If you haven't realized already from my gushing posts about Watchmen and Star Trek, I'm kind of a huge nerd. But not one of those "purist" types that really care if they ruin Will Eisner's The Spirit (which they will, or already did) or if Art Spiegelman's name is never as famous as Tobey Maguire's or Christian Bale's.

But it does bear a little LOL at the news that Gossip Girl and OC creator Josh Schwartz will be writing the newest superhero film, X-men: First Class.

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Those people who look to Zits for actual parenting advice are in luck: There are currently two comic features running this week featuring "hot topic" issues like dialysis machines and spousal abuse. Sandra Bell-Lundy's Between Friends will abandon it's normally scheduled program of women making mundane small-talk about men and chocolate to focus on domestic violence in a storyline that runs through November. If that wasn't reason enough to skip right to the metro section, On a Claire Day plans on tackling the tough subject of polycystic kidney disease throughout the week for a couple of laughs, instead of its usual fare of poorly drawn characters discussing lighthearted relationship drama.

So, is this trend (in our world, just two things make a trend) a good way to spread PSAs, or the ruination of the last shred of dignity the Sunday morning funny papers have left?

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Driven by what can only be described as an insatiable appetite for beefy guys in Lycra, this year's Comic-Con in San Diego, where superhero geeks go to geek out with their own kind, has completely sold out a week before its opening, with 100,000 people expected to attend the four-day homage to Batman. But the bonus this year? Free wifi, so you can upload snaps of your favorite excuse to squeeze a pair of breasts into a rubber top.

"This is like, my first big action movie, and this is what I f*cking get. Wow, wow." That's Ed Norton in this Jimmy Kimmel clip from last week — the only real bit of press The Incredible Hulk star participated in (he did do the red carpet at the premiere, with "controlled" press, and the MTV Movie Awards). How come? Because, the story goes, he didn't want to have to get grilled on a little dispute over just how much he re-wrote the Hulk script submitted by Zak Penn (who wrote X-Men 3), and why Norton didn't get a screenwriting credit.

With the movie opening this weekend Norton supposedly ran off to some deserted island and refused to promote the flick, leaving Liv Tyler's lips to do all the heavy lifting.

So what was the end result of Norton refusing to take part in endless pool interviews? Oh, nothing really. Just a $60 million opening weekend box office take.

Watch Norton's Kimmel video, which hopes to rack up as many YouTube views as "I'm F*cking Matt Damon," below.

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The Incredible Hulk, which premieres this weekend just a few years after its most recent remake, which went down the box office crapper, is expected to perform quite nicely once all the box office receipts are counted. But don't expect any help from its star, Ed Norton — he's off on a remote island being attended to. And he won't be coming back. At least not until Universal ups his fee.

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Hmmm, maybe we were wrong in our sarcastic declaration that the Miley Cyrus-Vanity Fair scandal is not, in fact, a worthwhile news story. If it were such a tabloid item, how could it be included in this three-party storyline connecting Barack Obama and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright? [SF Chron]

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"In the 15 years I have been writing for The Times, I have covered wildfires, riots, gang murders and plenty of other mayhem," blogs LAT reporter Geoff Boucher. "I never got hurt. This weekend I covered a comic book convention in San Diego and I'm going home with staples in my head."

Who knew a trip to Comic-Con meant oogling Hayden Panettiere and getting your ass kicked?

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