IFC film critic, Podcast Host,  and Comics fan Matt Singer joins me to discuss the current era of comic book films. We discuss the questions of which directors, if any, have made their mark on comic book films. What are some of the guilty pleasure comic film failures, and early films that still hold up.

I welcome further discussion about this topic at our WB Message board, or via comments and e-mails.

Also, check out Matt's great IFC News Film podcast at http://www.ifc.com/news/podcast/

On this edition of the Word Balloon Podcast, writer/artist Matt Wagner joins us for an interesting discussion that begins with a question. Will the 20th century superheroes be as easy to retcon and update in the decades to come? How well do modern versions of heroes like The Lone Ranger or Zorro work, without their 19th century settings and tools? Don't they need the horses and pistols? What about the Heroes created in the 20th century?

Matt asks this question not only about heroes he's currently working on like Zorro & his upcoming 2010 take on the Golden Age Green Hornet for Dynamite, who Matt thinks still works best in his golden age era .

We also talk about what he has planed for Zorro in the current arc Tales Of The Fox. Wagner says "General Moncado slowly starts to gather information about this rogue highwayman...and it's like Rashomon getting all these different points of view individual stories of who and what Zorro is. At this point he's still more of an Urban Myth."

On his Green Hornet plans with artist Aaron Campbell "I'm going to tell you why he does it...why does Britt Reid who has a way to fight 1930's social injustices through his newspaper still need to adopt this alternate identity? ...We also explore Kato's motivations He's Japaneese in my version, and I found a way to weave his origin into a very historical
event.. We learn why this very skilled martial artist would support and fight beside Britt."

We also discuss his Vertigo series Madam Xanadu which continues to interact with other Vertigo characters that have strong DC roots . Her main adversary through centuries on conflict is The Phantom Stranger.but there are other "easter egg"  character apperances that blur the line between the DCU and Vertigo.

Matt says, "Everyone asks me how I'm able to do it, and my response is, I'm just doing it. I don't ask (laughs). I do tend to keep those references as ones that fit into her charcter history and senarios,like Ertigan, Zatara, and detective Jim Corrigan (The Spectre). Or they happen almost "off camera".Like the mystic green lantern showing up in ancient China, or The Phantom Stranger refering obliquley to the helmet of Doctor Fate. In the Kaluta run we included the golden age Sandman because I needed a character like "The Shadow" and Wesley Dobbs fit.

This arc has some unique time shifting where Amy will be on for two issues, then representing a different era Joel Jones comes on for two issues, then back to Amy. In this arc, Madame Xanadu runs into another unexpected DC character."

The conversation with Marvel Group Editor Tom Brevoort starts with a look at the new mini series STRANGE written by Mark Waid, which puts the good Doctor on a new hero's journey.

Then we take advantage of Tom's perspective to look at today's Marvel. How has comic storytelling changed in the last 10 years? We look at the evolution of the relationship between Marvel & it's fans, from letter pages to today's blogs (including Brevoort's own) .

A great discussion with the newsarama columnist 

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On this edition of the word balloon podcast, Marvel writer Matt Fraction comments on the startling events in The Invincible Iron Man #19.

We also talk about the new monthly cover design from Ryan Hughes, incorporating Savador Larocca's art, beginning this month in Iron Man #20, and the story Stark Disassembled.

We talk about his run on Uncanny  X-Men  and the focus on Magneto and Cyclop's relationship in the newly formed Nation X "Who these two men are now, and how these situtations force how they relate to each other is a big part of Nation X ."