THE AVENGERS: videos, magazines and other activities to keep you busy until you see the actual movie

Damn, nearly forgot about that AVENGERS movie opening this weekend! Then we opened our email and an avalanche of AVENGERS tie-ins—some of which might be called stretching it—tumbled out. On the microscopic chance you are not Avengered out before the movie has even opened, here’s a sampling of what’s going on.

¶ GQ has a profile of the man of the hour, Joss Whedon with a bonus illo by Cliff Chiang!

Whedon doesn't look as exhausted as you'd expect him to, but he does seem sort of battle-hardened. He's lost weight, either in advance of making The Avengers or because of it. The red hair that used to flop whimsically over his forehead is cropped as short as his beard. He's explaining why it took this long for somebody to wise up and let him make the big superhero movie. "It's an interesting question," he says, "because I always think of myself as, like, the most commercial guy. You look into my heart of darkness and, wow, it's Star Wars peeking back at you. Yet everything I've done has been a hard sell for somebody running a studio."

¶ What a coincidence, this month’s issue of BACK ISSUE is all about the Avengers!

Just in time for the team’s big-screen debut, BACK ISSUE #56 (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine, $8.95 cover price) lets the “Avengers Assemble,” in an issue devoted to the history of Marvel Comics’ mightiest super-team! This issue features: Writer ROGER STERN’S acclaimed 1980s Avengers run, West Coast Avengers, early Avengers toys, and histories of Hawkeye, Mockingbird, and Wonder Man. Featuring art by and/or commentary from JOHN and SAL BUSCEMA, JOHN BYRNE, BRETT BREEDING, TOM DeFALCO, STEVE ENGLEHART, BOB HALL, AL MILGROM, TOM MORGAN, TOM PALMER, JOE SINNOTT, and more. With a GEORGE PÉREZ cover spotlighting the Avengers’ “Big Three.” Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

¶ The Marvel Lexicon! Wordnik has a dictionary of such vital lingo like mandroid and legacy virus. Use them both in a sentence and you might be the next Thunderbolts writer.

¶ An Eclectic Method remix of the Avengers trailer? We thought things that cool were illegal! Word on the street is that the Hulk and Mark Ruffalo are stealing the show, and this trailer will show you why.

¶ The Avengers Minimates just went on sale, and they are cute.

¶ If you’re not done with Stan Lee, here are clips of him talking about all the Avengers and various cast members interviews. Above, Stan on his cameos.

¶ Andertoons has posted a pdf of a 1982 Marvel activity book. The activities were so simple then, like solving a mystery in the Hulk’s pants, or what the fuck Blue Star is going to do with his life now that he’s trapped within his own starforce.

¶ More video! In this one it’s Avengers Intervene! as they try to stop Tony Stark’s drinking. Hoo hee hee.

¶ And in this one, the Avengers are a ’90s boy band. Nice!

¶ Let’s go back another decade, as as Chris Haley and Daniel Butler picture the ’80s version of the movie for Comics Alliance.

¶ Stride Rite is debuting a line of Avengers-themed shoes for kids.

¶ And finally, Scarlett Johansson was so eager for the movie premiere that she killed time getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.