(Panel from DC Comics’ Final Crisis #6, written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by J.G. Jones)

What better way to end the week than with the official Watchmen settlement documents submitted to the court this morning?

If you read the proposed order of dismissal, you might noticed that the parties are requesting for the case to be dismissed “with prejudice.” That does not mean, as some mistakenly believe, that the court is criticizing the plaintiff for bringing the case. Rather, it’s a legal term of art indicating that the plaintiff is barred from bringing a lawsuit on the same claim–in short, the parties have agreed that this case is over, once and for all.

Of course, there might be a dispute over whether the terms of the settlement are being met. Chances are, if the settlement is true to form, the parties have agreed to have any such dispute resolved through mediation.

The proposed dismissal order needs the judge’s signature, but today’s lighthearted hearing indicates that that is not likely to be a problem.

Though the judge is already anticipating a possible sequel:

“It may be over between the two of you,” said [Judge] Feess, “but who knows what else will show up one day?”

The Hollywood Reporter, well, reports that Fox may be about to greenlight a new series based on The Human Target. The article reads:

“Human Target” hails from Warner Bros. TV, McG’s Wonderland Sound and Vision and DC Comics.

Based on the cult DC Comics book and written by “Jericho” co-creator Jonathan Steinberg, it centers on a mysterious security expert who goes undercover to protect clients in danger.

The truly hardcore may recall the previous 1992 Human Target series, which starred Rick Springfield as Christopher Chance. Yes, Rick Springfield, he of General Hospital and 16 U.S. Top 40 hits. Alas, Rick found the ratings hard to hold, as the show was gone after seven episodes. He was also the original Nick Knight in the Nick Knight TV movie that became Forever Knight, and Zac, Apollo’s doomed brother, in the original Battlestar Galactica.

All right. You forced me to do this.

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Spoiler puppies on, people.

By now, you know about Final Crisis #6.  You may have even read the article on the front page about Replacement Batmans.  Men.  Whatever.  At any rate, if Batman is off the playing field, what’s that say about Bruce Wayne?  What will be done to address his absence in the DCU?  We’ve got some ideas . . .

Tour of Asia!: Hey, it worked in Batman Begins.  Perhaps Alfred can have Wayne Enterprises announce that Master Wayne has gone on (another) spiritual retreat.  In Begins, Wayne was even declared dead by Roy Batty, yet still managed to get his fortune and empire back due to clever machinations.  This could work.

Tour of Europe!:  Granted, there would have to be occasional Bruce Wayne sightings, but isn’t that what having shape-shifting Martian friends is good for?  What?  Oh, damn.  He’s dead, too.  Okay . . . Human Target!  There we go.

Trapped Under Building:  You may recall that the way that Clark Kent “came back to life” after the “Death of Superman” was some clever trickery with the shape-shifiting Matrix (the former alien Supergirl; long story) posing as Supes to “rescue” Clark from under some rubble. If it’s good enough for Clark Kent, it’s good enough for Bruce Wayne.  Except Bruce would pretend that he was trapped under a luxury hotel instead of the Daily Planet.

Let Hush Keep Pretending:  Villain Hush recently pretended to be Bruce Wayne, although he was caught by Catwoman.  Come up with a cover story that he (Bruce) is convalescing from an accident, and show pictures of a perpetually sedated Hush to the media.  It works until “Bruce Wayne” wakes up and starts killing people.

Let Bruce Die!:  Announce that Bruce was killed during the whole chaos that happened during Final Crisis.   Since I imagine that Jason is still legally dead, Damian, Dick and Tim (as Wayne’s biolgical and two adopted sons, respectively) would split the fortune.  Should Bruce “return”, they could concoct a cover story and fork over some cash to make him rich again.

Let Bruce Die, Part Deux: You know, if Bruce does come back to be Batman again, who says that he has to be Bruce Wayne?  Maybe he’d like to be Batman all the time.  Or maybe he’d like to forget the whole thing and get some rest.  He could change his name to Joel Schumacher, because he’s been trying to forget his time spent with Batman for years.

What think you, readers?

With all the hubbub going on with Amazing Spider-Man #583, the Washington Post’s Michael Cavna has taken an interesting angle on the news: ask the Man himself.

That’s right: Stan “The Man” Lee, otherwise known as the co-creator of Spider-Man.

In the interview, which you can read here, Cavna asks Stan about the Obama issue, the new status quo in the newspaper comic strip, and future Marvel films. An amusing highlight:

MC: If Obama did return the favor and reciprocate somehow, what would you want in return?
SL: I’d just like a Cabinet position. For comic books. I’d be secretary of comics — something simple.

Hey, I’d go to his press conferences.

Jezebel has a great rundown on Entertainment Weekly‘s cover story on Heath Ledger, a year after his death.

I haven’t gotten my hands on a print copy yet, but the Web site has a photo gallery and quotes from the actors, directors, and friends who knew Ledger over the course of his career.

[Agent Steve] Alexander: When I called Heath and said Chris Nolan is looking for a new style of Joker and really wants somebody to collaborate on the character with — I mean, Heath didn’t even pause. It was like ”Yes, I’ve got to do that! Get me in a room tomorrow!” He thought, Here’s an opportunity to do a big, fun summer tentpole movie, but I get to do it on my own terms, playing a really dark, f—ed up character that you wouldn’t in most cases find in a big movie like that.

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Blog@ contributor Julius Marx reminded me via his Action Figure Insider site, so I’ll remind you.  The DC Universe Classics exclusive boxed-set of Adam Strange (modern) and Starfire is on sale now.  First shown last summer, this is the first exclusive DCUC two-pack to be sold at Mattel’s collector-centric site, MattyCollector.com.  The next set will be a Pre-Crisis Earth-3 Ultraman and Earth-3 Lex Luthor, and should be available in a few months.

The Comics Reporter announced the latest Xeric Foundation grant winners today.  The Xeric Foundation was formed by Peter Laird, one half of the creators of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; since 1992, they’ve distributed over $2 million dollars to comics projects and non-profits.  Funds totalling $25,031 will be spread out over six projects for the latest round.  They are:

•  
  • Box Brown, for Love is a Peculiar Type of Thing
  • Ed Moorman, for Ghost Comics: A Benefit Anthology for RS Eden
  • Annie Murphy, for I Still Live: Biography of a Spiritualist
  • Ethan Rilly, for Pope Hats
  • Sophia Wiedeman, for The Deformitory
  • J.T. Yost, for Old Man Winter & Other Sordid Tales

The Xeric Foundation’s submission deadline for the next funding round will be March 31st.

[Via The Comics Reporter]

Painter Andrew Wyeth, known most well for his painting “Christina’s World”, has died.  CNN reports that the 91-year-old artist died in his sleep.  “Christina’s World” can presently be found in New York’s Museum of Modern Art.  Wyeth received many accolades and awards over the years, including a Presidential Freedom Award from JFK.  We mention this here because “World” is a much imitated and “homaged” painting, indeed inspiring many takes on it from within the comics field.

As we noted on Wednesday, the Amazing Spider-Man “Obama issue” frenzy escalated quickly on that home of quick escalations: eBay.  Surveying the scene today, we see that there are presently approximately 1,117 listings for Amazing Spider-Man #583.

After you get past some of the insanely inflated Buy It Now listings, which includes a $10,000 listing for a SpidermanObama domain name, you’ll see that bidding seems to be topping out at around $86 for a single, ungraded, unsigned, variant copy.  One can find signed copies fetching over $125, or cleverly pre-sold packages of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd variant printings together for more.  It seems that while the number of high-priced Buy It Nows have grown, they aren’t moving for, say, $500 a pop.  At this point, the $80 to $90 seems to be the top end.

The top sales prices will probably cool off by next week, as people who just want any copy as a “historical document” of sorts will likely just be happy to own a 2nd or 3rd printing.  The speculators have already been in, and, based on Buy It Nows, a number of them will seemingly just be holding the bag.  Let’s hope they won’t need a bailout.

Update: An unscientific survey of pages seems to put Crazy Scondo’s as the eBay store with the highest number of offerings between graded, single-issue, and package deals.  Crazy Scondo’s is a brick-and-mortar store in Bayside, New York, with an 11-year eBay track record. As of 1:55pm EST, they currently have 12 copies of the Obama variant for sale.

Fox and Warner Bros. have just released official confirmation that they have settled the Watchmen dispute. The following is the companies’ reported joint statement:

Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox have resolved their dispute regarding the rights to the upcoming motion picture Watchmen in a confidential settlement. Warner Bros acknowledges that Fox acted in good faith in bringing its claims, which were asserted prior to the start of principal photography. Fox acknowledges that Warner Bros. acted in good faith in defending against those claims. Warner Bros. and Fox, like all Watchmen fans, look forward with great anticipation to this film’s March 6 release in theatres.

As Nikki Finke reports, the price that Warner Bros. is said to have agreed to pay is substantial: 8.5% of the gross, a percentage of “everything going forward, including a sequel or spinoff,” as well as a substantial cash payment for Fox’s development costs and attorney fees. Industry watchers may want to keep an eye on TimeWarner’s SEC filings for more information–the loss of a substantial amount of Watchmen‘s anticipated profits arguably qualifies as a material fact that the company must disclose to its shareholders.

That the settlement came so quickly after the judge’s summary judgment ruling for Fox should come as no surprise. As I noted earlier, Fox had nothing to lose going forward, while WB could lose everything–and given the recent track record, Warner Bros.’ executives might not exactly be comfortable relying on their lawyers’ assurances of victory. What’s more, the injunction against the manufacturers of Bratz provided a powerful reminder that federal judges in that district could view (alleged) infringement of IP rights as harm substantive enough to warrant shutting down distribution. You don’t have to be a game theorist to see where the incentives lay.

News reports note that Warner Bros. is going to seek reimbursement from film producer Larry Gordon, from whom the rights to the film had ostensibly been purchased. The basis for such a claim would be the indemnification provision referred to in these court filings–in short, an agreement to indemnify is a contractual promise to compensate someone for loss or other harm.

The extent to which Gordon may be obligated to pay for Warner Bros.’ loss depends on a few key circumstances. Read these documents carefully and you’ll note that in the course of its dispute with Warner Bros., Fox argued that Warner Bros. had “actual knowledge” of Fox’s rights when it entered into the indemnification agreement with Gordon. If that’s indeed the case, a court might rule that Gordon does not have to pay, on the grounds that a party should not be allowed to insure itself against its own reckless or willful misconduct. Even if a court does determine that Gordon must indemnify Warner Bros. for its loss, he himself might have insurance or grounds to sue his own lawyers for malpractice.

However, for most fans of the graphic novel, Gordon’s fate is probably not the immediate concern. What matters most: provided the judge approves the proposed settlement, the Watchmen film will indeed be released on March 6.

Bill Kartalopoulos reports that the Louvre will have a new sequential art exhibit starting January 22.

Nicholas de Crécy, Eric Liberge, Marc-Antoine Mathieu, and Bernard Yslaire have all made comics with the shared topic of the Louvre. The project was set up in conjunction with the museum as well as Futuropolis Press.

The exhibit will show pages and preliminary sketches from all four books, with Yslaire’s art being shown on computer screens throughout the exhibit.

Though we resist, sometimes we cannot resit the temptation to dip into the blogosphere’s hive mind…

I just hope that I’m helping this reach at least one person who hasn’t been linked to it thirty times yet. It just started making its way across the interwebz yesterday, and it’s nothing short of pure genius. Enjoy the original Star Wars Trilogy as told by someone who’s never actually seen any of the full movies:

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn’t seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

Oh yeah, baby, only a day and some change until Battlestar Galactica is back. I thought I’d take a quick moment, after rewatching the first ten episodes of Season 4, to remind everyone just why this return is so anticipated.

1. I tweeted this yesterday during my marathon, “I had forgotten, but more happens in the teaser of BSG than in most hour long shows!” The teaser, or the section before the opening credits run, is usually used by hour long dramas to set a basic mystery, or specifically on cop shows to show the initial death (and allow for a cheesy line to be spouted out by the star). The shear amount of content in the opening sequence of BSG is incredible, with often real, major plot points happening in those first 3-8 minutes. It’s unique to the show, and amazing.
2. The Mystery of the final Cylon. There have been clues, but this show has also been known for its misdirection. Is it all some higher metaphor? Is one of the five one of the “human” crew members? Is it an “original” of one of the other models? Is it humanity as a whole? There are about 10,000 theories out there, so one of them is bound to be right, but then, I’ve been surprised.
3. The cast of this show is one of the best ever assembled on television. There are beautiful people, seasoned veterans, character actors, and leading men. They have such a real chemistry together, you truly believe that these leaders of the last bastion of humanity are a family in the strongest sense of the word.
4. It makes me so happy. The triumphs on the show have become few and far between, but oh, what triumphs they are. The moments of joy are unmatched and lend the sense of excitement and accomplishment that the characters feel straight to the audience. At these moments, it’s like being a member of the crew, in a way that no other show can match.
5. It makes me so sad. This may seem like a strange thing to love about a show, but it just helps define this program as the real deal. It’s not all sunshine and lollipops, but the down moments aren’t necessarily frustrating, and they always mean something. The final scene of episode 4.10 was one of the most heartbreaking moments not just in TV but in greater entertainment media, especially in genre stories. To go from such highs to such lows in a split second like that perfectly captures one of the most difficult and most real parts of the human condition.

It all kicks off again tomorrow night at 10/9C, and I’ll be counting down the moments. These are just the top five things I love about the show. Care to share some of yours?

Warner Home Movies has released a new interview with Bruce Timm for the Wonder Woman animated movie, due to be premiered at the New York Comic Con February 6, and distributed on March 3, 2009.

QUESTION: What progression have you seen through the first four films in the DC Universe animated original movies series?

BRUCE TIMM: The thing I like most about this whole ongoing project is that each of these movies really does have a different, unique feel. It would have been very, very easy and frankly a lot simpler and cost effective to stay in that TV series design style and world view. But each of these movies really does have a unique feel – in the design, the score, the cast, even the title sequences. We’ve been able to expand creatively and that makes these productions fun. 

QUESTION:  You’re known for revolutionizing the animated look of DC characters in several landmark TV series. What was the thought process behind the character design in this film?

BRUCE TIMM: We didn’t want to do anything that even remotely looked like what we have done with Wonder Woman on Justice League. She presents a challenge because she needs to be drop-dead gorgeous, but also very, very strong both physically and emotionally. She’s a powerful presence and we had to find that balance between athleticism and glamour.

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Wowza. In the most blatant abuse of intellectual property likely ever seen in comics by one individual, one Gregory Hart of “Database Engineers” has placed “about 19,000 comics” online, from Golden Age up through just a few months ago, with a promised 40,000 on the way. I’m not going to link to the site itself, as I feel that’d be a tad irresponsible (why give this guy free advertising?), but it’s the real deal. A simple “WHOIS Lookup” turned up this information:

Registrant:
Database Engineers, Inc.
2349 Shirecrest Cove Way
Lutz, Fl 33558
US

Registrar: DOTSTER
Domain Name: REMOVED BY POSTER
Created on: 18-DEC-08
Expires on: 19-DEC-09
Last Updated on: 18-DEC-08

Administrative, Technical Contact:
Engineers, Inc., Database
Database Engineers, Inc.
2349 Shirecrest Cove Way
Lutz, Fl 33558
US
___________
___________

Next step of course was to see if this “Database Engineers, Inc.” is a real deal. Well, there’s a website listed as databaseengineers.com, and the contact info on that page lists:

Gregory Hart
2349 Shire Crest Cove
Lutz, FL 33558
GSH@TampaBay.rr.com
Phone: ______________
Fax: ______________

Just mind-boggling that someone thinks they’ll be able to pull such a large scale piracy off, especially from within the USA, especially when other sites have been summarily sought out and shut down by Marvel and DC. Consider this a Public Service Announcement.

Blog@Newsarama: So—at long last, The Perhapanauts #5! Want to fill in the fans at home who didn’t bring the scorecard, just started buying or maybe just can’t remember #4 because it was a while ago?

Todd Dezago: umm…okay–BEDLAM has been evacuated so that the security system can be upgraded–but not before the escaped chimaera, bent on revenge and murder, corners arisa, mg, hammerskold, and choopie. choopie gets away while the others are trapped in gremlin-made containment spheres. outside the mothmen have chosen this moment to attack BEDLAM, to make karl and the rest of the perhapanauts pay for their insolence.

choopie is left in an abandoned BEDLAM to fend for himself against the chimaera.

also, big and merrow are in great britain when big realizes that the mothmen must answer to a higher power themselves…

how’s that?
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Blog@Newsarama: So I’ll go out on a limb and guess that most of the readers of Booster Gold are not intimately familiar with Enemy Ace; what was the motivation to use him as the centerpiece of the title’s “Faces of Evil” tie-in?

Dan Jurgens: Primarily, it’s because I find Enemy Ace to be a tremendously compelling character.

We had already begun a storyline where Booster was going to find himself in different eras. To a certain extent, one of the World Wars was a logical destination. Beyond that, “Faces of Evil” then made it necessary to match him up with a villain.

Enemy Ace gave us the opportunity to have a villain that would allow us to step outside the norm and do a different kind of story.

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Inspired by a few conversations with friends, I’ve been thinking about women in comics. There are plenty of us, as Rachel at Inside Out noted, writing about comics, writing and drawing comics, editing comics, or just fans of comics.

Yet we often seem to be counted out, overlooked, or ignored. We’re told we don’t read comics, or told which comics we should like, or people assume over and over again that we’re just looking for books for our boyfriends. (Even if we don’t like boys.)

Women in comics and women comics fans are not a monolith. We don’t all like the same things. Women read superhero comics, and women read crime comics, and women read Northlanders and The Boys.

There’s no way to just write “comics for women,” in other words. There are ways, though, to make the comics world more woman-friendly. But we’re not all going to agree on what those things are, either.

One of my favorite moments for women creators came when Denise Mina took over Hellblazer. I love women writing women characters (hello, Gail Simone on Wonder Woman) but I loved seeing a woman handed the reins to one of the most archetypically male characters in comics. John Constantine is selfish, manipulative, and goes through women like other characters go through outfits, and Mina got him.

So, ‘Rama readers of the female persuasion, what do you want to see more of? What annoys you? And to everyone, who are your favorite female creators?

And most importantly, what should I be covering here?

It’s a small, small world when it comes to the comics industry.

MTV has reported that Gerard Way, the writer of the critically-acclaimed Dark Horse series The Umbrella Academy, will be leading his band My Chemical Romance for a track on the upcoming Watchmen movie soundtrack.

Way and Company will apparently be contributing a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Desolation Row.” The song will be released January 27th.