Comic books: Movie news steals the show at Comic-Con

Comic-Con International was its usual bad self last week, an immense Christmas party for nerds, geeks and fans of all stripes. But two movie announcements stole the show.

While yours truly, Captain Comics, didn't personally make it to San Diego, the two announcements have been widely reported. And in case you have a life and didn't spend the weekend glued to Entertainment Weekly radio, Newsarama and various publisher websites such as Captain did, so here's the scoop:

DC Entertainment went first, announcing the official "Man of Steel" sequel July 21 at the San Diego Convention Center. But there was a shocking kicker: "Man of Steel 2" — or whatever it will be called — will have a co-star: Batman.

The way the news was announced implied that the meet-up of DC's two biggest stars might not be friendly. Harry Lennix, who played Gen. Swanwick in "Man of Steel," launched the announcement with a quote from the 1986 "Dark Knight Returns" graphic novel: "I want you to remember my hand at your throat. I want you to remember the one man who beat you."

Longtime fans remember when the Batman-Superman friendship was a cornerstone in the DC universe. The two characters began sharing adventures in the 1950s when reducing page count in an anthology called "World's Finest Comics" forced the two to appear in a single strip, rather than drop one altogether. That unlikely pairing proved to be enormously popular, and the two teamed up regularly in "WFC" until the book was canceled in the mid-1980s. That partnership was a given in all other DC Comics, including the Super-books, the Bat-books and "Justice League of America."

Interestingly, there was a long run of "World's Finest" where covers routinely depicted the pair at odds. However, since the relaunch of DC's entire line in 2011 the two super-heroes, while still retaining nearly diametrically opposed personalities, are again longtime crime-fighting collaborators.

While fans were still reeling from that news at Comic-Con, Marvel Studios stepped to the plate. The voice of Tom Hiddleston (who played Loki in "Avengers") boomed and soon had the crowd chanting his name faster than you can say "Mjolnir." (That's Thor's hammer, by the way.)

Up next was a discussion of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" (April 2014) and, to the audience's roared approval, it seems to be something of an ensemble movie, teaming Cap with Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Nick Fury (Samuel Jackson Jr.), Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), The Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and Cap's long-running comic-book girlfriend, Agent 13 (Emily VanCamp).

Marvel's next movie is "Guardians of the Galaxy" (August 2014), and the membership of this oddball team seems finalized. Amazingly, one of the original Guardians will be in the film, the Alpha Centaurian named Yondu, who will be played by Michael Rooker.