Superhero Bits: Thor Franchise Crosses A Major Milestone, Shazam 2 Is Headed To SDCC & More

(Superhero Bits is a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)

In this edition of Superhero Bits:

• Luke Hemsworth returns as actor Thor from "Ragnarok."

• "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" is coming to SDCC.

• A deleted scene from "Guardians of the Galaxy" has been revealed.

• The "Thor" franchise crosses a major milestone.

• All that and more!

We've got a lot of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" goods coming our way in the next few years, including Seth Rogen's upcoming animated film. But in the meantime, we've got some neat new figures from the folks at Super7. Specifically, this set of the heroes in a half-shell figures from the company's Ultimates line features glow-in-the-dark versions of Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael. The figures are expected to ship in summer 2023 and the set retails for $260. Full details and pre-orders can be found by clicking here.

The comic book world had to say goodbye to an important figure recently as Pat McCallum, the co-founder of "Wizard: A Guide To Comics," has passed. "Wizard" was, at one point, the gold standard for tracking the comic book industry before it went under in 2011. McCallum also made his mark as an executive editor at DC Comics, as was noted by current DC Chief Creative Officer Jim Lee in the above tweet. RIP, Pat McCallum.

Even though the ratings haven't been as good as they've been for the other MCU shows on Disney+, "Ms. Marvel" has garnered a great deal of critical praise up to this point. However, on the flip side, there has been negativity from review bombers and trolls online. In a recent interview with NME, the show's central star Iman Vellani addressed the topic and, put simply, she has no time for such nonsense.

"This show is for Marvel fans. If you're a real Marvel fan, if any of those review bombers consider themselves a Marvel fan, then this show's for them too. We wanted Ms. Marvel to be a love letter to Marvel fans. So yeah, I don't care about them!"

So there we have it, trolls. The show is for everyone! Even you.

As noted by the folks at Dawn of the Discs, the two-part animated adaptation of "Batman: The Long Halloween" is coming to 4K Ultra HD this September, courtesy of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. This is the "deluxe edition," which includes both parts of the adaptation as well as bonus features and other such goods one typically expects from a robust home video release. In my research, I couldn't find pre-order links from any major retailers just yet but those who are interested would do well to be on the lookout.

Marvel Studios came to San Diego Comic-Con 2019 and blew the roof off the place with the reveal of its Phase 4 slate. Unfortunately, the pandemic got in the way of many of those projects releasing on time. But, as noted by Dustin Sandoval on Twitter, with the release of "Thor: Love and Thunder," every single project teed up on the official timeline graphic shown at the panel has finally been released. The only exception is the "Blade" reboot, which was tacked on at the end as a surprise reveal. That aside, we have finally caught up to that fateful day from three years ago. Now, we can look forward to everything else Marvel is going to tease at this year's SDCC in just a couple of weeks.

Speaking of SDCC 2022, the schedule has been filling out on the event's official website and, as noted by Comicbook.com, Marvel Studios is holding a surprise panel on Friday, July 22 dedicated to animation. The panel's official description reads as follows:

Marvel Studios head of streaming, television and animation Brad Winderbaum; head of visual development Ryan Meinerding; and special guests dive into all things animation with exclusive looks at X-Men 97, Marvel Zombies, What If...? season 2, and more.

Now, given that this is comic-con, the whole "and more" part may be the most intriguing, but the fact that we are going to learn more about stuff like "X-Men '97" and "Marvel Zombies," if not see actual trailers for those shows, is intriguing. I will personally be on the ground this year and will be helping the team gather all of the goods for you, dear reader. Stay tuned.

It's amazing that eight years removed from the movie's release that we are still getting new stuff from "Guardians of the Galaxy." To that end, director James Gunn has shared the above image of Groot from the film, which is meant to evoke "The Last Supper." The shot didn't ultimately make the cut but the vast majority of this sequence did and can be seen once Star-Lord and the gang reach Knowhere in an attempt to sell their Infinity Stone to The Collector.

In more SDCC 2022 news, it has been confirmed that DC and Warner Bros. will be bringing the sequel "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" to the hallowed halls of Hall H on Saturday, July 23. The above announcement includes a video of star Zachary Levi revealing the news, as well as a little teaser. We are surely going to get much more during the actual presentation and, if I were a betting man, I'd say to be on the lookout for the first actual trailer for the movie at that time.

While it's early on in the film's run, "Thor: Love and Thunder" had a very healthy opening night at the box office in North America to go with some nice early returns overseas. As a result, the "Thor" franchise has crossed a major box office milestone. Per The Numbers, the solo "Thor" films have now earned just over $2 billion at the global box office, with the running total standing at $2.022 as of this writing. That number is going to grow significantly in the coming weeks as the God of Thunder's current solo adventure rakes in the dough but this is a big landmark for what was at one point one of the lesser solo franchises in the MCU. How the times have changed. Not only that, but Thor is now the first character in the MCU to have four solo films, and there could be more on the horizon. Who knows? Maybe $3 billion isn't out of the question one day.

One of the absolute best gags in "Thor: Ragnarok" was seeing Luke Hemsworth, Matt Damon, and Sam Neill re-enact the events of "The Dark World" on Asgard in the form of a low-rent stage play. Well, now Chris Hemsworth's brother is back as the thespian version of Thor in a brand new Old Spice ad that is being tied to the release of "Thor: Love and Thunder." And, as an added treat, he brought the stage play version of Korg along with him for the ride. Usually, commercials are worth skipping through but, in this case, it's pretty amusing and it's nice to get more of this iteration of the character. Check the ad out in its entirety for yourself above.