A tipster — who we’re guessing may have seen this on Reddit? — sends along this interesting fan picture accompanied only by the subject heading “for you” and the word “Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm-mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm” — Batman is pregnant. And on the moon. And Superman is listening to his unborn child kick while Batman smiles knowingly.

That about sums it up.

From today until June 13th, Metropolis, Illinois (where else?) will be geeking out over the Man of Steel in their 32nd annual Superman Celebration. Guests include Smallville stars Laura Dianne Vandervoort, a.k.a. Lana Lane, and Sam Witwer, a.k.a. Doomsday, as well as comics writers and artists like Silver Age legend Carmine Infantino, Dave Beatty (Captain Value; Brightest Day), and Josh Elder (Mail Order Ninja, The Batman Strikes). There’s even a fan-made film festival! Sounds pretty rad.

More information at the Superman Celebration website.

(h/t Robot 6)

It looks like after Smallville‘s next season, we will no longer have to endure an increasingly aging Clark Kent not becoming Superman (superhero costumes being too silly for TV) even as people are morphed by an enchanted comic book. (/nerdrant.) Though they’re kind enough not to use the word ‘canceled,’ The Hollywood Reporter reports that after next season, Season 10, Smallville is ending.

GeekSix blogger Josh has productively used his free time to create this neat infographic of the rise and fall of sci-fi and fantasy shows on TV since 1950, as mapped out by the number of genre shows in any given year.

Our inner geeks would’ve loved to see every single one of these boxes filled in with the actual shows — though that might be just a tad unwieldy, not to mention ugly — but the continuity boxes are an especially nice touch. Long live Superman!

Full infographic after the jump:

This is just your friendly reminder to start planning, because Free Comic Book Day is in two weeks! If you don’t know what Free Comic Book Day is, dwell in anguish no more:

Free Comic Book Day is the yearly date when you can show up at any participating store (usually one of the closest ones to you) and grab more than thirty comic issues for absolutely free. Yes, they’re put out by a great swath of the industry’s publishers. Yes, you can have as many as you want, as long as you don’t take more than one of the same title. Yes, it is awesome.

Read on...

Nowhere have the sparkly claws of Twilight failed to secure their grasp, for this week Forbes published their yearly Fictional 15, a compilation of the fifteen richest fictional people in current pop culture. Carlisle Cullen, the nearly 400-year-old patriarch of the Cullen family is the richest fictional person in the world with a net worth of $34.1 billion.

DC’s announcement yesterday that they would release a limited-run, $250 statue of Superman fighting Muhammad Ali in homage to their classic 1978 comic book counter has stirred up a surprising amount of nostalgia from comic book fans. Hero Complex’s Geoff Boucher: “I own about 9,000 comic books but ask me to pick my single favorite and I don’t need to think twice. It’s “Superman vs. Muhammad Ali,” which (despite the smirk-inducing title) was a world-class knockout when it arrived in the fall of 1978 and remains an enduring classic all these years later.”

Superman’s encounters with the likes of The Hulk, Galactus, and Spider-Man are undeniably inspiring of geekery, but we tend to put comic book characters, Marvel and DC alike, in the same shelves in our minds, which is why totally uncomiclike crossover battles are stranger still.

After the jump, ten snapshots of Superman’s encounters with the likes of The Terminator, Adolf Hitler, and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe:

Now that the Harry Potter franchise is finally kicking the bucket (in 2011 with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II), Warner Brothers is looking for another cash cow of beloved characters to drive its infernal engine, and it didn’t have to look far.

Yesterday, at Showest, WB head Alan Horn said this:

As we ease out of Harry Potter, we hope to bring you the excitement of the DC [Comics] Library!

This would imply that DC character based movies will be released yearly, like the Harry Potter films, and, according to another Showest announcement, will be in 3-D.

Geoff Boucher has an interview with Christopher Nolan about his Superman project in today’s LA Times where the acclaimed director very carefully says absolutely nothing of substance about his Superman project.

Asked if Superman as a franchise has to overcome a deficiency of truly great villains, unlike, say, Spider-Man and Batman, he won’t bite. “That’s a very sly way of asking a question I’m not going to answer.”

Touché, Mr. Nolan, touché.  However, he did say a number of definitive things about his third Batman movie, which is currently in the script-writing stage:

Hot on the heels of an issue of Action Comics #1 (the first appearance of Superman) selling at auction for $1 million, an issue of Detective Comics #27 (the first appearance of Batman) has sold for more than $1 million. $75,500 more, to be exact.

To which this Batman fan says: MUWAHAHAHA! According to Bleeding Cool, the comic was expected to sell for “around $300,00 [sic] but in the light of a copy of Action Comics #1, the first appearance of Superman, selling for a straight $1,000,000 this week, clearly a Batman Vs Superman grudge match was in the offing. And we know how that always goes.”

Indeed we do: