The Avengers

Jeremy Renner, who might be playing Hawkeye, says we won't be seeing a traditional version of the archer's costume:

"It's going to be modernized, it's not going to be the guy with the big purple [mask], it's not going to be a guy in tights. It's going to be a guy in sunglasses and a vest. He's going to be more modernized and I'm gonna say 'a cooler-looking version' and not the big weird costume he had on. I don't think they're going that route."

[IGN]

Avatar

The latest round of TV spots focus largely on the action scenes:

But one spot looks a bit more at Sully's journey:

And a bizarre NFL promotion where commentator Terry Bradshaw is inserted into a scene with the Thanator:

[via Trailer Addict]

And new images give us more Sully and Neytiri, plus Grace (in both her human and Avatar forms) and the Thanator. [SpoilerTV-Movies]

Harry Potter

The first image from Harry Potter is far from fantastical, but Ron's looking a little worse for wear. [Cinema Blend]

Frankenweenie

Casting is underway for the remake of Tim Burton's short film, and it sounds like we'll see a slew of children turning animals into undead critters:

[EDGAR] A Caucasian Male 8-11 years old. Edgar is a needy little kid who wants desperately to be accepted by the cool kids in his class. Naturally a little nerdy, he gravitates to Victor and basically annoys him until he agrees to let him be his lab partner. He is more than a little gullible and is easily tricked into giving away Victor's precious secret and unwittingly starting the whole mess with the other monsters.

[TOSHIAKI] A Japanese Male 8-11 years old. Toshiaki is the natural leader of the cool kids in Victor's class. He is a good athlete, and an avid little league baseball player but Toshiaki has a mischievous side. He is the one that ultimately manipulates E into giving up the secret of Sparky and it is his idea to turn the other animals into monsters. He is Japanese and his monster creation is a little Godzilla lizard.

[BOB] A Caucasian Male 8-11 years old. Bob is the dumb, jockey kid. He has more brawn than brains. He follows Toshiaki and Nassor around even when it means that he has to be the one to test the home made jet pack that Toshiaki has created.

[NASSOR] A Middle-Eastern Male 8-11 years old. Nassor is the star of the little league team and just goes along with Toshiak's plan. He is a bit more serious than the others but still doesn't see the impending chaos when he chooses to bring his hamster mummy back to life.

[WEIRD GIRL] A Caucasian Female 8-11 years old. She has a very dark and ominous take on even the most mundane occurrences and jumps at the chance to bring some dead animals back to life.

[ELSA] A Caucasian Female 8-11 years old. Elsa is a sweet girl who likes to follow the rules and not cause too much trouble. A bit of a "goody two shoes," she is not afraid to speak up and even corrects the teacher when he makes a mistake. She is excited about the festivities planned for the town's Dutch Day parade and even has a solo dance number in the show.

[Bloody Disgusting]

Lost

We've been hearing that Claire would be in the final season, and actress Emilie de Ravin was spotted in Burbank reshooting a scene from the season premiere with Evangeline Lilly, and one of the actresses had a telltale baby bump. Is it a scene from the days when Claire was pregnant with Aaron, or is Kate working on her own baby? (Remember that we already reported on some season premiere filming a while back, in which Claire was pregnant because Flight 815 had just landed.) [E!]

There's also a fresh casting call for the tenth episode:

[DESK CLERK] Male.. 30s, any ethnicity. Loves his job and is usually on top of things. When he's made a mistake, he's quick to accept it and resolve it satisfactorily. CO-STAR.

[KENDALL] Female..30s, any ethnicity. Attractive and professional. Good at her job and does not cut any corners. CO-STAR.

[CUSTOMS OFFICIAL] Male.. 50s, any ethnicity. Pot-bellied, efficient bureaucrat inured to travelers' pains and frustrations. Suspects people are always trying to get something past him. CO-STAR.

[DarkUFO]

Dollhouse

As Dollhouse burns off its remaining episodes, we see the return of Alpha and the end of Victor's contract. Here is the official synopsis for December 11th's double episode "Meet Jane Doe" and "A Love Supreme:"

In the aftermath of her entanglements at the D.C. Dollhouse, Echo finds herself out in the world struggling to keep her multiple personalities under control. Adelle finds her grip on the house challenged by Harding, and Boyd receives a mysterious phone call. Meanwhile, when Echo's past romantic engagements are murdered, suspicion falls on Alpha, whose return leaves one member of the house permanently mind-wiped.

And here's the synopsis for the following week's episodes "Stop-Loss" and the ominously titled "The Attic:"

As his contract with the Dollhouse expires, Victor is released back into the world, where his military past threatens his future with Sierra. Meanwhile, Echo is deemed too dangerous and is sent into her worst nightmare.

[Spoiler TV, Spoiler TV]

Doctor Who:

You may already have heard that Wilf (Bernard Cribbins) is the companion in "The End Of Time," and David Tennant elaborates:

Although Catherine Tate is back and Donna is a big part of that story, really, the companion is Bernard Cribbins, the first time the doctor has had an 80-year-old man as his sidekick, really. So it's been great to get to play these different facets of the character, I suppose. And the doctor himself is also slightly on the run from himself and on the run from the inevitable. So he's trying not to get too close to anyone. So it's important that there's a kind of revolving door of confidence for him. But getting to see Bernard Cribbins as well in that final story is so brilliant and moving, and he's just such a great actor that that was a great finish to the story for me. What you get is these wonderful scenes of these two old men. The doctor is a lot older than Wilf, and yet the two of them get to sit down and discuss life in a way that we've never seen the doctor be able to do before.

[Crave Online]

Fringe

Here's another, longer synopsis for December 10th's "Grey Matters:"

A Fringe investigation is triggered when a patient at a mental institution undergoes an impromptu brain surgery that unexpectedly leaves his brain exposed. Despite the unthinkable circumstances, the patient's condition and sanity miraculously improves before the Fringe team arrives. While Agent Dunham and Peter scan surveillance tapes (and Walter enjoys his pudding), Olivia recognizes a familiar face as Thomas Jerome Newton (guest star Sebastian Roche), the leader of the "shape-shifters." As similar cases stack up, the Fringe team heads back to the lab to determine exactly how patients are being cured. Walter's brains are put to the test and William Bell (guest star Leonard Nimoy) resurfaces.

[Fringe Spoilers]

And in images from the episode, Peter inspects a woman in a mental institution. What is he looking for in there? [Fringe Spoilers]

FlashForward

The cast reveals a whole mess of spoilers to untangle. This week, we'll find out what Simon knows about the flashforward (he also knows something about the crow die-offs in Somalia). We'll also get a crucial bit of information about Demetri's future murder, something that will radically alter our perspective of his future.

Looking farther into the future, Mark will get the chance to revisit his flashforward, and we'll get a clearer picture of his two minutes and 17 seconds. There may also be a reason Mark drinks aside from (and potentially more interesting than) his love triangle with Olivia and Lloyd. Plus, we will start to see an explanation of the "Red Panda Resources" mentioned on Mark's bulletin board, and we'll revisit the stadium where someone was seen walking around during the global blackout more than once in the season's remaining episodes.

The writers have a few ideas as to who impregnated Janis Hawk, but they're currently debating it among themselves. [TV Guide]

Additional reporting by Josh C. Snyder.

The Avengers:

More on Edward Norton's will-he-won't-he dance, with regards to returning as the Hulk. It doesn't sound like Norton's had any talks with Marvel, and he says he has no idea where they're at with this project. Nor is he terribly interested, unless Marvel comes to him with something especially fascinating. (But I'd be shocked if Marvel doesn't have Norton under contract for one or two more movies, in which case his interest, or lack thereof, would be irrelvevant.) [AICN]

Resident Evil 4:

Milla Jovovich Tweeted from the set of this film, and mentioned that the final shot of the film is a 3-D shot from high up, so they had to hoist a 3-D camera using a custom-made rig. And there's a scene where she lands a plane on a boat, and it looks like it's crashing — hundreds of neighbors called 911 to report a plane crash. And Alice and Claire fight the Executioner, an eight-foot-tall boxer toting a huge axe. They fight him in a prison shower, and every time he swings his axe, showers explode, so it's sort of raining. [ShockTillYouDrop]

Red Dawn:

The China-invades-America movie involves blowing up all of downtown Detroit, says Josh Hutcherson. And he describes his character, based on C. Thomas Howell's from the original: "In the story, I start out as not a geek, but sort of a tech guy. And by the end, I'm a total warrior, drinking blood from the animals and going crazy." [MTV]

Ghost Rider 2:

This movie will be darker and "more existential" than the first movie, but won't be a reboot, says writer David S. Goyer. Not that much is changing from his old screenplay, which is available online somewhere, but it'll be toned down to get a PG-13 rating. And it takes place eight years after the first film, when Ghost Rider is in a darker place. [MTV]

Doctor Who:

OMG new trailer for "The Waters Of Mars." So scary. [Oh No They Didn't]

And here are three whole minutes of the episode, of which about two minutes are new. Cannot. Wait. [Guardian]

And here are the episode descriptions for the (incredibly poorly) animated adventure "Dreamland":

Episode 1: Dry Springs, Nevada, 1958. The Doctor befriends a young waitress, Cassie, and her friend, Jimmy, at a diner. The Doctor activates an alien artefact and, after finding further signs of alien activity, the US Army intervenes and takes him and his new companions to the mysterious Area 51 in Roswell, where they find out about Operation Fallen Angel. Will Operation leader Colonel Stark succeed in making the curious trio forget what they have just seen?

Episode 2: Seeking refuge in the abandoned town of Solitude, Jimmy stumbles across a disconcerting discovery and the trio encounter Viperox royalty.

Episode 3: The Doctor cannot understand why the Alliance of Shades' mop-up team are more concerned with the whereabouts of a piece of space flight hardware than the hordes of Viperox pods hidden underground. Things start to fall into place when Jimmy's grandfather, Night Eagle, introduces the Doctor to Rivesh Mantilax.

Episode 4: Captured by the US Army, Rivesh is finally reunited with his wife, Saruba Velak. Meanwhile, the Doctor discovers the unsettling truth about his real identity.

Episode 5: The Doctor and Saruba have to confront the mysterious alien force in the vault housing her space ship if they are to save her husband and stop Lord Azlok from rousing his sleeping army.

Episode 6: As sunset falls, the Viperox drones start to attack the US Army base. Can the Doctor find a way to halt the seemingly unstoppable aliens in their tracks?

[BlogtorWho]

Fringe:

In tonight's Broyles-centric episode, Broyles will step on quite a few toes to solve the case that's personal to him. And there be cosmonauts and cover-ups, and we'll discover the CIA's extraterrestrial connection. [EW]

Also, turns out the Broyles in the alternate universe is a happily married man. [TV Guide]

Here are a few characters we'll meet in episode 2x13, from a casting call. [SpoilerTV]

[ALFRED] Mid 30's to early 40's male, blond hair and blue eyes, with a slight German accent. He's a young Aryan with a bad boys vibe. Guest Star

[NANA] Nana is 80 with a slight Eastern European accent. Really good Co-Star or possible Guest Star.

[ELIZA] Mother of the groom in her 60's. She's warm and sympathetic. Really good Co-Star or possible Guest Star

A few new set pics show our heroes hanging out by a police car. [SpoilerTV]

And a couple sneak peeks:

The Box:

The early reviews for this Richard Kelly tripfest are out, and... they're not very positive, sadly. But there are spoilers! Apparently, the box with the mysterious money-making, stranger-killing button is somehow connected to Arthur (James Marsden)'s work with NASA's Mars mission. The couple traces the license plate of the limo carrying around the burnt-faced Frank Langella to NASA, and then one of Arthur's NASA colleagues kills wife. Children get kidnapped, zombie civil servants chase the couple around, and then there are hints that aliens are behind the whole thing. There are bleeding noses, and Norma (Cameron Diaz) hires a babysitter without checking her references. Oh, and Arthur and Norma aren't broke, like in the original version of the story — they're well off, but their kid's tuition is going up slightly. [Reuters]

The Men Who Stare At Goats:

Here's a new TV ad showcasing this whimsical psychic-soldier film:

Supernatural:

In the upcoming body-switching episode, Sam and Dean swap bodies with each other, and with a couple other characters. [EW]

I think we mentioned a while back that Lucifer would be trapping Castiel in an upcoming episode. Here are a couple behind-the-scenes pics. [LilMissX on TwitPic via Chicago Tribune]

And here are some pics from the last episode of the year, "Abandon All Hope," in which an all-star cast goes up against Lucifer. And Mark Shepherd's demon character, Crowley, has the Colt! [Chicago Tribune and SpoilerTV]

Caprica:

We already showed you some new TV spots for this BSG prequel, but here's a bit more footage... including our first look at James "Spike" Marsters as terrorist leader Barnabus Greeley. [CapricaTV]

Chuck:

Chuck meets Batman! At least, Dietrich Bader will guest star in the ninth episode of the season, "Chuck Vs. The Beard," directed by Zachary Levi. [EW]

FlashForward:

This week's episode is supposed to be a great improvement over recent outings, and we may actually learn the significance of the blue hand. [EW]

And in case you're not getting the message that tonight's episode is going to be good for a change, David S. Goyer tells MTV it may be the best thing he's ever worked on, including The Dark Knight. It's a gamechanger, and here's what happens:

Titled "The Gift," this week's episode focuses on Agents Al Gough (Lee Thompson Young) and Demetri Noh's (John Cho) continued investigation into the mysterious Blue Hand, which Goyer described as an organization "with a very specific purpose in mind." Over the course of their investigation, a shadowy figure by the name of Jeff Slingerland (Callum Keith Rennie of "Battlestar Galactica") is revealed as a new nemesis with connections to the Blue Hand.

In addition to the Blue Hand, the episode deals with Demetri's lack of a flashforward and his subsequently tenuous relationship with fiance Zoey (Gabrielle Union).

[MTV]

And a casting call for episode 13 makes it sound like we're going to Somalia:

[MALVEAUX] 40s, Male, Caucasian. A tough-looking mercenary working security on a dangerous job. A more muscular Jean Reno..

[KORFA] 9-11, Somalian, Male. A young Somali boy fighting with a friend over a toy. Dialogue in Somali..

[SpoilerTV]

True Blood:

Terry and Arlene will make a surprising discovery that brings them closer together — sounds like all their loving under the influence of Maryann's spell has left Arlene pregnant. [TV Guide]

Smallville:

Rumor control: There's no official word that the show is going to turn into a sequel called Metropolis. Michael Rosenbaum hung out with the writers recently, but there are no plans for Lex to come back — even though everyone wishes he would. Also, Perry White isn't reappearing any time soon. [EW]

Heroes:

Hiro will stay with the carnies at least through the Thanksgiving episode, which sees ballroom dancing with weird masks, and zzzzzzzzz. Oh sorry. Dozed off. Anyway. Hiro is with the carnies for a while. [TV Guide]

And here's the description for that episode, "Thanksgiving":

H.R.G. hosts an unconventional Thanksgiving dinner; the Petrelli family receives a surprise guest; Lydia searches for the truth.

[SpoilerTV]

Additional reporting by Mary Ratliff.

After Marvel pushed back The Avengers' release date by a year, we crossed our fingers, hoping the plan was to fit The Avengers into Favreau's directing schedule. But no such luck. He'll still be onboard as an executive producer, but Favreau says he's simply not available to direct — and it's probably for the best:

"You need somebody who has the perspective of all the different franchises to bring them together. I have the myopic vision of just knowing and loving Iron Man."

He also says that, with his high-tech focus on Iron Man, The Avengers will need a director who is able to integrate the Marvel Universe's more science fiction aspects with the supernatural bits that come with Thor. But in the meantime, it sounds like we'll be seeing elements of the other Avengers movies teased in Iron Man 2.

"We want to reinforce a lot of the stuff we started to tip off," Favreau told MTV News. "'The Avengers' is a much larger concern for Marvel and Kevin Feige, who runs Marvel. They're going to be doing 'Thor' and 'Captain America,' and the way we might start to tease those things in this movie, some of it is stuff that we've discussed [and] some of the stuff you do last-minute as you figure out how that stuff is coming together."

"It's an evolving, amorphous thing," he explained. "If we decide and commit too early, the secret always gets out."

So the question is, who's going to sit in The Avengers' director's chair now that Favreau is out?

Jon Favreau Won't Direct 'Avengers,' Explains 'Iron Man 2' Tie-In Process [MTV News]

Talking to Comic Book Resources, Feige admitted that Samuel L. Jackson's nine movie deal with Marvel is indeed a clue as to how the Avengers are going to get toegther:

At the end of the first [Iron Man], for the people who were patient enough to wait through the end credits, they met this guy named Nick Fury. They or Tony had no idea who he was. In this movie, he opens that door a little bit more for Tony and invites him to walk through it. Tony may or may not do that in this movie. But Nick Fury is the conduit through which all the characters will connect.

When asked whether the Hulk would feature in the Avengers movie, Feige replied,

I think so. In the comics, he has.

Another character we can expect to see in Avengers is Scarlett Johannsen's Black Widow; Feige was asked whether fans could expect to see her in that movie or her own spin-off, and he said,

She's signed on for all of those should we be lucky enough to have an audience that wants to see them.

So now we know at least six characters who'll be appearing in the movie: Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk, Nick Fury and Black Widow. Given that Iron Man 2 is also introducing well-known Avengers character Hawkeye, it's a fair bet to assume he'll be a seventh... and we have a line-up that should be very familiar not only to fans of Marvel's early Avengers comics, but also Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's Ultimates rebooted version. With Avengers screenwriter Zak Penn having previously said that Ultimates was a big influence on how he approaches this material, is it too early to assume that the first Avengers movie will be an adaptation of that particular series?

Kevin Feige on Marvel Studios Slate [Comic Book Resources]

Captain America:

The Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier says he's seen the concept art for Captain America:

It's a period piece and it's like "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and with more gadgets...[I]t's "Raiders" meets "Rocketeer" and "Saving Private Ryan." It's going to be so cool.

[LA Times]

The Avengers:

Tim Roth revealed that his has signed to play the Abomination in three films, leading to some speculation that the Abomination could appear in The Avengers film, or in some of the potentially interlocking films leading up to it. [Comic Book Resources]

True Blood:

A new promo is up for Sunday's episode, "I Will Rise Up:"

And we're told not to worry about the fates of Godric, Sookie, Bill, and Jason after the suicide bomber appeared in Sunday's episode. Eric may catch some silver shrapnel, but it will lead to an intimate moment between him and Sookie. [E! Online]

Lost:

The title of the sixth season premiere will be "LA X." The space is deliberate. [DocArzt's Lost Blog]

Eclipse:

Kellan Lutz and Jackson Rathbone say Eclipse is much heavier on the action than the previous two films, and the actors have been in horseback training and fight training. At some point, Jasper puts his fellow Cullens through fight training, so the actors have all been working on their stunts and hitting the gym. [MTV Movies Blog]

FlashForward:

Producer Marc Guggenheim talks a bit about Dominic Monaghan's character, Simon:

[He] is the smartest man in the world, and he definitely knows it. He's mysterious, but not just for story reasons. He's a mysterious kind of person. He's someone that's so intelligent that he has a difficult time interfacing with people on a human level, because he's just so much smarter than them. He's an enigmatic figure whom I hope you'll want to get to know over the course of the first season.

[E! Online]

Stargate Universe:

SGU is looking to cast a brilliant waif:

[ELEANOR PERRY] (35-40) and quite attractive. A brilliant scientist who happens to be a quadriplegic. Affected since childhood, her disability has rendered her body physically useless. However, after being brought on board the Destiny as the only person who may be able to save the ship and her crew from certain annihilation, she is given temporary powers that enable her to walk again and to finally experience intimacy.sptv050769..Strong guest lead. NAMES PREFERRED. ACTRESS MUST BE PHYSICALLY THIN. (THINK CALISTA FLOCKHART).

[Spoiler TV]

And, to sate your voyeuristic urges, Syfy will be releasing 30 webisodes centering around the kino, the sphere that floats through the Destiny, spying on members of the crew. The webisodes won't form a discrete episode, but will instead tie into aired episodes. [GateWorld]

Heroes:

The sixth episode will be called "Tabula Rasa."

There's also a new primetime promo for the new season:



[Spoiler TV]

Smallville:

The Smallville season premiere will feature a few familiar faces. Battlestar Galactica actor, Alessandro Juliani, better known as Felix Gaeta, will appear, as will Stargate
Atlantis' Amelia Banks. Banks will likely play Fiona, described as a super-tough soldier, and her role may be recurring. [GateWorld]

We'll also be visiting Zod's past this season with flashbacks to his days in Kandor, Krypton's capital city. [E! Online]

Eureka:

Eureka gets a spaceship promo for episode fourteen "Ship Happens:"

[Spoiler TV]

Chuck:

Fans of Chevy Chase shouldn't get their hopes up for the comedian's return. Chase says his character, Ted Roark, is definitely dead. [E! Online]

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown.

We got a few precious minutes with Iron Man 2's new red-headed beauty, Scarlett Johansson, at the Comic Con round tables. We grilled her about the sexy suit, and her character Black Widow. She remained stubborn about revealing anything about her character at all — even whether she has a few scenes with Sam Jackson (as we know they have had dealings in the comics). Still, the possibility of Black Widow returning in the Avengers is enough of a spoiler to let us know that we may not have seen the last of ScarJo's curves in Paramount's new Marvel-verse.

We're you nervous about the catsuit at all?

I knew what to expect, because I had seen the later incarnations of the character, so I knew it was a catsuit of some kind. So I had a freak-out moment , but that only lasted about half a day — but then I was like suck it up, just do it. And I never turned back after that I just went full force, and just did it.

Can you talk a little bit about filming action scenes with the catsuit?

The idea of so many millions of people watching what I'm going to do, I'm used to that, kind of thing. But as far as the action scenes and how the costume relates to that. One thing obviously important to my character is that the costume moves. My character is an expert in hand-to-hand combat, she's a mixed martial artist, she comes from a dance background, there's some gymnastics thrown into it, it's kind of everything all thrown into one big fighting machine. So a big part of me wondered: Can I move in this, can I run in it, can I curl myself up around things with this? I think you just have to put in the hours. Putting in the the hours, and repetition, training — basically befriending the stunt team. Spending all day, everyday, just over and over and over, until you sell it.

What is your relationship to the other characters in the film?

Well I'll tell you that um, my character... there are two sides to my character. She's a bit of a shape shifter, I suppose. There's a side of the character that's kind of demure and covert — I wouldn't say that she's submissive, but she's blending in to the Stark Industries [team, as an assistant]. Then the other part of the character is a really aggressive, bad-ass character, that is sure of herself and is going to kick the shit out of you if you get in her way. So that's as about as much as I can tell you, and how that relates to the other characters.

Do you wear the catsuit?

Out and about? No, it's kind of an attention grabber. I try to stay under the radar. But no, I have to say after the last time I had to wear that catsuit I was like, "Begone, catsuit." Hopefully I'll see that catsuit again, and be able to bring that character back, maybe some slight flaws will have been worked out, like some kind of ventilation.

Are there any truth rumors about the cat fight between you and Gwyneth Paltrow?

No, nothing could be further from the truth. I have nothing but wonderful things to say about working with her. Well, she's very much out of the loop. She's very much out of the loop, you know — she's got a wonderful family whom she spends a lot of time with. So for her, she's like, "What's going on? What?" And of course Jon [Favreau] who's on his Twitter, he's crazy about any kind of news about anything. He's like "You haven't heard? You haven't heard?" And he comes onto set and we're both like, "Oh god." Every time I would say to Gwyneth, "Oh yeah, that was on the seventh," and she'd say, "Are you sure it wasn't on the sixth?" He'd [Favreau] yell, "what? It's a cat fight! It's breaking out."

The last thing they were saying is that she was in New York purposely snubbing Comic Con because you were going to get all of the attention.

Believe me she's worthy of plenty of attention and I know that that fans love her and they are going to love to see her in this movie, because her character kind of comes into her own. I know she would love to be here as well, but she's with her family.

Your character's background revolves around Communism — is that updated in this movie? How does your character deal with that?

The character remains quite mysterious in this film. This movie is not about revealing the Black Widow's identity. Hopefully, if the character continues on, whether that is through the Avengers or something like that, we'll be able to explore more of her past. Obviously the film is in the present day, so to bring in that whole Communist perspective to the character might be a little dated. Well, it would be very dated, to say the least. But there are a lot of ways we can bring in different elements of her history.

How daunting is it as an actor signing on with Marvel, when they usually sign an actor to a multi-picture deal?

Obviously we have a vested interest in our character as well. I didn't go into this thinking, "Oh, this is the last I ever want to see of this character." I want to see this character come back, and reveal more about herself. I loved making the film and working with Jon, and I loved working with Robert. For me, as an actor, oftentimes we have a beginning, middle and end. And it's often a one-hour or two-hour segment, and we're done with it. So for me to be able to bring something like this back, and kind of do all of the character, is exciting and something we don't normally have the opportunity to do as actors...

I'm curious as to how your character balances out Whiplash and the other villains. A lot of people are saying two villains is too many, what does your character bring?

We don't know whether the character is villainous. She does have a dark past, and she is very seductive and distracting. We are not sure exactly where she's coming from, and what her intentions are, I'm not saying that will all be revealed. But there are a lot of characters in this movie, and a lot of new characters. And it is a balancing act. I think that between the huge explosive action, the romance, the battle of good versus evil — even within one's self — there's a nice balance between all of us. And I think fans will be excited to be taken down all these different journeys. They all really play into one another, and it doesn't feel like a lot of different films coming together. It feels like an ensemble. And you know, who can have too many villains?

In the comics your character works with Sam Jackson, do you have any scenes with Sam?

Um, I have worked with Sam Jackson.

Kevin Feige talked about the interlaced comic book plots that are tied to Iron Man 2, spurred by the Nick Fury cameo by Samuel L. Jackson, and Tony Starks cameo in the Hulk movie.

Do you know what heroes are we going to be putting in The Avengers? How close are you to discovering who the core characters are?

I think we know. I think it's going to be Iron Man and Thor, Captain America and Nick Fury. I think it's safe to assume that there will be some members of the Hulk universe in the film as well. In terms of the additional I think Black Widow, sure. The SHIELD organization for sure. What's exciting, for me, about The Avengers movie is seeing those four characters interact with each other. I think anywhere from the first issues of The Avengers to Civil War the dynamic between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark is just awesome, it's fascinating. It brings out sides in others that won't be brought out in the other franchises. Going forward with the mix is a whole other thing, I think it will be cool. So to pile on another 15 or 10, frankly more than four would be too many.

Is the Hulk in it?

Zak Penn is outlining it as we speak, so we'll see.

Are you going to test potential Captain America people against Robert knowing they'll have work together at some point?

We've already been doing a little bit of that, to an extent. We're certainly casting all of the actors knowing that they need to carry, whether they are the good guy or the bad guy or a small part, not only their own franchise but playing an important part in the Avengers franchise. We are definitely keeping that in mind as we are casting.

Has Chris Hemsworth [Thor] said that he would met with Robert?

Oh yes, that was the first meeting of Thor and Tony Stark, it was pretty cool.

How's the con?

Con's good! I mean, it's day one, so it's fantastic. Ask me again at the end of Saturday night, and I'll let you know.

I was going to say, today's Mondo Marvel panel went really well. I remember last year, which seemed to be pretty much fans saying "You fucked up Spider-Man, so fuck you." It felt like every single panel turned into that.

Yeah, but you know what? That was totally expected. I was totally expecting that kind of stuff, and it was the kind of thing that I could've just not gone to the con, but I was like, you know what? We gotta talk about this stuff, and it's cool. But every con has a different personality to it, so you never know until you get that very first panel and I say, how's everybody doing. You know right away, [this time] there was an energy, it was a really upbeat crowd, and it was nice to see a full room because, lately in San Diego, it's become this multimedia experience so it's become less about comics. But that was a real, solid standing-room-only panel, so that was a good thing.

The bright side is, here we are, a year-plus later, after One More Day [the storyline that controversially undid Peter Parker's marriage to Mary Jane, courtesy of a literal deal with the devil. Or a devil, at least], and it's ironic, but I've been seeing all these emails coming through from people saying, begrudgingly, "I really like the new direction."

I think there're lots of arguments you can have with One More Day as a story, but Spider-Man is better because of it.

The thing about One More Day is, and I've always said this, "Were there better ways of skinning that cat?" Absolutely. The easiest thing to do would've been to kill Mary Jane. But then you've lost Mary Jane as a character.

And then you're stuck with a Spider-Man who's going to be grieving for x amount of months...

Exactly, he's going to be grieving, he's a widower, and being a widower [makes him seem] even older than being married in the first place. And then of course, you can't really lose her as a character, she's too important. We've got books that revolve around her, we've got movies that revolve around her. So you're going to have to bring her back, and then when you bring her back, you're still going to have to deal with the aspects of the marriage, so there was no clean way to do it. We did the best we could, and there are still some unanswered questions that we're going to get to, for the continuity-minded, the people who really wrap themselves around that, we'll answer a lot of questions. You'll be surprised how little Mephisto had to do with anything.

So when you have that kind of vocal fanbase, or with Captain America coming back to life, and you know that there is an answer six months down the line...

Suck it up.

Really? There's never a feeling of, we should rush this out, or we should try to deal with this sooner?

When I took over as editor in chief, Tom DeFalco, who was the editor in chief before Bob Harras, who I took over the job from, he came into my office, smacked me on the back - Tom's a friend - and said, 'I'm gonna give you some advice. From this point on, you have a very big target on your back. You're going to have to have very broad shoulders. If you're not going to do that, you're not going to like this job.' And at the end of the day, I'm making comic books. So I have some comic book fans that're making fun of me. I'm not trying to resolve the economy, I'm not trying to solve things between Palestine and Israel, you know, it's comic books and the worst thing we do is we kill off some trees and we piss off some fanboys. But as long as we do our jobs right, at the end of the day, I want to be able to look back when I either get shown the door or I walk out of it myself, I want to be able to look back and say, we gave everybody a great ride. The story's really good. It's all about story.

We know what's going to come down the line, we know how the Mephisto thing happens, and I gotta sell comics. It's serialized storytelling. They just gotta suck it up.

Now that you're coming to the end, with Dark Reign, of a story that you've been telling since 2005. Does that feel like the end of an era for you, to reach the end of a story that's pretty much gone across all of the franchises at the company?

It doesn't feel like the end of an era, it feels like it's going to be a chance to breathe. One of the things that I really do long for, I remember when we first started - or I first started - this crazy trip of being editor in chief at Marvel, we started by taking books and characters and focusing on creative. Saying 'Okay, Joe Stracynski, go - Tell the best Spider-Man story you can,' or 'Grant Morrison, go tell the best X-Men story you can' -

You broke everything up, to fix it.

We had to. We had to, because the characters weren't defined well enough to have them intermingle again. We had to - Obviously, when Stan [Lee] created the universe, he wasn't thinking this, but we had to recreate everything while still holding all the history. And then, once we'd done that, once we'd taken ownership of it, we were able to branch out and do bigger stories.

I'd like to see the star collapse a little again, and get back to smaller stories, Now that we've reset the pieces and everything's going smoothly, let's go back to basics again, let's tell smaller stories, more family-oriented stories, see where that takes us. And I'll be honest with you, that everything we've been doing at Marvel Publishing, it's always a risk, because fans are - and this is the thing about fandom, and I understand it, I'm not criticizing it, I've been a fan for years - you know, we'll sit there and complain. We'll go, 'Oh, everything's event event event event,' but the marketshare, the numbers... tell us otherwise.

People like the events. You own half the market out there currently.

So there's a lot of fans out there saying 'Go back to basics,' but it's a matter of necessity for us also. We're just exhausted, and we need to go back to basics, regroup a bit, let our writers also take ownership of their books for awhile, because it's taxing on them, and on our artists. You know, let them tell their stories for awhile, and run their books, before we say, okay, let's get the band together again and go a little crazy.

And the other thing is, it will make the day that we go back to another event special again. I think, if we did another event following this whole culmination of stuff, it's just going to seem like white noise. I do sense that it's getting to the point where it's white noise.

I know I live in a world of hyperbole, but there has to be a certain truth in the hyperbole. So, when I say that we're coming to the third act, I didn't say that with [Secret] Invasion, and I didn't say that with Dark Reign, although Dark Reign is the beginning of that third act, when we get there, people will see what we've done. And then they'll go, cool, now let's see what you guys are gonna do next. What we have to do is come up with something compelling enough that they're going to want to go to all of our titles without having to tie them all together.

The challenge to our writers in the last summit was, come up with - If you had twelve months to live and this was the book that you're writing, give us the stories - You know, "Matt Fraction, you're writing Iron Man, give us the best effin' Iron Man story you can come up with for those twelve months. Bendis, you're writing Avengers, give us the best Avengers story you can." That's the challenge, so that each title becomes must read. Hopefully, that works, and we're going to market each one as their own thing. It's a change of gears, and most people will think that we're crazy but, I've often, I've talked to our publisher Dan Buckley about it: It's like being addicted to heroin. Something you've just got to come off.

That's an interesting analogy, "Sometimes, you've just got to come off heroin, other times, hey, let's go heroin!"

[Laughs] But they pay us in heroin!

It's a little daunting when you look at the future and say, wow, what's gonna happen? But I trust our creators and our editors to knock it out of the park.

You said at the Mondo Marvel panel that Paul Tobin was "recreating the Marvel Adventures universe," which may just be a hyperbolic way of saying "We're relaunching the line," and you have the Ultimate line being relaunched as Ultimate Comics. Is this happening because people have become so focused on the "main" universe that the other lines need a push?

It's funny, because Ultimate is almost the exploratory mission for Marvel. Like, we sent the Ultimate books out there to do some insane stuff, when Mark and Bendis were doing those books, and they did things in those books that we never would have dared to do in the regular universe. But they planted the seeds. It was the same thing at [Quesada's first editorial line at Marvel] Marvel Knights, which was an exploratory mission that took certain Marvel characters into places that Marvel never would've published before, and then by putting me in charge of Marvel, kind of took the whole line there. And then Ultimate was kind of the next step, you know, 'Go out West, kids! See if there's Indians out there!'

Ultimate was Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Millar, and then they came to the main universe...

Yeah, so now this next push in Ultimate, we're taking the Ultimate universe to places where, again, the challenge was 'Where can we go that we just can't go with the Marvel Universe right now? How can we break these characters down, and what can we do with them, and see where that takes us?' And that's really the fun of it, because it's only three or four titles, and if you break them, you break them. Spider-Man in our universe is still Spider-Man, but we can look at Ultimate and say, 'You know, I think that was the line. We shouldn't cross it.'

Is that why the Ultimate line exists, internally? Obviously, it has its fans, and it's there as an entry point for new readers, but internally, is it 'The Place Where You Can Do The Crazy Shit?'

I think so, I think that's, internally, what our writers feel when we're working on this stuff. You know, the Hulk eats people [Laughs]. That's a line we're not going to go near in the regular books, but it's an interesting take on the Hulk, and we're able to do certain things to certain characters. And at the end of the day, I hate to become redundant, but to bring up the whole Spider-Man thing again, we - all of us, the editors in chief before me - felt like Spider-Man works better as a single guy. The storyline that Stan set off in the newspaper strip of Spider-Man getting married worked perfectly for the newspaper strip, but for Marvel's publishing division, I think that we needed to get him single again. And that was at the very beginning of my tenure, even as a freelancer I used to think that all the time. You know, he's kind of dull and Mary Jane was portrayed as not very nice all the time, because that would drive tension into the relationship. And then Ultimate Spider-Man comes along, and we're like, yeah, that's kind of the way it should be. So that really proved to us that that's really where it works best. If I could've put Peter back in high school in the universe, I would've, but it's cool with him being just out of college and this young man trying to make his way through life at this point as opposed to being in high school. Those are the kinds of things that Ultimate did that we thought, it works.

So, does that make Marvel Adventures the kids line? Earlier attempts, like Marvel Age have seemed more "aimed at kids," but there's something about the Adventures books that works on multiple levels.

My theory when it comes to kids books is that, if you write down to kids, you're doomed to fail. So, the idea behind Marvel Adventures, we live in day and age today where, if you say that a book is "kid safe," that's not a message you're putting out to kids, that's a message you're putting out to parents. It's parent safe, and as a parent, I understand that. We look back on Stan's era, those early mid-60s books, and they look very kid-friendly, and they look very kid-safe, and quaint and easy to follow and stuff, but putting it into historical perspective when they came out, they were incredibly edgy. I think it was 1966, 1967, the Hulk was on the cover of Rolling Stone, and the reason the Hulk was on the cover and Rolling Stone did a six or seven page expose on Marvel was because Marvel comics were huge with college students. But the reason that they were big with kids was, when I was a kid, my dad wasn't interested in what I was reading, he didn't look over my shoulder. I didn't wear a helmet when I rode a bicycle, okay? It was called Darwinism; if I stuck my finger in a plug... there were no things on the edges of tables, there was no cover on the television to stop me knocking my head into. But we live in a different day and age.

So now you progress in time, and what was edgy back then is quaint today, and I would argue that our books aren't necessarily more or less edgy than they were back in Stan's era, but the one thing I would argue that Stan did back in his day was that he never talked down to the reader, even knowing that kids were reading them. So, with respect to Marvel Adventures, they're not "edgy," but they're not stupid. And I think what Paul's going to bring is more of a cohesiveness between all the titles, whilst continuing the "told-in-one," which is, I think, a better approach for keeping kids interested. It's hard work to keep doing told-in-ones while keeping up a linear continuity, but now that I'm working in the animation world, it's something that I see in a lot of animated shows, where each episode is a kind of told-in-one episode, but there's a larger continuity that you see at the end of each season.
You're very involved with animation, but how involved are you in the films these days?

In the films, I'm part of something called the Marvel Creative Committee, and it's - I never count, but I think it's five or six of us, we are involved in every early aspect of the movie, from the proposal of what the story's going to be, to the elongated beat sheet, to the screenplays, we sit there and we just take it apart to ensure that our movies are... They can never be the same as what's on the comic page, but that the experience someone gets is the same as what they get when they pick up that comic.

Could you, or have you, completely derailed something at a late stage?

Oh, yeah. That's our job. When we're derailing, we bring it up and say, 'Okay guys, we're derailing here.' The big difference between doing a motion picture and doing a comic book is, putting out a comic book costs us thousands of dollars...

It's one thing to fail with a comic, and another to fail with a movie.

Yeah, and by the way, if I fail with that one issue, I can fix it in three months. There'll be another issue. These movies are forever, and you're spending hundreds of millions of dollars on them. So we're taking a very careful creative approach. And the beauty of things is, when we're sitting in these meetings, we're not just sitting there and going 'We need an Iron Man floating vehicle because we need a toy here.' That's not the approach we take at all. We're all about story, and character, and driving the movie forward, and driving it towards the inevitable Avengers movie.

Do you, through working on the movies, see the comics in a new way? As in, you see something and think, we should be doing it this way in the comics?

I think that the beauty of this whole thing, and I hate to bring up a stupid corporate word like "synergy," but there really is a lot of that going on. I was up at Marvel Studios three weeks ago, and I got to see some of the designs for Asgard [from Thor], and I sat there and I turned to Dan Buckley, our publisher, and Kevin Feige [Marvel Studios president] and said, 'Two years from now, this will completely affect the way that artists render Asgard.' Because it is completely unlike anything I've ever seen, but still has that essence of the [Thor co-creator, Jack] Kirby stuff that we all fell in love with. So I think that there's always that give and take. And, as we work on stuff in publishing, I'll send stuff to Kevin Feige, just preliminary stuff, pitches that we have on books that I think might make interesting sideline stories for a Marvel movie some day, so there's a lot of give and take, there's a lot of transparency right now.

I was thinking of something like Iron Man where the movie came out and generates a lot of interest, at the same time as Matt Fraction comes up with The Invincible Iron Man, and the portrayal is so close, and it's the best portrayal of the character in comics for years.

And because of that, Matt was just flown out to consult on Iron Man as well. So he sat down with Jon Favreau and Kevin Feige to discuss Iron Man 2, the ideas and concepts behind the second movie. So, yeah, all of that stuff is involved. The only thing that I can compare it to, I remember reading a great article on Pixar, and the way that Pixar makes their movies and I remember thinking, that's the way that we do it. In a perfect world, we'll continue to do that, and - especially being a fledgling studio - I think it's going to work. From what I've been seeing in the screenplays and what I've seen of the pitches... I mean, Iron Man 2 is gonna be a lot of fun. And those guys are having a good time making it, too. But something like Thor... I mean, this has an opportunity to be unlike any movie... There're grandiose elements that're akin to something like Lord of The Rings, but it's not really anything like that, and it's not going to look anything like that.

There's a lot of speculation about what Thor is going to be like. Any and every new piece of news drives the internet wild.

I love that stuff.

Does it drive you mad, do you think "I know what's really coming up, and you're all getting upset over nothing"?

I live for it, and anytime I can fan it, I will gladly fan it.

All that stuff is good. I really do believe that any of that stuff is good. Fans are passionate. If there's no chatter out there, I'm gonna get nervous. If the chatter's bad, you know that they care. All I have to do, and all Marvel Studios has to do, is deliver. They have to deliver the goods. Because if they don't deliver the goods and we have the bad chatter, then, okay. We had it coming. But speculation is just speculation, it's not going to hurt. It drives interest. Everybody that's chattering, they're going to pay to see it. They're going to pay to see it.

Is the same thinking what drives Marvel's internet activity? The company and creators are very active on social networking, you're all about Twitter, are you trying to push that kind of chatter?

To me, it's about community, and letting people see how the gears work. Even if they get rusty and something crush people between them, you know. It's letting people behind the curtain, and that's something that, when I was a kid reading Stan's Soapbox [A regular column where Stan Lee wrote about Marvel in the Marvel books of the 1960s and 70s]... I always say that Stan was the first mutant, he didn't know he was a mutant, but he did have a magical power, and that was, in a hundred words or less he would write that soap opera and me, reading it, would get to find out all about Marvel and I would feel like he was talking to me. Not to the kid over my shoulder, meanwhile, that kid's feeling the exact same thing. And that was Stan's magical power, a short burst of dialogue that just brought you into that world. I don't have that power. But I got the internet.

I can talk until the cows come home because I love the stuff that we do, and I love what I do for a living. Taking over as editor in chief, one of the things I wanted to do, I really felt that inclusiveness was missing. Including the rivalry with Marvel and DC. There was sort of a passive and boring détente, especially after [joint Marvel/DC project] Amalgam. I looked at it, and I thought, this sucks for business. You need that passion -

But fans take that rivalry much more seriously than you do. I mean, everyone at the two companies get along -

We do, everyone gets along for the most part, but the rivalry does very well. It's funny, but when I went to see McCartney on the street in front of the Letterman theater, the DC offices were right behind me. [DC art director and editor] Mark Chiarello sends me a text saying, dude, I see you, come on up, come on up and join us. And I'm like, I got front row! As much as I want to be with you, I'm here! I have great friends up there, and all this stuff is just poking at each other, and I think it's great for business. It's great to get fans riled up, get them passionate about something. Even if they don't buy a Marvel comic because they hate me, or they hate us, they're buying their team, you know?

I'm a New York Mets fan, and I have a daughter, and I've told my wife, I said 'Look, I'm a pretty liberal-minded guy. My daughter can, she can bring home an axe murderer. She can bring home Jeffrey Dahmer or something, when she's sixteen, and that won't be as bad as if she brings home a guy who's a Yankees fan.' That's what we're talking about here. It's that kind of thing. If fandom feels something, that's great. We're keeping them engaged in our books, DC's keeping them engaged, and it's our job to get the guys who're only reading DC to come over to Marvel. It's their job to pull our guys away from us. And by doing that, you raise the level of competition between the companies. And that was the hope, let's get paste the détente, let's get past the niceness, let's start competing. Let's do Coke and Pepsi and get into it. And I think it's been healthy for the industry.

But this goes back to the original question, and the original answer, which is how Stan made people feel. And I think, as a company, we've adopted a lot of that. I learned very quickly that the dumber the thing I said online, the more hits we got, and ultimately, the viral message will get carried by the fans who're irate about it. So if someone is pissed off at me because I said something ridiculously stupid about a character, they would then go to Bendis' board, or John Byrne's board, or all these other message boards, and say 'Do you believe what this jack-ass just said?' Now, all of a sudden, something dumb that I've said - "Dead is dead," [An oft-mis-quoted line attributed to Quesada by fans, saying that if a character died in a Marvel comic they would never be seen again] - is everywhere. It's not necessarily the quote, but it's everywhere. I'll take it, you're promoting my name, you're promoting our policies, you're promoting Marvel. So, I did learn to play with the internet in that fashion. And that's always fun to do, to say, 'Okay, what can I say today that will piss people off?'

You're just poking people with the internet as your stick.

It's fun. Look, you and I are having this conversation, and you can see that my tongue is firmly in my cheek, when you type it out, a lot of people don't see that. But it's all in good fun. You'll know when I'm deadly serious about something. It's comic books I'm deadly serious about, outside of putting out a good story, there's little else I'm deadly serious about.

Who is the one character that, for people, who don't really read comics that they should pay attention to in the next year?

I really do think, before Iron Man [the movie] hit... You know, Spider-Man, the X-Men and Wolverine are pretty recognizable, and were pretty recognizable before the first movies ever hit. Iron Man was a complete challenge to us because, not only was the character not really well known, but we were a brand new fledgling movie company, and it was a pretty big risk. So we put a lot of our time and effort into making Iron Man not only a popular character in comics, but we went out there and put out viral marketing and CGI animation on websites, and I think we did a pretty good job. I mean, Iron Man is a pretty damn recognizable character [now]. I'm not gonna say that he's at Spider-Man level, but he's pretty damn close. And now, as predictable as this answer may be, we're doing the same with Thor.

And Thor offers even more unique challenges at this point. I mean, you've got mythology and all these different kind of things. So how are you going to produce a Thor movie, but also a Thor that is uniquely Marvel, wholly unique to the idea of Norse mythology to the people who know Norse mythology. How do you make it interesting, and how do you tie it into the Iron Man movie and the upcoming Avengers. We've got a pretty intense plan around Thor, including the upcoming Thor (comic creator) team, who will take on [the series] sometime after our final third act soon.

Will they be announced here?

Not here. There won't be any post-JMS team announced here, but there will be some Thor news coming up within the next few months. I think fans will really, really, love the news.

But the focus right now is Iron Man, Thor - If you're not a Thor fan, you're gonna want to start picking up the books - and then focus, while it's kind of on Cap right now, it's going to intensify on Captain America as we get closer to that movie.

What happens after the Avengers movie?

We've been talking about things. This is really a question for Kevin Feige, and I don't want to step on his toes, but we've had some discussions, there's a lot of discussion and strategizing about the future of Marvel Studios... We have to [look beyond that]. We don't stop being in business after the Avengers movie.

What's the one thing you want to do, and haven't done, at Marvel?

[Deep breath] Wow. The one thing I want to do at Marvel?

Do you even think like that, or are you too focused on the day-to-day?

I'll tell you, I no longer think like that, because the beauty of my job is that I get thrown so many different things, no day is the same for me. For example, now being chief creative officer of animation. I did not see that coming. I didn't lobby for that position, I was just helping with animation and got, you know, a promotion to that position. Which is great, it's certainly going to be an education, it's a world that I'm not familiar with.

Does that mean you're going to step back slightly from the comics?

No. I also have the chief creative officer of publishing title, but I don't use it because it just makes the title look like a resume, and it looks ridiculous. But I get a lot of things thrown at me.

I can tell you that when I got started in comics, my one goal, my one aspiration was Watchmen. I got back into comics with Watchmen and through Dark Knight, and my goal was, someday, I want to write and draw that. It's like, as a musician, I was a musician before I was in comics, and as a musician I was like, someday, I want to write and perform Sgt. Pepper. I want my Sgt. Pepper. That didn't work out.

But even in comics, no-one's ever done Watchmen or Dark Knight again. They were Sgt. Pepper of their era. But it's what I aspire to. So, someone mentioned this to me, and it's hard for me to think about because I'm still doing what I do, but someone said that my Watchmen has been my ten years at Marvel, the body of work that we created here, and where we've taken the comic industry and Marvel as a company is one of those great stories. We were bankrupt, and now... we're not.

How does that feel, to have saved Marvel?

I was not in charge of saving Marvel, there was a team. I was part of a great team of guys and girls who've really put Marvel into a prominent position where we are now a movie studio, and that's a pretty spectacular feeling. When it's all said and done, I can look back and, I think the person that said it was right: That's my Watchmen. Nobody else can do that. Give it a shot. That's hopefully what I contributed, as well as drawing some funny books.

You're sticking around for awhile as editor in chief, right?

As long as it's fun. Because I was from the outside looking in, and I saw what Marvel went through when it was approaching bankruptcy, and I was walking through the halls when the pink slips went out, a terrible terrible time. And then, being at Marvel Knights when, overnight, 40-some people were let go. To this day, the attitude I adopted, and it's not something negative, but I never want to be surprised by walking into my office and seeing a pink slip there. I remember that look on people's faces, getting the pink slip and saying 'I can't believe it's me, I never thought this would happen to me.' Even in light of bankruptcy, the surprise was still shocking, it was daunting for people who must've sensed it was coming. And I don't even want that to happen to me. I never want to take any single day at Marvel for granted.

When I turn off the lights at night, I could come back here tomorrow and all my shit could be in boxes. It's the world of business and you can't take that for granted. So I've kind of adopted that, that little mantra for myself. But I've also said, at the same time, using a baseball analogy - My father got me into the sport, and used to bring up certain athletes like Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams who retired before their skills faded. He used to say, 'Whatever you do, don't wait until your skills diminish. Leave on top.' I feel the same way; I'm still contributing to the company, but the day I feel like I can't contribute to the company, I'll be the first one to walk into my publisher's office and say, 'You gotta let me go.' Or, 'put me somewhere else.' Because there are people in line for my job, I'm not gonna have this forever who need to have it, who need to guide us into a different era. I never want to be That Guy.

You seem very aware of the history and the legacy of the company, and the position.

It's something that, in the very beginning of my tenure, especially with [Brian Michael] Bendis and [Mark] Millar, who I have a lot of affection for, because they sort of came up with me and helped build a lot of this stuff. We used to sit around and talk about all the mistakes that were done before us. Certain people that took their careers for granted, certain people who went in a particular direction, and not because they were stupid or anything, but because they were the first ones to do it. And we were sitting around saying, alright, we don't want that. We want to avoid these things at all cost.

And it's funny, because I was having breakfast with Mark this morning, and I said, 'You know what's really scary? We're kind of at a place where I think, twenty years from now, there're gonna be three guys sitting around saying "We don't want to do what Quesada did, that was a huge mistake.' I try to, at least, look forward. People always ask me, what was your greatest success and greatest mistake at Marvel, and I always stumble on that answer, I never look backwards, I can't answer it.

The UK Daily Mirror newspaper reported that Williams is looking to step up her acting career (She's previously appeared as a guest on er and Law & Order: SVU) with a meatier role with a tougher stance on evil:

I don't get the opportunities but I would love to play a superhero character... With my body type I would be good at action movies, maybe doing my own stunts. I would be really good at that.

Hey, Marvel: Looking for a Captain Marvel for your Avengers movie? I think a stunt-casting opportunity just presented itself...

Serena Williams wants to play movie superhero [Mirror.co.uk]

Perhaps the biggest revelation was that, despite the lackluster performance of last year's The Incredible Hulk, the character will indeed be returning for The Avengers. Considering the Hulk is a major player in almost every big Avengers story, from their sixties origins to Ultimates, his involvement had long been suspected, but this marks the first official confirmation. Feige also said another standalone Hulk movie is a possibility, but it would need to be more clearly linked with the other film franchises than the last one.

Indeed, with so many of their preceding projects in the newly dubbed Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) underway, Feige is now ready to begin serious work on The Avengers. He explained why the Hulk is returning and what progress has already been made on the movie:

It will have been four years since he was in a movie by that point. By 2012. I'd like to see him in it. I'm not being coy. We're just starting the story. I was on the phone with Zak Penn this morning. He's coming in next week and he's going to work on the outline this summer. It's so intertwined with what we're doing before it. I almost wanted to get done with production on Iron Man 2, and the scripts to Thor and The First Avenger: Captain America well underway, before we even started The Avengers.

Moving further afield, Feige confirmed that director Edgar Wright's Ant-Man project is still in the works. As would be expected from the co-writer and director of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, Feige emphasized the comedic aspects Wright looks to bring to the movie:

"I want to make Ant-Man one of these days. I think that'll be surprising and funny. I love Edgar Wright. What he likes about it is that when he says he's doing Ant-Man, people go, 'Ant-Man? What the hell is that?' I think that's funny."

It would appear absolutely no part of the Marvel Universe is off-limits for the films. In particular, Feige is hopeful Thor will open the door to the more mystical parts of Marvel:

"I think Doctor Strange would kick ass. I think we've done very well at this street level superhero aspect of the Marvel Universe. I think with Thor, you'll see us cracking into the cosmic side of the Marvel Universe in a very good way that's never been done before in our movies. I'd love to get into that supernatural element. I think that Doctor Strange could be a good lynchpin into that universe with 'Werewolf By Night'. Maybe with Blade again someday. I would like to see that side of the Marvel Universe on screen."

And he confirmed that the Thunder God's alter ego, Donald Blake, won't be appearing in Thor.

As for The First Avenger: Captain America, Feige focused on the casting rumors. He noted that there are very few actors that are both American and well known enough internationally to pull in foreign box office. At the same time, he noted the success of hiring a brilliant but previously non-blockbuster actor, like Robert Downey Jr., or having the freedom to choose an unknown from Australia, like Thor's Chris Hemsworth.

It would however appear that Will Smith is not in the running to play Captain America. Acknowledging the "Truth" storyline, which posited the existence of a black Captain America before Steve Rogers, Feige explained why they wanted to stick with the more iconic version of the character:

"I love the 'Truth' storyline. I think that's very cool. I wouldn't do that as a first Captain America movie though. I think that arc came about four or five hundred issues into the "Cap" run. I don't see us launching with that particular comic."

Finally, Feige touched upon what sort of movie The Avengers will be:

"I think The Avengers is going to have it's own vibe. It'll have a different tone than the other Marvel movies. It is about saving the world, because there's no other reason for characters that powerful to band together. I think the scope and the scale will feel like a much bigger thing."

And he said that Marvel aims to ramp up to putting out four movies a year, drawing on the company's diverse cast of characters. Iron Man 2 is due out May 7, 2010, while Thor and The First Avenger: Captain America are on track for May 20 and July 22 of 2011. The Avengers, which may or may not be the greatest thing in the history of cinema (not that I'm getting my hopes up or anything), is currently scheduled for May 4, 2012.

[Superhero Flix]

Talking to Comic Book Resources, Kyle gave an idea of how excited he was to work on the show:

It's going to be the best show ever made. I am so excited about "Avengers" I can't even tell you. It is the comic book put on screen. It is the classic team set in modern day. They're not fighting communists or anything. It is going to be big. It's Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Ant-Man and Wasp. It's the team. It's what you know and love put right on the screen. We are well on our way. It's definitely in heavy production right now as for a premier I do not know? It may be tied to the future film, it may not, I just don't know... With "Hulk Vs." we really got controls taken off as far as violence goes with Wolverine and the Hulk. But I got to tell you, working on "Avengers," that's a cool show. As a comic book fan, I'm so excited about it. I think the reason that animated series get the edge now [over direct-to-DVD features] is because when they're good, you get a lot of more of them. "Hulk vs. Wolverine" was what, 33 minutes? So with shows like "Armored Adventures," "Wolverine and the X-Men" and the upcoming "Avengers," if they're good you get like thirteen hours of them.

The best show ever made? Even if you just limit that to animated series, it's got some pretty stiff competition from the 1990s Batman or current fave The Brave and The Bold, but we're willing to be convinced. If nothing else, I'll be happy to see a non-freaky animated Wasp on a weekly basis.

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes premieres next year.

Chris Yost On Iron Man: Armored Adventures [CBR.cc]

Samuel L. Jackson strikes fear into the hearts of all right-thinking people by raising doubts as to whether he'll return as Nick Fury in the Marvel Avengers movie.

Jackson told the LA Times:

There was a huge kind of negotiation that broke down. I don't know. Maybe I won't be Nick Fury. Maybe somebody else will be Nick Fury or maybe Nick Fury won't be in it. There seems to be an economic crisis in the Marvel Comics world so [they're saying to me], 'We're not making that deal.'

Okay, the recession is hard on everyone, even Marvel. And it's possible his trippy turn in The Spirit left a battery-acid taste in people's mouths. But this would be a big mistake. Sure, Jackson may be using the press to puff up the fans and put pressure on the studios, but you know what? It worked.

Listen up guys, put him in the movie. He's an honest fan, who will do a great job. You're going to want an A-list cast in this bigger-than-life-movie, and this is not something to cut corners on. We want to see the beginning of SHIELD and the Avengers Initiative, and we can't do that without him in the next Iron Man. Well, we could, but would we want to?

Either way, if Avengers is supposed to be as big as everyone is hoping, it's going to need a nice long drumroll to get everyone hyped up. So let's involve the big dogs now, please. Stop cutting people who want to be involved and are talented. At this rate, after Terrence Howard getting replaced, we can't help wondering: is Robert Downey Jr. next?

Talking to MTV's Splash Page Blog, Theroux said,

You know, there’s NO dialogue right now - in a great way. I think [Marvel Studios President] Kevin Feige just wants to make sure we can make the best movie that we can make... Kevin is in all the meetings for all the movies, and is the sort of connective tissue – the neurons if you will – running between the meetings. Making sure all the things can be connected.

We're not convinced that this is really the case; after all, Iron Man director Jon Favreau is also producing Avengers, so we'd like to think that he's keeping an eye on the development of both movies. And, no matter how good at his job as Feige is, would the President of the studio really be the point person for making sure that everyone's keeping their stories straight?

We think that Theroux either has accidentally missed the teams of continuity mavens in each script meeting, or is trying to sell us on the idea of a blockbuster summer movie franchise having greater artistic integrity than anyone would expect - or even want, really. The alternative would be make us far too concerned that Kevin Feige didn't read his job description closely enough.

‘Iron Man 2’ Screenwriter Justin Theroux Confesses There Is No Dialogue With Other Marvel Writers [MTV Splash Page]

Website Marvel Animation Age is reporting that all work on announced animated series Hulk: Gamma Corps has been stopped, with existing work being folded into the upcoming Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes animated series:

Joshua Fine, Director of Animation Development for Marvel Animation [said that e]ven though the creative team was well into pre-production of Hulk: Gamma Corps, with scripting underway, they saw the chance to tell bigger stories that reached far beyond Hulk's universe.

"It became apparent to us that the creative work that was being done to bring Hulk’s world and his villains to life was too good to relegate to his universe alone, and would be much better suited as part of an full-on Avengers scenario," says Fine.

A more realistic reason for the change was the underperformance of this summer's Hulk movie; when Gamma Corps was initially announced, the show's existence was defined as being "contingent on the movie’s performance."

The cancellation of the project may be a blessing in disguise for the Green Goliath; the concept was a surprising departure from familiar takes on the Hulk, instead giving us a Bruce Banner who teamed with other gamma-ray-powered characters like She-Hulk and Doc Samson to fight "deadly threats" (Probably traditional Hulk badguys like the Abomination, the Leader and... um... Zzzax), which seems to rob the character of both his "tragic loner" and "misunderstood monster" traits. Sticking him in the Avengers cartoon gives him more of a chance to act out... as well as more chance for audiences to get ready to see him as the kind of threat that the movie Avengers will have to stop.

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes is due to be broadcast in 2011.

"Hulk: Gamma Corps" Status Confirmed, Update On "The Avengers: Earth's Greatest Heroes" [Marvel Animation Age]

The first big surprise in the EW story is that Howard was the most highly paid actor for the original Iron Man movie - and that Marvel had asked him to accept a substantial (somewhere between 50 - 80%) paycut for the sequel. The reason for the paycut? His behavior during shooting for the first movie:

It didn't help that, according to one source, Favreau and his producers were ultimately unhappy with Howard's performance, and spent a lot of time cutting and reshooting his scenes. (Favreau could not be reached for comment, while Howard's publicist says: ''Terrence had a tremendous experience working on Iron Man.'')

As such, when Favreau and screenwriter Justin Theroux went to map out the sequel they found themselves minimizing Howard's story line. Once Marvel learned that Favreau was thinking of curtailing the role, the studio went to the actor's agents with a new and drastically reduced offer — a number that's similar to what supporting cast members were paid for the first movie.

It's at this point where the story gets murky - Did Howard walk from the project because of the low offer, or did Marvel replace him before he had even responded to the offer? No-one seems to be sure, but the latter is definitely hinted as a possibility, which may explain Howard's comments about finding out about Don Cheadle taking over the role when it was announced to the press.

This new version of events certainly casts new light on the story - but also suggests that we may hear another version from more Howard-friendly sources in weeks to come, taking us back to the "Marvel are meanies" narrative that we started with... before Marvel's sources leak more "Howard was insufferable" rumors. After all, this one has the potential to run and run.

'Iron Man 2': How Terrence Howard Lost His Metal [EW.com]

Marvel's Tuesday announcement confirmed not only that Downey Jr. and Cheadle would be two of the stars for the Avengers, which tells how Marvel's biggest heroes formed a team, but that Iron Man director Favreau will act as executive producer for the 2011 movie.

No plot details for Avengers or Iron Man 2 have been announced, although we can now add the creation of Rhodey's War Machine armor to the existing "Hulk goes bad" rumors.

As for those rumors about the Hulk going bad, some sites are concluding the Hulk won't actually be the villain in Avengers, because one Marvel press release refers to Hulk as a member of the team. The release also says the heroes, including the Hulk, face the biggest threat they've ever encountered. So does that mean the Hulk isn't the villain of that movie? Or he joins the team but later goes rogue? (Just as long as he pretends to be a robot clown, like in the comics.)

Iron Man 2 is due to be released May 7, 2010, with Avengers following on July 15, 2011.

Downey Jr. extends Marvel deal [Variety]

Between Ang Lee's 2003 Hulk and Louis Leterrier's The Incredible Hulk, we've seen that the potential movie audience for potentially Marvel's third most well-known character (behind Spider-Man and Wolverine, although this summer's Iron Man may have changed that). But is that a failure of the movies, or the character itself? The two movies shared some similarities, but Leterrier for the most part avoided the lack of clarity (both in terms of story and, thanks to the murkiest final act ever, visually) of Lee's more cerebral approach - and yet, the more mainstream, action-orientated Incredible was just as (un)successful as its predecessor. Perhaps Marvel's apparent new plan of making the Hulk into more of an antagonist and less of a focus in future movies shows that they've realized one basic fact about the character: That he kind of sucks.
Okay, that's too harsh. But the Hulk isn't a character that many people really have a strong affinity for, for the most part. Yes, he has a great visual, and yes, there's a wonderful subtext to the concept... but as an actual character? There's not a lot of there there - and certainly not enough to base a movie around, if you want that movie to be more than just smashing and characters talking about how tortured poor Bruce Banner must be to have such a monster living inside him (which is to say, if you want the movie to be any good). It's the problem that the comic version of the character has suffered from since his creation, forcing the series to be reinvented over and over again in an attempt to keep up both the creators' and readers' interest (He's a crafty alter ego! No, he's a misunderstood monster! No, he's the rage of an abused child! No, he's a crafty alter ago again! No, wait, he's the psychoanalyzed hotheaded scientist made good! Now he's rage personified again! Now he's an alien gladiator! Now he's red! etc.): When it comes down to it, the Hulk is much more interesting as a look and an idea than as an actual character.

That's why, while we're not completely on board with the "All the heroes team up to fight the Hulk" idea, we're happy to see Marvel realizing that we don't need to see a third attempt at trying to convince the public that they really want to see a Hulk movie. Make him work amongst a community of peers, and then, if there's enough interest to try and spin him back out into his own franchise? Make sure that you put another hero with him, just in case.

Will The Hulk Be The Villain In ‘The Avengers’? We Take The Issue To Marvel’s President [Splash Page]

Talking to MTV's Splash Page blog, Iron Man screenwriter Mark Fergus explains why he's rather see the Hulk cause trouble than any classic Avengers villain like Kang or the Skrulls:

You don’t want like 10 super-badass good guys fighting together. Where’s the fun in that? Let’s break it off a little. Friends or colleagues who become enemies is always an interesting thing because you know it’s based on love and friendship and that’s always the worst thing to have turn bad — is someone you actually care about and someone you actually believe in... Good guys going against good guys who both believe in an issue is way more interesting than a villain clearly into evil and I like when former friends become committed enemies.

The Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier is also onboard with the Hulk-as-villain idea:

I left the door open for whoever’s going to direct ‘The Avengers’ with our last shot. Edward [Norton] and I, we consciously decided to make the last shot of the movie when he opens his eyes and he smirks at the camera... Is he enjoying it? Is he malicious? That’s what’s great about Edward. You don’t know if he’s a good guy or bad guy.

First off, Ed Norton? Definitely a bad guy. Secondly, the Hulk being the first villain/monster/menace that the Avengers face comes as absolutely no surprise, because it's already two different shade of canon — both Marvel's Mighty Avengers and The Ultimates fought the Hulk before they fought anyone else (Although in both cases, Thor's half-brother Loki was the cause of much of the mischief — Spoiler alert, I guess). It also seems somewhat fitting, because Marvel Comics - especially in the Silver Age - has always loved the old "When Heroes Clash!" plot device as a way of creating dramatic tension in lieu of an actual plot. But the fact that we've seen it before is what was making us hope that we wouldn't be seeing it in the Avengers movie. Personally, I was hoping for the cinematic debut of the Space Phantom.

But what do you think? Should the movie go for the classic "We must stop the Hulk!" plot, or try to break new ground?

‘Iron Man’ Writers Want Hulk To Be ‘The Avengers’ Villain [Splash Page]

MTV's Splash Page blog caught screenwriter Mark Fergus discussing Tony Stark's relationship with his father:

Certainly [Tony’s] relationship with his father is something we wanted to do a lot more of in this film, but again you had to pick and choose. [But] that relationship with his father and this person you only heard about in the first movie is going to be much more fully explored. Basically, Tony was a young adult or a teenager when his father died and that relationship will be played up in a lot of cool ways in other Marvel movies and also through… The relationship will definitely be explored a lot further.

The Splash Page bloggers are suggesting that the "other Marvel movies" reference may mean that Howard Stark, Tony's dad, was involved in the creation of the super-soldier serum that gave the world Captain America, but the timing may be slightly off for that given the WWII origin for Captain America. Me, I'm hoping that it's actually a hint that The Avengers is really going to be about Tony Stark's daddy issues while all the other superheroes stand around him, muttering awkwardly to themselves.

Could Iron Man’s Father Be The Creator Of ‘Captain America’? [Splash Page]