​A lot of you have sent me the news that Warner Bros. has made Chris Nolan, director of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, in sort of advisory role on the next Superman movie. I appreciate it, but I don't think we need to get too worked up about this. Here's why:

• We have no idea how much power Nolan actually has. I'd be shocked if he got to veto plans outright, especially if WB hires a big-name or even medium-name director. It's more likely he'll just be a voice in the room when the executives -- who have been fucking this up for years now -- meet.
• More importantly, how often will he actually be in that room? He's finishing Inception now, and then WB wants him to start on Batman 3 ASAP. I'd put down any amount of cash that between advising on Superman or making Batman 3, WB would rather he work on Batman.
• This Superman movie still doesn't exist. There are no scripts, no directors, no ideas. All Nolan can even say at the moment is "Let's not do something tremendously stupid," which, while good advice, is kind of vague.

This obviously isn't bad news, but let's not think this means the second coming of the Superman movie franchise. Seriously, Nolan is out of that meeting room even one day, and that could be the day they hire Tyler Perry to play the son of Richard Pryor's character from Superman III.

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Seriously, DC. If it means I can just read about Bruce Wayne kicking ass throughout time and him putting odd bat-logos on a variety of costumes, I'm honestly not sure if I'd mind him never getting back to the present. Much like the Bat-Pilgrim was the cover of Return of Bruce Wayne #2, Bat-Beard the Pirate here is the cover to #3. If you don't find the idea of a Batman-Pirate to be totally awesome, I... well, I honestly can't fathom that anyone would have that opinion, let alone why. Head over to DC's Source to see cover #4 and, uh... "Bat" Masterson.

Since Planet Hulk came out last week, a trailer for Marvel and Lionsgate's next direct-to-DVD cartoon movie was included, that being Thor: Tales of Asgard. It's about young Thor searching after the sword of Surtur and getting Asgard into a war with the frost giants or something or other. I'm trying to avoid my traditional bitchings nowadays (with a limited amount of success, admittedly) so let me try and bring up my thoughts through the new information this trailer presents to us.

• I'm not thrilled about watching a Thor adventure where he doesn't have Mjolnir. I mean, if I'm paying for Thor, I'm generally paying for hammer-time as well. Still, this movie is about young Thor, so I can let it go.
• I do like seeing Thor and Loki as brothers, before they were bitter enemies. That's cool.
• I am very concerned about Thor's line "That sword has taken its last life!"  and Loki's "We're royalty, we're not made for adventure!" These are Norse gods we're talking about here. The only thing more ridiculous than Thor not being ready for adventure -- even as a tyke -- is him worrying that a weapon is too dangerous. even if you take into account that these are the Marvel versions of Thor and crew, doesn't this seems preposterously out of character? Shouldn't Thor get rid of Mjolnir and stay home to watch the Puppy Bowl repeats if he's so worried about weapons and incapable of going on adventures? (Via Geeks of Doom)

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On Friday, DC's Source released two covers for the upcoming Return of Bruce Wayne comic written by Grant Morrison and about the adventures of Bruce Wayne quantum leap-ing through time. The first cover had that Bat-themed caveman outfit we'd already seen, but the second had Bruce as a bat-themed pilgrim. It's above.

Seriously. A cross between Batman and a Thanksgiving pilgrim. I'm pretty much ready to award Return of Bruce Wayne the Best Comic of 2010 award right now. If we get a Batman/Roman soldier hybrid later on, my pants may actually fly off my lower torso in pure joy.

​My pals -- er, pal -- at ToyFare got the exclusive scoop on the figures in wave 14 of Mattel's DC Universe Classics figures, and man, it's a doozy. If you can't tell by the pics above (and I can't, so I'm not judging you), they are:

• Zatanna
• Tyr
• Green Lantern (Alan Scott)
• Hourman
• Obsidian
• Gold
• Kamandi
• Build-a-Figure: Ultra-Humanite

I've talked before about how Mattel seems to be making the most obscure DC superheroes it can for this theoretically mass-market toyline, but this is ridiculous. I guess there's a chance kids have heard of Zatanna from cameos in Smallville or JLU, and maybe they'll buy Golden Age Green Lantern because he's a Green Lantern, despite not looking like any GL they've ever seen. But the rest? Madness. Oh, and apparently this is the new Wal-Mart wave, so good luck, DC collectors -- I'm pretty sure no human being has ever found last year's DCUC Wal-Mart set. Still, if I ever see it, even I have to buy a Kamandi figure, just on principle alone. (Via Poe Ghostal)

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I'm a Mac lover. I'm sure this appalls many of you, but I'm not a big tech guy, and Macs are right in my comfort zone. I love my MacBook and my iPhone, but even I couldn't give less of a shit about the new iPad (since it's an off amalgamation of the two Apple products I currently own). That is, until I saw Gizmodo's article on Panelfly's upcoming iPad-specific comic book app, which looks like if it isn't the future of American comics, it should be.

Seriously. It's got a big color screen, an easy interface for flipping through books, and it'll be easy to navigate. There'll be no printing cost, prices can go down from $4 a goddamn comic (seriously, that's absurd) and likely more people will get into Marvel and DC titles when they're only $1 or $2 a pop in an easy-to-browse iTunes-like store. Seriously, assuming that the iPad has 1/4 of the success the iPhone and iPod have had, if Marvel and DC don't get on this thing immediately, they're crazy. All the small publishers should already be begging Panelfly to be a part of this thing.

Looks like Sega's Iron Man 2 game is coming along well. There's ground battles, air battles and punching, although I can't tell exactly how free you are to go back and forth between the modes, or if they're specific gameplay styles for specific missions (I'm hoping the former). Also, I can't tell if War Machine is actually Player 2 and you can play co-op missions or if he's just another playable character -- it'd be pretty cool if it were the former, but I'm sadly betting it's the latter. In fact, I don't know why I posted this video at all. My bad. Move along.

​Today's list was suggested by Quixotico, one of the winners of the TR Daily List Suggestion Contest!

To you commenters who are already cracking your typing fingers, yeah, we know that the overwhelming majority of superheroes have more than one weakness. Most of them are human, just like you and me, and are vulnerable any number of things, from cancer to stabbings to being ironically smothered by your supposedly amorous RealDoll. So before we go any further, I'll just say this for you: "You forgot Spider-Man's greatest weakness: Bullets!" We know. We're not interested. We're talking about unusual superhero weaknesss in this list -- the ones that are actually cool, and make the heroes more interesting, or are so stupid and/or nonsensical as to at least be entertaining. So let's take a look at those superheroes who really do have some well-known greatest weaknesses -- some of which make sense, others.... not so much.

​Yesterday, Rich Johnston of Bleeding Cool reported that DC was considering making a sequel to Watchmen -- the graphic novel, not the movie. More specifically, he said that Dan Didio was trying to start the project now that Paul Levitz had stepped down as President of DC, because Levitz had always prevented such an idea, and also so Didio could impress his new Warner Bros. overlords by making a sequel to DC's bestselling graphic novel of last year.

I was really hoping to avoid posting about this, but enough of you have emailed me in concern, and certainly, other nerd sites have picked up the rumor. Is Johnston's theory plausible? Unfortunately, yes -- like every company, DC/Warner Bros. exists to make money, and Watchmen was a major revenue stream for them in 2009, one any company would hate to see dry up. But is it probable? I don't think so. First of all, Johnston doesn't even mention any sources for his "news," unnamed or otherwise. It's more a theory than even a rumor.

More importantly, the one bit of "proof" he does offer up -- mainly, Rorschach fighting Dark Knight Returns Batman in the art for a 2007 article in Wizard magazine -- is totally absurd. My pal Sean Collins explains it in far better detail in a post over at Robot 6, but the short version is that the article was always intended to be a "What If?"-type article, much like Wizard's regular "Last Man Standing" feature, but the text clarifying that got edited out. Moreover, common sense should tell you that DC doesn't drop major DC Universe story hints in non-official art commissioned by and for non-DC-owned publications... especially not three years in advance. That's stupid.

Again, I can't say it's totally impossible that Didio isn't trying to think of a way to make more money of Watchmen, but let's not freak out that there might be a sequel when there's absolutely zero proof of it. And think about this, too -- what comics writer or artist would ever, ever agree to work on a Watchmen sequel? They'd be pariahs of the industry, hated by their peers and comics fans alike. They'd also probably have their hearts ripped out while still beating by Alan Moore, and possibly eaten. So let's just forget about this nonsense until we have something to actually worry about, okay?

I think most toy collectors know Tonner, right? They make 18-inch figures -- in a weird, very doll-like style, complete with rooted hair and fabric clothes -- that normally would be in some ritzy collector's store, except they've been getting into nerd properties like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and DC characters and stuff over the last few years. Anyways, they just released pics of a slew of new dolls coming out later this year, and they're kind of freaking me out.
​• Power Girl. Admittedly, Tonner's done most of the rest of the big DC superheroines already, so it's a natural selection -- plus, Tonner is also releasing a Harley Quinn doll at the same time. It's just that Power Girl figures -- of any sort -- freak me out, because I can't stop think about how the owners will choose to "play" with them.

​• If Power Girl is bad, this Who Framed Roger Rabbit Jessica is much, much worse. I mean, you don't even have to expend any effort getting this doll naked -- it's just a slight tug. It's the American version of those millions of Japanese figurines with the removable maid outfits and such.
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• Admittedly, this Miss Piggy figure is probably the best, most accurate figure they're releasing. It's just that now my mind's in the gutter and I can't stop thinking about some depraved soul dry-humping Miss Piggy. So please, enjoy that mental image with me.