Coulson lives! And it’s not just fanboyism! Since we were attending the Marvel TV panel expecting to learn about the company’s upcoming animation lineup, imagine our surprise to find an appearance by Agent Phil Coulson himself, Clarg Gregg! And what magnanimous announcement should Joss Whedon himself deliver via video? Coulson indeed lives, and will headline ABC’s 'SHIELD' TV series!

That’s right, Agent Coulson lives, at least in one form or another. Despite his apparent death in Marvel’s 'The Avengers,' the character will indeed be present for ABC’s forthcoming TV series, heading the lineup of original characters we’d read about earlier. Gregg himself joked prior to the announcement about the audience being familiar with Life Model Decoys, The Vision, and the multitude of other internet rumors propagating the character.

Beyond that amazing announcement, Marvel Honcho Jeph Loeb was on hand to discuss the second season of Disney XD’s 'Ultimate Spider-Man,' which will feature more classic Spiderman villains as The Sinister Six, which will include Kraven, The Rhino, Electro, The Beetle, and the Lizard! Notice how that’s only five? Member six is a mystery!

We also saw an animation test for 'Hulk and the Agents of SMASH,' which features Skaar, Hulk, Red Hulk, She-hulk and A-Bomb. Some impressive casting announcements followed, including Robot Chicken’s Seth Green as Rick Jones/A-Bomb, Eliza Dushku as She-Hulk, Clancy Brown as Red Hulk, Ben Kiskin as Skaar, and Fred Tatisciore as the big man/Hulk himself.

We also caught an animation test for 'Avengers Assemble,' which derives much more from Joss Whedon’s film than Disney DX’s 'Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.' We saw the core lineup of Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk, Thor, and Hawkeye (the series will also include Black Widow and The Falcon) taking on a giant baddie in the middle of Times Square. True to the movie, the Hulk and Thor had lots of playful competition with one another. On the voiceover side, Tatisciore will again play the Hulk and Adrian Pasdar will reprise the role of Iron Man.

We also caught a bit of the animation for the Iron Man anime 'Rise of the Technovors,' which features War Machine, Black Widow, Nick Fury, and even the Punisher! That’ll drop Spring 2013.

We leave you with these final words on the 'SHIELD' TV series, courtesy of Joss Whedon: “Did you really
think there would be a 'SHIELD' show without Agent Phil Coulson?”

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