Over the course of ten years, Smallville told the story of Clark Kent growing up and very, very slowly becoming Superman. Last year, the series finally ended, but in a surprising announcement early this morning, DC confirmed that Smallville is returning for "Season 11" as a digital-first weekly comic by writer Bryan Q. Miller and artist Pere Perez with Cat Staggs illustrating the cover of issue #1. This follows the Smallville TV show tie-in comics DC printed between 2002 and 2005.

Miller returns as a veteran of the show, having written episodes in the last few seasons. Here at ComicsAlliance, however, we have our own Smallville veterans: Chris Sims and David Uzumeri, who were contractually obligated to watch every episode of the final season for our series of recaps. So how to do the Smallvillains react to the news? Find out now!

You'd think the Avengers and the X-Men would be pretty used to breaking up and making up following the events of Civil War and Schism, but if there's one cosmic entity capable of still coming between the Marvel Universe's biggest names, its the Phoenix Force. Now, in a new preview of Avengers v.s. X-Men #1 by Brian Bendis and John Romita Jr. (featuring a cover by Jim Cheung), fans get their best look yet at the polarizing pending arrival of what might either be the salvation or annihilation of Earth and where Earth's Mightiest Heroes and Marvel's Merriest Mutants stand on the situation. No, they don't discuss that time The Phoenix bonded with Prime, but that'd be enough for me to side with The Avengers. Check out the seven-page preview after the cut.

The Adventure Time comic by Ryan North, Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb came out this week, the latest sign of success for the Cartoon Network show. But just in case you were worried that Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward was content to rest on his laurels and bask in Finn and Jake's success, take heart: There's art for his next project already going up at Cartoon Hangover.

It's called Bravest Warriors, it focuses on "four 16 year-old heroes for hire warping around galaxies, saving cute alien worlds with their emotions," and it looks awesome.

As tyrannical reigns go, Brainiac's had a solid run over the past year+ in Sony's DC Universe Online MMO. The evil alien artificial intelligence stole superpowers, bottled cities, and caused all kinds of headaches for heroes and villains alike. According to an interview with DCUO creative director Jens Andersen at PC Gamer, however, Brainiac's brand of green-headed terror is about to come to an end.

Static Shock co-writer John Rozum spoke out recently about what he said was "really going on behind the scenes" of the cancelled DC Comics title, which besides being one of the first New 52 series to be discontinued was also one of the very few superhero comics starring an African American hero in the leading role and. Fans were disappointed not just by the loss of a spotlight for the beloved character, created by Dwayne McDuffie and John Paul Leon, but by the overall quality of the book as well. Made in response to these criticisms, Rozum's remarks painted an unfavorable portrait of both his co-writer and artist Scott McDaniel and the book's editor, Harvey Richards, laying blame at their feet for the breakdown of the book. Yesterday, McDaniel responded with his own incredibly in-depth account of what went wrong with Static Shock.

In Buffy the Vampire Slayer #6, on stands today, there are huge developments and huge decisions in store for the Buffy Summers, the heroine of the cult-favorite television show that has continued as a Dark Horse Comic book since its small screen finale. Consequently, huge spoilers follow.

As we head towards Valentine's Day, ComicsAlliance is offering up a daily tribute to love, as depicted in the somewhat dubious world of Romance Comics! Today's entry: Secret Hearts #105's "The Wrong Kind of Love!"

The Eisner-winning writer of Punisher Max, Preacher, The Boys, Battlefields, Hellblazer and Hitman, Garth Ennis has taken to the crowd-sourced fundraising platform Kickstarter to secure financing for his latest project, ERF, which is not a hard boiled and darkly comic story of revenge, war, brutality or depravity, but rather an illustrated book for children. The "evolutionary tale" follows four primordial animals as they emerge from the ocean and embark upon a journey through the ancient world. The writer's first work of this kind, ERF is to be illustrated by Rob Steen, best known for his work on Ricky Gervais' Flanimals series.

With a portfolio that balances powerful superhero compositions with graceful storybook illustrations in the vein of E. H. Shepard, Charles Paul Wilson III is suited for all kinds of storytelling challenges. The artist aptly demonstrates these skills in The Stuff of Legend series, a WWII era fantasy tale that follows a toy soldier, a teddy bear and a band of fellow toys against an evil tyrant and his army in another realm. When he's not drawing pages, however, the artist puts his own spin on everyone from Wolverine to the TMNT. Check out some of our favorite pieces by Charles Paul Wilson III after the jump.

As we move towards Valentine's Day, our thoughts here at ComicsAlliance naturally turn to Superman. He has, after all, been at the center of one of the greatest romances in the history of comics. His love for Lois Lane is beautiful on so many levels, centered on the idea that that the most powerful person in the universe falls in love with someone defined by her wit and determination. Even at the height of the Silver Age, when Lois's romantic pursuits could charitably be referred to as "obsessive," there's still a genuine sweetness to it.

And then there was the time that Superman starred in a porn movie with someone else's wife.

With Christopher Nolan finishing up his third and final Batman movie, some folks are already wondering which director will be next to turn his or her camera on the Caped Crusader. Each director brings their own flavor to Gotham's defender, from Tim Burton's cartoony, gothic take to Nolan's crime movie sensibilities. The LA Times' Hero Complex imagines how other directors might reinvent Batman once Nolan is through.

You can probably expect some very crowded theaters on the weekend of May 4, when The Avengers movie opens. One person you won't find among the crowds, however, is cartoonist James Sturm, an old-school Marvel fan who grew up to be a well-respected, critically acclaimed and highly influential comics creator of graphic novels like Market Day, Satchel Paige and The Golem's Mighty Swing, and the co-founder of the Center for Cartoon Studies. Despite his genuine excitement about the film, Sturm says he will be boycotting it over Disney and Marvel's treatment of Jack Kirby and his heirs, as he explained in a long opinion piece for Slate magazine headlined "Marvel Comics' Troubling Origin Story."