Notice anything different? Read inside for the inside scoop about the site’s recent changes! Also, news about Empire and their coverage of the Dark Knight, the new X-Men cartoon, more Dark Knight and a link to my current favourite comics blog! Continue reading for more info!

Regular readers to the site will notice that we’ve made a few changes recently, as we may have promised we would a few weeks ago. Obviously, nothing substantial’s going to change, we’re just sprucing things up so they look a little nicer and stuff, as well as a few new features being added to the site - diggability, a new server, the sort of behind-the-scenes stuff most people won’t even notice! The Comics Daily remit remains the same - a new comics review every week day! The one thing I will say, though, is that you can feel free to update to our new URL - all the old links work, but I think we can all agree it’ll only make things run smoother if it’s all pointing at one place. The new url is www.alternatecover.com - and, if you’re reading on RSS, use this feed. Again, I’ll stress that nothing’s likely to stop working if you don’t switch, it’s just more helpful for our webstats! (JH)

Movie magazine Empire have switched into “geek mode” to capitalise on the growing Bat-mania (cor, it’s like 1989 all over again), and have come up with a list of “The 50 Greatest Comic Characters“. Amazingly for a list put on the web by a film magazine, it’s actually quite good (perhaps because, unlike their much-criticised “top TV shows” list, they didn’t throw the voting open to readers). I went into it expecting a top three of Batman/Spider-Man/Superman (or Wolverine), in that order, and was therefore surprised by the final placings and the presence of characters from the likes of Sandman and Maus (although they completely got the wrong two characters from Preacher). Furthermore, the odd glitch aside (Garth Ennis’ first Hellblazer arc wasn’t called “Deadly Habits”, guys), it’s quite well researched and written - a consequence, I suppose, of having some genuine comic geeks on the writing staff. Worth a read if you’ve got ten minutes or so to kill on a lunch break, anyway. (SP)

Like many people, one of the things that GOT me into comics was the X-Men animated series, I thought which was just about awesome in every way. I never really got into X-Men Evolution, but I’ve got to say, having seen the latest trailer for Wolverine and the X-Men, I can’t wait to see how it turns out. Looks like it’ll truly capture the magic of those old shows, only using modern, updated takes on the characters. It’s not out for another few months, but seriously, I can hardly wait! (JH)

Elsewhere in “online articles worth a glance”, again in preparation for The Dark Knight, CBR have put together the first part of a quite decent “The Joker 101″ session. Of couse, we fully expect that discerning Comics Daily readers know everything there is to know about the Clown Prince of Crime, but just in case you want a bit of a refresher, it’s worth checking out. Question is, given the information that’s filtered out about the film… shouldn’t they be doing a Two-Face one as well? (SP)

Lastly, I just wanted to give a quick plug to Dom Sutton’s “London Loves Comics” blog. It’s been tucked away on our review bar for ages, but it’s been so entertaining recently I felt I had to mention it again. It’s not a review blog, but it is always interesting and consistently has me in stitches, especially whenever he gets back from a comic mart. Add it to your RSS reader now! (JH)

Tags: batman, The Dark Knight, The Joker, Wolverine, X-Men
Publisher: The Sunday Pages