KFC

This has to be one of the most bizarre product placements in movie history.

Do you need a Stomach of Steel to take down this tie-in?

What may go down as one of the worst years in recent memory is slowly crawling to a close, and while we wish it good riddance and hope against hope that 2017 will be an improvement, there is some small solace in looking back over the year that's passed and figuring out what stuff from it was the best. That's right, it's "Best of..." list time, and today we're taking a look at the Best DC Covers of 2016.

DC's latest promotional comic for KFC is a sequel to last year's "The Colonel of Two Worlds," in which Colonel Sanders teamed up with the Flash to fight Colonel Sunder, his evil counterpart from Earth-3. It involves an attack from Sunder that causes eleven of the Colonels Sanders of the Multiverse to each forget all but one of the Eleven Secret Herbs and Spices, meaning that they have to all team up to remember how to make fried chicken, including the Colonel Sanders of the Kingdom Come universe or the far-off future of the Legion of Superheroes. It posits that Colonel Sanders and Kentucky Fried Chicken are multiversal constants within the construct posited by Multiversity and Convergence, on par with Superman and Batman. And it is the single best DC comic of the year.

So you remember a few months ago at San Diego, when Kentucky Fried Chicken put out a comic about Colonel Sanders and his various adventures as part of an attempt to get comic book fans to eat even more fried chicken than the not insignificant amount that we already do? At the time, I wondered whether this was going to be the start of something bigger, like an ongoing series, or maybe even a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen-style shared universe that would team him up with the Burger King and Wendy in a battle against Ronald McDonald. It turns out that I was wrong, but not because I was thinking too big. I was thinking too small. This week, KFC and DC Comics put out story called "The Colonel of Two Worlds," where the late Harland Sanders is not only incorporated into the DC Universe, but into the DC Multiverse as a character important enough to have an evil counterpart on Earth-3.

I think I speak for all of us when I say that the biggest problem facing the comics industry today is that there's a distinct lack of stories about fried chicken and the people who make it, but those days are finally over. Mark it on your calendars, folks: When Comic-Con International kicks off in San Diego on July 9, our national nightmare will come to an end with the release of The Colonel's Adventures, a promotional comic produced by KFC, starring string-tied advertising icon Colonel Harland Sanders.

Movies: Marvel's Iron Man and Hulk: Heroes United CG animated feature will arrive on digital platforms and home video on December 3. Animation: Believe it or not, the 1986 Transformers animated feature could've been even more awesome, as revealed by crazy fight storyboards over at The Spacebridge...

Awesome: Hey, it's Colonel Sanders cosplaying Dragon Ball Z style in Japan. Fans: If a camera crew approaches you and asks what "Hentei" is, your best bet is probably to just turn and walk the other way. Movies: Guy Pearce poses as the villainous Aldrich Killian in a new Iron Man 3 poster...

Toys: Atamaii takes a look at some previously unseen upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys from Playmates shown at the recent Hong Kong Toy Fair 2013. Scholarships: Any graduating high school senior enrolling in a college, university, or trade school to study animation can now apply for the 2013 Warner Bros ...

If you've been keeping up with fast food news -- and really, who doesn't? -- then you're no doubt aware that today marks the nationwide debut of the KFC Double Down, a bacon and cheese sandwich between not bread, but two boneless fried chicken breasts...