New images and villain teases for Marvel’s The Avengers

This morning saw a slew of new promo pieces for Marvel’s THE AVENGERS and some new information regarding the film’s villain(s). First up is a five, count em,’ FIVE covers for the new issue of Empire, all of which are rather…meh, to me, and I’m a huge fan of THE AVENGERS, both in film and comic form.  I realize you can’t supply new photos for every venue, but it feels like we’ve seen these poses and photos before already.

As for the villains of THE AVENGERS, Marvel’s Kevin Fiege had this to say, when speaking to Empire:

“Who said they were aliens?” he teases. Beings from the Nine Realms, then, ventures Empire? “Closer…It’s not Skrulls, I’ve been clear about that. Beyond that, we want to hide it. The identity of the alien race is not impactful. It exists in the comic books, but we’re not setting up the Kree-Skrull war or anything like that.”

They also addressed the possibility of the Red Skull making an appearance in the film:

“Was Skull vaporised at the end of the movie, or thrust into another realm?” asks Feige. “That remains to be seen. It would be fun to see Skull in future, but he’s not in this one.” (Joss) Whedon though is a little more circumspect when Empire confronts him. “I do have a comment on that,” he says, before pulling a move worthy of Loki himself. “It’s…oh, you’re breaking up!”

Some interesting tidbits there. The Skrulls debunked? The Red Skull debunked, but then not? Sounds like a lot of deflection to me. We’ve heard everything from seeing the infamous Thanos to guest appearances from Spider-Man, so there’s a lot swirling around out there. The good news is that the wait is just about three months away to find out for sure.

The magazine also features a few new photos, which showcase some of the less explosive moments from the film. Who doesn’t want to pay millions of dollars to have superheroes have a heart-to-heart? In all seriousness, though, it’s good to see that moments like that will exist, because we all know what happens when you’re all show (coughTransformerscough).

Another interesting set of promo images comes courtesy of the Chinese new year. Yes, you heard me right. These “red cards” are being handed out in Chinese movie theaters as part of their celebration, which features more of those pesky “same ol’” images, but also a slightly better look at the Hulk, who seems to be a hybrid of both of the Hulk films.

Expect more promo items to continue to roll out from Marvel’s THE AVENGERS in the next few months, hopefully with less bland photoshop, as it ends all speculation of villains on May 4th, 2012.