EW: Batman vs. Superman

It's the 75th anniversary of DC Comics, so some guy named Darren Franich over at Entertainment Weekly posed the idea of settling the Batman vs. Superman argument once and for all. He proposed two different ways to interpret the argument: (1) Which of the two has been able to evolve over 3/4 of a century and stay interesting, and (2) Who would win in a fight?

I don't think that anyone can come up with a realistic argument for Superman when it comes to question #1. Despite the extreme valleys that the Batman franchise has suffered through (i.e. an embarrassing television show in the 60s and two hideously terrible movies in the mid-90s), the peaks have been too high, and the potential for a completely human character with flaws is just so much greater than a perfect superhero with limitless power and no true equal.

In regards to question #2, Franich takes the lame, inside-the-box angle, without even really mentioning that in the only legitimate confrontation the two had (Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, which is regarded by many to be the greatest graphic novel of all time), Superman flat out gets dealt with - by a 55 year-old Batman no less.

I better stop before I really get rolling. In the words of Linda Richman of Coffee Talk, "I'm a little verklempt, talk amongst yourselves..."

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Late Night War Round Up...

The good news? Apparently, this thing could be winding down. The bad? Unfortunately it sounds like it's not going to end well. The latest reports have NBC buying out Conan and Leno returning to The Tonight Show. Evidently every single NBC executive is either blind and deaf, or they're a bunch of stubborn old people (although I suppose those things aren't mutually exclusive). Either way, they're making a decision that flies in the face of the popular consensus - that Leno is the bad guy who should step aside and do the right thing - and the ratings, which have recently spiked for Conan. In fact, Tonight Show ratings have actually eclipsed that of Leno's show even though he's on during prime time - kind of a big deal. But who cares, the old rich guys think Jay is funny, or something.

The A.V. Club has a great rundown of everything that's gone down so far here. Check it.

Edit/Update: Ken Tucker @ EW.com posted this today on Dick Ebersol, the NBC exec. who's leading the "anti-Conan" charge. He's also the same guy that almost single-handedly wrecked SNL in the early 80s and thought (former SNL & Seinfeld writer and current Curb Your Enthusiasm star) Larry David was a talentless hack. Tucker makes several other excellent points as well, and they all point to one thing: NBC is making a joke of itself.

Also of note: Conan and NBC may reach an agreement by the end of the weekend. Needless to say, it'll be interesting to see what O'brien does with his last week should that actually come to pass; he's been relentless as-is...

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R.I.P. 'Life'

It's official: NBC sucks.

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