There used to be a time when only die-hard comic book fans knew what Stan Lee looked like. His likeness appeared in many of the Marvel comic books for the 60s, 70s, and 80s, but to the average person, he was nothing more than a guy with some shaded glasses. Then Hollywood started putting the guy in some movies. He’s never had a very big part, but to honor the man for helping to create some of the most legendary superheroes (and some of the biggest moneymakers for the movie business), Lee has been given customary cameos in almost every major movie that has been made from characters he helped create. Those who have seen The Amazing Spider-Man (which should be most of you faithful readers, by now) were treated to one of his best and funniest cameos yet. And with more Marvel movies coming down the pike, he’s sure to show up many times again. This gave us a chance to look back on his many appearances over the years and assemble a list of his ten best cameos. Excelsior!

Well, we do know that it’s not Black Panther (and remember those heady weeks – er, days – when we thought that might be true?), and apparently we’re now on the Guardians of the Galaxy beat (thanks to a report from Latino Review last week), but without any full confirmation on what the upcoming “secret” Marvel movie is, we’re left to play with hard and fast facts. Like release dates. Box Office Mojo reports, in what is surely a bit of pre-holiday clean-up, that the still-secret Marvel movie has now moved from May 16, 2014 to August 1, 2014. And, just like that, we’ve got nearly three more months to talk about this thing. Over at /Film, friend o’ the Rejects and superhero fans everywhere, Germain Lussier prognosticates that this move is, in fact, a confirmation that Guardians is this next Marvel film. His take holds that a late summer date is a far better choice for an unproven franchise that will be a “harder sell” in the earlier summer months. Giving it an August date gives it room to breathe – and succeed. With Comic-Con on the horizon, we’re surely in for some kind of big announcement on the project, so sit tight, Marvel fans.

When it was first announced that Disney had purchased Marvel Comics, the holy grail endgame of such an acquisition that instantly popped into every film fan’s head was that now the group of acclaimed artists working over at Disney’s Pixar wing could get their hands on a Marvel property and make an animated superhero movie that would blow everyone’s minds. With Pixar’s already full slate of projects and the murky details of who owns the film rights to which Marvel characters in what context, the idea was something of a long-shot, but when you get a couple companies under the same corporate umbrella like this and give executives the chance to start throwing around words like “synergy,” eventually anything becomes possible. The news that broke today isn’t quite that holy grail of Pixar making a Marvel movie, but it’s a team-up that brings us one step closer to that reality. For the first time ever, Disney is going to be making an animated Marvel movie. But, instead of Pixar, the artists handling this one are coming from that other wing of animators who work under the Disney corporate banner, Walt Disney Animation Studios. This is the studio that’s most recently brought us Tangled and Winnie the Pooh, and have Wreck-It Ralph set up for a release this fall.

Last week, the utterly shocking news broke that not only was Warner Bros. pursuing a Justice League movie, but it also was in no way at all ever influenced by the unbridled financial success of Marvel’s The Avengers. We can all believe that, can’t we? After all, we read it on the internet. With Man of Steel coming out next year and a no-brainer Batman reboot coming now that Christopher Nolan’s movies are wrapping up this summer, this is an opportunity for Warner Bros. and DC to set a new stage. Plus, with adaptations of The Flash and Lobo, and the potential for a Green Lantern reboot, Warner Bros. and DC have things laid out for them to work out very similar to the pre-Avengers line of films. But this is Hollywood, and so many things can go potentially wrong with a project like this. Here are seven ways Warner Bros. can avoid a potential disaster as they develop this film series.

A little over a week ago an Iron Man 3 set photo made its way around the Internet that had fans of comics scratching their collective heads. It showed what appeared to be James Badge Dale wearing the red, white, and blue armor that Norman Osborn donned in the recent comic book, “Dark Avengers,” where he performed superheroics under the name the Iron Patriot. This made no sense, as Osborn is a character that Sony has the exclusive movie rights to, and Dale was already reported as playing a cyborg character named Coldblood-7. The best theory we could come up with at the time was that the characters of Coldblood-7 and the Iron Patriot were getting merged for the upcoming film in order to create a fancy, new uber-villain – but it turns out this isn’t the case at all.

Sure, The Avengers being really awesome probably had a lot to do with the fact that it’s now the third most money-making movie of all time. But, more than that, the film probably has Marvel’s long term planning to thank for its extreme level of success. Instead of just making a movie about a team of superheroes, Marvel first introduced each member of the team in their own films, they dropped hints about the fact that they would all be coming together at some point, and, when it was all said and done, The Avengers finally premiered after six years of build-up and anticipation. That’s pretty unprecedented. Seeing as they own DC Comics, Warner Bros also has a fairly impressive stable of superheroes at their command. And they’ve even managed to leverage their properties into a bunch of successful animated television shows in the past. But, in recent years, the only character they’ve had any real success with in the live-action feature format is Batman. They’re not even close to doing something with DC’s premier superhero team, The Justice League, that could be on par with what Marvel did with The Avengers.

Joss Whedon’s The Avengers capped off the supposed first phase of Marvel’s cinematic superhero domination in spectacular fashion. It currently sits as the third highest-grossing film of all time (not accounting for inflation), but more importantly, it’s a damn entertaining film. Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige recently laid out parts of phase two, which included sequels to Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man, but he also left two titles unannounced. Confirmation on those mystery titles will most likely come during this summer’s Comic-Con, but that hasn’t stopped the speculation. The Avengers 2 seems obvious. Ant-Man is high on fans’ wish lists. The Vision is absent on most polls. But now it looks like we know the identity of at least one of them, thanks to Latino Review. They broke this scoop earlier today which, judging by their past history, pretty much makes it official. One of the previously unannounced Marvel films is going to be…

Seeing as the Iron Man franchise is coming up on its third film – and the first that’s seeing a changeover of directors – one might think that Marvel would be hedging their bets with it and lowering their expectations. How many times will audiences really keep coming back to watch Robert Downey Jr. playing the same snarky character? And even if the love for this take on Tony Stark can last indefinitely, will the loss of franchise launcher Jon Favreau in the role of director lead to Iron Man 3 being tonally different from its predecessors? And if so, how will Downey’s smitten audience react to going in for more Iron Man and getting something that feels unfamiliar? When it comes to an aging franchise that’s in the midst of creative turnover, one would imagine that a movie studio would start playing things a little bit safe. But seeing as The Avengers just came out and pretty much scooped up all of the money left in the global economy and became an international topic of culture conversation, that’s not the direction they’ve decided to go. Marvel heroes are the “in thing” right now, and their new-found level of relevance has led the studio to believe that they can do more.

Now that The Avengers is a Hulk-sized hit on North American shores as well as overseas, the big question is what will Joss Whedon do next. As seen in this interview with Collider, the man appears to be pretty damn tired from this monster film that officially wrapped only a couple weeks ago. But Hollywood moves fast, and Marvel Studios moves even faster. Acolytes of Whedon are sounding the charge as if a revolution has occurred that makes the later seasons of his shows pale in comparison. The question is will Whedon be courted by the inevitable Avengers 2? Will he resurrect his TV series onto the big screen? Will Neil Patrick Harris be involved in any way? Here are the main options Whedon has before him.

Every Girl’s Guide to The Avengers By Internet Princess Quartney Vagington Hey, gurrrrls! It’s your BFF Quartney Vagington! I’m gonna save your cute butts again, so get ready to thank me. Your boyfriend has probably looked up from his Xbox a couple times in the last week to say, “Dude, we gotta see The Avengers on Friday! It looks totally sick!” I know Trevor has! I just rolled my eyes and was like, “LOL, whatever you want, honey-bun,” and then I went back to texting. But guess what, bitches? He’s totes serious about it! Your boyfriend is too, unless he’s like a dork or whatever, in which case, ew, why are you dating a dork? Anyways, me and Trevor are gonna see The Avengers on Friday cuz it’s his turn to choose the movie, cuz he let me choose which Olive Garden we went to last week (the nice one, or the one close to Pinkberry), and so I was like, “Aah! I don’t know what these dumb comic book movies are about!” So then I was like, “Help me, Facebook, LOL!” And so then Facebook was like, “Here are some Tumblrs and Wikis about it!” So you guys, I totally did some research to help you know what the eff is going on when you see “The Avengers” with your boyfriend! You can thank me later, I accept Hot Topic gift cards, LOL. (P.S. if you do not have a boyfriend then I don’t know what to tell you

It’s been open overseas for a week, already raking in more than $200m, and now The Avengers is landing on U.S. soil with one of the biggest summer openings in history. But does that mean you should see it now? Or do you wait for home video? Sure, there’s plenty of arguments as to why you can wait, including obnoxious crowds, high ticket prices, and the general hassle of getting your butt off the couch and driving to your local multiplex. However, here are seven ultimate reasons should convince you to, paraphrasing Shakespeare, “Get thee to a theater!” and witness Marvel’s greatest achievement in superhero movies.

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a new superhero movie kicking off the summer movie season. Joss Whedon’s The Avengers assembles Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain American (along with Hawkeye and Black Widow, neither of whom got their own movie). Many superhero fans are preparing for this release by watching the first five films from Marvel Studios, which lead up to this blockbuster: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America. Or, they’re planning on seeing them in a long-form marathon leading up to the midnight release of The Avengers. Both are good ideas. Whether you watch these films on video at home or are doing so at a theater that serves alcohol, assemble some adult beverages for yourself and play along.

After a lengthy and very structured lead up to Marvel Studios’ big 2012 release, The Avengers, the future of the film studio is looking up in the air for the first time in a long time. We know that Thor 2 and Captain America 2 are in the works, we know that quite a bit of work has been done preparing Iron Man 3, and there’s even been some talk about Edgar Wright’s Ant Man finally getting made – but what about films for the other members of The Avengers? What about films to introduce new characters who might take part in an Avengers 2? It’s starting to look like the first stages of those plans could be getting put together, with talks that could amount to yet another relaunch of the Hulk franchise. Whether or not Marvel is seriously considering a third attempt at a modern Hulk solo story is in contention, but what’s clear is that the way early audiences are responding to the character’s involvement in The Avengers has the idea fresh on everyone at the studio’s minds. Both Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige and Marvel Entertainment’s President of Consumer Products for North America Paul Gitter have commented on the possibility of new Hulk material in recent interviews, but their outlooks on the matter see Marvel sending out a mixed message.

Now that The Avengers is wrapped and ready to premiere, work is moving full speed ahead on the next installment of the Marvel heroes’ saga, Iron Man 3. Though the first two Iron Man movies were made under the watch of Jon Favreau, this one is being put together by director Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), and if there was ever any doubt that he would be able to live up to what Favreau did with the property, the casting he’s been doing is starting to erase it. First off, Black needed a villain, so he went out and got one of the most experienced and acclaimed actors working today, Ben Kingsley, and signed him up. Now he’s in need of someone who looks good in a lab coat, so he’s gone out and gotten one of the most underrated and underutilized actors in Hollywood. According to Variety, Guy Pearce (L.A. Confidential, Memento) will be joining the likes of Kingsley, Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, and Don Cheadle in the Iron Man 3 cast, and he’ll be playing the role of geneticist Aldrich Killian.

Perhaps we’re being a bit too on the nose, but it gets the job done. Disney and Marvel have released a new set of character posters for The Avengers in which all of The Avengers get their own character posters. There really isn’t much more to it than that. Captain America? Poster. Thor? Poster. The Hulk? Sharing a poster with Hawkeye. But alas, if you saw that previous one-sheet and thought, “Damn, I wish they would break that poster up so that I could just see Nick Fury with Agent Maria Hill standing awkwardly behind him, we’ve got a surprise for you. Check out the character banners just after the jump. The Avengers is in theaters May 4.

Say what you will about AMC theaters being one of the central powers in the heartless, corporate multiplex system that currently controls film exhibition in this country; over the past couple years they’ve really made an effort to put together some cool events that cater to film fans. Whether it’s their yearly marathons of the Best Picture Nominees, or special re-releases for classic films hitting anniversaries, or themed marathons promoting a big release, AMC proves that, even in the multiplex, love for the movies isn’t dead. And, you know, they have to be making profits off of these things or they wouldn’t keep doing them, but let’s focus on the love right now. Their latest marathon will be taking place on Thursday, May 3rd, in conjunction with the release of Marvel’s big tentpole feature The Avengers. Starting at 11:30 a.m. participating theaters will be running through all of the Marvel Studios movies that have become the build to The Avengers, all culminating with the midnight premiere of the new film. Keeping track of these superhero movies is hard though, and it feels like Samuel L. Jackson has showed up after the credits of half the movies released over the last few years, so exactly which movies will AMC be screening?

People have been talking about making a Doctor Strange film for years now. But seeing as how the Sorcerer Supreme isn’t as well known a name as, and is a whole lot weirder than other super heroes, the project has never emerged as a priority over at Marvel Films. That might be ready to change though. Marvel’s real heavyweight franchises are Spider-Man and The X-Men, but Sony and Fox are still controlling their film rights respectively. They had a series of second tier characters that they are in direct control of, but at this point they’ve already brought most of them to the big screen and have them poised to team up in next year’s The Avengers. With all of their biggest names out of their hands or already starring in movies, the only option they have to create new movies at this point is to start moving forward with more obscure heroes. It comes as no surprise, then, that Twitch is reporting the long rumored Doctor Strange project is beginning its first stages of moving forward in a real way. The last news on the subject of a Marvel made mystical movie was that Thomas Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer had been tasked with the job of coming up with a script. Reportedly, that script has now been turned in and Marvel is shopping it around to potential directors to “oversee continued development.”

Here’s something cool for your Monday morning. Or afternoon, depending on your time zone and commitment to sleeping in. Marvel.com has revealed a full promotional banner for The Avengers, which is now the next big Marvel film event. In short, it’s going to be the Marvel event now that Captain America is out in the wild. Prepare yourself for months of inundation in Avengers, Avengers, Avengers. Anyone have objections to that? I didn’t think so. Moving on…

He might not be the richest Avenger. It’s pretty hard to compete with the billions upon billions Tony Stark living on, but Captain America does hold the 2011 title. At least for opening weekend numbers. Captain America: The First Avenger topped Thor by just over $100,000 to have the biggest opening for a super hero movie this Summer. Yeah, that’s a pretty in-depth quantifier that only puts it in contention with three other movies, but when those movies are Thor ($65.7m opening), X-Men: First Class ($55.1m opening), and Green Lantern ($53.1m opening), you can go ahead and hand out the bragging rights. Of course, The First Avenger came nowhere near the opening numbers for either of the Iron Man movies, and Marvel and Disney may start moving towards pimping Robert Downey, Jr. in their Avengers marketing if they want next Summer’s film to have massive numbers.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr goes retro this week and injects himself with strange chemicals in an attempt to become a World War II era super soldier. Hop over to the Fat Guys at the Movies page to see if his physique has reached the pinnacle of that of Chris Evans from Captain America. After recovering from the procedure, Kevin randomly wandering the streets, looking for hot ladies like Mila Kunis who just want to have sex but with no emotional baggage of a relationship. Sadly, this will probably end up as empty and worthless as his similar attempt last January when No Strings Attached came out.