The comics are pretty clear on the ground rules: "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he [OR SHE] be worthy, shall possess the power of THOR." But how does this work?

The Super Bowl gave us eagles fighting patriots like a dystopian vision of the America we're headed towards, but it also gave us so much more: actual new glimpses of Infinity War—life-giving trickles of superhero-infused water in our vast desert of what we actually know about Infinity War.

Marvel kicked off an official 100-day countdown until the debut of Avengers: Infinity War, a movie that we know vanishingly little about except that every movie star in the universe is starring in it.

Here's what we do know.

While many people on planet Earth were psyched to see the official Avengers: Infinity War trailer go up, for a segment of the population with a deep emotional attachment to these characters and their world, today has been like Christmas morning mixed with Ragnarok.

“You gave a teenager a weaponized super-suit. Am I the only one who thinks this is weird?” —Superman The folks over at How It Should Have Ended finally set their sites on this summer’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, a fun movie that I think we can agree also had its share of flaws. “After you guys submitted over 30 […]

Awww, Tony! Tony, no!

Check out a point-of-view video ridealong of the new Iron Man Experience ride in Hong Kong Disneyland.

OK, as far as hard numbers go, Iron Man made a pile of money (technical term), so any movie topping that amount did a good job financially—unless its budget was unimaginably high. Suicide Squad has now officially made more money than the movie that kicked off the MCU, which definitely makes it a success, but the superhero movie landscape has changed a lot since 2008, and that makes the full context of this achievement a little tricker to understand.

It's nice to see that Stark and Hogan are still hanging out.

We've been looking forward to the evolution of Riri Williams, the black, 15-year-old genius who will be taking on the "Iron Man" mantle in Invincible Iron Man. While we're not entirely thrilled that a black and/or female writer wasn't found to take this character on, she's still an epic bit of representation in a world of superheroes that sorely needs it. And now, she has her own name. No, it's not Iron Maiden. Sorry, metal fans/fans of medieval torture devices.

John Oliver took on the Democratic National Convention on Last Week Tonight where he covered Michelle Obama and Khizr Khan's moving speeches, Tim Kaine's attempt at a Donald Trump impression, and more.

Apparently, we can't just have one new Iron Man in Riri Williams. A "reformed" Doctor Doom will also be taking on the Iron Man mantle in a new title called Infamous Iron Man. According to Nerdist, “the greatest villain of the Marvel Universe will try something new. Where Tony Stark failed, Doom will succeed. What is Doom’s Master Plan?” I guess Marvel's really determined to have, like, a jillion people being each hero, huh?

What I find so valuable about the MCU is that its films don’t try to "fix" the traumas of each character; they simply show us the trauma occurring and the consequences of how they choose to deal with their mental state. They are forced to confront not only the international consequences of their actions, but also the personal impact their work has on them, and we as the audience are never truly given resolution.

Elon Musk is 100% aware of all the jokes everyone's been making that he's actually Iron Man, and he's also completely willing to play along. The multi-billionaire SpaceX and Tesla Motors CEO recently had a hush-hush meeting at the Pentagon—in that no one really knows what it was about—and was more than happy to provide fuel for rampant speculation.

Hugh Jackman is 47 and Robert Downey Jr is 51. They're certainly not the only middle-aged superhero actors, either. Mark Ruffalo's 48, Jeremy Renner's 45, and Paul Bettany is also 45, yet no one seems to find it strange that they're chumming around with heroines who are decades their junior (Scarlett Johansson's 31; Elizabeth Olsen is 27).

You ever stop to think about those poor innocent folks who end up trampled underfoot when the Avengers are out doing their thing?

It's hard work composing a superhero theme song; that's what Hans Zimmer gave as his own explanation for leaving the genre behind. But how do the composers for other superhero franchises feel about the task set before them?