I bet the anticipation is killing you, isn’t it? What could Tom possibly be working on? What is his costume that will SHOCK. THE. NATION? What is his Halloween surprise? You’ll have to come back Friday to see!

Okay… I’ll give you a hint. He won’t be wearing an Iron Man costume, but it will be Iron Man related. THAT’S ALL I’M GONNA SAY!

Truth be told (and I never thought I’d say this), I’m getting a little tired of doing all of the Iron Man jokes in the comic. But they’re kind of easy for me to do. Inexhaustible fanboy glee is something I know a little bit about. “Write what you know,” as they say.

Speaking of Iron Man, did you see yesterday that Marvel announced Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau have signed contracts for The Avengers. The movie is on track to hit theaters in 2011 after Iron Man 2 busts wide in 2010. It doesn’t look like Favreau will be directing, but he will be an Executive Producer. It also appears that The Hulk will not be the main villain, as originally rumored. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Kang The Conqueror!

Marvel also confirmed the announcement made last week that Don Cheadle will be Replacing Terrence Howard as James “Rhodey” Rhodes. I didn’t talk about this last week and that kind of surprised a few of you who e-mailed me. I don’t know. I guess I felt like it was being covered from almost every other angle and I didn’t have anything to contribute. I was also kind of taking a wait-and-see approach. Marvel claimed that Howard wanted more money and decided to cut him out. Marvel also originally dragged their feet signing Favreau to direct Iron Man 2 over money – despite how many fans felt he contributed directly to the film’s great success. Eventually Marvel came to their senses and put Favreau back in the director’s seat. Maybe they would come to their senses and give Howard his “next time” in the War Machine armor.

But even if they weren’t going to put Howard in the sequel, it’s not like I’m all that upset that Cheadle is taking his place. Personally, I think Cheadle is the better actor and I can see him really playing well into that “I’m just screwing with you” vibe that RDJ seems to like to put across in his performances. Kind of like in the Ocean’s 11 movies. I have complete confidence in his performance.

I guess it just would have been nice to have a little consistency.

Gah… I start out talking about how I’m getting tired of discussing Iron Man all the time and look where we end up. Oh, well. That does it for me today. Gearing up for Beggar’s Night tomorrow. We’re having the whole family over for chili and taking Henry out to a few houses on the block for free candy. This is his first time. His costume? Henry’s going as a cow. What can I say? The kid is 21 months old. He’s all about animals right now.

Next year? IRON MAN!!!

Have a great Wednesday!