This week, we’re trying to get away from Superman, but he keeps pulling us back in. Can anyone remember the last time he was this news-worthy? The last time he inspired anyone this much was when he was dead (Ooh, burn!) As well as that, there’s also a look at the FCBD X-Men story, Warren Ellis tackles the “work for hire vs. creator ownership” debate, and a brief roundup of some other comics material I (James) have written for Den of Geek recently.

Mike Carey’s brought a real fan’s perspective to the X-Men, so it’s great to see him writing an X-Men FCBD issue. Except, of course, the artwork is by Greg Land. You can see some pages on Newsarama, including this beauty of a page where Pixie turns into a supermodel to play baseball and, of course, Land’s brilliant depiction of Wales which shows, er, a French Garden, wooden shutters on the windows and an abandoned cart of some kind. You know, because that’s what Wales looks like. Of course, with Land coming to X-Men on a permanent basis, you can expect more of this kind of thing. The official Marvel line on Land’s method of working, though, (even if he’s not mentioned by name) is that “As always, if you don’t like it, don’t buy it–that sends the simplest, strongest message.” Oh well. (JH)

Last week, I talked about Warren Ellis taking over Astonishing X-Men, and how the quality of his recent Marvel work flew somewhat in the face of the popular assertion that he doesn’t “like” mainstream superheroes. Apparently, there are fans out there that simply don’t grasp the concept of somebody changing their mind over something they said some years back – and so it was quite interesting to read this thread on Ellis’ message board, Whitechapel. In it, a somewhat baffled Warren finds himself having to explain, in the wake of the announcement of his leaving Thunderbolts, just why he doesn’t do particularly long stints on non-creator-owned books – making the perfectly reasonable point (even if his bullish “this side of the line” statement is a bit more confrontational) that he, like many writers, sees Work-for-Hire as something to do for short periods in between his own, more personal work; rather than getting tied down to writing someone else’s characters, with all the restrictions that would bring. His explanation of just why he came back to superhero stuff – essentially, he did that Ultimate Fantastic Four run as a favour to Millar and Bendis, and found to his surprise that there was a massive untapped well of readers that were suddenly drawn to the likes of Transmet – should finally quieten those oh-so-precious fans of his who wouldn’t be seen dead going near the “Big Two”, and who still assume that “Mr. Ellis” (why do people call him that when they want to get on his good side?) feels the same way. Indeed, the overfamiliarity of fans who assume they’re on the exact same wavelength as Ellis is amusingly challenged partway down the thread (post #11) when one somewhat presumptuous fan gets quite fantastically “Warrowned”. And I look forward to it being a watershed moment in the demise of ghastly fan-fiction-related phrasing.

Of course, you can’t make comments like Ellis’ without the hardcore superhero fan community taking it as a slight against everything they hold dear – so the relevant thread on Newsarama is good for a bit of a laugh. Choice responses include “I dont’ think I could ever tire of writing and using classic characters such as bullseye, venom, etc. as well as doing it so damn interestingly” and “the problem is he took a house that was already painted and splash some dark colors on it and then left it ruin and no the people that used to live in that house don;t want it any more” . Not to mention the chap who tries to pick a fight with Rich Johnston for his perceived namedropping, but later starts a post with ” As someone who is paid to write for a living”… (SP)

You just can’t ignore Superman at the moment – he hasn’t been this newsworthy for a very long time, and even then it was by virtue of being dead or electric. Thanks to the Siegel ruling, it’s nice to see people actually talking about the character simply for who he is, and what he represents. And one enterprising soul has taken clear advantage of this increased exposure – sticking a copy of Action Comics #1, in really quite remarkable condition, up on eBay. At the time of writing, bidding stood at just over $90,000 (that’s, what, about five quid at current rates?) with ten hours left to go, and the reserve remains unmet. Where’s Stephen Geppi when you need him? (SP)

Since I forgot to mention it last week, you can read not one, but two new comics columns by me over at Den of Geek. Last week’s is a rant examining the topic of Collecting Comics, and the this week’s is a look at the current issues facing the idea of a Siegel-licensed Superman (in which I re-use a joke or two) entitled A Second Superman? (JH)

And in our final bit of Superman news for the week, we discover that James wasn’t the only person to contemplate the idea of a Siegel-licensed set of stories – in what was otherwise a pretty poor year for April Fool’s gags, yours truly was well and truly taken in (for a few moments) by some little site called CBR (sounds a bit rubbish, can’t see it catching on) linking to this on their front page. Just further confirmation of why Oni are great, really: the “press release” was written in nicely tongue-in-cheek fashion (”For those who don’t know”, indeed), and was an excellent piece of opportunism – soon enough after the ruling, and with enough speculation flying around, that the date of posting could genuinely be missed by someone taken in by a link elsewhere. Er, like me. (SP)

And finally, just because we hardly need an excuse to talk about Scott Pilgrim, here’s a nice micro-interview with Michael Cera, courtesy of Empire’s resident comics geek Chris Hewitt. It’s notable mainly for the revelation that not only has Cera been in contact with Edgar Wright over the role for quite some time, but that he was already a fan of the comics beforehand. He seems to have a good grasp on what makes Scott different to the roles he’s usually known for (although there are also plenty of similarities), so it should bode well for his interpretation. (SP)