DC Comics have commissioned a new TV advertising campaign, which will focus on the first hardcover and paperback collections of the DCU New 52, that have now started to be published, and will roll out over the summer.

And they are willing to pay 75% of the airtime costs for any store who runs the ads on local stations, with their details on the end.

Here’s the thirty second and two minute cuts, respectively. Next up… the Before Watchmen TV ads. CLICK THRU TO WATCH THE VIDEOS on www.bleedingcool.com

Remember that part at the end of Batman Begins, where Commissioner Gordon talks to Batman about escalation, and warns him that simply by existing as a super-hero, he’s opening the door to an equal response from the world of villainy? Well, it turns out those same rules apply here in the real world. This week, real-life super-hero Phoenix Jones has gained an arch-nemesis in the form of a Real-Life Super-Villain operating under the name “Rex Velvet.” And seriously? He is quite possibly my new favorite person.

Velvet, a villain so evil that he has a scar, an eyepatch, a moustache and an affected Mid-Atlantic accent, issued a challenge to Phoenix Jones and “his gang of misfit Power Rangers” through a YouTube video with criminally high production values that’s likely to be the best thing you see all day. Check it out after the cut!

It’s hard to pin down one thing great thing about this video — even his name is fantastic — but I’ll say this: Velvet appears to be following the rules laid out in Matt Wilson’s Supervillain Handbook pretty religiously. He’s got the art of villainous theatricality down to a science.

Seriously, this video was made in what appears to be an honest to God lair in an abandoned warehouse. There are literally skulls hanging on the walls and a portrait of his arch-enemy that he throws things at!

As for Rex’s motivation, he seems to be taking a page from the Joker in The Dark Knight: He wants Phoenix Jones to unmask and retire from crime-fighting. Now, far be it from me to get in the way of good old-fashioned villainy, and believe me when I say that I hate to be the one to break this to him, but he’s a little late on at least half of that.

To be fair, though, his video didn’t involve stabbing a dude in hockey pads, so hopefully, Rex Velvet will stick to making videos and avoid getting into, you know, actual crime. If I was in Seattle, though, I’d probably still avoid taking the ferry for a while. With a mastermind like this on the loose, you never know when you’re going to be faced with a moral quandary that can only be solved by Tiny Lister.

CLICK THRU TO WATCH VIDEO on www.comicsalliance.com

Marvel’s Chairman Emeritus Stan Lee has been making the promotional rounds in support of the company’s latest motion picture, The Avengers, based on the classic superheroes he created with Jack Kirby. By this point in his life, the 89-year-old publishing icon has seen a lot of Marvel movies come and go (and has appeared in at least 15 of them), and with that experience comes a lot of great stories. Among them, that time that noted comic book fan Michael Jackson was so keen to play Spider-Man that he attempted to buy Marvel just to make it happen.

Lee was asked about the Michael Jackson experience in an interview with Eric Larnick for our sister site Moviefone:

Moviefone: The most interesting bit of almost-casting that I’ve ever heard came from a Producers Guild conference last summer: the “X-Men” producers revealed that Michael Jackson seriously lobbied for the part of Professor X.

Stan Lee: I wasn’t aware that Michael Jackson wanted to be Professor X. I knew Michael Jackson. And with the things he discussed with me, I felt he wanted to be Spider-Man. That was the character that interested him. He never discussed the X-Men with me.

MF: How do you think he would have fared as Spider-Man?

SL: I think he’d have been good. I think he’d have been very good. But I must say that Tobey Maguire was wonderful.

MF: I’m fascinated by the fact that Jackson worked with Stan Lee Media and attempted to buy Marvel, in the 90s.

SL: Yes, he wanted to. He felt that would be the only way that he could play Spider-Man. [Laughs]

MF: What do you think the company would have looked like now if that partnership came to fruition?

SL: I can’t imagine it would have been totally different of course, but maybe not as successful. Michael was not a great businessman.

For more on Stan Lee, including his favorite Marvel film cameos, click over to Moviefone for the full interview. For a little more on the Michael Jackson anecdote, check out this 2009 video from the Associated Press on www.comicsalliance.com