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Spinoff Online has a provocative article chronicling Marvel Studio's frequent clashes with its talent, not only asking whether this policy is intentional, but whether it will become a problem for the studio later on. The most recent manifestation of this trend is of course the outright dismissal of Edward Norton from the cast of The Avengers, despite a performance as Bruce Banner that was motivated by a real personal love for the character. Other examples include Terrence Howard being replaced for Iron Man 2, and Samuel L. Jackson nearly walking from the same production over salary arguments.

With only three days to go before the opening of Christopher Nolan's mindbender Inception -- its hype having escalated to unbearable, volcanic levels -- I can only feel ... disgruntled at the deluge of previews Warner Bros. still smashes into my eyeballs at every turn, whether on the computer at my office, or on a TV screen at home, or on a giant building as I attempt an innocuous stroll down the street. One of the more recent trailers, though admittedly awesome, pretty much introduced every major character.

With an opening weekend box office of an estimated $133.6 million, Iron Man 2 has had the fifth-best opening weekend of all time not including ticket price inflation, the L.A. Times reports. Not surprisingly, the movie came in at #1 among this weekend's offerings; ticket sales for the previous #1, Nightmare on Elm Street, fell an alarming 72%.

The biggest opening weekend of all time remains another superhero movie -- The Dark Knight, at $158.4 million; while Iron Man 2 didn't come as close to the mark as some had predicted, it still did way better than the original Iron Man's $98.6 million opening weekend.

It's still possible that Iron Man 2 will crack #4 if the estimates wind up being adjusted upward:

Iron Man 2 was released to theaters in America today, and certainly the Iron Avenger deserves notice.  But he's getting lots of it, from TV spots to talk show interviews, to his own augmented reality app!  All about Iron! We'd like to take a moment to appreciate the lesser known heroes and villains who have taken an entry of the periodic table of the elements into their hearts, and tried to live up to its hardness, its density, and above all else the weight of 6x10^23 atoms of it. Also, many of them are utterly absurd.

Remember Super 8, the forthcoming J.J. Abrams-directed, Stephen Spielberg-produced movie that we were very excited about? Well, last night, some lucky Iron Man 2 moviegoers got to watch the first-ever trailer for Super 8. Now, thanks to the magical things that happen when you pack some of the hardest-core geeks into a movie theater and give some of them cameraphones and YouTube accounts, you can too.

The leaked Super 8 trailer after the jump is dimly lit, and the camera is a bit shaky, but hey! That makes it kind of like the entirety of Cloverfield, right?

I think I can speak with some authority when I say that most of the tribes of geekdom are excited for tomorrow's stateside release of Iron Man 2. I'm with you. I was there in '07 with my friends in the back of the theater giving the movie raucous applause by the time Robert Downey, Jr. finally said "I'm Iron Man." I saw the trailers with the suitcase armor and the strategic use of that iconic song. So I understand the hype. I also understand the dismay some may be feeling, having read the early critical (and I mean critical) reviews of the film that came out recently. I've also read the glowing (though less glittering than the original's) reviews made by our cousins in the geek community. So I'm here to say: Calm down. Lower your expectations. And see the movie, as I'm about to give you a walkthrough to prepare you for tonight's midnight showing. Assuming, of course, that you have your tickets already.

Iron Man 2 will be upon us in less than a week (in fact, I've heard it may factor into my Mothers Day plans), and HollywoodChicago.com has a handy gallery up, collecting every official press image released by Paramount.

Most of them are familiar to people who have been following coverage of the movie, but rest assured, there are a few refreshingly new shots in here. Like the one above of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury.

We'd like to consider ourselves relatively media-savvy, and capable of retaining our critical thinking abilities even in the face of sophisticated marketing campaigns. So we approached the Iron Man 2 Augmented Reality Experience with a healthy level of ambivalence. "It puts a the Iron Man or War Machine helmets on my face? Okay. My webcamera already does that, but with tiaras and pig noses." And then we saw that it will show you with the Iron Man suit's Heads Up Display, and we rescinded all previous statements.

Onion News Network has done up another one of their haw-haw-making, (presumably) fake news reports, dually inspired by Iron Man 2 fandom and the Gwyneth Paltrow backlash, titled "Iron Man 2 Buzz Heats Up Over Rumors Gwynyth Paltrow Gets Punched in the Face." Spoiler alert: it's really funny.

Not satisfied by the three seconds of Tony Stark skydiving in the Iron Man 2 trailer? Unenchanted by Pepper Pots' feistyness? Would you like a whole bunch of gratuitous Ironette dancing? Comic Book Resources has you covered. For the spoiler wary, this clip is just an extended version of what we saw in the trailer, but leaving in the bits of the movie just having fun with Iron Man flight and, well... boobs. The only dialogue in it also appears in the trailer.

Last night, Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau tweeted out that the movie was "signed, sealed, and delivered." Well, Marvel is fiendishly surfing on that tantalizing bit of news by unlocking a previously inaccessible treasure trove of geek-bait in the form of a newly beefed-up official site for Iron Man 2, complete with loads of new pictures, 14 previews of the movie's soundtrack, and official wallpaper. And that's not even touching on the viral site:

Your suitcase may not be able to turn into armor, but now, there's a new way to simultaneously say "I am a grown-up" and "I am mildly obsessed with comic book characters": Iron Man 2 cologne.

Diesel is putting out a limited-run variant on their "Only The Brave" fragrance featuring a certain Arc Reactor-powered clenched fist and art from Marvel.

Fanboyweb.com reports that G4 personality Olivia Munn's role in Iron Man 2, and possibly the upcoming Avengers movie, is that of the Scarlet Witch. To quote: "Today our spy’s over on the set of  Marvel’s movie, “Thor”, has revealed to us here at FanboyWEB that  Olivia Munns will be playing the Scarlet Witch in “Iron Man 2”!" Just... throw the [sic]s on anywhere.  You almost can't miss. Newsarama, however, is skeptical:

Jimmy Kimmel Live rode the Oscars' wave tonight and gave patient, insomniac geeks some well-deserved eye candy in the form of a brand new trailer for Iron Man 2. After sharing the suitably maverick story of how he corralled Mickey Rourke into playing the role of Whiplash in the movie, real-life Tony Stark Robert Downey Jr. debuted the trailer, which had some familiar footage from past Iron Man 2 sneak peeks, but rewards the faithful with suitcase armor, evil Sam Rockwell, and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. Trailer after the jump:

MSN has debuted a behind the scenes feature of sorts on the Monaco race scene that we've seen featured in the Iron Man 2 trailer. The majority of it is typical actors in folding-chairs saying that the movie's going to be awesome, and some pre-special effects shots of cars blowing up and getting shoved around. Scarlett Johansson rather endearingly uses the phrase "off the hook." We'll take Mickey Rourke's word for it though. I mean. He's Mickey Rourke. However, at the one minute mark, a clip is shown of never previously released footage, showing the aftermath of Whiplash's attack. The new clip, and a spoiler free discussion of whether this clip has spoilers, after the jump: