If Sony’s main intention is to give the Spider-Man movie franchise a “younger” refreshed take rather than another sequel, they should consult someone who’s successfully done so in the past like Marvel scribe Brian Michael Bendis. This is the relative consensus among fans familiar with Bendis’ work on the Ultimate Spider-Man comic book series, which modernized the web head for a new generation of fans.

Both the studio and new Spider-Man director Mark Webb apparently agree with this sentiment as anyone following Bendis on Twitter found out after he told the world he “just spent a very interesting morning at Sony with the entire spidey movie team!! Very very cool stuff!!”

It’s a good time to be an Avengers fan!

This May we can look forward to a double dose of new Avenger books with some great creative teams behind them. Marvel recently showed off two similar ad campaigns for two not so similar books.

Last week came the announcement that Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita Jr. are teaming up to relaunch the classic Avengers book with issue #1 and this week word surfaced about the second Avengers series called Secret Avengers. The superstar creative team of Ed Brubaker and Mike Deodato will be bringing that story to life.

So far the classic Avengers series has five confirmed members on its roster — Hawkeye, Captain America, Spider-Woman, Thor, and Iron Man. (Bendis confirmed on Twitter that this is not the complete roster.)

Both titles launch in May.

It looks like Black Panther and War Machine might be two of the Secret Avengers but I have no idea about the others. Who do you think the Secret Avengers in the teasers are? Check out the covers here below.

Siege #2
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciller: Olivier Coipel
Inker: Mark Morales
Colorist: Laura Martin
Cover: Olivier Coipel; Gabriele Dellotto (variant)
Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99; Release date: February 3, 2010

As much as I enjoy Brian Michael Bendis‘ work on a variety of titles, his big event work at Marvel has generally left me cold. There weren’t a lot of things wrong with series like “House of M” or “Secret Invasion” per se, but the stories were never as exciting to me as they should have been. I think a lot of that can be blamed on their length. Fortunately, Bendis and Marvel made the wise decision to make their new event “Siege“ only four issues, which I think has forced Bendis to cut all the filler and get straight to the killer. And as it turns out, that killer is the Sentry.

Siege #2 finds Norman Osborn’s attack on Asgard in full swing, but unfortunately, he loses control of one major player, just as the Avengers are planning their counterattack. Ares has been one of Osborn’s big guns, but when the god of war finds out that he’s been played for a fool, he decides to take Norman out. Unfortunately, Norman has another big gun, and calls in the Sentry to take on Ares.

Marvel announced today who will be the new artist on The Avengers when the series relaunches in May with a new first issue.

Personal favorite artist John Romita Jr. will join writer Brian Michael Bendis as they launch what Marvel is calling “The Heroic Age.” [Read Marvel Comics Promises “˜Heroes Will Be Heroes Again’ In “˜Heroic Age’]

Along with the announcement came a new image from Romita, showing the new Captain America, Bucky Barnes. (Check it out here at right; click for larger, full view.)

We know that the new series will feature the return of the Big Three (that’s Captain America, Thor and Iron Man) to the Avengers, although we don’t know the rest of the team yet.

The Watchmen and Dark Knight films have ushered a darker, grittier super hero into our pop consciousness but it looks like Marvel is heading the opposite direction with their comics line.

For months now they’ve been hinting at a brighter, shinier future for their core superhero universe and with the solicitation of May’s Heroic Age branding Marvel has given us a first look at their plans for a post-Siege event

Currently Marvel produces four Avengers books (New Avengers, Dark Avengers, Mighty Avengers, and Avengers: The Initiative) which will all be canceled in lieu of a new core series — simply titled Avengers written by Brian Michael Bendis.

Bendis exclaimed in the story, “The ‘brand new day’ of the Heroic Age presents a tonal shift to optimism, a world filled with hope but quite hellish villains.”

Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada also noted that in the new branding for the Marvel line “heroes will be heroes again” featuring “a throwback to the early days of the Marvel Universe, with more of a swashbuckling feel.”