Since we'll be out of the office until next Monday, your ever-lovin' Splash Page editors, Casey Seijas and Rick Marshall, would like to take a moment to give special shout-outs to some of the comic books, movies and events that we're most thankful for this year and what we're most excited about in the coming year.

And apparently we have quite a bit to be thankful for, so check out our roll calls after the jump. Read more...

If it wasn’t already, Robert Downey Jr’s recent comments to MTV News make one thing abundantly clear: As the flag bearers and gold standard for Marvel movies, the team behind “Iron Man” feels a great responsibility, not just to their own upcoming sequel, but to other Marvel properties as well.

So now that the “Narnia” duo of Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have been tapped to pen “Captain America,” it’s a sure bet Downey, Favreau, and screenwriter Justin Theroux are burning through phone cards trying to connect. Right?

Wrong, said Theroux, who told MTV News that there was absolutely no dialogue between other Marvel writers and himself. None.

“You know, there’s NO dialogue right now - in a great way,” the scripter confessed. “I think [Marvel Studios President] Kevin Feige just wants to make sure we can make the best movie that we can make.” Read more...

Now that we've seen Marvel's schedule of upcoming films and creative team announcements begin trickling in, it probably makes sense that we're seeing the Merry Marvel Movie team devote some attention to the look-and-feel aspects of their future projects.

So it's not a huge surprise that according to a press release, Marvel has arranged a long-term deal with Cherry Lane Music Publishing to manage the music element of the comics company's film and television projects -- a deal that will include music administration for both the highly anticipated Marvel movies like "The Avengers, " as well as TV series like "Wolverine and the X-Men."

But what does this mean for the comics crowd? Read more...

Demand has never been higher for killer cyborgs. Between Fox's "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" television series and Warner Bros.' upcoming "Terminator: Salvation" starring Christian Bale, the cyborgs are taking over -- and comics are no exception.

This December, Dynamite Entertainment's "Terminator: Revolution" five-issue series, written by Simon Furman with art by Lui Antonio, puts the Connors back on the run... and MTV has your first look at the new series.

The follow-up to Furman's "Terminator: Infinity" miniseries, "Revolution" takes readers to the year 2015, when John Connor's human resistance movement is preparing to take down the world-dominating artificial intelligence Skynet once and for all. Things don't go as planned, however, and Skynet sends Terminators across time to devastate Connor and effectively end human resistance. Read more...

Fresh off being named "Sexiest Man Alive" by People Magazine, Hugh Jackman has a lot to be thankful for these days. His epic Baz Luhrmann film "Australia" hits theaters today, and he's returning to the big screen as one of comics' most popular superheroes, Wolverine, in next year's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine."

In the following video, Jackman explains to MTV that there are plenty of surprises left for the "Wolverine" audience, and not only tells us that he'd like to do another film, but teases the story he'd like to tell.

"The most intriguing thing to me was the Japan story. I love the Japan story," said Jackman. "I wanted to do the Japan story from around 'X-Men 2.' Can you just picture Wolverine in Japan with the triads and the samurai? It's just genius." Read more...

For those of us out there who simply can not wait for the December 9 release of "The Dark Knight" on DVD and Blu-ray, Italian website BadTaste.it were invited to a special screening of the DVD and given exclusive permission to post six clips of the special features on their site.

As we've previously mentioned, "The Dark Knight" will be available on DVD and Blu-ray, and for you hardcore Bat-fans out there, you'll definitely want to grab the special edition sets which boasts over three hours of special features, six episodes of "Gotham Tonight" (Gotham City's premiere news program, natch), Joker cards, concept and poster art, production stills and Best Buy is offering two store exclusive sets which include either a Batman mask, a Joker mask and will also make available two limited edition statuettes of Batman and the Joker. Read more...

When "Smallville" recruited Geoff Johns to write an episode for the show, they expected to get more steeped in comic book-lore than ever before -- they just didn't realize how much. John's episode, set to air January 15, brings in the classic comic book team the Legion of Super-Heroes and a new villain in the Persuader.

"The concept of the Legion throws a wrench in Clark's life," Johns said. "They've already built up to a huge climax with Chloe and Doomsday, and then the Legion comes in and completely complicates everything."

Johns pitched the show on introducing the time-traveling Legionnaires -- Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, and Cosmic Boy -- by explaining that they would be relevant to Clark Kent's life at this point in time (unlike some other characters who'd been introduced on the show although he wasn't supposed to meet them until later -- can you say Green Arrow?). And when the time came to talk villains, Johns brought in a bunch of his comic books to show them how the Persuader would translate in a cameo appearance. Read more...

FROM MULTIPLAYER: It’s always nice to meet someone in the entertainment industry with a real reverence for the games, comics and the assorted geekery I hold near and dear to my heart — and former 20th Century Fox exec (and occasional comics writer) Jeff Katz is exactly that sort of person.

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Katz, who returned from the set of the upcoming “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” film just a few months ago, and get a few details about the upcoming “Wolverine” game based on the film — as well as how he mixes business with pleasure when it comes to gaming.

“A couple of the Fox execs, myself and a couple of the principals involved [in 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine'], we’re all gamers,” said Katz. “So when it came to the ‘Wolverine’ movie game, it was like, ‘Let’s do the coolest possible version of an X-Men game.’”

Read more about the "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" game at Multiplayer.MTV.com.

These days, we hear a lot about movies based on comics taking Hollywood by storm, and while every day there's exciting news coming out of the studios regarding the next wave of surefire superhero blockbusters, very little is ever heard about the comic book side of things. Are sales of "Batman" and "Iron Man" comics going up thanks to successful movies? Do movies have any sort of effect on what happens in the comics? In other words, comic movies are the hottest things going these days -- but what about comic books?

For anyone who's ever wondered about this (and doesn't visit the hardcore comics-specific websites on an hourly basis), the LA Times' Hero Complex blog ran a fascinating interview with the man in charge of the DC Comics Universe, Executive Editor Dan DiDio. With a love-him-or-hate-him reputation amongst comic fans, DiDio has never been shy about voicing his opinions when it comes to the industry, and offered some interesting insight regarding the current "golden age" of comic films we're arguably in right now and how comics play into that. Read more...

May 8, 2009 -- just another day for some, but to us geeks, it's a day that's been marked on our calendars ever since we first heard news that the crew of the Starship Enterprise was getting a reboot -- obviously, we're speaking of the day J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek" hits theaters. It goes without saying that we've been glued to our monitors like Captain Kirk on a scantily-clad alien hottie looking for the latest news and clips leading up to the release, and now our friends at IDW are giving Trekkies something to tide us over until "Trek" lands at the multiplex.

Kicking off this January, IDW presents "Star Trek: Countdown" -- a four-issue mini-series that will play as a prequel to the upcoming film. Presented by Abrams, plotted by "Star Trek" screenwriters Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman and scripted by Mike Johnson and Tim Jones, "Countdown," as Orci describes it, "Lays the groundwork for what happens in the movie. It's our way of passing the baton from the Next Generation characters and their movies to the new film."

After the jump, check out IDW's promo image that's currently making the rounds on the internet -- and also raises a few questions regarding the upcoming prequel. Read more...