Johnny Gigawatt and the Tiger Men from Mars We are Batty

MORRISON AND QUITELY ON BATMAN AND ROBIN

The devil you say?  This 'chapter' (according to Morrison this is part 4 of a 5 part epic Batman story, beginning with Batman & Son, and including RIP) will be made up of a quartet of 3 issue arcs, the first and last of which will be illustrated by Quitely.  The second and third arcs will supposedly be drawn by Billy Tan and Doug Mahnke respectively.

IRON MAN 2 - May 7, 2010 - May 7, 2010
THOR - July 16, 2010 - June 16, 2011
THE FIRST AVENGER: CAPTAIN AMERICA - May 6, 2011 - July 22, 2011
THE AVENGERS - July 15, 2011 - May 4, 2012

This change also clears The Avengers out of direct competition with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a galactic-weight matchup I was interested in seeing.  They also announced that Spider-Man 4 (released by Sony and not part of the Marvel Studios-Universal partnership) will hit theaters on May 6, 2011. 

ROURKE AND SCARLETT OFFICIALLY JOIN IRON MAN 2

Variety is reporting that both Mickey Rourke and Scarlett Johannson have officially signed on the dotted line for Iron Man 2.  Both are apparently playing Russians - Johannson as the Black Widow, Rourke as either Crimson Dynamo or Whiplash - in the sequel.  Rourke had previously been linked to the film, but had dropped out after he was reportedly been lowballed.  The role of Black Widow had been slated for Emily Blunt, but she had to drop out because of a prior commitment.  But all seems to have been worked out now. 

NATALIE PORTMAN TO HOLD THOR'S HAMMER?

Rumors are flying from fairly reliable sources that Natalie Portman has been cast in Kenneth Branagh's Thor film.  We don't know what role she'll play - Donald Blake's love interest?  Lady Sif?  Enchantress? - but she would be the first actor cast in the film so far. 

HARTNETT RUMORED FOR ASGARD

And wouldn't you know it? Josh Hartnett, who has been rumored to play Loki, may also be in the running to play Thor. Methinks someone is having a fan-girl wet dream.

DC'S NEXT ANIMATED FLICK: SUPERMAN/BATMAN

The next in DC and WB Animation's expanding line of DTV animated features -  Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, based on Loeb & McGuiness' opening story on the Superman/Batman series. 

BEFORE 2 CAN COME OUT, TRANSFORMERS 3 ANNOUCED

Michael Bay isn't involved, but the studios can already smell the green.

MARVEL SIGNS 10 YEAR DEAL WITH GAZILLION TO PRODUCE MMOS

There was some speculation that Marvel was going to take their games in-house the way they did their films.  This puts that kibosh on that plan.  Gazillion was, at the time this story broke, a complete unknown quantity, without even a functioning website to their name.  In the day since we've learned that the company in fact owns (wholly or partly) several existing MMO makers, including NetDevil.  First up will be an all-ages MMO based on the 'Super Hero Squad' property (think Tiny Avengers).  

SCI-FI CHANNEL CHANGES NAME TO SyFy, STILL SHOWS RAPTOR ISLAND

NBC Universal really does have a low opinion of the people who watch this channel, don't they?  They probably spent somewhere around $2M (or approximately the budget for all of their original movies for this year) for a focus group to come up with this moronic moniker.  I also have a feeling it's a transitional name, the way the Nashville Network became the National Network before becoming Spike TV a short time later.  NBCU clearly sees Sci-Fi as their young male centric network, so they'll probably name it something stupid like AXE or KROME.