Could this be the new Batman Villain? Should it be?

Chris Nolan’s series of gritty Batman movies have been kept in a surprising shroud of secrecy- nobody knowing who the next villain will be until the film is basically released… and with the more recent confirmation that it will NOT be The Riddler- everyone is speculating on who it will and who is SHOULD be.

We were emailed this picture today and it had everyone here at the Big Shiny Robot! scrambling to find out if it were real or fan made… 20 seconds later we discovered it was fan made. BUT- this IS the guy who I’ve said the next villain should be Black Mask since before the The Dark Knight was out of theaters.

Black Mask is one of the least known Batman villains in all the “common knowledge” of Batman villains- which I am sure is something that could endear him to Nolan’s direction of the series… but, not only that- he is one of the most powerful villains Batman has had to deal with in the comics… no super strength, no super gadgets, but brains. Black Mask is the antithesis of Batman in the sense that Roman Sionis is a Billionaire’s son, who’s parents died in a horrible “accident”… except… Sionis, not a random act of criminal violence, killed his parents…. blah blah blah and a few more incidents that drive him mad and Sionis winds up carving a death mask out of his father’s ebony coffin and then uses his new found aptitude for crime, he builds a powerful gang and decides (because of a grudge Sionis had with Bruce Wayne) to target Bruce personally and begins taking down Wayne Tech, one executive at a time.

Batman ends up saving this guy’s life- but, in the course of it (of course) Black mask becomes permanently disfigured and permanently becomes Black Mask.

There is really only one other appearance of note for Black Mask in Batman’s world… the one that I can see making the movie The Dark Knight Rises: Black Mask becomes the king of Gotham’s underbelly by being the first and only villain to unite all the crime lords and super villains in a war against the Bat, this plunges the city into chaos and darkness as Black Mask uses the media to wage a psychological war against the city and its mysterious protector.

The set up is there: The Joker has taken out most of the crime bosses, Two-Face/Harvey Dent is dead and Gotham City hates Batman… somebody needs to step in and organize the underworld and use this to their advantage, right? Setting it up so Batman can “rise” and save the city from its own implosion.

I’ve always seen Black Mask as the Yin to Batman’s Yang, more than the Joker. The Joker is an embodiment of Bruce’s fears- and a device used to push the Dark Knight to the very limits of his choices… The Joker isn’t his opposite, or his equal- the Joker is his cancer- an evil that will be with him forever- an “incurable” blight and a constant threat. All by Batman’s own choosing (he could have ‘let him die’ like Ra’s Al Ghul on many occasions but for some reason its not okay for the Joker but is for a ninja with a noble goal)

While- (and this is just my opinion) I see Black Mask as what Bruce could have become if he had made a different choice after his parent’s murder… to me- Black Mask (Batman) is an infinitely more scary prospect. Someone with the Bat’s power and drive, but focused on making crime happen. Black Mask is sadistic to boot (another perfect reason he’d fit into Nolan’s vision) He uses fear and brute force to control the criminals, the same way Batman uses it to defeat them… Incidentally- this is what made Jason Todd a scary Red Hood. (although, if the bat would have just let him kill the Joker, that blight would have been “cured” and opened the door for a new wave of original villains… sorry- but the Joker is a crutch.)

What do you guy’s think? I know we’ve asked this question before- but the Riddler is out so we won’t be seeing Hush. Who is gonna be the next villain? WHY are they going to be the next villain?

 The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn won’t be seen in theaters for another year, but Empire magazine has released the first glimpses of the Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg collaboration:

Andy Serkis portrays Captain Haddock

The Adventures of Tintin is a comic strip series by Belgian artist Hergé and follows the adventures of a young reporter and his dog Snowy.  The movie based on the comic strip will involve a sunken ship and a treasure hunt, and the cast includes Daniel Craig, Andy Serkis, Cary Elwes, and Jamie Bell as the voice of Tintin.

In honor of Halloween, albeit a tiny bit late, I wanted to use today’s Secret Origin to spotlight a character that evokes the spookiness of the holiday, someone who is not necessarily a superhero, but definitely of the supernatural. I think I have found that character in Dr. Occult, the Ghost Detective!

Our story open with a flipping great splash page of Dr. Occult himself. This has nothing to do with the story within, but it’s my column and I want to show it off, so here it is.

OK, on to the story proper. We are shown a gathering of Satanic cultists on the night of Dec. 31, 1899. This truly despicable bunch plans on sacrificing two infants, a boy and a girl, stolen from a local god-fearing couple. With this sacrifice, then plan to appease Satan. You see, these (expletive deleted) cultists thought if they sacrifice some innocent kids, then Satan will give them more time before he takes their souls, which they have already pledged. The appointed hour comes and “Satan” shows up and has something to say on the matter.

Anyway, the reason i put “Satan” in quote marks is it turns out it’s really an entity called Koth, and he was just messing with the cultists before he took their souls and now plans on taking the souls of the kids anyway. Watta guy. Luckily for our defenseless tots, they are spirited away by a man called Zator. He takes them to the far east, to the abode of a group known only as The Seven. It turns out that The Seven are the sworn enemies of Koth, and while they are pretty po’ed at Zator for provoking his Ire by making the kids seem to just disappear before him, they are willing to listen to his reasoning. Zator states that The Seven can punish him as they see fit, because there is no way he was going to let innocent kids die if he could prevent it, regardless if their innate humanity would affect The Seven or not. Also, and more importantly to The Seven, he says both urchins have great mystical potential. The Seven put the kids to the test, counting their midicholrians or whatever.

The orphans are indeed strong with the force, so The Seven decrees they can live if Zator is their surrogate father, and if they can live up to the incredibly high standards set by The Seven themselves. Zator is pretty ecstatic that the kids get to live, so he’s adamant about getting them the training they need. As we all know, there is no better way to get them through the next several years than with a montage!

So, as seen above the kids are given the names of Doctor Occult and Rose Psychic, because comics, that’s why! It’s a good thing “Doc” is a smart egg, he knows that not only does he need a real name (he picks Richard), but if he wants to be called Doctor, he has to earn it, so it’s off to college and another montage. Lesson learned: if you want to be a master of the mystic arts, it takes a long freaking time. After university, Doc and Rose open the Dr. Occult Ghost Detective Agency. Rose is secretary, silent partner, and secret assistant while Doc is “the face”. While you may think business may be sparse for the twosome, you’d be wrong because this isn’t out boring, mundane world. There is a series of strange deaths and Doc couldn’t be happier:

Laden with a sense of fulfillment, the mystic twosome are on patrol when they come across an apple seller on the street (this is depression era 30’s doncha know?). Doc/Rose get a weird vibe off the seller and the “gentleman” straight up grabs Occult by the throat and bares a couple of fangs, claiming Doc is offering little to no resistance. Ol’ Vampy is sad to realize he is operating under a false sense of confidence as Dr. Occult was just feigning so he could be sure the apple peddler was an otherworldly threat before pulling out the mystic symbol of The Seven and burning him to death.

Now we’re treated to a third montage where Doc and Rose fight various mystical baddies. I’ll spare you this page and get on with the story. It turns out Koth finally rears his ugly head again. Zator summons Doc and Rose back to the Citadel of The Seven to lend a hand. There is a grand psychic battle fought, but there is no clear victor as Koth flees like the villain he is. Regardless of the outcome, The Seven are highly impressed with Dr. Occult. They give him a mission to get rid of Koth once and for all, and provide him with the means to do it:

Before we get to the final battle, I wanted to draw your attention to Dr. Occult’s ceremonial costume thingy. Sure it looks kind of silly, and doesn’t make much sense in context, but it’s important to the history of comics! You see, Dr. Occult is a creation of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, before they published their most familiar character, Superman. Doc was kind of a try out, and that’s why he was given what is essentially a color swap of Superman’s duds, making him historically the first costumed hero in a cape. Now that the history lesson is over, back to the story.

Occult and Zator are whisked to their destination, the belt seems to be unguarded. Doc puts it on when all of a sudden Koth appears with an army of minions. Zator kind of freaks, but Dr. Occult, possibly emboldened by wearing a circus outfit, knows the belt will even the odds. Miraculously, it does, summoned a ghostly green army of its own. Koth realizes it’s this mortal causing him all sorts of trouble, so he literally leaps into the fray, tackling Doc, demanding to know who it is that defies him so. Occult tells him, Koth wants to bring some finality to that night so long ago and is able to kill Dr. Occult, or so he thinks…

So, with a job well done The Seven, wish Dr. Occult well, telling him he taught them humility and blah blah blah, pat on the back and all that jazz. Doc returns to the physical world and to Rose and they have a nice brother/sister type moment. It is then posed what will he do now that Koth is gone. Well, there’s always evil to fight, so we’re told to follow Dr. Occult’s further adventures which get increasingly weirder to the point where Doc/Rose end up sharing the same body, but this is an origin, so thankfully I don’t have to tell that convoluted mess. G’night everybody!

Last night saw the premiere of Frank Darabont’s AMC adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s Image comic book series The Walking Dead. (Needlessly verbose, I know, but accurate.)

Along with the Geek Show Podcast, we presented the first episode on the big screen at Brewvies Cinema Pub in Salt Lake City to two sold out audiences for the premiere and encore screening of the show.

I’m not familiar with any of AMC’s other dramatic offerings, though I have invested in the first season of Mad Men on Blu-ray, but haven’t even cracked it out of the plastic, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the station. Would we be seeing lots of gore and violence and swearing like we’re used to in the comic book?

I knew the creative team behind the show was second to none. Frank Darabont is a champion of the filmmaking form and Kirkman is a world-class storyteller. (And David Tattersall is an incredible Director of Photography, he also lensed all of the Star Wars prequels and quite a bit of the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.) But would basic cable allow the show to breathe in all the ways it needed to?

The short answer is yes. The first 90 minute installment of this show held nothing back. It opens with a bitterly sad and shocking scene that shows us exactly how brutal the world we’re being brought into is. Rick Grimes (played beautifully by Andrew Lincoln), dressed as a Sheriff’s deputy comes across a little girl in a desolate wasteland of abandoned cars. He sees her pick up her stuffed animal and calls out to her. Slowly, she turns toward him and he can see she’s been infected with whatever is turning people into zombies. She makes a run toward him, but he shoots her in the face.

And that sets the pace for the next 90 minutes of television goodness.

We’re brought back in time after the credits to the incident which sees Rick sent to the hospital. We get a sense of his relationship with his partner, Shane, and see what kind of man he is in a normal world before he’s shot, taken by a coma, and awakens in the world we’ll be spending the rest of this series exploring.

Darabont is an excellent director of horror and makes even the simple task of getting out of the hospital a nail-biting experience.

There were a number of departures from the comics, but I think each of them were required for the adaptation to television. One of the characters from the first trade, Morgan, has a much richer story that is extended in very good ways and actually steals the best moment in the first episode for himself, catching his own wife in the cross hairs of a rifle.

The audience was completely into the show, even booing and hissing the revelation that Rick’s wife, Lori, believes her husband dead and is seeing his douche-bag of a partner, Shane. They were also actively jumpy and startled at all the right times throughout.

Things were layered together perfectly, matching the comic in all the right ways, and diverging in the most respectful ways to the source material as possible to make it perfect for television and accessible to an audience who hasn’t read the book.

If I had to give this episode a rating out of 1 to 10, it would easily be a 10. This is must-see TV and will very nicely fill the void in my heart left by the ending of LOST.

And it looks like it will be around for a while, too. In addition to the rest of this season (5 more episodes), AMC has greenlit a second full season. And since this episode had the single best viewership in AMC’s history with an estimated 5.3 million viewers (The Hollywood Reporter has the full story on the numbers), I expect we’ll be seeing a lot of this show in the future. Perhaps they can keep it up indefinitely, just like the comic.

We’ll have pictures from the event online in the next day or two. And Brewvies has asked if we’d like to come back for every episode of the series. And I think the answer is a resounding yes. Be sure to check our facebook page for details.

Our friend over at Super Hero of the Month has posted the first batch of entries for this month’s contest to redesign the boy wonder, Robin! You can check out the entries at the link above, and don’t forget: It’s not too late to submit an entry! You have until November 20 to get your version of Robin in!

Dr. Volt’s is sponsoring their inagural contest (which will be an on-going monthly thing) and there are copies of Red Robin Volumes 1 & 2 up for grabs for the winner!

You can get all the details you need to enter the Robin Re-Design contest over at Super Hero of the Month!

We have two new clips from Clone Wars. These appear to follow the formula from the debut. This seems to be a prequel and a sequel to a season one episode (the finale to be exact.)

Of note is the appearance of Quinlan Vos, an expanded Universe Character of some popularity who has almost made it into the series in other forms before.

From the official press release:

In the middle of a routine shopping trip on Coruscant, C-3PO is abducted by bounty hunter Cad Bane. Soon, both Threepio and his astromech counterpart R2-D2 find themselves pawns in Bane’s plan to free Ziro the Hutt from a heavily guarded prison in the heart of the Republic. The hapless droids are once again integral in events that threaten to unravel the future of the galaxy in “Evil Plans” – an all-new episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars airing at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT Friday, November 5th on Cartoon Network.

Reprising his role from all six live-action Star Wars films and countless ancillary intergalactic appearances over the past three decades, Anthony Daniels returns to voice the prim and proper protocol droid for this special episode of The Clone Wars. Thrilled at the rare chance to explore Threepio’s expertise in etiquette, Daniels himself relished the opportunity to exercise the fan-favorite character’s strengths in ways that haven’t yet been seen on screen.

“Threepio’s whole life is focused on how to avoid conflict, and the basic premise is that he’s always out of place. But he doesn’t have to be the fall guy all the time,” says Daniels. “For once, we see him functioning as he was made, according to his programming. It’s a more domesticated storyline, without the shoot-em-up aspects of the Saga. His abilities are cerebral, not physical – and he finally gets to use his expertise in protocol and etiquette. In a way, he’s more relaxed than we’ve ever seen him. But of course nothing in party-planning ever goes exactly as planned.”

Having spent so much time ensconced in Threepio’s golden trappings for the big screen, live-action adventures, Daniels enjoys the opportunity to bring the character to life through vocalization alone. Less physically strenuous than on-camera appearances, voice work nonetheless requires a keen attention to detail, as well as an understanding of what makes the character tick.

“There are all sorts of funny little technical issues with keeping him human-like without human sounds. He doesn’t breathe; I have to be careful not to breathe,” says Daniels. “The aim is to keep him very much as he is in the movies. Some of it has become second nature; I’ve been pleased to realize that I can still create the voice and match the original character. It’s the genuine article. And I really do enjoy the animation. It’s a mutual support society; they do picture to voice, so it’s a physical representation based around my vocal performance. In the series, Threepio is as gravity-forced as always. It reminds you that he can be quite clumsy. I think The Clone Wars is animated in a way that is quite accessible – not just the wide-eyed, simple, Saturday morning fare. It makes you realize you are watching Star Wars.”

Though the episode is quintessentially Star Wars, Daniels notes that the droids tend to illustrate some of the lighter aspects of the space saga. Focusing on dialogue rather than danger, they represent the fun of the series, without relying so heavily on galaxy-shattering stakes.

“There are sides of Star Wars that can be quite humorous – subtle and more gentle. I think that’s why people enjoy the relationship between Artoo and Threepio,” he says. “You don’t expect them to exhibit these human qualities, and it’s really quite charming. For all the battles, there’s a benignity that gives [Star Wars] the winner’s cup; it’s an honorable enterprise, because there’s more to it than blasters and political concerns. It’s important to realize that not everything has to focus on the dark side. Life goes on, even when there’s a war going on. But Threepio would say that, wouldn’t he?”

And here’s the Quinlan Vos scene:

AMC has released a tease of the first five minutes of the highly anticipated show “The Walking Dead”. For those of you stationed under a rock somewhere, this show is based on Robert Kirkman’s book of the same name, which is a continuing series of survival horror.

Frank Darabont directed this first episode and it premieres on Halloween Night on AMC. (Be sure to check your local listings for the exact time and channel.)

For those of you in the Salt Lake City area, we’re co-hosting along with the Geek Show Podcast a presentation of this on the big screen at Brewvies. You can get more details on the facebook event page. It’s a free event and open to the public.

Without further ado, here are the first five minutes of The Walking Dead TV Show:

Add the Walking Dead on Facebook and Twitter!

Last night, Disney set up screenings across the country of snippets from the new Tron film Tron: Legacy in IMAX 3D.

Their point was obviously to rile up support for the film (being released December 17, 2010) and work longtime fans who came into a frenzy.

Put simply, based on this 20 or so minutes, my opinion is that this is going to be the film to beat for the holiday movie season.  Sure, Harry Potter is coming out and will automatically do great, but this movie looks fantastic.  (So does Harry Potter, but that’s besides the point.)

For longtime fans of the Tron mythology like myself, this batch of footage was spine-tingling.  The first scene shown was one between Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner from the original film) coming to visit Sam Flynn, the despondent, thrill-seeking son of the hero from the first film.  It seems as though Sam’s father (Kevin Flynn, Jeff Bridges in both films) disappeared some time ago, but a mystery has begun and Alan seems to think  that Sam needs to investigate, starting at Flynn’s Arcade.  My only problem with this scene was that Boxleitner was a little stiff (on the cheesy side, even) but it established the story of a father and son quite capably and powerfully.

Reluctantly, Sam then seeks out Flynn’s Arcade.

This is the Flynn’s Arcade we all saw in the first film.  Every detail seems perfect.  This is where the Nostalgia Factor his highest for me.  The sets here were dusty and covered with plastic, but it has been so lovingly and perfectly recreated from the original film that I swooned.  In fact, there are shots of Sam in the upstairs office of the Arcade that mirrored shots of Jeff Bridges in the original film and it gave me the chills.  The detail is perfect and it’s obvious that this has been made by people who love the original film as much as the fans like us do.

Sam is then led downstairs, to a hidden office of his father’s and though he doesn’t recognize what he’s getting himself into, we do.  The same laser that digitized Kevin Flynn in the original film is stationed directly behind the seat Sam takes and we know what to expect from here.

Then we see Sam fall into the grid.

He’s picked up quickly by a Recognizer and abducted.  This gave us our first real look at the world of Tron in 3D.  The Recognizer and all of its captives flew over the city in breathtaking vistas, offering us a look inside the computer world as such we’ve never seen before.  This was full of awe for the character, doubly so for the audience.

There was a moment here, as they were assigning Sam to “The Games” (something so frightful the program before Sam commits suicide when he’s assigned to them), that I really missed the look of the old film.  That grainy old school black and white with neon color…  Don’t get me wrong.  Once you’re acclimated to this world, it’s leaps and bounds better than the original, but for a moment it did seem jarring because we’ve grown up knowing what this world looks and feels like and this is a much more sleek X-Box 360 version of the world, as compared to the original’s 8bit roots.

Sam is then suited up and given his programming disc and sent to play in a life or death series of games.  First we’re treated to a battle with the programming discs and then we get a taste of the light cycles.  This is where the 3D really shines.  They’ve added so many dimensions of space to the games that it might be hard to get your bearings but it’s visually stunning.  The effects are incredible and this was the moment where I knew I had to see this on IMAX 3D when it came out (which I suspect was the point of this entire Tron Night exercise.)

At this point, Olivia Wilde’s character, Quorra, busts Sam out of the games in order to bring him to his father, who seems to have been trapped in this world for the last 25 years.  She is absolutely stunning.  I was mesmerized by her.  I really, really couldn’t take my eyes off of her.  And she’s good, too.  (Why do I get the feeling she’s going to turn out to be a bad program?)

But it was the reunification of father in son that provided an unexpectedly emotional moment that was almost overpowering to the point of tears.  They build up so capably in the snippets of film they showed prior to this (built solidly on the foundation of the original film) that their reunion is so heartfelt and perfect that I don’t know how well to describe it.  There’s also that overwhelming wash of emotion that comes of seeing Jeff Bridges once again inhabit this world.  And there’s something not right about it, too.  He seems despondent.  And, in a big tip-off for what might be future problems or the hint of a well laid trap, he seems oblivious to the message that got out of the grid and into the real world that brought Sam there in the first place.  It raised a lot of questions for me and I’m going to die in the next two months waiting for answers.

After this heartfelt and somber scene, we were treated to a montage of images, beginning with a shot of Michael Sheen and Daft Punk leading into a pulse-pounding trailer for the rest of the film, including a look at the new aerial battles of the world of Tron.  We’re also introduced to Clu 2.0, which is a digital version of young Jeff Bridges.  I’m a little wary of him, but the movie looks so good I don’t care if digital Jeff Bridges is in it.

You can see some of the shots I talked about in this Daft Punk video trailer for the film below that Disney released yesterday called “Derezzed”:

I was also a little worried about Daft Punk, to be honest. I don’t know much about them and don’t specifically care for their music, but the use of music in the snippets of footage they showed us were perfect, for lack of a better word. Not just their music but the use of classic 80s anthems, too.

Long story short, I hope this movie blows my mind. And I will definitely be signing up to see it in IMAX 3D as soon as possible.

And be sure to look out for the new episode of The Geek Show Podcast on Monday. We recorded three episodes from the theatre and I was a guest panelist. In the first episode (coming out Monday) we all offer our initial thoughts of the footage. (As if you weren’t already pumped up about this film enough.)

Next week Superboy is getting the spotlight in his own brand new ongoing series. Brought to us by critically acclaimed writer Jeff Lemire, and up and coming artist Pier Gallo, Superboy is looking to be a really fun book that I’m really excited for. We have a look at 6 pages from the first issue at the bottom of this page, but first I recently had the opportunity to ask writer Jeff Lemire some questions about his upcoming run on the series and here’s what he had to say:

Androidika: Did DC approach you to write Superboy or did you approach them?

Jeff Lemire: I was working with DC on The Atom and Geoff John suggested that I might be a good for for the character. So, I wrote up a one page pitch and sent it off to Matt Idelson the Super-editor.  It really did seem like a natural fit for me considering my past work, and my obvious love of telling rural stories.

Androidika: What is it about Superboy that you like?

Jeff Lemire: I love that he is a teenager who never had the chance to be a boy. He was born, fully formed in a test tube and missed out on any kind of childhood. And now he’s trying to go back to Smallville and find that sense of family and community he never had, but being Superboy keeps getting in the way.

Androidika: In the preview pages for issue one we see The Phantom Stranger. And Poison Ivy will be in issue two according to the solicit. I normally wouldn’t think of these characters as characters that would appear in a Superboy comic. Are we going to see more of Superboy interacting with a broader range of characters in the DC Universe?

Jeff Lemire: Well, it no secret that I love DC’s stable of magical characters. And The Phantom Stranger it such a great and, I think, underused character. He fits perfectly with the story I want to tell over my first year on the book which is rather strange and a bit dark. I plan on having Conner face his worst nightmares and have them embodied by some creepy new characters.

As for Ivy, I thought it was fun to use a villain that wouldn’t normally appear in the book. But in a thematic sense you’ll see that she too fits right in with a lot of the things I have planned. After those two characters though, it will mostly be a bunch of new villains and heroes joining Conner with the occasional appearance by some of the Titans.

Androidika: Will Superboy be getting his own supporting cast or rogues gallery?

Jeff Lemire: Yes and yes. The two great characters Geoff created in his Adventure run, (Simon Valentine the boy genius destined to either be Conner’s greatest friend or greatest enemy, and Lori Luthor, Lex’s niece) will be regular cast members and a big part of the book. And. I’m creating some other new characters that will be regular cast members including a new teen super hero called Psionic Lad.

Androidika: Will we see Connor Kent have a personal life in Smallville outside of being Superboy or just going to school?

Jeff Lemire: Yes. His relationship to ma Kent will be a key part of the book, as will his responsibilities in maintaining the Kent Farm. We will also see Conner get a part-time job in town. I really want to create a well-rounded sense of community for him. It will be the villains and super-elements that keep interrupting and threatening this sense of community.

Androidika: How far ahead do you have planned for the book? And are you looking at staying on long term?

Jeff Lemire: I have 13 issues plotted and have written 6 so far. I plan on seeing how I feel after that, but I would like to really stick around and do a nice two year run with Conner. As long as the fans respond well enough so that Matt Idelson doesn’t kick me off!

Androidika: And lastly, are there any teases you can give us to whet our appetites for this series?

Jeff Lemire: Hmmm….well I would love to reveal something new. Let me think…there’s The Superboy/Kid Flash race in issue 5. There is a new love interest for Krypto in issue 7. And another of DC’s mystical characters will appear in Issue 12. I can’t say who, but this character used to have his or her own monthly book when I was a kid.

I just wanted to say thank you to Mr Lemire for taking the time to talk to us about Superboy.

And finally DC’s blog, The Source, had this blurb about Superboy to go along with the preview pages:

And now, SUPERBOY #1

Writer Jeff Lemire and artist Pier Gallo step into Smallville next Wednesday with the launch of SUPERBOY #1, which launches the hero into a new, ongoing series. And, wow, is that Rafael Albuquerque cover a beauty or what?

But this is a Smallville you’ve never seen – one that even Superman doesn’t know about. What are the mysteries surrounding the town and beneath the surface, and what do they hold in store for Superboy? Only one way to find out. Check out some pages from the first issue below, stay tuned to The Source for more from Jeff Lemire on the series and pick up SUPERBOY #1, which goes on sale 11/3.

I was strolling through the local Walmart laughing at people and discussing the gentrification of the middle class with my wife when a familiar logo caught the corner of my eye. I shrugged it off as short term effects of the hallucinogenic
drugs I’d taken earlier and continued through the store. Before leaving I decided to peruse the magazine and book section for a new thesaurus. Much to my chagrin, in the BEST SELLERS rack were some independent comics books! Does this change the game or is this a fad? Is this any different than the Watchmen graphic novels in my local grocery store? Is Image bigger than DC comics now? Did I go overboard with my new thesaurus?