Last month was the 30th anniversary of when I started reading comic books. I still remember the very first comics I read: DC Comics Presents #6, Detective Comics #482, Justice League of America #163, World's Finest Comics #255, The Brave and the Bold #147, and Super Friends #17.

Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the release of Superman: The Movie. I watched it again tonight to mark the occasion. I first saw it when I was eight years old. Along with Star Wars, it was one of the formative experiences in my development as a geek. It was never a perfect film by any means, but Christopher Reeve remains the definitive Superman/Clark Kent. The idea that a business suit and glasses would work as a disguise seemed silly until Reeve made it seem plausible. John Williams' theme still makes me want to tie a red towel around my neck and jump off of furniture whilst pretending to fly.

According to a recent report, Smallville may be canceled after the current season, its eighth. Although ratings have improved and the network would likely renew it for at least another season, star Tom Welling’s contract is up and he may be ready to move on. The big question of whether the show will end with Clark Kent becoming Superman and putting on a certain red-and-blue costume for the first time is up in the air because DC Comics is concerned it would somehow hurt any future Superman films, which is absurd. I'll be disappointed if it ends without at least one shot of Welling in costume.

I watched the first few episodes of Wolverine and the X-Men. It’s surprisingly good for a Marvel animated show. Not quite up to the standard set by the DC Animated Universe, but still good. The show was developed by former X-Men: Evolution writers Craig Kyle and Greg Johnson (Kyle has also written New X-Men and Young X-Men comics with writing partner Christopher Yost, who’ll also be writing episodes of the show).

Batman: The Brave and the Bold is also entertaining and has a Silver Age feel to it. In contrast to the darker portrayals of Batman, even in animation, here he has a good sense of humor, and it's nice to see characters like Blue Beetle and Plastic Man in animated form.

The first season of Merlin ended last Saturday. I stand by my initial description of it as the "Smallville of the Arthurian mythos. That's not a dig, either. It's a lightweight but entertaining show with a photogenic cast, and some strong acting each week from Anthony Stewart Head as Uther Pendragon. It succeeds on the level intended. While it will never win any awards for being great drama, I looked forward to its escapism each week. It's been renewed for a second season. Meanwhile, the first season will debut in the US on the NBC network in early 2009.

There are only two episodes left of Stargate Atlantis. It's ironic that its landmark 100th episode will also be its final episode. It was canceled so a new show set in the same fictional universe could be produced, namely Stargate Universe. I wasn't too keen on the idea of the new show until actor Robert Carlyle (The Full Monty, The World is Not Enough) was cast in it.

Action Comics #1

Seventy years ago, Action Comics #1 was published by Detective Comics, Inc. with a cover date of June 1938 (although it actually arrived on newsstands on April 18th). The lead story featured a mild-mannered reporter named Clark Kent, a disguise for a strange visitor from another planet who became known to the world as Superman.

With that story, writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, sons of Jewish immigrants, introduced the first superhero and ushered in the Golden Age of Comic Books. Their creation is one of the few comic book characters to never go out of publication. Despite that, the story of Siegel and Shuster is a sad one of being exploited and robbed by the corporation they sold their creation to, although recent judgments in favor of their heirs assures that some measure of justice will finally be done.

Prior to creating Superman, Siegel and Shuster created swashbuckler Henri Duval and supernatural crimefighter Doctor Occult for National Allied Publications, a corporate ancestor of DC, and tough guy detective Slam Bradley and spy Bart Regan for DC. After leaving DC in 1947, they created Funnyman for Magazine Enterprises, a company formed by Action Comics #1 editor Vin Sullivan. Nothing they did before or after Superman achieved the kind of unprecedented mass popularity that he did.

Siegel and Shuster's status as sons of Jewish immigrants is important to their creation. Kal-El (derived from Hebrew words that have been translated as "all that is G_d" or "voice of G_d") is an immigrant whose original home was destroyed by a great calamity, much as Jewish communities in Europe were being destroyed in the 1930s. In a new world and unable to return to the old one, he's given a new American-sounding name and does his best to succeed in his new community, a time honored immigrant's tale. Comic book creator and historian Will Eisner considered Superman a conceptual descendant of the mythic Golem, a mystical protector of the oppressed Jews of Prague. Similarities to the story of Moses have also been noted.

As first conceived by the duo when they were teenagers, Superman was a bald, megalomaniacal villain who bore a strong resemblance to his future arch-nemesis, Lex Luthor. Siegel eventually decided the character would make a better hero, one who would aid the downtrodden and oppressed. Superman in his early years was a liberal crusader against injustice, a "Champion of the Oppressed" as he was described on the very first page of Action Comics #1.

Superman's earliest opponents were lynch mobs, war profiteers, corrupt politicians, slum lords, greedy mine owners, and abusers of women, a marked contrast to the megalomaniacal supervillains, menaces from outer space, and the like that he later became associated with. In many ways, Superman was a child of the Great Depression and the New Deal, a champion of ordinary working class men and women.

Action Comics #1 also featured the first appearances of magician-hero Zatara, whose daughter Zatanna is more familiar today, and adventurer Tex Thomson. The latter was created by writer Ken Fitch and artist Bernard Baily, the team that would later create Hourman. In 1940, Baily collaborated with Siegel in the creation of the Spectre, bringing two key creators who worked on different stories in Action Comics #1 together. Much later, Baily's art studio was a starting point for future greats like Gil Kane, Carmine Infantino, and Frank Frazetta.

Action Comics #1 is well-deserving of its exalted place in comic book history.

If anyone wants to read Action Comics #1, scanned images from a low-grade copy are online here.

I finished re-watching the fifth and final season of Angel last night. I still think its ending is perfect and reflects the themes of the show. I feel the same way I did after re-watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer: I don't need to read the comic book continuation of the story because it came to the right end on television. Overall, the show wasn't quite as good as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but it wasn't very far behind it. Next up: re-watch Firefly.

More details about Joss Whedon's Dollhouse: Angel story editors/staff writers Sarah Fain and Elizabeth Craft are the showrunners; Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel line producer Kelly A. Manners is working in the same capacity again; and Steven S. DeKnight (story editor/staff writer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and a staff writer/producer on Angel) and Tim Minear (showrunner on both Angel and Firefly) are consulting producers. The people working with Joss behind the scenes certainly have credentials. The first season is expected to begin airing in January 2009.

As for casting, what I'm most excited about in Dollhouse isn't Eliza Dushku in the lead role of Echo, but Amy Acker in the recurring role of Dr. Claire Saunders. After re-watching Angel, I was reminded of just how good of an actress Acker is. I still can't believe she played both Fred and Illyria. She changed her method of speaking and even her body language so completely. Add in her voice work in Justice League Unlimited as the Huntress, and Acker has demonstrated her ability to be a chameleon. One wonders if perhaps she wouldn't have been better cast as Echo, a character who can have different traits programmed into her each episode.

Nooooo!!!! Moonlight got canceled. I'm not going to defend the show on quality grounds, but once a week I could look forward to cheesy fun with some nice eye candy in the forms of Alex O'Loughlin and Sophia Myles.

However, one of my other favorite new shows from the 2007-08 season received better news. Reaper is coming back for a second season, although the number of episodes will be reduced from the eighteen of the first season to thirteen and they won't air until early in 2009. I like how the show's mythology has developed over the first season and want to see where it goes from here.

Captain America's Shield Found in Iron Man?!. Fascinating.

Speed Racer is turning into one of the biggest box office disasters of the 21st century. Reportedly costing in the area of $300 million to produce and market, it'll be lucky to even make 20% of that back at the US box office. I haven't seen it yet, but most of the reviews I've read haven't been kind.

Lastly, this made me laugh out loud.

Iron Man's opening weekend garnered an impressive $201 million at the box office worldwide ($104.2 million in the US, $96.8 million internationally). Only Spider-Man had a better historical opening among non-sequels. Can you say Iron Man 2? Marvel Studios already has. The sequel is set to be released on April 30, 2010.

Other release dates announced by Marvel: Thor on June 4, 2010, The First Avenger: Captain America on May 6, 2011, and The Avengers later in 2011. That last film will feature Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, and Captain America.

On the DC side of the fence, although there has been no official announcement, actor Brandon Routh said in a recent interview that he expects Superman: Man of Steel to start shooting next year for release in 2010. Bryan Singer is expected to return as director.