Last week, with the search for Captain America over, a new race began for the folks over at Marvel: find a director for The Avengers. Things started off quickly, with Clash of the Titans director Louis Leterrier saying that he is already on an existing list of directors that Marvel is looking at, and now it is looking like the second name has been released.

IESB, who has been running a series of April Fools jokes for the past hour, is stressing that this new information is not a prank: Joss Whedon, best known for his work on cult TV shows like Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Firefly, is being looked at by the Marvel brass to helm the superhero team-up flick. Whedon already has a major fanbase in the geek community, having also written stories for X-Men and Spider-Man comics in addition to his television work, and is currently working with Thor star Chris Hemsworth for his horror/thriller The Cabin in the Woods.

This is a tremendously stressful day for any news outlet looking for stories, as everything needs to be looked at 10,000 times in order to prevent embarrassing situations, and the scope and interest surrounding The Avengers makes it a perfect target for pranks. If the story is true, there certainly are worse selections Marvel could make. Without insulting Whedon's abilities as a director, though, his work as a writer far outweighs his notability as a director and has largely been limited to his own television series and a single feature film. As we've mentioned before, the director of this film should be able to both handle an ensemble cast made up of stars and be able to create beautiful and intense action sequences. So the question is, does Whedon have this ability?