Lots of Marvel Studios news today and this week in general. Do you get the idea that it’s all building to something?

‘Cause if you didn’t, you missed the subtext.

Release dates for Thor and Captain America have been changed and the date for Spider-Man 4 has been announced all as part of Marvel’s slow lead up to the first unified film universe of superheroes to exist on film, The Avengers in 2012.

Marvel has arranged their release schedule so every summer will blast you in the face with a Marvel character (or two, as is the case with 2011) and let the individual character movie sink in over a few months…

Marvel Studios Feature Film Pipeline
IRON MAN 2: formerly May 7, 2010, now May 7, 2010
SPIDER-MAN 4 (Sony): May 6, 2011
THOR: formerly July 16, 2010, now June 17, 2011
CAPTAIN AMERICA: formerly May 6, 2011, now July 22, 2011
THE AVENGERS: formerly July 15, 2011, now May 4, 2012

Yes, this means that we’re going to have to wait another year for the Avengers movie after Captain America (hopefully) blasts our asses with classic Marvel storytelling, but Marvel is definitely building something very ambitious, especially if the Iron Man 2 script starts hinting at The Avengers two full years before we get the actual story.

Here’s hoping (like Marvel is hoping) that you’re ready to buy advance tickets to all the releases listed above, just with that morbid curiosity, to see where Marvel is going to trip-up. If they don’t miss a step, it could be a beautiful, big, ambitious cinematic picture.