I finally got around to seeing X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Having two kids will do that to you. There was a lot that I enjoyed, but probably more that I disliked. This made me think of another comic book movie I saw via Netflix recently - The Specials. It was weird that I had never heard of it. There were a lot of known actors in it - Rob Lowe, Jamie Kennedy, and Thomas Haden Church. After watching it, I found out why. Super low budget effects and an overall blah storyline made this a movie that kind of wished I had not seen.

Its always funny to see who jumps on the superhero bandwagon. We dog on those celebrities that come out with comics, but at least they are putting something out there to add to the comicverse. It still may not be any good, but I think its better than some of the groups out there looking to cash in on the popularity of comics. I'm just hoping some of these endeavors won't contribute to the popularity of comics being extinguished in this fickle thing called pop-culture.

It's a two-fer this week. Two titles caught my eye, one funny and one serious. The funny one is Amazing Spider-Man #611 featuring Spidey in a Cable-esque garb alongside Deadpool. The second comes from Booster Gold #26 and features Booster's buddy Ted Kord as the Black Lantern. Both are great covers for different reasons and show the variety good covers can reveal to us. Check em out.

Joe Kubert, legendary comic book artist, writer, editor, and teacher, is putting up some of his one of a kind art for sale through comics auction house Heritage Auctions. There is some fantastic material here from comics like Sgt. Rock, Sojourn, Tarzan, Justice League, Star Spangled Stories, Jonah Hex, and more. Even if you can't find the funds to bid, and some of them are already in the thousands of dollars, they are fabulous to look at and at least daydream about owning. My personal favorite is this History of the DC Universe featuring Sgt. Rock. It's a fantastic piece. Which one catches your eye?

I have often used eBay to find what I call a "real-time value" for a comic book, in other words, what that comic is going for right now and what you can expect to get if you sell a similar item. Sites like Comic Seeker have gone a step further, giving you the capability to search through many different sites for a comic. These are great resources for the collector and having these kinds of tools will only aide you in selling and buying comic books.

I recently got an email from another company - Terapeak. They do market research data on eBay auctions and offer a plethora of information about the trends of what a superhero is selling for. The first site they sent me to was their superhero widget that shows information on certain superheroes. The main widget in the center wasn't working and I tried it in Firefox and Chrome. The search function at the bottom however, did work.

The real jewel was in clicking one of the comics on the side of the main widget. That took me to the main Terapeak site (this link takes you to a Batman query) where you can run a search about a character on eBay. You can search the last 14 days of listings as well as the last 90 days of purchases if you sign up (it does cost $24.95 a month) but you can search up to 8 days for free. You can see when items of that character were listed, what day, what type, if they used special features, duration, keywords, etc. There is a TON of information that any serious buyer or seller can use to make decisions about their collections. It is a very neat tool that could aide you in your endeavors. I dug a little and Terapeak was one of the first companies to do data licensing from eBay and have grown from a startup company to a worldwide endeavor. They state that people who use Terapeak earn 30% more than people who don't. The cost seems high for everyday sellers, but for serious buyers or sellers, it could be a very useful tool.

I always try to not let my personal bias enter into things like this, but this time I had to. I really dug this cover by Bryan Hitch with Cappy wielding his WW2 shield. It's a classic Cap pose and is a very dynamic cover.

To be fair, there were some other great covers this week. Of special note were X-Men Origins Iceman One Shot, Age of Reptiles The Journey #1, Starstruck #3, and Secret Six #15. All were great covers this week.

Image Copyright Marvel Comics

I found this website in a Google Alert of mine lately. Its called Comic Seeker and it claims to be the place to, "Search the internet for rare collectible comic books." Basically what Comic Seeker does is search through many different sites so you don't have go to each one. It's a pretty cool setup that can not only help you find a comic, but see what your comic is going for right now. Check it out.

Hands down, Arkham Reborn #1 is such a wonderful beauty. Frazer Irving nailed this cover of the puzzled character of Dr. Jeremiah Arkham, with Joker showing through. Who is in control of Arkham?

Image Copyright DC Comics

I love how comics are used to promote other items. It might be a movie, action figure, or even a video game. Meat Boy is a popular flash game that one can play on many online game sites. The developers of the game are apparently going to launch a new game entitled "Super Meat Boy" in the beginning of 2010 and every Friday until the release, if you are a follower of their Twitter account, you could win a comic of Super Meat Boy. They change the parameters of the contest week by week, so go check it out to find out how to win. The cover is obviously an homage to Action Comics #1, and done quite well I might add. The two demo pages on their blog are pretty funny, with an obvious geek chic humor behind them and I plan on trying to acquire a copy of the comic to see what it is all about.

On the one hand, I have not been a real fan of most comic as advertisement plans. Most of the movie comics are only geared to the gotta have em all collectors and aren't a great draw to bring in new comic fans. I have liked the comics that have continued series like Buffy or Angel, or at the very least add something new to the story overall. Its just that they feel more like a gimmick rather than a treat. Maybe Super Meat Boy will prove me wrong.

Image Copyright Team Mic

It would seem that the digital revolution is almost upon us. I saw a blog post over at www.theappleblog.com about a possible alliance between Longbox, the digital downloading initiative brainchild of Rantz Hoseley, and the upcoming Apple reader tablet. I would imagine this deal would include an app for the iPhone as well and could surely put Longbox into a position to make it the download destination for comics. I think for them to really seal the deal, Longbox would need to get a company like DC Comics on board, or at least some of the smaller publishers such as Dark Horse, Image, or IDW. Probably the most frustrating (or is it telling) thing is that Longbox still hasn't launched yet. We are still right in the window for their Fall 2009 reveal, one I am eagerly awaiting. The stars seem to be aligning in Longbox's favor, and if all these things happen the way they are being reported to us, it would surely put Longbox in a position to be the digital king of comics.

With a title like Cowboy Ninja Viking, a comic fan just has to check it out. While this might not be the best cover from a purely art standpoint, it certainly was one of the most striking one, capitalizing on its over the top title.

Image Copyright Image Comics