Download episode #63.5 of This Week in Marvel from Marvel.com

Ryan and Blake welcome New York-based post-hardcore music icons Texas is the Reason to the show to talk about their Marvel tour and some of their favorite characters, including Hulk and Iron Man!

Download episode #63.5 of This Week in Marvel from Marvel.com, check out Marvel Podcast Central, grab the TWiM RSS feed and subscribe to This Week in Marvel on iTunes or Zune, so you never miss an episode!

This Week in Marvel will focus on delivering all the Marvel info on news and new releases--from comics to video games to toys to TV to film and beyond! New episodes will be released every Tuesday and Thursday (or so) and TWiM is co-hosted by Marvel Digital Media Group Executive Editorial Director Ryan "Agent M" Penagos and Marvel.com Editor Ben Morse with Associate Producer Blake Garris and Associate Editor Marc Strom. 

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While the heroes went to war with one another in 2012, their adversaries reaped the rewards.

Skulking in the background, bringing their master plans to fruition, the villains of the Marvel Universe had a huge year. They cost their heroic rivals loved ones, business empires, and in some cases, their lives.

Many times this past year, the bad guys won.

Here’s who we thought had the most evil past 12 months.

This list reflects a vote conducted by members of the Marvel.com editorial staff and should by no means be considered official ranking or representative of anything but their specific tastes

10. THE DESCENDANTS

9. MYSTIQUE

8. CARNAGE

7. THE BROTHERHOOD OF EVIL MUTANTS

6. THANOS

5. THE MANDARIN

4. SABRETOOTH

3. DAKEN

2. REED RICHARDS (ULTIMATE UNIVERSE)

1. DOCTOR OCTOPUS

By Jim Beard

50 Years ago, Tony Stark became Iron Man, a historic milestone in the tapestry of the Marvel Universe.

Flash forward half a century, and the Armored Avenger has become a worldwide sensation. Beyond his prominent role across the Marvel Comics line, Shellhead hit the big screen in 2008 as Robert Downey Jr. brought Tony Stark to life in the first “Iron Man” movie. The character’s popularity grew in 2010’s “Iron Man 2” and 2011’s “Marvel’s The Avengers.”

On May 3, 2013, Tony Stark returns to theaters everywhere in “Iron Man 3.” In anticipation of this momentous occasion and to celebrate Iron Man’s 50^th anniversary, each week Marvel.com will be bringing you another chapter in the history of this complex and beloved character. Year by year, get an in-depth rundown of the trials, foes and experiences that have made Iron Man the hero he stands as today.

You can start here.

Also, be sure to visit the Marvel Digital Comics Shop and Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited to read 50 years’ worth of Iron Man adventures!

In 1993, the old Iron Man became the new Iron Man and the new Iron Man became something else entirely as Tony Stark returned to the land of the living and James Rhodes forged a different path for himself.

After a throw down in IRON MAN #288 between the government’s Firepower, the villainous Atom Smasher and Rhodey as Iron Man, the new CEO of Stark Enterprises informed the Living Laser in IRON MAN #289 that Tony Stark had perished. One coat of reflective coating on his armor later and a victorious Rhodey hoped to unwind with his girlfriend—but not before learning his old pal Tony still lived in cryogenic stasis underneath Stark’s building.

IRON MAN #290 welcomed Stark back to life, but in a completely paralyzed condition. The industrialist genius quickly built a new set of armor with a “telepresence” function that responded to his own thoughts, but still couldn’t stop a betrayed Rhodey from quitting and storming off. Later, in IRON MAN #291, facing battledroids, Tony looked to Rhodey in the War Machine armor to finish up the fight. He then insisted his friend keep the armor and watched as he flew off to join the West Coast Avengers.

The world reacted to Stark’s new lease on life in IRON MAN #292 and Tony took on a new physical therapist in the form of Veronica Benning. The new telepresence armor once again came in handy as the new Iron Man fought a berserker sent by his old foe the Controller. IRON MAN #293 revealed that the Controller suffered an infirmity much like Tony’s: immobilization due to extensive nerve damage. With little time to ponder the ramifications, Stark sent his armor above and beyond to investigate trouble at the orbiting Stark Satellite One.

Along the way, a powerful entity called the Goddess made Tony an offer she didn’t want him to refuse IRON MAN #294, namely to become one of her loving converts. Stark refused, bringing the Goddess’ ire, and flew on to witness the creation of an incredible being, the Technovore, made up of the infected crewpersons on his own satellite. The Technovore tore the satellite apart and when it seemed like Stark would get caught in the feedback from his own self-destruct mechanism, the Goddess stepped in to save him in IRON MAN #295.

Throwing off the offer again, Iron Man headed towards a meeting with the criminal scientific group called A.I.M. to retrieve nuclear materials he didn’t want them to possess. M.O.D.A.M., a female version of M.O.D.O.K., clashed with him in IRON MAN #296, a scuffle that also involved Omega Red, an enemy of the X-Men. Stark agreed to help M.O.D.A.M. against Omega Red if A.I.M. returned the nuclear materials, and the two sides struck a deal in IRON MAN #297. Later, Tony walked into a surprise party populated by his oldest and dearest friends.

IRON MAN #298 detailed an accident at a Stark geothermal research facility, an event which transformed one of Tony’s employees into the creature known as Earth Mover. The hulking behemoth Ultimo returned in IRON MAN #299 to dispense with both Earth Mover and the telepresence armor, sending Stark into a coma. Who would save the day? James Rhodes thought he could as War Machine, but not before he called in a few reserves as the year came to a close…

Check out IRON MAN (1968) on the Marvel Digital Comics Shop, plus more Iron Man is available to subscribers of Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited.

Secret Avengers #1 preview art by Luke Ross

By TJ Dietsch

You don't hammer out a sword if you don't intend to use it. By that same token, Maria Hill and Daisy Johnson didn't create the Secret Avengers just to have around.

SECRET AVENGERS writer Nick Spencer revealed quite a bit when running down the new team's Management, Operatives and Assets, but he tightens up a bit when asked about the actual missions.

While the writer remains mostly close-lipped about what exactly will go on in the team's early adventures, he does give readers an explanation of the team's overall intent and also gives the location of the first mission. The only way to get more information than that will be to pick the first issue up when it debuts on February 13.

Marvel.com: If the team had a mission statement, what would it be?

Secret Avengers #1 preview art by Luke Ross

Nick Spencer: These are S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Avengers—they go places, and do things, that no other Avengers team could. They work in the shadows and behind the scenes, dealing with threats deemed untouchable by the rest of the world.

Marvel.com: When it comes to the actual missions, are the heroes identified as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents or are they going in without any markings or identifiers?

Nick Spencer: No identifiers, no ties, absolutely. Plausible deniability is maintained at every stage. That’s a big risk for our operatives: there’s nothing official, or public, about this. If they get apprehended, if a mission goes wrong—they are on their own.

Marvel.com: What can you tell us about the first mission the team is going on?

Nick Spencer: We’re going to Budapest! That’s it. All I’ll say for now.

Check out SECRET AVENGERS #1 by Nick Spencer and Luke Ross on February 13.

Young Avengers #1 preview pencils by Jamie McKelvie

By Carla Hoffman

We’ve spent the week talking to artist Jamie McKelvie and writer Kieron Gillen about YOUNG AVENGERS and their particular style and approach to the most unique, fresh look at the modern young hero in an ever-changing world.

Today, we wrap up by talking about the rest of the Young Avengers team and influences on their style, including Loki and his look as well as a peek ahead into upcoming issues and where the team might find themselves in adventures to come.

Jamie McKelvie: You only see Kate [Bishop aka Hawkeye] in Noh-Varr's t-shirt at this point, so you don't really see her sense of style, but feeding off of what David Aja designed for her costume in HAWKEYE, it's sort of very influenced by Emma Peel in the [British] “Avengers” TV show. So feeding off of that, I kind of looked at her style and because she has those connections in the fashion industry; for me her sort of style is very classy, vaguely expensive, and it's that kind of influence will be coming into it which you'll see with her.

Kieron Gillen: We often talk about music references in terms of style and stuff, do want to talk about who we thought for Kate?

Jamie McKelvie: There's a UK [artist], I think she's getting quite big in America now, called Jessie Ware, who kind of got a really strong sense of style to go with her music and she's one of the big influences on Kate for me.

My big influence for Noh-Varr is David Bowie, especially David Bowie in “The Man Who Fell to Earth.” I wanted to try and get that sort of alien-ness, but still being pretty cool. Of all the team, he'd be the coolest I would say, wouldn't you, Kieron?

Kieron Gillen: Yeah. I think he fits into the kind of niche on the team that Namor fit in UNCANNY X-MEN. Both Miss America and Marvel Boy are very cool, but Miss America clearly has other stuff going on. Whereas I think Marvel Boy, in some deep, fundamental way, really doesn't care. There's an ounce of sort of nihilism to him now and it's sort of about hedonism, and the fact that saving the world is actually pleasurable for him.  He's the guy who enjoys a bit too much and that is both problematic and exciting.

Young Avengers #1 preview art by Jamie McKelvie

I wanted to have these two characters, Marvel Boy and Miss America, as different models of people about the ages of the characters who have been doing this a bit longer than the other guys have. In YOUNG AVENGERS, they talk about the fact she's been doing this “for a while,” and of course the question is how long she's been doing it. Marvel Boy was basically the Wesley Crusher of his spaceship in the original [limited series]; he's David Bowie and Wesley Crusher in one gun tossing package.

Jamie McKelvie: There you go! That's a good description of him. 

Kieron Gillen: But I wanted to and you've got to separate them and how are they different and Marvel Boy's a bit mental. [Laughs]

Marvel.com: Having your entire planet [the Kree home world] say “You suck” now...

Kieron Gillen: Yeah, he's that dude.  He doesn't let people on to his interior, his internal life, I think. 

Jamie McKelvie: Yeah.

Kieron Gillen: Yeah.  I think that'd be a good way of putting it. I mean, Teddy and Billy are lovely kids, even Loki says they're lovely kids repeatedly. [Laughs] And Marvel Boy, he ain't a very lovely kid.

Jamie McKelvie: And Loki is Loki. There was absolutely no sense in doing anything to his design, it's so great. It's a brilliant, brilliant design that sort of sums up who he is. And also, we want him to look the same, really, because of reasons.

Kieron Gillen: I think he's described in the first panel there as “cosplay boy” by the guy who's serving him at the diner? I mean, speaking of characters that get cosplayed, there was like 15 at Comic Con gathered together for a photo shoot; all these Kid Loki costumes which is like amazing. So yeah, that's the guy I want to keep. 

Young Avengers #1 cover by Jamie McKelvie

Marvel.com: In the pages that we’ve seen this week, we're getting a more intimate, pedestrian view of New York City and how they live within it. Obviously, we'll be seeing more places than just New York City, as we've already seen a sneak peek at another Earth in the MARVEL NOW! POINT ONE special. Any other exotic locales we'll be seeing the Young Avengers head off to?

Kieron Gillen: Asgard? We're going to be popping over to Asgard in issues #2-3, and most of issue #5 and most of the first arc is weirdly very much centered around New York. Basically, I wanted the first arc to be New York, primarily New York and we kind of explore it because there's that whole bit, there's a whole set piece set in Mary Jane Watson’s nightclub, which I've used in my IRON MAN book so well, so I'm very happy there's a go-to nightclub. But then as we go forward, we're kind of all over the place, as in issue #6 is kind of standalone separate story. But issue #7 onwards we'll be popping all over the world, they're mobile; in fact, I'm still writing those issues so I'm still kind of deciding where exactly they're going to be. But why not? These are young people and the world is their oyster. 

Jamie McKelvie: It's a bit like “The Littlest Hobo.”

Kieron Gillen: Yes, like “The Littlest Hobo” but with hair gel.

YOUNG AVENGERS #1 debuts January 23.