Marvel Comics

It's good to be a geek with a popular TV show.

Skrulls-conversant Stephen Colbert is living the life after being immortalized in what's billed as the Comedy Central star's "first full" Marvel Comics appearance: an eight-page, web-swinging adventure placing the Emmy-winner alongside the Webslinger.

The Colbert-Spider-Man teamup, as featured in The Amazing Spider-Man No. 573, is due to go on sale Oct. 15.

In certain editions, Colbert won't only be inside the book, he'll be on the cover.

While Colbert's getting the A-list treatment this time around, he's hardly a stranger to comics.

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Marvel.com, Evan Agostini/Getty Images

Flowing locks. Tights. Well, yeah, Thor kinda could pass for a Renaissance man…

If comic-book fans squinted real hard, today's news that actor-filmmaker Kenneth Branagh was in talks to direct Marvel's upcoming Thor movie looked not so bad. And pretty good even.

"I think it's kinda cool," said Rob M. Worley, editor of Comics2Film. "[But] he's not anybody I would have thought of."

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Paramount Pictures; Warner Bros.

It's a good time to be a fanboy...or girl.

Tuesday sees the release of the two-disc Iron Man DVD, chock full of goodies like deleted and extended scenes and a history of the metalheaded hero. (Paramount, $40.)

Meanwhile, Warners just announced that The Dark Knight will be disc-ified on Dec. 9, just in time to stuff your favorite Caped Crusader's stocking. The two-disc special-edition DVD includes a half-dozen scenes shot specificially for IMAX and plenty of behind-the-scenes action. (Warner Bros., $35.)

Holy geek out!

galacticruise.com; Robert Roux/WireImage.com

Actor Richard Hatch isn't the first person to celebrate a 30th anniversary with a cruise. Now a Battlestar Galactica cruise…

Monday in Los Angeles, Hatch and nearly 100 other Galactica-friendly travelers, from stars of the original show to fans, will set sail on a five-day, four-night round-trip cruise to Mexico, and, along the Pacific Ocean way, mark the sci-fi series' 1978 premiere.

"Cruises are nice," Hatch says. "For me, the X factor is that I happen to be a people person."

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Mark Holzberg/FOX

So far, so good for Fringe.

The new Fox series from J.J. Abrams and the writers of his upcoming Star Trek reboot averaged 9 million viewers for its 90-minute premiere last night, Nielsen Media Research estimates said.

Over on the CW, 90210 fell significantly from its own premiere, but did its duty for the woman-courting network.

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Warner Bros.

Aaron Eckhart has had a good summer. He can take credit for some of The Dark Knight's awesomeness, with his Harvey Dent/Two-Face baddie getting almost as freaky as Heath Ledger's Joker. But $500 million later, we have to ask him: Two-Face could survive that deadly fall at the construction site, right?

"No," Eckhart told E! News at the junket for Towelhead yesterday. "He is dead as a doornail. He ain't comin' back, baby. No."

The fans want him back, and the actor wants to come back, but ultimately director Christopher Nolan is the bad parent.

"I asked Chris that question. He goes, 'You're dead.' Before I could even get the question out of my mouth, 'Hey Chris, am I...' 'You're dead.' "

But death has never been a problem for comic book characters! "I'm not coming back," he said. "Unfortunately, Heath was supposed to go along."

Eckhart knows, too, that there are plenty of Batvillains waiting for spots in the sequels. He's even jealous about one rumor. "I heard Angelina Jolie was going to be Catwoman," he said. "I thought that was a great idea. I'd like to be in that one."

Oh, but sorry. Didn't you hear? You're dead.

Universal; James Devaney/Getty Images; MGM

As if Hellboy and Hobbits weren't enough to keep him off the streets, Guillermo del Toro has literally scared up some more work.

The fantastical filmmaker has been tapped by Universal to helm remakes of Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, per Variety, along with a big-screen adaptation of Charles Dickens' final novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood simply titled Drood, and a new take on Kurt Vonnegut's cult novel Slaughterhouse-Five.

The Oscar-nominated helmer, who is currently prepping the Hobbit films with Peter Jackson, will most likely begin with Drood, a murder mystery that Dickens never completed.

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Clay Enos. TM & © DC Comics

Judgment day for Watchmen is nigh.

A federal judge in Los Angeles has set Jan. 6 as the start of the showdown between 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. over the movie adaptation of the vaunted graphic novel by Alan Moore and David Gibbons.

Watchmen has devolved from a comic book flick into a courtroom drama in recent months, as Fox came forward with a complicated case claiming it still owns the rights to Watchmen and is seeking to block the release of Warners' anticipated film.

Fox scored a legal victory last month when U.S. District Judge Gary Allen Feess ruled there was enough evidence to go to trial. But on Tuesday, he shot down Fox's request to halt the March 6 release of the Warners movie, helmed by 300's Zach Snyder and starring Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino, Billy Crudup and Jackie Earle Haley as a group of ostracized former superheroes trying to save the world and themselves.

Instead, according to the Hollywood Reporter, Feess fast-tracked the trial, presumably giving the two studios a chance to reach a settlement in the matter before deciding on potentially harsher measures.

Warner Bros. Entertainment.com

Even Batman gets tired.

The Dark Knight grossed $986,453 yesterday, the first time the supreme summer blockbuster had failed to make at least $1 million in a single day.

The movie, already Hollywood's No. 2 all-time grosser at the domestic box office, is expected to rally this weekend, and bring its overall total to an epic $500 million.

Through Wednesday, its 41st day in release, The Dark Knight had grossed $492.7 million.

At the same point in its run in 1998, Titanic, Hollywood's reigning domestic champ, had grossed $280.2 million.

Any appearance that The Dark Knight is winning the race with Titanic, however, is deceiving.

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New Line Cinema

Peter Jackson just can't kick his Hobbit habit.

After a fruitless eight-month search for the perfect scribe, the Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings overlord and his handpicked Hobbit helmer, Guillermo del Toro, have decided they're the best men for the job of adapting J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth prequel into two films.

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