Marvel

Marvel is going all cosmic in the movie world, and Thanos, a character created by Jim Starlin, is at the heart of it. The evidence is unavoidable. First it was the Thanos cameo at the end of the Avengers—supposedly thrown in because director Joss Whedon was a fan of the character and a cosmic storyline is integral to keeping him on board for Avengers 2.

While EW is rolling out Marvel comics secrets, it's also revealing the true multimedia triumph of Marvel these days: the way that studio head Kevin Feige and crew have truly been able to replicate the continuity obsession of the comics into a major motion picture environment. And now they're using short films as a kind of "Marvel Showcase" for the movies.

The other shoe has finally dropped at Marvel, where talk of a reboot or relaunch has been circulating for a while—it's more a soft relaunch and retitling of a number of key titles than a reboot. Probably because Marvel fans just wouldn't allow it. Details are dropped in EW's Hobbit-covered Comic-Con Preview issue, which presumably has a few copies floating around the office. The relaunch will run from October to February, starting in October with Uncanny Avengers #1 by Rick Remender and John Cassaday, making his return to regular comics pencilling. New titles will roll out every week, featuring new costumes, new back stories, and so on. According to MTV Geek, which has the most confident version of events.

Marvel's newest teaser suggests that Jean Grey is coming back! That's right -- AGAIN

What might be coming soon to a theater near you? Or a toy store? A quick search at the United States Patent and Trademark Office finds some interesting trademark registrations for Marvel Comics!

Marvel's final war teaser reveals that the Punisher is involved. Damn. Occam's razor and all that.

All the signs have been pointing to Guardians of the Galaxy as the mystery 2014 Marvel Movie...and guess what! It is!

Marvel have revealed that issue #692 of Amazing Spider-Man will bring 'Alpha' to the World. But what is Alpha?

Just guessing tomorrow will be Hulk, right?

Disclosure: Author Sean Howe interviewed me for this; and he interviewed everyone else. Coming from Harper in October:

Continuing their teasers for the CCI Amazing Spider-Man panel, here's the new one. Captain America, eh?

In the run-up to San Diego 2012, Marvel have released two teasers for an upcoming story called 'War'