x-men

Guardians Of The Galaxy just enjoyed a very successful weekend at movie theaters, taking home around $94m, far in excess of expectations. The movie also stands at 92% positive reviews on aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, joining all previous Marvel Studios movies in receiving predominantly favorable notices. Marvel Studios is doing very well. In six years and ten movies, it has avoided both critical and commercial disasters, and frustrated naysayers who hailed the demise of the superhero movie at every step. Marvel's rivals at Fox, Sony Columbia, and Warner Bros, have enjoyed commercial success as well -- but not with the acclaim, consistency, or proliferation of Marvel. So how does Marvel do it, and can they keep doing it?

If you saw 'X-Men: Days of Future Past' this weekend, chances are you walked away with a couple of questions about that mysterious post-credits sequence. For fans unfamiliar with comic book canon, the identity of the character was a pretty big question mark (which is why you should read our handy guide), but there was one thing of which all of us were uncertain: just who the heck was that actor?