Welcome back, friends. I'm going to go in an interesting new direction -- some might call it radical -- with my column today, and actually do a geek-roundup news in review for this past week! That's right, it has only taken me three columns to get around to writing what I'm actually supposed to write. You may leave your praises and accolades for my journalistic prowess in the comments section. Now for the Geek Beat... 

X-men 3 is still coming, and you can't do anything about it. Nothing new has changed, and so we're going to skip right past the X-Verse for now and see what else the Geek Beat has to offer. If you've got some fresh X-News or opinions to offer, comment away.

A plot synopsis for the new Spider-Man flick has found its way to the internet. The legitimacy is still technically in question, but it seems to be right in line with what everyone was expecting. I'll have a lot more to say about the plot of this flick in the coming months, but for now I'd just like to complain once more that they are adding in Gwen Stacy after already making MJ the primary initial love interest and GIVING MJ HER DEATH SCENE. It wasn't enough that they gave the death scene to someone else - and didn't actually kill her - now they are going to parade her character across to screen to remind us of the insult. I know you casual fans out there can't figure out why we True Believers are so bent about this, but just take my word for it -- it's a big deal.

Let me tell you something that might help demonstrate the importance of Gwen Stacy's death to the world of Marvel. You've already read how defensive I am about this singular event, right? The amusing bit about this is Gwen Stacy died in 1973, a solid nine years before I was born. I had no knowledge of Gwen Stacy until after she'd been dead in story for almost a decade, and I am still fully aware of how important the event was, and entirely offended that it was horribly misrepresented. There's probably an entire column to be written about the death of Gwen Stacy, but I'm going to stop there for now. I have PLENTY of time ahead of me to write about this film. I will note for the record, however, that I am excited for the third installment and plan to enjoy it.

In the DC world, Charisma Carpenter has expressed interest in Joss Whedon's Wonder Woman. Whedonites seem to fully support this idea, but for now it has no traction. Of course, we've all see what Whedon fans can do when they rise up in unison, so at this point I put nothing past those people. My thoughts? I've never really gotten into Joss or his work (I know, I'm a bad geek), and I frankly don't care much one way or the other for the character of Wonder Woman - so I really have no personal interest in the story. I do love watching the relationship between Joss and his fans however -- a relationship every director should have with the people who pay his salary. I'd be interested in hearing his thoughts on Charisma as his leading lady.

The Conan people are definitely interested in the Governor, and there seem to be two distinct camps on the Conan sequel issue. Camp One (by far the biggest of the two) says bring Arnold back or don't make the film. For the Conan ignorant, it is important to note that a sequel would be the story of King Conan, an aging barbarian ruler. For this reason, Arnold would still fit the bill for the Conan character -- he's aged appropriately for the part. So please, no comments about him being too old for a sequel, they only demonstrate your own ignorance.

Camp Two is a smaller crowd with just as legitimate a point. These are the people who rightfully claim the first two Conan movies are highly inaccurate versions of the original character and story. For this camp, the franchise either needs to be forgotten or retold -- which would of course mean finding someone who wasn't the Governor of California to play the lead.

And then there are those who acknowledge the inaccuracies of the franchise but enjoy it for what it is nonetheless -- and I think this is a pretty large group as well. For us, either of the above plans sound like a pretty sweet idea.

Finally, Punisher Two has been delayed -- although technically it might not count as delayed since Tom Jane was the only one to really offer a start date of any sort so far. I, for one, am strongly anticipating a return to this particular Marvel property, despite its weak B.O. performance the first time around. My defense of the Punisher movie rests entirely on the person of Thomas Jane, who played an amazing Frank Castle. This, coupled with the fact that John Travolta's character is very, very dead, gives me hope for the future of the franchise. Once the sequel becomes more concrete, I'll try to offer up a Punisher Apologetics column so we can debate the value of the first film and the potential value of the sequel. Until then, look for some interesting Marvel comics posts coming down the pike in the next few weeks -- I can guarantee some great discussion starters in the weeks running up to X3.