No, my linkblogging posts don’t come on any particular day, they just tend to appear when I’ve gathered enough links that I like but don’t really have enough to say about to warrant their own posts. In case you were wondering. Now, onward!

At The Nation (full disclosure: I’m currently a Nation intern), Melissa Harris-Lacewell talks about the conservative campaign to paint President Obama as the Joker, and does an excellent job teasing out some interesting political parallels with The Dark Knight film.

Via When Fangirls Attack, a post on close female friendships in comics. How many female “buddy” or “bromance” pairings can you think of?

A comparison of Marvel Divas and Gotham City Sirens, also via When Fangirls Attack.

Johanna Draper Carlson looks at Huntress: Year One.

From Splash Page, Charlyne Yi of Paper Heart and Knocked Up is doing a comic with Oni Press. Insert random blather about how Yi is actually a geek here, right? Well, because she’s not Megan Fox (read, sexy girl everyone slobbers over) this hasn’t gotten that much attention, but it makes me happy: Charlyne Yi is funny, and from what I’ve seen of Paper Heart, is actually creative as well.

Jezebel looks at my favorite superheroine from childhood: She-Ra.

Finally, Defamer wants to know how gay Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes is going to be. Apparently word leaked out that there was going to be some sexual tension between the leads (Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr.), which was enough to send Michael Medved into a panic. Apparently there’s nothing to offend Medved in the screenplay, at least, and so he can go back to doing what he does best–which certainly isn’t knowing what women would like to see in a film. Or at least, this woman.

Marvel unveiled this latest teaser yesterday for the upcoming Punisher: Rest in Pieces storyline:

That’s right. Frankencastle. November 2009. And no, he is not fighting Count Chocula.

On the one hand, I can’t see this without remembering Marvel’s attempts to make the Punisher a supernatural character who was Touched By An Angel — on the other hand, if you’ve read my reviews on Rick Remender’s take on the Punisher, you’ll know I’ve really dug the series under his stewardship, and that he could make this sort of thing into an idea that’s just crazy enough to work. What say you, Rama readers?

Apparently so. This show has been talked about for a while now and it’s good to see some actual footage. Marvel released this little clip (more of a music video actually) of the show and I’m intrigued. Marvel really doesn’t have a show like this out now, or has EVER made a show like this.

I’m a big fan of the SHS toys, I have several that surround my kitchen and my office. I’ll give this show a try especially after hearing some of the voice actors involved: Mark Hamill as Red Skull, James Marsters as Mr. Fantastic and George Takei as Galactus. In addition to the show, coming out this fall, a variety of Super Hero Squad merchandise spin-offs are planned, including a video game from THQ (also coming out this fall), expansion of the Hasbro toy line, and a major fastfood partnership.

So, what do you readers think of the clip? Do you think it’s something you and your child would watch, or is just too kiddie?

For those of you who didn’t watch Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night, you missed out on some comicky goodness!

In last night’s episode, the comedian went to the San Diego Comic Con met up with industry figures like Stan Lee, Dan Didio, Geoff Johns, and Jon Favreau to discuss his comic book character, which I will refer to as “Rechargo Boy.” He’s solar-powered, and looks suspiciously like a late-night host.

While Johns kind of made me chuckle with his response, it’s Stan Lee that (as always) steals the show. You can see the full episode, which this is in the first segment of, by clicking here.

It’s the announcement that rocked the con — Marvelman has returned.

And he belongs to Marvel.

But despite the myth that’s swirled around this British superhero, what’s the reality? Indeed, most comics fans under the age of 30 probably haven’t ever read a Marvelman comic. Well fasten your seatbelts, readers, because we’re gonna Dial H — for History!

Despite the name, Marvelman was never created as a Marvel Comics character. Created in 1958, Marvelman was initially devised as, well, a legal loophole — a humble beginning that is only made more ironic for the years of legal limbo in which the character would fall. For you see, Marvelman’s first alter ego was none other than… Captain Marvel.

Let’s rewind. You might know something about Captain Marvel. Created by Fawcett Comics in 1939, Billy Batson, young boy, meets the wizard Shazam, and is given strength, invulnerability, speed, and flight. He also looked exceedingly similar to Superman — and you better believe the fledgling DC Comics didn’t like it. Lawsuits were filed, and Fawcett eventually capitulated to the leaner, tougher company.

Enter Len Miller. Owner of L. Miller & Sons, Limited, Miller reprinted all of Fawcett’s comics in the U.K. And needless to say, he saw an opportunity here. The deal was that Captain Marvel, believe it or not, was definitely raking in the money, even horning in on Superman at the top spot in the 1940s. So when Fawcett couldn’t print Captain Marvel, Miller instead sidestepped the issue by hiring creator Mick Anglo, who created the character of Marvelman under their own individual imprint in the U.K. — a character stylistically similar to Captain Marvel (a young reporter named Micky Moran gets atomic-based powers from an astrophysicist, requiring him to say “Kimota” rather than “Shazam”), but far enough (and blond enough) away geographically that the lawyers wouldn’t touch him.

And like all atomic weapons, Marvelman blew up. The Captain Marvel stand-in not only sold hundreds of issues, but launched spin-offs Young Marvelman and Marvelman Family — with Marvelman and Young Marvelman nearly hitting 350 issues each. But all good things must end: Anglo left the company in frustration in 1960, and Miller’s company eventually folded in 1963, as Marvel Comics and DC began dueling it out in the glory days of the Silver Age.

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As part of the mainstream media’s focus on San Diego this week, the Los Angeles Times ran a story asking some of their “burning questions” about the show, comics and “geek culture” in general. The “article,” actually a photo slideshow with extensive captions, is pretty insipid and betrays a lot of the same ignorance of and assumptions about comics culture that is present in the mainstream media stories about Art Spiegelman that say “Pow! Bop! Biff!” in them. But a few of their questions were either clever enough or preposterous enough to rate a little discussion, and so here goes… (more…)

Marvel writer Jeff Parker has announced on his blog that while Agents of Atlas is safe for now, his other new series — Exiles — will be ending with Issue #6.

As for EXILES… well, as they say, you can’t save every patient. The best we did was a momentary blip with issue one of the relaunch, and sales went right back to where they were previously. In hindsight, maybe we should have waited a year or two before trying it. It was a blow to me, I was having a great time working with Salva Espin and Casey Jones, and felt I was getting into a good groove with issues that you’ll never see. At least Marvel did me a solid and gave me a double sized issue in 6 to wrap things up. Curious to see what you think of how it… choke… ends.

Parker also discusses in this blog post that the upcoming X-Men vs. Atlas is not a death knell for the series, but that Marvel is trying different ways to convert its critical acclaim into sales. “I can’t give too much away right now,” he wrote, “but you’ll see that you’re going to have quite a bit of Atlas action coming up.”

As a fan of the original Judd Winick run of the series, it’s a shame that this iteration of Exiles is ending. The series followed an ever-changing cast of characters from the Marvel multiverse, as they were guided from one parallel universe to the next, righting wrongs and generally having fun with “What If?” continuity — and you could tell Parker was having a lot of fun with it. What say you, Rama readers?

Good morning, ‘rama readers. For those of you, like me, stuck at home while your friends and colleagues get into trouble at enjoy Comic-Con, I bring you a whole bunch of linkage that has nothing to do with Comic-Con! Well, mostly.

From the New York Times, a piece on India’s sliding comics industry, and its turn to animation to save its fortunes.

Inside Out, at Girl-Wonder.org, wants Marvel to can the lip gloss and make real products for women.

Via Comics Worth Reading, Classics Rock!, a blog about songs based on books, is focusing on comics this week. So far we have Green Lantern, Ghost Rider, Magneto, and more.

Blog@’s own David Pepose sent me this to giggle at, and I’m sharing it with you: Twilight-themed tattoos. Actually, some of them aren’t bad, but I feel for the person living their life with a portrait of Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen inked on their arm. But hey, some people I’m sure think my tattoos are ridiculous too…

NPR’s Marketplace interviews Joshua Dysart about comics.

Finally, in case you are going to SDCC, Racialicious has some recommendations for panels to hit, and will no doubt have some thoughtful coverage of the whole shebang once it’s over.

Can even the vaunted Super Soldier serum save the Captain America movie from it’s biggest foe — international audience ambivalence?

MTV sat down with Kevin Feige, and gave an interesting bullet point list of Captain America news, including the fact that Will Smith — one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood, who has conquered the 4th of July numerous times with films like Hancock and Independence Day — is still in the running for Captain America, as well as some of the Thor runner-ups.

Now, the thing that’s interesting for me is the fact that based on these notes, it’s clear that Marvel is really nervous about parading a guy in the Stars and Stripes in the current world climate. Indeed, the film won’t even be marketed as “Captain America” abroad, but as “The First Avenger” — and they’re ditching the typical route of searching for an “unknown” to play the lead character (which worked so spectacularly with Hugh Jackman as Wolverine) in order to bring in someone who they know will bring in the money.

And to be honest, who else would be on that list? Will Smith is exceedingly bankable — but Feige says that if Smith were cast, Kyle Baker’s “Truth” storyline, which repositioned the Super Soldier Project as a Tuskeegee-like experiment on unsuspecting African-American troops, would not be used. Tom Cruise, once the most bankable star in Hollywood, is still clawing his way back to respectability after his public weirdness made him a tabloid target. That said, Forbes has an interesting list of bankable celebrities (granted, Will Smith is at the top of that list), with Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Matt Damon all on the list — and after rewatching the Departed the other night, I could definitely see Damon nailing this.

But in my opinion, I think Marvel is really selling the cultural cache of one of its most heroic characters short. It did a surprisingly effective job with teasing the Super Soldier program in the most unlikely of films — the Ed Norton remake of the Incredible Hulk:

But even more importantly, Captain America doesn’t serve politicians or administrations — as Frank Miller once said, he serves the Dream.

In this case, the dream of a better world. While having a World War II epic is certainly within Marvel’s prerogative, I feel like Captain America’s best quality is the fact that he is a man out of time — in short, he’s a human time capsule of all the nobility and selflessness of a bygone era, and I think it would be interesting to see him wrestle with the post-9/11, post-Enron, post-Operation Paperclip era, where America has teamed up with the enemy, and clasped new ones to its breast, but still strives for greatness. (In other words, Richard Donner’s Superman meets Austin Powers, but played straight.) It’s this sort of story that could confront the rest of the world’s ambivalence to the U.S. head-on, and would really give some solid allegorical weight to a prequel that may otherwise be written off as an action flick.

What say you, Rama readers? Do you think Will Smith could be the One? Is there another bankable star you think would be ideal? Tell us what you think about “The First Avenger: Captain America”!

Forget repulsor beams, flamethrowers, and sci-fi cluster bombs — the strongest weapon in Iron Man’s arsenal right now is Matt Fraction. And Marvel has just announced that Sega will be unleashing the Eisner-nominated comics writer on the upcoming Iron Man 2 video game.

“‘Iron Man 2′ presented me with the opportunity to work with both SEGA and Marvel on creating something wholly unique—a story that exists at the crossroads of the comics I write, the film universe I was lucky enough to be asked to contribute to, and a wholly immersive interactive experience like this game,” Fraction said in an interview at Marvel.com. “Writing a game presents an entirely new challenge, where the player engages with the world, with the big and small aspects of the place and characters. They’re a coconspirator in the narrative. I hope it’s as exciting and challenging to play as it was to write.”

Currently, in the comics storyline, Fraction has led Tony Stark down a desperate path as he becomes the “World’s Most Wanted,” as he escapes the clutches of Norman Osborn and the international military group known as H.A.M.M.E.R. With a list of all the world’s known superhero identites in his brain, Tony has been steadily erasing his mind, knowing full well the price he’ll pay: not just his unmatched genius, not just memories of his best friends, but even basic motor skills.

According to the Marvel interview, Sega apparently took fan comments on the first Iron Man game — a game which Metacritic gave an unfavorable 45 review — to heart, focusing more on hand-to-hand combat with a redesigned control scheme. “Iron Man has an undeniably huge fan base, and we really wanted to give them the game they have been waiting for,” said SEGA of America’s vice president of marketing, Sean Ratcliffe.

The game is due out in the spring of 2010 for the XBox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, PSP, and Nintendo DS.

He’s the best there is at what he does — and what he does… is so terribly stylish!

The Ol’ Canucklehead has changed costumes here and there since his earliest appearance in 1974, evolving from short whiskers to a scalloped cowl, from spandex to leather to black ops body armor, from yellow-and-blue to orange-and-brown and back again.

But Project Rooftop called several months ago for a new redesign for the Adamantium Avenger — and boy did they get a lot of responses! After weeks of deliberation, the winners of the Wolverine redesign contest were finally announced:

Grand prize winner Lee Chen Fang!

First prize winner Gabriel Pinto!

Second prize winner Ricardo Venancio!

And runner-up Dave Kennedy, whose distinct take on Wolverine was definitely my favorite of the bunch.

Among the special guest judges for this competition were Wolverine: Weapon X creators Jason Aaron and Ron Garney.

Did you have your fill from yesterday’s news of the first look at Scarlett Johanssen as the Black Widow?

Well, Paul Cornell of Captain Britain fame, along with Dark Avengers: Hawkeye artist Tom Raney, have some news that’ll make die-hard fans of the Soviet spymistress up a wall — Black Widow: Deadly Origin.

Cornell told the LA Times that his take on the character is that she is the world’s most experienced spy, honing her martial arts skills while having her body in prime condition for more than 50 years.

Yet the hook of this book will be that every man that Natasha has ever kissed — be it Iron Man, Hercules, or Daredevil — is now vulnerable to a “technological curse” which only she can foil. The four-issue miniseries is due out this November.

G4’s Attack of the Show has announced that Wolverine: Weapon X’s Jason Aaron, along with Preacher artist Steve Dillon, will be taking on Punisher MAX.

According to G4, Aaron says they will be on for at least four story arcs, which will introduce the Kingpin and Bullseye to the Marvel MAX Universe. The first arc will show Kingpin’s rise to power, and how Frank Castle helped get him there.

I’ll be honest, with Aaron’s rising reputation as the king of gristly violence at Marvel with his work on Wolverine and Ghost Rider (and I don’t mean that as a bad thing — they’re some of the best books Marvel’s printing) and Dillon’s strong track record with Frank Castle, this pick seems like a no-brainer.

Entertainment Weekly has unveiled the cover for its upcoming issue, and it has the first look at a certain spy of the Marvel Universe:

That’s right, Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow.

Granted, she’s mostly obscured by Tony’s armor, but you now know hair style, and you can see that the leather jumpsuit is making a transition to the screen. If you like your pictures extra blurry, there is a screen capture of an inside image that was aired on TV, which ComicBook.com has right here.

So what do you think, Rama readers?

Ladies and gentlemen, let’s get ready to rumbllllllllle! Because MTV has announced that Joe Kelly will orchestrating a clash of the titans:

That’s right — Spider-Man versus Deadpool.

With some obvious similarities — agility, red masks, snarky senses of humor — the battle between the Webbed Wonder and the Merc with a Mouth proves that action is the readers’ reward. They’ll be butting heads… and blades… and webs… in November’s Amazing Spider-Man #611, with art by Eric Canete and a cover by Skottie Young, which you can see on his DeviantArt feed here.

“Their jokes styles are so different,” Kelly told MTV. “Deadpool is so absurd and mean at the drop of a hat, but Spidey is so light. … [Spider-Man] tries to take the high road, but when you spend enough time around Deadpool, you can’t help coming down to his level.”

Now, this isn’t the first time these two have squared off — Spider-Man did have a appearance in Cable/Deadpool #24, where the Regenerating Degenerate threw Peter Parker off a bridge. But with Joe Kelly — one of the top-tier Deadpool writers in the late ’90s as well as a current member of the Spider-Man Brain Trust — I can’t wait to see the sort of no-brow cracks this war of the wiseasses is going to unleash!

Via MTV, there’s an interesting tidbit from Nicholas Cage, in which he says he would like to “do a reconceive” for a second Ghost Rider film:

Hmm… on the one hand, while the first Ghost Rider was certainly a disappointment, I don’t know how I feel about this. International Ghost Rider? Less western? More Nicholas Cage? What say you, Rama readers?

With books like Batman and Robin and Captain America spearheading the charge, comic book sales jumped in June, after seeing a worrisome slump in May, where only one book broke the 90,000 copy mark.

According to ICv2, Batman and Robin #1 sold more than 168,000 copies, which is the highest any single issue has managed to achieve since the Obama appearance in January’s Amazing Spider-Man. Trailing behind the all-new Dynamic Duo was Captain America #600, with more than 112,000 copies.

Still, there are some numbers that are a bit more worrying, such as the fact that Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men Utopia #1, despite being the #3 book of last month, still didn’t clear the 100,000 copy mark. Perhaps most surprising for me was Detective Comics only hitting #13, with 72,084 copies sold. Yet it’s clear that Utopia, Batman Reborn, and Blackest Night have been holding the Top 25 steadily, with some cameo appearances by Wolverine and two out of three issues of Amazing Spider-Man.

After our comprehensive month-by-month lists for Dark Reign and Blackest Night, there’s yet another crossover from the Big Two that is raging along the spaceways: Marvel’s War of Kings. With the Inhumans battling Vulcan and the Shiar Empire — and all the cosmic characters in the Marvel U now caught in the middle — you know there’s going to be some fireworks. But how much for the whole set? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered!

Remember: These examinations imply no editorial judgment; they are merely a look at the totals as a service to the readership. And, of course, whether you buy all of the tie-ins is up to you and your individual proclivities, and as always, comes with the message from the publisher that you don’t need all the tie-in issues to enjoy the story, though individual readers’ mileage on that statement may vary, of course.

With that being said, even though the War of Kings rages from November 2008 through at least August of 2009, this is a surprisingly tight event, focusing mainly in the Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova books, as well as some specifically created books such as X-Men: Kingbreaker and War of Kings. After compiling together a list based on issue solicits, overall story arcs based on trade, as well as certain titles being clearly spun off the War of Kings name, we finally have ourselves a list of everything we find to be connected to the story. Being approximately one fifth the size of its sister crossover, Dark Reign, and only a few issues shy of the current announced number for DC’s space opera Blackest Night, here’s a month-by-month tally to help you with your decision on how to best enjoy this smackdown of the spaceways!

November 2008:
Guardians of the Galaxy #7 ($2.99)
Total Price: $2.99, or pretty much any other $2.99 book you can think of.

December 2008:
Guardians of the Galaxy #8 ($2.99)
X-Men: Kingbreaker #1 ($3.99)
Total Price: $9.97, or the price of an XBox 360 game rental plus tax.

January 2009:
Secret Invasion: War of Kings #1 ($3.99)
Guardians of the Galaxy #9 ($2.99)
X-Men: Kingbreaker #2 ($3.99)
Total Price: $20.97, or the price of the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 hardcover book.

February 2009:
Guardians of the Galaxy #10 ($2.99)
War of Kings: Darkhawk #1 ($3.99)
X-Men: Kingbreaker #3 ($3.99)
Total Price: $31.91, or the X-Men Trilogy DVD set, plus tax.

March 2009:
War of Kings #1 ($3.99)
Guardians of the Galaxy #11 ($2.99)
Guardians of the Galaxy #12 ($2.99)
Nova #23 ($2.99)
War of Kings: Darkhawk #2 ($3.99)
X-Men: Kingbreaker #4 ($3.99)
Total Price: $52.85, or a Marvel Universe Winter Soldier bust from Midtown Comics, plus tax.

April 2009:
War of Kings #2 ($3.99)
Guardians of the Galaxy #13 ($2.99)
Nova #24 ($2.99)
War of Kings: Ascension #1 ($3.99)
Total Price: $66.81, or about the price of pre-ordering Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 at Gamestop.

May 2009:
War of Kings #3 ($3.99)
Guardians of the Galaxy #14 ($2.99)
Nova #25 ($2.99)
War of Kings: Ascension #2 ($3.99)
Total Price: $80.77, or 5 months of World of Warcraft, plus one bottle of “gamer fuel” each month.

June 2009:
War of Kings #4 ($3.99)
Guardians of the Galaxy #15 ($2.99)
Nova #26 ($2.99)
War of Kings: Ascension #3 ($3.99)
War of Kings: Savage World of Skaar #1 ($3.99)
Total Price: $98.72, or almost the price of a silver membership to the Hero Initiative.

July 2009:
War of Kings #5 ($3.99)
Guardians of the Galaxy #16 ($2.99)
Mighty Avengers #27 ($2.99)
Nova #27 ($2.99)
War of Kings: Ascension #4 ($3.99)
War of Kings: Warriors #1 ($3.99)
Total Price: $119.66, or almost the price of two weekend passes to the New York Comic Con.

August 2009:
War of Kings #6 ($3.99)
Guardians of the Galaxy #17 ($2.99)
Mighty Avengers #28 ($2.99)
Nova #28 ($2.99)
War of Kings: Warriors #2 ($3.99)
Total Price: $136.61, or the penciled version of Page #13 of Villains United by Dale Eaglesham, according to TheArtistsChoice.com, plus taxes.

TOTAL ISSUES: 39
TOTAL PRICE: $136.61

Still on track for a May 6, 2011 release, Spider-man 4 has another big name writer taking a swing at the script, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Gary Ross, who has previously worked with the film’s star Tobey Maguire on Pleasantville and Seabiscuit, will write the third major draft of the screenplay, to which Maguire and director Sam Raimi are already attached.

Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire, who won a Pulitzer in 2007 and most recently wrote music and lyrics for the currently-on-Broadway “Shrek” musical (look out, more Spidey dance numbers!) previously tried his hand at the web-slinger’s next on screen adventure, as did James Vanderbilt, writer of thriller Zodiac.

Some may see three high profile writers as a bad portent, but it should be noted that the grand majority of Hollywood movies take several writers and several drafts to get hammered out. Being the fourth film, Raimi will likely have significant changes he’ll make as Director as well. The current ongoing comic, Amazing Spider-man, of course also has a team of writers telling Peter Parker’s stories, rather than a single writer doing a long-form multiyear arc.

The main site and Blog@ will both be taking some time in the next few days to once again examine event pricing. Troy Brownfield and Lucas Siegel will be talking about Blackset Night and War of Kings. To kick things off over here, I’m going to talk about the BIGGEST event in terms of sheer size, Dark Reign.

Remember: These examinations imply no editorial judgment; they are merely a look at the totals as a service to the readership. And, of course, whether you buy all of the tie-ins is up to you and your individual proclivities, and as always, comes with the message from the publisher that you don’t need all the tie-in issues to enjoy the story, though individual readers’ mileage on that statement may vary, of course.

With that said — better bring your umbrella, because there’s a lot of Reign on the horizon!

Marvel’s current megaevent, Dark Reign, is a growing storm around the Marvel Universe, with nearly double the number of issues of its predecessor, Secret Invasion. But then again, this event has been in play since December 2008, and will be running along through at least October of 2009.

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