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I was never an X-Men fanatic but I did enjoy the first movie and think in the hands of good writers -- Grant Morrison, Warren Ellis and Joss Whedon most recently -- it's good stuff.

Fanboy or no, though, this commercial simply breaks my heart.

Incidentally - I got hold of one of the leaked X-Men Origins: Wolverine workprints that's floating around and have to admit -- it's better than the last two X-Men movies. The action and effects are mostly solid, the story (which sticks closely to the Origin comic from 2002) is more compelling than your average super-hero flick (certainly better than the last Spider-Man film, Daredevil or Ghost Rider).

The actors - Hugh Jackman in the lead, Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, Liev Schreiber as Sabretooth -- were certainly worth watching.

I was prepared to hate it -- but I'm not a fundamentalist. Evidence has changed my mind on this one.

Along with a staggering number of the rest of you, I saw the Watchmen movie over the weekend.

I first read the Watchmen comics when I was 15 but, unlike some of my favorite comic nuts, was never really dying to see it on the screen. Not because I thought it would necessarily be a heartbreaking failure -- just because I don't think everything needs to cross genres.

And my assessment of the movie is basically that: What, exactly, was the point of this?

(No real spoilers you wouldn't have gotten from the trailer beyond this point)

From today's News & Record: Time called "Watchmen" one of the 100 greatest novels since 1923. The graphic novel was widely praised. It’s a Hollywood blockbuster that’s one of the year’s most anticipated releases.

And right about now you’re probably wondering: What is “Watchmen”? We’re here to tell you. We break it down for you with a comic book of our own:

First, British actor Christian Bale (allegedly) punches his mum.

Now the Batman star is ranting at the crew and threatening people on the set of Terminator: Salvation.

The audio-tape of his rant is not work safe -- but it is worth listening to at home, if only for a laugh.

GREENSBORO — President-elect Barack Obama guest stars in the latest issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, in stores today.

In a back-up story in the issue, #583, Spider-Man saves the popular president-elect from a super-villain attack on inauguration day.

Copies of the issue are already hot items online, where eBay sellers are listing them at as much as $40 — about ten times the cover price.

There are two versions of the issue - one with a cover for the main story, and one with Obama on the cover. Only about 25 copies of the Obama cover version will be available to non-subscribers at local comic shops.

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More here.

MTV has a feature asking comic book writers who their characters would vote for this year.

Super-heroes, from Iron Man to the X-Men, seem to be going heavily for Obama. (Insert your own ACORN joke here...)

Creator Erik Larsen left no room for doubt as to how his hero, The Savage Dragon, would vote...

Over at BoingBoing Cory Doctorow is taking a look at a new book about Bat-Manga - the explosion of Batman comic books created for the Japanese market during the 1960s, when the classic Adam West TV series was being marketed there.

The best part of the story? Apparently the Japanese man tasked with selling Batman to his countrymen thought the stories weren't strange and outlandish enough to go over there and made Batman even weirder -- adding robots, dinosaurs and villains that rise from the dead.

My thing is...the American Batman was never weirder than he was in the 1960s. He was already traveling in time, going to different worlds, fighting aliens and magical villains, disguising himself as other super-heroes and...you know, regularly battling one of the weirdest rouges galleries of villains in comic book history with some of the most outlandish gadgetry imaginable. And the Japanese thought that wasn't enough? You'd have to seriously look at their manga and anime to truly wrap your head around that one.

The book, Bat-Manga!: The Secret History of Batman in Japan, is available now.

Check out more photos from the book (including weird Japanese Batman toys) here.

Cartoonist Scott McCloud, author of groundbreaking educational books like Understanding Comics and Making Comics, has put together a little comic explaining Google's new open-source web browser, Chrome.

And when I say "little" I mean 38 pages.

But it is actually fascinating and now I can't wait to start using it.

So, you know, its done its job.

Kevin Smith says: "I saw 'Watchmen.' It's f%&^ing astounding." (profanity redacted)

I don't have any tattoos, but I do love seeing other peoples'.

Wired has a great gallery up today with photos of geek tattoos they saw at this year's Comic-Con in San Diego. They're comic-book heavy, but there are also some Tim Burton- and Calvin & Hobbes-influenced ones.

Good news: one of my favorite comics of the last ten years may be coming to the big screen.

Bad news: it may star Tom Cruise.

If you haven't seen The Dark Knight yet, you've got a lot coming to you.

Including -- new Bat Gadgets!

Among the coolest -- Batman's new motorcycle, the Bat-Pod.

Popular Mechanics has gone inside the creation of the Bat-Pod.

From the piece:

Enter the Bat-Pod, a motorcycle-ATV hybrid that lands eye-popping stunts sans CGI, a hand-built bike that fires grappling hooks—while shape-shifting.

When he first laid eyes on the Bat-Pod mockup, special effects supervisor Chris Corbould wasn't sure if his director actually knew anything about motorcycles. But that's what makes The Dark Knight at once a throwback superhero movie and a green-screen-light breakthrough in digital Hollywood: It turns fantasy into reality. And building a concept vehicle without a team of automotive engineers was one of its biggest challenges. "The gauntlet had been thrown down," Corbould says.

Also: behind the scenes of the movie's IMAX sequences.

Went to the midnight showing of The Dark Knight last night and am dead on my feet today as a result.

The above picture? That's me today, minus the smile.

But it was worth it.

My brief assessment after the jump (minor spoilers ahead, nothing major).

As we all wait for The Dark Knight (I've already got my tickets for the midnight showing Thursday), Scientific American does an interview with E. Paul Zehr, who has just released a book called Becoming Batman: The Possibility of a Superhero.

Zehr, an associate professor of kinesiology and neuroscience at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and martial artist, says Batman could theoretically exist -- but not for long.

From the interview:

Wouldn't fighting Gotham's thugs every night take its toll?
The biggest unreal part of the way Batman's portrayed is the nature of his injuries. Most of the time, in the comics and in the movies, even when he wins, he usually winds up taking a pretty good beating. There's a real failure to show the cumulative effect of that. The next day he's shown out there doing the same thing again. He'd likely be quite tired and injured.

Is there any indication in the comics of how long Batman's career lasts?
The comics are really vague on this, of course. In Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, he deliberately shows an aging Batman coming back after he's retired, and he highlights him being tired and weaker. Somewhere around age 50 to 55, he should probably retire. His performance is going down. He's always facing younger adversaries. That is well at the end of when he's going to be able to defend himself and be able to not have to deal that lethal force. This was actually shown in an animated series called Batman Beyond.

Oh right. It's the future; Batman is old and he trains a kid to replace him.
You're familiar with that one? What we learn is that Batman, when he was older but before he retired, actually picked up a gun against a thug because he had to. His skills had let him down so that he wasn't able to defend himself without harming another person. So that's when he decided to retire.

How would all those beat-downs have affected his longevity?
Keeping in mind that being Batman means never losing: If you look at consecutive events where professional fighters have to defend their titles—Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Ultimate Fighters—the longest period you're going to find is about two to three years. That dovetails nicely with the average career for NFL running backs. It's about three years. (That's the statistic I got from the NFL Players Association Web site.) The point is, it's not very long. It's really hard to become Batman in the first place, and it's hard to maintain it when you get there.

A few quick reports on movies in various stages of not-out-yet:

* If you just can't wait for the new X-Files movie, the opening scenes are now online at Yahoo! Movies.

* Rolling Stone movie reviewer Peter Travers has an early review of The Dark Knight. He digs it - especially Heath Ledger's performance, which he calls "mad-crazy-brilliant."
"If there's a movement to get him the first posthumous Oscar since Peter Finch won for 1976's Network, sign me up," he says.

* A fourth Spider-Man movie has been scheduled for a 2011 release. Neither leading man-boy Tobey McGuire nor director Sam Raimi have yet signed on for the sequel -- and after the trainwreck that was the last one, I can hardly blame them. Still, I'll probably end up seeing it and feeling dirty afterward. Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!

Last night I watched the premiere of The Middle Man on ABC Family.

Based on a comic book I love that was (I didn't realize) intended to be a television show all along, The Middleman is strange, smart, well cast and well executed -- which, I fear, means it is not long for this earth.

I've learned over the years that shows that seem like they were made just for me rarely last -- the fact that The Venture Bros. is still going strong still amazes me.

The show, about a broke young female artist who is recruited to fight mad scientists, aliens and monsters by a mysterious figure with futuristic weaponry and a grumpy android assistant, is almost too good to be true. I was a little surprised to hear a few curse words, some gay jokes and a lot of obscure film, literary and comic book references on a show for ABC family -- but hey, it comes on at 8 p.m. and it's cable.

Here's hoping we get more than one season.

Check out everyone's favorite industrialist/super-hero/summer action movie star guest-starring in the latest trailer for the Hulk film.

I'm interested to see the extent of Stark/Iron Man's role in the film -- looks like more than just an easter egg for those playing close attention, but you don't want to take the shine off of Ed Norton's Hulk by having Downey Jr. steal the spotlight.

As I try to get myself excited over the latest Incredible Hulk film (it does star Ed Norton as scientist-turned-monster Bruce Banner, but the effects still look ridiculous), I looked up what Roger Ebert said about the last one, which Ang Lee directed in 2004.

The effects were the Achilles heel of that one, too -- but I also just feel as though the story got a little preachy and over-ambitious for its own good.

Bizarrely, Ebert opens his review thusly: "The Hulk is rare among Marvel superheroes in that his powers are a curse, not an advantage."

Since it's clear from this review and others that Ebert knows something about comic books, I was a little shocked that he wrote that. The thing about Marvel superheroes is they almost ALWAYS feel their powers are a curse.

Spider-Man struggles with the responsibility of being extraordinary and often wishes he could be a normal kid (then a normal man, later, a normal husband often).

Iron Man (eventually) feels that his technology and his brilliance must be used for peace and progress when it's easier, more profitable and less dangerous to be irresponsible, manufacture weapons and be a playboy rather than a superhero. He often calls his "powers" a curse.

The Fantastic Four have all cursed the accident that gave them their abilities from the beginning - from The Thing who became a hideous monster to the young Johnny Storm, who enjoys his powers but comes to understand they make him separate and different.

The X-Men -- that whole franchise is basically built on this concept.

The Hulk is maybe the most extreme example of this, because his powers are destructive and he has so little control over them that they're rarely any advantage at all.

Still, seems like a fairly obvious point.

But Ebert also gave the Hulk movie three stars. No accounting for taste.

As a comic geek and someone who's been lusting after both their movies, I love this comic parody of the "I'm a Mac" commercials starring what will almost certainly be the summer's two best comic book film stars.

...but as a comic book geek I have to point out that Tony Stark DID lost his parents at a young age as well.

A nice little surprise before the Iron Man movie this weekend: full length trailers for The Dark Knight and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

I think the Dark Knight trailer was better by far, the Jones one somehow not as good as the teaser we've already seen.

This one, though...

Some talk in the comments of my Iron Man Rapid Review about the stinger at the end of the credits and what it means for a sequel.

(Stop reading here if you're afraid of Spoilers. No, really. Stop reading.)

Just saw Iron Man.

I had high hopes, so I was a little scared of being let down.

But, long story short: one of the best super-hero movies I've ever seen, and the best one Marvel has produced in a long while.

Chris Evans, the guy who played The Human Torch in the two god-awful Fantastic Four movies, is telling MTV news that he doesn't think there will be another -- and that he's ready to be done with it.

I think we're all ready to be done with it.

I love The Fantastic Four. And I think they could, as Spider-Man proved in the first and second films, translate to the screen in a way that would thrill both adults and children. A solid concept always can. But they've screwed the pooch twice on this one and if there are going to be any others they need to do what Batman (and now The Hulk) are doing and just pull a full on reboot, as though the first two never happened.

Which is essentially what Evans is saying when he admits to MTV that, "I think that if [FF2] does okay and people respond with the appreciation of a more serious tone, hopefully [with] the third one we can inch closer to a legitimate cast and a legitimate film."

Saying that your first two movies failed to have a legitimate cast that made up a legitimate film does sound like straight shooting -- and has Clooney proved with his Batman film, sometimes you just have to admit something sucked to get past it and do better work. But it also sounds like a guy who knows this train ain't going back there.

Check out the trailer for the new Incredible Hulk movie, starring Ed Norton as Bruce Banner.

For those keeping count -- yes, this is the second Hulk movie in the last five years. I enjoyed 2003's Hulk, but I did think it was a little psycho-babbly and am looking forward to this reboot.

If you've seen Primal Fear, you know Ed Norton's perfect for this. And while the effects still look a little weird to me, it looks like the script's taking its cue from some of the Hulk comics of the last few years, which have seen the character return to his roots as a loner hunted by the government and unable to get close to anyone for fear of the monster that lives inside him.

Also, for the comic geek fanboys out there -- the other monster toward the end of the clip looks like it could be The Abomination, a fan favorite Hulk villain.

Well, the shoot for the film version of the classic graphic novel Watchmen has officially wrapped. The film is slated for release one year from today, March 6 2009.

Director Zack Snyder (300) has posted some cast photos which include costumed versions of The Comedian, Rorschach, Nite Owl, Ozymandias and the Silk Spectre.

I think Rorschach (the psychopathic character based on The Question) looks properly ominous.

This one of The Comedian seems a little Joel Schumacher-directing-Batman to me.

And this one of Ozymandias just totally jumps the shark.

I know I shouldn't expect subtlety and nuance from the guy who gave us 300 -- but Alan Moore is not exactly Frank Miller. Different writer, different stuff, different tone and sensibility needed.

Looks like Dave Gibbons, the artist who co-create the universe with Moore, is pleased with the production, though. I should really reserve judgment until I've seen the finished product.

For those coming in late: Watchmen, Alan Moore's epic deconstruction of the Superhero genre, has been stumbling its way to the screen for 20 years. The comic is consistently hailed as one of the best graphic stories ever told and helped give birth to a darker, more serious tone in superhero comics (which Moore later tried to dismantle with the "pop comics" of his America's Best Comics line). It also made Time magazine's list of All-Time Top 100 Novels alongside Catch-22 and To Kill a Mockingbird. Not too shabby.

Moore is famously critical of films of his work (and who could blame him the way it's been screwed up -- "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" and "From Hell"). He was happy to essentially stay quiet about the film version of V For Vendetta until the producers began telling people he approved of and liked it. He's gone back and forth for years between not really caring if they made films out of his stories and actively opposing it.

Too soon to tell if this one will tick him off.

Yesterday Jeri Rowe dropped a package on my desk from the Independent Film Channel.

Inside were two DVDs of Japanese Anime.

Not usually my thing -- I think anime is an acquired taste that requires a very specific sensibility or a lot of acid (or both) -- but these caught my eye.

One of them is an anime version of the Top Cow comic Witchblade, which was already a failed live action series with talk of a movie in the works.

No surprise -- the Witchblade (a sentient alien artifact that bonds with human women making them into superheroes) of the anime also makes the female wielder dress like a stripper from space.

Some things remain, whatever the genre.

Am going to have to put this on and try not to have a seizure as the strangeness of the original witchblade concept melds with the weirdness of anime. I guess in way the two are made for each other -- the Japanese have a strange fetish for scantily clad women being persecuted by monsters and that's sort of what Witchblade is all about.

Check out this totally sweet Iron Man made of LEGOs.

Here's a link to a whole LEGO gallery.

Empire Magazine has an exclusive interview with Heath Ledger about playing The Joker.

According to the magazine the role involved Ledger "marinading himself in nothing but Joker before shooting."

Ewww...

A few strange and wonderful comic-booky things this week:

- The movie version of Alan Moore's seminal WATCHMEN now has an official Warner Brothers movie site, complete with production blog and cast list. It's happening...

- Edward Norton is not only playing The Incredible Hulk in the new movie (which is rebooting the character and hoping to wash the taste of the last one out of our mouths) -- he also pitched in on the script. Also, TV Hulk Lou Ferrigno, who is now a Los Angeles Reserve Deputy Sheriff, has apparently filmed a cameo for the film.

- Over at Blender, alt-country rocker Ryan Adams (whose new album is doing a lot better than I predicted) gives what should be some obvious advice about starting a comic book collection. Kids -- take it from me, a guy who, years into trying to purge his house of comics, still has boxes of them: if you're not hooked, don't start.

- Director John Singleton is attached to films about two of Marvel Comics' most prominent black characters - The Black Panther and Luke Cage. Singleton isn't talking about which will be produced first, but he does throw out some ideas about casting here. I'd personally be against model Tyrese Gibson as Luke Cage. I'm sure he has the physique but I'm not sure he has the chops. I'd go with Wesley Snipes -- no, I don't care that he already played Blade.

Sad news.

The Flash Gordon pilot is not very good.

Now -- let me preface this by saying that the DVD I've seen was a very, very rough cut.

Special effects were missing and text would roll across the screen explaining: "THIS THE PART WHERE A GIANT SPACE SHIP APPEARS, WHICH IS WHY EVERYONE'S LOOKING INTO THE SKY AND GASPING!"

There were a number of scenes where the actors were walking past green screens that I'm assuming will eventually be lavishly created other-worlds or where a pivotal plot point was revealed with an effect that just didn't happen. Some of the sound and music cues weren't there yet, either, or shots were just missing, replaced with black screens that said: "ESTABLISHING SHOT, HOME."

But that's not the real problem. The real problem is that the concept has been reimagined in a way that isn't (yet) very interesting. It's very much like that first season of Smallville where, if it hadn't been for the fact that you know this kid is going to grow up to be Superman, you probably wouldn't have watched a show about a bunch of poorly developed high school characters running around in Kansas fighting a different mutant monster created by meteors every week.

But there are two important differences between these two series....

Some of the still images of Heath Ledger asThe Joker that have been released (or leaked) ahead of the Batman sequel, The Dark Knight:

I'm relieved that Maggie Gyllenhaal will be taking over the Rachel Dawes role played by Katie Holmes-Cruise in the first film. Maybe she can make the character...you know...in any way interesting.

Now You can see (er...hear) a trailer that includes a horribly teasing little bit of the Joker's laugh near the end here.

Joss may be one of my favorite people in the entertainment industry. Not only was he responsible for Buffy, Angel and Firefly, but the man's genius also extends to comics, public speaking, writing music, and dancing. (It just doesn't seem fair, does it? Although, maybe the dancing bit is not quite accurate. But Numfar -- aka Joss -- never fails to make me laugh.)

Now, coming from Comic-Con, Joss has revealed that he is talking with the BBC about making a 90-minute movie, "Ripper", about Rupert Giles, Buffy's Watcher on the TV show. And Anthony Stewart Head is apparently already on board.

Also in Joss news, he is already plotting season 9 of the Buffy comic, and Oz will be making an appearance! "The Angel: After the Fall" series will be 12 issues, picking up where season 5 of Angel left off. And here's a free comic he's collaborating on with Fabio Moon, called "Sugarshock" -- I just read it, and I have already bookmarked it for future issues.

On Thursday the US Postal service is unveiling its Marvel Superheroes postage stamps at the San Diego Comic-Con (known in some circles as the Nerd Prom).

I still have a sheet and a half of the DC Superheroes stamps. Unfortunately, I so seldom use actual stamps that I may have them forever.

Am I going to buy the Marvel ones? Absolutely.

So DC Comics sent me a copy of Action Comics #851.

The issue, written by comics superstar Geoff Johns and Superman director Richard Donner, is the fourth part of the "Last Son" story arc in which a boy arrives on Earth who seems to be from Krypton.

It's also in 3-D.

You heard me. 3-D. Like with the glasses and everything.

The premise is that Superman heads into The Phantom Zone -- a place where, among other things, Kryptonian criminals like General ("Kneel Before...") Zod are imprisoned. In the Zone you have to wear special goggles to make reality comprehensible or you'll go mad.

I don't mind telling you, I was pretty excited about this issue. I carefully cut the 3-D glasses out of the special insert, put them on and...

Well, that was about it.

It was all pinky and a bit strange...but not that exciting, in the end. Even with the glasses the blurred images gave me a bit of a headache -- and nothing seemed to be jumping out at me or zooming past.

Someone from a generation in which 3-D was considered genuinely exciting help me out, here. Was it ever thus? Was it never exciting? Is that why the whole 3-D thing went by the wayside, except as kitsch?

I read a good review of U2's new 3-D concert film the other day.

Maybe that will make me a believer.

Fox has announced what may be the geekiest comic-book centered television episode of any mainstream television show ever.

Apparently the Oct. 7 episode will gust star comic book heavy-weights Dan Clowes (Eightball, Ghost World, Art School Confidential), Pulitzer Prize winner Art Spiegelman (Maus) and the legendary Alan Moore (Watchmen, From Hell, V For Vendetta, Promethea).

The plot will apparently concern a new comic store coming to town (Jack Black will voice its owner) to supplant Comic Book Guy's Android's Dungeon as Springfield's supreme spot for guys who lose themselves in spandex clad superhero adventures.

I do wonder how many people are going to get or care who the guest stars are -- but the Simpsons does this with some regularity. I remember them once having Jonathan Franzen and Michael Chabon as guest stars. When you reach the sort of iconic status The Simpsons has I think you can sort of do what you like.