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Over the last decade, Marvel Studios has become one of the biggest driving forces at the box office. A cinematic year is not complete without at least two major Marvel blockbusters destroying all of the competition. In 2012, The Avengers became the third highest grossing film of all time and the highest grossing Disney produced film ever. Now, the sequel, Avengers: Age of Ultron stands to beat its predecessor’s records with a predicted $217 million opening weekend.

But before you head off to the movie theater to watch the magic unfold on the big screen, take a look at some of these characters' defining moments in their original origin stories: the comic books.

Oh the places you’ll go with this very simple, stunning baby shower decoration. If your favorite parents-to-be are throwing a bookish baby shower, this diaper cake will add a magical touch to the event. This project is completely customizable; you can design it after a certain Seuss book (we chose The Lorax) or swap the colors for a general red, white, and blue The Cat in the Hat motif. The part your parent-to-be will appreciate the most? The fact that no diapers were harmed in the making of this cake and they can break it down to use to diapers as they need them!

The final week of April offers quite a few opportunities to celebrate National Poetry Month, including the Party Like a Poet bash at Housing Works on Tuesday, and readings by Jorie Graham and Dorothea Lasky on Wednesday and Thursday. Bring your toughest grammar questions to BookCourt on Tuesday and pose them to copy editor extraordinaire, Mary Norris. Make sure to tweet at us and let us know where you went!

http://kreuganish.tumblr.com/

As April comes to an end, many of us remember two things: exams that we forgot to study for (oops!) and the Battle of Hogwarts that stole many young wizards’ lives on May 2^nd, 1998. But weep not, dear Harry Potter fans! Our loveable heroes will forever live in our hearts, in our fictions and fanarts, in whatever form we like to remember them best, for all eternity.

But sometimes how we—writers, artists, and cosplayers—portray a character doesn’t fit the mold mass media has carved out for him or her. Fan artists have long illustrated their favorite characters according their own artistic vision, but now some illustrators are creating art that portrays the magnificent trio as an array of races and colors to mirror diversity of their fans.

This niche in fandom is called “racebending"—when a character is seen as an ethnicity other than as described in the canonical works—and it's produced some of the best fan works in all of tumblrdom. Read on to see more!

image via flickr

Do you like haiku?
We've got some news about a
Slam on Saturday.

Hey, are you a geek?
We've got some news about an
Open mic next week too.

Poetry month is
Not over yet, people of
Philadelphia.

Poems and stories,
Live and in-person, here are
Your Bookish Events.

Great storytellers create worlds for readers to escape within. Sometimes these worlds contain multiple layers, and you may find yourself in a story within a story. In some cases, we’re talking an entire book inside of the one you’re reading. (Yo dawg, we heard you liked books, etc.) Here are seven great examples: