Who do you call when a Super Hero teeters on the brink of losing his or her ability to draw mass amounts of audience on flimsy plot lines, blinding star power and lots of unlikely special effects? The League of Marketers, of course - that amorphous group of Hollywood talent adept in the art of "rebooting" the franchise with a dollop of blarney and a massive infusion of dollars. Witness Peter Parker and his altered ego, Spider Man. Spidey Spins A Successful Reboot, Most Say

Walgreen will pay $438 million for a 144 -store regional drug store chain in the mid-South that operates under the USA Drug, Super D and May's banner. The stores, concentrated in Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Tennessee, are part of an acquisition "spree," as several reports put it, aimed to rejuvenate sales figures at the nation's largest drug store chain. The company also announced yesterday that same-store sales from June 2011 to 2012 were down a higher-than-analysts-expected 10.7%, with pharmacy revenue slipping 15%.

It just happens to be one of life's delightful serendipities, Dr. Drew Pinsky would have us believe. Yes, he got money from Glaxo Wellcome back in the day that he was saying that Wellbutrin "may enhance or at least not suppress sexual arousal" as much as other antidepressants but the observation was based on what he heard with his own two ears and had nothing to do with the 275Gs deposited in his bank account on behalf of what is now GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

If you've ever wondered whatever possessed you to shell out hard-earned cash for that huge machine that purportedly vibrates your abs into a six pack, you've got an idea of what the folks at Microsoft have been going through as they took a discerning look at the online display advertising business that was supposed to put them in fighting trim against Google. It essentially declared yesterday that its $6.3 billion acquisition of aQuantive is worthless by announcing a $6.2 billion "goodwill impairment" write-down that it says is "substantially the result" of buying the firm in 2007.

Marcus Agius, the chairman of Barclays who joined the board in 2006 after a distinguished career as a banker at Lazard, resigned this morning in what a statement acknowledges as his failure to protect the institution's reputation after it agreed last week to pay $450 million in a settlement with British and American regulators over its attempts to manipulate interest rates.

If the name Barry Becher doesn't immediately slice and dice its way into the forefront of your consciousness, perhaps the inscription that his stepdaughter says the family is considering for his gravestone will help: "But wait, there's more."

The cyberturf wars -- which have seen hardware companies expanding into software and software companies now manufacturing hardware -- escalated to a new level yesterday as Google announced a gaggle of gadgets at its annual developer's conference, Google I/O. The salvos include a seven-inch tablet, eyeglasses with videocams and an entertainment "orb" that streams and amplifies music and videos that will be made in the U.S. of A.

Marketers generally rejoice at the news of rising housing prices. Besides indicating a bit of consumer optimism about the future, it usually means demand is up and that folks will be buying new appliances, services and tchotchkes to fill upgraded abodes. And so, there's a reason for some cheer this morning as "USA Today" is among the media prominently reporting that "record low mortgage rates and some of the cheapest housing prices in decades spurred some long-desired home sales," according to the S&P/Case-Shiller composite index of U.S. home prices, which rose 1.3% for the month of April.

From a public relations point of view, the ascendance of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg to its board of directors may say more about the company in the breach than in the appointment. To wit: How could a company in A.D. 2012, whose primary customer is female, heretofore be one of only 11% of Fortune 500 companies without a woman on the board?

Several media outlets are confirming a "Wall Street Journal" report late yesterday that Anheuser-Busch InBev is bidding to acquire controlling interest in Grupo Modelo SAB, which makes Corona Extra and Modelo Especial beer, among other brands, for a reported $12 billion. AB InBev currently owns a non-controlling stake in Mexico's largest brewer. The deal would end what Dana Cimilluca writes is a "contentious history between the two companies."