To begin with, let's use the terms of press release dating from San Diego Comic Con in July 2011 and endorsing the partnership between LEGO and Disney / Marvel:

"... The LEGO SUPER HEROES Marvel collection will spotlight three Marvel franchises - Marvel's The Avengers movie, and X-Men and Spider-Man classic characters ..."

"… Marvel characters as Iron Man, The Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye, Loki and Black Widow to LEGO minifigure form ... Wolverine, Magneto, Nick Fury and Deadpool… Spider-Man, and Doctor Octopus…"

But this partnership is only valid for the comic versions of Spiderman and the X-Men, while it takes into account the film The Avengers which will be released in May 2012. Indeed, the film versions of Spiderman belong to Sony Pictures Entertainment which manages the license for derivative products.

But that is no longer true since Disney which now owns Marvel (are you following?) Acquired the rights to the next movie The Amazing Spider-Man (2012). Sony will continue to produce and distribute the films in the franchise, but Disney will now have the right to market derivative products based on these films.
In my opinion, the second film in this new saga will likely be produced by Disney / Marvel, Sony having been ousted from the equation by then ... 

We therefore learn that:

1. The sets will be based on the so-called characters conventional from the Spiderman universe.

2. We will undoubtedly find Doctor Octopus alongside Peter Parker.

3. Disney has the rights for the next Spider-Man in theaters. Disney has an agreement with LEGO on the characters and their universe.

And that's all...

What we know elsewhere:

The film The Amazing Spider-Man, reboot of the series which will therefore not be linked to the films released previously in 2002, 2004 and 2007, will be released in France on July 4, 2012. Andrew Garfield (seen in not much significant so far) will don the spider-man costume alongsideEmma Stone.

The scenario of the film revolves around the youth of Peter Parker and the discovery and mastery of his powers.

LEGO will obviously take advantage of the buzz around the film to promote its sets.

What do I think of it :

If we refer to the terms used in the press release [... Spiderman classic characters ...], I can't help but think of the range of toys marketed in the early 2000s by Toy Biz under the name Spiderman classics. It was a series of collectible figurines sold in blister packs and accompanied by a comic book.
This range began in 2001 to be modified in 2003 (with the deletion of the comic book) and was taken over by Hasbro in 2009 under the name Spider-Man Classics (note the dash).

I'm more and more inclined to think that we're going to be entitled to union minimums for the Spider-Man and X-Men-based portion of the LEGO Marvel lineup. For lack of anything better, we should be able to get some mini-sets containing a hero and a villain, with a vehicle and / or a piece of wall, a lamppost and a trash can. A bit in the spirit of the set 6858 Catwoman Catcycle City Chase from the LEGO DC Universe range which is coming out in a few weeks.

On the side of the bad guys, we should find the most charismatic of the spider-man universe. We will probably be entitled to a new version of the characters of the range under license Sony Pictures Entertainment released in 2003 and 2004 with Doc Ock (aka Doctor Octopus), Green Goblin and some emblematic enemies of Spiderman such as Venom, Carnage, or even Mysterio. All with very cartoonish and up to date minifigs (or younger ones).

 Personally, whatever the result, I would be satisfied with these new figurines. Even if those of 2003 and 2004 are already exceptionally successful.
The photo at the top of this article brings together in the background the 4 versions of Spiderman released to date and in the foreground a custom that I love and that I got from Christo after a hard battle on eBay .... 

I may alienate some of you, but I have to write this article. You probably already know, MegaBrands has had the Marvel license since 2004 in its range. Mega Blocks. I would not launch the debate here on the quality of the range Mega Blocks but I would venture on the other hand to a comparison between two ranges of direct competitors.

The Marvel range at the direct competitor of LEGO is clearly oriented towards mini sets sold at an affordable price and composed of either a minifigure and a vehicle (Marvel build vehicle) , is several miniatures from different factions and various and varied gear or backgrounds. There are also characters sold blind and individually in a bag under the name Marvel Character Building, on the same principle as what we know with the series of collectible LEGO minifigs.

LEGO arrives in 2012 in this Marvel niche and will have to consider what its competitors are doing. Today, an original idea is quickly taken up or even plagiarized outright: Playmobil has just been released a range of characters to collect whose bag is strangely similar to that of the LEGO range.

LEGO will he mind the aging license of Mega Blocks for its Marvel Superheroes range? I think so, to a certain extent. Yes Mega Blocks is very poorly distributed in France, even in Europe, we must not forget that the brand is a hit in the United States and Canada. LEGO must take this into account and offer affordable products to those countries where the culture of superheroes far exceeds that of other licenses, Star Wars included. 

Will we see characters sold in sachets? Mini sets with a single character and a vehicle? I think so if the license lasts beyond the first year of operation. The sale of super heroes in sachets would make it possible to offer a very wide range of characters from the Marvel team, which has several hundred of them, beyond the most famous. Vehicles are also a good way to offer small sets at competitive prices. If we look beyond traditional and historical comics and are interested in cartoons for example, each super hero has his motorcycle, his flying machine, his car, his jetpack or his jet-ski ...

With the arrival of Disney at the helm, the Marvel license should take, in the opinion of all specialists, a turn even more general public than what we know and generate a cohort of derivative products intended for the youngest who do not. weren't necessarily the intended audience for the original comics. LEGO, like all manufacturers holding this license, will have to follow suit and meet market expectations. After all, who predicted that LEGO would launch a Star Wars range based on mini planets resembling a pokeball?

Still in the series: We are given names of sets but we do not really know what they will contain ..., The Marvel range planned for 2012 offers us the set 6868 bearing the extremely mysterious name of: Hulk's Helicarrier Breakout translated by Amazon in French by: The Hulk's Helicarrier Escape.... And there, I think Amazon made a big mistake while translating the name of this set.

Indeed, the Helicarrier is a very well known machine in the world of the Avengers and SHIELD It is a species of flying aircraft carrier (and helicopters) built among others by Tony Stark and declined like the Quinjet in multiple variants (8 in total) over the various comic book publications.

SHIELD headquarters, the Helicarrier, originally slated to make an appearance in Iron Man 2, will play a role in the upcoming film The Avengers as evidenced by these artworks which were published on many sites then hastily removed and these informations about a scene in the film whose script would have filtered.
This script describes the dialogues of a scene in which the visibly pissed off Hulk and Black Widow struggle to get out of trouble aboard the Helicarrier which comes under attack. In the same scene, Tony Stark (Iron Man) and Captain America make their way through the debris-strewn hallways towards the engine room.

You see what I mean ? A playset with a hallway, a machine room, 4 minifigs .... Or not. 

Despite everything, there remains the possibility that the Hulk will escape with his acolytes in a helicopter, which would give us a flying machine in this set which should still contain several super heroes.

It's hard to draw conclusions based on so little evidence, but one thing is certain, these sets will reveal a lot of the film's elements if released before the official release, which I doubt.

On the other hand, the inevitable stolen photos which will undoubtedly be found on the Internet within a few weeks will certainly deliver slices of scenario.

In the expected list for 2012 of sets of the LEGO Superheroes range based on the Marvel license is the reference 6869 Quinjet Aerial Battle. Presumably based on the film universe The Avengers whose release is scheduled for the month of May 2012, this set will therefore contain the famous Quinjet, the machine used by the Avengers to move.

Many versions have been proposed in various comics retracing the adventures of the Avengers. Designed by Black Panther's Wakanda Design Group, this craft was assigned to members of SHIELD and the Avengers. Tony Stark aka Iron Man was also in possession of three experimental copies of the most recent version of this device.

But if we consider that this set will be directly inspired by the film, then we must turn to these preliminary artworks to have a first idea of ​​the shape of this airplane equipped with Turbojet engines and capable of reaching Mach 2.1.

As usual with LEGO, we must base ourselves on the selling price of the set to try to guess the density of its content ... With a price of 83.30 € for 735 pieces, we are therefore entitled to expect a machine fairly detailed accompanied by 3 or 4 minifigs. As this is an aerial battle, we must also expect a priori another flying machine, that of the bad guys. Unless LEGO gives us the shot of the crash zone defended by the super heroes against the villains in Loki's pay: shooting photos of the film confirm that the Quinjet crashes in an urban environment. However, the word Aerial in the name of the set reassures me a little about this, but you never know ...

For information and for comparison with a flying machine we all know, the LEGO Star Wars set 9493 X-wing Starfighter is sold at 69.70 € for 560 pieces and 4 minifigs.

This is the Australian merchant site Hobbyco which offers for pre-order all the new LEGO products to be released including the entire supposed 2012 range .... We can discover the entire Superheroes range which we already know the part dedicated to DC Universe and here are the sets Marvel which are advertised on this site (Prices are indicated in Australian $ and 1 EUR = 1.36 $ AUD):

LEG6865 Super Heroes - Cpm America Avenging Cyc. - $ 24.95 
LEG6866 Super Heroes - Wolverine Chopper S / down - $ 49.95 
LEG6867 Super Heroes - Loki's Cosmic Cube Escape - $ 49.95 
LEG6868 Super Heroes - Hulk's Helicarrier B / out - $ 99.95 
LEG6869 Super Heroes - Quinjet Aerial Battle - $ 129.95 

For information, the list of sets DC Universe : 

LEG6858 Super Heroes - Catwoman Catcycle City - $ 24.95
LEG6860 Super Heroes -The Batcave - $ 129.95
LEG6862 Super Heroes - Superman Vs Pow.Armor Lex - $ 39.95 
LEG6863 Super Heroes - Batwing Batt / Gotham City - $ 59.95
LEG6864 Super Heroes - Batwing & Two Face Chase - $ 99.95

We also find the series of Ultrabuild in preorder, so far everything is fine:

LEG4526 Ultrabuild - Batman - $ 22.95
LEG4527 Ultrabuild - The Joker - $ 22.95
LEG4528 Ultrabuild - Green Lantern - $ 22.95 
LEG4529 Ultrabuild - Iron Man - $ 22.95
LEG4530 Ultrabuild - Hulk - $ 22.95
LEG4597 Ultrabuild - Captain America - $ 22.95

The only clue that makes me doubt this list, however credible at first glance, is that this site also announces the minifigs series 6 & 7 in preorder ..... I would gladly understand that the series 6 is about to be released, but about the series 7 I am more than doubtful, unless it turns out that the two series are planned at one or even two months apart:

LEG8827 Minifigures Series 6 - $ 3.95 
LEG8831 Minifigures Series 7 - $ 3.95

In short, we can calmly stay calm and drink cool, while waiting to learn more about these sets. Marvel whose cryptic names filled with abbreviations give us little indication of their content .....