TVSquad

First, let me lower your expectations: This is just a rumor started by fanboys at a comic book shop.

OK, for those of you still reading, former Battlestar Galactica actress Katee Sackhoff was recently spotted buying a ton of comics featuring Daredevil character Typhoid Mary. According to MTV, Sackhoff visited Golden Apple Comics in L.A. last week and picked up the books and stunned the shop's staff with her smokin' hotness. This, of course, led the staff to believe that she might be doing research to play Typhoid Mary in a new Daredevil movie.

It looks like HBO is just TV after all. After airing such intense fare as The Sopranos and Carnivalé, the new head of production, Sue Naegle (or at least that's my guess on who pulled the plug based on the quotes) is pulling the plug on the in development HBO adaptation of DC/Vertigo's Preacher. The Garth Ennis-Steve Dillon comic book series was controversial for its intense violence and handling of religious subjects, but it was also a huge sales and critical hit.

There was talk of adapting the series with each episode comprising exactly one comic issue. Dialogue was lifted almost exactly from the book with the comic art used as the storyboard. Fans were incredibly enthusiastic about it, but "the new head of HBO felt it was just too dark and too violent and too controversial," according to Mark Steven Johnson (Daredevil, Ghost Rider). Naegle loves In Treatment, Big Love and Tell Me You Love Me, so that tells you where here tastes lie. These aren't bad shows but they're also not going to jump out and grab headlines, and headlines are exactly what HBO needs for its original series.

I would even hesitate to call Buffy The Vampire Slayer a superhero. Yeah, she has incredible fighting powers and goes up against various monsters and evildoers, but it's really odd to see her name next to superheroes such as Batman, The Flash, Superman, and Captain America.

But according to readers of Redeye, she's a better superhero than The Dark Knight. (Yup, it's another character showdown over at Redeye.)

Just when I thought reality shows were a thing of the past, SciFi goes and breathes new life into the television genre. The cable channel just announced a casting call for its new reality competition, Who Wants to be a Superhero? The grand prize: Immortality. Yeah, baby. Yeah.

Producers are currently seeking audition tapes. You need to get your geek on with a costume, an original idea, and some serious superhero personality. Contestants will be chosen through interviews with comic book creator, Stan Lee (Spider-Man, The X-Men, Fabulous Four, Daredevil, Incredible Hulk). Lee will write a comic about the winner of the contest, making the superhero immortal in the world of comics.

To give you an idea of what producers are looking for, Lee said, "While no one is expected to leap tall buildings in a single bound, our aspiring heroes will be tested on their courage, integrity, self-sacrifice, compassion, and resourcefulness - the stuff of all superheroes."

What would your superhero powers be?