Publisher Gazillion today announced that David Brevik, best known for helping create Blizzard's popular Diablo series, will lead development of its upcoming Marvel MMO.

Brevik will serve as director of Gazillion's "Gargantuan" development studio, which is handling the Marvel Universe MMO currently in the works for PC and consoles.

During his years as president of Blizzard North, Brevik's roles included project lead, design lead, and lead programmer on Diablo I and II. He also assisted in the launch of Battle.net, and served as a director at now-defunct Hellgate: London dev Flagship.

"Gazillion's mission to bring MMOs to the mainstream while maintaining the depth in gameplay that enthusiast gamers demand is something that deeply resonates with me," Brevik said while noting his love of comic books. "Marvel is a perfect fit for this mission."

Following yesterday's surprise revelation of a ten-year MMO licensing agreement between comic publisher Marvel and relatively unknown game publisher Gazillion, the two companies have announced the first two MMOs to be made under the deal.

The first game, Marvel Super Hero Squad, is a casual MMO aimed at younger folk.

The second, Marvel Universe, is in development for PC and consoles. Gazillion will develop and publish the game, with more details to arrive in the coming months.

City of Heroes developer Cryptic Studios previously worked on an MMO titled Marvel Universe Online, though it was later cancelled due to World of Warcraft-related fears.

According to today's announcement, Gazillion has been "operating in stealth mode" under the name NR2B Research. The publisher has four wholly-owned MMO development studios: Amazing Society (Super Hero Squad), Gargantuan (Marvel Universe), NetDevil (LEGO Universe, Jumpgate Evolution), and id co-founder John Romero's Slipgate studio, which is working on an original MMO.