Edited to add the above comic and add "Reality Check to the headline.

In the past few weeks there have been a wave of rumors about Joss Whedon possibly directing the Avengers movie, as well as rewriting Captain America and The Avengers. While that would certainly be awesome and if you take the headlines as fact, it’s a done deal... we should stop and look at where these rumors are coming from. The very first reports were from Deadline saying:

“I'm told Marvel Studios is in final negotiations for Buffy the Vampire Slayer series architect Joss Whedon to direct Marvel Studios' The Avengers."

“I’m told” should be a pretty large flag. I’m not saying Deadline isn’t a legit site, but rumor is nothing more than... well, rumor. For roughly three years tech blogs have been absolutely convinced that the iPhone was coming to Verizon (it’s bound to happen eventually, but that doesn’t make the Mayan calendar right...)! Along with that, the rumor says he’s in “final negotiations.” Look how far Joss Whedon’s Wonder Woman got past negotiations before falling apart in a blaze of Hollywood idiocy.

I’m not saying to lose all hope. This is a very good sign and it may work nicely to be a self fulfilling prophecy. If even Reuters is declaring it a done deal and the hype is building, that’s gonna put an awful lot of pressure of studio execs to not let the deal fall through. I’m just saying that we should probably hold off the parade for a bit before we get the official Joss-Post.