Have you heard about the Marvel Studios Panel from Comic-Con last night? If you’re anything like me, you read the news on half a dozen different nerd websites, and your jaw is still on the floor. I wish I’d been there to cover it live, but as I’ve been lamenting all weekend, I’m not at Comic-Con International. San Diego is a really long ways away. Still, if you haven’t heard the news yet, allow me to share what I’ve learned with you. I’ll keep the SPOILERS after the jump, just in case you don’t want to learn anything just yet. I’m cool like that.

So the panel featured new information on this year’s Thor: The Dark World, next year’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy, and then Avengers 2. How insane is that lineup of movie news? It’s only missing Ant-Man, but that’s still a long way’s off. That lineup is brilliant. And Marvel had footage, or at least a teaser, for each of those movies. People at Comic-Con got to actually see footage from Guardians of the Galaxy.

There is already footage available. That blows my mind. They’ve only been filming for two weeks! 

Join me after the jump for all the news! And stay tuned to the blog over the next few days in case the footage hits the web. I’ll be posting that stuff so fast it’ll make your space raccoon head spin!

Out of all the websites I read, I’ve picked io9’s coverage of the panel as my base starting point. You can go visit them by clicking here to get the full scoop, or just keep reading Henchman-4-Hire. I think we both know what you want to do. By the way, have I mentioned how handsome or pretty you look today?

First up is Thor: The Dark World. Not much news in terms of new information, but they played some footage and an extended trailer. 

The actual footage from Thor 2 included some stuff we’ve seen in the trailers already. Thor and the Warriors Three are fighting a bunch of dark elves, and they’re annoyed at Thor for horning in (so to speak) on their glory. Then a big giant rock monster shows up and they tell Thor it’s all his. He strides up to it and gives it a chance to surrender, then smashes it to rubble. The new footage showcased something terrible and apocalyptic threatening Earth and Asgard. Thor goes to Loki for help, and says he wishes he could trust his brother. “If you did, you’d be the fool I always took you for,” Loki responds. The Warriors Three threaten to kill Loki if he betrays Thor, and then Jane (Natalie Portman) gives him a smack. “That’s for New York.” “I like her,” Loki says.

There are ominous hints that the very fabric of reality could be torn apart, and then lots of scenes of dark elves and a sinister mask on the ground. Thor says he’ll find a way to save everyone. And at one point, Thor’s hammer flies down a street and around a corner, then into Thor’s hand, so he can use it to smack a dark elf. Then Loki has, indeed, betrayed Thor — and he asks only one thing of his new evil allies: the chance to watch Earth burn. Thor tries to catch his hammer, but his hand is burned. “No!” he shouts.

So all of that sounds pretty awesome. I’m definitely excited for Thor: The Dark World. I just can’t believe we have to wait until November for it to come out. Since when do we have any sort of patience? 

Next up is Captain America: The Winter Soldier. A lot of the actors stopped by the panel to chat, and we learned a lot more about Black Widow’s role in the film, as well as the Falcon’s. I liked Falcon actor Anthony Mackie’s comment how the movie is basically the three of them, “just handing out business for two hours.” That just sounds fun. 

Comic-Con also had Cap’s new uniform on display:

It’s based on the costume he wore in the Heroic Age stories, plus the helmet. I like it. I didn’t particularly care for the costume he wore in The Avengers, so I definitely like this one. 

The film is going to be more of a political thriller, it seems, with Cap having to deal with the bureaucracy of SHIELD, as well as the morality of the modern world. That sounds good. Plus seeing Cap, Black Widow and Falcon handing out the business is just good movie stuff. 

There was footage and a trailer for The Winter Soldier too. The first footage was a scene of Captain America fighting Crossbones and some other villains in an elevator, and just kicking all their asses. Then there was the trailer:

We also saw lots of other footage, in which Cap and Black Widow go into an ancient SHIELD headquarters, digging for old secrets. Robert Redford, as Alexander Pierce, is telling Steve Rogers that SHIELD wants to protect people, but sometimes building a better world means tearing the old world down. And SHIELD has enemies. “You know how the world works,” he says.

We see Scarlett Johanson standing in a graveyard looking sad. We also see Anthony Mackie, as the Falcon, riding in a car.

The latter part of this footage involves showing a lot of super insane SHIELD hardware, including jumpjets, the Helicarrier and various other massive vehicles, while Nick Fury and Captain America debate spy ethics. Fury says “I’ve neutralized lot of threats before they even happened.” Cap responds, “I thought the punishment usually came after the crime.” “SHIELD takes the world as it is, not as we’d like it to be,” says Fury. “This isn’t freedom,” Cap says. “This is fear.” And Fury tells Cap to keep his eyes open.

We see Cap jumping out of a jet and fighting and lots of stuff blowing up, and Black Widow kicking pretty much all the ass, and abseiling into a super tall structure, shooting in all directions as she goes. We see a bus exploding and another shot of a graveyard. And more awesome fight scenes, that we just caught a glimpse of. The Falcon flies into an aircraft carrier while being chased by multiple jets. Captain America is on a motorcycle flying, and there is tons of kickfighitng. And then we saw what looked like the SHIELD helicarrier blowing up and crashing into the river.

And then we see the Winter Soldier, formerly known as Cap’s sidekick Bucky, reach down and pick up Captain America’s tarnished, burnt shield, and look at the camera with his gaze especially intense in black smeary eye makeup.

So clearly Marvel isn’t hiding the fact that the Winter Soldier is Bucky, then then the Comic-Con audience clearly knew that already. No point in being coy. Other than that, I’m pretty sure I’m just going to sound like a broken record on this one. I love the footage description. I love the interviews. I love everything I’m hearing about all of these movies, quite honestly.

Especially Guardians of the Galaxy! 

The panel had almost the full cast show up, with everyone saying a little something about the the movie and their characters. They’ve been filming for about two weeks now in England, but apparently they already have some concept art and some footage ready. How do they already have footage ready? I don’t know, but it sounds absolutely brilliant. First though, check out this sweet bit of official concept art released by Marvel, with all of the characters in lineup.

It’s glorious. Personally, I would have preferred Starlord’s more militarized costume and helmet, but that red trenchcoat looks pretty badass, as do Gamora, Drax, Groot and Rocket Raccoon. We still don’t know who’s voicing Rocket Raccoon! What’s up with that? Still, those characters look great. And the footage sounds even better:

We see a desolate alien world, where Peter Quill, aka Starlord, is going inside an ancient temple. He uses a light globe to illuminate the interior, and then goes to steal an old alien orb. Some alien cops come in with big guns to stop him. “Drop it now,” orders their leader, Borath (Djimon Hounsou). And he asks Quill who he is. “Starlord,” he replies. “Who?” Borath asks. “Starlord, man. Legendary outlaw.” Starlord is wounded. “Forget it.”

Then we see someone activate a wrist transceiver, and we’re in an alien prison, where five creatures have been arrested on Zandar. We see holographic “rapsheets” for all five of them — Drax the Destoryer, Gamora (Zoe Saldana), a personal death machine, Rocket Raccoon, who has over 50 charges of vehicular theft and escape from lockup, Groot, a houseplant/muscle, and then Starlord himself.

Rhomann Dey (John C. Reilly) narrates the whole thing with intense snark, especially when he gets to the part about how Peter Quill calls himself Starlord. Listening to this, Quill cranks up his middle finger as if he’s working a creaky machine. Later, Quill is in prison and Drax is listening to his personal stereo, which is playing a bouncy “gamba gamba” tune. Quill is offended — and then he gets tased.

And then we saw a montage of tons of action footage, including a two-headed alien shooting a gun, a prison riot, tons of Gamora putting the smackdown on people, Rocket Raccoon shooting a big gun with a vicious look on his face. The footage ends with John C. Reilly saying, “They call themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy. What a bunch of A-holes.” And we see the five of them lined up, like the Usual Suspects.

I love the idea that Peter Quill is kind of an asshole, and is the only one who calls himself ‘Starlord’. I love it. These are going to be some cocky, awesome, funny heroes, and I’m even more excited for the film. I hope they put that footage online somewhere. How could they not? Come on, Marvel! Make all of our dreams come true!

At the end of the panel, Joss Whedon came out to surprise everybody. There’s no footage of Avengers 2 available, but he did play a little teaser clip that reveals the full title of the movie, and the villain:

Ultron! Ultron is going to be the bad guy in Avengers 2! That’s amazing! I love that idea. I know Thanos was teased at the end of the first film, but Thanos could still stand as some greater, wider arc villain. Having Ultron as the bad guy in the sequel could keep things contained. I don’t know what they have in mind for Ultron. I don’t know if this guarantees Hank Pym a role in the film (I say that it doesn’t), but I do know that Ultron is a fantastic choice for foe. He’s evil, he’s got an awesome look and I think audiences could love him. Probably not as much as they love the sexy Tom Hiddleston as Loki, but still, it’s Ultron! Maybe that’s who Vin Diesel is playing since he’s had so many secret meetings with Marvel recently. 

Though I clearly hope the ‘Age of Ultron’ in that title is just that, a title. I hope the movie doesn’t actually have anything to do with the recent comic series. I hated Brian Michael Bendis’ Age of Ultron comic, and to try and adapt that to film would be ludicrous and stupid. Just use the title, Joss Whedon, and tell your own amazing Avengers vs. Ultron movie. Please.

Whatever the case may be, Marvel absolutely rocked their panel. I feel kind of bad for X-Men: Days of Future Past and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. They had strong panels as well, but nothing as big as Marvel. We’ve got some quality movies coming up soon, my friends.