for the next actual funny moment.





When Scarjo and her cleavage work on their own, she joins the ranks of the other women in this film - as convenient plot points to move the story along. Characters like Plaster of Paris (Paz Vega) the angel of death Lorelei Rox (Jaime King) and Ellen Dolan (Sarah Paulson) are throw-away additions to the male team. They are merely there to prove that Spirit is sexy, because they all want in his pants. Also, Ellen is supposedly Spirit's ex-squeeze when he was Denny Colt, and you're telling me that not only does she have very limited pull over his actions but that she can't tell her dead boy-toy is standing right in front of her? (It's not that good of a mask.)

The film goes to great flashbacky lengths to establish Sand Saref's (Eva Mendes) character but the film loses me when she xeroxes her butt, allowing Spirit to use it as a mug shot around town. Oh, the little-person bellhop recognizes it, because he's short - get it? Get it???? While it's fun to see young Saref, like in the panels, and it made her diamond-thief-hunting MO slightly believable, the film cancels out all this work by limiting anything interesting the adult Saref gets to contribute, besides being a towel-dropping, butt-xeroxing gold-digger.





All in all, the ladies look lovely, and you can't deny the costumes are a lot of fun. But their characters are flat. And while watching Scarjo and Jackson prance about in SS Uniforms at the expense of some poor kitties is a really funny, demented scene, it in no way shape or form makes up for the rest of the film. The green-screen really takes its toll on the actors. You can clearly tell which sequences were shot separately, or together. The film is left feeling disjointed, and perhaps that's what's to blame for the missing connection with the audience.





The final question I was left with was: Who is going to go see this film? I can't imagine hardcore Will Eisner fans wanting to see a Sin City-esque adaptation of their beloved Spirit, and it's not mainstream enough to pull in a wide audience.

Bottom line: it's a hero no one really knows anything about, and not even Scarjo's lady lumps will be enough to pull in real numbers. So what is it? A giant ad for Bulgari jewels? The Spirit is so wrapped up in being a monochrome, funny-ha-ha, camp film, it forgot to include character development and plot that might bring in a wider audience. With a few more edits and people above Miller checking the direction and flow of this film, this could have been the new cult bad movie I've been looking for. But as it stands now, The Spirit is a parody of this mans appeal, and not in a good way. Frank Miller out-Frank-Millered himself.

Will Eisner wanted to distinguish the Spirit from costumed superheroes like Superman and Batman and bring comic books to a more adult audience. He put crimefighter Denny Colt in a simple suit, tie, and fedora, with the later addition of a domino mask and gloves his sole concessions to the costume-hungry publishers. But earlier and later heroes had similarly low-key mask, hat, and suit combos.

Zorro: Pulp writer Johnston McCulley created this granddaddy of non-superpowered pulp heroes, but originally placed him in a simpler sombrero and full-face mask. Douglas Fairbanks, who adapted the story for the film The Mark of Zorro, gave him the more dashing Andalusian hat and black half-mask, which McCulley himself adopted for all subsequent Zorro media. For The Spirit film, Frank Miller changed the Spirit’s blue suit and hat to black to evoke Zorro’s more romantic and more costumed look.

The Shadow: Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Radio serial character the Shadow knows. The Shadow enjoyed a lengthy radio run (voiced by, among others, Orson Welles), as well as in comic books, video games, and film. Walter Gibson, the writer and magician who fleshed out the character, sought to make a hero with traditionally villainous qualities, dressing him more as a noir villain than a superhero.

The Clock: In a three piece suit, a fedora, and a full-face mask, former district attorney and college athlete Brian O’Brien fought crime, making him the first masked hero to appear in American comic books. He also aided the long tradition of terrible superhero puns, leaving behind a calling card that read “The Clock Has Struck.”

The Green Hornet and Kato: Newspaper publisher Britt Reid is the grandnephew of Western masked avenger the Lone Ranger, and he shares his famous uncle’s affinity for anonymous vigilantism. But as an urban hero, the Hornet prefers a suit and tie to cowboy gear. His more famous sidekick Kato also gets the hat, coat, and mask combo, but in lieu of the Hornet’s more Spirit-like fedora and Chesterfield topcoat, Bruce Lee wore a chauffeur’s uniform.

The Crimson Avenger: The Crimson Avenger may be considered a progenitor of the Justice League, but his Chinese chauffeur bears a suspicious resemblance to the Hornet’s own sidekick. Wing fights side by side with the Avenger, wearing a yellow outfit that matches his employer’s red one.

The Phantom Reporter: The recently thawed out Dick Jones was square-jawed, all-American athlete, proficient in boxing, fencing, and wrestling. And, like so many upstart journalists, he spent his nights battling crime. When he awoke from his cryogenic slumber in 2008, he got an updated outfit, but kept the suit, hat, mask, and cloak as part of the ensemble.

Midnight: While Will Eisner was serving in the Army, fellow artist Jack Cole frequently ghost wrote The Spirit, with Eisner’s consent. But fearing Eisner could be killed in the war, Quality Comics asked Cole to come up with a possible Spirit replacement. Dave Clark is an actor who plays a masked vigilante until one day, he decides to put on that domino mask and fight crime for real.

The Sandman: No, not Neil Gaiman’s Lord of the Dreaming. Wesley Dodds premiered as the Sandman in 1939, as a suit-wearing detective with prophetic dreams and gun full of truth gas (the accompanying gas mask was for practical purposes, though Gaiman’s Sandman would carry a similar helm). Later, Dodds would get a spandex makeover and a young ward (who would, in turn, grow up to become a coat, mask, and hat wearing superhero).

The Phantom Stranger: The Phantom Stranger doesn’t actually where a mask, but the shadow of his hat creates the appearance of a mask around his eyes. He’s also known to pal around with other members of the so-called Trenchcoat Brigade, a group of fellow occultists (John Constantine, Doctor Occult, and Mister E) who share a fondness for long coats.

Mr. A: The first of Steve Ditko’s Objectivism-spouting heroes, Mr. A (short for “A is A” the logical Law of Identity) battled criminals in a pair of armored gloves and a stoney-faced armored mask. Otherwise, he wore a plain white suit and hat, signifying his untainted and uncompromising morals.

The Question: Ditko’s second superheroic tribute to Ayn Rand came in the form of the Question. Thanks to a Pseudoderm mask that left his face featureless and a gas that altered the color of his clothes and hair, investigative journalist Vic Sage could transform into the Question without ever changing his clothes.

V: The mysterious terrorist of V for Vendetta is certainly Zorro-inspired, right down to the rapier and the single-lettered insignia. While his black cloak and hat help him hide in the shadows, they also add a dramatic air to his mischief. And the Guy Fawkes mask helps him melt into the identity of the famed anti-establishment figure, and disguise a deformed face.

Rorschach: Alan Moore has said that Watchmen’s own moral absolutist has his origin in the Question. Rorschach pairs a simple hat and coat with his unnerving, full-face mask. The black and white mask, which betrays no emotion, echoes Mr. A’s unwillingness to see the world in shades of gray. The detective garb also fits well with Rorscharch’s grim, pronounless, noir-inspired monologues.

Darkman: When Sam Raimi couldn’t secure the rights to the Shadow, he created his own trenchcoat-wearing, shadow-lurking vigilante. Darkman can create synthetic faces to make himself look like anybody (for a very limited time), but when he went out with his burned face bandaged, he wore a coat and hat to resemble the 1930s pulp heroes.

Tuxedo Mask: Since Sailor Moon’s one true love inhabits the world of a magical girl comic, he gets a romanticized version of this outfit, trading a tuxedo and top hat for the business suit and fedora. The transformation is probably apt since he is more support for Sailor Moon than a fighter for truth and justice.

The Mask: The Mask makes everything more animated, so when Stanley Ipkiss puts on the mystical relic, he gets a yellow zoot suit inspired more by Tex Avery’s cartoons than private detectives.

Damien Darkblood: Highly alliterative demon detective Damien Darkblood doesn’t wear a mask, but he cops his style from Rorschach (right down to the pinstripe pants). He also shares Rorschach’s mannerisms (including a propensity for saying “hurm”) and mission (to find out who’s been killing superheroes).

The Gray Ghost: The Gray Ghost is actually a fictional show-within-a-show superhero, a character supposedly watched by young Bruce Wayne and meant as a hat tip to Batman’s Shadow roots. As such, he gets a toned down version of the Caped Crusader’s uniform, wearing a gray suit and cloak with a hat and goggles instead of a cowl.

The Invisible Man: Griffin plays a villain in HG Wells’ The Invisible Man, but the morally challenged gent does fight some evil as a member of Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. And he tries to keep his invisibility under wraps with bandages, sunglasses, long coats, and the occasional hat.

Terminator Salvation:

Fans asked Arnie if he'd be in the new movie, and he said, "You never know." [Arnold Fans via Moviehole]

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen:

Toy spoilers! That blue Chevy Volt in the movie? Is a Transformer named Jolt. He comes with "electro whips," which make him almost unstoppable. "He is chaotic and impulsive, always out for the next big adventure." [Transformers Live]

And more toy pics, showing "Fast Action Megatron," "Legends Jetfire," and others, are at the links. [Transformers Live and Transformers Live]

Meanwhile, Tyrese Gibson says his character has been promoted to Master Sergeant in the new movie. "I am bringing on more air strikes. Michael Bay beefed up my presence in this sequel." [Transformers Live again]

Dragonball Evolution:

Here's a new pic of Bulma and Goku that appeared at an event called Jump Festa. [DBtheMovie]

The Spirit:

So maybe I'm the only person who doesn't know this, but apparently one of the changes in Frank Miller's movie version of Will Eisner's comic is that Miller gives the eponymous Spirit a super-power: the Spirit has a healing factor, like Wolverine, that lets him recover from almost any wound. [Newsday]

Battlestar Galactica:

Here's a new clip that popped up on the BSG "You Will Know The Truth" site. Gaeta is definitely getting to show more sides of his personality these days. Do you think the "people will know who I am thing" is meant to point to him as the final Cylon, or is it another red herring? And what does Felix have against disabled people anyway? [YouWillKnowTheTruth via Battlestar Blog]

Doctor Who:

Comedian John Culshaw toured the set of the Christmas special and interviewed David Tennant. And there's a bit more of that clip from the episode we showed the the other day, where Tennant shouts at the Cybermen that he's the Doctor. (Segment also includes which actors bookies think are in line to play the role. I would love to see Chiwetl Ejiofor as the Doctor!) [Whovian World]

And meanwhile, Dervla Kirwan did an interview on Paul O'Grady. Apparently, the Cyberman follow Miss Hartigan because she has something they want. And she showed a clip from the episode — roughly the scene fans watched being filmed many months ago. [Doctor Who on LJ]

The BBC posted its usual "Fear Forecast" for the episode, including a hint that the Other Doctor describes his regeneration at one point, and you get to hear the Cloister Bell. [Planet Gallifrey]

Lost:

Eagle-eyed reader Ajax noticed something in the latest trailer: a hooded figure sitting at an old-school Hatch-style computer, with the display saying "Event Window Determined." Does this mean there's a limited window to return to the island? Also is this figure in another Hatch, somewhere off the island? Like L.A.? [Thanks Axel!]

Our sister site Jezebel had a nifty rundown of Lost spoilers over the weekend. [Jezebel]

Terry O'Quinn (Locke) says his favorite scene in the new season so far is one he's shot with Michael Emerson (Ben). Do Locke and Ben meet up in the "present," or is this a flashback? Or something else? [SpoilersLost]

Britain's Sky One interviews the cast. [SpoilersLost]

Heroes:

This spring, we'll see two "significant" female deaths on the show... one of which will be permanent. The other one is "up in the air at the moment." [EW]

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles:

A casting call for two minor characters in episode 19 of the current season. Dr. Martinez, a female Hispanic doctor in her forties, and a rugged UPS delivery man known as Delivery Man #2. (Does that mean there's a Delivery Man #1?) [SpoilerTV]

Stargate Atlantis:

Here are some pics from the final episode, "Enemy At The Gate." Man, every day is a bad hair day for Amanda Tapping, isn't it? [SpoilerTV]

Smallville:

Here are the official descriptions for episodes 8x11 and 8x12, "Legion" and "Bulletproof":

The aftermath of Doomsday’s (Sam Witwer) attack on Chloe (Allison Mack) and Jimmy’s (Aaron Ashmore) wedding leaves Clark (Tom Welling) in shock, but before he can search for the kidnapped Chloe, The Persuader (guest star Fraser Aithceson) appears and attacks him. Rokk (guest star Ryan Kennedy), Imra (guest star Alexz Johnson) and Garth (guest star Calum Worthy), also known as The Legion, step in from the future to help vanquish the Persuader and the group realizes Brainiac has taken over Chloe once again. Meanwhile, up at the Fortress, Chloe, as Brainiac, informs Davis he is Doomsday and was created to kill “the other Kryptonian” and destroy the world.

Clark (Tom Welling) discovers John Jones (guest star Phil Morris) was shot while working as a police officer, so Clark dons the uniform and goes undercover to find the culprit. Meanwhile, Lana (Kristin Kreuk) confronts Tess (Cassidy Freeman) and tells her Lex isn’t the man she thinks he is. Lana’s shocking news forces Tess to reevaluate her position as the head of Luthorcorp.

Life On Mars:

Here are some groove-tastic upcoming episode titles:

Episode 1.07 - 20 Nov 2008 - The Man Who Sold the World
Episode 1.08 - 28 Jan 2009 - The Dark Side Of The Mook
Episode 1.09 - 04 Feb 2009 - Revenge of the Broken Jaw
Episode 1.10 - 11 Feb 2009 - The Simple Secret of the Note in Us All
Episode 1.11 - 18 Feb 2009 - Take a Look at the Lawmen
Episode 1.12 - 25 Feb 2009 - Let All the Children Boogie

[SpoilerTV]

Knight Rider:

First footage of KARR from the January 21 episode. [Knight Rider Online]

Additional reporting by Katharine Duckett.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Miller and production company Odd Lot Entertainment (The company behind The Spirit) are in discussions with Nu Image/Millennium, the production company that currently owns the Buck movie rights, in order to option them and allow Miller to work the same magic on the time-lost space hero that made The Spirit so critically-acclaimed.

The Reporter says that the movie is likely to be a "priority project" for Miller, who'll be recreating the character with "a darker take, with many of Miller's signature visual elements and themes, such as corruption and redemption." So, Sin Rogers, then.

Frank Miller eyes big-screen 'Buck Rogers' [Hollywood Reporter]

Letting Frank Miller gallop across The Spirit film set unedited opened the doors for the actors to do so as well. In a press conference for his newly released film The Spirit Miller described how one should adapt a comic to film:

As far as what translates from comics to film, I find that they are the better source material, and would cite marvel's recent Iron Man and Incredible Hulk as wonderful witty jobs at adapting them. I think if they get too presumptuous, comic book movies tend to fall apart.

That's all fine and dandy to say, Mr. Miller, but revelations throughout the conference revealed that you and your cast went a little willy nilly with changes and additions. Case in point: the lovely Scarlett Johansson's part, Silken Floss, was completely rewritten and expanded once the gorgeous ScarJo wanted in on the project. And that was only the beginning of the actors dictating changes to the movie.

Take the Spirit's nemesis, the Octopus — an evil character brought to the flesh by Samuel L. Jackson. Despite Miller's many rewrites and expansions, after meeting a few actors, he ended up giving Jackson free rein.

At the presser Samuel L. Jackson was asked about if he was cautious about bringing to life a character that had never before been seen on film or in the panel. In the comics, the Octopus was always just a pair of ominous gloves. He explained that he created most of his character's look himself, in the makeup chair.

It's quite an honor to actually be able to walk into a situation and put flesh and blood into a character that's only been a pair of gloves. And I thank Frank for that opportunity. He gave me license to be as demented and as genius and as goddamn funny as I wanted to. So I kinda took that as my license to do all the things that I ever wanted to do in a film, chew as much scenery as I felt like chewing, and not be criticized for it....."

Also, the Octopus' notorious smeary makeup? All Jackson.

The big discovery for me was, Scarlett and I shared a makeup trailer. So when I would go in in the morning and they'd be making her up and I'd look at her and those beautiful colors of eye shadow on her and I'd go "Wow, I should try some of that." So I got my makeup artist to start experimenting with eye shadow and I would put it on then I would run in there and go "Frank!" and he'd go "I love it!" so then I'd go back to the trailer and go, if I'm wearing a Nazi outfit I should have lightning bolt eyebrows! And I'd go "Frank!" and he'd go "I love it!". And from that point on it was all just a matter of me just kinda me running in and doing as much as I can to myself, even down to the little ermine eyebrows, which I thought was kinda cool.

You just said a mouthful, Sam. While Jackson as a Nazi cat-killer in an SS Uniform may be full of win, seeing him leaking makeup just takes away from the character. There should have been someone on set saying, "Whoa, now we're getting ahead of ourselves let's all just think about what we're doing here for a moment."

Jackson said he also found a lot of inspiration in the wardrobe closet, and if you've seen any pictures from the film you'll agree it's got a pretty crazed assembly of ensembles. But at The Spirit's heart the story was really a romantic comedy, he said:

But other than [a moment where he kills a cat], there's no real mean spirited moment in the film. I don't even conceive that as a mean spirited moment, it's an example of what we do. Just one of those things. But having fun and creating a spirit of adventure in the middle of what we finally discovered was a romantic comedy was kinda great.

At the end, Jackson did truly seem to care about the character. He read all of The Spiritworks provided by Frank Miller. Plus, Miller and Jackson met constantly, trying to discover the reality of the Octopus and gave birth to a Lucy and Ricky type relationship between Silken Floss and Octopus (Sam is the Lucy).

The Spirit hits theaters on December 25.

Remember when you saw the first footage of The Spirit of the cess pool fight, and I called it a disjointed attempt at slapstick? Well now there are six more clips for you to peruse, and decide if Frank Miller's Spirit will tempt you into spending your hard earned money on a movie ticket. My guess is after hearing some of these one-liners fall flat, the answer will be no. But then again Eva Mendes gets pretend naked, so that has to appeal to someone.
 
 
 
 
 
A Fight In An Alley



The Hospital

Common Criminal (Or Eva Takes Off Her Towel)

Eye Candy, Scarjo Explains Why She's On Team Octopus



Lots Of Guns

Snowballs Over Guns

This earlier attempt to bring Will Eisner's classic comic strip to movies comes to light via the LA Times' Hero Complex blog, where producer Steven Paul Leiva writes about the Spirit that never was: a 1980s version that would've been written and directed by The Iron Giant and The Incredibles' Brad Bird, with Cars and Toy Story director John Lassiter working as one of the animators on the project. According to Leiva, he was convinced as soon as he saw their test reel:

The pencil test mock trailer was brilliant. Not only in its form and execution — it quickly told the origin of The Spirit and displayed clearly the tone of the proposed film — but it was the finest human character animation I had ever seen. Like Eisner, it was fluid and full of personality, each bit of movement communicating exactly what needed to be said about the characters and the situations they were in. It was not stiff and unreal like Saturday morning limited human character animation, nor weirdly “real” like rotoscoped human animation. It was exaggerated, pushed, caricatured movement that seemed perfectly real, or, better said, perfectly true. It was the best example I could imagine of a point I had been making to anyone who would listen, that good character animation was not a graphic art, but a performance art. It was great acting expressing a range of emotions. “Who are these guys?” I asked David with dropped jaw. “I’ve got to meet them as soon as possible.”

Ultimately, the project - which has the approval of Spirit creator Will Eisner - was a victim of lack of funds and lack of vision:

Gary [Kurtz, producer] shopped the project to all of the Hollywood majors. The screenplay was praised, but they couldn’t understand why we wanted to make it an animated film. There was no magic, no young and yearning fairy tale royals, no funny animals.

Hollywood was filled with the sound of executives scratching their heads. At least one offered to make it as a live-action film — an option Brad would not consider and the rest of us would not support. The whole idea was to make an animated film so different, so revolutionary, it would alter forever the art form.

Stupid us, thinking Hollywood would ever back an artistic revolution.

While I've been somewhat skeptical about the potential of Miller's take on The Spirit, the lost potential of this particular version of the character is heartbreaking - but makes for a fascinating article, and curious game of "What if" - After all, if Lassiter and Bird had ended up making this movie, would there ever have been a Pixar?

'The Spirit' movie that could have been [Hero Complex]

So he got all these big name Hollywood hot shots only to break them down into little subcategories of stereotyped women. I do not understand, how does our main man Miller get away with this? It's because Scarjo is shaped like an hour glass, isn't it? Yeah, that's the ticket.

The Spirit will be released in theaters on December 25.

[MovieWeb]

Let's go through the non-teen girl books first, shall we? Marvel are trying to empty your wallet by releasing two new X-Men series (X-Men: Noir, which recreates the characters in a 1920s setting, and X-Infernus, a sequel to "Inferno," the 1980s storyline; there's also a hardcover collection of the second half of Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men making it to stores as well), as well as the first issue of Ender's Shadow: Battle School, ground-level retro series Marvels: Eye Of The Camera and a hardcover collection of the first half-year of Matt Fraction's great Invincible Iron Man. Almost as fun is Project Superpowers, a hardcover collection of Dynamite Entertainment's wonderful, freaky and none-more-odd superhero revival series, in which big business makes zombies out of soldiers and only superhero buddhists from the '40s can save us. Or something.

Non-superhero, but more movie-friendly, books can be found in Hellboy: The Wild Hunt - a new series for Mike Mignola's demonic demon hunter - and The Spirit, a collection of Will Eisner's original stories that inspired (but not enough) Frank Miller's upcoming movie.

But even those books pale before DC's big launch for the week, Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures In The 8th Grade; a new series that aims to bring the Maid of Steel back to school and back to being something that non-emotionally stunted adult males can enjoy again. As much as I'm all for the reclamation of Supergirl by her original audience, mind you, it's not the best book you'll see this week. That honor falls to The War at Ellsmere, the new book by Faith Erin Hicks, which goes a little something like this:

Jun is the newest scholarship student at the prestigious Ellsmere girls' boarding school - but to a lot of the privileged rich girls, "scholarship student" is just a code for "charity case." Fortunately, Jun has an ally in the quirky Cassie, who swears the stories about the fierce creature that lives in the forest outside of the school are true. Between queen bees and mythical beasts, Jun has quite the school year ahead of her.

You can find a preview here, but as someone who loved Hicks' previous book, Zombies Calling, I can happily recommend this one.

Even if you're not the type of person who's willing to read about schoolgirls fighting crime and monsters, there's plenty more where that came from reaching stores tomorrow; check here, if you don't believe me. And if you are that type of person, you should probably head to your local comic store to take care of that particular jones. Just don't ask for "the book about the young girls in uniforms."