'Avengers' set for major changes in 2012

Tom Brevoort has teased that next year will see big changes in Marvel's Avengers publishing line.

Marvel's senior vice-president of publishing Brevoort confirmed that the company is planning something major to tie in with the release of Joss Whedon's team-up film The Avengers.

"Avengers is critically important to our publishing plan and it's going to be over the course of the next year as well," he told Comic Book Resources. "The Avengers are the centrepiece of the Marvel Universe. They're the thing that touches and connects everything else.

"Absolutely going into next year we have big Avengers plans, and we're just as cognisant of the fact that there's an Avengers movie coming as we were this year of Thor and Captain America."

Despite the importance of capitalising on its Marvel Studios properties, Brevoort said that it helps that the company already bases much of its comics line around the Avengers franchise.

"It's not much of a change in the way we do business since the Avengers have been very much at the forefront of our publishing line at least since Avengers Disassembled and New Avengers started," he added. "So the short answer is, 'Yes, but it's not as big a difference as you might imagine'."

Marvel tailored this summer's company-wide event Fear Itself around Captain America and Thor to tie in with the release of the films.

The Avengers is due to launch in cinemas on May 4, 2012.