People who have seen The Avengers are saying that the Hulk comes off as one of the best characters. With this in mind, Marvel is ready to roll him out once again as a headlining character.

… Can we please stop this before it gets started?

Don’t get me wrong, I love the Hulk for the roll he’s played in the history of comics, and he makes a fabulous supporting character, but quite often he can go terribly off the rails when he is the lead.  Yes, the comic has gone on for hundreds of issues now, but the only time I truly enjoyed him was when Marvel handed him over to Peter David to write, and the only reason that decision was made was because the publisher felt he could do no harm working on a character no one cared about.  David took him in wild and fantastical directions – he became a mob enforcer in Las Vegas for a time known as Mr. Fixit as an example – but in general the character has just never been that engaging.

According to Deadline, the reaction to the Hulk in The Avengers is making them ponder what to do with the property next.  Paul Gitter, President of Consumer Products for Marvel, recently told Forbes, “[Marvel] will spin him off to a stand-alone program next year.”   Forbes went on to say that this will “presumably [be] supported by another big budget franchise movie in 2015. The entertainment studio is also exploring ways to promote Hulk as a ‘corporate icon’ similar to MetLife’s usage of Peanuts’ Snoopy, with Hulk’s image conveying a message about channeling strength to overcome workplace challenges.”

Yes, because using a character that turns in to a mindless machine of destruction is the perfect way to show strength in the workplace.

I have yet to see The Avengers, but I am already willing to bet there are three reasons the character worked: Mark Ruffalo’s performance, Joss Whedon’s writing and the fact that he is a supporting character.  If Marvel/Disney was smart, they would realize that two first two aspects of that could be recreated in a stand-alone film, but not the third.  There is also some talk of Guillermo del Toro working on producing a TV series over at ABC (which is also owned by Disney) that would bring the character back to the small screen.  This I could potentially get behind as you have to dig deeper into Bruce Banner to understand the Hulk and a serialized format allows that where a two-hour film doesn’t.

In one way or another the Hulk will be hanging around again, but lets just hope Marvel has learned its lessons from the first two films.  (side note, yes, I know Marvel didn’t do the first film by Ang Lee, but people still remember it and associated it with the property)

[via Deadline]

Yet another clip from The Avengers has shown up online. At this pace is there going to be any scene left from this movie that we haven’t seen when it comes out May 4?

We do seem to be going through introductions to all of the characters with these clips.  The first one showed off Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow along with Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson.  The next one gave us Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark and Tom Hiddleston as Loki.  This newest one shows us Chris Evans as Captain America and Chris Hemsworth as Thor as they team up against Loki’s army.

These scenes clearly come from what we saw them filming last August.

Since we seem to be knocking two characters out per clip, I’m thinking we’re due for a Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye clip in the not too distant future.

With each clip from The Avengers that comes out, this movie just looks more and more awesome.

We got our first full clip last week, but this new one is thrilling because: 1) Robert Downey Jr. is, as always, awesome, and 2) it’s cool to hear “Avengers” said as the team name as well as hearing “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.”

If anyone had told me when I was a kid I’d someday see a film like this, I wouldn’t have believed them.  Even now it still doesn’t seem quite real, but I can’t wait to sit down and see it for myself come next month.

Marvel has released the first promotional scene from The Avengers, and, huh, they decided to focus on Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow. I’m so … not shocked.

I could be wrong, though, perhaps they wanted show off Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson.  Yeah, that seems more likely.

Obviously the full promotional push is on now for the film when we’re getting clips and tons of artwork as well.

These 1920 x 1280 wallpapers give you some good looks at the main characters. If you head over to Hotels Assemble, and sign up, you can find them in 1280 x 1048, iPhone and Android devices. They’re worth a look, especially the Android ones as they show you more of the costumes … in case you want to geek out like that.

The more I see on this, the more I want to see it.

Hitting theaters on May 4, 2012, The Avengers is one the most eagerly anticipated comic book films of all time. So, why not start the marketing campaign now?

The first trailer for The Avengers was just released, and while it doesn’t give away everything we’ll see – rumors still persist the Skrulls are involved – it certainly gives us a lot to look forward to.  Besides seeing Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) all together, it’s nice to see that Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) will be doing more than just walking around saying cryptic things.

And, yes, that is indeed Loki (Tom Hiddleston) from the Thor film in there as well.

Considering how long Marvel has taken to work up to this film with numerous movies building the mythos, here’s hoping it pays off large.  Plus, on a personal level, I would love to see director Joss Whedon just blow everyone out of the water with the work he does on this.

With 10 months to go, Marvel is wasting no time getting us all worked up for the upcoming film of The Avengers.  Considering the amount of time and money the company has put into prepping for this film, it shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Released over the course of the San Diego Comic-Con was a series of seven character posters that would finally form one large image that showed you some of the history of each character as well as hints of what we’ll see in the new film.  (Is that a Helicarrier I see behind Hawkeye and the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents?)

• Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow
• Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man
• Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk
• Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America
• Chris Hemsworth as Thor
• Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye
• Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk
• Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
• Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson (S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent)
• Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill (S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent)

While I normally don’t care for films with too many characters in them, especially in the comic book genre, but the only new introductions out of all those characters I listed that are new to the series are Cobie Smulders of How I Met Your Mother as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye.  (Yes, Hawkeye appeared in Thor for a sum total of an eye blink, I don’t count it.)  If Marvel was going to try to introduce each character in this film I would go out of mind, but seeing as the characters have had their own films to prepare for this particular project, this concept works fine for me.

May 2012 can’t get here fast enough for me.

The movie news pouring out of San Diego Comic Con almost makes you forget this used to be a comic book convention.  With more movies based on comic books coming out than ever before, it figures that big announcements are made at this show, and they just keep coming.

(click any of the images for full-sized views)

Green Lantern

Sadly nothing was released after this panel other than the official movie logo.  There was some footage shown, but not to the general public to see, sadly.  Apparently it was pretty quick, showed the ring forming a giant fist to hit some criminals and so on.

Two great bits of news:

1. The costume we saw is not the final one we’ll see on screen, there is more refining to be done to it, and the black will stand out more.
2. A kid in the audience asked Ryan Reynolds to recite Hal Jordan’s oath … everyone reported that no words had been changed.  I am now much more at ease with the film.

There were other tidbits, but we’ll see how this film turns out.

Cowboys & Aliens

I have never read the comic this is based on, but the premise is pretty easy to grasp since it’s right in the title … aliens … in the old West.

It stars Daniel Craig as a mysterious stranger who arrives in town with an odd wrist band, and when alien ships arrive to shoot the town up, he shoots one of their ships down with his device.  Wackiness ensues from there.

It also stars Olivia Wilde as a saloon girl, Harrison Ford as … someone, he’s rumored to be a bad guy.  It’s also directed by Jon Favreau who has directed the two Iron Man movies.  He’s definitely shown he is capable of directing action, and it should prove to be an interesting movie.

I love the concept of this.  There won’t be any going to the mothership and using a Mac to install a virus malarkey.  We’ll have to see how this mysterious wrist weapon works into it, but sign me up as being highly interested.

The Avengers

Yes, more news on The Avengers, but it’s because Marvel had the bright idea to bring the whole cast together on stage and become the talk of the con.

From left-to-right

• Robert Downey Jr. – Tony Stark/Iron Man
• Clark Gregg – Agent Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Scarlett Johansson – Black Widow
• Chris Hemsworth – Thor
• Chris Evans – Captain America
• Samuel L. Jackson – Nick Fury
• Jeremy Renner – Hawkeye
• Mark Ruffalo – Bruce Banner/Hulk
• Joss Whedon – Co-Writer/Director
• Kevin Feige – Marvel Studios’ President

The only two thins we learned from this was the re-casting of Bruce Banner, and we didn’t know for sure the Black Widow would be in the movie.  Even not in costumes, this line-up looks amazing … I can not wait for May 4, 2012.  The only thing missing is someone really should have yelled, “AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!”

Side note from the Marvel panel … The Punisher film rights now belong to Marvel again … can we please finally get a good Punisher movie now?