Warning: This is a spoilery scoop. If you want to remain as cold as possible on The Avengers for as long as possible, you might want to skip over.
By now it seems to be common knowledge that The Avengers will face two big villains: Loki and the Skrulls. Given the bits and pieces dropped throughout the Marvel 2011 movies, he comes in possession of the Cosmic Cube, and uses to manipulate the Skrulls into attacking Earth.
However, it seems there may be yet another Big Bad at work. Latino Review reports that the brooding and unhappy Eternal Thanos will be making an appearance.
Obviously, the hows and whys of the plot remain under tight wraps. But if Marvel mythology is anything to go on, Thanos wants the Cosmic Cube for himself — and he’s not above manipulating the Skrulls to achieve his own ends. Or he may want the Infinity Gauntlet, which the sharp-eyed must have spotted in Odin’s vault in Thor. (Not me, because I was an idiot and left my glasses at home.)
I suspected Joss Whedon might employ a puzzle box of villainy, and we might have more than Loki and Skrulls in store. Still, that’s an awful lot for one movie, especially the first superhero team-up. But considering Marvel has been pulling their punches a little bit (I think we all expected Iron Man 2 and Thor to have a little more bang in their battles), it makes sense they would go far out — in the most cosmic of senses — in The Avengers. I just hope the chemistry and the plot can handle that much space madness.