Today is "Hector Plasm" and "Invincible Presents" artist Nate Bellegarde's birthday, and to celebrate, he asked his friends for only one present: drawings of DC's swingin' Element Man, Metamorpho, and brother, did they deliver. So as our way of wishing a Happy Birthday to one of our favorite artists, ComicsAlliance has gathered all the drawings he's gotten so far together in one spot! It's a Partymorpho!

Brandon Padgett

Way back in aught-six, legendary creator Frank Miller announced to Nerdom that his next Batman project for DC Comics would find the Caped Crusader taking on the very real threat of Al Qaeda in a visceral, 120 page graphic novel titled "Holy Terror, Batman!." Cut to today -- four years later -- and it looks like the book will finally be published...only not by DC. And not starring Batman. And now just called "Holy Terror."

In a recent sitdown with the LA Times' Hero Complex, Miller discussed the new direction of the politically charged, much talked about story, as well as his overall feelings on writing the Dark Knight, a character he's arguably defined for several recent generations of Bat-fans.

We've been hearing about Matt Fraction's upcoming run on "Thor" for a while now, and it's been resolicited for September 22nd, so mark your calendars. In the meantime, if you need a reason to get MORE excited, check out this advance preview of his first issue -- "Thor" #615 -- illustrated by Pasqual Ferry and colored by Matt Hollingsworth, where Sif rides out to meet the thunder god before the shattered ruins of Asgard, and they talk about what a huuuge douchebag Loki is. Seriously, that guy.

Up until now, you could be forgiven if you were unaware that director Stephen Norrington has been planning a new film version of James O'Barr's 1988 comic "The Crow," because up until now there has been no good reason to care at all about a new film version of "The Crow," which was first adapted semi-interestingly to film in 1994 by director Alex Proyas, and then flogged to death over a series of three sequels, one TV series, and an endless amount of Hot Topic merchandise.

However, as reported by The Wrap, production company Relativity Media has made quite possibly the only choice they could make that would result in a new "The Crow" movie that will not only be worth checking out, but potentially worth getting excited for: they have hired gothic rock star Nick Cave to pen the script.

And we're back again, this time with yet another issue of "Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne." This one eschews the search plot to focus purely on the story from Bruce's perspective -- or, more precisely, from the perspective of the people around Bruce, who is completely silent for this entire issue in a nod to the silent, nameless lone gunslinger (or Batarang-slinger) archetype.

For additional reference, I've prepared a Wayne/Van Derm family tree with all the information so far; I imagine it'll largely be a living document, so expect updates to it in the future.

"Law and Order" tied "Gunsmoke" for the longest-running drama in television history before NBC canceled it earlier this year, but the series' legacy has now been immortalized in artwork, thanks to the unique stylings of creators like Kate Beaton of "Hark! A Vagrant" and visionary showdown illustrator Scott C.

Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles is hosting a "Law and Order" exhibit titled "These are Their Stories," which can be perused via BrandonBird.com or in person at Meltdown through today, July 30, featuring work by Kate Beaton, Michael Kupperman, Chris Hastings, Box Brown, Chip Zdarsky, David Malki, and more. Prints are also available for those who want to see these quirky slices of life ripped straight from headlines.

Here at ComicsAlliance, we value our readership and are always open to what the masses of Internet readers have to say. That's why we've given Senior Writer Chris Sims the punishment pleasure of stepping into the grand tradition of the Answer Man as he responds to your reader questions!

Q: I usually don't read manga because I don't know where to start. But thanks to you I just read "Pluto"and I was blown away. What should I read next? -- John Maynard, via email

A: As much as I love comics, I'm not a huge manga expert, mostly owing to the fact that I burnt myself out on it back in my younger days. Growing up in the late '80s and early '90s, manga and anime were, to me, the punk rock of comics: They were something that took a familiar format and used it in a strange new way (which as a bonus often involved nudity and people getting punched so hard they exploded), and it was something that the squares hadn't caught onto yet. You had to hunt for it, staying up 'til 4 AM to catch a Sci-Fi Channel showing of "Project A-Ko" or picking up stray volumes from the sketchier comic book stores.

Adaptations of an original work traditionally follow a pretty standard path: Comic becomes movie, movie becomes video game. In the case of the anything-but-conventional "Scott Pilgrim" series by Bryan Lee O'Malley, however, tradition takes a back seat to creativity, with the comic, movie and video game each feeding off of one another in ways sure to please fans.

Joystiq's Mike Schramm scored a lot of "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World: The Game" info during Comic-Con, but perhaps most interesting was director Edgar Wright's comments on how the SPvTW film benefited from Ubisoft and Paul Robertson's vision for the video game.

"I saw the game as we were editing, and I sort of heard the sound effects, and I said, 'Oh, can we use some of the sound effects?' So we put some of the sound effects from the game in."

Wright also told Joystiq that the video game resonated enough that he decided to include the video game version of Scott in a key scene of the film, pushing the SP comic/movie/game trifecta past integrated marketing monster madness and into the real of serendipitous sequential art success.