The First ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Trailer Is Here, and It Is Everything!

This is it: Every movie in the Marvel Studios line of superhero films has been leading up to Avengers: Infinity War, and the House of Ideas has finally dropped the first trailer promoting its ultimate achievement. If this movie tanks, all 18 films Marvel has put on the screen over the past 10 years will have been for nothing.

But from the looks of this trailer, AIW will not tank. In fact, it looks like the biggest, baddest superhero movie ever. It looks positively epic!

Not only do we get to see Peter Parker’s Spidey Sense make its franchise debut, we get a bearded Captain America, a blonde Black Widow, Thanos without his helmet, Doctor Strange, Loki wielding the Cosmic Cube… I mean, the Tesseract, the cool Black Panther — and those A-holes, the Guardians of the Galaxy!

Take a deep breath. Just breathe.

Latest ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ Trailer Adds Dr. Strange, Removes Arena

The international trailer, released overseas to promote Thor: Ragnarok contains not only some shocking new revelations but a distinct shift in emphasis for Marvel’s superhero buddy/road flick and surefire fall blockbuster.

The latest promo clip reveals that Benedict Cumberbatch‘s Doctor Strange makes an appearance – obviously repaying the favor of Thor (Chris Hemsworth) showing up in Doctor Strange‘s post-credits sequence last fall.

But Doc’s appearance here seems meatier, with Cumberbatch’s basso profundo voice bearing an ominous warning for the God of Thunder about his new destiny. Doc is not generally known for fortune-telling parlor tricks, so the change he senses in Odinson’s future much be pretty significant.

Look! A ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ Synopsis at Last!

Disney has finally released a synopsis for Thor: Ragnarok that at least hints at how the movie will tie together the dangling plot threads from Thor: The Dark World, the “Planet Hulk” comic book story and the “Twilight of the Gods” tale from Norse mythology — not to mention a guest appearance by Doctor Strange, the villainous plotting of Hela, queen of the underworld, and, of course, Loki.

Fans have known for some time that these story elements would be involved on the third Thor solo (or “solo”) movie, but not how. Check this out to see if it helps:

In Marvel Studios’ Thor: Ragnarok, Thor is imprisoned on the other side of the universe without his mighty hammer and finds himself in a race against time to get back to Asgard to stop Ragnarok — the destruction of his homeworld and the end of Asgardian civilization — at the hands of an all-powerful new threat, the ruthless Hela. But first he must survive a deadly gladiatorial contest that pits him against his former ally and fellow Avenger — the Incredible Hulk!

Wishful Drinking: Marvel-Themed Absolut Bottles

This “Absolut x Marvel” line isn’t real, but maybe — if enough folks post about it and the right marketing people get wind of it — the campaign could become a reality.

The good folks over at CBR first spotted these bottles, by Indonesian designer Krizia Soetaniman, who came up with the idea to combine the Absolut bottle with minimalist portraits of Marvel characters Captain America, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Thor, Hulk and — yes, really — Iron Man, along with baddies Venom and Magneto.

While this is liquor line is certainly not for children (or, seriously, alcoholic Tony Stark!), surely there are enough Marvel fans of legal drinking age around the world to justify putting this into production!

Avengers’ Solo Posters Released

After the release of the newest group poster promoting Avengers: Age of Ultron, Marvel Studios has been releasing a collection of solo images highlighting Earth’s Mightiest Heroes individually — and they are pretty impressive.

ETA: Hawkeye’s solo poster

A:AoU will be released May 1.

Full ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ Poster

Here’s that elaborate poster for Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron in all its robot-fightin’ glory.

Say, is that the Vision in the upper left, way in the back, acting all float-y? I think it is!

I wonder when the movie opens…?

New Faces Taking Over for Two Avengers

Sam Wilson as Captain America

Female Thor

Sam Wilson as the Falcon

Male Thor

Two of Marvel Comics’ most popular characters — Captain America and Thor — are undergoing big changes in the pages of their comic books: an African-American will wield Cap’s shield, while Thor’s hammer will be toted by a woman!

Following the events in Captain America #21 — in which Steve Rogers’ super soldier serum was neutralized, causing him to age 65 years in a flash — Cap’s frequent sidekick Sam Wilson a.k.a the Falcon dons the iconic costume in October’s Captain America #25 and will fight on in the new ongoing series All-New Captain America in the fall, to be scripted by current Captain America writer Rick Remender and All-New X-Men artist Stuart Immonen, The official announcement was made by Marvel Entertainment’s Chief Creative Officer, Joe Quesada, last night on THE COLBERT REPORT.

Big AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. Tie-In to Movie Universe? Uh, Not So Much…

Remember all the hype about how Marvel’s AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. would be set in the same universe as the Marvel movies and we could expect events from the big and small screen to at least have an influence on each other? Well, Marvel is now backing away from that idea.

Take last week’s guest appearance on MAoS by the Lady Sif (Jaimie Alexander), a major player in Thor’s movie series. Like most people, I expected this to be a major event, not merely ratings-bait stunt casting — especially since Sif was to go up against Lorelei, the sister of the Enchantress, who is expected to be one of the baddies in the eventual Thor 3 movie.

Perhaps Enchantress might be angry about her little sister’s treatment on the TV show? Don’t hold your breath…

Chris Hemsworth Praises Joss and ‘Avengers’ Sequel Script

The mighty Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth, told the Wizard World Sacramento (Calif.) Comic Con over the weekend that he’s ready to pick up the hammer for his fourth sortie as the Norse god of thunder in Avengers: Age of Ultron — which will be truly massive in scope thanks to writer/director Joss Whedon.

“I’m really excited to start Avengers 2 in two months and get back on set. We’re going to meet in London and shoot there for four months, so I’m excited to get back together with everyone and catch up.

“Everything is ramped up. It kind of blew me away, reading [it]. I don’t know how Joss does it, but everyone has gone up another notch, and the whole thing is bigger and more exciting and crazier. Yeah, he’s a genius.”

Avengers: Age of Ultron is slated to open May 1, 2015.

Deleted Scene: Thor Fights While Loki Sneers

Here is a brief fight sequence that was deleted from the theatrical version of Thor: The Dark World. In it, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) battles some Asgardian guards to escape the palace with a captive Loki (Tom Hiddleston). Clearly, the scene was left unfinished, as the “heroic” sound effects have not been added.

Thor: The Dark World is out on DVD/Blu-ray and whatever other technology is out there…