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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Welcome to this week’s On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage this week. Let is know if we missed something interesting. Otherwise, on to the links!

• Though it may not really have a reason to visit, the Green Lantern film site has gone live.

• In an effort to bring you some of the best trailer mash-ups of the week, here’s a brief rundown:

• Tron abides. The TRON Lebowski

• Three’s Company meets The Shining

• A joke? Sure, probably in there somewhere. Pee Wee meets The Hulk

• I vote for the one that takes place in space. Star Trek Vs. Star Wars: The Trailer

• You have to go deeper. Inception 1950′s Trailer

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Welcome to this week’s On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage this week. Let is know if we missed something interesting. Otherwise, on to the links!

• You asked for it, (or maybe you didn’t). Either way, here’s the list of the Top 10 Most Ridiculous Character-Branded Products.

• If you find yourself asking if a poster would be too nerdy to put in your room…Chances are you probably know the answer.

• If you caught last night’s Community, then you’re most definitely going to want to go back and read the Twittersodes leading up to the airing. Trust us.

• In prepping for his epically animated Owl Fighting movie, Zack Snyder admits that he had people dress up in owl suits to choreograph the fight scenes.

• Katy Perry recorded a spoof of her song and sang it alongside Elmo on Sesame Street. The song was immediately pulled from the episode before airing. What’s the world coming to when a girl can’t sing about kissing other girls on a show with Muppets?

• A student dressed like The Hulk smashed a car and is now getting in trouble for it. The real crime? The fact that there wasn’t a camera rolling the entire time.

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We sat on this news yesterday (and even speculated about it previously), because it did not appear to be confirmed, but several outlets are now reporting that Mark Ruffalo is confirmed as the new Hulk.  The beloved Marvel character experienced a setback when it was announced that Edward Norton would no longer be playing the character.

This week has been filled with lots of conjecture over who would reprise the role. Late yesterday, it was announced that Mark Ruffalo would take over the role. Ruffalo has been a strong character actor in Shutter Island, You Can Count On Me, Blindness, and Zodiac.

He will  be playing the role for the upcoming Avengers movie, featuring Chris Evans as Captain America, Robert Downey Jr. as Ironman, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, and Don Cheadle as War Machine.

The Avengers is scheduled for May 2012.

Early yesterday we reported that Marvel Studios had decided to replace actor Edward Norton as Bruce Banner/The Hulk in any future movies where the character appears. At that time Norton’s agent responded, as they often do, and we never expected Norton himself to offer any kind of opinion — at least in public.

Well, we were wrong about that last bit as Norton has already responded to his replacement via his official Facebook page. In the response, Norton thanked his fans for their support but doesn’t offer any further details on why he won’t be coming back.

It is clear from his message that he isn’t exactly happy about the situation but is dealing with it as best he can. His final comment that “Hulk is bigger than us all” seems to indicate he will, reluctantly, put the role behind him.

Click through for Norton’s complete statement. Now that Norton is out, who should take on the role of Bruce banner/The Hulk? How about the rumored Joaquin Phoenix? Sound off in the comments.

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