'Geeks Have Won': Hollywood Gaga Over Comics

(NEWSER) - Comics fans are just a little miffed by Marvel’s $4 billion acquisition by Disney: “SOOOO NOT HAPPY! Spider-man should not be co-mingling with Goofy,” reads one blog post. The problem, Linda Holmes writes for NPR, is “one of perception: Put simply, Marvel has a cool factor and Disney doesn't.” Marvel devotees don’t “see themselves as close cousins of people who love Donald Duck just because there's drawing involved.” More»

(AP) - The Walt Disney Co. says it is acquiring Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion in cash and stock, bringing characters like Iron Man and Spider-Man into the Disney family. Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of 5,000 Marvel characters. Marvel shareholders will receive $30 per share in cash plus 0.745 Disney shares for every Marvel share they own, Disney reports. More»

Joss Whedon directs Robert Downey Jr. in superhero blowout

(NEWSER) - Sure, it's an effective moneymaking scheme: release movies about individual superheroes, then one about all of them. But with Joss Whedon at the helm, The Avengers really works. What critics are saying:

• "Even if you don't particularly like comic-book adaptations, this film just might make a believer of you," writes Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times . "Whedon is the key reason why this $220 million behemoth of a movie is smartly thought out and executed with verve and precision."

But he'll go on representing the same values on a global scale

(NEWSER) - OK, so technically he's an alien, but really, what's more American than Superman? Heck, even his outfit is red and blue. But after years of fighting for "truth, justice, and the American way," the Man of Steel announced he's going to renounce his US citizenship in Action Comics #900 . It all started when he independently and non-violently supported protesters in Iran, prompting the Iranian government to view his actions as an act of war from the United States. More»

'Dark Knight' director Christopher Nolan is called in

(NEWSER) - Warner Bros. has hired Dark Knight impresario Christopher Nolan to be the “godfather” of its next Superman movie. Nolan probably won’t direct, but he will guide the film through development, insiders tell Nikki Finke of Deadline Hollywood . The studio doesn’t know much about the film, but one insider can confirm that “it would definitely not be a followup to Superman Returns.” More»