Canadian born Laura Vandervoort flies into Smallville as Supergirl, Clark Kent’s (Tom Welling) strong-willed cousin from Krypton.

The seventh-season premiere kicks off on Thursday, September 27 with the arrival of Kara, A.K.A. Supergirl, played by Laura Vandervoort. Born and raised in Toronto, Vandervoort recently appeared on the television series CSI and the feature films Troubled Waters and The Lookout. Armed with a second-degree black belt, Vandervoort soars into Smallville, catching the eye of both young photographer Jimmy Olsen (Aaron Ashmore) and budding-villain Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum).

These are great! Whether you’re a DC or a Marvel person you’ll definately get a kick out of these. You can find this episode and about ten others here. I recommend watching all of them. Of course it helps if you follow the movies and the comics closely to get all the satire.

As a pop-icon, Superman has had to put up with a lot of people misinterpreting him and drawing parallels about his character that are just not supported. And since the release of ‘Superman Returns’ more of these conclusions are being drawn about the big guy.

Let’s first address the gay issue. A lot people want to say Superman is a role model for gay men. Their theory about him goes something like this: Superman leads a double life. One as Clark Kent and the other as Superman. His "true" identity he has to keep secret from the world (in "the closet" as it were). Now I’m not saying it’s wrong for gay people to have Superman as a role model, but Superman clearly is not gay. Lois Lane has been in the picture since the birth of the comic and will most likely remain as Superman’s love interest for as long as the comics are around.

Now, onto the whole Superman/Jesus thing..

I believe religion has as much of a right to be in comics as it does in our public schools. I’m being totally serious. It just doesn’t mesh right. Every time I hear people drawing parallels or making comparisons about comic book characters to biblical stories I get queasy and almost puke. I mean why ruin a good story by making something it clearly is not. If I really wanted to be immersed in religion and spirituality I would read the source texts and not some comic books. Besides, last time I checked Jesus is still pretty popular and I don’t think his image needs to be revamped or his story needs to be told in a way to attract audiences (of course, Mel Gibson might say otherwise).

"The Christian allusions are recent innovations that compromise the integrity of the Superman myth..This does not need to be a consistent cultural form from its beginning to its present, but something has to be maintained," (Amy Pedersen, who is writing her doctoral thesis in art history at the University of California, Los Angeles, on superhero comic books.)

So I guess the point I’m trying to make here is this: Because Superman is this popular cultural icon he will be admired and looked up to by a lot of people young and old. The character and the Superman story will continue to be reinvented and retold for new generations, but it will also rely on the core story of his creators. It isn’t wrong for young comic book readers to want to be like Superman or for anyone to relate Superman stories to other things, but we shouldn’t examine everything about him under a microscope and categorize him into groups. Because if we do this, the story no longer is for everybody. If anything at all, the Superman story was made to be accepted by everyone. I think that is the reason he’s been around for so long.

Here it is. The big, bad, and the ugly stuff thats out there about Superman:

(Be careful! Like I said before, if you’re like me, reading these articles might make you puke uncontrollably)

• Superman/Jesus parallels

• How gay is Superman?

• The Kryptonain Gospel - this one in particular caused me to throw up on my keyboard.

• Interview with Stephen Skelton – AKA ‘the real life Lex Luthor’

IESB caught ‘Superman’ actor Brandon Routh at the ‘Transformers’ premiere. Routh talked on camera about the prospects of a ‘Justice League’ movie featuring his character and actor, Christian Bale as Batman.

"If they come at me about it I’d definitely be very, very intrigued to work with ['Batman' star Christian Bale] and whoever else is supposed to be a part of it," says Routh who hastens to add, "I know nothing about it other than what you know."

What he does know is that current plans are to start on the ‘Superman’ sequel next year.

"I’m a little itchy to get back into ‘Superman’," says Routh.

Check out the video interview here at IESB.net

Scheduled for a cross-format date-and-date release on standard-def DVD, Blu-ray and HD DVD on September 18, Warner says the sixth season of the long-running TV favorite will come with a healthy package of extras.

Both next-gen versions will receive 1080p/VC-1 transfers and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround tracks (with the HD DVD receiving the "Dolby Digital-Plus" designator, though the bitrates on both are equal at 640kbps).

Supplements include four making-offeaturettes, an additional featurette on the diehard ‘Smallville’ cult following, plus a collection of deleted scenes.

In a high-def first,Warner will be making full use of Blu-ray’s expanded disc storage capacity, with the Blu-ray version employing four discs instead of the HD DVD’s five — disc specs and extras, however, remain identical.

Warner has set a $79.95 list price for both versions.

Bryan Singer, the director of Superman Returns, may not be able to jump into a sequel any time soon because he’ll be too busy directing another film. Stories circulated today that when Bryan Singer is done shooting Valkyrie with Tom Cruise, he won’t be going into Superman: The Man of Steel, the tentative title for the next Superman film, because he’ll be shooting The Mayor of Castro Street for Neil Meron and Craig Zadan. The Mayor of Castro Street is a story of gay rights activist Harvey Milk and, reportedly, Bryan Singer will head into production on it within a year.

Neil Meron says, "The next Superman, that’s a ways off," claimed Meron, with Zadan adding, "Don’t worry about it. Trust me. We may even start preproduction on Harvey Milk while he’s on post production on the Tom Cruise movie." Reportedly, The Man of Steel will just have to wait for The Mayor of Castro Street, a film that has been in development for years, with names like Oliver Stone and Robin Williams attached. Now, Chris McQuarrie, a Bryan Singer writing partner in the past, is reworking the script and it’s happening next. Meron and Zaden produced TV films Gypsy and Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, along with Chicago and Hairspray. The producers were quoted by Rotten Tomatoes.

The 41-year-old Bryan Singer broke through when he directed The Usual Suspects in 1995, a multiple Oscar winner, which allowed the director to move on to Apt Pupil, X-Men, X2: X-Men United, a few episodes of House (which he also produced), and Superman Returns. Bryan Singer is currently shooting Valkyrie with Tom Cruise, Patrick Wilson, Bill Nighy, Carice Van Houten, Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Izzard, Stephen Fry, Tom Wilkinson, and Armin Mueller-Stahl, which will hit theaters next year. The film is about a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler during the height of WWII.

Superman: The Man of Steel will probably star Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, and, maybe, Kevin Spacey, but it’s far enough away (and even farther now) that nothing is certain.