Everyone seems to have superheroes on the brain this summer, so it's the perfect time for Edgar Wright to pop out of the woodwork to remind us about Ant-Man. In an interview with PiQ magazine about the DVD release of Spaced, the topic drifted to Ant-Man on the big screen.

Wright confirmed that the second draft of the script is still underway, and that the film will be a, "different way of seeing a superhero origin, because you've seen so many of them and we really tried to figure out a fresh take on that story. So it's definitely a Marvel film but it's got a little twist on it in terms of the way that it plays out."

Ok, I am much younger than Stan Lee, and trying to keep up on all his production deals has me utterly exhausted. How the hell does he have the energy to keep inking them? I want whatever energy drink he's on.

According to Variety, Stan Lee has just agreed to pen a new stable of superheroes for Virgin Comics. There's going to be ten (count 'em, ten) new faces joining the world of comic books, through a series of graphic novels that Lee will pen and edit himself. Further character details will be revealed early next year, but the characters and books will also be tied into a series of short animated films that will be released online.

Virgin Comics is really growing by leaps and bounds. (Sir) Richard Branson formed it in 2005, and has inked deals with everyone from Ed Burns, Deepak Chopra, John Woo, Terry Gilliam, Nicolas Cage, Hugh "comic addict" Jackman, and Duran Duran to create properties for the label. (Duran Duran? Ok, I want that one right now. Please tell me it will explore the epic sci-fi story behind their song Planet Earth or reveal what, exactly, the Union of the Snake is.) Virgin is also aiming to make films out of most of the star properties -- no doubt Lee's 10 superheroes will eventually be among them.

Stan Lee is one of the busiest guys in the world. He has to be. He's just involved in everything, and still manages to cameo in any Marvel movie. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lee is now paring up with Brighton Partners and Rainmaker Entertainment to launch Legion of 5, a new superhero property.

Legion of 5 is being planned as a series of CG animated films, but will be expanded to include games, online and mobile releases. Basically, wherever you go, there will be something Legion of 5. It could be ... like air!

Details of the storyline and the characters are all being kept under wraps. There isn't expected to be any kind of further announcement at New York Comic Con, where Lee is receiving the New York Comics Legend award.

It is so hard to make any judgment call on these projects when there's so little to go on. There's always part of me that wonders if these deals will actually come to anything, or if the $24 million being raised by all partners will just be spent on failed design concepts. Plus, anything with CG that isn't Pixar does little to excite me -- for some reason, I'm just seeing a superhero version of Space Chimps. I think I'm drinking too much caffeine these days.

During Thursday's Comic-Con International in San Diego, I sat in on a pretty interesting panel comprised of some of the most talented and successful screenwriters, comic book writers and producers working in the business today. The panel was called Adapting Comics for the Screen and the list of people offering opinions and insight were the perfect group to be asking about this topic.

On the panel were Mark Verheiden, Kevin Feige, Mark Fergus, Don Payne and the legendary Stan "The Man" Lee who even at his age, was just as sharp, funny and charming as he could be and shows no signs of slowing down. As a writer myself, I was particularly interested in this panel of experts and how they have taken comics and translated them for the big screen.

First off each of the panel was introduced by moderator Jeff Goldsmith of Creative Screenwriting magazine and as he read the list of the assembled people's credits, films like Iron Man, Children of Men, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Battlestar Galactica and most of the major characters of the Marvel Universe, I grew even more interested to hear what these very accomplished men had to say.

While I have to give Stan Lee props for making me Incredible Hulk-obsessed in the 80's, my favorite bit of Lee will always be his stint in Mallrats. Lee vs. Lee. I mean, how many old names out there would have a melodramatic talk about love and superhero genitalia with Banky? The Spider-Man creator has just signed on the dotted line for a new collection of projects, and while I'm sure genitals won't be on the docket, it sounds pretty cool to me -- Disney has made a deal with Lee and his POW! Entertainment for a multi-year contract for the epic creator "to develop and produce all forms of entertainment for Disney divisions."

What's fresh about this concept is that he won't be rehashing the worlds of his previous, Marvel-owned creations -- the Hulk, X-Men, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer and Daredevil. Instead, he is going to develop a bunch of new and original projects -- for movies, television, DVD and publishing. Lee says: "I can only say we're working on a number of things, and the one common denominator is they're all high-concept projects, and hopefully, they'll all lend themselves to being great franchises. Also, they're all going to be new and original. The whole purpose is to come up with new things, and Marvel owns the old characters anyway. That's what makes it fun for me; if it was just resuscitating old things, I wouldn't have been that interested." In our ever-spinning sea of remakes and sequels, it's pretty cool to hear that anyone is dedicated to new creations. At the ripe age of 84, do you think Lee has got it in him?

You'd think that Spider-Man creator Stan Lee would receive privileged information about Spider-Man 4, but apparently he doesn't even know what is going on in the comics, let alone the movie scripts. Still, he is smart enough to know what should happen in the next installment of the series: Dr. Curt Connors, who we've briefly seen in parts 2 and 3, should finally turn into The Lizard. Of course, an appearance from the scaly villain has been expected since Connors was first alluded to in the first film. In addition to suggesting that The Lizard should be the next villain, in a video interview with Reelz Channel's Dailies, Lee also discusses the possibility of Peter Parker ending up with Gwen Stacy rather than Mary Jane in part 4.

Lee's suggestion is simply that, a suggestion, as long as he has no real creative input, but he is right to say The Lizard is a logical next step. Certainly such logic makes it less of a surprise when we hear rumors about the villain already being a lock for the film. However, expecting a villain because of onscreen allusions means we should also logically predict that Man-Wolf and Robot-Master will show up at some point, too. Anyway, Lee probably wants to see another one of his own creations like The Lizard on the big screen instead of any of Spidey's newer villains, like Carnage, who is also being talked about for #4. For me, either villain or both is fine, just as long as Spidey doesn't team up with Venom to fight them. I actually stopped reading the comics following the Maximum Carnage storyline (though I did give the good-guy Venom series a fair shot), and I'd probably stop watching the movies at the same point. I know the end of Spider-Man 3 suggests this couldn't happen, but you never know -- either with comic books or the movies.

Joking among friends about the impending release of Spider-Man 3, someone – it may have been me – started talking about "Spider-Man Friday" – suggesting it was like Good Friday, but for dorks. And like most jokes, it had a kernel of truth. This film was going to be a finale of sorts, and a celebration of the work director Sam Raimi and his cast and crew had done to capture on film the superhero, his secret identity and nearly 50 years of comic-book history – the spider, the man and the franchise's spirit, if you will. And there was no reason to worry – hadn't Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 both been excellent? And wasn't the continued participation of Raimi, Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and the return of Spider-Man 2 scribe Alvin Sargent a good thing, in an age when directors and stars drop off (or get killed out of) repeated installments of comic-book material? Sure, the film had not one, not two, but three separate villains – a worrying sign of excess -- but surely Raimi and his cast and crew would pull it off.

Watching Spider-Man 3 is different from hoping about it, though. And watching Spider-Man 3, I was amazed – and appalled – that the people who had given us two of the best comic-book movies ever made could wind up giving us something as lazy, as slip-shod, as tedious as Spider-Man 3 actually is. It's not like you have to wait for the bad news, either. As anyone who's seen a trailer, a bus ad, or one of the thousand merchandising tie-ins knows, much of Spider-Man 3 revolves around one of the comic's '80s story lines – with a fluid alien life form finding Spider-Man, literally becoming his costume and enhancing his abilities while degrading his spirit, making him more powerful as a super-hero, but less noble as a man. And how do the writers – the screenplay credit names Ivan and Sam Raimi, as well as Sargent – introduce this concept to the film? By literally dropping it from the sky in a meteor, which happens to land with 20 meters of Peter Parker (Maguire) as he's spending some time in the park with his girlfriend Mary-Jane (Dunst). Sitting in the theater, I think I may have actually thrown my hands up – the universal movie-watcher's sign language for "Really? That's all you got?"

Stan Lee Media, a company created by and formerly owned by comic book creator and legend Stan "The Man" Lee is suing Marvel Entertainment for a cool $5 billion. The suit, filed in the Southern District of New York, states that Stan Lee Media seeks to assert rights to the revenue generated by Marvel off of Stan Lee Media properties. In other words, they feel they own a piece of, and are getting shafted on profits from, characters including Spider-Man, The X-Men and The Incredible Hulk. The basis for this assertion comes from an agreement signed by Stan Lee when he was with the company that gave rights to his characters to Stan Lee Media.

Lee himself is long since gone from Stan Lee Media, but the company asserts the contract he signed is still in full force and effect. "Stan Lee is no longer with the company, but the contract remains intact," said Jim Nesfield, who recently rescued Stan Lee Media from bankruptcy and is its CEO. "He has signed it and the contract is still in force." He also added in the article that Stan Lee himself may be forced to testify if the case goes to trial. Stan Lee declined to comment for the article but later made his feelings about the lawsuit known through a statement released by Marvel Entertainment: "I do not support this action and believe the suit to be baseless."

Actually, this isn't the first time Lee and Nesfield have had legal dealings according to the article. In January, Lee filed suit against Nesfield and two of his associates, alleging they illegally took over his former company -- Stan Lee Media -- and infringed on his trademarks and copyrights. So, there's some history here for sure. What it really comes down to is one thing: money. Superhero movies make money -- especially ones made from comic book characters like Spider-Man and The X-Men. So, its understandable that people like Nesfield may want to try and cash in -- whether its warranted or not.

Geek news I found while staring longingly at the Nintendo wiimote sitting next to me:

• You'd better believe there is another Ghost Rider video blog up on the official site. This happens so frequently, I'm beginning to debate whether or not the update is actually newsworthy. This may be the last time you get a GR blog update from the Bytes.
• MTV has a fun little video clip of some of the stars from The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer discussing what they've been filming lately. It isn't mind-blowing, but it is worth a listen. Well, at least for the Marvel fans among us.
• CBR says Kevin Smith is going to host another Stan Lee event. Those two have been popping up everywhere together, which is both cool and somewhat disturbing at the same time.
• Still no ... you know ... transforming, but there is a bit of a clip from the flick up on Michael Bay's site. In actuality, it is just a cleaned up version of the one we saw recently on YouTube. Looks much nicer now, for what it is worth. (via Comics2Film)
• Actors continue to believe we want to know their thoughts on politics. Raise your hand if you care about Scarlett Johansson's view of national policy issues.

Geek news I found while wishing I had more pumpkin cookies:

• Pictures of Stan Lee at a ribbon cutting ceremony for a "grand re-opening" of a comic book storefront establishment in Los Angeles, courtesy of the fantastic CBR. Being an East Coaster, I know nothing about the place myself, but it certainly is cool of Stan the Man to show up for the event and drop a classic "Excelsior" on the crowd.
• Speaking of CBR, they just talked with Stardust creator Neil Gaiman and partner Charles Vess. As always, it is a treat. More people need to know about Neil Gaiman.
• Eager for Spider-Man 3? According to Superhero Hype, you'll be able to peep a look at a "brand new" trailer this Thursday during MTV's The Duel at 10 pm. Or, you can avoid watching MTV entirely, and catch the thing on the internet an hour or two later. Your choice.
• To continue my round-up of websites which I love, you can catch a quick discussion with Resident Evil 3 co-star Ali Larter at Sci Fi Wire. I'm not a big RE fan (unless we're talking video games and not movies), but if you are, Sci Fi Wire is here for you.
• And finally, if you want to keep tabs on what Marvel is up to in the entertainment business, I'd suggest you keep an eye on their quarterly reports. Go ahead and check them out for an idea of what Marvel's going to be up to in the coming year.