"Batman" news and stories

Some say that Heath Ledger's chilling performance as The Joker is the best thing about The Dark Knight. But I dare say that the best thing about The Dark Knight is its promotional Special Edition Reese's Peanut Butter Bat.

Before I get to that, I must expound my philosophy: Reese's Special Edition Cups (which also include Halloween Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkin and Easter Reese's Peanut Butter Egg) consistently trump traditional cups because they have a higher peanut butter to chocolate ratio. See, classic Cups are weighed down by the shell's chocolate crimping, which leaves us peanut butter lovers pining. But Special Edition Cups forgo the frills and pack as much PB as possible into a thin chocolate casing. In fact, if we're really getting down to brass tacks, Egg beats Pumpkin solely because Pumpkin has the little all-chocolate stem at the top.

The number of bizarre things people collect and post about on the web never ceases to amaze me. The latest such site I came across is Super Hero Food. As you can tell from the photo, this fanboy's creation is not about what Superman and his friends eat on a daily basis; it's an online museum devoted to various food products that feature a compendium of caped crusaders from comic books and movies.

The list of Super Hero Foods this guy has collected is as long as your arm and contains characters from both the Marvel and D.C. universes. It includes products emblazoned with images of most of the A-list superheroes like Spiderman, Batman and the X Men. Apparently nobody ever made any cereals or soups featuring more obscure superheroes. Of course not every item on this list is as conventional as breakfast cereal.

One of the stranger items on the list is a 3-pound bottle of Hulk Green Chocolate Syrup. Then there's Spider-Man Potato Chips, which come to us from Japan, of all places. If you find the thought of possessing any of these strange items for your very own compelling, then you'll be glad to know this guy is selling off parts of his collection on eBay. For a mere $4.99 you can be the first kid on your block with a set of rare Spidey cookies and crackers.

Yes, there seems to be a whole bunch of drinks based around our favorite Gotham City crimefighter (and his friends and enemies).

The Batman Cocktail sounds like a variation on a Shirley Temple or Buck Rogers, something for the kids, and it includes grenadine and orange juice. The Penguin includes gin, cherry liqueur, and benedictine, while The Alfredo has Campari and gin. There are also drinks based on Robin, The Riddler, the Batcave, even Commissioner Gordon.

What, no drink for Catwoman? That sounds like a natural.