Now that we have Jennifer Lawrence in Hunger Games out of our system, I think it’s safe to say the next major release for the fan community is Disney and Marvel’s upcoming superfilm, The Avengers.

Set to bring just about a billion fans together for a solid 2 hours, the studio is hoping to shatter previous records (statistically speaking) and bring in the dawn of a new era of superhero franchise films. We’ve heard plenty of rumors as to who the main villain is in the film, what Avenger cameos we may be getting, and how much fun everyone had on set, but these images of Cap, Stark, and the rest of the crew really show why this film could be the biggest of the summer.

You get a little bit of everyone in the images after the jump, as well as the rarely seen Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill. And yes: for those who heard Whedon’s rant about how much he hates Iron Man’s triangular power supply, you’ll even see the newly designed circular one make an appearance.

Check them all out below and catch Avengers in theaters on May 4th.

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While most of the fanboy nation is already waiting with baited breath for May 4th to come and all of us to see Marvel’s super film The Avengers, director Joss Whedon is already thinking about where he wants to go with the proposed sequel to the film.

It turns out that while this Avengers film is going to have plenty of big “splash page” style action, Whedon told Digital Spy he would like the next film to play a bit smaller, and more personal for each character.

“By being the next thing that should happen to these characters, and not just a rehash of what seemed to work the first time. By having a theme that is completely fresh and organic to itself.”

Whedon joked that a sequel could take heed from crime classic The Godfather II ”by having flashbacks to young Michael Andolini escaping Sicily to come to New York, where he will be called Corleone”.

“Sequels are always better when that happens,” he quipped.

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There are few actors these days that can play just about any part in most geek-driven properties these days. Neal McDonough has gone from playing Bruce Banner in the animated Hulk series, to having a part in Star Trek: First Contact, M. Bison for some reason in Street Fighter, and even playing the fan favorite Dum Dum Dougan in last year’s Captain America: The First Avenger.

Now, McDonough is taking the center stage again with Frank Darabont’s upcoming TNT series based on the video game L.A. Noir. Deadline reports.

LA Noir tells the true story of a decades-long conflict between the LAPD, under the determined leadership of Police Chief Parker (McDonough), and ruthless criminal elements led by mobster Mickey Cohen, a one-time boxer who rose to the top of LA’s criminal world.

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The Hulk is one of those characters you might think writers would have a hard time creating stories for. After all, his power is pretty much only “hulking out” when he gets angry and smashing things. Cool, but not very deep and seemingly not very conducive to great storytelling.

Fortunately, the folks at Marvel don’t seem to have that problem and manage to spin complex tales involving this character and its alter ego, Bruce Banner, pretty much all the time. In fact, with the upcoming release of Hulk #50, you can clearly see just how far these stories have come.

Check out all the info below from the official Marvel press release as well as preview pages from the comic after the break. Look for Hulk #50 to hit stores on April 4.

Red Hulk’s hostile encounter in Las Vegas during Circle of Four is coming back to haunt him! The end of the world may be upon us, but that’s not all that’s headed for Red Hulk;

“The Red Hulk didn’t get out of that Venom story unscathed,” explains Jeff Parker. “Something followed him out of hell and it’s going to make the supernatural territory of Marvel break open and swallow our anti-hero whole!”

The stakes grow even higher, as a mysterious figure lurks in the shadows waiting to destroy Red Hulk and his fellow comrades! Will Red Hulk’s might be enough to match ghoulish malevolent magic? Can the help of Doctor Strange, Iron Man, Daredevil and more aid Thunderbolt Ross?

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Everyone is awaiting the upcoming May 4th release of Marvel’s The Avengers. With Joss Whedon at the helm and years of building a fan base through the individual movies, hype about the upcoming culmination is pretty strong.

This trailer comes in time to grab the attention of action flick enthusiasts looking forward to a summer of great cinematic experiences, Amazing Spider-man andThe Dark Night Rises also being unleashed this summer.

The culmination of the incredible heroes working together to save the planet from the forces of evil is just as exciting in German as I’m sure the English language trailer release will be very soon. Though the German trailer is not as cohesive as I expect the English one will be, a few blips of the action scenes are shown as well as one or three great shots of Scarlett Johansson to get everyone’s interest piqued.

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We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: It’s no secret that one of the most highly anticipated comic book movies of all time is Marvel’s upcoming The Avengers. Directed by Joss Whedon and featuring an all-star cast, the movie’s geek pedigree could not be better.

It has all your favorite characters including Iron Man, Captain America, Nick Fury, Thor and Scarlett Johansson in skintight leather. Come one, what more could you want from a comic book movie?

Recently, we shared some cool pics from the upcoming film. Today, we’ve got something even better: the first trailer.

In it we get our first real look at the film, the characters and what’s going to be the biggest movie of 2012. And man, does it look good.

Check it out after the break. The Avengers, which stars Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, and Samuel L. Jackson, arrives in theaters on May 4, 2012.

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When was the last time you were excited about a move-game tie in? Was it Days of Thunder 2011? Tron? It was Tron…wasn’t it?

Games based on movies are notorious for their lack of ingenuity, polish, and often times, any respect for the source material whatsoever. This, of course, means that any tie-in games that do show potential can never see the light of day, as it would upset the balance universal karma… or something.

THQ studios in Brisbane were working on a promising Avengers game to release alongside the 2012 summer blockbuster movie. Keyword being “were”. Due to a “strategic realignment” of its development studios, THQ elected to close the studio down, halting production of any current projects. Normally, I’d say bully for THQ – with their recent releases falling into the “decently subpar” category ( Homefront and 40K: Space Marine among them) I would be alright with them taking a step back from their full-speed-ahead mentality.

But not this time. The Avengers was going to be a first person shooter / beat ‘ em up combo focusing on four-player co-op. Showcased in the pre-alpha footage below are Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, and Thor – all as playable characters. While some aspects (such as Cap throwing his shield) didn’t look brilliant, it still looked like a lot of fun; especially for any True Believers out there.

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We’re still months away from getting to experience Chris Evans dodging bullets and throwing his mighty shield in Captain America: The First Avenger, but we shouldn’t get too tied to that suit, as it may be the last time we see it.

According to a recent interview Evans did with MTV Splash Page, his patriotic Captain America costume from the film will be getting a complete makeover for him to do battle alongside Iron Man, Thor and Hulk in 2012′s The Avengers.

“[It's a] new costume,” Evans told MTV News of Captain America’s visual change-up in the 2012 blockbuster. “Yeah, it’s awesome. It’s really cool.”

“I was worried because I started to get really attached to the old one,” he said. “I really started digging it. It’s not that easy to move in, but I started really liking it. The first time we tried a new one on, I was like, ‘Oh, I miss the old one.’”

“I was just in Albuquerque a couple days ago [shooting Avengers] and we did a camera test with the new suit,” he said. “It’s pretty rad.”

We probably won’t get to see much of this new outfit until after the July 22nd release of The First Avenger, but we’ll be waiting eagerly!

A year and a half ago, we came home from San Diego Comic Con and were given the chance to review the XBox Live Arcade rerelease of one of our top games of the previous decade with Marvel vs. Capcom 2.  The game was an instant hit and was quickly brought over to the PlayStation 3 as well.

It’s not surprising that soon after, seeing the game’s tremendous success, that Capcom announced Marvel vs. Capcom 3. With a super stylized trailer, the hype hasn’t died down. Even last week at release, it was almost impossible for players to get a hold of the Special Edition of the game, a problem not usually seen in retail anymore.

As we have talked about with our previous hands-on experience, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 brings the series’ classic feel and action back with a shiny new coat of graphical paint and effects that players expect and demand.

Gameplay:

Marvel vs. Capcom 3: The Fate of Two Worlds doesn’t change the formula that brought Marvel vs. Capcom 2 so much success. The game relies on single round matches between two 3 on 3 teams. Players have three basic attacks of increasing strength, their special attack button, and two assist buttons. These assist buttons can be used to either call in teammates for a quick attack or to switch the character the player is in control of for the fight.

As players throw more attacks and successfully defend against their opponents, they increase their combo meter which builds at the bottom of the screen to unleash Hyper Combos. These hyper combos are special moves that can deal tremendous damage if successful.

This simple control scheme allows for all levels of players to enjoy the game. Expert players will learn advanced combos, juggling and snap backs to eliminate their opponents while newer players will be able to feel like they are setting off tremendous attacks even by just button mashing.

It is an interesting dynamic compared to other fighting games where experience will almost always prevail. While it may be frustrating for an “expert” to get beaten by a lucky combination from a “newbie”, it also makes the game more exciting that outcomes aren’t always so predetermined in multiplayer.

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This week on The Flickcast your favorite hosts take on some new and recurring topics to entertain, inform and otherwise keep you interested. . . at least for a little while. Some of the topics covered today include the brand new Green Lantern trailer, more on The Walking Dead, Hulu Plus price drops, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows leaked footage, trailers for The Mechanic,  Red Riding Hood, Teen Wolf, Cowboys Vs. Aliens, Marvel’s Hulk TV series and more.

In addition, the boys also made new picks this week for your viewing, listening or reading pleasure. Matt picked the animated series Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes while Chris picked the first person shooter game Medal of Honor.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

Director Guillermo del Toro and Battlestar Galactica Exec Producer David Eick are planning a new version of The Hulk for TV and will reportedly be doing it for ABC. This show will mark Marvel’s first foray into series TV after being acquired by Disney.

“I have always been attracted at the combination of comic book heroics and monsters, Jack Kirby’s Demon or Kamandi or DC’s Deadman or Marvel’s Dr. Strange, Morbius, Metamorpho, Mike Mignola’s Hellboy, etc,” Del Toro said. In addition, the director indicated The Hulk has been at the top of his list and he first pursued it as a feature film around the time of the 2002 release of Blade II. Del Toro added that, with partner Eick “we coalesced a respectful but powerful way of retelling the Banner/Hulk story in a fresh way.”

As the project is only in the preliminary stages, details of the premise are sketchy. However, the show will reportedly be an origin story following the exploits of mid-twenties physicist Bruce Banner and his alter ego The Hulk. In addition, for this series The Hulk won’t be full CGI like he was in the movies. Instead, the character will be realized via a combination of prosthetics, puppetry and computer generated imagery.

Because of the extensive prep work involved the series won’t be ready for ABC’s Fall schedule in 2011. So, look for it more like Fall of 2012. Wow, I can’t wait. Yes, that was sarcasm because I have a hard time thinking this will be any good.

How about you guys? Think this is a good idea?

We are happy to get previews of upcoming comics, especially when they contain character we really like. This time around Marvel has sent us some cool preview pages for the upcoming Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes comic and we will, of course, share them with you.

Sure, the comic has kinda a long name, but that doesn’t stop it from being pretty darn cool. It’s a companion comic to the new TV series premiering Wednesday, October 20th on Disney XD and tells the story of the greatest super heroes of all time: Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and Hulk who must join forces to stop an attack by the world’s most evil villains.

Written by Chris Yost, with art by Scott Wegener and Patrick Scherberger, the comic hits store shelves on November 3. In the meantime, click through to check out several preview pages so you can get an idea what it’s all about.

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