Even though Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment didn’t make the big announcement about Batman: Arkham City until after Comic Con, they did make sure to let us get our hands on a more kid friendly Batman title. Based off the animated series of the same name, Batman: The Brave and The Bold, which is coming to both the Wii and Nintendo DS, takes classic 2D side scrolling gameplay mixed with hand drawn animations to present a mix of modern and retro to the screen.

Each level is built as a cooperative experience pairing up Batman with either Robin, Aquaman, Black Canary, Blue Beetle, Captain Marvel, Green Lantern Guy Gardner, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Green Lantern Hal Jordan, Plastic Man or the Red Tornado facing off against the schemes of any of the game’s various villains. These villains include Catman, Catwoman, Gorilla Grodd, Mongul, Starro and Two-Face. Like the comic book and the show, Batman: The Brave and The Bold focuses on the idea of Batman teaming up with another hero to take on some villainous force he would not have been able to take on solo. Each level features a different hero and drop-in, drop-out gameplay allowing for players to hop in even mid-level.

The game contains a full five minutes of original animation created by WB Animation, the same team that works on the Batman: The Brave and The Bold series. These are seen throughout any of the game’s 2D cutscenes. Everything in the game is hand drawn before being digitally scanned and then animated. Because of this production style, the game contains around 15,000 individual animations. The game definitely stands out amongst all of the other 3D computer animated titles currently being shown.

According to Variety, screenwriter Bill Birch has been given the task of adapting the DC comic book character Captain Marvel for Warner Bros. big screen version of Shazam! — a project that already has Get Smart helmer Peter Segal attached to direct.

Birch, who is currently writing the film One Finger Salute for Warner Bros., comes to the project following several other drafts by prominant screenwriters such as John August, Bryan Goluboff, Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow and even William Goldman. In addition, Geoff Johns, currently enjoying a very successful run on DC’s Blackest Night, will co-write and consult on the project.

According to the trade, Segal and Ewing began working on the film three years ago at New Line before it moved over to Warners. In case you’re not familiar, the film centers on teenager Billy Batson, who transforms into the superhero Captain marvel when he says the word “Shazam!” The studio is now looking to go back to the original DC Comics source material for inspiration.

Good idea. What took you so long to figure that out?