Among the many “thought leaders”, “social media influencers” and hopeful startup owners attending this year’s South by Southwest Interactive Festival, one very established brand stood out: Marvel Comics.

Marvel owns some of the hottest movie properties around, but Hollywood blockbusters aren’t enough to preserve the brand in an era of diminishing returns for all corners of the publishing world. So what does Marvel plan to do to expand? Quite a bit, actually.

First, the company offered free digital versions of the first issues of top titles like X-Men, The Avengers and The Fantastic Four for a limited period ending today (hint hint). The purpose of this move was to familiarize more people with the beginnings of these timeless stories, but as an added bonus they may help everyone forget the terrible casting of Jessica Alba as Mrs. Fantastic. The rest of Marvel’s brand reinforcement (don’t say “rebranding”) strategy also focuses heavily on the digital sphere: The biggest single step forward may be the launch of the Marvel Unlimited app, a tool to help mobile fans read their favorites without having to worry about the stupid Flash player screwing everything up. Calls to action? Check. User friendly? Check.

Marvel also has some unique digital-only projects in the works.

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Celebrity endorsements are par for the course during election season, and they generally tout the usual things about a famous person’s favorite candidate: that he or she will improve the economy, uphold social values, bring stability and security to the country, etc. But Joss Whedon, director of The Avengers and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, takes his anti-Romney video in an entirely different direction. While he disagrees with Romney’s policy proposals, the real reason he doesn’t want Romney in the White House is that he’d rather not see the country (and the world at large) dissolve into the chaos and bloodshed of a zombie apocalypse.

How exactly does Whedon, a self-described Liberal, envision a Romney White House enabling hordes of the undead to wreak havoc on the country? Here’s how he sees it: “Romney is ready to make the deep rollbacks to healthcare, education, social services, reproductive rights that will guarantee poverty, unemployment, overpopulation, disease, rioting — all crucial elements in creating a nightmare zombie wasteland.”

In an apparent dig at Romney’s affluence, Whedon goes on to point out that “money is only so much paper to the undead. The one percent will no longer be the very rich; it will be the very fast.” But he does assure us that Romney is ready to “face a ravening, grasping horde of subhumans, because that’s how he sees poor people already.” Well, that’s a new take on Romney’s unfortunate 47 percent comment, isn’t it?

With only one more day before the election, we imagine Joss Whedon would urge you to watch the below video and consider the real issues at hand — not the economy or social values, but whether you have enough canned goods, weapons, and martial arts training to withstand the (potentially) impending zombie uprising.

The Avengers broke a box office record this weekend, debuting with $200.3 million in sales. Just as The Hunger Games’ success was, in part, due to the extensive marketing campaign prior to the film’s release, industry watchers say The Avengers can also credit the marketing effort for the stellar outcome.

“They combined traditional marketing — TV spots, trailers — with plenty of outreach on Facebook and Twitter. Marketers will be studying this for years to come,” BoxOffice.com’s Phil Contrino tells MTV.com.

Though the box office outcome gives Disney a reason to smile following the John Carter disaster (which will very likely be studied as well), there are some people who found reasons to complain.

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Still smarting from the huge losses tied to the film John Carter, Disney is now banking on The Avengers, the Marvel comic hero extravaganza that opens May 3, but had its Los Angeles premiere last night. And unlike John Carter, which can attribute its losses, in part, to the marketing effort, Disney is backing this film up with promotional power.

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