OK, so we know it is coming, we know The Avengers looms just a little more than a week away. The early critical reception is very high, the buzz couldn’t be better and many of you already have your tickets in hand for the midnight shows.

That is a lot of anticipation, and we are certainly feeling it here at The Flickcast. One of the biggest things I am looking forward to the most is the score by Alan Silvestri, as the resident film music nerd here, his take on an Avengers theme tickles my fancy way more than most.

When a film of this magnitude is on the horizon, it is hard to keep things like it’s soundtrack under-wraps, and as such the entire score has already leaked online. I am happy to say it is quite great in what little I have allowed myself to listen to, but it only makes my jonesing for the movie that much more intense.

So to alleviate a little of that pressure, here is a video of the main theme by Mr. Silvestri, cut together as a music video featuring all of the as yet released Avengers footage. This video lets you experience the kick assery of the main theme in the context of actual Avengers footage.

Check it out after the jump.

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Let’s face it, print comics may not be completely dead, but they’re probably on life suport. The future is here now and that future is digital. With that in mind, Marvel has announced, as part of its ReEvolution concept, the upcoming Marvel Digital Comics Shop.

What is it? Well, for the best description, let’s let the folks at Marvel speak for themselves, via a handy press release:

The Marvel ReEvolution grows even bigger this month as Marvel is proud to unveil the Marvel Digital Comics Shop, the newest place to find and read Marvel digital comics. This convenient online destination gives fans the chance to purchase all their favorite Marvel comics in one location and have it sync to the Marvel Comics app for Apple iOS and Android devices. Not only can you read your comics anytime and anywhere – but now you can read them on your desktop or laptop! With all Marvel Universe and Ultimate Comics Universe titles available the same day they hit comic shops, there’s no better time to jump into comics!

Okay, so, that’s pretty cool. But wait, there’s more:

Then, come June – all Marvel super hero comics priced at $3.99 at your local comic shop will include codes for free digital copies of those same issues on the Marvel Comics app for Apple iOS and Android devices, the Marvel Digital Comics Shop and the Comics by comiXology app and web store all at no extra cost!

See, the future is here. Now where are the damn jetpacks and hoverboards!

Much like myself, every fanboy and fangirl in the world is counting the days to May 4th when they have their childhood dreams realized on film as Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, and Hulk join together in one amazing film by the man that made X-Men and a cheerleader who fights vampires cool, Joss Whedon.

Leading up to that, in typical Disney fashion, the genius marketing reps over there have managed to make every day leading up to the 4th like Christmas morning with tons of new clips and treats. First, they treated a special group of superfans to a screening across the country last weekend, and now they’re treating us all to an onslaught of clips.

Some of you have already seen the popular Black Widow clip from the film, but this new one, featuring an all-out brawl between Thor and Iron Man is probably the best one we’ve seen yet.

Take a look after the jump, and catch Avengers in theaters starting Midnight, May 4th.

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One of the biggest enigmas in the crowded summer blockbuster season is how will the average movie goers take a rebooted Spider-Man so close to the success of the Raimi trilogy. How the reboot is received is going to be an important indicator for the longevity of the comic book movie as we know it.

In the last decade comic book films have rewritten a lot of the rules for how major franchise movies act in cinemas, pretty much demolishing the previous axiom that sequels suffer from standard diminishing returns. Now the success of an event film has much more to do with the reception of the previous film in the series and over all franchise health.

This summer brings two old comic book standards to the big screen, the team-up and the reboot. If these are successful it could signal to other studios that movie going public is keen on these characters, and will show up for a good film starring them even if the story is going back to the beginning.

So a lot is at stake, and as such the marketing push for The Amazing Spider-Man has been going strong for awhile now, keeping ole web head in our minds during the spring and early summer event film season. The newest bit of advertising is a brand new poster featuring some battle damaged Spidy. A really great, simple image that is reminiscent of the Raimi era character posters, while still feeling very much a part of the new tone for the series.

You can check out the full poster after the jump.

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The ‘first phase’ of the Marvel Studios shared universe comes to a climactic end on May 4th, but the ‘second phase’ continues to chug along and is set to begin one year later. On May 3rd, 2013 Iron Man 3 should be hitting theaters nation wide.

According to Variety, Marvel Studios might have finally found their foe in the Shane Black directed sequel:

Ben Kingsley is in final talks to play the villain in Marvel Studios and Disney’s “Iron Man 3,” but fans of the comicbook character will be disappointed to learn he won’t take on original Tony Stark archenemy the Mandarin.

Instead, Kingsley’s character is involved in the spread of a virus through nanobots, given that “Iron Man 3″ is loosely based on Warren Ellis’ six-issue “Extremis” comicbook series first published in 2005. That arc — which also heavily influenced the first “Iron Man” pic — introduced a new origin story and focused heavily on nanotechnology.

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The concept of ancillary books to large comic events is becoming common place. No longer does an event take place in the confines of it’s own limited series or the pages of the characters involved, now it is everywhere. Marvel’s newest event, Avengers VS. X-Men, is no exception to that new rule, although Marvel might just be changing the game a little bit.

Marvel has teamed up with MTV to bring you Avengers VS. X-Men: War Journals, a web series that gives you a behind the scenes look at the event from the perspective of the people actually creating it:

Join Axel Alonso (Marvel Editor in Chief), Tom Brevoort (Marvel SVP/Executive Editor) and Nick Lowe (Senior Editor) as they discuss putting their own personal allegiances aside to craft the biggest story in Marvel history and meet fans at Midtown Comics in NYC for the largest Avengers VS. X-Men launch party in the world! As fans argue about who will win—Avengers or X-Men—some of the hottest celebrities—DJ Pauly D, Big Time Rush and the Wanted—let you know just which team they’ve chosen! Plus, discover more bonus clips featuring the biggest names in comics exclusively at MTV Geek.

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The Avengers is less than a month away, but the folks at Marvel Studios are thinking beyond to the second ‘phase’ of the Marvel shared Universe. There are already release dates scheduled for Thor 2 and Iron Man 3, and now Marvel has settled on it’s date for Captain America 2.

The second solo film staring Cap is set to release April 4th, 2014. This is an odd time to release a big budget blockbuster sequel to a well received film. Usually films like this come out in the Summer blockbuster season, or around Christmas when most people have lots of free time.

Our theory here at The Flickcast is that Marvel is hedging it’s bets with Captain America 2. The Hunger Games proved that you can still be a huge blockbuster in the spring, but expectations are limited in non-peak months. The truth of the matter is that Captain America has a limited worldwide audience, and that translated to the second lowest Marvel Studios box office performer.

Obviously the movie was a smash here in America, and Cap is an integral part of the Marvel Universe. So moving his film to the spring might help keep expectations in check, while still allowing the movie a chance for it to blow up internationally.

Whatever the reasons are, the next phase of Marvel’s shared universe is starting to come into focus. Baring a failure of The Avengers next month, all these new films should culminate in Avengers 2 some time in the future.

Agent Coulson has been a important part of the shared Marvel movie universe. Popping up often in the adventures of many of the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, he is essentially the glue that holds these films together.

So it is beyond appropriate that he gets his due in a character poster. Standing tall like the hero he is, the Agent Coulson character poster might be the most awesome piece of marketing yet released.

One of the most exciting things about the Avengers movie isn’t just that we get to see our favorite heroes battle side-by-side. We are also going to see a whole world come together for the first time. In each of the previous Marvel Studio films we had a taste of the shared universe concept, but this film is the main course.

Agent Coulson very much represents that shared universe, and to see him getting the kind of marketing love previously reserved for the big boys is a great nod to that fact.

We here at The Flickcast believe we are in for something special May 4th, and we can’t wait.

Check out the full one sheet after the jump.

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One of the greatest perks of Disney buying Marvel Comics a few years back was that we would start to see some Marvel flourishes in the Disney parks. It is going to be a long process before we see Iron Man and Cap walking around the parks, due to deals Marvel previously had in place with Universal Studios for theme park based attractions.

Those deals don’t, however, hinder Disney from promoting their new features starring the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Soon to be zooming overhead at the Walt Disney World Resort is the Avengers themed monorail!

Wrapping the monorails is not a new tactic for Disney, who previously converted Disneyland monorails into light cycles prior to Tron: Legacy’s release. However, these are much cooler, and will serve as a great looking speeding billboard for Disney World park goers this summer.

Hopefully this small entry into the parks is just the first step that will lead to a full fledged Marvel Comics land in one of the Disney Parks. Heck why not an entire separate Marvel Park, complete with Hulk Smash Bumper cars, Iron Man flight simulators, Thor Thunder Chrurros and Black Widow ladies rooms!

The Avengers hits theaters everywhere May 4th.

Spider-Man cartoons have always been among the very best in Super-Hero animation. Most recently the series Spectacular Spider-Man managed to be the fourth or fifth iteration of the character that actually worked as an animated series.

So there is high hopes for the new Ultimate Spider-Man series. In anticipation of the series premiere, Marvel has released a few stills from this upcoming season with certain guest stars cut out. Time to play the guess who’s coming to Ultimate Spider-Man guessing game!

These little teases are nothing new in the comic world, with covers often released with cutouts to ramp up anticipation. Doing this for an upcoming animated show, on the other hand, is downright inspired. This is the perfect way to drum up interest in a new series few people even knew was coming.

The show will hopefully join The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes as the new watermark for Marvel animation. DC has long held the title of best hero cartoons, but now that Marvel has the backing of Disney, there is no reason we can’t see JLU quality programming set in the Marvel universe.

You can check out the full set of pictures after the jump, and don’t forget to catch the series premiere this Sunday.

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Whenever some one tells you some idea is unfilmable, some concept too complex to work properly on the big screen. You really ought to show them these behind the scenes pictures from The Avengers. Proof positive that large and unfilmable ideas can see the light of day.

To help get the world jazzed up for the upcoming release, Marvel has released several really amazing behind the scenes pictures that are just reeking of cool. Not only do you have geek god Joss Whedon appearing in most of these shots, but you also get to see him directing the icons of the movie.

It really feels like Joss is helping Bruce Banner find his motivation, or that he is sharing a new perspective on a scene with Thor. These actors fit the roles so well that they are transcending their own persona’s and have become the heroes themselves.

Sure that may be a bit of little hyperbole, but these awesome production shots are among the coolest officially released pieces yet and do more to jazz us for the film than 1,000 badly photoshopped one-sheets.

You can enjoy the whole set of six shots after the jump, The Avengers hits theaters May 4th.

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One thing Marvel never seems to get tired of is pitting its creations against each other. After all, what do you do when you’ve concurred all the super villains in the universe?

The latest example of this is Marvel’s upcoming Avengers versus X-Men. Not content with just one new series, Marvel is also dropping some tie-in books lioke the one we’ve got a preview of today.

This one, called AVX VS #1, comes from the creative team of Jason Aaron & Adam Kubert and Kathryn & Stuart Immonen. It features “pulse-pounding battles” as Iron Man faces off against Magneto & Thing takes on Namor.

Look for AVX VS #1 to arrive in comic stores on April 25. Check out the preview after the break.

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