So if there was ever a reason to watch Once Upon a Time last night, we found it with the premiere trailer for the coming series, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. And look who is back… Coulson! The man who started out as an unknown supporting role and quickly drew his own cult following to the point where he became the spark that brought the Avengers together against Loki is headlining this upcoming series. While there are theories about how Coulson beat death (and sorry but this late in the game, you aren’t allowed to call spoiler on me for it), he will be heading up the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

From the look of it, this isn’t going to strictly be a super hero story as Coulson and his team aren’t powered up heroes. They are going to need to rely on their varied skill sets to take on the emerging metahuman threats in their world. From the trailer, you may spy a certain African American character with super strength (who speculation is already pointing to be the Marvel movie continuity first appearance of Luke Cage).

One great aspect to the show can be the introduction of such characters to the movie continuity without forcing too much of the film to revolve around their origin and instead focusing on the team dynamic or maybe even provide Easter eggs for characters like the Guardians of the Galaxy before their theatrical debut.

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One thing you can be sure of, Iron Man 3 is gonna be at least pretty good and, more to the point, make a lot of money. In fact, our prediction is it will make a killing, mostly due to pent up demand for another tase of The Avengers.

That’s not to say Iron Man 3 won’t be able to stand on its own, it’s just that The Avengers was so awesome, fans are hungry for more and will take a bit of Iron Man 3 and, when it hits, the Captain America sequel, until Avengers 2 arrives.

Turing our full attention to Iron Man 3, though, we’ve got another trailer for it to share with you today. It actually came out a couple day sago and yes, we missed it. Sorry about that. We have no excuse.

In this one you get a bit more info on just who The Mandarin really is and what he has in store for our iron-clad hero. Check out the trailer after the break and look for Iron Man 3 in theaters on May 3rd.

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If you were looking for someone to fitting take on the role of a character whose last name is “The Destroyer”, it isn’t a shock to see that former WWE Champion Batista will be filling the boots of Drax in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Late yesterday, the Hollywood Reporter leaked the announcement that Dave Bautista would be taking on this role in Marvel’s 2014 Summer Blockbuster.

Alongside Chris Pratt who will be playing the part of Star Lord, Dave Bautista will be filling the shoes of a team of cosmic heroes fairly unknown to the audience outside of the comic book world. Though having success in the better half of the last decade, the Guardians of the Galaxy are only known to the mainstream audience because of Marvel’s announcements tying them in to the greater Avengers Marvel Studios film universe.

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At the SXSW Film and Interactive festival over the weekend, Marvel took the wraps off of several new digital initiatives during the company’s panel. Among the items highlighted were new content that will tie the company’s film, animation, comics, and web programming together with reality programming, news and documentaries.

All of these will be anchored by the newly announced program Marvel’s Earth’s Mightiest Show, a weekly pop culture program covering all-things Marvel and the world. Former G4 star Blair Butler will host the show, which will cover movies, comics, video games, and television with celebrity interviews and first looks at upcoming Marvel Studios films.

So yeah, you know that’s gonna be amazing. To see just how amazing, check out the preview for the show after the break.

In addition, the company also announced it is offering free downloads of more than 700 first issues of many of the company’s favorite superhero comics at no charge. The promotion began Sunday and runs until 11 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

Historic issues based on classic characters in the Marvel Universe including Spider-Man and Iron Man will be available, as well as contemporary titles like Civil War and Astonishing X-Men.

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The Marvel Cinematic Universe is entering into untested grounds. While the first phase of films was groundbreaking in its structure, it still had the familiar grasp of forward momentum. Like a wave crashing onto the beach, the momentum is beginning to recede as Marvel gears up for their next big push.

So it falls on the capable shoulders of Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man to embrace the narrowing focus of the universe, while still setting in motion the momentum for the next phase of Marvel films. So considering the pressure this film is under, it makes sense that we are seeing an expanded presence from this film’s marketing as the Super Bowl approaches.

We do not have the new TV spot, or a full trailer just yet, but Marvel Studios has just released a beautiful new poster to stroke everyone’s  anticipation glands.

The poster itself is a simple image of Iron Man, or as simple of an image of Iron Man you can get when he is plummeting to his certain doom. A cheery one-sheet that sets the tone for the ringer Tony Stark is set to be sent through.

You can check out the full new poster after the jump.

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Now, I’m not going to come on here and pretend I know what every geek in your life is going to want. But if they are anything like me, there is at least something on here that they do want.

The nice thing is that even if they already have it (or you picked the one thing on this list they actually hate), every item is coming from a store they will be able to return it to and buy something they do want.

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This week is going to belong to Iron Man and Marvel Studios, today we have the first look at the teaser poster and an actual shot of The Mandarin for you to oogle over. Tomorrow we will get a glimpse of the first teaser trailer for next summer’s blockbuster to be and by Friday all of this will be dissected 1000 times over by the fan community and we will know if the film will suck or not. Things move fast these days.

First up is the teaser poster, which gives away absolutely nothing new. It is just a stylized version of Tony’s hall of armor with an unsuited Stark looking back to stare deeply into the audiences eyes as he ponders ‘what should I wear?’. It is a fine poster and actually ranks as one of the better Iron Man one-sheets to date. Posters is oddly one aspect of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that has been lacking over the last few years.

The second image for you to feast your eyes on is Sir Ben Kingsley as The Mandarin. For those who are not comic fan boys first, The Mandarin is the arch nemesis of Iron Man and has not made an appearance in the films, but his presence has been felt in the guise of the ten rings syndicate which is likely his criminal force.

Take a look at both after the jump.

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As of this moment, the PR on Deadpool may be the most fun of any comic book game for any journalist to cover. Instead of the same standard PR blips from developers or agencies, Deadpool (or someone who is doing a heck of a job impersonating him) is doing his own promotions for the game. With the Deadpool movie in development hell, it only makes sense that the poor guy would have the free time to handle gaming PR.

Most recently, Deadpool announced that he would be including Domino of X-Force fame in his upcoming Mature rated game. The two characters are quite familiar with each other, both being long time associates to both Wolverine and Cable, as well as both being members of recent incarnations of X-Force together at one time. And with Deadpool being (a self described) ladies man, it only makes sense that he would invite one of the finest pieces of Marvel comic booty into his game.

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Few people remember the time leading up to Iron Man 2 when the relatively new ‘it’ girl Emily Blunt was nearly cast to play Black Widow. Of course her schedule didn’t clear up and the role went to Scarlet Johansson, which has worked out well enough so far.

Now it seems like the lovely Ms. Blunt is getting another crack at the Marvel Movie-Verse with rumors starting to run rampant that she is going to be up for the role of Ms. Marvel. A popular member of the Avengers who has been a major player in the comics in the last decade.

Her set of super powers might sound familiar to any of you X-Fans who were confused when Rogue didn’t take off plying and punch things real hard in the X-Men movies. Ms. Marvel was zapped dry by Rogue in the ’80s setting up the version of that character who was popularized by the X-Boom in the early 90′s. Although it is not terribly likely that a Fox owned X-Character will be popping into an Avengers film to basically take out one of their new heroes.

Or is it?

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Activision announced today that The Amazing Spider-Man would be making its way today to the digital storefronts for XBox Live, the PlayStation Network and Steam for digital release. The XBox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game will be sold for $59.99, while the PC version will be going for $49.99. As much as we loved the game (check out our review here), at this point it may be smarter to bargain hunt as many stores have likely reduced the price on the boxed copies of the game.

What does excite us though more than the announcement of these games going to digital release (because let’s face it, every game that is worth anything does it eventually) is the announcement of four DLC packs for The Amazing Spiderman that go live today too. There are going to be four separate DLC packs going up today for roughly $3.00 each as well as a bundle of all four at a discounted $10.00 price.

Most exciting about these Packs (all detailed below) is that they aren’t just new missions for Spider-Man. They instead give new characters to play as in addition to new methods of gameplay. In the Rhino Challenge Pack, players will be running through Manhattan breaking everything in sight. The Oscorp Search & Destroy Pack allows players to play smart phone games resembling classic titles like Space Invaders.

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Back when the no brainer announcement of Joss Whedon signing on to direct The Avengers 2: Thanos’ Boogaloo hit the web, there was another minor news item attached that was less widely discussed. Joss Whedon would also lend his expert hand in crafting a Marvel universe live action TV series for ABC.

The cryptic announcement was met with some speculation about what exactly the new show would be about. Now Deadline has broken the news that a live action S.H.I.E.L.D. show has been officially green lit by ABC:

S.H.I.E.L.D. will be written by Whedon and frequent collaborators, his brother Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen. Joss Whedon also is set to direct the pilot, schedule permitting. Production on the pilot, which marks the first live-action Marvel TV project to get a green light, will start immediately.

The main focus of any Marvel TV series should be on expanding the total universe, and there is no better way to reach the widest corners of the Marvel cinematic universe than with a show based on S.H.I.E.L.D. So this announcement makes a ton of sense.

Take a look after the jump for the top three reasons why this is pretty stupendous news.

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The Avengers is a phenomenal movie, there is not a whole lot more hyperbole we can throw onto the film at this point. So as the Blu-Ray release approaches we must find another angle in these news items. Thankfully a recently released alternate opening has been released over on Yahoo! for us all to marvel at.

I say we are thankful because this alternate opening provides us with something  substantial to say about the film that has already had so much said about it. The alternate opening is actually not all that good, or more precisely not as good of a way to start the film. Compared to the ‘jump right in’ action of the eventual opening, this concept takes a ‘teasing look forward at the end’ approach.

So with out heaping even more praise on the final film, we are now able to appropriately shower Joss Whedon and his editorial staff for making the right cinematic decision. Other than to pat the filmmakers on the back for a cut well done there is not much else in this minute and a half clip that feels all that important.

We know there is a ton of deleted content that would have made it to the film if an over three-hour Avengers film was feasible, but this scene is not a part of that promised quality content, which is ultimately why it was released in advance of the Blu-Ray.  To give us a tease of what is to come when we all pick up our copies September 25th.

So take a look at the alternate opening after the jump, and keep your eyes peeled to The Flickcast as this release creeps closer.

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Since the abomination that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine, word has been that a Deadpool movie would be on its way. Since Wade Wilson’s appearance at the beginning of the movie was pretty much the only salvageable part of the film (and we can all just pretend that everything at the end didn’t happen), it does make sense to bring Ryan Reynolds back to take on the role. In current Marvel continuity, Deadpool has lost his healing factor which means the scars that cover his face are gone and he can appear as a normal person.

This is a huge asset to any film with a known actor taking on the headline role as it gives legitimacy to him being seen without the full costume on at all times. Frankly, no one was really looking forward to seeing the fully scared up Deadpool face on screen when the mask came off anyway. But in some ways the actor portraying Deadpool is low on the list of concerns in regard to what is needed to make this character actually work for a full feature length film.

One of the most challenging aspects of Deadpool is going to be his inner dialogue that goes on between Wade and the two insane voices in his head. One reason it works so well in comics is the visual cue. Deadpool has his own distinctive speech bubble and each of the two voices has their own design to their respective caption box as well. Even when ‘Pool is talking under a mask, it is easily identifiable which of the three is talking. The problem that appears in a movie is that when the film is in motion and Deadpool is talking under a mask, it is going to be a challenge to identify three different voices on screen.

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We told you last week that Marvel and Fox were in talks to make a trade of sorts. Fox would get an extension on their Daredevil rights and Marvel would recoup certain specific character rights from the Fantastic Four universe, including Silver Surfer and Galactus. This seemed like a no brainer for both sides and was potentially step one for cross studio cooperation.

Of course when something seems to good to be true it often is. Word is now out that the talks have fallen through and Fox will lose the Daredevil rights and retain their full Fantastic Four catalog. This development is the very definition of a good news, bad news situation.

On one hand, any time Marvel Studios gets a chance to pull in the rights to one of its characters and their universe it is a good thing. It is unlikely that Matt Murdock will be fighting alongside The Avengers any time soon, but Marvel Studios is ever-expanding, and it is likely we will see a faithful Daredevil adaptation in some form or another eventually. Plus keeping Silver Surfer and Galactus with the Fantastic Four allows for the chance that a proper FF reboot can use two of their more important in-universe characters.

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By now everyone realizes that the cinematic rights to certain characters and franchise within the Marvel Pantheon are not actually held by Marvel Studios. They are spread out among several other major studios, most notably Sony and Fox, with those studios holding lucrative deals that allow them to keep the franchises so long as they are using them.

This means that as Marvel Studios blows everyone’s collective minds with their spectacular feature films, several key characters are off-limits to them. Up to this point that was not really a big deal because Marvel had plenty of their own marquee heroes and villains to play with. However, now Marvel is looking to expand into the cosmic corner of their universe with ‘Phase 2′ and the two most popular and known cosmic characters are currently held by Fox.

Under normal circumstances this would simply mean Marvel would have to find replacements for Galactus and Silver Surfer as they move forward with their cosmic phase, but timing might just be on their side. Fox is under a tight deadline to get their Daredevil reboot off the ground, and they just recently lost their director. Instead of simply scrabbling, Variety is reporting that Fox has proposed a trade with Marvel Studios to extend the Daredevil rights, a deal that would bring Galactus and Silver Surfer back home to Marvel.

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