After over 100 issues, William and Dane sit down and welcome writer Matt Fraction back to the show as they close out 2011. This one has it all: Casanova, Fear Itself, variant endings, the inner workings of Marvel editorial retreats and more: there’s plenty of Fraction-related-awesome for everyone.

You can stream the episode or subscribe in iTunes.

Full show notes after the break.

Between the Between the Panels: Issue #135 – Matt Fraction Interview 
Run time: 1:02:42

• Episode start
• 6:09 – Defenders
• 21:56 – Casanova
• 41:49 - Invincible Iron Man
• 48:05 – Avengers vs. X-Men
• 52:44 – For God and Country

Here’s our first interview with Matt as well as our Casanova special from earlier this year.

GQ has the entire ‘For God and Country‘ comic in case you missed it. Also, you can pre-order Mike Doughty‘s The Book of Drugs on Amazon.

Remember to join our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter, and visit Instock Trades to get your copy of The Mighty Thor!

What did you think of the episode? Sound off in our comments below!

There is a weird element of: they handed me one of the biggest movies of all time, and I’m making it up as I go.

Whedon also says that the team won’t be all friends, but that doesn’t hold true for the cast members: “I was like, well, if they hate each other, I guess we can use that,” he shrugs. “But they don’t.”

We’ve included all the images after the jump, but outside of Whedon’s quote, we won’t have much to go on until the issue debuts Friday. 

Source: Entertainment Weekly

Paramount Pictures has released a shorter version of The Avengers trailer that runs in theaters after the Captain America credits. While the full trailer contains more footage from the Joss Whedon helmed superhero team-up, this teaser does give us our first chance to get a real good look at Captain America and Thor’s new costumes. We also catch quick glimses of Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner and Jeremy Renner‘s Hawkeye. So what are you waiting for? Check out the trailer and screenshots after the break!

:::SPOILER WARNING:::

The following video contains major spoilers for the ending of Captain America, proceed at your own risk.

Click here to go watch the HD version over at Yahoo! Movies

The Avengers Assembled

Chris Evans as Captain America

Chris Hemsworth as Thor

Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man

Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow

Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye

Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury

Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner

Loeb had the following details to discuss regarding Marvel’s future projects:

• The Alias pilot has now been named AKA Jessica Jones and will focus on Jones deciding to reboot her former superhero life as a private investager. Loeb also confirmed that lover Luke Cage (I hope Loeb has already given Isaiah Mustafa a call) and best friend Carol Danvers (Ms. Marvel) would be regulars on the show, which will look to air on ABC.
• On the Hulk side of things, Loeb again confirmed the show was in development over on ABC. He also said the show would be a new take on the character and would show Bruce Banner’s early days as he hides his secret. Loeb didn’t give any details on who would play the scientist.
• Cloak and Dagger is in development for ABC Family and will see the title characters living in New Orleans after the chaos of Katrina.
• Loeb’s final announcement involved something we’d yet to hear any details about. Mockingbird will be “Alias meets Felicity” and will see Bobbi Morse as a science major who gets recruited while in college to be come a spy.

On the heels of another big movie release, Marvel had quite a busy week at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. With tons of interesting and exciting book announcements, there was plenty to be excited about. After the break we’ve got a roundup of the latest from the House of Ideas.

Next Big Thing:

• The Twelve will finally begin to finish next February.
• Jeff Parker and Patrick Zircher will take Thunderbolt Ross to Arabia in Hulk of Arabia and introduce a “Doctor Doom” level villain for the Red Hulk.
• Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning‘s Heroes for Hire will change to Villains for Hire in November as Misty Knight brings together a team of villains for a secret mission.
• A new series of one-shots was announced. Avengers: Origins will focus on different characters with the Marvel team including Ant-Man and Wasp by Roberto Aguire Sacasa and Stephanie Hans, The Vision by Kyle Higgins and Alec Siegel with art from Stephane Perger, Luke Cage from writers Mike Benson and Adam Glass with artist Dalibor Talajic, Thor by Katherine Immonen, and Quicksilver & The Scarlet Witch by Sean McKeever. Marvel said these characters were chosen because they haven’t had origin stories that have been retold countless times.
• Christos Gage and Sean Chen will take the students of Avengers Academy to the former base of the West Coast Avengers and will gain new members, including Julie Power and some of the Runaways.
• Artist Shawn Martinborough will join writer David Liss this November on Black Panther as the hero takes on the Kingpin and Lady Bullseye.
• Fear Itself, X-Men: Schism and Avengers: Children’s Crusade will all finish at the same time, effecting one another to a slight degree, in order to launch the next phase of storytelling for Marvel.

Cup O’ Joe:

• November will see the next wave of Point One issues. A teaser was released featuring most of Marvel’s major books including; FF, Avengers, Black Panther, Thor, The Punisher, New Avengers, Deadpool, Ghost Rider, Herc, Amazing Spider-Man, Invincible Iron Man, both of the new X-Men titles, Venom, Captain America, Daredevil, Incredible Hulk, and Secret Avengers. Each issue will be a stand-alone entry point and will serve as the groundwork for stories to be told in 2012.
• Cable: Reborn will hit this December as Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness bring back the famed X-Men character. Loeb describes him as the ‘Captain America of the X-Men.’
• There will continue to be a bleed over from Disney into Marvel’s publishing in the sense that you’ll different creators taking on various Disney-related comic projects. The Peter David written John Carter movie-tie-in along with the Castle graphic novel by Brian Michael Bendis and Kelly Sue DeConnick were cited as specific examples.
• Marvel also has regained the film rights to Punisher and Blade.
• There are more plans for the cosmic characters in the Marvel Universe.

• Much like Dark Reign and The Heroic Age before it, Battle Scars will the next publisher wide branding of titles. Battle Scars will focus on the after-effects of our heroes in the wake of the massive battle that is Fear Itself.
• Shattered Heroes will be a series of one-shots on where Thor, Iron Man and Captain America go in the aftermath of the event. Cap’s issue will deal with the loss of Bucky, while Iron Man’s will deal with the return of Tony’s alcoholism.
• Jason Aaron will be the new writer on The Incredible Hulk. The first arc is titled ‘Hulk Assunder’ and sees the monster and the man that created him separated. The battle between Bruce Banner and his demon will explode out into the Marvel Universe. Marc Silverstri will be on art.
• Writers Matt Fraction, Chris Yost, Cullen Bunn, will team with artists Mark Bagley and Paul Pelletier for The Fearless. The bi-weekly series will focus on the fate of the Serpent’s hammers in Fear Itself.
• The three writers will also team for Fear Itself Aftermath: Battle Scars which will be drawn by Scott Eaton. The series will introduce a new character.
• Fraction will once again team with artist Terry Dodson for Defenders starring Iron Fist, Dr. Strange, Red She-Hulk, and Sliver Surfer. The team will take on big threats, both magical and mystical. More of the team will be revealed over time.

Other News:

• The Scarlet Spider’s return was hinted at.
• Marvel also announced Marvel: Season One, which will serve Marvel much in the same way that the Earth One series has for DC. The graphic novels will hit next year in honor of Marvel’s 50 Anniversary.  Fantastic Four: Season One by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa with art by David Marquez, will release in February 2012, while X-Men: Season One by Dennis Hopeless with Jamie McKelvie on art will hit March 2012. These stories are described as classic stories with a modern day retelling.
• Soon, all of Marvel’s titles will be available digitally for day-and-date release. First up will the the Spider-Man family of books, starting with Spider-Man #666, while the November launch of both Uncanny X-Men #1 and Wolverine & the X-Men #1 will launch the X-Men books.

We’ve got a TON of art work in our gallery below, but Marvel certainly had a lot to talk about this year. What do you think about all the news? Sound off in our comments below!

Lego made a huge license acquisition this evening, as BleedingCool reports that the company will produce sets for both Marvel and DC next year. The Marvel figures, including Iron Man, The Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye, Loki and Black Widow, will launch next May in time for The Avengers. On the DC side of things, January 2012 will see the release of the DC Universe Super Heroes collection which includes; Batman, Robin, Catwoman, The Joker, The Riddler, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Bane, Bruce Wayne, Superman, Lex Luthor, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman.

For those of you at Comic-Con this week, Lego will be giving away an exclusive Green Lantern or Batman minifigure at their booth. For those that can’t attend, we’ve included the packaging below.

With everything else going on this week William and I didn’t have time to sit down and record our regular reviews episode, but that won’t stop us from chatting up our Book of the Week! Hit the jump for our commentary and review of Marvel’s newest release, Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev’s Moon Knight #1

William: So, Moon Knight is the first in Marvel’s series of this semi-relaunch of the ‘Marvel Legends’ which sees top-tier writeres taking on some of Marvel’s street level characters.

Dane: Also known as B-level characters.

William: I would say Daredevil is not a B-level character, but he’s become one, sadly, through Diggle’s run.

Dane: Even Daredevil was never a heavy hitter like Spider-Man, Captain America or Wolverine

William: Fair. But he’s had critically accalimed runs before, but not so much now. And you don’t get a much better creative team than Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev. At least for this first Moon Knight issue.

Dane: Indeed, speaking of Daredevil, their run on that book is a personal favorite of mine. And calling Moon Kight a B-level character is not a diss, I think we all have our favorite characters that sometimes get ignored by the public at large. Case in point, Bendis loves Moon Kight.

William: Right and he and Maleev tried to do something similar with Spider-Woman, which we personally loved, but it didn’t end too well. Although, I think Moon Knight gets off to a better start than Spider-Woman does.

Dane: For good reason, Meleev is able to loosen up his artwork since he doesn’t have to worry about it being transitioned to motion comics and Bendis has (more or less) a fresh start for the character.

William: Exactly. When they launched Spider-Woman, they had to deal with a lot of the emotional gravitas that they dealt with in Secret Invasion. With Moon Knight, a character that’s bounced around several different mini-series, none of which have real lasting effect, he’s able to craft this new story for the character.

Dane: Marc Spector (Moon Knight) still has his own unique problems but I think they tend to push the story along as opposed to slowing it down.

William: Which plays into the overall twist of the story. Had you read any of the press coverage for this beforehand?

Dane: Not a thing. Pretty much every article about Moon Kight had spoiler tags on it so I stayed away and boy am I glad I did.

William: I really need to stop reading spoilers. I knew about the twist going into it, so some of these scenes in the beginnging made more sense then they may have. Cause the characterizion of Spider-Man, Wolverine and Captain America is a little off to start.

Dane: Same, which was even stranger to me because a lot of what I have in my head for those characters comes from Bendis’ writing.

William: Spider-Man not knowing what Admantium was threw me off the most and I then remembered what was going on.

Dane: And it’s weird that those three Avengers are there before and after the mission but don’t lift a finger to help Moon Knight during it.

William: It’s neat to know that we’re almost getting kind of a team book within a solo title. I’m interested to see how the different personas come into play, depending on what’s going on. But you make a good point, why didn’t Cap step in? Or Spidey or Wolverine for that matter?

Dane: Wait, does that mean Bendis is writing another team book?

William: Not really, but it can certainly be seen as that way.

Dane: Winding down, basically Bendis fooled me into thinking this was a bad first issue then at the end showed why in reality this is a perfect introduction to Moon Knight.

William: You nailed that point. I really was wondering what was going on, and then the ending places everything into perfect perspective.

Dane: I usually read the books we review more than once but I almost never read a book a second time right after the first reading. So in that Bendis accomplished another rare feat. The twist in the issue may not be completely unique but it’s not a twist for the sake of novelty. It fundementally changes the way these stories will be told and I’m digging it.

William: Exactly and even if you knew the twist, it’s still an amazing and compelling story.

Dane: Few books get better the second time around and that’s all the more reason this deserves Book of the Week.

William: I couldn’t agree more. Add in Maleev’s wonderful pencils, seriously that opening two-page spread is unbelievable, and you’ve got another solid hit from these two. And one that I think should hopefully stick around longer than Spider-Woman did.

Dane: Indeed, let’s help make Moon Knight the next Daredevil.

That’s it for now! Join us on the podcast next week for our regular audio reviews show and let us know what you thought of Moon Knight and this new review format in the comments section below.

You can stream the episode or subscribe in iTunes.

You can also buy a special edition art print to benefit Autism Speaks.

What did you think of the episode? Sound off in our comments.

In conjunction with the theatrical release of Thor, Between the Panels will begin selling art prints celebrating comics and comic book movies. Our first print honors the God of Thunder and a good cause with all profits going to charity.

Our Thor prints come in two variations. The first, “Brothers” featuring Thor and Loki, is our Autism Speaks variant and will go on sale this Sunday. The profits from this print will be donated to Autism Speaks. After this special variant ends its week-long sale, our regular edition “God of Thunder” Thor print will stay on sale until we sell out.

Here are the details on each:

11″ by 17″
Hand Signed & Numbered by Artist Dane Davenport
Limited Edition of only 25
$20

(In the case of the “Brothers” Autism Speaks variant,  we will stop selling it early if we sell out of our run of 25 before the week is over).

Hit the jump to see the full size prints for yourself and get ready for the hammer to drop on Sunday!

You can stream the episode or subscribe in iTunes.

What did you think of the episode? Sound off in our comments.