Now there are a few pinches of salt to be taken with this story, I presume that this is the actual J.Michael Straczynski, and of course it may not be, but if it is he has some potentially bad news for the hopes of Mark Millar on his desire to write the Superman Returns (Filmstalker review) sequel.

It seems that when he heard that Millar was trying to get a meeting for the pitch to replace the previous writers, he called his agency, whom he shares with Mark Millar, and tried to put in some good words. Then the comment came that killed the idea.

He was told in return that Paul Levitz had said some time ago that there were never to be any Marvel writers on a DC property, ever. Here are J. Michael Straczynski's comments from the Newsarama forums:

“I called to put in a good word on this, and was told that Paul Levitz some time ago put down the hammer, hard, on the notion of any Marvel writers -- whether or not they worked for DC previously -- writing any DC property. The higher visibility the writer, the bigger the No.

As one source put it, 'Levitz doesn't think anyone who writes for Marvel has any business telling DC how to write its characters.'

It's totally non-negotiable.”

You may be wondering who Paul Levitz is if you aren't in the know, well he's the current President of DC Comics, and presumably has some say over what actually happens to Superman on screen.

So does that put pay to Mark Millar's chances? It seems a shame if he's cut down now according to some old rule made perhaps in anger at some feud between the rival companies of DC and Marvel, especially when he's so keen to pitch his new Superman plot.