Captain America and Thor will both have big years in 2011. The two Marvel superheroes and original Avengers have their own feature films scheduled to hit theaters, but as of today they also have their own Sega games marked on the calendar.

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Stan Lee, also known as the Omega Nerd, made his first cameo in a video game a couple weeks back, appearing as a Senator in "Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2." In an interview with The Guardian, Lee talked about his involvement with the game, as well as his overall feelings on video games, saying "If I were young now...I would very much want to get into the video game business because it's the most exciting."

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In the world of video games, two years is an eternity. A game can go from pre-production to retail in that span of time. Consoles can rise and fall. Just think: two years ago, “Halo 3” came out this week. There was no such thing as a DSi. The most recent PS3 exclusive was “Heavenly Sword”. A different world, I tell you!

It’s been two and a half years since Sega signed on to make games of Marvel’s superhero movies. Since then, “Iron Man” turned out to be Sega’s single greatest non-Sonic success in years and “The Incredible Hulk” wasn’t that incredible. Just recently, “Iron Man 2” started building hype. The other games Sega announced it would be making, however, haven’t been mentioned since. That is, until notes from an August meeting between Sega and SCEA were leaked.

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Just about ten years back, right when Neversoft made their first “Spider-Man” game for the PS1, superhero games started getting good. There were some decent ones before that, games like “Batman” on the NES, but they were generally generic platformers and beat ‘em ups. These days, we’re flush with great superhero games that really get what superheroics are all about. “Spider-Man 2” gave us the freedom of swinging through New York, “X-Men Legends” gave us team dynamics and a great story, and most recently “Batman: Arkham Asylum” gave us an adventure that made use of every tool in the Dark Knight franchise’s chest.

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"Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2" is the most polished and enjoyable game the franchise has seen so far (including the "X-Men Legends" titles), but does it do enough to elevate itself in the increasingly crowded holiday marketplace?

The Basics

Set during the Civil War storyline, "Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2" sees the Marvel super hero community suffer a rift. Apparently there's some disagreement over whether super heroes should be forced to register with the government. The pro-registration heroes, led by Iron Man, end up going to war with the anti-registration heroes, led by Captain America, and in the end, it's the world's population that suffers.

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Disney rocked the entertainment industry this morning with the announcement that it now owns Marvel Entertainment, along with all of the company's 5,000 characters. With sequel-worthy games like "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" already floating around and realized sequels like "Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2" on their way out soon, Disney had a lot of relationships to look at across the video game industry, and according to an announcement to Disney investors this morning, all of those projects will be up for review when current Marvel agreements expire.

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Marvel mastermind Stan Lee has appeared in just about every Marvel movie since "Spider-Man." He's pretty easy to spot: He's the old guy who gives some throw-away line about responsibility and all the nerds in the audience nod at their friends and smile, knowing that Stan Lee has placed his cameo stamp of approval on this project.

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THQ was in NYC today to show off some of their holiday titles. One of them was "Marvel Super Hero Squad," an action/adventure/brawler aimed at kids and young adults which features all the big-name Marvel heroes and villains in various states of wackiness.

The game's menu managed to grab my attention, though.

Yes, that's Doctor Doom, Marvel's resident d-bag, hanging out in his robe with a cup of joe. Perhaps most vexing, the morning stubble he appears to be rocking on his METAL FACE. I'm willing to let men with claws and magnetic powers slide, but HAIR DOES NOT GROW ON METAL!

Anyway, just thought I'd share. The game's scheduled for release this fall, so hopefully he'll be able to shake off the morning grogginess by then.

By Rick Marshall

FROM SPLASH PAGE: While DC’s Batman shows his darker side in this year’s “Batman: Arkham Asylum,” Marvel’s core universe of characters will be hitting the Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2 and PSP with a decidedly more lighthearted comics-based game spinning off of this fall’s Cartoon Network series “The Super Hero Squad Show.” And today, we received our first look at that “Super Hero Squad” game.

Simon Phillips, president of Worldwide Consumer Products and CEO of Marvel Animation, previously revealed some details about the “Super Hero Squad” game to MTV News, telling us that along with targeting five-to-nine-year olds, the game would be a browser-based MMO and present a “combination of a social networking site with gaming applications built within it.”

Find out more about "Marvel Super Hero Squad" at SplashPage.MTV.com.