If nothing else, The Wolverine is the first superhero movie released this summer that actually seems proud of its comic book origins. Shane Black's Iron Man 3 snarkily tweaked the genre's conventions… at least until the final act, when it became a traditional punch-punch-boom-boom affair, while Zack Snyder's Man of Steel plugged its hero into an alien invasion scenario that was more in the vein of Independence Day (minus that movie's good humor) than a Superman comic. If those directors seemed intent on running away from the source material, Wolverine helmer James Mangold is all too eager to embrace it. Freely adapted from a 1982 miniseries written by Chris Claremont and illustrated by Frank Miller, The Wolverine could almost be released in print form as an arc in the character's ongoing solo title. Mangold's frames frequently resemble comic book panels and the story neatly unfolds in 22-minute chunks, each containing a mixture of intrigue and action and almost always ending on a cliffhanger setting up the next issue.

"Hey, bub -- whaddya mean I was a little pitchy in Les Miz?"

Finally, another reason to go to Amsterdam! You know, besides the culture. Cinema Expo is happening this week in the Dutch city of sin, and the studios are unraveling their 2008-2009 slates for an international crowd. Here's what's been lighting up the message boards:

With a big box office weekend looming (Paramount hopes) with the opening of Iron Man tomorrow, the stars of other superhero franchises are coming out of the woodwork to promote their own upcoming projects. Dark Horizons has both Hugh Jackman of the X-Men offshoot X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Brandon Routh of Bryan Singer's new Superman series out seeing who can out-superhero whom on the publicity circuit.