Editor’s Note

Superbad

My, your taste for superheroes has turned dark.

Are you feeling okay? Really, you can tell me. I want to hear about it. It’s just that, lately, you seem to be attracted to heroic guys with serious problems. Now, a lot of us go through a bad-boy phase at one time or another, and Lord knows heroic guys often come with inner demons. But when it comes to being rescued from, say, a runaway train or a demented criminal, wouldn’t you rather be saved by someone with a cheery smile and a glint in his eye? 

First you went head over heels for this Iron Man fellow. A truer bad boy never there was, with his arrogance and his womanizing and his war mongering. 

And now you’re all hot and bothered anticipating the return of Batman. I’ve seen you on the message boards, “I can’t wait!” “This is going to be great!” Don’t you remember what happened the last time you saw Batman? He’d turned so…negative. So grim. But that’s the way you like him, isn’t it? 

Then there’s this new guy you’re jonesing to meet, I think his name is Hancock. Yes, he’s strong. He can fling whales as easily as most guys can fling Frisbees. But he also drinks too much, he rarely thinks about the consequences of his actions, and he’s been known to hook up with really young girls. 

And Hellboy? Need I remind you he’s actually from hell? Is that what you really want?

Yeah, me too. 

In “Fallen Hero” Will Smith explains Hancock’s “authentic look at an alcoholic superhero.” And since convincing us that a disturbed superhero is much more interesting than a caring and compassionate one may be a challenge, his co-stars Jason Bateman and Charlize Theron chime in to stand up for their man. 

You get two bad boys for the price of one with Christian Bale’s Batman, and in “A Dark and Stormy Knight,” Bale says that’s what makes being the caped crusader so enjoyable. “I love playing the demonic Batman,” says Bale. “But the vacuous ass-playboy is just as much fun.” Yeah, I’ll bet. Also featured is a great — but, of course, now quite sad — interview with Heath Ledger conducted shortly after filming had wrapped. 

Ron Perlman takes a shot at the sensitive metrosexual types we’re supposed to like in “Hell of a Guy.” Perlman resurrects his famous comic book hero in this month’s Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and it’s no mystery why we love Hellboy so — he’s gruff and irritable, but he also loves kittens!

Then we have 22-year-old Amanda Seyfried. She’s no superhero; no comic book character. Just a girl singing ABBA tunes in the big-screen version of Mamma Mia! But I think she knows something about falling for inappropriate guys. In “(Singing and) Dancing Queen” Seyfried admits that, were they not already in relationships, she’d date all three of her male co-stars — Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård — despite an average age difference of about 30 years.