Superman news; Boondocks on DVD

Until I find some way to get paid to just be a geek, I'll have to continue to exist on the scraps I find from Comic-Con rather than getting to go myself.

There must be so many cool things to sift through there, but this one stuck out to me. At a panel Friday, Bryan Singer let it slip that if he has his way, he will get to direct another Superman flick, but it won't be coming for quite a while.

He said he has had discussions with Warner Bros. Pictures about directing a sequel, but that it probably wouldn't be ready before Summer 2009.

"I plan to get all 'Wrath of Khan' on it," Singer said. "We haven't concluded a deal. That's always iffy," Singer added. "The intention is to do it for 2009."

Sounds good to me. It's probably good that he takes his time on this and works out the few bugs that plagued the mostly satisfying "Superman Returns." He'll definitely need a better villain, and hopefully he'll find a forceful editor to trim this next flick to a less butt-numbing length.

His former friends with the X-Men are, clearly, going in a different direction, spinning off new flicks fast and furious. By next summer we'll have a Wolverine movie, then one for Magneto and (keep your fingers, crossed) maybe even one for Emma Frost.

If he indeed takes his time and pours his heart into the next Superman flick, my money is on Singer to beat them all.


"Boondocks" on DVD

It's pretty slim pickings on DVD this week, but I've already rearranged my Netflix queue to put the first season of this animated series based on Aaron McGruder's great comic strip, out tomorrow, on top.

For my money, if you can get past a certain word that flies through this faster than a tornado in a trailer park, it's the best show in the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim bloc of programming.

It got off to a rough start with a pilot notable only for the unedited version of Kanye West's "Gold digger," but really hit its stride in episode 2, in which grandpa Freeman unwittingly brings home a ho to be his new lady friend. Sure, it's thoroughly rude, but also very funny.

Besides, when you've got the always funny John Witherspoon as Grandpa and Regina King doubling as the voices of his two young charges, angry brothers Huey and Riley Freeman, how can you go wrong?

Once you get past the controversy, what you get is an often touching story about an old man forced to raise these two little hellions and barely getting by. It also has very rude humor in the in-your-face way pioneered by Richard Pryor and later Dave Chappelle.

Along with 15 episodes on 3 discs, you get audio commentaries, behind-the-scenes footage, deleted scenes, animatics, unaired "Adult Swim" TV promos and printable storyboards.

If your sensibility can take the hit, I highly recommend this politically charged pop nugget for your DVD menu this week.