Are you ready to become one of Earth's Mightiest Heroes? Or do you want to protect a world that fears and hates you?

Be it Avenger or X-Man, there are a lot of different Marvel characters you can play with for free today as Marvel Heroes launches worldwide.

You would think that having your own country, an intellect that dwarfs most sentient beings in an expanding universe and access to all the funky green cloaks you could ever want would satisfy some people. But no, Doctor Doom wants more. Actually, he wants everything.

In the latest of the four part Chronicles of Doom series, the prequel story for Marvel Heroes -- the ARPG from Gazillion -- continues.

As Marvel Heroes approaches its June 4 launch, Gazillion has released the first in a series of video comics aimed at fleshing out the story behind the game.

Plotted by Brian Michael Bendis, the action of Marvel Heroes propels you through an overarching conflict with the malevolent master of Latveria, Victor Von Doom.

Zounds! By Odin's beard! And other Shakespearean-style exclamations!

In advance of this weekend's final open beta, Marvel Heroes has unleashed its latest hero trailer with a flash of lightning and a roll of thunder.

Thor jumps into battle with the mighty Mjolnir to highlight the action and team-based combat available in Gazillion's action RPG.

As everyone and their grandmother is going to be spending a couple of hours at the cinema this weekend, why not relive all the Iron Man 3 action in the celebratory Marvel Heroes Open Beta Weekend?

From 7pm Pacific today (Friday, May 3) until Monday, May 6 at 10am Pacific, you can fly your geek cred with pride as you hack, slash and blast your way through Gazillion's action RPG.

A hotter IP on the planet fails to spring to mind in comparison to Marvel's cadre of superheroes.

This year alone, we will see Wolverine, Thor and Iron Man returning to cinemas across the world off the back of the megasmash that was The Avengers.

This means Gazillion, producers of Marvel Heroes have a huge weapon to wield when it comes to attracting an audience, will the game deliver on feverish expectation? Having David Brevik of Diablo II fame at the helm is certainly a big step in that direction. I spoke to David Brevik among other at a Marvel Heroes Q&A designed to show the plethora of changes to hit the F2P MMO ARPG (ASAP?) in beta.