A draft of The Avengers has been finished?

Is the Marvel movie universe genuinely starting to come together?

At the very least, the AVENGERS are beginning to assemble. As Marvel Comics honcho Joe Quesada noted today on Twitter:

Definition of “goose bumps.” Pressing enter and watching a screenplay entitled “AVENGERS” come out of my printer.

And moments later:

It’s official, I have the greatest job in the world.

As we’ve expected, such a recent script presumably incorporates plenty of elements and threads from the other Marvel movies in the pipe: IRON MAN 2, THOR and CAPTAIN AMERICA. What additional familiar or new Marvel movie and/or comic characters make the cut (Black Widow, Hawkeye, Hulk, etc.) remain the mystery for the moment.

Screenwriter and comic geek Zak Penn (INCREDIBLE HULK, X2) has been involved with AVENGERS for quite a while (he was talking about it way back when I visited the set of his poker movie THE GRAND several years ago), but unfortunately director Jon Favreau has already said he won’t be rounding up the team. The movie will theoretically film in 2011 for a summer 2012 release.