The Cycle of Violence: Why Can't Marvel Stop Abusing the Hulk?

[This post contains SPOILERS for Hulk (2021 Series) #1-7, Hulk Vs. Thor: Banner of War #1, and Thor (2020 Series) #25-26, all available now from your local comics retailer or via Comixology.] 

Welcome back, Hulk fans!

Some of you may have heard me voice my distaste for the recently-begun Hulk series by writer Donny Cates and artist Ryan Ottley. I'm not alone, either; there are many out there who feel let down following the absolutely incredible, 50-issue Immortal Hulk run written by Al Ewing.

I mean, on the surface, who wouldn't feel that way? Ewing's Hulk was dense and literate, showing the gradual rebuilding of Bruce Banner after coming back from death. He brought back the multiple personality elements of the Hulk, including not only the childlike Savage Hulk, but also the crafty Joe Fixit (although trapped in Banner's body for most of the run) and Paul Jenkins' contribution to the mythos, the aptly-named Devil Hulk. He made the Devil Hulk the glue desperately trying to hold Banner together in the aftermath of trauma before finally killing him off. And after that, it was Joe Fixit's turn in the spotlight, to build a bond with his "brother," the child Hulk, whom he previously never liked, even resented. Together, they rescued Banner, the missing part of their "system," from the Below Place in a showdown with the Leader, his arch-enemy bonded with his dead father's soul. In making peace with the Leader, he also made peace with the memory of his dead father once and for all.

Surely, after such weighty matters and a reunion of the primary members of the system, we thought Al Ewing would stick around a while and show us what the working system of Banner, the child Hulk and a cosmically-powered Joe Fixit in a Hulk form could really do, right? Alas, Ewing's Immortal Hulk now stands as a mere transition period, although one with a panoply of tools for a subsequent writer to employ.

A Peek of Things to Come (or is that, Things that Were?)

Howdy ho, folks!

Welcome back. In the age of COVID-19 it was only a matter of time that I'd make my way back here. But for what? Excellent question!

I've been busy the last few months. Yes, my 9-5 job is still very much intact for the time being, thanks for asking. I'm also reasonably busy over on Facebook and Twitter, so I urge anyone still reading this to feel free to look over there.

Some of you may know a few years ago I completed a run of Post-Crisis Superman, starting with 1986's Man of Steel #1 and concluding with 2011's Action Comics #904, the final issue before DC's entire line relaunched with the New 52. To make a short story very, very long, eventually the Post-Crisis Superman returned in the "Convergence" storyline, and upon the New 52 version's death he once again became the one and only Superman heading into the subsequent Rebirth relaunch in 2016. And when DC "revealed" the New 52 version was split off from the Post-Crisis one, well, I went back and collected the entire New 52 era. Check a box beside "Superman, 1986-present."

And I read, and read, and read some more. So I've read all of those. But all the while I became curious about the Pre-Crisis Superman. Y'know, the guy who could move planets and destroy them if he sneezed too hard? I always had a handful of pre-1986 Superman comics--the first among them being DC Comics Presents #50 cover-dated 1982--but never dug too deeply. But that became my next frontier, and in 2018 I started (and in early 2019 finished) collecting the Superman of the Bronze Age, from 1970-up. All the titles, too--from Superman and Action Comics through World's Finest; Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen; Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane; Superman Family; Supergirl; Adventure Comics; and a smattering of miniseries from the early eighties.

Somewhere along the way I thought, hey, let's add Superboy to the pile, too.

But then, of course, somewhere Superboy was retitled Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes. What to do, what to do? Oh, screw it--suddenly it was fait accompli that my Superman collecting should extend to the character's most well-known spin-off. Earlier this year, I completed my collection of every Legion-related series, starting with 1980's Legion of Super-Heroes #259 and continuing all the way through to today's adventures newly relaunched (again, from out of Superman!) courtesy Brian Michael Bendis and Ryan Sook.

Presently I'm reading as much as I can of the Golden Age Superman, courtesy DC's various Golden Age Superman Omnibus volumes as well as whatever I can scrounge together via the DC Universe streaming service's collection, many Bronze Age reprints such as digests, and other sources. For a while, I tweeted out recaps of the stories I was reading with the #SuperReadThrough hashtag, but I got pretty bored of 280-character recaps and gave it up. (Still, the ones I did do are available by clicking on the last link.) Maybe I'll post some recaps year over year coming up? We'll see.

Right now, what am I working on? Well, courtesy of Todd McDevitt and his crew at New Dimension Comics I've collected a diverse array of smaller series to read when I'm not reading totally new books or the various Golden Age Superman series. Most are from NDC's various warehouse sales (check their site plus Facebook!) and the vast majority have been priced at $1 or less!

Over the coming weeks I'll aim to put my comics reading to good use, recapping limited series where I can. Any requests? Feel free to shoot them my way! I aim to get far from my usual oeuvre. Above is but the smallest taste of what I've been buying up. And with today's comics becoming overly commercialized, and with all the depressing situations happening at DC, IDW and elsewhere, well, a good retreat into the days when comics were just comics seems like just what the doctor ordered, no?

Yes, I love old comics!

~G.