Marvel

Marvel release a new X-Men teaser image, create a sensational wall of vagueness as to what said image means

While THE AVENGERS has been hailed as a feel-good ball of action-comedy that kicks off the summer with smiles and cheers, in one regard it is a bit unsettling. You see, it is yet another in a long, long line of movies that has trashed Manhattan real estate in a willy-nilly fashion. For about a hot minute after 9/11, destroying Manhattan in entertainment was considered crass—who needed fakery, when you had the real thing?—however, it soon came into vogue again as a symbol of the unsettled post 9/11 era.

I read (almost) every Free Comic Book Day title, and let you know what's the best!

Can't wait until you see THE AVENGERS tonight at midnight? Here's some stuff to keep you from jonesing yourself into a puddle.

When do you let go of that childhood dream? Jim Mroczkowski at iFanboy looks at the fannish habit of holding on to something you hate in hopes of something improving vis a vis the new Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon on Disney XD, of which he writes:

In an article that starts off looking at the possibility that Marvel's Kevin Feige will be the new head of Disney Studios, replacing departed Rich Ross, Kevin Melrose distills more than 20 years of Marvel history, such as how they came to have their own studio.

WOW, Creator Rights day on the Internet rolls on with what we might call Stan Lee's Hilary Rosen moment: an unforced error that cannot be rolled back. In an interview with Moviefone, of ALL PLACES, Stan is asked POINT BLANK about whether Jack Kirby should be credited on THE AVENGERS:

As expected, today's firing of Disney Studio head Rich Ross has Tinsel Town buzzing, and a picture of a Mouse House in disarray is emerging. Marvel Studio head Kevin Feige has been named several times as a potential replacement, but Nikki Finke's must-read analysis also confirms what we wrote about last year: legendary skinflint Ike Perlmutter is very much in the mix at Disney, and his personal dislike of Ross certainly didn't help matters. (Ross was also on the outs with Pixar's John Lasseter, according to Finke.) But even Disney chairman Bob Iger is feeling the Ike pinch:

Reviews are beginning to roll in on THE AVENGERS and, to our utter surprise, reviewers like it! Well, anyway, Justin Chang at Variety liked it.

Hawkeye is an odd character, if you look at his publishing history. He's been a staple of the Avengers since the title's earliest days. In fact, you could probably argue that the core of the Avengers were the Vision and Hawkeye. Characters that you read in Avengers and not solo books. When they wanted to spin-off West Coast Avengers, Hawkeye was the centerpiece of the spin-off. When they launched Solo Avengers, Hawkeye was the regular feature. You had Hawkeye mini-series in '83, '94 and '03. More recently, you had Hawkeye & Mockingbird and Hawkeye: Blindspot. You even had an Ultimate Hawkeye mini-series. Hawkeye is similar to Doctor Strange. Whereas Doctor Strange limped along in a lower selling cult title for several years, with occasional team book stops (usually variations on The Defenders, Hawkeye has been a staple of several popular team books (Avengers, West Coast Avengers, Secret Avengers... and an early stop over in The Defenders), but his solo efforts just haven't gotten much traction.

Marvel and Barnes & Noble have teamed up to offer $30 off the purchase of a Nook Tablet when you buy two Marvel digital graphic novels from the Avengers collection. Titles available include various New, Mighty and Dark flavors of Avengers, but also classic flavor, The Kree-Skrull War, and Avengers Assemble from the Busiek/Waid/Perez run.

Okay so everyone who figured out that that SPIDER-MEN project MArvel was teasing was a 616/Ultimate crossover—you are correct. Of course, Marvel wasn't exactly making it hard to figure out. Marvel has been teasing a bigger crossover between the regular line of comics and the Ultimate line and this seems like a good way to kick it off.