The new Marvel Cinematic Universe Blu-ray box set released on Tuesday contained a plethora of exclusive supplemental goodies not available anywhere else, including concept art from several of Marvel’s upcoming features. Most interestingly enough, the set also includes a selection of deleted scenes from Iron Man 2 and The Avengers that were not among the bonus features line-up on their respective DVD/Blu-ray releases.
Now, those scenes are available for our viewing pleasure online.

You can watch all of the videos here below, including a short featurette also included on the box set.

I’m going to need to program Thanos into my spell checker since it looks like I’m going to be typing his name a lot over the next few years. Marvel Comics bad guy Thanos has already shown up in the pages of Avengers Assemble, and will soon have his own miniseries titled Thanos Rising, and he will also be featured in Marvel’s 2013 Free Comic Book Day offering.

Titled Free Comic Book Day 2013: Infinity, the issue will be written by Jonathan Hickman (Avengers, Manhattan Projects) with art by Jim Cheung (Avengers: Children’s Crusade). The story will feature the start to the next big Marvel event, as well as having a sneak peak at said event and a reprint of Thanos’ first solo story.

Check out the cover below and you can pick up the issue, as well as many other free issues from almost every other comic publisher, by heading down to your local comic store on May 4th, 2013 for Free Comic Book Day.

Disney and Marvel Studios premiered a 30-second TV spot for their next huge superhero epic Iron Man 3 during tonight’s Super Bowl. Now an extended version has made its way onto the Internet.

You can watch it here below.

After franchise star Robert Downey Jr. engages us in the greatest staring contest in the recorded history of mankind (he wins), we are treated to a solid minute of footage from the movie. It all comes in lighting quick glimpses, but eagle-eyed viewers will catch Ben Kingsley as the main heavy the Mandarin, Guy Pearce as Dr. Aldrich Killian, Don Cheadle suited up as a more patriotic War Machine, and a smashing finale where ol’ Shellhead has to make a mid-air rescue of thirteen people who have just been sucked out of an exploding aircraft when he can only carry four at a time. As Tony Stark would say, “Oh boy.”

I think it has been enough time for all of us to come back down to Earth after taking the magical carpet ride that was The Avengers this past summer. The second phase of Marvel Films’ master plan to conquer the world of comic book blockbusters and make DC Comics their simpering puppet is well under way with Iron Man 3 first out of the gate in May, Thor: The Dark World in production now with a release set for this November, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy fast approaching the start of filming in anticipation of their theatrical bows next year, and The Avengers 2…. well I’m sure the production offices are open and someone’s paying the electric and water bills.

Obviously people are now looking to the future and the elusive Phase 3 of the Mighty Marvel Movie Universe to see what the studio that is reaping the riches from bringing their four-color classics to the big screen the way they were meant to be seen has in store for us once The Avengers 2 inevitably reduces us all to quivering nerd puddles come May 2015. The only title in Phase 3 that has been announced so far is Ant-Man, which has Edgar Wright sitting pretty in the director’s chair and his frequent collaborator (and writer and director of 2011’s awesome sci-fi adventure Attack the Block) Joe Cornish co-writing the script with Wright.

The teaser ending of Marvel’s The Avengers featuring the cosmic entity known as Thanos got many Marvel Comics fans excited, to put it mildly. If you’re new to the scene or just never followed the character before, now is your chance to learn who he is and what sort of threat he could be posing in both comic book and film form.

Thanos spent most of his time loitering in cosmic-related books such as Fantastic Four or the various incarnations of Silver Surfer and sometimes visiting the X world. Marvel is launching a new limited series as part of Marvel NOW! titled Thanos Rising which promises to give us the skinny on one ticked off bad guy. The creative team of writer Jason Aaron (Thor: God Of Thunder) and artist Simone Bianchi (Wolverine) have been tasked with telling this epic story in just five issues.

Check out the cover for Thanos Rising #1 here below.