Biff! Blam! Socko! Ka-pow!

COMfC-BOOfC HEROES f/WAPE HOLLYWOOPf

We can envision the pitch meeting. A group of terrified Hollywood executives sits in a conference room. "THE FILM BUSINESS IS IN TROUBLE!" screams one. "I had to

trade my Maybach for a BMW!" moans another. "The writers want a bigger cut," shouts a third, "and so do the cineplexes!" "What are we going to do?" ,

*tKNOW, LET'S CALL BATMAN/

This summer Hollywood is gambling hundreds of millions of dollars on the

fact that America loves comic-book drama. The result is a slew of huge-budget action movies starring the Hulk, Iron Man and a troop of their badass superbuddies, hitting theaters all season long. Today's silver screen is an ideal environment for comic-book fiction: Special-effects wizards wield legitimate superpowers, and the idea of good battling evil for the fate of the planet is a welcome break from today's head­lines. Herewith, a little reading for you while you wait in line for pop­corn. Be careful—the guy standing behind you may be Dr. Doom.

? THE INCREDIBLE HULK

THE CHARACTER: Born of Cold War-era paranoia, the Hulk can be read as the embodi­ment of the nuclear neuroses of a nervous nation. The not so jolly green giant (actually, the original Hulk was gray) first appeared in 1962's The Incredible Hulk ttl. Bruce Banner is accidentally exposed to the first detonation of an experimental gamma bomb. As a re­sult, when Banner gets angry ("You wouldn't like me when I'm angry"), he unleashes the terrifying beast that lives within him. Nuclear-trigger analogies don't get more personal. THE FILM CJUNE 13): Ang Lee directed the most recent Hulk movie. He should've stuck to gay-cowboy Westerns: His Hulk was a snore. Expect director Louis Leter-rier (The Transporter) to pull off something far punchier. Edward Norton plays Ban­ner, and Liv Tyler steams up the screen as brainy babe Betty Ross. WHY NOW: The Hulk combines two clas­sic literary tropes that have been around since Greek mythology: Nice guy with a dark side + man who gets put under weird spell = green monster who throws cars as if they were softballs. Timeless. RECOMMENDED READING: The Hulk's original adventures are collected in Marvel Masterworks: The Incredible Hulk Vol. 1. But we prefer the chilling Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect, in which a nuclear war has an­nihilated most of the earth's population and the green Goliath has gone even madder, enslaving what remains of humanity. TAKEAWAY: Exposing yourself to gamma radiation is no substitute for a ^ qym membership.

? IRON MAN

THE CHARACTER: When he first appeared, in March 1963 in the comic book Tales of Suspense. Tony Stark (a char­acter based on Howard Hughes) was a genius inventor and billionaire playboy. At the time, the U.S. was sending troops to Vietnam, and on a visit to those jun­gles Stark is captured by evil commies who force him to build their arsenal. Instead Stark secretly builds himself a suit of armor that enables him to fly and fire "repulsor rays" from the palms of his hands, making him America's most powerful living weapon. THE FILM [MAY 2): You may already have caught this one, the first of the big summer action movies. Director Jon Favreau gives Iron Man a post-9/11 up­date with an edgy Stark (played by Robert

y Downey Jr.) kidnapped by

Afghan warlords instead of the Viet Cong. Superhottie Gwyneth Paltrow co-stars as Stark's gal pal Pep­per Potts. Watch for a cameo by legend­ary Marvel Comics writer (and Iron Man co-creator) Stan Lee. In a scene in which Lee is surrounded by a bevy of beauti­ful women. Stark mistakes him for—who else?—Hugh Hefner.

WHY NOW: Any reason to blast Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" is good enough for us. Still, the film's writers have woven Iron Man's plot into the fabric of 2008. The same themes of paranoia and political uncertainty that applied to Nam obviously apply today.

RECOMMENDED READING: What hap­pens when a superhero starts hitting the hooch? Find out in the haunting anthology Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle. Yup, Downey is perfect for this role. TAKEAWAY: Be careful shaking hands when you're introduced to a guy who shoots lasers from his palms.

? HELLBOY II:

THE GOLDEN ARMY

THE CHARACTER: Created by writer and artist Mike Mignola in 1993, Hellboy is lit­erally a demon from hell (a half-demon, to be specific). He received his adorable nick­name in the 1940s after being summoned by a team of Nazis using black magic to turn the tide of World War II. Hellboy is captured by American soldiers and learns the values of truth, justice and the Ameri­can way as a member of the Bureau for

Paranormal Research and Defense. He may have horns, but Hellboy is a good guy. THE FILM (JULY 11]: The sequel to the 2004 hit once again pairs cigar-chomping Ron Perlman as Hellboy and Selma Blair as flame-throwing babe Liz Sherman. The plot turns on the discovery of an ancient artifact that threatens to trigger a war between the supernatural world and the boring reality we all inhabit. This type of thing rarely goes well for us normals. WHY NOW: Because the original Hellboy grossed $100 million worldwide at the box office. Director Guillermo del Toro turned down I Am Legend and a film based on the Halo video games to direct his Hellboy sequel. RECOMMENDED WATCHING: Not that you need to see them to sink into Hell-boy II. but the animated DVDs Hellboy: Sword of Storms and Hellboy: Blood and Iron fill the gaps between the original film and the upcoming sequel. TAKEAWAY: We'll take demons from hell over Nazis any day.

? WANTED ____________

THE CHARACTER: In 2003, when Wanted debuted, controversial Scottish author Mark Millar worked two sex scenes and an assassination into its first five pages. Cubicle jockey Wesley Gibson learns his recently deceased father (the man assas­sinated in the previously mentioned scene) was a hit man called the Killer, a member of a savage group of superpowered bad guys who have used their abilities to wipe out the world's superheroes. Now those same ruthless characters want to re­cruit Gibson. Given time and training, he learns to stop worrying and love wanton violence. Artist J.G. Jones based Gibson's appearance on Eminem, and his sly men­tor, the Fox, on Halle Berry. THE FILM CJUNE 27): The story of an apathetic nobody who morphs into a futuristic assassin: perfect big-screen fodder. Expect amazing visuals, twisted

Matrix-like mind games and the lethally sexy Angelina Jolie as Fox. Atonement's James McAvoy plays Gibson along­side Morgan Freeman, who finally gets to play someone evil. The movie dif­fers from the comic book in that these characters are worldly criminal master­minds who don't possess superpowers. Yet they are so skilled, they can bend bullets in midflight.

WHY NOW: Unlike the Hulk and Iron Man, Gibson is a product of the 21st cen­tury. More like this, please. RECOMMENDED READING: The original six-issue miniseries, published from 2003 to 2004. is the only source material. It's collected as the graphic novel Wanted and richly deserves your time. TAKEAWAY: Jolie's the most attractive woman we've ever been scared of.

? THE DARK KNIGHT_____

THE CHARACTER: Batman made his first appearance in a 1939 edition of De­tective Comics, which published its 845th issue this June. Scarred by his parents' cold-blooded murder on the streets of Gotham. 20-something billionaire Bruce Wayne dedicates his life to ridding the city of villainy. In lieu of superpowers, the fa­mously unbalanced Batman survives on his superior wits, relentless training and immense arsenal of gadgetry. THE FILM CJULY 18): Continuing in the realistic vein he established with 2005's Batman Begins, director Christopher Nolan [Memento) puts Christian Bales Batman up against a deeply unsettling Joker played by Heath Ledger in one of his final roles. Maggie Gyllenhaal thank­fully displaces Katie Holmes as the love interest. While Warner Bros, execs scratch their chins over how to promote a film whose major co-star died before its release, Ledger's demise hasn't stopped Mattel from manufacturing Joker action figures in his likeness.

WHY NOW: Batman has managed to remain current through the generations because he lacks superpowers. He is simply a man. Bruce Wayne, who has reinvented himself. He's the guy we could all be if we had a zillion dol­lars and a bad childhood, then trained hard enough to beat the snot out of bad guys. RECOMMENDED READING: One of comicdom's most reinvented charac­ters. Batman has been everything from a hardened detective to a campy, pun-spouting adventurer. But he's never been portrayed more memorably than in Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, which imagines a 55-year-old Bruce Wayne donning the cape and cowl one more time. Bat fans largely agree that the ultimate Joker story is Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's Batman: The Killing Joke, from 1988. in which we get a riveting account of the clown prince of crime's origins.

TAKEAWAY: If you're enough of a badass, you can wear your underwear outside your clothes with impunity.