This week’s update will be the last for the PlayStation Digital Comics store, bringing to an Sony’s nearly two-year-old service for the PlayStation Portable.

Announced in August 2009 and launched four months later, PlayStation Digital Comics permitted users to download comics from such publishers as DC, Marvel, IDW Publishing, Archie, Tokyopop and BOOM! Studios to handheld game console. The service amassed a library of more than 4,000 titles, which Sony says will remain available to PSP users.

In a brief announcement made Wednesday on the PlayStation blog, Grace Chen, director of the PlayStation Store, wrote that, “The Digital Comics Team will continue to work on bringing the comic service to other Sony devices.” That suggests the service, or one similar to it, may be available for the PlayStation Vita, expected to be released in early 2012.

Good news for Liberty Meadows fans: Frank Cho is working on the long-awaited issue #38, after dropping plans (for now) to make it into an animated cartoon.

Liberty Meadows was originally a newspaper strip, but Cho’s art and sense of humor kept bumping up against editorial standards, and he ended syndication in 2001; “I got tired of the censorship and the low pay,” he told CBR in a 2006 interview, adding that his weakest strips were rush jobs done to fill in for strips that editors refused to run. Cho moved to a comic book format, first self-published, then through Image, but he put Liberty Meadows on hiatus in 2004, after issue #36. Issue #37 came out in 2009.

Cho let loose on his blog about his frustrations with Sony, which acquired the rights to create a downloadable Liberty Meadows cartoon for their Sony Digital division. Here’s his account of how that went:

I wrote the original pilot episode but it was rejected for being too “risque”. So other writers were brought in to tone it down and make it more kid friendly. Once I read the rewrite, I thought it completely missed the point of Liberty Meadows. So I rewrote the rewrite, and this went back and forth couple of times until we reached a compromised script. We turned that script into an traditional 2D animated pilot episode.

Enter Sony Television division. They saw the pilot episode and liked it. Liberty Meadows get bumped up to their television division and a TV series is planned. However there is one request, Sony Television people wanted Liberty Meadows to be more “risque” with adult humor like the “Family Guy”. This is the point where I rip my hair out in frustration.

Then the recession hit and all the executives involved with the project left the company. Fortunately, Cho’s contract had an inactivity clause (something the Tokyopop creators could have benefited from) so the rights have now reverted back to him.

His plan for now is to simply go back to drawing the strip, although he doesn’t rule out another movie or TV deal “if the right offer comes along.”

T.V. Carpio

The beleaguered Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark was dealt another blow Tuesday with the announcement that T.V. Carpio, who plays the villain Arachne, will be sidelined for the next two weeks following an injury sustained during one of the show’s many fight scenes.

According to The New York Times, Carpio was hurt during a March 16 preview performance in an aggressive Act II showdown between the eight-legged Arachne and Peter Parker (played that evening by Matthew James Thomas). Although the newspaper reports the nature of the injury was not disclosed, it’s believed to be a neck injury; Broadway World contends it’s “whiplash.”

Understudy America Olivo has been performing as Arachne, and will continue in the part until Carpio’s return.

Carpio is the fifth performer injured in a production plagued by difficulties. In fact, she took over the role of Arachne from original actress Natalie Mendoza, who left Spider-Man in late December after she suffered a concussion during the problem-filled first preview.

The $70-million musical, by far the most expensive and technically ambitious show in Broadway history, has had a tumultuous month — which is really saying something, considering its rocky past: In the wake of overwhelmingly negative reviews and rumors of behind-the-scenes tensions, director Julie Taymor stepped aside on March 9 to make way for an expanded creative team tasked with overhauling the production. And just this week a report surfaced that producers are seeking to replace choreographer Daniel Ezralow, a Taymor loyalist responsible for designing the ambitious flying sequences.

Preview performances will be shut down from April 19 to May 11 to accommodate what are expected to be sweeping changes to the show — including a reduction of Arachne’s role. Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is now scheduled to open on June 14.

"Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark"

A post-Julie Taymor Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark will likely be a radically changed show, with many of the director’s trademark elements altered or removed, multiple outlets report.

Among the rumored revisions are the strengthening of the love story between Peter Parker and Mary Jane, said to have been a point of contention between Taymor and some cast members, the loss of the widely panned “Deeply Furious” number, and a clarification of the Green Goblin’s story arc (he dies in Act I only to reappear in Act II). But perhaps most notable are the plans for Arachne, the eight-legged villainess created by Taymor in 2002. The character, who dominates the second act, will see her scenes reduced or cut entirely, Bloomberg reports.

The details surfaced today, less than 24 hours after producers finally announced what many had expected for some time: that the beleagured director would leave and the critically savaged musical shut down for two weeks to undergo a massive overhaul. Philip William McKinley (The Boy From Oz) was brought in as Taymor’s replacement to work with an expanded creative team that includes composers Bono and The Edge, musical consultant Paul Bogaev, playwright and comics writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, and sound designer Peter Hylenski. Opening night, most recently scheduled for March 15, will be delayed for a sixth time, to early summer.

Although lead producers Michael Cohl and Jeremiah J. Harris insist that Taymor, who’s shepherded Spider-Man for nine years, is stepping aside because of scheduling conflicts, it’s widely reported she was forced out after she refused to make significant changes to the show. According to The New York Times, Taymor will still be billed as the show’s director and a script writer.

The New York Post’s Michael Riedel writes that Bono, who’s been largely absent in recent months, is spearheading the changes to the $65 million production and apparently played a central role in Taymor’s departure. He and The Edge will write at least two new songs as part of the overhaul — Broadway World contends it will be as many as four — including one for the start of Act II and another that may replace “Deeply Furious,” a number in which Arachne and her minions shop for shoes, said to be one of Taymor’s favorites.

Julie Taymor

As expected, the producers of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark announced this evening that Julie Taymor will step aside as director of the much-delayed and derided $65 million musical. They also confirmed that opening night has been moved from March 15 to early summer, marking the show’s sixth postponement.

Taymor will be replaced by Philip William McKinley (The Boy From Oz), who joins an expanded creative team — it includes playwright and comics writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, musical consultant Paul Bogaev and sound designer Peter Hylenski — that will overhaul the production over the next three months. Performances are expected to shut down for two to three weeks in April and May to accommodate the retooling and rehearsals.

According to The New York Times, the producers, along with composers Bono and the Edge, told the cast this evening that Taymor was out but would remain involved in the show, although not in a day-to-day capacity.

That point was emphasized in a joint statement from lead producers Michael Cohl and Jeremiah J. Harris: “Julie Taymor is not leaving the creative team. Her vision has been at the heart of this production since its inception and will continue to be so. Julie’s previous commitments mean that past March 15th, she cannot work the 24/7 necessary to make the changes in the production in order to be ready for our opening.”

The Times notes that the producers’ press release doesn’t include a comment from Taymor, an omission the newspaper characterizes as “a sign of the discord among them.” Indeed, today’s announcement follows weeks of friction, during which the Tony Award-winning director reportedly refused requests by producers to allow outsiders to make changes to the widely panned show.

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

Besieged director Julie Taymor will leave Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark as producers prepare to shut down performances for two to three weeks to overhaul the $65 million musical, multiple sources report. However, The New York Times now contends she could remain in some capacity, “perhaps in name only,” following her rumored resignation Tuesday night.

The news follows two days of negotiations that were believed to center on the Tony Award-winning Taymor either working with an expanded creative team to retool production, or possibly exit the show she co-wrote and shepherded to Broadway. “Taymor is out. She’s left the building,” a source close to the production tells the New York Daily News.

The shutdown dates for Spider-Man, which was supposed to open March 15, are expected to cover late April and early May, The Times reports. However, a spokesman sticks by the line that “the opening night is still scheduled for March 15.” A shutdown would mean a loss of about $1.3 million a week — although still in previews, Spider-Man is one of the highest-grossing shows on Broadway — and push the production past the April 28 deadline for Tony Awards eligibility (apparently not a concern). Producers are now thought to be eyeing a June opening date, the show’s sixth.

According to the New York Post’s Michael Riedel, who’s gleefully chronicled the show’s many misfortunes, Taymor will be replaced by Christopher Ashley (Xanadu, The Rocky Horror Show). Comics writer and playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa “will have a go at Taymor’s baffling script, for which he’s being paid about $20,000,” while veteran conductor and musical supervisor Paul Bogaev will continue to work with Bono and the Edge, and help improve the performance, arrangements and sound quality.

Showbiz411′s Roger Friedman, a longtime friend of Taymor and a vocal defender of the production, writes that her departure “would be a terrible mistake”: “Spider Man is her show. Anyone who comes in will have to face that fact. The flying, the costumes. the sets, the 3D comic book life of the show — all belong to her. The tragedy in this is that Taymor, like most creative geniuses, may  have gotten lost along the way. She needs a collaborator — an editor, really — to shorten the first act, create a cliffhanger, and rearrange TV Carpio’s wonderful Arachne so she joins the plot organically and isn’t a speed bump in Act One. [...] The great fun of Spider Man is still in Taymor’s vision. Lose that now and the show’s main purpose will be gone too.”

Official announcements are expected later today.

Julie Taymor

Director Julie Taymor, who just last week said she was “in the crucible and the fire of transformation,” could be on her way out of the beleagured Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.

According to The New York Times, producers were negotiating Monday for the Tony Award winner to work with an expanded creative team — including veteran musical supervisor Paul Bogaev and possibly playwright/comics writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa — to overhaul the much-delayed and derided $65 million production. They’re reportedly also deciding when to officially open, now that a sixth delay is inevitable.

The show was scheduled to open next Tuesday, a date described in January by lead producer Michael Cohl as “the final postponement,” but The Times notes that theater critics have not received invitations, which are typically sent about two weeks before.

Taymor’s departure would, of course, be a seismic change for the trouble musical, which she’s steered from its genesis in 2002 through near-bankruptcy, repeated delays, cast departures, prolonged previews, injuries and critical scorn. Along the way, she’s been called everything from a creative genius to a megalomaniac, all the while serving as a lightning rod for criticism.

By far the most expensive and technically complex show in Broadway history, Spider-Man added another superlative to the list on Sunday: With its 98th preview performance, it broke the record set in 1969 by Jackie Mason’s A Teaspoon Every Four Hours.

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

When even the show’s most vocal defender is reporting on an apparent sixth delay for Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, you begin to think there’s something to the growing belief that the $65 million musical won’t officially open until June.

Roger Friedman, a longtime friend of director Julie Taymor who’s used his Showbiz411 website to chastise theater critics and counter reports by the New York Post’s Michael Riedel, now says the March 15 date — described in January by lead producer Michael Cohl as “the final postponement” — is being called a “Hope-ening.”

“One source says every time the show doesn’t open they call it a ‘Faux-pening’,” Friedman writes this morning. He frames the move as a way to sidestep the April 28 deadline for the Tony Awards while giving the creative team more time to retool the show as much as possible within the constraints of the highly complex mechanics: “I am told that the feeling is that week to week the show is selling well enough ($1.55 mil last week.) that opening now, getting panned again, and then getting snubbed by the Tonys — which is likely — is worse than just staying the course and continuing to make improvements.”

This latest delay was perhaps telegraphed early last month by a wave of negative reviews, followed by reports that comics writer and playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa had been approached to rewrite the book, and the hiring of veteran conductor and musical supervisor Paul Bogaev.

The troubled production, which has been plagued by mechanical glitches, injuries and cast departures as well as delays, was cited Friday by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for three serious safety violations for four separate incidents last year — including the one in which Christopher Tierney plunged from a platform on stage, breaking ribs and fracturing his skull. Producers were fined $12,600, a drop in the bucket for the most expensive show in Broadway history.

Reeve Carney on "Late Show with David Letterman"

It was a busy Tuesday for the cast and crew of  Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark that began with an upbeat appearance by the stars on CBS’s Early Show and ended with a subdued performance on the Late Show with David Letterman. In between, Bono was expected to tell producers whether he thinks the troubled $65-million musical is ready for its scheduled March 15 opening.

On The Early Show, stars Reeve Carney, Jennifer Damiano and T.V. Carpio brushed aside the production’s largely negative reviews, even one saying that Spider-Man ranks among the worst musicals in Broadway history. “Everyone has a right to their opinion,” said Carney, who stars as Peter Parker. “If anything, maybe thanks for — in some ways, we kind of get a kick out of the negativity, just because (of) that whole thing — ‘any press is good press’ is not entirely true, but you have to have a good sense of humor about yourself, as well. We’re just trying to make the best show we can. So it’s one person’s opinion, and I think the audience reaction is so positive every night that that’s kind of what we’re focused on, just trying to please the audience.”

Likewise, Carpio downplayed the show’s injuries, pointing out she received a concussion while performing in Rent. “Not to minimize what has happened in our show,” she said, “but there’s no flying in Rent and these things happened and nobody heard about it.” (That said, Spider-Man producers can’t be pleased by the headline on The Early Show website: “Spider-Man stars rationalize injuries.”)

On David Letterman, it was all about the music, with the trio performing the obviously Bono-penned ballad “Rise Above” (watch the video below). They might’ve been better-served by something a little more pulse-pounding, but what do I know? How about Carney’s Spider-Man jacket, though? I’d buy one of those from the gift shop (which will be stocked with merchandise sporting Greg Horn artwork).

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, by Annie Leibovitz

Producers of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark have brought in outside help for the beleaguered musical amid growing expectation that the show’s opening will be delayed a sixth time.

The New York Times reports that veteran conductor and musical supervisor Paul Bogaev was hired about a week ago to work with Bono and the Edge and to help improve the performance, arrangements and sound quality. Bogaev was the musical director and conductor of the technically complex Starlight Express, and collaborated with Phill Collins on Tarzan and Elton John on Aida.

News of Bogaev’s involvement comes less than a week after a report that comics writer and playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa had been approached to rework the book originally penned by Julie Taymor and Glen Berger (The Times says he’s yet to be hired). It also follows quickly on a rumor that producers wanted to bring in a co-director for Taymor — something a show spokesman and Taymor herself deny.

Spider-Man spokesman Rick Miramontez wouldn’t comment to the newspaper regarding speculation that the show’s opening could be pushed past March 15, the date selected last month by lead producer Michael Cohl “to ensure that this will be the final postponement.”

The $65 million musical, which began preview performances on Nov. 28, has experienced numerous setbacks, including technical glitches, serious injuries, cast departures and, early this month, an avalanche of scathing reviews from theater critics. Still, it’s the second highest-grossing show on Broadway, behind the long-running Wicked.

Patrick Page as the Green Goblin and Reeve Carney as Spider-Man (The New York Times)

After five delays and nearly 70 preview performances, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark received its first wave of “official” reviews overnight from the nation’s top theater critics — many of whom went to great pains to point out that the $65-million musical was supposed to open on Monday, at least before the most recent postponement.

The results are perhaps predictable, if certainly not flattering. Words like “incoherent,” “cheap” and “atrocious” are used, much to the production’s dismay. (Comic Book Resources reviewed Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark last month, with Staff Writer Josh Wigler describing it as “awful.”)

“The PILE-ON by the critics was ridiculous and uncalled for,” show spokesman Rick Miramontez said in a statement to Entertainment Weekly. “Their actions are unprecedented and UNCOOL!”

“Unprecedented” likely refers to the publishing of reviews before the show’s official opening on March 15, a baton Showbiz411′s Roger Friedman — a longtime friend and frequent defender of director Julie Taymor — picked up when he described the move as an “ambush” in a post titled “Spider-Man Musical: Told Not To, the Critics Review it Anyway.” That’s the same Roger Friedman who, in 2009, downloaded and reviewed a copy of a stolen unfinished print of X-Men Origins: Wolverine weeks before the movie’s opening.

Here’s a roundup of some of the early reviews that reportedly left Spider-Man producer Norton Herrick “gobsmacked”:

Ben Brantley, The New York Times: “This production should play up regularly and resonantly the promise that things could go wrong. Because only when things go wrong in this production does it feel remotely right — if, by right, one means entertaining. So keep the fear factor an active part of the show, guys, and stock the Foxwoods gift shops with souvenir crash helmets and T-shirts that say ‘I saw Spider-Man and lived.’ Otherwise, a more appropriate slogan would be “I saw Spider-Man and slept.”

Peter Marks, The Washington Post: “If you’re going to spend $65 million and not end up with the best musical of all time, I suppose there’s a perverse distinction in being one of the worst.”

Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Post: “A snowballing budget, broken bones, a concussion, multiple delays, rewrites … and what do we get? An inconsistent, maddening show that’s equal parts exciting and atrocious.”

Scott Brown, New York magazine: “It’s by turns hyperstimulated, vivid, lurid, overeducated, underbaked, terrifying, confusing, distracted, ridiculously slick, shockingly clumsy, unmistakably monomaniacal and clinically bipolar.”

Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times: “So much emphasis has been placed on the technological hurdles, the notion that Spider-Man is trying things that have never been attempted before in a Broadway house. What sinks the show, however, has nothing to do with glitches in the special effects. To revise a handy little political catch phrase, ‘It’s the storytelling, stupid.’ And on that front, the failure rests squarely on Taymor’s run-amok direction.”

Jason Zinoman, Slate.com: “Imagine the gall it takes to have Spider-Man wrestle a cheap-looking blow-up doll in the most expensive musical in history. Or to have an almost incoherent book so witless that what passes for a joke is a character misunderstanding the difference between ‘free will’ and Free Willy. Then there’s the Bono-and-the-Edge anthem about shoes, and the more mundane issues such as inconsistencies of character (Peter Parker transforms from a nerd to a brooding hipster faster than he does from a man to a spider), of period (His Girl Friday or The Social Network?), and of style (comic books or Greek myth?).”

Steven Suskin, Variety: “Weaknesses lie with the book, music and lyrics, a kiss of death for most musicals; Taymor and her producers seem to think this a minor flaw, and initial box office returns suggest they might be right.”

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter: “… [M]ostly, Spider-Man is chaotic, dull and a little silly. And there’s nothing here half as catchy as the 1967 ABC cartoon theme tune.”

Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune: “Time and again, the show runs away from what I suspect the creators feared would be too predictable or cheap, but that we miss. There is no direct Peter-to-Spidey transformation scene. There are no shooting webs (not substantively, anyway). There is no rush of romance. There is no truth. Every time old Spidey gets someone to fight, beyond the eight-legged critter, the villain is immediately defanged by absurdly cartoonish behavior, nixing any of the stakes. His other main foes, The Lizard, Swarm et al., are reduced to a rushed and belated cinematic montage that looks more like a garish version of an outre presentation during Fashion Week. And yet, in other moments, the show is as terrified of its genre as a 1960s mother worried about the eyesight of kids devouring comics under the sheets.”

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark (by Annie Leibovitz)

After seven tempestuous weeks of previews during which a temporary, and unsatisfying, ending was used, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark has a dramatic new finale.

The New York Times reports the new, technically complex ending features a flying sequence in which Spider-Man flies “in a triumphant manner” around the 1,932-seat Foxwoods Theatre. The change comes in response to complaints that the show’s current ending — Spider-Man and Mary Jane embrace, then the curtain drops — was lackluster at best.

A spokesman for the $65-million musical would only say that the new ending involves “an airborne finale moment that will be familiar to Spider-Man fans around the world.”

Producers announced last Thursday that Spider-Man‘s opening would be delayed a fifth time, to March 15, to allow more time to fine-tune the finale and other aspects of the show. Grammy-winning record producer Steve Lillywhite was also been brought in by Bono and director Julie Taymor to work with the performers on the music.

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

The opening of the $65-million musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark has been delayed for a fifth time, to March 15, the show’s lead producers announced late today. Opening night previously had been set for Feb. 7.

According to The New York Times and other outlets, producers Michael Cohl and Jeremiah J. Harris said the opening was pushed back to allow more time to fine-tune parts of the show, “including a new ending.” The announcement came hours after it was reported that Grammy-winning record producer Steve Lillywhite had been brought in by Bono and director Julie Taymor to work with the performers on the music.

Preview performances scheduled for Jan. 18 and Jan. 25 also have been canceled outright.

“Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is ten times more complicated to tech than anything else,” Cohl said in a statement, “and the preview schedule allows for only very limited rehearsal time (twelve hours per week). We simply need more time to fully execute the creative team’s vision before freezing the show. I picked a date in March that allows me to ensure that this will be the final postponement.”

The delay is just the latest in a series of setbacks for the musical, which in addition to be the most expensive and technically complex in Broadway history now holds the record for most previews (they began on Nov. 28). Spider-Man has been plagued with troubles that date back to at least back to August 2009, when cash-flow obstacles forced the production to shut down, seemingly beginning a domino effect that led to repeated delays, the loss of two stars and a ballooning budget.

Safety concerns first emerged in October, around the time dancer Kevin Aubin broke both wrists in an aerial stunt gone wrong. During the coverage of that incident it was discovered that another performer had broken a foot during rehearsals. Then came November’s problem-filled first preview, during which actress Natalie Mendoza suffered a concussion, resulting in a two-week absence and, eventually, her departure. That was followed on Dec. 20 by the show’s worst mishap, when aerialist Christopher Tierney suffered extensive injuries after his harness snapped, sending him falling 30 feet.

Despite those problems, Spider-Man still managed to top last week’s Broadway box office, narrowly beating out the long-running musical Wicked.

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

With its planned Feb. 7 opening a little more than a month away, the beleaguered Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark began the new year with some impressive box-office receipts, a new lead actress, and a public-relations offensive:

• Despite — or, heck, maybe because of — the injuries, technical mishaps and delays, Spider-Man is the third highest-grossing show on Broadway, raking in $1.88 million during the week of the New Year’s holiday. It’s behind Wicked and The Lion King.

• Cast member T.V. Carpio was announced on Tuesday as the replacement for Natalie Mendoza in the lead role of the villainous Arachne. Mendoza left the production last week to continue her recovery from the concussion she suffered in November during the show’s problem-filled first preview. Carpio had played Miss Arrow, one of four members in the musical’s so-called Geek Chorus, had had portrayed Arachne in several previews last month.

• Christopher Tierney, the aerialist who suffered serious injuries in a fall during a Dec. 20 performance, told The New York Times that, “for a show that’s this technically complex, four injured performers is just not strange.” Lead producer Michael Cohl told Entertainment Weekly that the 31-year-old Tierney, who’s expected to take two to three months to heal, is welcome back to Spider-Man whenever he’s ready.

• Tierney appeared Tuesday on ABC’s Good Morning America with stars Reeve Carney, Jennifer Damiano and Patrick Page. You can watch video of the segment after the break.

Natalie Mendoza

The troubled Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark received another blow this morning as word emerged that actress Natalie Mendoza, who suffered a concussion during the show’s problem-filled first preview, is leaving the Broadway musical.

Citing anonymous sources, The New York Times reports that representatives for Mendoza, lawyers and producers of the show “have been hammering out an exit agreement for days” and “fine-tuning the language” to explain the actress’ departure. An official announcement is expected later today.

Mendoza starred as Arachne, a villain created by director Julie Taymor who plays a major role in the revised origin of Spider-Man and later becomes obsessed with the superhero. The newspaper notes that Taymor worked closely with Mendoza to develop the character’s look and mannerisms.

The 30-year-old actress, who was injured on Nov. 28 when a rope struck her in the head while she was standing offstage, hasn’t performed since Dec. 20, when her friend and castmate Christopher Tierney was seriously injured in a fall. According to The Times, she has been on vocal rest, under doctors’ orders. Mendoza’s understudy America Olivo, who filled in for her during her two-week recovery from the concussion, is expected to step into the role of Arachne.

The loss of a lead actress this close to Spider-Man‘s scheduled Feb. 7 opening would be enough of a sting on its own. But it’s particularly embarrassing following nearly a year of delays — the show was to debut in March 2010 at one point — money problems, the departures of the original Mary Jane and Green Goblin, four injuries — two of them major — and mounting criticism.

Confused by all the twist and turns involving the delay- and injury-plagued Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark? Don’t worry, Taiwan’s Next Media Animation has your covered, explaining the latest developments in its customary CGI-animated, and somewhat-humorous, style.

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

Broadway | The Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark canceled both Wednesday performances to test new safety measures following the Monday-night fall that left a stuntman hospitalized with broken ribs and internal bleeding. The cancellation of the sold-out evening show was announced just three hours before showtime at the Foxwoods Theatre. Tonight’s performance is expected to go on as planned.

Producers and creators met privately on Tuesday with the entire company to address safety concerns about the $65-million musical, the most expensive and technically complex in Broadway history. Although accidents in theater productions aren’t uncommon, it’s unusual for there to be four injuries before a show has officially opened. MTV offers some context. [The New York Times, The Associated Press]

Eiichiro Oda

Creators | According to calculations by Weekly Bunshun magazine, One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda makes about $24 million a year. Nearly $15.5 million of that comes just from sales of the insanely popular pirate manga. Oda turns 36 years old on Jan. 1. [Anime News Network]

Publishing | Michael Kavanagh reports on declining profits at Scottish media company DC Thomson, publisher of The Beano and The Dandy. [Financial Times]

Retailing | Robert Wilonsky uses the announcement of ComicsPRO‘s February annual meeting in Dallas as a chance to take the temperature of direct-market retailers and the trade organization. [Dallas Observer]

Publishing | The mainstream media pick up on the Marvel’s decision to bump off a member of the Fantastic Four in the January issue. [CNN.com]

Paul Cornell

Digital piracy | Writer Paul Cornell wades into the often-heated piracy discussion: “I think, and have had many conversations to support this view, that a large majority of creators in all media loathe illegal downloading. But few of them are willing to say anything in public. Reasons range from a desire to be seen to be cutting edge, to a fear of alienating one’s audience, to fear of a denial of service attack on one’s website. I’ve been on a lot of panels where, asked that question, everyone answers an entirely different one, about how ‘e-books are the future’. I feel that the one thing we can do, as creators, to affect illegal downloaders is to make it clear that we withold our approval. You can’t be an enthusiastic and beloved fan of a great writer and at the same time steal their stuff.” [PaulCornell.com]

Blogosphere | Tom Spurgeon continues his series of holiday interviews with a discussion with critic, writer and artist Matt Seneca. [The Comics Reporter]

Best of the year | Douglas Wolk selects the 10 best comics of 2010. [Techland]

Superboy #1

Best of the year | Dave Ferraro names to the 10 best superhero comics of the year. [Comics and More]

Best of the year | January Magazine names Joshua Hale Fialkov and Noel Tuazon’s Tumor among the best crime fiction of 2010. [January Magazine]

Gift guides | Brian Truitt, John Geddes and David Colton choose “essential 2010 graphic novels for comics gift-giving.” [USA Today]

Music | There’s a Michigan punk band named Cain Marko, after Marvel’s Juggernaut. “Juggernaut is just kind of a great character with an interesting past and kind of a tortured soul,” guitarist Jeremy Verwys says. “He’s just going to run through walls, and that’s what we kind of feel like … be uncompromising.” [The Grand Rapids Press]

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

In the wake of last night’s accident that sent a stuntman to the hospital, Actors’ Equity Association has announced it will halt performances of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark until better safety measures are instituted.

“Actors’ Equity Association is working with management and the Department of Labor to ensure that performances will not resume until back-up safety measures are in place,” the labor union, which represents live theatrical performances, said this morning in a statement released to Broadway World. Update: Broadway.com now reports that “additional safety protocols” will be enacted immediately, resulting in the postponement of Wednesday’s matinee. However, Wednesday evening’s performance, and all subsequent ones, will proceed as scheduled.

As we reported earlier, aerialist Christopher Tierney, who doubles for Spider-Man and two villains, fell about 30 feet when the cable to his harness snapped during the closing minutes of Monday night’s performance. (The New York Times has amateur video of the mishap.) He was taken by ambulance to Bellevue Hospital, where he’s reported to be in stable condition. According to Showbiz 411, Tierney suffered broken ribs and is being monitored because he was bleeding after the fall.

Inspectors from the New York State Department of Labor are visiting the Foxwoods Theatre today to conduct their own investigation. “We’ll be talking to the production team, checking the harnesses, cables, and other equipment, and trying to determine what happened, and we’ll have more information after that,” a department spokesman told The Times.

Tierney is the fourth actor to be injured in the troubled $65-million production, the most expensive and most technically complex in Broadway history. Safety concerns first emerged in October, around the time dancer Kevin Aubin broke both wrists in an aerial stunt gone wrong. During the coverage of that incident it was discovered that another performer had broken a foot during rehearsals. Then came November’s problem-filled first preview, during which actress Natalie Mendoza suffered a concussion, resulting in a two-week absence from the show.

The Julie Taymor-directed musical, which features a score by Bono and the Edge, has been plagued with troubles that date back to at least back to August 2009, when cash-flow obstacles forced the production to shut down, seemingly beginning a domino effect that led to repeated delays, the loss of two stars and a ballooning budget. On Friday producers announced they would again move Spider-Man‘s opening, this time from Jan. 11 to Feb. 7. That’s nearly a year after it was originally set to debut.

Some fans and industry observers were referring to the production as “cursed,” even before this latest injury. But now Gawker’s Richard Lawson, who has seen Spider-Man in previews, declares it’s time to pull the plug on “a terrible and, evidently, dangerous show.”

From the "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" video

It will take the troubled Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark four years to recoup its initial $65-million original investment, according to number-crunching by The New York Times.

Writing on the newspaper’s Economix blog, economics editor Catherine Rampell cautions that’s just a rough estimate that excludes merchandising sales — those can be lucrative for hit shows on the scale of The Lion King or Wicked — but somewhat generously assumes that 96 percent of the Foxwoods Theatre’s 1,932 available seats will be sold each week.

So, yes, Rampell’s calculations require some educated guesswork, but they make it clear that, even with the repeated delays, injuries and a problem-filled preview seemingly behind them, the producers of Spider-Man still have a difficult row to hoe. The combination of an established property with a visionary creative team might seem like a formula for success, but as Rampell notes, for every Lion King or Wicked there’s a Little Mermaid or Shrek the Musical. The latter, which cost an estimated $24 million — until Spider-Man came along, it was the most expensive production in Broadway history — ran for slightly more than a year, before closing in January.

From the "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" video

The good news for producers and hopeful fans of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is that the delay-plagued $65-million musical finally previewed Sunday night on Broadway. The bad, if not unexpected, news is … things didn’t go well.

Sure, nobody died, as Vulture so helpfully points out. But the ambitious, technically complex production began 24 minutes late, and then went downhill from there. According to The New York Times, Act I was paused four times — the first coming a half-hour into the show to allow the crew to free star Reeve Carney from an aerial harness. The act’s final pause, described as “the worst glitch of the night by far,” came when Spider-Man was left dangling over the audience before the stage manager abruptly called for intermission.

New York Post critic Michael Riedel, who has gleefully chronicled Spider-Man‘s misfortunes, reports that a scene in which Mary Jane (Jennifer Damiano) was supposed to be rescued from atop the Chrysler Building faltered as part of the building came up missing, and Mary Jane never materialized.

The performance crawled on for 3 1/2 hours, during which time some audience members walked out, one person yelled, “I don’t know how everyone else feels, but I feel like a guinea pig today — I feel like it’s a dress rehearsal,” and Green Goblin (Patrick Page) was forced to stall for time while crew members “openly rushed around to fix faulty equipment.”

Still, though, it could’ve gone worse. Right?

After the break you can watch the segment on the making of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark that aired last night on CBS’s 60 Minutes.