Just ten years ago it appeared that Marvel couldn't get a movie made to save its life. How times have changed. This week the second Blade film topped the box office, and everyone expects that Sony/Columbia's Spider-Man movie is going to be one of this summer's biggest hits.

The good news is that ToyBiz action figures are getting better and better thanks to new high tech imaging equipment and an increasing willingness to hire top sculptors, but the bad news is that the first wave of Spider-Man Movie Action Figures showed up in Wal-Mart (and reportedly, in Toys R Us) a month before other channels.

The one company to emerge as a new major player in the action figure field at the 2002 Toy Fair was Art Asylum, whose showroom was second only to McFarlane Toys in its devotion to state of the art action figures.

There is no denying that the quality of the action figures that ToyBiz has produced over the past year has improved dramatically. The new Marvel Legends action figures take the familiar superheroes back to the vibrant colors of their original four-color incarnations.

Activision has added Fantastic Four and Iron Man to its roster of Marvel properties, which already includes X-Men, Spider-Man and Blade .

In an article in today's Los Angeles Times , staff writer Geoff Boucher asks whether Superman is 'Undressed for Success?' in Smallville , the new WB television series that chronicles the Man of Steel's teenage years.