Matt D. Wilson

LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham is going to be a positively huge video game. I got to see that first hand when I played a brief demo at DC's booth at Comic-Con International in San Diego last weekend. First off, it's got a huge playground for players to explore. The "Beyond Gotham" of the title refers to outer space, and the game will go to a whole host of different worlds. Then there are the playable characters--105 or so, according to the game makers, and they include characters in both their superhero guises and as their secret identities. A new feature enables players to change from Clark Kent to Superman using a phone booth, for example.

Test footage from the unlikely-but-not-impossible Deadpool movie has been appearing and disappearing all over the Internet for the past few days, with a high-res version popping up on Vimeo (since deleted) and DailyMotion (the player above). Here's what we know about it: director Tim Miller and actor Ryan Reynolds made the two minutes or so of footage back in 2012 to convince 20th Century Fox to greenlight a film. It hasn't convinced them yet, and Reynolds has been less than optimistic about the movie's chances in recent interviews. Fans can assume that if there had been (or could be) a Deadpool movie, it would have looked a lot like this. There's a lot to like about what's in here, and a few things that seem to be missteps. Let's take a look.

For years now, DC Comics fans have been hearing about writer Grant Morrison's The Multiversity -- a universe-jumping series of one-shot stories tied together by an introductory and concluding issue that tracks the cosmic monitor Nix Woton as he tries to save multiple universes from an existential threat. Universes that become aware of this threat by reading about it in comic books... comic books that, it turns out, take place in neighboring universes. We first saw artwork from Frank Quitely's installment all the way back in 2012, but the project has been in the works since even before the advent of DC's line-wide 2011 reboot, the New 52 (a name that has proven confusing in the past, but, we promise, never more so than in this interview). Now it's finally starting next month, featuring auspicious collaborations with artists including Cameron Stewart, Ben Oliver, Chris Sprouse, Ivan Reis, Frank Quitely, and even more besides, introducing readers to a Vampire Batman, a Nazi Superman, a dinosaur cop, "Sister Miracle," an evil comic book called Ultra Comics, and tons of other ideas inspired by the deep history of DC Comics lore.

What if Batman had a fur-lined cape? Or had Scribblenauts on his cowl? Or was Rorschach? All those questions and more were answered at the Cape/Cowl/Create Exhibition hosted by DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Vice magazine at Comic-Con International in San Diego. The whole thing was a promotion for the new Batman: Arkham Knight game, and used the cape and cowl designs from the game as a basis for the artwork. The concept resulted in some pretty cool stuff, and the opulence of the event was a vivid expression of just how big the Arkham games have become -- often, installations like these are reserved for big tech franchise announcements.

As one might suspect, the major thrust of Thursday's "Spotlight on Bill Finger, Co-Cceator of Batman" panel was that Bill Finger never got the credit he deserved. Comic-Con's organizers made one big gesture to make up for that, presenting Finger's granddaughter, Athena Finger, with a posthumous Inkpot Award just as the panel got started. The panelists tried their best to heap credit on Finger, too.

Undoubtedly the Marvel Comics stories that brought the Guardians of the Galaxy back to the forefront of fans' minds -- and shaped the versions of the characters that appear in the movie that opens next week -- were Annihilation and Annihilation: Conquest. Those series were also a bit of a revival for another character, Nova. And in a recent interview with ScreenCrush, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige said some early drafts of the Guardians of the Galaxy script included the Richard Rider version of Nova.

If you were hoping to see Arrow's Stephen Amell make an appearance as the emerald archer in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice or in the upcoming Justice League movie, DC Comics Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns has some bad news for you. "We will not be integrating the film and television universes," he said at the Television Critics Association press tour for The Flash. Seems pretty cut and dried.

Marvel Studios and director Edgar Wright have both been pretty mum about the reasons for why they ended up parting ways on the Ant-Man movie, but Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige did open up a bit to The Guardian last week to try to quash some of the scuttlebutt about Wright's vision being too out-there for Marvel.

This week, Chris and Matt talk about how Robin Rises Omega #1 by Peter Tomasi and Andy Kubert should be great, but falls short, possibly because it's a victim of its own marketing. Then, we talk about how Life With Archie #36 by Paul Kupperberg and Pat & Tim Kennedy is really enjoyable despite some weird tics. Then, we discuss the cool new sci-fi anthology, 2299, edited by Dylan Todd.

Adam West is truly a Renaissance Man. He was, of course, Batman. He saved a Las Vegas Casino from computer destruction. He was actor and action hero Ty Lookwell. And now, he's a LEGO figure. Well, in a video game, anyway. According to a tweet from the LEGO Batman Twitter account, the revered actor will be playing none other than himself in LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham.

The promotional machine for Disney's big, animated fall film Big Hero 6 has really started ramping up with the announcement of the various voice cast members and a brand new trailer. An odd quirk of the promotion for the film has been that it doesn't seem to mention Marvel Comics even one time, though the concept, characters and title come from a Marvel team that spun out of Alpha Flight and had a few mini-series over the years. Now it looks like Marvel's not even going to publish one of the comics that tie into Big Hero 6, a manga by Haruki Ueno. It's going to be in Kodansha's Magazine Special instead.

By all indications, Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa's comic The 99 is a huge success. It has even inspired an animated series and a series of theme parks. But the series and its creator have also run into some trouble. In addition to earning criticism from American conservatives, the series has been called blasphemous by some Islamic clerics. They say the comic's core concept of 99 young heroes who reflect the 99 attributes ascribed to Allah in the Quran mocks the Islamic religion. Now, the Iraqi militant group ISIS, which has been systematically taking over cities in the country, is calling for Mutawa to be killed, and has even offered a reward.