['Smallville' – 'Abandoned']

Dark secrets were revealed and more questions were answered in this week's episode of 'Smallville.' The ep was titled 'Abandoned,' but a more appropriate title would have been, 'Mistakes My Parents Made.'

Let's start with one of the biggest revelations of the night (for me anyway). We finally learned why Jor-El is such a jerk! Turns out that the original Jor-El (played by guest star Julian Sands) stripped the computer program version of himself of frailties and failures – meaning he turned himself into a cold and calculating machine incapable of real emotion or understanding.

Getting 'Heroes' back on the air might be a lost cause -- that wrap-up movie we were promised just isn't going to happen -- but we can at least root for the actors from canceled superhero drama to land new TV gigs.

The latest former Hero to sign up for a new TV job is Milo Ventimiglia, who is set to star in a new NBC drama, 'Rest,' based on the comic book series he co-created. 'Rest' follows a workaholic twentysomething guy in New York city who becomes addicted to a drug that eliminates the need for sleep after he participates in a clinical trial.

['Smallville' – Harvest']

A clan of killer cultists made trouble for Lois and Clark, and Tess discovered Alexander's dark side on last night's episode of 'Smallville.'

Erica Durance's spirited performance was the best thing about this ep's goofy A plot, which featured a blue kryptonite-lovin' religious cult bent on sacrificing Lois to their vengeful god. Durance's eyes and voice really sold the terror in Lois' heart when she was stuck under that raging blue fire and surrounded by an army of Cletuses and Jebediahs.

['Smallville' – 'Isis']

Hey there, 'Smallville' junkies, how about we discuss those season 11 rumors currently circling the web before jumping into 'Isis?'

As far as I can tell, the the buzz stems from a recent panel interview with show runners Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson. When asked if season 10's good ratings and reviews could inspire The CW to greenlight an eleventh season of 'Smallville,' Peterson responded by saying, "I can't say it's the first time the words 'season 11' have creeped up this year."

Comic artist Dennis Culver has been drawing one character a day from 'The Wire' and now has an impressive collection on his Flickr stream and Tumblr.

He's smart to pull from perhaps the best group hard-nosed characters ever assembled. Almost three years after its final season, 'The Wire' continues to make our headlines. More and more people are casually referencing the show's memorable scenes and lines. Its endurance in pop culture proves its worth as a drama series.

That is why 'The Wire' should live on in other forms. After seeing Culver's illustrations, a graphic novel or comic book series seems like a perfect way for these characters to live on. It would be too difficult to reassemble the cast for a movie, plus the story lines are too complex.

Battle stations, comic-book nerds: A possible TV adaptation of Neil Gaiman's 'The Sandman' is in the works.

This is probably a bad idea.

Of course, this adaptation is still in the early stages, and as is the case with most properties being developed for television, it's entirely possible (if not probable) that the project will never get made.

Still, there are quite a few reasons to treat the idea of a TV version of 'Sandman,' which tells the story of the Dream (or Morpheus) and his similarly powerful siblings, with extreme caution. I say that despite reading that 'Supernatural' creator Eric Kripke may take the lead role in the development of the 'Sandman' series.

Those who've read my work in the past will know that I'm a serious 'Supernatural' fan, and whatever ups and downs that show may have had over the past five seasons, Kripke's ability to mine the moral and emotional potential of genre fare has proved to be exceptional.

So it's not that I think Kripke (who isn't officially on board yet) isn't the right guy for the job. It's just that I'm not sure the job can or should be done. After the jump are just five of the reasons why I think a 'Sandman' adaptation is probably a bad idea.

It was only a matter of time before television producers began heavily using comic books as source material. After all, movie producers have been doing it for years.

Neil Gaiman's seminal comic book series 'The Sandman' has been floundering in film development since the mid '90s. It became obvious that the complex story lines and multiple characters arcs would play much better as a TV series. HBO and James Mangold began sniffing around the project, but never bit in.

Now The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Warner Bros. TV is in the process of grabbing the television rights for 'The Sandman' from its sister company, DC Entertainment. The company is also in talks with several writer-producers to develop the project, including 'Supernatural' creator Eric Kripke as the frontrunner. However, Kripke is expressing hesitation in tackling a project that already has such a passionate nerd following. Even the smallest details will be analyzed and criticized.

HBO's 'True Blood' has made vampires and werewolves more sexy than geeky. That pendulum may swing the other way, now that there's a 'True Blood' comic book.

Reuters reports that the comic series, which was set to be introduced under multiple collector covers on Wednesday at the 2010 edition of Comic-Con in San Diego, will serve as a companion to the TV series.

The plot, devised by series creator Alan Ball and series writers Elisabeth Finch and Kate Barnow, will unfold as a side story to the action on the show and will feature most of the regular characters, including Sookie, Bill, Eric, Tara, Sam, Jason, and Lafayette. (Spoilers follow.)

It's gotta be a major thrill for Sheldon to hang with Stan Lee on 'The Big Bang Theory' (Mon., 9:30PM ET on CBS). Especially since the last time they were supposed to meet, Sheldon ended up in jail.

Still, dude. Crashing your hero's pad when he's in his pajamas? Thirty lashes with a wet Spider-Man comic book.

Watch the video after the jump.

Apple's iPhone and iPod are emerging as the preferred delivery device for online comic books. They're portable, hand-held and feature vivid screens capable of delivering any necessary colors. You can use the touch screen to flip the pages back and forth.

An online comics website, Comixology, is a central point for scores of online comics available via iTunes' App Store, including several titles based on popular genre shows of the recent and not-so-recent past.

You'll find that 80's anime after school favorite, Voltron living here. Marvel's animation-influenced X-Men flourishes in multiple versions. The Middleman, a now-canceled creative comic-book inspired children's live action show, continues in iPhone form. In fact, The Middleman stories on Comixology were written to continue the TV show's storyline.

With FOX's Sunday "Animation Domination" continuing to be a strong draw among the 18-49 crowd, the network is still out there looking for its next animated hit. And this time they went further than Seth MacFarlane's front door. FOX has inked a deal with Peter Bagge to produce a pilot based on The Bradleys.

The Bradleys are the family at the heart of Bagge's work over the past several years in seminal comic series Hate and Neat Stuff, along with their own series. While the comics followed Buddy Bradley through young adulthood, the FOX series would reportedly focus on his teen years, still at home with the family.

I've always liked Bagge's unique artistic style and thought it would lend itself very well to animation. There's a fluidity to his limbs and lines that reminds me of classic Disney black-and-white animation. The humor is very raw and grounded in very real, and not necessarily good, human behavior. It could be a great way for FOX to continue expanding their animation lineup.

The modern poster-child for a show that's "gone too soon" is Jericho. The impassioned fans buried CBS under a ton of nuts, which got the show renewed for a shortened second season. Your mileage of the quality of that season may vary, but the fact remains that the fans did something none of these internet campaigns today will be able to.

What people don't realize is that when Jericho came back for the second run, the ratings weren't any better than when the first season ended. So when they cancel your favorite show and you start mailing in bizarre objects and setting up your web petitions because "it worked for Jericho," remember that the networks remember Jericho as well. They remember that it failed to find a sizable audience twice.

"But wait," you say. "There was a season eight?" Yes, there was. It was in comic book form. And season eight will be in the same format. This is according to Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon.

If you haven't been reading the comics, shame on you. Without the restrictions of a television budget, some crazy cool things have been happening. Like Dawn growing to enormous size and Buffy teaming up with Dracula to take out a band of rogue Asian vampires. Also, Buffy travels to the future to meet Slayer-from-the-future Malaka Fray (who was in a previous comic series of her own).

Whedon is obviously a fan of comics. The good news is, in comic books, the series never has to end. We could all be enjoying Buffy season 337 in a few centuries. Well, our descendants would be anyway. It's something to look forward to.

[Watch clips and free episodes of Buffy at SlashControl.]

Caprica producer and former Buffy the Vampire Slayer scribe Jane Espenson is one of the minds behind the latest arc on Joss Whedon's Buffy comic that sees vampires coming out of the coffin. After the very True Blood-esque outing, vacuous vamp Harmony goes on The Colbert Report to, of course, promote her new reality TV show in the latest issue of Dark Horse Presents.

The Buffy comic is a direct continuation of Joss Whedon's TV series, and the medium has allowed the Buffy story to go to places it never could have gone on TV. Fans itching for a Buffy fix should pick up an issue or head over to MySpace to follow Harmony's adventures with Clem, the hilarious "loose-skinned demon" who first befriended Buffy and crew on the TV series.

Colbert is becoming a regular in the comic book world, with appearances in Spider-Man and his own comic book series, Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen. Maybe Buffy should show up on The Daily Show to give Jon Stewart some comic book love in next month's issue.

[Via: Comics Alliance]