They were done by ESPN which is owned by the same parent company as Marvel, so they are swiping their own IP in the ads. And ESPN has been using a lot of super-hero content lately in their bits and promotions.

Panthers QB Cam Newton had the Clark Kent shirt opening move to celebrate TDs and now the Panthers play the theme from the '78 movie on the PA at home games when Cam does something, so ESPN did a bit on their His and Her segments hosted by Michael Smith and Jamelle Hill where they did an animated piece of an artist drawing comic book pages and version sof the hosts-Michael Smith dressed as Batman, Hill as Wonder Woman analyzing Cam (in a Superman suit) and his teammates and peers (all dressed as various Justice League characters such as Aquaman, Flash, Hawkman, Green Lantern and Cyborg), made a kryptonite reference and then compared the performance of MVP winners int he Superbowl to Superman facing Doomsday and had an animated Doomsday and Cam and League buddies fighting.

None of which you would think would resonate with the typical football fan, but the piece got a lot of buzz (what surprised me was ESPN-a Disney/ABC holding-using WB/DC characters like that.

The NFL has also used super-hero licensing in materials for their Play60 initiative (a program promoting physical fitness for kids to get them to play outside for at least 60 minutes a day) and ESPN has used other comic book sourced material (swiped or homaged) in promo material over the last few years.

Now whether the specific Thor/Surfer cover would come to mind to folks form the BCS poster, I don't know, but seeing ESPN use comic inspired images doesn't surprise me anymore. It seems a lot of pro-athletes of this generation are 90s babies and were comic fans as kids and that, along with the proliferation of comic book movies and television) is bringing the culture of comics into the mainstream (though the book themselves remain a niche product in terms of sales-I started a thread on that in the modern comics section-and it even has a link to that Cam Newton His & Her segment in it). And super-heroes and comic culture resonate with the athletes and the people in the media who cover them.

-M