Just when you thought we’d left Infinite Crisis behind, replaced by the likes of Civil War and 52, The Village Voice pulls us back with its critique of the miniseries as sweeping commentary on the contentious creator-creation-fan relationship:

In Infinite Crisis 4, Earth-Prime’s vindictive Superboy, angry over his prolonged incarceration and the loss of his loved ones and homeworld, picks a fight with DC’s current Superboy. Like The Simpsons‘ Comic Book Guy, the villainous Superboy is a whiny, awkward loner, who stammers, “You’re ruining me!” as he battles a group of heroes. The fact that Superboy’s Earth-Prime represents the readers’ world confirms his status as a stand-in for the ugly side of comics’ audience.

Readers seem to have largely missed the subtext; indeed, a trip to DC’s message boards reveals a fan base validating Johns’s characterization with its vitriol. A typical comment reads, “Thanks . . . for making my heroes the most disgusting, childish, nasty, ridiculous people ever.”

The portrayal of Infinite Crisis’s villains reflects the comics industry’s contentious relationship with fans. The readers typified by the evil Superboy are fiercely loyal but resistant to change, much like the art form they love so dearly. DC finds itself forced to serve two masters: these fractious lifers and the children that were, in decades past, comics’ target demographic.

So, if Superboy-Prime equals fandom, then Alexander Luthor is … Geoff Johns? No, that can’t be right. Dan DiDio, maybe?

It really is the end of an era, as Heidi MacDonald announces that her blog The Beat will be leaving Comicon.com and moving to Publishers’ Weekly midway through next week. The move means more than just a change in URLs, as Heidi notes:

“This is by far the biggest commitment to both blogging and comics/graphic novels that [PW parent company Reed Business Information have] made, and it’s pretty darned exciting. With the added resources, I’m hoping to take The Beat where no comics blog has gone before… I don’t expect the content to change very much except that I should be able to make the improvements that I’ve had in mind since the beginning, such as the return of comments, categories and so on. There might be a little less Clive Owen and a little more full length interviews, but I think everyone can live with that.”

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Everyone’s concentrating on the ripping asunder that Marvel’s current Civil War “event” is doing, but there’s another, gentler, side to the tale. A side that brings people together.

“So I just read Civil War: Frontline #2, and for the first time, I feel for those Hal Jordan fans after he became Parallax. So just because JoeQ doesn’t like Speedball means that he should be written out of character, dragged through the mud, and destroyed. Thanks.”

“Pretty much, yeah. Just terrible.”

“I’d laugh my ass off if a H.E.A.T.-like group rises out of this Speedball mess.”

See? It’s not all death and destruction and tragedy. There’s understanding and humor, too.

Allhiphop.com reports that Blade: The Series kicked more than just vampire ass when it premiered this week:

Spike TV’s first original scripted action-adventure show Blade: The Series drew record ratings for the cable TV network, pulling in 2.5 million viewers, making it the most watched premiere of an original series Spike TV’s history.

If you missed the premiere, iTunes is offering up the first episode of Blade for free. If you have iTunes installed, this link will take you right to it.

Meanwhile, Marvel needs some help in determining the winner of its Daywalker art contest; head over to Marvel.com and help them pick the best submission from ten finalists.

I’m a big believer in the subtle (often unconscious) value of art as a communication form. With good art, nothing is truly random. Everything in the panel, every line, every color, adds to the overall message received by the reader. You can even step back and find layers of commentary on the story as a whole in a single panel. In this weekly feature I’ll try to at least touch on some of the tricks and intricacies found in a single, well-drawn panel of art. I can’t promise the whole thousand words, though.

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Lois Lane gets her due twice this week. The first tribute comes from Slate.com, where writer Troy Patterson pens a “Love Letter to Lois”:

Among the charms of Lois Lane—always a tough dame and yet forever a damsel in distress—is the elegant way she reflects Superman’s kinks and its ideas of womanhood.

Exhibit A is Action Comics No. 1—the one with the cover image of Superman bashing the grill of Butch Mason’s green sedan into a roadside rock, our introduction to Metropolis, and the enduring template for what’s been called a love triangle of two. The sixth page of the book finds Clark Kent standing at Lois’ desk at the Daily Planet, asking for a date. “I suppose I’ll give you a break … for a change,” she says. One panel later they’re dancing at a supper club. “Why is it you always avoid me at the office?” he asks. “Please, Clark!” says Lois, clad in a rather daring gown. “I’ve been scribbling ’sob stories’ all day long. Don’t ask me to dish out another one.” Butch, a two-bit hood, rudely tries to cut in on the dance and shoves Clark around, causing Lois to leave in a huff: “You asked me earlier in the evening why I avoid you. I’ll tell you why now: Because you’re a spineless, unbearable coward!” Butch and his boys abduct Lois—we must presume they plan to assault her virtue—and it’s left to Superman to smash the car and sweep up the girl in the evening dress. The next day at the office, Clark gets the cold shoulder. The conundrum of Lois’ existence is that’s she’s pursued by a dope and saved by a dreamboat and doesn’t know they’re the same person—a nicely deranged fairy tale.

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A few weeks ago I moved to California from Dallas, and my mail is slowly catching up with me. So earlier today I was flipping through the June 16 issue of Entertainment Weekly and was pleasantly surprised to see a rather large image of C Hill’s gallery comic, Stars, Crosses, & Stripes, featured in their “Listen to This” section (i.e. their subscriber only section, which also featured a blurb on Sloth).

I interviewed Hill back in April after he sent me a copy of his work, which combines the format of a poster with the narrative of a comic book. It’s an awesome and unique piece that tells a touching story. Here’s one of my favorite passages from the interview:

…from up close, the stars behind the silhouette of my grandfather blur and disappear in the line pattern; but if you step back, they reappear thanks to the phenomenon of optical blending – a key tenet of the technique of the Impressionists. Using that same concept of viewing distance, in “Stars, Crosses, and Stripes,” all the markers –– the crosses and stars of David — look similar from a distance. Just like us. From far away, we look more alike than not. Yet, when you get close, you take in each one’s uniqueness. So in “Stars, Crosses, and Stripes,” not only has each marker a caption portraying a singular aspect of that person’s life story, but each panel design is one of a kind.

You can read more about Hill and gallery comics on the Kameleo website.

The boxing website The Sweet Science looks back at the comics event of 1978. No, no, not Superman: The Movie — DC Comics’ Superman vs. Muhammad Ali special issue.

The article is based largely on a 1999 interview with artist Neal Adams in Comic Book Artist magazine, but it still makes for an interesting read, particularly if, like me, you have vague childhood memories of the comic.

“Certainly, when I heard it, I thought it was a great idea,” Adams is quoted as saying. “I mean, just the concept … yet, at the same time, the logical question is, ‘How do you have a human being fight an alien – Superman – and how do you justify such a battle?’”

The Charlotte Observer previews this weekend’s Heroes Convention, focusing on comic-book adaptations as box-office blockbusters.

“Blockbuster movies are finding a greater audience than the comic book market,” convention organizer Shelton Drum tells the newspaper. “A lot of those people who aren’t comic book fans are checking out the source material.”

This year’s beefed-up guest list is expected to draw more than 10,000 visitors — the biggest in the convention’s 24-year history.

Guests include Art Adams, Peter Bagge, Jeffrey Brown, Nick Cardy, Travis Charest, Dave Cockrum, Dan DiDio, Colleen Doran, Warren Ellis, Keith Giffen, Tony Harris, Gilbert, Jaime and Mario Hernandez, Bryan Hitch, James Jean, J.G. Jones, Lauren McCubbin, George Perez, Alex Robinson, Andrew Robinson, Andy Runton, Tim Sale, J. Michael Straczynski, Charles Vess, Mike Wieringo and Brian Wood.

Related: Newsarama booth schedule

San Diego will be here before you know it, and no doubt many budding comic creators are out there right now preparing samples and pitches to make to publishers great and small. AiT frontman Larry Young wants to hear from you — 16 of you, anyway:

Larry’s setting aside sixteen spots for you serious people to pitch him your projects, so come prepared. I’m sure he’ll be polite to you if you aren’t, since ever since his dad died and Mimi’s mom died and some other personal challenges they’ve had to face have given him a different definition of what a “big deal” is, so he’s not going to tell you to stop wasting his time like he might have online five years or so ago. He probably wouldn’t, anyways, because he’s actually quite polite in public. But anyway. If you want to show us your project at San Diego, send me an email and I will spot you a time between 11 am and noon on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday to meet with The Chief. He won’t do portfolio reviews in these scheduled times, just talk with people who have projects ready to go. Otherwise, you can come up to the AiT booth, #2001, anytime during the week and try to catch him. Because there’s nothing he likes more than talking about comics.

If you’re curious as to what he’s looking for, you might want to check out one of his Loose Cannon columns from a couple of years ago, as it offers a few hints on how to pitch to Larry. There’s also an Engine thread out there on the same topic.

Those 16 spots will probably go fast, so get on it … and good luck!

Okay, so it didn’t do Spider-Man 2 numbers, but Superman Returns did bring in $21 million on its opening day — making it the eighth-best midweek debut in Hollywood history.

Spider-Man 2 raked in $40.4 million when it debuted the last Wednesday of June 2004.

ICv2.com has a good analysis of the box-office figures and what they might mean, noting that Superman Returns “far surpassed” last year’s $15 million debut for Batman Begins.

“Since Batman Begins went on to earn $205 million domestically, Superman Returns might well end up as the most popular film of 2006 if it develops Batman Begins-type legs,” ICv2 writes.

According to the retailer website, opening-day audiences were 58 percent male, and “evenly split between the over and under 25 age bracket.”

Related: Fans “with geek cred” give their reactions

Mark Millar reminds us that kids say the darndest things:

Anyway, lying having a nap upstairs in the room next to my office and I overheard my daughter and her friend walking up the hallway. Emily’s friend is asking her about the Superman cape and, amazingy, says “do you think there ever WAS a Superman?”

Emily says no and explains that this was the cape worn for a scene in one of the movies and her friend says she’s not sure. She has a feeling there WAS a Superman and people have just forgotten him. Emily asks how could people forget Superman? And her wee pal says “I think maybe bad guys made us all forget.”

Bad guys … or Zatanna?

Over at The Engine, talk has turned to chairs.

No, really.

Artist Simon Fraser started the unlikely conversation by talking about his new studio:

“Basic equipment that’s going in includes, My A0 Drawing board, My PC and whatever cheapo desk I can find to put it on. I need chairs, has anyone had any experience with those kneeling chair things? I saw one in Office Max for $50…seems worth a try. I also saw a drawing table chair that looked a bit like a Bicycle saddle on a pole, it seems to push the user right over onto the drawing board. I think this might be a good thing as comfort tends to be my enemy when drawing. Distraction is his willing daemonic helper, so anything that keeps me focused is good.Anything else anyone can recommend?”

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ACC Studios, the publisher behind conservative fantasy comic (That is, a comic of a conservative fantasy, as opposed to a fantasy comic that is conservative) Liberality For All, announced yesterday that future issues of the title will include the back-up strip Libarro World, a political satire that apparently starts from the idea that it’s not enough to play to your audience, you’ve also got to make lazily-cheap jokes about your audience’s enemies as well (Seriously; does “John Kerry flip-flops” present any entertainment value to anyone these days?).

Politics are a rough area to negotiate in any field - especially in these partisan and somewhat touchy times - but as much as I may not be a fan of either the politics nor the quality of Liberality for All, there’s something to be said for the publisher’s “all publicity is good publicity” stance.

It’s not often — okay, ever – you see Superman, Paul Wolfowitz and the Mercenaries 2 video game mentioned in the same article, so “America Uses Superman to Promote its Fascist Agenda” is worth noting for that. I think.

“The notion of Superman is based on the idea of a battle between ‘good vs. evil,’ from an exclusively American perspective, where the battle always demonstrates an external threat to American society and its people,” Dr. Haider Mehdi writes in Pakistan’s The Nation. “In the end, obviously, ‘good’ prevails and America is saved. What could be more virtuous than that? Superman is naturally and invariably a white male, handsome, debonair, brave, moral, and kind, potent, exciting, loving, and capable of generating ecstasy at the touch of a finger. And of course, he is in love with a white female equally kind-hearted, devoted, beautiful, loving, noble, pious, pure, and honorable – and together the pair fights the ‘evil-doers’ to ultimate victory for ‘good,’ and lives in love and peace thereafter.

“Filmgoers, overwhelmed with the human emotions of goodness and a sense of envy (I wish I were like him) just like the foreign policy Pundits in Islamabad, applaud and go home happily, little realizing that they have all been fooled. The momentary experience of the film is not only an entertainment odyssey — it is in fact a well-planned and well-administered dose of indoctrination into the American ideology of ‘demon-hunting,’ ‘external threats,’ the use of force and the obsession with power.”

There’s much more at the link, of course.

WARNING! This post contains SPOILERS for the Harry Potter series of books and movies, so if you are one of the cloistered few who hasn’t read/seen oh, say, the last three or four, and don’t want to be spoiled for them or by hints about the seventh book, by all that’s holy, turn back now!

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I didn’t read comics during most of the ’90s, so I don’t have the nostalgia — or, venom — for titles from that decade that so many fans do.

So, reading the Comic Book Bin’s list of the Ten Most Important Comic Books of the 1990s is a lot like browsing a compilation of the best French novels of the 18th century: The names are familiar, but I’d be hard-pressed to tell you anything about them.

However, I’m sure the list will give scholars of the Foil Age much to discuss:

10. Authority #1 (DC/Wildstorm)

9. Daredevil #1 (Marvel)

8. Solar #0 (Valiant)

7. Astro City #1 (Image)

6. Magnus #1 (Valiant)

5. Marvels #1 (Marvel)

4. X-Men #1 (Marvel)

3. Superman #75 (DC)

2. Spawn #1 (Image)

1. Harbinger #1 (Valiant)

The writer, Andy Smith, includes explanations for each entry, which may or may not help his cause. (”Harbinger was the Pulp Fiction of the comics industry — an indie critical and commercial smash hit that changed all the rules and broke down the door for a host of independent talent.”)

There’s an “also-ran” list that shows a little more variety, with books like Bone #1, Preacher #1 and Dark Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary Special.

Over at the CBG website, Maggie Thompson provides a photo-tour of Geppi’s Entertainment Museum in Baltimore, which will open to the public the Friday after Labor Day:

Diamond International Galleries President John Snyder and a plethora of other experts of all sorts, including Museum Executive Director Wendy Kelman, granted me access to a work in progress: the already-incredible Geppi’s Entertainment Museum at Camden Yards in Baltimore. The attraction will fill 17,000 square feet, and workers are at the task day and (yes) night to prepare for its opening in September.

And the idea is that, while the overwhelming experience will stun the experts, it’s designed as a treat for all ages. Interactive displays will provide hands-on entertainment for 5-year-olds, while scholars will be able to surround themselves for the first time with a decade-by-decade environment of each era’s popular culture in America — especially popular culture designed for children.

The 17,000-square-foot museum will house toys, games, movie posters, comics and other pop culture items from the last 230 years.

Go check out CBGxtra.com to see more picture and to start planning your vacation …

Forbes.com tackles the age-old dilemma of what’s the best way to become a superhero.

Exposing yourself to radiation? Probably not a good idea. Building a suit of high-tech armor? Better start saving your pennies. Martial arts training? Now you’re talking — to the tune of $30,000.

“You don’t have to be superhuman to be a superhero,” Forbes writes, “and a strict regimen of training is your best bet to becoming a real-world Dark Knight. A good place to start would be an internship at the birthplace of Kung Fu, the Shaolin Temple in Henan, China. One month of training at the prestigious Tagou school costs about $740, including a private room and training with a personal coach. It’ll take a while to get as good as Batman, though, so count on spending at least three years and about $30,000 to become a master.”

The article includes a slide show, touching upon everything from mutant genes (X-Men) to alien technology (Green Lantern) to drugs (Captain America).