EXCLUSIVE

SPOILER WARNING: This guest post by Los Angeles Times movie writer Chris Lee gives away some major plot twists in the film "Wanted," so don't read  if you were waiting to see it on DVD!

Angelina Jolie did not want to ride off into the sunset. At least, not when it came to portraying a sexed-up super assassin in the summer action hit "Wanted."

The Oscar-winning actress now says that she accepted the role of the sleek killer named Fox only after the filmmaker agreed to a crucial script revision: She didn't want her character still breathing when the final credits rolled. It was a major change from the story in the graphic novel of the same name but, as anyone familiar with both already knows, there were plenty of huge differences between Mark Millar's dark comic-book tale and the Hollywood adaptation.

"In the original, she doesn’t kill herself," Jolie said. "I actually changed the ending. I said, ‘If she was to find out she had killed people unjustly and was a part of something that wasn't fair, then she should take her own life.'"

Comics writer Mark Millar (who brought the world "Wanted," "Superman: Red Son" and Marvel's "Civil War") is a big fan of Richard Donner's 1978 film "Superman."

How big?

Well, he has one of Christopher Reeve's capes from the movie hanging in his home in Glasgow and (this is not a joke) he bought the stuffed and mounted corpse of Frisky, the stranded cat that Superman plucks from a tree in the movie. He recently got a chance to meet Donner and giddily compares it to "meeting Gandhi."

Millar was in Los Angeles visiting Golden Apple and he chatted with Blair Butler of G4's Fresh Ink for an interview and the subject turned to the future of Superman on the screen, which is quite the hot topic right now. It turns out that, a while back, Millar hatched an idea for a trilogy of films about the Last Son of Krypton and, after some recent conversations with an unidentified director, he thinks it might be gaining some traction.

"The Terminator" will be back next summer, but the original killer robot, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, is a bit puzzled by this new model, at least so far.

"I still don't know how it will play out with this one," said the star-turned-politician, who said he was given a private screening of early footage from "Terminator Salvation" by producers of the franchise reboot directed by McG. "They showed me some footage, but I don't have a feel for the movie. I didn't see enough. I wasn't sure who the Terminator was. I don't know if there is one or if he's the star or the hero. These are the things that determine the success and how the strong the movie will be."

This will be the fourth of the "Terminator" films but the first without the Austrian-born muscleman who became a international film icon in the role of an assassination machine with cool sunglasses and a deadpan delivery. "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" in 2003 was Schwarzenegger's last starring role before he gave up Hollywood for Sacramento.

Schwarzenegger loves to talk Hollywood, and on Friday afternoon he chatted about his favorite recent movies -- he absolutely loved "Wanted," for instance, and he says Will Ferrell movies are so funny that he's getting "a six-pack" of abs from all the laughing -- and he addressed the tender topic of a new "Terminator" for the first time in any depth.

We're starting a new feature here at the Hero Complex called The Essential Shelf in which we invite some esteemed talents to tell us about their favorite graphic novels. Our first guest is Gerard Way, the lead singer of the rock band My Chemical Romance and the writer of "The Umbrella Academy," the wonderfully surreal Dark Horse series that (we hear) may be coming to a theater near you in the next few years.

Here's No.'s 8, 9 and 10 on the list of 10 that he e-mailed me, the rest will be posted here over the next few days.

"Hellboy: Seed of Destruction," by Mike Mignola
This book was an inspiration in the format I chose to do 'The Umbrella Academy' in, as well as the publisher, Dark Horse. This comic is extremely pure, it is the opposite of pretentious, and an exercise in storytelling. Combining elements of old-school E.C. Comics horror, adventure, and the occasional history or mythology lesson, it also frees itself from the confines of continuity typically found in mainstream comics. It has a continuity but does not remain chained to it, hopping around the many years an[d] aspects of the main character's life, telling the stories Mike Mignola wants to tell.

"Akira, Vol. 1," by Katsuhiro Otomo
I do enjoy manga but would not consider myself a "super-fan," only really connecting with certain works such as Lone Wolf and Cub, or Tekkon Kinkreet, the more breakthrough works, and Akira, to me, is the daddy of them all. This book collects the serialized comic originally found in 'Young Magazine' in Japan, which must have been very exciting coming out weekly and serialized, and also must have taken a lot of time, as the series is massive. It takes place in a futuristic version of Tokyo, which has rebuilt after another seemingly atomic explosion, and deals with a corrupt government, psychic children, and motorcycle gangs. Some of the best characters I have ever encountered in a comic.

"Wanted," by Mark Millar

I love this book. It came out of nowhere for me, and literally forced me to read it in one sitting. It has a way of tapping into that nihilism of "Fight Club" without being redundant and is a great example of a great modern comic with original ideas. The concept is another brilliant one that makes you jealous you didn't come up with it first, but in reading it you realize that Mark Millar is the only person that could have written it. I haven't seen the film but I imagine, if they at least kept the narration intact, that it is probably an excellent translation, as the main character's inner monologue is what really keeps you hooked, especially from the opening line.

- Geoff Boucher