I want to know what the producers of Smallville have on the executives at The CW. Did they get pictures of them with German Shepards?  Did they kidnap their children and are holding them hostage?  There has to be something such as this going on to explain how this show has been renewed for a tenth season.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting that Smallville is indeed returning for a tenth pain-filled season.  If you are unfamiliar with the show, it is the story of Clark Kent in his formative years before he became Superman, but the show has departed so wildly from the source material that it is barely recognizable any more.

The problem is, the show could be good if it wanted to.  I don’t even care about the fact it is so far away from the original any more, it has set up its own mythos, and that’s fine.  What annoys me is the fact that writing is just so silly as to be insulting.  I’m not sure who they think is watching this show, but the scripting is so insanely bland that it almost makes you wonder if they are trying to drive viewers away.

I recently started paying attention again due to the fact they’ve been adding other characters from the DC universe to the series, which has made it mildly more interesting, but the scripting is still atrocious, the sets laughable and the costuming looks like a high school production.  At least have some pride in your work, which no one involved with this show seems to have any more.

Oh well, the show will be back for another year to torture us all … oh joy.

Who are the people in this economy that have can be paying these insane prices for comic books?

Just last Tuesday I told you about someone paying $1 million for Action Comics #1, the first appearance of Superman, and how that set a record.  By Friday that record had been broken.

Three days later?!?

An anonymous buyer spent $1,075,500 on a copy of Detective Comics #27, the first appearance of Batman according to IO9.  The issue was targeted to sell for $100,000, but by the time the bidding opened on Thursday it had already hit $400,000.

This is troublesome to me because news like this is what set off the early 90’s comic speculation boom, something the industry has never fully recovered from.  People were anxious to get out of the stock market and went nuts for comic books for a while due to reports of extreme prices being paid for some key issues.  The thought process was that all books would shoot up in value, but the problem was that the new books were being produced int he hundreds of thousands, and no matter how much you tried to explain this to people, they simply would not listen.

Like the Action #1, this copy of Detective Comics #27 was graded as being “Very Fine” (VF), or an 8 our of 10.  I’m not sure where these VF copies are suddenly appearing from, but it is nice to see some still exist.

Hopefully these buyers aren’t expecting to turn a profit on these, but one never knows.

The next Superman movie just got a hole lot more interesting with the announcement that it will be written by one of the men behind the current Batman films.

According to Variety, David S. Goyer co-writer on The Dark Knight has signed on to script the next Superman film, currently titled, The Man of Steel.

As I reported recently, Christopher Nolan, the director behind Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, has been brought on to the new Superman movie in a “godfather” type role to oversee the production and make sure that there is no repeat of 2006’s Superman Returns.  Apparently Mr. Goyer’s plan is to skip the origin story, and plans to assume the audience is familiar with Superman/Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olson Perry White and so on.  I’m thrilled by this decision because the idea of rebooting from step 1 again was going to drive me nuts.

Supposedly there will be two villains this time out: Lex Luthor and Brainiac.  There will also be an establishing a grander Kryptonian mythos, which depending on what version of Brainiac they are working with, it makes total sense.

To me this makes a lot of sense because what the Superman movies have lacked is a credible villain that could trade blow with the Man of Steel.  Brainiac, while a computer essentially, has super strength and can get in a physical fight with Superman.  It’s about time.

There is currently no scheduled release date, but things do appear to be underway, and some people are estimating 2012 for the release.

It’s nice to see DC Comics finally getting their movie act together.  Green Lantern is in pre-production, Batman 3 is being scripted and now Superman.  All we need is Wonder Woman to finish off the mainline DC heroes.

Amongst comic book collectors there is a “Holy Grail”, the book we would give just about anything to own because it really started the entire super hero genre of comic books. That book is of course the very first appearance of Superman, Action Comics #1.

And now someone with way too much money owns two of them!

The previous record for a comic book was another copy of the same book, going to the same buyer, for $317,000.  This newest acquisition was rated as being in “Very Fine” condition, or essentially an 8 out of 10 … in other words, for a comic book from 1938, it was in killer shape.  And, yes, this time he dropped $1 million on the book.  Think about this, a comic that sold for $.10 in 1938 just sold for $1 million … yeesh.

It is believed that only about 100 copies of Action Comics #1 are still in existence, and only a few in such good shape.  I have been lucky enough to see two copies in person in my entire life, and neither of them were close to being Very Fine, so my envy runs even deeper.

It’s hard to say what makes us all desire this book as we do.  I am not even a Superman fan per se, I don’t especially dislike him, I just think he has run his course.  But his first appearance?  Wow.  Without this there would have been no Batman … no Justice League … no Marvel Comics … No Superman IV: The Quest For Peace!  Oh … wait … hold on …

In short, this truly is the ultimate book for collectors, and whomever this individual is, I don’t really care.  If he has the money great, my only concern is that he preserves it, and every indication is he will treat this book well, and in a manner befitting it.

No, this isn’t the Constitution of the United States, but its about as close as you’ll find when it comes to comic books.

At long last some official word has come out on the state of Batman 3, and as a bonus, also on a new Superman movie.

Nikki Finke is reporting that Warner Brothers has asked Christopher Nolan, the director of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, to step into a “godfather” role in regards to what is being dubbed Superman 3.0 (not an official name).  While it is unlikely that Mr. Nolan will direct, he will be taking on a supervisor role with the production to help possible steer it in a direction that will be more palatable to fans than 2006’s Superman Returns was.  (For the record, I enjoyed Superman Returns)  The new film is expected to be a complete reboot of the franchise, which means, yes, we will once again go though his ship crash landing in Kansas.

Warner Brothers is in a bit of a bind as they must start production on a new Superman film by 2011 to retain the rights to the character.  If the company should let them lapse, the heirs of Superman creators Siegel and Shuster can sue for damages for lost income.  And in 2013, all rights to Superman’s origin revert to the estates of the two creators, so both DC Comics and Warner Brothers will be in a position where they must license every aspect of Superman from the families of the original creators.

The other exciting bit of news is that Mr. Nolan’s brother, Jonah Nolan, and David Goyer who co-wrote Batman Begins and penned the story for The Dark Knight have begun scripting the third installment of the current Batman series of films. After the unfortunate death of Heath Ledger, rumors have swirled that Nolan was not interested in doing a third film as apparently his story hinged on the involvement of the Joker. After Ledger’s death, Nolan didn’t even want to think about recasting the part, which Ledger won an Oscar for, but apparently the story has been altered enough to not require the Joker.

Both films are far enough out from production that no possible story lines have yet been mentioned.  Official announcements of both productions are expected within the coming weeks.

***MAJOR SPOILERS***

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The villain that will face off against Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan/Green Lantern has been found for the film due out in 2011.

It had been assumed by most people that the villain for the Green Lantern movie would be his most well-known enemy, Sinestro.  Well, in a curve ball out of nowhere, Peter Sarsgaard has been cast as the lesser-known villain, Hector Hammond.  This is a bit of a shock, but I see an interesting possibility that this means we meet Sinestro in this film, but he doesn’t turn evil until a possible second film.

This is the second big piece of casting news this week for this film as it was just announced that Blake Lively of Gossip Girl has been cast as Carol Ferris, Hal Jordan’s love interest.

Filming begins in March in New Orleans for a June 17, 2011 release date

***MAJOR SPOILERS***

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Bolstered by the legal fight between the heirs of Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster against DC Comics, the family of Jack Kirby is going after the rights of a large chunk of the Marvel comics universe.

The legal battles over the ownership to Superman has been a long one, dating back to the 1940’s.  It has had more twists and turns than one can count, but in the end, DC has paid some money to the families, and some small issues still linger.

Now comes Marvel Comics turn to fight in court to retain characters created under its brand name.

The family of Jack “The King” Kirby has served Marvel with notices of their intent to reclaim the rights to 45 characters in 2014 that he created while working for the company in the 1960’s and 1970’s.  This was announced this past summer, even before the news of Disney buying Marvel broke, and Disney has stated that the issue was taken into consideration when determining the $4 billion price tag it paid for the comics publisher.

Now news comes today that Marvel is taking the Jack Kirby estate to court and claiming that all of the characters were created under a “work for hire” situation.  This essentially means he worked for them, was paid for his work, and that Mr. Kirby retains no rights to those characters as they were purchased outright by the company.  John Turitzin, a lawyer for Marvel, said, “[the Kirby heirs] are trying to  rewrite the history of Kirby’s relationship with Marvel.  Everything about Kirby’s relationship with Marvel shows that his contributions were works made for hire and that all the copyright interests in them belong to Marvel.”

Marc Toberoff, lawyer for the Kirbys, replied, “It is a standard claim predictably made by comic book companies to deprive artists, writers, and other talent of all rights in their work.”

While I have not seen the actual contracts, I hate to tell the Kirbys that Marvel is more than likely correct.  Back in the time he was working for the company, comic books were seen as nothing more than children’s entertainment, and the work was disposable at best.  No one saw the long term iconic status these characters would reach, nor the millions they would bring in at the box office.  They simply were stories sold to kids, and nothing more, the fact that they have endured is a testament to the work Mr. Kirby did, but if the contracts read the way I imagine they do, they have no real case here.

I am certainly not defending the way Marvel treated Jack Kirby over the years, but a contract is a contract.

The one thing Mr. Toberoff said that really angered me, and prompted me to write this article at all, was, “Sadly, Jack died without proper compensation, credit or recognition for his lasting creative contributions.”

Excuse me?  Have you ever spent any time within a mile of a comic book store or convention?  Heck, within a mile of a comic book fan alone?  Jack Kirby is spoken with reverence and love by just about every comic book fan who draws breath.  No credit?  No recognition?  You, sir, are a fool who are just trying to paint Marvel in an unfavorable light, but instead you just show your extreme ignorance to the industry you have decided to take to task.  You would be well served by doing some research.

Rumors are just breaking that Sam Raimi has pulled out of directing Spider-Man 4, and with him goes Tobey Maguire and the rest of the cast.

Nikki Finke is reporting that at a meeting on the Sony Studios lot this morning, it was announced that Sam Raimi has left the production of Spider-Man 4, and with his departure the movie is officially dead.  Instead of moving forward with the series under the helm of a different director, Sony has opted to start the whole series over … yes folks, Spider-Man is getting a reboot.

Instead of trying to work out creative differences with Mr. Raimi, Sony is just going to start the whole series over again with a new cast, a different director at the helm, and this means we will get to see the same blaster stories over again.  Oh, joy … another retelling of the spider biting Peter Parker!  HUZZAH!

We get to fight the Green Goblin again!  HUZZAH!

We get to fight Doctor Octopus again!  HUZZAH!

Ugh … my brain already hurts.  Sony had the world on a platter with this series, and because they couldn’t just let Mr. Raimi do things they way he wanted to, which proved successful with the first two films, now we lose all the ground work that has been laid out over three films.  I guess we’ll never see Dr. Conners turn into The Lizard now.

Sony … you suck.

An official statement is expected from Sony fairly soon.  You do have to wonder how Sony arrived at the plan for a reboot this quickly when the fourth film was only put on hold last week.

UPDATE: It’s official, here’s the press release.

Peter Parker is going back to high school when the next Spider-Man hits theaters in the summer of 2012.

Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios announced today they are moving forward with a film based on a script by James Vanderbilt that focuses on a teenager grappling with both contemporary human problems and amazing super-human crises.

The new chapter in the “Spider-Man” franchise produced by Columbia, Marvel Studios and Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin, will have a new cast and filmmaking team. Spider-Man 4 was to have been released in 2011, but had not yet gone into production.

“A decade ago we set out on this journey with Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire and together we made three ‘Spider-Man’ films that set a new bar for the genre. When we began, no one ever imagined that we would make history at the box-office and now we have a rare opportunity to make history once again with this franchise. Peter Parker as an ordinary young adult grappling with extraordinary powers has always been the foundation that has made this character so timeless and compelling for generations of fans. We’re very excited about the creative possibilities that come from returning to Peter’s roots and we look forward to working once again with Marvel Studios, Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin on this new beginning,” said Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment.

“Working on the ‘Spider-Man’ movies was the experience of a lifetime for me. While we were looking forward to doing a fourth one together, the studio and Marvel have a unique opportunity to take the franchise in a new direction, and I know they will do a terrific job,” said Sam Raimi.

“We have had a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration and friendship with Sam and Tobey and they have given us their best for the better part of the last decade. This is a bittersweet moment for us because while it is hard to imagine Spider-Man in anyone else’s hands, I know that this was a day that was inevitable,” said Matt Tolmach, president of Columbia Pictures, who has served as the studio’s chief production executive since the beginning of the franchise. “Now everything begins anew, and that’s got us all tremendously excited about what comes next. Under the continuing supervision of Avi and Laura, we have a clear vision for the future of Spider-Man and can’t wait to share this exciting new direction with audiences in 2012.”

“‘Spider-Man’ will always be an important franchise for Sony Pictures and a fresh start like this is a responsibility that we all take very seriously,” said Michael Lynton, Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures. “We have always believed that story comes first and story guides the direction of these films and as we move onto the next chapter, we will stay true to that principle and will do so with the highest respect for the source material and the fans and moviegoers who deserve nothing but the best when it comes to bringing these stories and characters to life on the big screen.”

The studio will have more news about Spider-Man in 2012 in the coming weeks as it prepares for production of the film.

It seems that Ryan Reynolds’ Hal Jordan/Green Lantern has found his Carol Ferris for the film due out in 2011.

Ryan Reynolds was cast as Green Lantern back in July of last year, and while I wasn’t overly thrilled with the casting, I’ve grown to live with it.  Almost as equally important to the story of the space cop is his long time love interest, Carol Ferris.  Well, she’s finally been cast and it is Blake Lively of the television series of Gossip Girl.

I must confess I have never even seen a moment of Ms. Lively’s acting, so I will reserve all judgement on this as it wouldn’t be fair.  I do hope they dye her hair as Carol has always been black/brunette, but that is a trifling issue.

Apparently the part of Carol was a hotly sought after role in Hollywood recently with the likes of Eva Green, Keri Russell, Jennifer Garner and Diane Kruger all being in contention for the role.  The only thing that worries me about Ms. Lively is her age.  At the time of this writing she is 22-years-old, and considering by the time Hal becomes Green Lantern, both he and Carol have a romantic history, and are established in their careers, she just seems a bit young.  Mr. Reynolds is 33, so we’ll see how this goes.

Filming is expected to begin in March with a June 17, 2011 release date.

Don’t be holding your breath for Spider-Man 4 to make its planned May 5,2011 release date.

Nikki Finke announced yesterday that Spider-Man 4 is on an indefinite production hold due to problems with the script.  The script has already gone through several writers, and Sam Raimi and Sony Pictures have been rumored to be arguing over who the villain(s) will be this time around.

In the first two films, Mr. Raimi wanted the villain to be someone who somehow reflected what was going on in Peter Parker’s life.  With the third one, he had Venom forced upon him by the studio, and we all know how that disaster turned out.  Mr. Raimi had previously said he never wanted to use Venom because he just didn’t find him all that interesting, but Sony saw a chance to launch Venom into his own series of movies, so they told the director he had no choice.  While the film still made money ($336,530,303 domestic, $554,341,323 foreign off a $258 million budget), no one was creatively satisfied with the film, and it looked like the series might be dead.

After a significant amount of financial wrangling, and Tobey Maguire reportedly snagging $50 million for the fourth and fifth film, the films are back on track, but with the same problems.

The rumor is Sam Raimi wants to use The Vulture as the villain, but Sony is saying that it isn’t a marketable character.  This isn’t about marketing folks, these movies sell themselves.  We go to see an iconic hero being portrayed well, whomever the villain is, while cool, is not the reason we flock to the theater because, I’ll let you in on a little secret, Spider-Man wins in the end.  He is never going to lose one of these fights, so what does it really matter how “marketable” the villain is?  Sony got its way last time and they ended up with a critical disaster on their hands.  Venom sucked.  Period.

Sam Raimi has made you a lot of money, let him do his own thing and leave it at that.

Some feel the film may make it out for July 2011, but the May 5, 2011 date is quickly slipping away.

UPDATE: The Thor movie just changed release dates from June 17, 2011 to May 6, 2011 … this pretty much confirms Spider-Man 4 is delayed.