Despite writer-director Joss Whedon’s gift for florid and witty wordplay for powerful actors, ironically, the breakout star of Whedon’s Avengers was a CGI Hulk who utters exactly two words (amidst some grunting and yelling) throughout the film’s two and a half hour running time.  Positive fan reaction to the Hulk has been so strong that Marvel has announced they may repeal their “No More Hulk Movies” policy, and now, ABC is pushing to make the Hulk the star of his own TV show.

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Between such works as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse, Joss Whedon is known for featuring strong female characters in his TV shows and films.  And while The Avengers did have Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow kicking ass and helping to save the world, the film was still a festival of testosterone between Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, and pointless archer that gives Jeremy Renner something to do.  Now, Whedon says he wants to up the female hero quotient in Avengers 2.

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It’s the summer movie season of 2012.  What does that mean?  Well, it means that you’ll essentially be seeing at least 20 minutes of every major movie weeks before they are released, thanks to lengthy clips, spoiler-heavy trailers, and online features released seemingly every hour onto the internet.  Today’s newest example?  A four-minute The Amazing Spider-Man trailer, which features a full (and admittedly pretty cool) bridge battle/ rescue, some heavy Lizard fighting, and a lot of glimpses into Peter Parker’s mysterious past.   Check it out after the jump.

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If the box office is any indication (and it is), a lot of you enjoyed The Avengers this weekend.  And even though the record-breaking superhero film is already 2.5 hours long, fans are already clamoring for more.  While it’s a bit early for sequel news, director Joss Whedon is promising a three-hour director’s cut of The Avengers with 30 minutes of new footage… for the film’s Blu-Ray release.

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Not that it’s any surprise, but in case you were curious, The Avengers took in nearly $20 million from midnight showings on Thursday night, entering a pantheon of memorable blockbuster films that set records for their midnight-premiere screenings: The Dark Knight, The Hunger Games and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1.

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The Hulk—while one of the wilder, more interesting characters in the Marvel Universe, he’s also one that has never properly translated onto film.  Sure, he’s had a soap opera-y TV show and a handful of cheesy TV movies, a flawed but deeply interesting Ang Lee film, and then a blander than bland reboot with Edward Norton, but he’s never had something truly great.  Now, thanks to the overwhelmingly popular reaction to the character in The Avengers, we may be getting a third cinematic attempt at a solo Hulk film.

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Now that the early buzz on both The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man has begun to come in, indicating that both films are set to be critical and financial winners, it’s time now for studios to look at previously released Marvel properties and ask “How the hell can we cash in on this?”  The answer?  Take an established, but soullessly awful, Marvel comic film franchise, and promising but inexpensive young director, and tie them together with a little something called “the reboot.”

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Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci—the scriptwriting team has been responsible for some massive blockbusters, from the Transformers franchise (sigh) to the rebooted Star Trek and it’s upcoming sequel, along with creating the Fringe TV series (they also wrote The Island and The Legend of Zorro which, along with the Transformers franchise, we’re working to forgive them for).  Now, they’ve been asked to re-work the script to a sequel for a film that hasn’t even been released yet—The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

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We’re just under two weeks until the official release of The Avengers, one of the most anticipated films of 2012.  The Joss Whedon-directed superhero film features such Marvel hotshots as Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, the Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye teaming up to defend Earth from the threat posed by Thor’s villainous brother, Loki.  And in a new clip from the film, you can see how Black Widow draws a cranky Bruce Banner/Hulk into the Avengers.

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