Nerd Alert! Dark Knight saga to continue; Hernandez and Brown get biblical

Welcome to Nerd Alert!, your weekly round-up of news from the world of science fiction, fantasy, comic books, animation, and all things nerdy. Lots of videos this week because I'm too lazy to write!

THE DARK KNIGHT SAGA isn't over yet. The first issue of DC Comics' eight-part Dark Knight III: The Master Race hits shelves next week, and while it had been touted as the final chapter in Frank Miller's Dark Knight saga, Miller now says he intends to write a fourth chapter. For Dark Knight III, Miller teamed up with writer Brian Azzarello and artists Andy Kubert and Klaus Janson, but Miller told Newsarama that he will write the fourth—and final?—installment himself.

The Dark Knight titles are set in a somewhat dystopian near future in which rising crime rates in Gotham City compell a middle-aged Bruce Wayne to take his Batman suit out of mothballs. DC published the first part of the saga, The Dark Knight Returns, in 1986. That four-part miniseries was written by Miller and drawn by him and Janson. It re-established Batman as a central character in pop culture and its bleak tone, for better or worse, inspired many a "gritty reboot". (I love Miller's work as much as anyone, but here's hoping the age of the gritty reboot is over. No one needs to see ThunderCats "reimagined" in typically grim fashion by Christopher Nolan.)

THE SEXY SIDE OF THE BIBLE is coming to a comic shop near you. Now that I have actually typed that out, it looks patently ridiculous, but it's sorta true. Two upcoming titles will see veteran graphic novelists tackle the parts of scripture you probably didn't learn about in Sunday school. In March, Drawn & Quarterly will publish Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus: Prostitution and Religious Obedience in the Bible by Chester Brown. Brown previously covered the topic of prostitution in Paying for It, and he has also created graphic adaptations of the Gospels of Mark and Matthew. According to D&Q, Mary Wept sees him "delving deep into the lore and secondary sources to weave a work that draws a connecting line between the prostitutes of the Hebrew Bible. Chester Brown does with the Bible what he did in his biography of Louis Riel: makes their stories compellingly readable and utterly pertinent to a modern readership."

In July, Fantagraphics will publish Garden of Flesh by Gilbert Hernandez (Love and Rockets). It promises to be "a sexually explicit retelling of the story of Adam and Eve up to Noah’s Ark. Hernandez presents a straightforward adaptation of the Bible parable, but one that also blurs the lines between erotica and pornography, as only Hernandez can." I have long felt that the market for Bible-based porn is criminally underserved. Let's face it, folks: if ol' Adam and Eve hadn't fucked, none of us would be here. If you believe that sort of thing. 

I COULD MAKE THE old joke "Remember when MTV used to show music videos?", or I could just be cheered up by the fact that the former Music Television has evolved beyond terrible reality shows. In the New Year, MTV will debut The Shannara Chronicles, based on the best-selling fantasy novels by Terry Brooks. This week the network released videos introducing some of the major characters. Give 'em a peep below. If you're into elves and whatnot.

I REALLY WANTED TO get through a Nerd Alert without mentioning Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but I can't resist posting this Verizon commercial starring Chewbacca and BB-8. It's mostly notable because Chewie blasts a Stormtrooper who falls down and then gets back up, which suggests that someone finally realized that these guys need better armour. Maybe that same someone will also realize they need better sights on their blaster rifles.

CASTING NEWS AND RUMOURS

• Patricia Arquette is in talks to join the cast of Pixar's Toy Story 4 alongside franchise stars Tom Hanks and Tim Allen. Toy Story 4 will be directed by John Lasseter, who helmed the first two films in the series.
• According to The Hollywood Reporter, Matthew McConaughey is in early talks to star in The Dark Tower, Columbia Pictures’ adaptation of Stephen King’s fantasy Western epic.
• A few of the names that have been floated in connection with Warner Bros.' Justice League Dark include either Colin Farrell or Ewan McGregor as Constantine, Monica Bellucci as Madame Xanadu, and Ron Perlman as Swamp Thing.