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Filming 'The Avengers' will produce marvels to behold around Cleveland: Ted ...

There is nothing quite like a hot news story to bring out the bludgeon in journalists-- particularly when it's apart from what is generally regarded as "hard" news. Thor with his hammer has nothing on us newspaper folks when it comes to taking something that has captured the interest of the region and beating it into submission.

I'll tell you why we do that: People read it. Long experience has taught us that when something big is happening, readers can't get enough of it.

So when the Indians make the playoffs, you'll see Chief Wahoo all over these pages. When the Browns so much as display a pulse, nobody wearing brown and orange is safe from being interviewed. When the weather turns steamy, we photograph every lawn sprinkler and rivulet of perspiration we can find. Perhaps you've noticed.

And -- speaking of Thor -- when he and The Hulk and Iron Man and the other "Avengers" begin prowling Cleveland's streets a week from Monday, our reporters and photographers will prowl right along with them, and the result will be in the paper.

Every day.

Thanks to Ohio's filmmaker-friendly tax credits, our state has become a go-to movie location, with five feature films being shot in the Cleveland area this summer alone -- but the Disney production of the iconic Marvel Comics heroes "The Avengers" is the first true blockbuster production to come our way.

So it's a big deal.

Not everyone will see it that way, of course. Consider this column a pre-emptive strike, because I can already predict some of the comments we'll get when "The Avengers" come to town: "It's a movie, for Pete's sake. It belongs on the entertainment pages. Nobody cares. Put real news on Page One."

Well, anything that shuts down East Ninth Street for a month, creates hundreds of jobs and infuses millions of dollars into the local economy qualifies as "real news" in my book. Nobody cares? Tell that to the 7,000 or so who lined up on a sweaty Friday a couple of weeks ago just for the chance at a few seconds of celluloid celebrity as extras.

And besides that, it's fun.

So here's what will happen: Next Sunday, we'll have a story that pulls together all we can learn about the production -- which roads will be closed and when, where the filming will occur, who will be here and when. Then we'll have daily reports, and you will be invited, both by The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com, to join the coverage.

Much as we'd like to, we can't be everywhere. So if you're in a coffee shop and Scarlett Johansson walks in, or if Robert Downey Jr. cuts you off in traffic, we want the details -- and we'll give you credit when we write about it.

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