Eisner Award-winning author Greg Rucka is know for his gritty noir-influenced style, his critically acclaimed runs on mainstream titles like The Punisher and Batwoman and for his proclivity to write multi-faceted, bad-ass female protagonists We recently sat down with Rucka as he ends a decade-long collaboration with Marvel and DC and throws himself full force into his creator owned projects, including Queen and Country and LAZARUS. Who or what were your influences as a writer? That’s not a short-answer question. There are honestly too many to count. I can go from Joyce Carol Oates to Raymond Chandler, Hemingway to Douglas Adams,...

The Dark Knight flops. This movie is overlong, overly focused on militaristic violence, is a tangled mess of themes and ideas, has the pacing of an epileptic turtle, and worse sin of all: not nearly enough Batman (or Catwoman). And way too much Bane.

A really uneven script is disguised by a strong cast, fine special effects and a lot of scenes that, on their own, seem strong. We didn't need the Spider-franchise rebooted so soon, but there's stuff to like here, and reasons to look forward to the next installment.

Whedon takes a large, established cast from three established franchises (four if you count the Hulk, with a new actor yet again as Bruce Banner) and gives each character enough screen time, action and dialogue to satisfy the respective actors' devoted fans. Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man gets the star treatment, suited to his character's charisma and ego, and Chris Evans' Captain America comes in a close second. Chris Hemsworth's Thor could've stood a bit more development, but the rest of the heroes, comparatively second-stringers, get good play. Scarlett Johanssen's Black Widow is much, much better handled here than in her debut in Iron Man 2.

Watchmen, the holy grail of comic book movies. Not only have reverent fans of the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons opus either passionately longed for or absolutely dreaded a film adaptation, it also seems to be of high interest to the general public. Weekend box office will tell that tale). but this seems to be the first comic book movie to make a real general-public splash that's not based on a household-name character. Maybe it's just that from the trailers alone - hell, from the posters alone - you can tell it's not going to suck as much as Ghost Rider.

Yes, Heath Ledger really is amazing as the Joker. And good lord, does Christopher Nolan deliver a film worthy of the performance. From the start, The Dark Knight is as intense as a war zone, and while it has more noticeable imperfections than Iron Man and less charm and vision than Hellboy 2, The Dark Knight has brains and ambition and yes indeed, a hell of an effects budget. The action is spectacular, if sometimes confusing, and the film looks magnificent, especially in IMAX.

You know how everyone complained that there wasn't enough action in Ang Lee's Hulk movie? The folks behind this new not-quite-sequel have made damned sure that no one's gonna be saying that this time. The Incredible Hulk has so much fast, intense violence that its PG-13 rating is pretty decisive proof of the arbitrary nature of these ratings.

Despite high hopes for the Batman sequel, the Indiana Jones comeback and the new Hellboy, it would not be a bad summer at all if the early arriving Iron Man turns out to be the best action-adventure of the summer. Jon Favreau, who does not have this kind of action movie under his directorial belt, just knocks it out of the park here, taking a very good script and an excellent cast and making it all explode off the goddamn screen.