Phase 2 properly kicks off Stateside tomorrow with the release of Iron Man 3, so that means it's time to start getting all lathered up about Thor: The Dark World, this year's other Marvel Studios sequel following an Avenger on his next solo adventure.

In order to ensure we remember what Chris Hemsworth looks like as Thor, Marvel has released a new image of the star in his redesigned Asgardian costume.

Synopsis: In the aftermath of Marvel’s Thor and Marvel’s The Avengers, Thor fights to restore order across the cosmos…but an ancient race led by the vengeful Malekith returns to plunge the universe back into darkness. Faced with an enemy that even Odin and Asgard cannot withstand, Thor must embark on his most perilous and personal journey yet, one that will reunite him with Jane Foster and force him to sacrifice everything to save us all.

The very first trailer for this fall's Thor: The Dark World has galloped across the Rainbow Bridge to Migdard.

Listen, we here at IAR are suckers for any trailer where an Anthony Hopkins makes profound voiceover declarations, so we're biased, but we think the second of three Phase 2 solo sequels looks damn promising.

Remember how the God of Thunder vowed to return to Midgard in order to reunite with his human lover in Thor, then didn't even throw a "Yo, girl" her way in The Avengers.  True, there were extenuating circumstances, but Thor didn't even text Jane Foster.

Well, Marvel Studios has released a pair of new official images from this year's Thor: The Dark World, and two of the big creative figures on the movie have discussed some story elements, confirming that Thor's going to be in the doghouse for avoiding Jane whilst saving the world.

With just two weeks until Iron Man 3 kicks off Phase 2 Stateside, Marvel Studios is hitting the promotional gas on its other 2013 sequel featuring a member of The Avengers.

The first teaser poster for Thor: The Dark World, due in theaters on November 8th, is currently making the rounds online.

The entirety of the Marvel Cinematic Phase 2 sneak peek featurette is pretty much pornographic in its hype-building, its explicit laying out of first look goodies from the next two years of Marvel Studios.

We're talking about reams of revealing behind the scenes footage from Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World, along with concept art and animatics from Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy.  And the video even provides our first look at Edgar Wright's proof-of-concept test reel for Ant-Man.

Also, Joss Whedon reports promising things about The Avengers 2, even though it's early in the process of building the sequel.

Hey everybody, we've got a bumper crop of goodies from Marvel Studios' Phase 2.

These run from a featurette snippet focused on the first post-The Avengers effort, Iron Man 3, to a quartet of revealing pieces of concept art, and news on where The Avengers will actually shoot.

In addition to Dark Elves running amok, Asgardians being all noble, and no small amount of Mjolnir-swining action, this year's Thor sequel will apparently include a very small appearance by Chris O'Dowd.

In the most offhand way possible, O'Dowd himself reveals that he filmed what sounds like a cameo in Thor: The Dark World, which arrives in theaters on November 8th.

Marvel Studios President of Production Kevin Feige is a third-degree black belt in the deadly art of offering vague yet exciting insights into the always eagerly-anticipated upcoming Marvel movies. 

Today, he's talking up all the forthcoming films of Phase 2, especially Guardians of the Galaxy, which he says takes place almost exclusively in outer space and is much more of a standalone movie than fans might anticipate.

As a general rule, it's a good idea to put Guy Pearce in your movie.  Shane Black obviously knows that, because he cast Pearce in this summer's Iron Man 3.  Marvel Studios knows it too, because a new character poster from the sequel shows off Pearce in as Dr. Aldrich Killian.