First look at Ra's Al Ghul, played by Ken Watanbe, as seen in June 2004's Batman Begins. Next week, we'll get a first look at the REAL Scarecrow costume.

The official movie site is here.

40 Years of Spider-Man on CD-ROM

Whoa! Every issue of the Amazing Spider-Man (including his debut in Amazing Fantasy #15) through issue #500 (December 2003) will be available in one 11-disc CD-ROM collection on November 1 for $49.99.

That's 501 comics of mostly classic comics that you can read on your computer screen (or print out if you have a LOT of paper and ink.) While its not the best way to read comics, this is an incredible bargain for so many comics. From the press release by TOPICS Entertainment, who teamed with Marvel Comics to create the set:

This product will be especially unique as it will include every page of every 32-page comic book exactly as originally published: cover-to-cover, all the stories written by the legendary Stan "The Man" Lee and illustrated by Steve Ditko and John Romita, Sr., among others...all the letters pages, every "Stan's Soapbox," all the Bullpen Bulletins ... even every vintage advertisement published in the comic books for more than 40 years.

That's every comic from 1963 through 2003 by writers Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, Marv Wolfman, Roger Stern, David Michelinie and more through current writer J. Michael Straczynski, with art by Steve Ditko, John Romita Sr. and Jr., Gil Kane, Ron Frenz, Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, Mark Bagley and more, with the debut of just about every single one of Spidey's enemies, friends and family.

The only drawback (a relatively minor one given the sheer number of comics here) come in the 90s era of the comic when Spidey stories crossed through all of his 3-4 titles, most notably the infamous Clone Saga, and were not limited to just Amazing. That means you'll only get part of the story for several arcs. There's probably about 5-7 years of that going on, though not with every issue. Plus, there's the occasional crossover with other titles throughout the Marvel universe.

Regardless, I'm onboard for this. It's cheaper than the hardcover Masterworks and even the bargain priced (black&white) Essentials. It doesn't say, but I wonder if they will include the Annuals. There's at least 20 of those. Good stuff.

Read more here.

The Celebration of a Hero

The website, The Superman Homepage has collected and posted several of the editorial cartoons created to mark Christopher Reeve's passing. They are very similar, but here's one that stands out:

You can see them all here

The Death of Superman

Christopher Reeve died of heart failure on Sunday at the age of 52, after lapsing into a coma. John Kerry had just mentioned him in Friday night's presidential debate, when stating his support for stem cell research.

Read more here.

I really thought we'd see the day when he walked again.

A Novel Approach to the Crisis

Marv Wolfman has hinted about it for awhile now on his own blog, and now he reveals more. May 2005, the 20th anniversary of the start of the 12-issue maxi-series that change the DC Universe, "Crisis on Infinite Earths," will see publication of the prose novel of the same name. The cover is below:

Here's what Marv has to say:

The book is a completely new take on the original Crisis story with probably 70% new material. Whereas the original was cosmic in scope, this one is very personal. I'll talk about it more over the next few months.

Visit Marv Wolfman's blog here.

Learn everything you possibly want to know about the Crisis and more on The Annotated Crisis on Infinite Earths.