Just when you thought it was all about Batman, Spider-Man comes swooping back into the Buzz. The web-slinger is slated to star in a new videogame, appear in a comic book with Stephen Colbert, and make his Broadway musical debut. Seriously.

First up, the videogame. Kotaku reports that "Spider-Man: Web of Shadows" will feature Tricia Helfer as the voice of the smart and sensual Black Cat. For all you non-geeks, Helfer is best known as playing "Number Six," the sexiest robot this side of C-3PO, on "Battlestar Galactica." The game has yet to hit store shelves, but searches are already moving for "web of shadows reviews" and "spider-man web of shadows characters."

Less obvious than a videogame is a comic book team up with America's number one freedom fighter, Stephen Colbert. Still, that's exactly what will happen in Amazing Spider-Man #573. In the eight page tongue-in-cheek story, Colbert becomes disillusioned with New York politics, only to have his faith restored (unintentionally) by Spidey. For more on the unlikely pair, check out this blog from Newsarama.

Finally, showing that even sanity must step aside in the face of Spidey-mania, a Broadway musical based on the superhero will hit stages in 2009. According to multiple articles within the Buzz, including this one from io9, Jim Sturgess will star as the man in the red and blue leotard and Evan Rachel Wood will tackle the role of Mary Jane Watson. If this seems like a completely insane idea, remember that the theater has a long history of bizarre musicals based on movies. And some of them have even been huge successes. "Legally Blonde," anyone?

Whether on book shelves or online, classic literature—and the characters who make them classics—exhibit remarkable stamina.

The presidential campaign briefly revived the topic of challenging literary characters' rights to be available to all seekers. The timing couldn't have been better for the 27th annual Banned Books Week (Sept. 27-Oct. 4). As one Publisher's Weekly editor put it, even though a political controversy turned out to be exaggerated, it stirred enough passion to show that "books matter."

Well-intentioned advocates still feel that certain topics should be hidden away from impressionable minds. Such challenges—as they are called—often don't result in outright bans, mostly thanks to stalwart librarians defending the honor of intellectual freedom.

A reported 546 challenges in 2006 (the most recent number available from the American Library Association) is higher than the previous year (405). The neutral news is, the average number of challenges since 1990 happens to be 546, so 2006 has been about par.

A tome's popularity—sometimes buoyed by being made into a movie, however critically dismissed—doesn't prevent challenges, and sometimes encourages them. Witness these two rankings of the same list: the top challenged books last year, and their Web popularity during the past seven days:

Two years ago, Harry Potter led a Search ranking of all-time challenged/banned books. The boy wizard remains irresistable, even as he riles some readers. The ALA site lists challenged books organized by time period. Here's a combined list of these provocative books (as well as their broadcast versions), ranked by their Web popularity.

Grave situation. A renewed interest in the "spanish civil war" (+446%) was sparked by news that the grave of the famed Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca is also the site of thousands of unmarked graves, the result of atrocities committed during the war. The conflict in the 1930s grew between the democratically elected government and the army general Francisco Franco, which left thousands of perceived opponents of the general dead.

Vote early. If you want to vote before Election Day, you don't need to prove you're out of town or unable to get to the polls. In an attempt to avoid the crush of crowds on the actual Election Day, "early voting" (+341%) is now an option in over 30 states, according to the New York Times. The paper also noted that in Georgia, where early voting started this week, over 18,000 votes have already been cast. The Wall Street Journal reports that by actual Election Day, "more than half of the voters in some states will have cast early ballots."

Obama trivia. Obama mania may have died down somewhat, but searches on "barack obama test" (+194%) have increased as we close in on Election Day. Searches reveal tests that include trivia about Obama's life, positions, and arguments.