Robert Downey Jr. plays billionaire Tony Stark (Iron Man’s not-at-all secret identity) in the Marvel Studios movies, and he’s looking to make some pretty good money himself as a result of the phenomenal box office success of Avengers.

The Hollywood Reporter cites “multiple knowledgeable sources” that RDJ is looking to take home $50 million from the picture, which includes back-end compensation and bonuses. After the success of the first Iron Man, Downey’s reps negotiated a deal where he would make a percentage of the profits from any Marvel movie where he plays the character — with The Hollywood Reporter says could be as high as 5 to 7 percent, though no concrete numbers are publicly known.

As far as the rest of the cast, THR’s sources say that Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner and Mark Ruffalo will all make about $2 to $3 million from Avengers, with Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson making around twice that. Avengers currently sits at a worldwide total of $1,016,095,436, according to Box Office Mojo.

Despite some less-than-favorable press from sources including Newsarama itself, AMC’s reality series Comic Book Men — set at Kevin Smith’s Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash in New Jersey — has been renewed for a second season, as has Walking Dead post-show The Talking Dead, hosted by Nerdist’s Chris Hardwick. Both will run for 16 half-hour episodes.

The lack of females in the Comic Book Men cast was a point of contention during its first season, with Smith indicating on Twitter that the plan was, “Saving them for season 2, to have somewhere to go story-wise.” Premieres dates aren’t yet publicly known for either show, but will likely coincide with the forthcoming third season of The Walking Dead.

Joss Whedon is now officially the director and writer of the movie with biggest opening weekend of all-time, and he spoke out Wednesday about the success of Avengers on long-running fan blog Whedonesque.

Balancing his trademark self-deprecation and irreverence with genuine sincerity, Whedon thanked his fans, writing, “What doesn’t change is that I’ve had the smartest, most loyal, most passionate, most articulate group of — I’m not even gonna say fans. I’m going with “peeps” — that any cult oddity such as my bad self could have dreamt of. When almost no one was watching, when people probably should have STOPPED watching, I’ve had three constants: my family and friends, my collaborators (often the same), and y’all.”

Whedon also commented on the impending box office battle between Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises, stating that if the latter outgrosses his Marvel Studios film, he will “feel sad,” but “Our successes, whoever has the mostest, are a boon to each other. We’re in the business of proving that superhero movies aren’t just eye-candy (they’re eye-TRUFFLES!).”

His full commentary, along with faux Q&A, is here.

Wait, why are you reading this? Watch! Here it is:

Bane does sound clearer, doesn’t he? The trailer debuts in theaters this weekend in front of, would you believe it, Marvel’s The Avengers. The Dark Knight Rises, director Christopher Nolan and star Christian Bale’s third and final Batman film, is scheduled for release on July 20.

The unique origins of Axe Cop — a webcomic co-produced by a 5-year-old and his 29-year-0ld brother — has helped attract copious attention to the property, and the biggest step forward came Tuesday, with Variety reporting that Fox is developing it as an animated series.

Taking a cue from Adult Swim, the order is for six 15-minute installments, to be aired during their in-development late-night Saturday “Animation Domination HD” block and, unsurprisingly, run on “digital platforms.” The block is set to debut in the first quarter of 2013.

Axe Cop, by Malachai and Ethan Nicolle, debuted in 2009 and subsequently received widespread acclaim and mainstream media coverage, along with print editions published by Dark Horse Comics.

One of the biggest announcements from this past weekend’s C2E2 convention in Chicago was Marvel’s new Hawkeye ongoing series, starring the increasingly ubiquitous Avenger and from the creative team of writer Matt Fraction and artist David Aja. Our interview with Fraction is here, and we also talked to Aja — and got some thoroughly unconventional (and undeniably creative) answers.

Newsarama: David, you very famously worked with Matt a few years back on Immortal Iron Fist — how has it been reuniting with him on Hawkeye?

David Aja: Thanks to quantum superstrings, Matt and I have been working together all those years on a parallel dimension, so I do not really have that reuniting feeling but a continuity one. Those superheroes comics are all about continuity. And reuniting. Life and death. But in ink. Know what I said? Great, because I do not have the slightest idea.

Nrama: Visually, what can you say about the tone of the series?

Aja: Well, to draw is an eternal search and learning, so we will see what I find. Lately I’m trying to go more iconic, more cartoony, but keeping that mundane way of doing stuff it seems I always have. I suppose I will keep on going with that progression. It’s my style realistic? I don’t think so. Mundane? Yup, could be. See? You do not need to make questions, I can do that job for you. Next one, “David, how can you be that extremely charming, talented, handsome and modest, dude?” Oh Albert, you think so, thank you, but naaaah, do not take care what people say, I’m a humble guy. Oh, look a magpie on my window. I love magpies, don’t you Albert? May I call you Albert?

The full cover to Hawkeye #3, released by USA Today, is after the jump.

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Last night the world premiere of Avengers — or as it’s officially called, Marvel’s The Avengers — took place in Hollywood. Several Marvel creators were in attendance, and based on Twitter, it doesn’t look like any of them were disappointed by the latest entry in the Marvel Studios canon. (more…)

While the world waits patiently for the May 4 debut of the Avengers feature film, development continues on the Iron Man 3 front, with Variety reporting Monday that Oscar-winner Ben Kingsley — he of Gandhi, Sexy Beast and Hugo (and much more) fame — is in the always-promising “final talks” stage to play the villain opposing Tony Stark in the franchise’s third installment.

We don’t know who that villain might be, but there appears to be a strong indication of who it is not: The Mandarin, Iron Man’s traditional archnemesis that hasn’t yet been seen in the movies. That shouldn’t be too surprising — Iron Man 3 director Shane Black has been quoted as calling the character, a Chinese conqueror,  “a racist caricature” — but Jon Favreau, director of the first two films, heavily foreshadowed the bad guy via the “Ten Rings” organization.

Reports says that Iron Man 3 will be based on the Warren Ellis/Adi Granov “Extremis” storyline, though, in a twist, The Hollywood Reporter states that Kinglsey might play the Mandarin after all — just one that downplays his “it was another time!” origins and his power rings (too similar to Green Lantern, THR theorizes).

Iron Man 3 — which will probably star Ben Kingsley as a villain of some kind — is scheduled for May 3, 2013.

The sequel to 2011′s Captain America: The First Avenger now has a scheduled release date: April 4, 2014, or approximately two years from today.

Yes, that’s a spring release, which would make it the earliest release of a Marvel Studios production yet. But that may very well be more reflective of box office trends than the film itself — clearly, spring can draw big numbers, as seen from the colossal performance of The Hunger Games over the past couple of weeks. Plot details are naturally thin at this point, but Disney’s press release states that the movie will pick up where this May’s Avengers leaves off, “as Steve Rogers continues his affiliation with Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D and struggles to embrace his role in the modern world.”

And though the movie has a release date, what it doesn’t have yet is a director, with Joe Johnston not returning for round two. Last month, an article on Vulture projected three possible directorial candidates: George Nolfi (The Adjustment Bureau), F. Gary Gray (The Italian Job) and the team of Anthony and Joseph Russo, sitcom veterans who work on Community and Happy Endings and would certainly be considered unconventional (if not potentially awesome) picks if chosen. Chris Evans is on board to return as the title character.

There are a lot of questions currently surrounding the near future of several top Marvel creators — Brian Michael Bendis is leaving his Avengers books, Jonathan Hickman is ending his run on Fantastic Four and FF, and though it hasn’t specifically been confirmed, it certainly seems that Matt Fraction has written more Invincible Iron Man issues than he’s yet to write. More than that, we don’t know who is replacing them on these books, or what those writers might take on next.

In February, I wrote a piece speculating on how things might shake out, and said this at the time:

“(And, oh yeah, between Captain America, Winter Soldier and creator-owned books like Fatale, we’re guessing that Ed Brubaker, the only Avengers vs. X-Men is staying put where he is for a while. But we could definitely be wrong about that.)”

Well, it’s at least possible that I was definitely wrong about that. At Meltdown in Los Angeles on Tuesday night, Brubaker participated in a Q&A promoting the release of Avengers vs. X-Men #1. I asked him if, in light of all the major creative team moves, fans should feel “secure” that he has many more Cap stories left.

“You can feel secure about whatever you want,” Brubaker said to laughs from the crowd, then adding, “I can’t break any news. There are a lot of big things coming up at Marvel. There’s so much big stuff coming in the works. I wish I could tell you.”

While that’s not a conclusive indication of anything, the vague nature of the answer is enough to fuel even further speculation. Brubaker has been writing Captain America since 2004, and though it’ll likely be months before we have a clearer picture of Marvel’s future, it looks like a fairly widespread shuffling of the decks might be coming post-AvX — or at least, Marvel and its creators definitely want fans to be actively curious about how things might end up.

Brubaker spoke on a number of topics during the Q&A, including what other Marvel comics he’d like to write, his thoughts on digital comics, the development of AvX and plenty more. Look for a full report on Newsarama’s main page later today.

Buying comics on a Tuesday is the new buying comics on a Wednesday, and Marvel is making it possible this evening as the much-ballyhooed Avengers vs. X-Men #1 is going on sale at 8 tonight at participating stores.

Is your local shop participating? Well, probably. More than a thousand are, in what has to be an encouraging response from the promotion, which is encouraging stores to pick a side between the two super-teams. (My LCS, Secret Headquarters in Los Angeles, happens to be an Avengers store but I don’t necessarily endorse that decision.) Take a look at this list from Marvel, a staggering 35-page PDF, of stores getting in on the AvX fun across the US and Canada, plus Australia, France, Japan, South Africa and more.

Of course, some stores are having splashier events than others, with Marvel talent appearing live in person. Details on a few of the biggest events follow after the jump.

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Boom. (Click to enlarge.)

Released on the Disney XD Facebook page, it looks like Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes is taking a cue from Justice League Unlimited, and adding a whole lot more superheroes to the show’s cast. (For this one scene, at least.) On Wednesday, the network posted this still from an unnamed episode, along with the caption, “The Avengers have called on some Fantastic friends to help defeat the villains–can you name all of the heroes below? Don’t miss a new season of The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes every Sunday after Ultimate Spider-Man on Disney XD!”

You can probably recognize most of the characters present, but no one seems quite sure who the female character between Yellowjacket and War Machine is. Our current guess: Daisy Johnson, Quake from Secret Warriors. There’s a physical resemblance — and seeing as how Quake recently joined the roster in the main Avengers comic book series, perhaps that was another sign of Marvel TV/Marvel publishing synergy, like the new White Tiger joining Avengers Academy before debuting in the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series. But that really is just a guess, so feel free to let us know who you think it might be in the comments.

Also notable: A clearly grown-up Luke Cage, as opposed to the teen version of Power Man in Ultimate Spider-Man, seemingly confirming that the two shows aren’t in the same “world” — or at least, not taking place concurrently. Plus, Ant-Man and Yellowjacket — is Scott Lang making his animated debut?

The second season premiere of Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes airs on the inaugural edition of the “Marvel Universe” block on Disney XD this Sunday, April 1, following the series premiere of Ultimate Spider-Man.

Back in November, Gizmodo reported that Marvel would be releasing all of their comics digitally the same day as print — “day and date,” as the mostly non-sensical idiom goes — by the end of March.

Well, it’s now March 28, and the final New Comic Book day of the month, so how are they doing? A quick comparison between the Marvel app and Marvel’s portion of the Diamond shipping list for this week show only a couple of discrepancies. (more…)

Mark Millar has commented in the past that he sees the movies based on his Millarworld properties as advertisements for the comic books, and those words certainly come to mind today, with the debut on The Hollywood Reporter of a live-action promotional video for Supercrooks — his new Marvel/Icon series debuting this week, illustrated by Superior‘s Leinil Francis Yu, about a group of supervillains who flee the US to head to superhero-free Spain. The clip is directed by Spanish director Nacho Vigalondo, who is attached to direct the in-development Supercrooks film. And here it is:

First a comic book, then a TV show, board game and video game — the next step for The Walking Dead is inside the pages of Playboy magazine, which will contain an exclusive feature titled “Michonne’s Story,” from the regular comic book series team of writer Robert Kirkman and artist Charlie Adlard. The story runs six pages, and tells Michonne’s origin for the first time. It’s in the April issue, making the wait brief — the magazine goes on sale tomorrow, March 16, for those of adult-magazine purchasing age. Insert your own “I’m literally buying Playboy for the articles!” joke here.

Also in Walking Dead news: Those attending WonderCon this weekend, running Friday through Sunday at the Anaheim Convention Center, can leave with an impressive bonus on their mobile device: A free digital copy of the first trade paperback volume, “Days Gone Bye.” The first 5,000 folks at ComiXology’s booth (#107) will get a postcard with a free download code, for a book that normally retails at $8.99.

And in perhaps the most notable Walking Dead news of the week, the second season finale airs this Sunday night on AMC. Avoid Twitter spoilers accordingly.

Well, this isn’t exactly expected: Deadline reported Thursday that the latest comic book property to be optioned by a major studio is Bloodshot.

Yes, the Valiant Comics property that hasn’t even been in a comic book in years, is in development at Sony. Jeff Wadlow — of Cry_Wolf fame, if you remember that 2005 horror film — will write, and he’s responsible for the project exiting at all. He’s a fan of the comic, wrote a spec script, it got brought to Sony, and here we are.

Though it’s indeed surprising to see Bloodshot, of all comics, to be in motion as a feature film (and surely has inspired countless “what hasn’t been optioned yet?” cracks), the concept — a mob hitman who ends up in witness protection and transformed into a superhuman — certainly sounds like something that could be a movie. Plus, it’s a publicity boon to the Valiant Comics relaunch, kicking off in earnest on Free Comic Book Day (May 5), with the release of a preview book of their new lineup.

What’s the latest boldly relevant move from Archie Comics? A story touching on the ongoing “Occupy” movement, titled “Occupy Riverdale.”

Though a date or issue hasn’t yet been announced for the story, it’ll be written by Archie PR exec Alex Segura, who also wrote the four-part “Archie Meets KISS” story that wraps up this week. The art is from cartoonist Gisele Lagace, who’s worked for Archie before and draws and co-writes the gleefully NSFW webcomic Ménage à 3.

As seen in the Jill Thompson variant cover provided by the publisher, working-class Archie Andrews is once again torn between Betty and Veronica, except this time, Betty represents the 99% and Veronica (along with Mr. Lodge and someone that may be Reggie in a fedora) is firmly in the 1-percenter camp. (Also, look at how cool Thompson’s scraggly Jughead looks.)

We’ll pass on more details as we know them, until then, check out the full cover after the jump.

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Marvel’s May solicitations contained this somewhat unexpected item among their Spider-Man offerings:

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: PARALLEL LIVES #1
GERRY CONWAY (w)
ALEX SAVIUK (a)
Cover by BOB LARKIN
• He’s Peter Parker: a shy, introverted teen whose life changed forever when a radioactive spider bit him.
• She’s Mary Jane Watson: product of a broken home, concealing her pain with an outgoing party-girl persona.
• They meet, fall in love and get married. This is their story.
• The classic 1989 graphic novel returns!
64 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99

Now, there’s no denying that Parallel Lives is a classic Spidey story, and one that a lot of current readers might not even know about. So on that end, a reissuing of the story makes perfect sense. But the timing seems conspicuous, especially since May will be just two months before The Amazing Spider-Man live-action film hits theaters, with Gwen Stacy as Peter Parker’s love interest and no Mary Jane in sight. (more…)

Wondering what’s next from Jim McCann, writer of the Eisner-winning Return of the Dapper Men? Mind the Gap, his new Image Comics series with art from Rodin Esquejo and colorist Sonia Oback, is scheduled to debut in May, and McCann (a veteran of Marvel’s PR department) is already getting the promotional machine rolling, first by debuting one of two covers for the first issue on Thursday.

Read an interview with McCann on Mind the Gap here; full cover (by Esquejo and Oback) after the jump.

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After premiering Monday afternoon at a promotional event simulcasted in several cities across the globe, the second Amazing Spider-Man trailer is now on YouTube. And here it is:

Our bicoastal write-up of Monday’s event — with plenty of more details about the footage shown and comments from the cast and director Marc Webb — is here.