The dead serious face above is Bradley Cooper, whom you might have caught in the previews for this summer’s comedy The Hangover (preview HERE). Why he is the banner image in a post about your favorite superhero properties is a different matter, because Bradley Cooper is on the short list for a Green Lantern audition:

I’ve just spent the last hour or so on the phones, tracking down a rumor I heard, and HitFix can exclusively report that Bradley Cooper is now one of the guys most likely to don the suit and slip on the power ring as The Green Lantern for director Martin Campbell.

That isn’t the only superhero property to slowly move forward this week, though it is the only piece of news repping for DC Comics (unless you count Quentin Tarantino’s pending and lengthy essay on Superman Returns).

Marvel has the bulk of the news, this via Coming Soon:

Iron Man 2 is, of course, already filming for a May 7, 2010 release, but Marvel said this morning that the Kenneth Branagh-directed Thor is scheduled to start filming in the First Quarter of 2010. No formal offers have been made to actors, though they said that casting announcements are likely the next few months. Thor is targeted for a May 20, 2011 release.

Marvel added that The First Avenger: Captain America, to be directed by Joe Johnston, is scheduled to start filming in the summer of 2010 for a July 22, 2011 release.

And just because the concept of a unified Marvel Universe makes me sequel, here’s another tidbit from Empire about the Avengers film:

“Zak Penn is already on board The Avengers [as writer] and he’s spending a lot of his time looking into what we’re doing with Iron Man, Thor and Captain America, seeing how we’re tying it all together. And he’s beginning to outline the script now – he’ll be doing that over the summer.”