EW reports that in “Truth or Square,” a one hour Nickelodeon special airing at 8 p.m. Eastern on Nov. 6, will feature SpongeBob SquarePants getting married to Sandy Cheeks the squirrel.

The episode will be narrated by Ricky Gervais and guest-stars a host of celebrities: Rosario Dawson, Craig Ferguson, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, LeBron James, Pink, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and Robin Williams.

The wedding is a flashback as SpongeBob and pals are trapped in the Krusty Krab freezer during the “eleventy seventh” birthday of the Krusty Krab, EW reports.

First Archie, now SpongeBob?  Maybe marriage is big this year.   Sorry, Spider-Man.

Check out Entertainment Weekly for the video.

- Matt Price

Husband and wife voice actors Yuri Lowenthal (Superman in “Legion of Superheroes”) and Tara Platt (Wonder Woman in “DC Vs Mortal Kombat”) took a few minutes to talk to me at Comic-Con International about their upcoming book, Voice-Over Voice Actor, available for pre-order at BugBotPress.com.

- Matt Price

Actress Tara Platt. (c)2008 John Phillips. Used with permission.

Oklahoma-raised Tara Platt has voiced superheroes, starred in movies and written a book.

Platt is maybe best known as the voice of Temari on the anime hit “Naruto,” but she has also portrayed superheroes Dream Girl (on “Legion of Superheroes”) and Wonder Woman (on the “DC vs. Mortal Kombat” game). She’s also appeared on “Charmed” and “Gilmore Girls.” But it all got started in Oklahoma, where Platt lived from age 7 to 11.

Dream Girl from Legion of Superheroes.

“I remember we went to see ‘Annie Get Your Gun,’ and there were a bunch of kids my age in the chorus,” Platt said. “They were dressed up in fun costumes and singing and seemed to be having a blast. After the show, I turned to my mom and said, ‘I wanna do that.’”

Platt’s mother told her that it takes lots of skill, time and energy to become an actress, but didn’t discourage her.

“She said that if I read the paper and came across an audition listing, that she would take me,” Platt said. “A few months later I saw an ad for the Jewel Box Theatre’s production of ‘Wait Until Dark’ with a role for a 9-year-old girl. I auditioned and got Gloria, and I haven’t looked back since!”

Wonder Woman from DC Vs. Mortal Kombat

Platt lived in Oklahoma while her father attended the University of Oklahoma’s medical school. She said her overall memories of the state are wonderful.

“I ended up going to elementary school there at Wiley Post Elementary,” Platt said. “We did the Sooners’ Run where we pretended we were pioneers and got to run across the school yard and stake out land with our red wagons and toy guns.”

That imagination is still in play today.

“A definite draw to (voice-over acting) is the ability to not be constrained by looks or age or gender,” Platt said. “Anywhere your imagination can take you, you have the possibility of working as a voice actor.”

Tara Platt and Yuri Lowenthal. Photo (c) Boris Kievsky, used with permission

In the English dub of Naruto, Platt voices Temari, the eldest of the Sand Siblings, who bears an iron fan. Naruto is a Japanese show based on the manga of the same name. The show, about a young ninja who seeks to become the greatest ninja of all, has a large fan base in Japan and the United States.

“There are such strong characters, and really so many that there is a character for everyone,” Platt said. “They deal with real issues; it isn’t just a ‘kids show.’ There are major conflicts that Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke and the various other characters … are all dealing with that parallel many things we all must deal with: disappointment, rejection, family conflict, life and death, love, loss and many other important things. I think that is one of the reasons that Naruto is a fan favorite. That and the ninjas, of course!”

Platt’s sharing her knowledge of the voice-over world in an upcoming book. With husband Yuri Lowenthal, also a voice actor, Platt has written “Voice-Over Voice Actor: What It’s Like Behind the Mic,” which comes out this fall and is available to pre-order at BugBotPress.com.

Voice-Over Voice Actor, from Bug Bot Press

“There are tips, exercises and practice copy in addition to the nuts and bolts about the business,” Platt said.

In addition to frequent voice work, Platt takes on other roles in front of and behind the camera. Platt’s film production company with Lowenthal, Monkey Kingdom Productions, recently finished the psychological thriller “Tumbling After.” They’re also working on a documentary about the world of voice-over with director and documentarian Boris Kievsky.

Platt will be in front of the camera in some upcoming commercials and in a live-action sci-fi romantic comedy feature starting next month.

By Matthew Price
From Tuesday’s The Oklahoman

According to TV Shows on DVD, the 1988 Ruby-Spears Superman cartoon will come to DVD this November. In addition to the Superman adventure show, this series contained mini-segments called “Superman’s Family Album,” about growing up in Smallville.

The release will contain 13 episodes on two discs, and a special feature about the rise of LexCorp, the 1980s corporate housing of Lex Luthor, who, prior to the 1980s, had been more mad scientist than corporate raider.

- Matt Price

Five more episodes of the “Wolverine and the X-Men” cartoon series come to DVD with “Deadly Enemies.” Logan still is attempting to re-form the X-Men after an attack left Professor Xavier in a coma.

Fortunately for Wolverine, Xavier now can communicate with him from the future. Xavier’s future gives Wolverine hints to events he must stop with his X-Men crew.

In “Overflow,” the Shadow King takes over the mind of Storm, and the X-Men must prevent the destruction of Africa by the powerful mutant. Cajun mutant Gambit makes his first appearance in “Thieves’ Gambit,” in which he’s hired by an anti-mutant group to steal a power-inhibiting device. And the blue, elfin mutant Nightcrawler comes to the forefront in the swashbuckling episode “X-Calibre,” which pays tribute to comic-book writer Warren Ellis’ take on the character. Bruce Banner and his alter ego guest-star in “Wolverine vs. The Hulk.” Finally, the team must work together to stop a dangerous, exploding mutant in “Time Bomb,” an episode that again brings the X-Men into conflict with the Brotherhood of Mutants.

“Wolverine and the X-Men” pays homage to classic X-Men tales like “Days of Future Past” while making a cartoon modern audiences also can enjoy.

- Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman

After playing Spider-Man’s friend Harry Osborn in “Spider-Man” video games, Keaton was excited to get the nod to play Spidey himself.

“I actually auditioned for Harry Osborn, and for Eddie Brock and Venom,” Keaton said in a phone interview. “I’m quite happy I got picked as Spider-Man. I love the other characters, but I mean, it’s Spider-Man!”

As a fan, Keaton appreciates the feel of “Spectacular Spider-Man,” which often harks back to the earliest stories by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, who created the character.

“Those are the stories that pretty much defined who Spider-Man was going to be,” Keaton said. “Granted, there’s some great stories that came later on, but they were all taken from that source material. They were all a twist that were given to the original story.”

“Spectacular Spider-Man” has been credited for developing the humorous side of the Spider-Man mythos. In the original stories, Spider-Man often taunted his villains with wisecracks as he was defeating them.

“That’s what I really wanted to do my best to bring back to Spidey, was the
wisecracks and the humor,” Keaton said. “I know there’s a trend to get really dark and brooding, and there’s a time and place for that; however, it can’t be forgotten that one of the big things that defines Spidey is his sense of humor.”

Keaton also likes some of Spider-Man’s serious story lines, including the “Master Planner” plot that will be part of Season 2. Could something such as “Kraven’s Last Hunt,” which featured a despondent supervillain capturing Spider-Man, eventually become part of “Spectacular Spider-Man” lore?

“I’m really hopeful that we’ll get five seasons, and after that start doing some direct-to-DVD movies where we’ll explore some of the more mature-themed Spidey stories,” Keaton said.

Another bonus of becoming Spider-Man is to have action figures based on your performances.

“I have all of the toys. I’m actually looking at them right now,” Keaton said. “I have all of the Spider-Man toys from McDonalds, and they’re sitting next to my 12-inch wisecracking Spider-Man talking doll that does this,” Keaton said, and then a doll with his voice said: “Oh, what’s a poor Web-head to do?”

Laughing, Keaton said, “I’m a huge geek. I love this stuff.”

- By Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Season 7″

Season 7 of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” featuring the heroic, anthropomorphic turtles who battle evil with their ninja skills, is being released in four parts, or “slices.” There are 27 episodes in the season.

Paying homage to the Turtles’ fondness for pizza, the season is broken down into the Leonardo slice (part 1), the Michelangelo slice (part 2), the Donatello slice (part 3) and the Raphael slice (part 4). Each slice contains a small action figure of the selected turtle.

Season 7 is the last of “Turtles” cartoons with the original intro. Starting with Season 8, perhaps inspired by “Batman: The Animated Series,” the Turtles became more action-oriented. There are hints of that here, as in the 14th episode, “Night of the Dark Turtle,” in which Donatello becomes a caped avenger.

The first 13 episodes on these DVDs feature the Turtles visiting different locations in Europe. In the episode “Ring of Fire,” Turtle foes Krang and Shredder make some meta-commentary, as Shredder states he doesn’t need to see the map to Lisbon, Portugal.

“It’s not for you; this is the educational portion of the show,” Krang replies.

- Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman

“Jim Lange was not only one of the greatest political cartoonists Oklahoma ever produced, he was one of the most outstanding cartoonists in the history of American journalism,” said David Boren, University of Oklahoma president. “Jim had the remarkable ability to produce cartoons that were fully understood by the public and expressed the feelings of rank and file Americans. He truly loved this state and our country, and those patriotic feelings were constantly communicated through his work. His life’s work was a gift to all of us, and I will personally miss his friendship and wonderful sense of humor.”

- Matt Price

I’m watching “Max Fleischer’s Superman 1941-1942,” the official release of the war-era “Superman” cartoons that were a giant leap forward in animation. You can get a sense of what the official releases look like in the YouTube embeds above from Warner Bros.
I’ll have a full review in The Oklahoman at some point, but my early thoughts while watching these episodes are, these are really nice editions of the cartoons. I believe they are the same remastered editions from the Superman I and II special editions from 2006, so if you have those, this might be a repeat purchase, save for the extras. But these are really nice, and all together in one place.
It’s also worth noting that the DVD is marked “not for children – for adult collectors,” which I assume has to do with the racial stereotypes that were commonplace in 1941 and 1942 but are glaring now.
Bruce Timm talks about these cartoons’ influence on “Batman: The Animated Series” in a special feature, but even if he didn’t, it would likely be obvious to anyone who watched both cartoons. The Fleischer “Superman” cartoons are even more fluid, however.
While these cartoons have been available in public-domain collections in the past, this is the best edition of them — far superior to the random markdown bin versions, and even somewhat better than the two classier versions — the “Ultimate Collection” and the “Diamond Anniversary Edition.”

- Matt Price

“The Spectacular Spider-Man” is moving to a new network, but the show’s co-creator says the new episodes will retain the same contemporary but classic feel of the first season.

The animated series “The Spectacular Spider-Man” will move to Disney XD (151 on Cox Digital Cable, 174 on Dish Network, 292 on DirecTV).  New episodes will debut on the network in summer 2009.

“The Spectacular Spider-Man” animated series is based on the Marvel Comics superhero “Spider-Man,” and is set during his junior year of high school. Spider-Man was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko in 1962.

Greg Weisman, the supervising producer of the series, talked about Season Two of “Spectacular Spider-Man,” and the inspirations for the series, in a recent phone interview with The Oklahoman.

“When I first got the job, I went back and bought all the big, ‘Essential Spider-Man’ volumes and reread all the Lee-Ditko and Lee-(John) Romita Sr. issues,” Weisman said. “It wasn’t that I hadn’t read them before, but I wanted to have them all fresh in my mind.”

Weisman wanted to take those original tales and make them resonate for a modern audience.

“What we were going to try to do is take 1962 and reboot it in 2008,” Weisman said. “And really try and capture the magic of the character, the thing that had made us fall in love with Spider-Man when we were kids.”

In Season Two, new villains will be introduced from the pages of the comic book, including Mysterio and Kraven the Hunter. And Weisman hopes there’s more to come.

“For a big-time geek like me, this is a dream job,” he said. “I have been working as a professional superhero writer since 1983, when I was a sophomore in college.”

Weisman said he and his team on “Spectacular” want to get to the core of the “Spider-Man” character and do something definitive for this generation.

“I hope we’re doing this for another decade, because I’ve got 10 years worth of stories to tell; there’s just that much material. And I’m loving it.”

– Matthew Price
A version of this story ran in Friday’s The Oklahoman

He can’t fly or bend steel with his bare hands, but actor Yuri Lowenthal has an affinity for superheroes.

The actor, who voiced the Prince of Persia in video games and will guest-star on “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” tonight, says one of his most satisfying roles was portraying Superman in the animated series “Legion of Superheroes.”

“As an actor, I audition for jobs every day,” Lowenthal said. “When it gets to be one of ‘those’ jobs, because I’m a huge comic book nerd, and have been since I was a kid … that always really gets me going because that’s my stuff.”

“Legion of Superheroes” features a young Superman who goes to the 31st century to aid a group of young superheroes in their battles with the villains the Fatal Five.

After his first audition, Lowenthal was called back to read for two members of the Legion of Superheroes: Lightning Lad and Brainiac 5. He also was called back to read for the Man of Steel himself.

Upon arriving at the callback, he read the “sides,” or script, for Superman and Brainiac 5 before the producers asked him to stop.

“I was too nervous to say, ‘Hey, what about Lightning Lad?’”

Lowenthal thought he’d blown it but decided to try to forget about it and move on. A few weeks later, he got a call from his agent.

“You’re Superman,” she told Lowenthal.

“I started screaming … and jumping around the apartment,” Lowenthal said.

Much later, the director revealed to Lowenthal that he wasn’t asked to continue because he had the Superman role locked up.

“The reason we sent you home after reading just two of the three characters we called you back for,” Lowenthal recalled the director telling him, “is that we realized that, ‘Here’s our Superman,’ and we didn’t need to have you read anything else.”

Lowenthal also voices the superheroes Iceman in “Wolverine and the X-Men” and Ben 10 in “Ben 10: Alien Force.”

“Hero characters suit me, I think,” Lowenthal said. “I always wanted to be a superhero when I was a kid, and I really haven’t stopped.”

Three DVDs featuring the “Legion of Superheroes” are available, and episodes are available for download online at iTunes and Amazon.com.

– Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman

The Mother Nature Network, www.mnn.com, has brought back “Captain Planet and the Planeteers.”

The world’s first eco-superhero is featured in classic online episodes, along with special bonus footage, trivia and photos.

“Captain Planet and the Planeteers” aired from 1990 to 1996 in more than 50 countries and featured voices including Whoopi Goldberg, Sting, Meg Ryan, Martin Sheen, Ed Asner, James Coburn, Ed Begley, Jr., LeVar Burton, Tim Curry, Dean Stockwell, Helen Hunt and Jeff Goldblum.

– Matt Price

The kid-friendly Cartoon Network series “Batman: The Brave and the Bold” is based on the comic book of the same name that teamed Batman up with other DC Comics characters.  In the most recent episode, “Journey to the Center of the Bat,” the Atom and Aquaman must miniaturize themselves to save Batman from a disease.
The TV-G rated series has the goofy charm of the 1960s “Batman,” and has introduced more than a dozen DC Comics characters in its first nine episodes.   The original Batman team-up “Brave and Bold” comics are available in three black-and-white “Showcase” editions from DC. The first comic book based on the “Brave and the Bold” cartoon was released this week.
If you or a youngster are enjoying “Brave and Bold,” here’s more information about some of the included characters, and comic-book collections to seek out for further reading.

AQUAMAN
The cartoon’s version of Aquaman is somewhat arrogant, but in a fun way.  While this version is an amalgam of the various ways Aquaman’s been portrayed throughout the years, if you’re looking for goofy retro fun, check out the two “Showcase” reprint volumes.  If you’d prefer a more modern take, Peter David’s “Aquaman: Time and Tide” recaps the character’s origin.

THE ATOM
The shrinking scientist Ray Palmer has two “Showcase” volumes.  Science-fiction meets sword-and-sorcery in the “Sword of the Atom” collection.  And Palmer’s successor, Ryan Choi, is introduced in “The All-New Atom: My Life in Miniature.”  This Atom is showcased in “Journey to the Center of the Bat!”

BLUE BEETLE
Hispanic teen Jaime Reyes is  the current Blue Beetle; four volumes of his current adventures are available.  The episode “The Fall of the Blue Beetle” introduces his predecessor, Ted Kord, and the best place to find his stories are in the “Justice League International” collections.

GREEN ARROW
The “Brave and the Bold” version is the clean-shaven Batman rival, not the goateed political activist.  Your best bet to find representative stories is the “Showcase Presents Green Arrow” volume.

PLASTIC MAN
When hood Eel O’Brien receives the power to stretch and mold himself as if made of plastic, he retreats from his life of crime and becomes a costumed hero.  The eight “Archive” editions by DC collect Jack Cole’s masterwork.  If the $49.99 price tag for those is too steep, two recent collections by Kyle Baker — “On the Lam” and “Rubber Bandits” — are excellent comics in their own right.

Other characters showcased thus far on “The Brave and the Bold” include the android Red Tornado, the cocky Green Lantern Guy Gardner, the aging pugilist The Wildcat, the super-team The Outsiders, the ghostly Deadman and Kamandi, the last boy on Earth.

by Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman

WORD BALLOONS

Wolverine, the clawed Canadian who is the most recognizable member of the X-Men, is at the forefront of “Wolverine and the X-Men,” an animated series premiering at 7 tonight on Nicktoons.

It’s part of a big year for the mutant, who will appear in a live-action film, an animated series, a direct-to-DVD film and scores of comic books in 2009.

“Wolverine and the X-Men” features Wolverine re-forming the X-Men a year after a mysterious explosion destroyed the Xavier Institute and broke up the X-Men. With Professor X and Jean Grey missing, it’s up to Wolverine to get the X-Men back together to prevent a nightmarish future. Included in this “X-Men” roster are Cyclops, Storm, the White Queen, Beast, Rogue and Nightcrawler.

Wolverine will make his big-screen debut as a solo star in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” with Hugh Jackman reprising his role from the “X-Men” films. “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” is scheduled to debut May 1.

And Wolverine comes to DVD on Tuesday, as part of the “Hulk Vs.” DVD. Hulk fights Thor and Wolverine in separate portions of the direct-to-DVD feature. Co-writer Christopher Yost said at Comic-Con International in San Diego that the creative team was given a lot of leeway in developing “Hulk Vs. Wolverine.”

“The only thing was, Hulk had to be in it and Wolverine had to be in it,” Yost said. “We really had a chance to delve into the two characters, like Wolverine’s entire past and rogues’ gallery. We tried to bring the comic book to life. Everything the fans like about the comic books, the action and the edge, we tried to put it in there. You’ll see a lot of things directly from the comic books.”

And of course, Marvel Comics has big plans for Wolverine in the comic books in 2009, including a Free Comic Book Day release, an omnibus edition of nearly 1,000 pages; new editions of “Origin” and Barry Windsor-Smith’s “Weapon X,” and a new ongoing series written by Jason Aaron (”Ghost Rider”).

Aaron’s series, “Wolverine: Weapon X” launches in April. The art is by former “Captain America” artist Ron Garney. Aaron said he hoped his Wolverine series would appeal both to fans and neophytes.

“This is a Wolverine series for people who’ve never read the character’s adventures, who don’t know anything about his long and complicated history,” Aaron told Comic Book Resources. “But hopefully it’s something that will also appeal to hardcore fans who want to see Logan in less of a superhero setting.”

– by Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman

PAULS VALLEY – Oklahoma cartoonists and famous toy lines were among the honorees Saturday as the Toy and Action Figure Museum, 111 S. Chickasaw, celebrated its third anniversary.

Joining the museum’s action figure Hall of Fame were two action-figure lines that took the 1980s by storm: Masters of the Universe and G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero.

Masters of the Universe were supremely muscled characters who lived on the planet Eternia. The star of this line was He-Man, who gained his strength when he held aloft his magic sword and repeated the phrase “by the power of Grayskull.”

“G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero” was a 1980s update of the classic Joe action figure, which had been a 12-inch figure. “A Real American Hero” was in the 3 and ¾-inch size and introduced G.I. Joe, a special missions force for the U.S. military, who defended freedom against Cobra, a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world. Rather than just one “G.I. Joe,” the brand now introduced a line full of characters, developed by comics and animation writer Larry Hama, including the ninja Snake-Eyes, leader Duke and counter-intelligence specialist Scarlett.

Introduced into the Oklahoma Cartoonists Collection Hall of Fame were four cartoonists – and it came as a surprise to one of them. Museum curator Kevin Stark, creator of the comic strip and comic book “Geezer,” was named to the Hall of Fame. “Geezer” ran for seven years in the Pauls Valley Daily Democrat, and further comic books are in development.

Also honored:

Russell Myers, the creator of “Broom Hilda,” who was raised and attended college in Tulsa.

George Storm, who created adventure strips “Phil Hardy” in 1925 and “Bobby Thatcher” in 1927. He co-created The Hangman for MLJ and drew Bugs Bunny for Dell. He died in 1976.

Terry Tidwell, who was born and raised in Claremore. He worked on “The Green Hornet” and “Conan.” Tidwell, who was in attendance at the ceremony, also co-created the Tulsa-based hero “The Twilight Avenger.”

– Matthew Price
Assistant Features Editor
From Friday’s The Oklahoman

I hope you’ll see a major writeup about this in The Oklahoman tomorrow, but I wanted to share my take on one of the great Oklahoma cartoonists. 

I saw the end of an era today.  Jim Lange, editorial cartoonist since 1950 at The Oklahoman, turned in his final cartoon.

I’ve just returned from his retirement party, where Lange, still funny 58 years into his OPUBCO career, had the crowd rolling, and drew a standing ovation.

Lange was one of the inauguaral honorees of the Oklahoma Cartoonists Collection in 2005, and is a member of the Oklahoma Cartoonists Hall of Fame.

Comic-book writer and historian Michael Vance wrote of Lange, accurately:  ”Lange’s minimalist style also features a master’s instinct on what is visually needed and not needed to make his point with each incredibly smooth and visually attractive line.”

Lange drew more than 17,000 cartoons over his career.  As mentioned at Lange’s retirement, some of his frequent “victims” were his biggest fans, often calling Lange at the paper after a cartoon ran to see if they could acquire a copy, or the original drawing.

You can see the 2007 and 2008 cartoons of Jim Lange at the Voices page on NewsOK.com.

– Matt Price

Newsarama talks to David Boreanaz, Kyle MacLachlan, Brooke Shields and Jeremy Sisto about their roles in the animated “Justice League: The New Frontier.”

Executive producer Bruce Timm talks about the rationale in choosing MacLachlan for Superman:

“Kyle MacLachlan is the perfect example – he sounds exactly like what you’d think a ‘50s era Superman would sound like,” said executive producer Bruce Timm. “He’s very righteous and good, but still very natural. We didn’t want the sound of Superman in 2008, and Kyle gave such a great, stylized performance in capturing that mid-50s feel.”

MacLachlan had long been in the running for the George Reeves role in the film that ended up being ”Hollywoodland,” and I thought he brought a perfect 1950s Superman inflection to this role.

Scroll down at Supermantv.net to see a MacLachlan as George Reeves, as compared to Ben Affleck as Reeves and Reeves himself.  MacLachlan looks the part, and I say that as someone who thought Affleck nailed the role in the finished film.  

– Matt Price

 - Matt Price

Many of you in your 30s will remember the TV show “Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends,” which featured Spidey teaming up with Firestar and Iceman in an animated Saturday morning cartoon.

Sean McKeever revisited the Amazing Friends in an issue of Spider-Man Family not too long ago, and now writer Brian Michael Bendis is doing the same in “Ultimate Spider-Man.”

Bendis said this idea has been building for a while in an interview at Marvel.com:

Marvel.com: Spidey and some of his pals are coming to town. Is “Amazing Friends” something that you have wanted to do for a while?

Brian Michael Bendis: Absolutely. Literally, when it became clear that [ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN] was gonna do [well], and it was going to be an ongoing and I wasn’t going to get fired, [I made my] wish list of stuff [I would] love to do. I wrote down “Amazing Friends” and I looked at the idea, and I was like, “How do you get Iceman in the book?”

Keep in mind that ULTIMATE X-MEN hadn’t even started yet, so how do you make it organic and not just a goofball team up? But if Kitty [Pryde] joins the book on an ongoing basis, that gets Iceman into the book organically. It’s been building since like the second year, so yeah, I’ve been waiting a long time to get this done.

—

The team-up takes place in “Ultimate Spider-Man” No. 118, slated for a Feb. 6 release.

Meanwhile, to revisit the original cartoon, visit Spider-Friends.com, or check out the intro on YouTube (complete with den that transforms into crazy Batcave-like lair with supercomputers).

– Matt Price 

But enough about that, here’s the scoop — “Smallville” fan-fave Chloe will be joining the DC Universe in Superman #674.

Now, before you purists get your Spider-Man Underoos in a knot, let’s look at the long history of comic book characters who have come from outside the comic book world.

1. Jimmy Olsen — Superman’s Pal, was not created for the comic book page, but rather for the radio (or “talkie box,” if you’re 200 years old). That’s right, kids — Jimmy was not in canon to begin with.

2. Firestar – This red-headed mutant was first drawn on a cel for animation before she made it to the Marvel Universe. She appeared on “Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends,” taking the place of the Human Torch (who was tied up in legal limbo at the time).

3. Kryptonite — Superman’s greatest weakness also came from the Adventures of Superman radio show. That’s right, fellow nerds, all your base are belong to us. Nothing is what it seems. Black is white. Dogs sleep with cats. Talkies are going to ruin this business!

4. Harley Quinn — Dr. Harleen Quinzel, the femme fatale with a taste for homicidal clowns, first showed her pretty painted face in “Batman: The Animated Series,” long before getting her own series, she was working it on the small screen in one of the greatest cartoons in the history of man, ape, lizard or 8th dimensional imp. 

What am I missing? Matt, I know you’ve got some science to drop on this. Let me know in the comments or lose me forever.

– Greg Elwell