Roger Langridge and Ken Wheaton's current Popeye series at IDW has delivered reverential tales with a classic tone that suits traditional fans. Genndy Tartakovsky is working on a 3D CG animated Popeye feature film with Avi and Ari Arad for Sony that will probably be aimed at a new generation of young fans. For Michael Valentine of Valentine Productions, the name of the game is digging into the sailor man's backstory as a brawler. The director and star of his Popeye The Sailor fan film, Valentine sees the titular hero defend himself against a slighted Bluto-like foe armed with nothing but his anchor-tattooed arms and fists of fury. Interestingly, he handles the confrontation without the aid of spinach. Maybe he didn't depend on the dietary supplement as a younger man? The fan film is billed as a trailer, so there's a good chance fans may see more of Valentine's take on the hero. See what you think of Valentine's Popeye homage after the cut.

When I wrote up Gameloft's Dark Knight Rises mobile game for Android and iOS earlier this week, I compared it to their previous release, The Amazing Spider-Man, and for good reason. The games are very similar, both were released to tie in with a big summer movie, use the same "virtual joystick" control scheme, and the settings are even similar -- you could almost believe that Spider-Man takes place during the day in the same place as TDKRTMG's night. The real difference is where the games draw their influences: While Dark Knight is clearly meant to echo Rocksteady's Arkham series, the Spider-Man game takes its cues from the Activision/Neversoft Spider-Man games that started way back in 2001.

And if that's the case, I have to admit that I'm impressed. For something that you can carry around in your pocket, this thing puts the Dreamcast version to shame.

Hot Toys has released its share of 1/6 scale Iron Man figures over the years to correspond with the hero's two standalone films, but with the release of the Mark VII model, there's officially an Armored Avenger on the market. Though it lacks the dope shades packed with some previous figures, this may be the most balanced Hot Toys Iron Man yet. The Avengers Iron Man Mark VII figure is presented not unlike a high-performance sports car packed with luxury features, which is fitting given that Tony "Genius billionaire playboy philanthropist" Stark wears his armor with the same bravado. These include interchangeable pristine/battle damaged armor plates, fully deployable back and leg air flaps, an unmasked Tony Stark head bearing a dead-on Robert Downey Jr. likeness, forearm weapons aplenty, plus light-up eyes and repulsors. Certain retailers will also be offering a variant version of the figure that comes with a miniature Mark VII hologram. No word on exactly when the toy will arrive at retail, but based on the cost of previous IM figures, be ready to spend around $200 or more on this bad boy. Check out more images of Hot Toys' Movie Masterpiece The Avengers Iron Man Mark VII 1/6 scale figure after the cut.

While everyone knows the tragic truth behind why Heath Ledger's Joker does not appear in the new Batman film The Dark Knight Rises, it has not stopped some viewers and critics from asking why the fictional villain himself was in no way accounted for in Christopher Nolan's latest sequel, given his monumental role in The Dark Knight. Nolan has explained his reasons for not even mentioning the Joker in the new film, but author Greg Cox puts forth some information that speaks to some fans' concerns in the official novelization of The Dark Knight Rises. Of course, in accordance with the nature of Ledger's Joker himself, that information is maddeningly suspect.

SPOILER WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Dark Knight Rises.

I've never really been much of a sports fan, mostly because my enjoyment of a sport is based entirely on how often a steel folding chair is used as a weapon, and for some reason that never really happens in basketball. That said, I am totally one of those guys who gets really excited about the Olympics. Every two years, when national pride hinges on figure skating, beach volleyball or hurdles, I am there. In fact, the only thing that could make me look forward to it more is if the Olympics happened in space and involved Superman.

Or at least, that's what I used to think. Then I actually read a story where Superman goes out to space for Space-Olympics, and it turns out he sucks pretty hard at them.

If you were not previously aware, geek fashion haus Threadless has a line called Comics-On Tees which depicts a comic book story across a series of t-shirts, usually drawn by a different artist for each shirt and from a story by a single writer. The latest Comics-On Tees is especially cool, as it not only benefits the crucial work of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund but is also an adaptation of "The Day The Saucers Came," a poem by comics legend Neil Gaiman. It's been adapted for comics/fashion by some great artists, too: John Cassaday (Planetary, Astonishing X-Men), Ben Templesmith (30 Days of Night, Choker), Brandon Graham (King City, Prophet) and design outfit (no pun intended) Estudio Verso.

Grant Morrison isn't the only creator who's announced that he'll be leaving DC's New 52 initiative in the near future. On Twitter, Rob Liefeld - who's currently anchoring three books for the line - has shared that he, too, is on his way from company-owned characters to creator-owned work.

Comics can be loosely characterized as a merging of words and pictures, but Matthew Olin is taking that definition in a different direction with his superhero portraits literally constructed from characters from different typographic classifications. It's a cool design approach that displays the attributes of characters like Superman, Catwoman, Spider-Man, Batman, Thor and others with a fresh sensibility. Despite Olin's best efforts on this series of posters, however, I have a feeling I'll always be stuck seeing Spider-Man through the lens of the PlayStation 3 font... or is it the other way around? See what you make of Olin's "Superhero Typographic Classifications" after the cut.

Mike McCraw has worked on a number of high profile animated projects, including Metalocalypse and Marvel's Black Panther motion comic, but for fans of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers or the original Japanese Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger series, his animated shorts featuring the Black and Pink Rangers cutting through a variety of putties are the ultimate crowd-pleasers. The pair of shorts have been online awhile, but McCraw has pledged to wrap a Blue Ranger short soon via his Twitter account. It's a good thing too, because his take on the putties is pretty intense. With any luck he'll get around to the full team and maybe a Mega Zord battle down the road. As something of a toy dude, I should note that I especially dig the way McCraw's character designs evoke the articulation of Bandai's Power Ranger action figures. Behold McCraw's awesome animated tributes to the Power Rangers, along with some process art after the cut.

One of the weirder aspects of being a comic book fan these days is that in addition to the major motion pictures based on your favorite super-heroes, you also have the inevitable porn parody to look forward to -- and I'll admit that with Vivid's The Dark Knight XXX, I really was doing just that. After all, I thought Axel Braun's take on Batman '66 was a hoot, and while few of the subsequent parodies have lived up to that standard, I was pretty interested in seeing where he'd end up when his starting point was Christopher Nolan's version. No matter what, I knew it was going to be weird. I just didn't think it would be weird like this.

Seriously, I don't know whose bright idea it was for the first sex scene to be based on The Killing Joke, but that was probably not the best choice.

Threads: It turns out that Chewbacca's messenger bag may actually be useful for carrying more than "quarrels." Confession: I totally had to look up whatever bowcaster amunition is called in the Star Wars universe. [Think Geek]

Contests: Tongal is currently hosting contests for Marvel and DC Lego fans to stop motion animate their favorite sets. The minifigs may be small, but the prizes seem sizable. [Tongal]

Gaming: Episode One of Telltale's The Walking Dead game is now available on iOS devices for $4.99. [Joystiq]