Michael Shannon is evil General Zod in the new Man of Steel. James Mottram meets the actor who wowed critics in Take Shelter

The idiosyncratic and richly intentive Filter Company are one of my favourite theatrical outfits.

129 years of history looked certain to end under £1.8m of debt but a pair of unlikely saviours came up with £50,000 to save their club for now. Martin Hardy was on hand to witness dramatic scenes

A central figure in the so-called Golden Age of comic books, Jerry Robinson, who has died aged 89, was perhaps best known as the creator of The Joker, probably the best known villain in comics history.

Pink Sparkly And All Things Nice is among more than 100,000 Britons who changed their name this year.

With his pointy-eared mask, flowing cape, and underpants on full show, Batman could only have been created in the superhero golden age of the 1930s. But, in recent years, the Dark Knight has begun to resemble a character from a Victorian melodrama; an emotionally compromised mansion-dweller who rarely tolerates the company of anyone other than his butler.

All good books about superheroes, and the comics and films in which they appear, end up to some extent being memoirs. For people who stay interested long enough to think deeply and write, superheroes are tokens of memory and aspiration; we remember where we were when we first picked up a Spider-Man comic and why it spoke to our needs. Comics provide us with useful metaphors, ways of thinking, points of view.

Zack Snyder's latest slice of action fantasy actually makes Your Highness seem less painful.

Laurence Fishburne will play Perry White in 'Superman: Man of Steel'.

The Arab world can take graphic art seriously, as any Danish cartoonist will attest, so goodness knows what sort of response will greet the comic industry's latest mooted blockbuster publication: a tale about al-Qa'ida that was designed, in the words of its creator, to "really piss people off".

The Man of Steel may be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but he may struggle to jump over this staggeringly comprehensive DVD collection of Superman movies released by Warner.

Widely regarded at the time as a mere Dylan copyist, Donovan was rarely given due credit for his innovative work in the late 1960s, each hit seeming to confirm his supposed betrayal.