The brains behind Marvel Animation Studios traveled to Comic-Con International for a Saturday morning panel. In attendance were Stephen Wacker (VP, current series Marvel Animation Studios), Cort Lane (VP, animation development and partnerships) and Eric Radomski (SVP, production and creative director, animation), who brouhgt with them first looks at their latest series, including "Avengers Assemble," "Ultimate Spider-Man" and their upcoming "Guardians of the Galaxy" animated series.

The panel kicked off with an opening-credits type sequence that introduced Wacker, Lane and Radomski, as "Hooked on a Feeling" -- "Guardians of the Galaxy's" signature song -- playing over the presentation.

"Thank you so much for waking up for cartoons on a Saturday morning," Wacker greeted the audience.

Lane then explained the no-recording policy, saying, "We are showing you stuff that no one has seen anywhere." He dove right into "Avengers Assemble" to discuss the upcoming season, which will be called, "Avengers: Ultron Revolution." "We have some exciting storylines that you've not yet seen," he revealed.

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"The Squadron Supreme is making a return to 'Avengers Assemble,'" Wacker announced.

Lane unveiled artwork of Thanos (voiced by Isaac Singleton Jr.), revealing that the Mad Titan will be the main antagonist for this season of "Avengers Assemble" and that the series had been renewed for another season after that. "We've got to make every season bigger than the one before," Lane said in a video that previews next year's "Avengers: Ultron Revolution" season, which name dropped Kang, Vision (voiced by David Kaye), Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel and the Inhumans. "It's a big war for our heroes. It really defines what heroism is."

They displayed footage of the new characters, including Black Panther, the Inhumans and a new take on Captain Marvel's iconic outfit. Wacker spoke a little more about the Inhumans and revealed final designs for several of those characters, including Karnak, Crystal, Lash, Medusa, Triton, Maximus and Black Bolt. With the exception of Lash, these characters belong to the Inhuman royal family in the Marvel Comics Universe; only one member of that family, Gorgon, is missing. "We want to make them an important part of the Marvel Universe," Wacker explained.

Lane also announced a four part arc for "Ultimate Spider-Man: Web Warriors" titled "Contest of Champions," based on the mobile game, that finds the Collector and Kang the Conquerer pitting heroes against villains. He rolled a clip that finds Spider-Man, Hulk and Iron Man in a battle against Wendigo, Molten Man and Kraven the Hunter. If the heroes lose, then the villains get free reign of the earth.

"We looked at 'Contest of Champions' as if it were a season finale. We pushed everything in the season to this point," Wacker said, adding, "We've been picked up for a fourth season."

"That makes it the longest running Marvel animation series," Lane announced.

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Ultimate Spider-Man will be getting a few new friends in the upcoming fourth season, which will debut in 2016. Miles Morales, Agent Venom and Iron Spider (Amadeus Cho) are just a few Spiders set to join Peter. A "mysterious" Scarlet Spider (voiced by Scott Porter) is also slated to show up, and Mark Hamill will reprise his role as Arnim Zola. "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s" Iain de Caestecker and Elizabeth Henstirdge, who play Fitz and Simmons respectively, will also lend their voices to "Ultimate Spider-Man."

"We will get you to 104 episodes of 'Ultimate Spider-Man,'" Lane promised.

"In season 4, we'll be able to do a return to Spider-Verse," Wacker said.

Lane and Wacker then switched tracks to talk about the "Guardians of the Galaxy" animated series, which will debut with a one hour premiere on September 26. A special preview of the first episode will air on September 5th, and ten two-minute shorts that introduce each character will also be dropped before the show. "If you love the movie, you'll very much love the tone of the show," Lane said.

After that brief introduction, the panel aired the full first episode of the new series, "Road to Knowhere." Check out the next paragraph for a brief description of the episode, but here's a spoiler warning for those who would like to go into the series with a blank slate.

The pilot episode follows the same basic plot structure of the film, as Star-Lord and his crew -- Gamora, Rocket Raccoon, Groot and Drax -- break into an ancient alien fortress and find Yondu and the small but powerful object that he was trying to shill. Quill takes the object to Knowhere to meet the Broker, and all hell breaks loose as Thanos' forces ambush them in order to take back the powerful object. Korath returns to the story, as does Cosmo (this time with telepathic enhancements, naturally). A dozen or so references to the comic mythology also get dropped, such as "Spartax," "Celestial" and Rocket wearing rocket boosters. The episode concludes on a cliffhanger; as the premiere will be aired in an hour block, it's likely that the two episodes will tell one complete story.

"We're trying to live up to the standards of the movie," Radomski explained. "It's got the same palette. Storytelling wise, we have a lot more opportunities special-effects wise. We're about 8 episodes in post-production, and the storytelling has been terrific. We're very happy with what it looks like."

"Over 26 episodes, we go on an epic scavenger hunt throughout the universe and you meet a lot of characters," Wacker said of the overarching nature of the show.

The panel then opened to questions, and Wacker specifically requested that any children in the audience come forward. A young Ms. Marvel cosplayer named Marley seized the opportunity to ask if Kamala would join the Avengers. "I would like to build to that," Wacker said, inviting her to sit at the table with the panelists.

Another attendee asked about the state of the Hulk. "There will be other opportunities to see Hulk outside of Avengers. We have more announcements coming up," Wacker responded.

Wacker also referenced Brian Michael Bendis and David Finch's "Avengers Disassembled" arc when talking about the next season of "Avengers Assemble": "It's a different take and it's more about the Avengers splitting up and less about choosing a side."

When asked whether or not Deadpool will make a comeback in any of the current shows, Lane revealed, "Not at the moment. We did a ton of Deadpool in 'Disc Wars: The Avengers' in Japan, which you will see soon."

"Yes, you're going to see Carnage," Wacker told a fan who asked, though he didn't specify where or when Carnage will show up.

To conclude, Wacker took the final question, which came from a young girl who wanted to know if there would be more women superheroes headed to the Marvel Animated Universe. "Absolutely," he responded, "Starting with Ms. Marvel and Captain Marvel and even more than that."