Today in Unlikely Comic Book Movie Rumors

?Let’s start with the likelier of the two: Word is that Spider-Man will be making a cameo in Avengers. Here’s why this is unlikely: These movies are owned by two different studios — Marvel Studios owns Avengers and Sony owns Spider-Man. This is totally different from Wolverine making a cameo in X-Men: First Class because Fox owns the movie rights to both franchises, and thus there was no legal issue involved. Both Sony and Marvel would need to approve the cameo, which is more than just a handshake and a nod. On the other hand, a Spider-Man appearance in Avengers would be an excellent move for Sony, promoting their Spidey reboot in front of the biggest potential audience, and Marvel certainly should have a vested interest in the Spidey movie making a lot of money. On the other hand, what Marvel really wants is those Spider-Man movie rights back from Sony, so I can see them not wanting to play nice. On the other other hand, as long as Sony is making Spider-Man movies they have the rights, so not allowing a cameo really doesn’t do anything to help Marvel. On the other other other hand, Avengers is already fat-packed with characters, and adding Spidey would only make it more crowded. And on a foot or something, this rumor comes from one of those generically named hitherto unknown comic movie news sites (specifically BestMoviesEverNews.com) so I think this is probably bullshit anyways. It’s not impossible, but I’d at least wait until someplace more reputable backs it up.

On the other hand, the rumor that Namor will be appearing in Iron Man 3 — from ComicBook.com solely on the basis that the studio where the movie will be filming has a big special effects water tank — is phenomenally stupid and every site that has reported on it as if it had a shred of possibility of happening should feel bad. (Via CBR)