If you've been following the trials and tribulations of Warner Bros and Superman, then you know the Last Son of Krypton has been shelved for the time being. Anne Thompson reiterated that last week, noting that the studio is using the legal woes as an excuse to stave off development, though the truth is that no one really knows what to do with the character. Do they reboot, as they breathlessly announced they would last summer? Do they invite Bryan Singer back? Or do they just avoid looking at the property for another five or ten years before reinventing it all over again?

It really is a dilemma, and one we've discussed quite often on Cinematical. No matter where you stand on superheroes and their adaptations, I think we all agree there seems to be something criminal in keeping him shelved when all his compatriots are flying free on the silver screen. Superman is an icon whose reach extends beyond the comic page. His shield is tattooed on many a bicep, and you can't go anywhere without running into Superman merchandise. You could probably go to the frostiest point of the Arctic Circle and find a Superman t-shirt for sale next to the reindeer fat and snowshoes. Yet he's too problematic to make into a movie. Why is this?

The answers are pretty battered from the repetition. He's boring. He's too perfect. He doesn't work in an era of dark and gritty superheroes. Bryan Singer mucked up his mythology. It's impossible to put him in conflict. Yet readers continue to flock to his "boring" adventures on the page week after week, month after month, and they tune into his Smallville adventures. Superman has never gone out of print or popularity, and yet he's proving more impossible to adapt than Watchmen.

On the heels of the first Iron Man 2 poster come a few official stills straight from Paramount. Everyone looks very serious. Whiplash is seriously working on something, surrounded by pictures of Tony Stark to keep his hate burning and his ethic cheerful. Black Widow is seriously up to no good, even if she looks slinky doing it. Even Tony isn't taking things lightly -- not the destruction to his house, and not whatever he's brewing in his latest science project.

There's nothing really new on display here -- the Black Widow photo has been around in varying degrees of resolution since before San Diego Comic Con -- but it's just nice to see the characters out and about, isn't it? If you're given to intense plot speculation, you can all give your take on just what Tony and Whiplash have brewing, and just who caused Tony's marble floor to shatter into a dozen pieces. Did he fly through the ceiling again? Is he building an access portal so that it doesn't ever happen again? Or did some nefarious individual blast a hole into his luxurious tile, hoping to get into his secret lair of Iron Man suits?

We'll know on May 7th, 2010. Until then, just spin your own stories, and delight in a peek at the finished product. The first stills from a film always remind me of the good old days of Disney Adventures when this is all you'd have to go on until summer rolled around.