I don’t know if you saw a little film last year called The Avengers. I know it flew under a lot of people’s radars, so I’m not surprised if you missed it. If you were one of the few people who went to see The Avengers and you stuck through the credits you got a quick shot of Thanos, one of the major bad guys in the Marvel Universe. Well, Marvel comics has been pushing Thanos to the forefront ever since the movie came out with a big role in the first arc of Avengers Assemble, and now he’s getting a limited series detailing his origin titled Thanos Rising. The series comes out in April and features the writing talent of Jason Aaron (Wolverine and the X-Men, Astonishing Thor) and art by Simone Bianchi (Wolverine, Shining Knight).

This will be the first time Aaron and Bianchi have worked together, so we get arguably Marvel’s best writer teaming up with a fantastic artist with a beautiful painted style. Add in a big time character and you get one exciting mini-series. Check out the cover for the first issue of Thanos Rising below and make sure you pre-order this series from whatever source you get your comics from.

To say that Joss Whedon is overwhelmingly busy would probably be an understatement. The guy is currently writing and will direct The Avengers 2; he’s an executive producer for the planned S.H.I.E.L.D. television series, and he’s a creative consultant for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not only that, but he also has to push his contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing in the summer. So yeah, he’s got a lot on his plate. But somehow he finds the time to attend events, and at a recent function, he shared a few things about the status of The Avengers 2, S.H.I.E.L.D., and his involvement in creating the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Whedon told MTV that The Avengers 2 has an outline and that the script should be ready in a few months. On the tone of the film, he said that The Avengers 2 would go deeper instead of bigger. Honestly after a huge battle like the one we saw in the first film, it be nice to get a more personal story and take a step back from the big hefty action. Apparently he wants to go so deep and personal that it will be painful.

Stan Lee, who almost singlehandedly (along with illustrators Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko) turned the fortunes of Marvel Comics around with his colorful and lucrative comic character creations, such as Spider-Man, The Hulk, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, Iron Man, and Thor, and started a revolution in print and eventually television and film media which helped make him and the comic book industry a somewhat credible, facile establishment, with annual earnings reaching untold BILLIONS, turns 90 years old today!

Born in the Upper West Side of Manhattan in 1922 as Stanley Lieber, and growing up in poor squalor type surroundings during The Great Depression of the 1930s, Lee found his solace in plenty of books and cinema of that period, in particular the exploits of the characters made famous by old school actor Errol Flynn, best remembered for his portrayal of swashbucklers and Robin Hood. It led to Lee’s writing pastime, which then led to small time gigs where he wrote obits and press releases.

Each and every week “Comet” Henchman21 AND “Cupid” MK2Fac3 read a lot of comics. Seriously you guys, a lot of comics. Maybe too many comics. I mean, it is possible”¦ theoretically. Naturally, they looks forward to some more than others. I mean, who doesn’t? So, let’s take a look into the depths of their pull lists, grab some comics, and they’ll let YOU know what the top books to look forward to are for the week of December 19, 2012. Single issues and trades, they’re all here.

We’re only a few days in and the comic companies have blessed us with one of those weeks where they drop a bunch of amazing issues at the same time. So, you better have a good bit of cash available this week, because your local comic shop is gonna be very happy once they get through with you. So settle in because there is a lot to check out on this edition of The GoD List!

Avengers #1
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Jerome Opena
Cover by Dustin Weaver
Marvel Comics
Release Date: December 5, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

Perhaps the most exciting new entry on the Marvel Now! series of comics is Avengers. Jonathan Hickman has taken over this series from the very capable hands of Brian Michael Bendis. Hickman made a name for himself with his work on Ultimate Fantastic Four, then the regular FF bock, and then the Future Foundation series. Hickman brought a sense of science fiction to the Fantastic Four which fit that series perfectly. Fantastic Four has always been a sci-fi series, sort of Lost in Space, Star Trek, and a family dramedy all in one. He has big shoes to fill stepping into the Avengers and now with issue #1 of the series we get a look at what his big plans are.

Rather than step out of his science fiction comfort zone, Hickman has brought those sensibilities to what has been a fairly earthbound book. The initial reaction I had is, awesome! The new villains are very reminiscent of something you’d see in one of the cosmic books such as Silver Surfer or even Fantastic Four and in this first issue it was interesting to set Earth’s Mightiest Heroes up against them.