With The Avengers, Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston, has now served as the principal antagonist for two Marvel movies, so we couldn't expect that he'd be shouldering the villainous burden alone for a third time.  Thor 2 is set to be Marvel Studios' second post-Avengers movie, and it looks the studio and director Alan Taylor have found an actor to play a new villain, as a familiar bad guy is in talks to join the cosmic party.

At times, The Avengers feels like a twelve year-old's fever dream of a comic book movie, pitting heroes against one another in slugfests that give life to years of "Who would win in a fight" discussions.  One such knock-down, drag-out action scene was glimpsed two weeks ago in a clip showing Iron Man and Thor slapping each other silly.  Just hours away from The Avengers arriving in domestic theaters, director Joss Whedon has provided a bit of running commentary on that clip.

Just days out from the film's domestic release, The Avengers is pretty much everywhere right now, permeating the popular culture in that particular manner of a massively hyped blockbuster.  It's only fitting, since this first-of-its-kind comic book movie is the culmination of years of ambitious universe building at Marvel Studios, assembling the heroes of Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger in one mega-movie.

When Marvel first announced the writer-director of the event movie towards which the studio has been striving, those unfamiliar with Joss Whedon may have scratched their heads.  After all, the man Marvel chose to be at the helm of its crossover had but one directorial feature to his credit, 2005's sci-fi adventure Serenity.  Whedon's fans, however, knew well that the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, and Dollhouse was just the man for job.

His work on those television series demonstrated Whedon's unparalleled skill with witty dialogue and nimble character development, especially when juggling ensembles of characters, each with their own unique voice.  Who better suited, then, to oversee the gathering of Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, and Mark Ruffalo as their respective superheroes?  Apparently no one, since word on The Avengers is uniformly enthusiastic, and it looks as though the film actually lives up to the hype. 

At the Los Angeles press day for The Avengers, Joss Whedon talked to journalists, including IAR Managing Editor Jami Philbrick.  The writer-director discussed translating a comic book to the screen,the challenges of constructing the story, handling the characters, delivering the proper spectacle, and the importance of Steve Rogers.

Opening in theaters on May 4th is the highly anticipated and soon-to-be summer blockbuster The Avengers, which was produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The film marks the culmination of a promise that began in 2008 with Iron Man and continued in the years to follow with Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger, introducing new Marvel characters that all exist in one unifying cinematic Marvel universe. Marvel Studios has succeeded in the impossible, bridging together several different film franchises to create one world where all of Marvel Studio's on-screen characters can coexist and form the popular superhero-team The Avengers, based on the classic comic book co-created by the legendary Stan "The Man" Lee.

The Avengers was written and directed by fanboy favorite Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Cabin in the Woods) and truly stars an all-star cast that includes Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2) as Tony Stark/Iron Man, Chris Evans (Captain America: The First Avenger) as Steve Rogers/Captain America, Mark Ruffalo (Shutter Island) as Dr. Bruce Banner/Hulk, Chris Hemsworth (Thor) as Thor, Scarlett Johansson (Iron Man 2) as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, Jeremy Renner (Thor) as Clint Barton/Hawkeye, Samuel L. Jackson (Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger) as Nick Fury, Tom Hiddleston (Thor) as Loki, Cobie Smulders (TV's How I Met Your Mother) as Maria Hill, Clark Gregg (Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor) as Phil Coulson, Stellan Skarsgard (Thor) as Erik Slevig, and Gwyneth Paltrow (Iron Man, Iron Man 2) as Pepper Potts. 

IAR's Managing Editor Jami Philbrick recently had a chance to sit down with actor Clark Gregg to discuss his work on The Avengers. The actor talked about the new film, being a central part of the Marvel on-screen universe, having doubts early on that The Avengers would even get made, the emotional depth of the film, watching the original character her created become part of the Marvel comic book world and the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon, his character's fear, working with writer/director Joss Whedon; his terrific script, and whether or not we will see Agent Phil Coulson in future Marvel Studio films. 

Synopsis: Marvel Studios presents in association with Paramount Pictures “Marvel’s The Avengers”–the Super Hero team up of a lifetime, featuring iconic Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins. Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson, and directed by Joss Whedon, “Marvel’s The Avengers” is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series “The Avengers,” first published in 1963 and a comics institution ever since. Prepare yourself for an exciting event movie, packed with action and spectacular special effects, when “Marvel’s The Avengers” assemble in summer 2012. In “Marvel’s The Avengers,” superheroes team up to pull the world back from the brink of disaster when an unexpected enemy threatens global security.

The titular superteam in The Avengers is a bit of a boys club, including as it does gentlemen like Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk, and Hawkeye.  The lone representative of femininity on the squad is Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, the leather-loving ass-kicker last seen loving leather and kicking ass in Iron Man 2.  Today, with less than two weeks until The Avengers arrives, there are two new goodies from the film, a featurette and a clip, both of which are focused squarely on Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow.

For every official clip from The Avengers that focuses on characters talking, there must be a corresponding clip of superheroes beating stuff up.  The stuff these superheroes beat up is not limited to bad guys, as a the latest clip from Marvel's big team-up consists entirely of two members of Earth's Mightiest Heroes beating the snot out of one another.

Marvel superhero overload continues unabated as Disney promotes The Avengers with all due hugeness.  There are mere weeks between now and the films domestic release, but if you're still looking to whet your appetite and have not yet been saturated by spoily bits, Marvel Studios has unveiled yet another official clip from The Avengers, the fifth so far.

The overwhelming tsunami of The Avengers promotion continues unabated in the days after the film's Hollywood premiere.  Today, we've got two video bits to hold you over until Marvel's mega movie actually arrives in theaters next month.  One is a brief clip straight from the film and the other is a featurette with some sweet bass and much interpersonal conflict.  Both will make comic book fans with it were May 4th already.

By now, you're probably well aware that Marvel's The Avengers had its Hollywood premiere last night, generating a uniformly enthusiastic response, and the guaranteed-blockbuster is set to open Stateside in less than a month.  But what if there are still some surprises in store for audiences once the movie actually hits theaters?  Apparently, it's possible that one more scene from The Avengers has yet to be filmed, and according to one of the stars, an additional scene could be shot tonight.