Outside the Beltway

Superman is the biggest franchise in comics and Batman is close behind. Marvel’s stable of characters is more interesting, though.

This isn’t your father’s Batman. (That Boy Scout Adam West would never do such a thing.) He’s not even your brother’s Batman. (Tim Burton’s vision was dark, but whimsical too.) No, this killer is your grandfather’s Batman, the Dark Knight who, in his early 1939 appearances in Detective Comics, didn’t show any qualms about dispatching the bad guys.

I’m glad to see Lee get a piece of this pie given that none of it would exist without his creative vision.

Marvel Comics is putting out a special edition Avengers book for free distribution to American troops around the world.

Reuters is abuzz with news that Colombia is publishing a Pope John Paul II comic book. I’d point out that Marvel already did this–in 1983.