Also in this extra long episode is news of the Cap, Iron Man, and Thor movies as well as Spider-Woman being put on hiatus and other news of note!

Music "Baby Jump", "Great Delight", "Goodbye Marsian Girl" provided by Don Taylor, Frenz, and mjc respectively. For more great podsafe music visit www.podsafeaudio.com!

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Also visit us at the comic forums at the Avengers Assemble forums!

Other links:

Spideydude.com

The Clone Sage Chronicles Podcast

Burning Talking Points blog & Podcast

First off, the Iron Man 2 movie site is open!

There's lots of cool stuff there like exclusive pictures, wallpapers, buddy icons, bio's, and just an extremely slick interface. Check it out!

Second: here is Part 2 of Matt Fraction's interview with Marvel.com as well as a feature on a new character/armor called Detroit Steel apparently starring Robert Loggia.

Third: Comic Book Resources has a featurette up on their website on the Iron Man 2 videogame by Sega. Personally speaking, I have really low expectations for this game and I fully expect it to suck. Mostly because this is Sega and they haven't produced anything fun in ages. But maybe it'll be a pleasant surprise and hell the graphics look pretty nice.

In other Avengers Assemble podcast related news:

• Zack, Walter, and myself are going to cover Siege #1-3 as well as the New and Dark Avengers tie ins for the next episode which should be out by early to mid April.

• Also look out for Juan, Stella, and myself to cover Brian Bendis's Spider-Woman book which has now ended with issue #7.

Marvel.com has a pretty cool interview with Matt Fraction concerning how he came to discover Iron Man, what he digs about both Tony Stark and the Iron Man suit, and some of the synergy between the first Iron Man movie and the Invincible Iron Man ongoing comic.

It's part 1 of what I'm assuming is a 2 part interview but worth checking out nonetheless. By the way, for those wanting to read some of the Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger story, Marvel just recently released a premier hardcover with a sweet cover!

Instocktrades has it for a pretty good price so definitely make it a purchase!

Marvel.com has a new feature up called "Avengers Fridays" where they spotlight a specific Avengers character an go through their costume history.

It's pretty neat, check it out.

New Mutants #11 comes out next week (3/31/2010). This book may seem like something of an odd duck to tie into the Siege stuff but it's actually rooted in Dani Moonstar's pact with Hela during Matt Fraction's Utopia crossover between the Dark Avengers and the Uncanny X-Men.

So far I'm digging the preview, especially for Niko Henrichon's art. That guy's art is fabulous and my jaw drops every time I see it.

- Will

Brian Bendis does some Siege #3 commentary with Ben Morse, I thought his statement at the end was pretty damn funny.

Warren Ellis/Adi Granov's Iron Man Extremis storyline becomes a web comic and Marvel's released a trailer for it here:

I think Warren and Adi's take on Iron Man was great and set a new precedent for Tony Stark and Iron Man by setting a new definitive direction. The Knaufs pretty much ran with the ball and Iron Man continued his progressive streak in certain ways with Civil War before turning into that story's semi-villain. Admittedly, it's kind of weird seeing 3D in a motion comic but I suppose this hybridization is to be expected.

Looks pretty cool so far though.

And finally in more Iron Man news here's a neat international poster for Iron Man 2:

Here's an interesting observation, Black Widow has a S.H.I.E.L.D. badge. Although I can't help but feel that the poster is missing something, seems a little too cobbled together and I think the composition could use some work. But otherwise a nice composite overall.

- Will

Much news has hit the world of the Avengers such as roster announcements for the Avengers titles (or lackthereof for Secret Avengers) and some solicitation information for the aforementioned books. Plus Chris Evans is Captain America!

Other items!

The Savage Axe of Ares:

It appears that Ares won't go down without a fight. This one shot is similar to those other black and white one shots that Marvel tends to release every once and a while like the previous Shang Chi, Iron Man, and Dr. Strange black and white one shots. I'll be looking forward to this one as I'm always a sucker for more Ares stories.

*pours a beer for my homie Ares*

Avengers Day:

Lots of goodies in store for participating stores for Avengers day. The downside? $3.99 books all across the board.

I'm hoping to put out a Cap Reborn episode in the near future with Stella and Juan as well as a Siege related episode with Zack and Walter and perhaps even another guest. Anyway, keep watching out for this space and see you at the message boards!

- Will

In this spotlight episode Scott, Juan, and Will discuss Hawkeye's 1983 mini series by the talents of Mark Gruenwald,  Brett Breeding, Danny Bulanadi, and Bob Sharon. Also included are discussions about Clint's current role as Ronin and beyond!

So sit back, relax, and enjoy!

Music by Mofessor "Mos Mackin live  Macs" and Scottish Guitar Quartet's "See You In Seattle" provided by Podsafeaudio.com.

Also please be sure to leave any forum comments you may have, we would love to hear from you.

It looks like the New Avengers are being relaunched and the first new set of reveals show Luke Cage to be a part of this team which is fine. I think his tenure as an Avenger will always be looked upon as memorable because of his affiliation with the New Avengers.

I also think that he works much better as part of the New Avengers since he'd more than likely be overshadowed by some of the big guns in the Avengers book proper. I'm really glad that Stuart Immonen is staying on board for the forseeable future as he's been doing such a dynamite job with the New Avengers book pre-Siege and during.

I just hope that the final piece of the creator puzzle gets filled in by Dave McCaig on colors since I'm such a big fan of his coloring style. Rock on Dave!

Picture of Dave McCaig below:

Here are some cool Avengers items:

Sif One Shot - The Thor book hasn't had a whole lot of Sif moments since her comeback aside from the Thor Defining Moments Giant Size #1 issue which was JMS's last issue of his run. So this helps alleviate the lack of Sif, and I've always thought that she was more interesting when paired off with Beta Ray Bill than Thor.

I love the Travel Foreman cover seen here and I really hope that Matt Fraction gets to work with Travel on Thor since the guy is such an underrated and yet phenomenal talent.

Marvel.com's Top 10 New Avengers - As the New Avengers era comes to a close Marvel.com looks back on their top 10 New Avengers. I can't really argue with that particular list either as I happen to love all of the characters on that team and I found that even if they weren't the most powerful Avengers team they had a deeper level of camaraderie and team dynamic than most other Avengers rosters.

Siege #3 Preview up at IGN.com! - IGN scoops up yet another exclusive preview with Siege #3 and this has some amazing art by Olivier Coipel. The only minor quibble I have amidst all that art goodness is Olivier's Ronin. His arms seem kind of short and the swords seem rather large, however it almost seems like a homage to New Avengers #11.

Looking very much forward to where Brian takes Siege.

Apparently a bunch of actors have been test screening for the role, most of whom are an unknown quantity. Of the 6, I really only knew about John Krasinski and Mike Vogel due to The Office and Cloverfield but outside of them I've never seen these other guys before. Which is good since it bring less baggage to the Cap role.

But without further ado here are the 6 actors in the running:

John Krasinski, Patrick Flueger,  Chase Crawford, Scott Porter, Mike Vogel, and Michael Cassidy

Overall some interesting choices although I'd personally eliminate John Krasinski first since he just doesn't really seem ideal for the role.

ALSO! Scott Gardner, Juan Castro and myself have just recorded the very first Avengers Assemble Spotlight episode on Hawkeye who was the winner of the "Pick an Avenger to spotlight" so expect that episode to go up within the end of this week.

 - Will

Marvel released an image of yet another new trade dress for Matt Fraction's Invincible Iron Man book and being a graphic designer I can't help but dissect this.

I'm not sure if this is being done on an arc by arc basis or if this is going to be the new permanent trade dress until another one comes along further down the line but so far I think it looks fairly cool. While it doesn't have the vibrant colors and magazine'like layout of the "Stark Disassembled" story arc, it seems to be going for more of a darker, moodier, movie style of look. It also seems to place added emphasis on the lighting (also provided by Iron Man's "Christmas lights" armor) and shadows. 

I like the typography and the artwork by Salvador Larroca (one of the best tech artists around) looks great but I'm not sure if the positioning of the text really works. The casual fan would have read the name of the book and the credits of the authors on a tilt which seems a little uneccessary.

I suppose it does place more emphasis on the image in that way but it does seem a little wonky in that regard. Anyway, I'm excited to see the new armor in the interior pages and I'll also be interested in seeing other artist depictions of it given how much of a drawing and coloring nightmare this sucker's going to be.

For the original picture of the armor just check out our New Iron Man armor thread and let us know what you think!

- Will