This fall, DC Comics will launch Villains Month, a line-wide initiative that features the darkest, most dangerous characters in comics taking center stage.  In September, each of DC’s New 52 titles will be taken over and renamed for of one of that book’s most infamous villains.  In anticipation of this upcoming event, writer Ann Nocenti (Katana, Catwoman series) was kind enough to answer some questions about her contribution, “Justice League Dark #23.1: The Creeper.”  She talked about her take on the character, what other villains she’s looking forward to seeing and offered some teasers for future issues of her regular series.  Hit the jump to see what Nocenti had to say and to check out  exclusive new images from the upcoming DC comics for Villains Month. 

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit this, but I didn’t know this was Superman’s 75th anniversary.  But now I know, and I’m happy to report that DC Comics and Warner Bros. will spend the next year honoring the iconic superhero.  Zack Snyder‘s Man of Steel is obviously the biggest part of the 75th anniversary, but there are plans beyond the summer blockbuster.  Most notably, Snyder and Bruce Timm (Superman: The Animated Series) will be creating an animated short film honoring the character’s history.  According to Heat Vision, details are being kept under wraps, but sources says Snyder envisions the short as “one continuous shot, without edits, that’s an homage to the Man of Steel and his many iterations over the past 75 years” all the way through Man of Steel.  I wonder if the short will all be done in Timm’s art style.  Man of Steel storyboard artist Jay Oliva, as well as DC’s Geoff Johns and Mike Carlin and WB Animation’s Peter Girardi will also participate, and the short will debut at Comic-Con.  Warners and DC will also continue honoring the Last Son of Krypton with a series of comic books throughout the 75th anniversary, at which point they’ll turn to honoring Batman’s diamond anniversary.

To keep your Superman fix going, hit the jump to check out a new behind-the-scenes featurette, which contains new footage.  Man of Steel opens in 3D on June 14th.

Last week, Collider (along with a handful of other outlets) was invited to hang out at the L.A. offices of DC Entertainment and chat with comic book legend Grant Morrison.  Known for pushing boundaries, exploring the unknown, and redefining legendary heroes and concepts for classic and new audiences, the Scottish-born writer talked about why he loves writing for Batman and Superman, and the new books he’s working on for Wonder Woman and the universe-hopping Multiversity.

Grant Morrison also spoke to Collider for a few minutes about what it’s like to be a rock star of the comic book world, meeting one of the actors who’s played a character that he’s written for, the first comic book he ever read, and when he realized he could make a career out of writing comics.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

The guys over at Latino-Review have decided to spend this fine evening dropping an atomic-bomb-level rumor that will send fanboys into a tizzy.  The site is reporting three major developments when it comes to Justice League and Warner Bros. trying to figure out how they’re going to combat Disney’s one-two franchise punch of Marvel and Star Wars.  So far, Warners has been struggling with their superheroes.  They’re all out of Batman, and while there’s some very early positive buzz on Man of Steel, their highly-anticipated Justice League movie reportedly had to go back to square one early last month when Will Beale‘s script was tossed out.

But Warner Bros. isn’t giving up, and according to Latino-Review, Christopher Nolan is coming to the rescue.  And so is Zack Snyder.  And they want Christian Bale to put the cape and cowl back on.  Hit the jump for more.

Although Warner Bros’. Justice League has had to go back to the drawing board, Guillermo Del Toro doesn’t mind the idea of pursuing Justice League Dark.  For those unfamiliar with the unconventional superhero team, the title launched in September 2011, and it’s comprised of John Constantine, Madame Xanadu, Deadman, Shade, Zatanna, Mindwarp, and Enchantress.  Del Toro tells Total Film, “I am going to be presenting my storyline to DC and Warners of where I want to take this universe. We do have a writer, but until that is firmed up, I have to keep it a secret. I hope it happens.”  While Total Film refers to the project as “Justice League Dark”, the project shares multiple characters with Heaven Sent, which we reported on back in November.  It’s likely that it’s the same project, but TF is probably referring to it as “Justice League Dark” since that’s the name of the comic book.

Hit the jump for more.  Del Toro’s new film, Pacific Rim, opens in 3D on July 12th.  He’s set the gothic haunted house film, Crimson Peak, as his follow-up.

As a preamble to this week’s Top 5, I’d like to take a few lines to recognize my own personal “Top 2″ from the past 7 days: the St. Louis Cardinals and Warner Premiere’s animated adaptation of Frank Miller‘s classic tale The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1. Beginning with the former, my beloved Cardinals completed yet another historic comeback last night against the Washington Nationals. Win or lose, I think it’s necessary to get in writing here that I won’t have a single negative thing to say about this team the rest of the way. As for the latter, I had a chance to sit down with director Jay Oliva‘s animated adaptation the other day and I found it to be a worthy retelling of Miller’s classic Bat-story. If you have any interest in animated comic adaptations and have yet to check it out, I recommend doing so.

But enough of my own personal favorites, included in this week’s trip around the bases (yep, that’s another baseball reference) is our coverage of New York Comic-Con 2012, the first trailer for director Sacha Gervasi‘s Hitchcock, Seven Psychopaths interviews with Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken and more, a new trailer for Quentin Tarantino‘s Django Unchained, and a slew of interviews for The CW’s new superhero series, Arrow. A brief recap and link to each awaits.

Though Collider is primarily a film and television news website, from time to time we post art that we think our readers might take an interest in.  Mondo posters have almost become a regular staple, and today we’ve got some art news to share that should be of particular interest to fans of DC Comics.  Warner Bros. Consumer Products and DC Entertainment yesterday unveiled a collection of artwork entitled “Darkness & Light: Art Inspired by Heroes & Villains, Hope & Heroism.”  The exhibit features a collection of original fine art inspired by the DC Comics universe.

We’ve got a few photos that give us a look at a key set of works including Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, and they’re pretty damn impressive.  The exhibit will be hitting the road for a series of public exhibitions that will benefit and raise awareness for the We Can Be Heroes charity.  Moreover, there will be a showing at the Michael J. Wolf Gallery in San Diego during Comic-Con.  Additional dates have yet to be announced.  Hit the jump to check out some of the art.

Last week, a random Twitter user mentioned her desire to see The Rock as a DC superhero.  Dwayne Johnson, forever in touch with his fans, tweeted in response, “Funny U say that…“  That obviously sparked fervent speculation.  Bleeding Cool followed up with an interesting possibility: the antihero biker Lobo.  Bleeding Cool admits their source is untested, one who purportedly overheard Johnson boasting at a party that he will play Lobo.  But the rumor is a good fit.  There is a Lobo adaptation in development.  Brad Peyton, the director of Johnson’s last movie Journey 2: The Center of the Earth, is steering the ship.  And no actor really has that Lobo physique other than The Rock.  So all the pieces fit—we’re just missing the important ones that spell “O-f-f-i-c-i-a-l” across the top.  We’ll put a pin in this for now.  In the meantime, hit the jump for background on Lobo.

This past week brought us a story that is near and dear to me. While I briefly give my own thoughts regarding DC Comics’ Watchmen prequel comic series after the jump, I want to use the “Top 5′s” opening paragraph space to invite readers to voice/type their own opinions on the announcement in the comments section. As a fervent fan of the series, I’m always interested to hear fellow fans’ take on Watchmen adaptations, prequels, and the like. So, with that said, what do you think? Does the creative talent involved interest you? Is it the best idea ever? The worst? Somewhere in between? Sound off in the comments.

In addition to DC’s Before Watchmen announcement, this installment of the “Top 5″ includes interviews with the cast and director of superhero/found-footage pic Chronicle, a “What If?” look at a 16-Bit Breaking Bad RPG, ten things to know about Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, and Sundance 2012 video interviews with Bradley Cooper, Paul Dano and more. A brief recap and link to each follows after the jump.

In situations likes these it’s best to sigh and then shrug.  DC Comics has officially announced that they’ll be launching Before Watchmen, prequel comics based on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen.  While there have been murmurings of Watchmen prequel and sequel comics for years, the prequels will really happen now with writers and everything.  DC Comics asked Alan Moore for his blessing, but he (unsurprisingly) refused. He then returned to the woods to forage for nuts and berries.  However, Gibbons released a statement saying,

“The original series of Watchmen is the complete story that Alan Moore and I wanted to tell. However, I appreciate DC’s reasons for this initiative and the wish of the artists and writers involved to pay tribute to our work. May these new additions have the success they desire,”

Hit the jump for more, including a first look at the covers for the prequels.

To recap: Mondo—the collectible art boutique of the Alamo Drafthouse—has licenses for Star Wars, Star Trek, Pixar, Disney, the work of directors like Guillermo del Toro and Wes Craven, Jurassic Park, and more.  And now the creators of some of the best posters around have the license for DC Comics (if Mondo ever picks up Marvel, they’ll have shot the geek moon).  Naturally, the first poster is based on Superman.  J.C. Richard’s “Fortress of Solitude” measures 12×32, is limited to an edition of 390, and costs $50 (plus shipping).  The poster will go on sale at MondoTees a random time on Black Friday.  It may be worth it to forego all other shopping and just keep refreshing @MondoNews‘ Twitter feed for the announcement.

Hit the jump to check out the full poster along with the press release.

Though their series adaptation of Human Target lasted only two seasons, Fox isn’t done trying to bring comic book pages to the small screen just yet. Deadline reports the network has just ordered a script for a series adaptation of The Spectre, the DC Comics superhero crafted by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and Bernard Baily. The comic follows murdered hard-boiled cop Jim Corrigan who finds his spirit refused entry into the afterlife and instead sent back to Earth to eliminate evil. As The Spectre, he begins by seeking bloody vengeance against Corrigan’s murderers in a grim, supernatural fashion. John Doe writer Brandon Camp is behind the script with Gran Torino producer Bill Gerber serving as executive producer. Sounds a bit similar to the plotline for the feature film adaptation of the comic book R.I.P.D. starring Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges, but that might just help get some interest in the series as well.

Paramount acquired the feature rights to the DC comic The Mighty earlier this summer.  Variety reports the studio has hired Drew Pearce to adapt the screenplay.  The comic, written by Peter J. Tomasi and Keith Champagne, centers on America’s first and only superhero, Alpha One: “a cop whose life was saved by Alpha One as a child has uncovered his hero’s dark plan that will put them on a collision course of an ordinary man versus a super-man.”  BenderSpink partners Chris Bender and JC Spink (Arthur) will produce with Jake Weiner (Leap Year).

Pearce is also working on two Marvel properties at the moment in Iron Man 3 and Runaways.  This all can be traced back to No Heroics, the superhero sitcom he created for ITV2.  Read the synopsis for The Mighty issue #1 after the break.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to get crushed by tens of thousands of people?  Then you may want to walk (or attempt to walk) the Exhibitors’ Hall at Comic-Con.  Despite the seeming chaos of the hall, there is actually a method to the madness.  Major companies get the center (except for video game companies which get their own corner), artists are shunted as far off to the side as possible, and most of the sellers inhabit one-half of the hall.

But where the crush truly happens is at the insane lines circling the major companies as fans line up for swag and autographs.  The usual suspects are all here: DC Comics, Marvel, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Mattel, LucasFilm, CBS/Showtime, Lionsgate, Hasbro, and Sideshow Collectibles.  I’m not sure why Square-Enix gets such a large booth considering everything they make nowadays is crap.  Hit the jump to check out the full map.  The 2011 San Diego Comic-Con runs from July 21 – 24th.

At the conclusion of Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert’s 5-issue miniseries Flashpoint, DC Comics has announced it will reboot its universe and re-number each of its titles to begin at issue #1. In a letter from DC Senior Sales VP Bob Wayne to comic retailers, Wayne explains that the publisher will perform some character alterations with regards to “appearance, origin, and age” in an attempt to bring DC’s classic group of characters into a “more modern, diverse DC Universe.” The reboot will officially be underway on Wednesday, August 31st when DC will only release two titles: Flashpoint #5 and Justice League #1 to be written by Johns with art from Jim Lee.

In addition to the reboot, DC announced that the August 31st release will also be a landmark date for the digital distribution of comics as it will be the first time that either of the two major comic publishers (DC and Marvel) will release new titles digitally on the same day as their physical release. For more on the reboot and what it could mean for DC’s classic cast of characters, hit the jump.