Last night the filmmakers and stars of The Avengers celebrated their work on the Marvel Studios film with one of those celebrity-strewn red carpet events that we all feel very cynically about but in truth probably wouldn't if we got to hang out with Robert Downey, Jr. But with the better part of a month before the film finally opens on May 4, Paramount is kicking out more and more video clips to keep audiences' appetites whetted for this most event-crossover-ish of superhero movies. Among them, a scene in which Tony Stark speaks some truth to (super)power and a new TV spot where Thor basically Thors the f**k out. It's great.

WARNING: All of this constitutes some manner of spoiler.In the following clip, Tony Stark has a surprisingly subdued conversation with Loki, the evil adopted brother of Avengers member Thor, about why the god of mischief will not succeed in his nefarious plans. It's hard to say without knowing more, but it seems like Stark, who takes a stiff drink in the presence of the legendary Loki, might be bluffing.

Loki's brother Thor is my favorite of Marvel's Cinematic Universe, and the focus of this new television ad in which the hammer-wielding demigod demonstrates that he can drop a cold diss as easily as he can throw a hammer.

Finally, a perfectly Whedonesque Black Widow clip that went around last week that we totally missed. Sorz.

The Avengers is much anticipated by superhero comics fans as well as the wide audience that the charming Marvel Studios productions have cultivated. However, some industry professionals like Golem's Mighty Swing cartoonist James Sturm have called for a boycott in protest of Marvel and its parent company Disney's treatment of the late Jack Kirby -- the legendary cartoonist who created many of the Avengers characters (and a great deal of others owned by the company) and his heirs, who recently lost a court battle to reclaim rights to the characters.

Directed by Joss Whedon, The Avengers is a first for nerd cinema in that it assembles the main players from a series of several Marvel films that began with 2008's Iron Man and continued with The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger. Known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, all of these films were mostly pretty good to even great, performed very well in their own rights, and served collectively as a prelude to The Avengers. The film opens May 4.

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