By ANDREW A. SMITH, Scripps Howard News Service

Legend has it that DC Comics in the '60s used to think simians on the cover always meant boffo sales. Gorilla Grodd seemed to appear on every other cover of "The Flash," and the Superman titles sometimes featured Congorilla, Titano the Super-Ape and Beppo the Super-Monkey.

Now Marvel Comics is taking that bet.

"The Psychology of Superheroes: An Unauthorized Exploration" (BenBella $17.95) is the book comic-book fans have been waiting for and didn't know it: It's going to un-launch a thousand debates.

The huge, loud, blockbuster crossovers of summer are at fever pitch at the major comics companies in August. But the month offers some quieter gems, too.

"Uncanny X-Men," the flagship of Marvel's mutant books, will ship issue No. 500 July 23. How special is that? By my count, there are only eight current titles of the hundreds being published that have passed that milestone.

(Which ones? You'll have to wait until the end to find out. And no peeking!)

Why so serious? Let's have some fun with "Dark Knight," before Heath Ledger scares our capes off. Here are 10 Bat-questions to prep for the movie.

Q: Is Batman really called "The Dark Knight" in the comics?

I expect the normal reaction to "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" (premiering July 11) to be "Great googly-moogly! Where can I get more of this Hellboy guy?"

I'm so glad you asked.

Let's talk about the Batman movie coming out this month. No, not "Dark Knight," the other one.

The Superhero Summer rocks on even after "Wanted" premieres June 27, with four more big-budget Spandex offerings in July.

"Wanted" premieres June 27, based loosely on a comic book that preached what we've always suspected: It's fun to be bad.

Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are three of the most important characters in comics for a variety of reasons. Veteran comics scribe Kurt Busiek ("Marvels," "JLA/Avengers") is going to spend a year exploring a few of them.