James is away at Reading this week, so TSP is left in my hands. Muah hah hah hah hah. It’s a quiet one as a result, but some of our favourite creators – Gillen/McKelvie and Bryan Lee O’Malley – have put excellent and/or teasing things online this week, plus there’s the rather bizarre statement by that bloke at Warner Bros. about DC movies, and some infuriating spoilers courtesy of Kick-Ass movie news…

First of all, over at McKelvieBlog you’ll find the really rather lovely cover to issue #1 of Phonogram : Singles Club, the hotly-anticipated sequel to Gillen and McKelvie’s original six-issue masterpiece. The artwork itself is as excellent as you’d expect from Jamie, but it’s the concept that really makes this – each cover will be a different club flier (flyer? I’ve never got to grips with that one, even when I was making the damned things for nights in Oxford), and we can presumably expect drastically different styles and layouts for each one. The list of “likes” suddenly turning into something dark and unexpected, the Pipettes references, the “Entrance Fee”, the “Guest DJs” including Marc Ellerby… brilliant stuff, all of which demonstrates that these guys are among the best at high-concept, cutting-edge comics imagery. Phonogram 2 is going to be an absolute blast, and if you haven’t already got your order in, DO IT, DO IT NOW.

Meanwhile, Scott Pilgrim uberstar Bryan Lee O’Malley has teamed up with his missus, Hope Larson, to create an excellent little mini-webcomic called Bear Creek Apartments. It’s a fairly simple story, with a dark little twist that’s hardly original but still entertaining, and O’Malley’s artwork is lovely – the pencils/inks are reminiscent of Pilgrim, but the watercolour and crayon colouring job lends it a distinctive look and feel all of its own. Nice to see him branching out artistically, and nice to see some more writing from Hope, as well. Well worth ten minutes of your time to read.

This is kind of weird, and I’m not sure what to make of it. It appears to be missing the point somewhat. Yes, The Dark Knight was massively successful. Yes, it was pretty bloody dark. But that does not mean that “dark” will work and be successful for all available characters. Not only is it a rehash of all the things that ruined comics in the post-Watchmen/DKR rush to give every conceivable character angst and anger, but it flies in the face of all available evidence. Yes, TDK was the most successful comic book film of the year. But what was the second? The decidedly un-dark, witty, sharp and downright *fun* Iron Man. Meanwhile, the “darker” Spider-Man 3 ended up being something of a mess. In other words, in comic book movies, as with ALL movies, there’s a place for balance. Yes, a good Batman story will usually be dark and gritty, reflecting the life that Bruce Wayne chooses to lead. On the other hand, though – when has there ever been a good “dark” Superman story? Mark Millar’s Red Son is probably the closest, but that’s not even really a Superman story at all. Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?, All-Star Superman, Secret Identity, even Superman For All Seasons – these are stories that take the essence of why Superman works, and distil it into engaging, inspiring and beautiful stories. That’s what the original Christopher Reeve Superman movie is, and that’s what any future Superman movie needs to be if it’s going to be a success – or, at least, if it’s going to be a successful Superman film. The Dark Knight was a great film, but it was a great *Batman* film. Do that to Superman, and you might get a successful film, but you won’t have a Superman film. I’d rather not see a film at all, than see one that compromised the inherent values and attributes of the character and his world. And either way, this statement is a simple indicator that there are people in charge who simply don’t get it – they don’t understand why both TDK and Iron Man were successful, they don’t understand that there isn’t necessarily a prevailing mood for one particular style, and so can’t fathom that extremely different films released around the same time can be a valid enterprise. Sigh.

Elsewhere in comic book movie land, Empire report that Nic Cage has been cast in the inevitable movie adaptation of Mark Millar’s Kick-Ass. Interesting enough, but what really makes this story stand out is that it manages to spoil things that we haven’t seen in the comic yet. Apparently Cage “will play a former cop who, in his quest to bring down a druglord, has trained his teenage daughter (Chloe Moretz) to be a lethal weapon.” All well and good, but we haven’t encountered his character. We have no idea (yet) who the mysterious girl is who showed up and committed all kinds of brutal and wanton violence at the end of issue #3, because issue #4 is only just due out this coming week! I know it’s not unusual nowadays for Hollywood writers/directors to be given info about comics they’re adapting before said comics have finished (Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim will be based on all six books, even though there’s a very real possibility that book six won’t have been released by the time they start and/or finish filming), and it’s simply a side-effect of comics being such a valuable resource for film ideas nowadays – but at the very least, could they not have a bit of respect for the source material by not ruining it for those of us who would rather, you know, have the chance to read the damned thing first?