Entertainment

Columbia has just released the FIRST official picture of Andrew Garfield in full, mask-on Spidey-garb and revealed that the next Spider-Man movie will be called THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. A fine title. Directed by Marc Webb from a script by James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves, the film will be released July 3, 2012.

Also in keeping with this special day of love, after a troubling seven-year stretch in which they were separated, Barbie and Ken are together again. Although they had dated steadily since their days as surfers together in Malibu in the early '60s, they gradually drifted apart over the years. After Barbie left Ken for Blaine, another, younger surfer dude, Ken entered an "experimental" period that involved Fire Island, waxing, and watching Glee. But it's been announced -- just in time for Toy Fair -- that these two dolls are really soulmates in vinyl.

Wandering the halls of the 2011 Toy Fair for even a few moments, it was hard to avoid Green Lantern -- not only action figures (for both collectors and actual children) but costumes, board games, mugs, rings, and more, more, more. It's all by design as this report from Variety details. It's hard to overemphasize how important this summer's Green Lantern movie is to Warners. This is potentially their new Star Wars, with a giant universe of aliens and adventure and a wisecracking, aspirational hero at the center. The promotional push at Toy Fair and the upcoming MAGIC apparel show is huge -- but it isn't an automatic slam dunk, hence the push:

It’s one of The Beat’s favorite times of year: Brian Hibbs’ annual BookScan analyses! Not only has he broken down reported sell-through for the graphic novel category, he’s made the raw data available for us all to have fun with. In past years Hibbs used this data to talk about the importance/supremacy of the direct sales market for comics material, and I had cause to disgaree with some of his conclusions. This time, all he does is analyze the numbers, because they kind of speak for themselves. And he's done an amazing job. I urge you all just to go to the link and read the whole damn long thing. But for those who have pressing matters, here’s my own edited take on a few conclusions: (And a lot are similar to what I said last year! And also to what I said about the Diamond year-end figures.) But it bears repeating:

Just unveiled over at Facebook, the X-Men: First Class trailer is here. Directed by Matthew Vaughn (Stardust, Kick-Ass) and staring James McEvoy, Michael Fassbender, January Jones and a cast of thousands, it's a retcon showing the origins of the mutant team in the 60s, starring young Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr. The original X-Men: First Class comic was written by Jeff Parker, but it hasn't been explained how much of an influence it had on filmmakers. This is miles better than the dreadfully boring stills have were previously released; Vaughn knows his superhero stuff and how to give it some life. Our one big beef: this does not look like it was set in the 60s! Some JFK voice-overs do not a different decade make! Have they never seen Mad Men? Or A Simple Man? Or...the British Avengers.

BTW, did you know that while the Spider-Man musical has been painfully making its way to a long-delayed opening, South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have done what they should have done years ago and created a Broadway musical? The Book of Mormon opens at the end of March. It's a collaboration with Robert Lopez, creator of the cult puppet hit Avenue Q. Parker and Stone wrote the book and the songs, as they did with the South Park movie, TEAM AMERICA, and countless episodes of South Park.

And so far, people actually like it!

From Team America to Captain America -- the great message comes through.

Because you can't get enough surreal cartooniness today,. here's the first episode of CAT SH*T ONE, an anime version of the war in the MIddle East starring violent bunnies and camels. It's based on the manga series by Motofumi Kobayashi, which was set in the VIetnam War, but there's plenty of guerilla war to go around for reboots. Sadly, the kitty kat Viet Cong in the original are replaced by camel terrorists here.

David OReilly is the Chris Ware of animation -- his work is modern, haunting and bleak. His new film "The External World" just won an Honorable Mention at Sundance -- the only cartoon to do so -- and it's 17 minutes of video game era dread, alienation. Is there redemption? FULL SCREEN.

Humanoids and WE Prod. are teaming for a live-action Metal Hurlant TV show, Variety reports, based on the material best known here as HEAVY...

Although the official opening isn't until March, figuring the troubled Spider-Man musical has had enough time to get things right by any reasonable standard (but not by Julie Taymor's) theater critics are flouting tradition by releasing reviews of the show during previews. And they are administering the kind of beating that Spider-Man would normally expect only from Venom.

Variety confirms that Cobie Smulders is the front runner for the role of SHIELD agent Maria Hill in Joss Whedon's Avengers movie. Smulders is a Whedon favorite (he wanted her for his Wonder Woman movie) and Hill is a perfect Whedon-type character so the handwriting has been on the wall for this.