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.

Marvel Two-in-One (Under the Surface of The Immortal Hulk #12, with Apologies to Benjamin J. Grimm)

(CAUTION: This post contains SPOILERS for The Immortal Hulk #12, on sale now from Marvel Comics. If you don't want to be spoiled for this issue and, potentially, the next issue, read no further.)

"Or Is He Both?"

It's been the central question since Jack Kirby's cover to The Incredible Hulk (vol. 1) #1 back in May of 1962. It's also the title of the very first issue of Al Ewing & Joe Bennett's masterful revival in 2018's The Immortal Hulk. Of course, the full version of the question bears mentioning: "Is He Man Or Monster Or Is He Both?"

Over the last year, we've seen a lot of intriguing details in the new series. This Hulk appeared at first to be unlike other incarnations we'd seen before. He was prone to vengeance against those who wronged the helpless, such as when he decimated a biker gang to get to the young man who'd killed a 12-year-old girl (and Banner himself) at a gas station convenience store earlier the same day. Furthermore, like the original, grey-skinned Hulk, he only appeared at night, but this time only after Banner himself died.

It was in that first sighting (outside Avengers: No Surrender, natch) that people around our Green Goliath started making interesting comparisons:

It didn't stop there. This vengeful, judgmental monster found he kind of liked the moniker of "Devil Hulk" while in battle with the Avengers. The name recalled a seldom-seen version of the Hulk who was never seen outside the recesses of Banner's mind (in Paul Jenkins' underappreciated run).

This Hulk also had the uncanny ability to remain alive and even control the parts of his body even after being disassembled into several glass jars. Although the Hulk had previously demonstrated fast healing bordering on total invulnerability, doing what Humpty Dumpty couldn't do puts him in a different and highly unusual league.

But most importantly, Ewing's Immortal Hulk has introduced the extradimensional "green door," a gateway to the lowest of hells ruled by a Cthulhuesque being called the One Below All. (The name inspired by its direct opposite, the One Above All, from Ewing's New Ultimates series of recent vintage.) Unable to gain entry to our world alone, it instead wears the souls of the dead like clothes. In its first direct strike against the Hulk, it used the soul of Banner's abusive father, Brian. "Brian" in turn possessed Walter Langkowski, Banner's college roommate who exposed himself to gamma rays and became the superhero known as Sasquatch.

The Hulk's newfound ability to absorb gamma radiation worked to his disadvantage during the battle with Sasquatch. Because the One Below All uses gamma as a medium, draining the energy from Langkowski's body allowed the creature, still wearing Brian's soul, to possess the Hulk. The creature persuaded him to return to Los Diablos Missile Base, where the fateful gamma bomb had originally detonated.
There the Hulk fought "Crusher" Creel, a.k.a. the Absorbing Man, who absorbed the gamma energy from his body--and with it, the One Below All, who appeared very differently to Creel. And when Creel stumbled into the spot where the detonation occurred, the world turned upside down. He and those around him were transported into the hellish domain the One called home.

In this Hell Below Others, the various parties near the event are divided into teams of two, with the Hulk alongside Jackie McGee, the reporter tracking him since issue #1, while Creel is teamed with Eugene Judd, friend to Langkowski, better known as Puck. So far, Langkowski and Carl Burbank, an assassin better known as Bushwacker, are unaccounted for in the "Hulk in Hell" story.

However, most remarkably, Bruce Banner appears separated from the Hulk, bathed in green light upon a high cliff, while his father Brian stands and explains the story of the One Below All. In addition, Ewing narrates a comparative religions study. He burrows into Kabbalist Jewish lore, evoking the unity and duality of God. In fact, the story in issue #10 is titled "Thaumiel," which are the twins of God. In #11 he defines Thaumiel further, explaining that its ruler is Satan, whom, conveniently, Hulk has been compared to since the very first issue of this run.

However, I think those looking for a deeper reading of the text are emphasizing the wrong part of the puzzle, and issue #12, titled "All on That Day" (an ode to Nina Simone's "Sinnerman"?), crystallizes my thinking by keeping the Kabbalist view of Hell but also bringing in the Zurvanite Zoroastrian concepts of the god Ahura Mazda and its opposite, Angra Mainyu, as twin brothers.

Credit where credit's due to Cth on the Hulk Message Board for highlighting this, because in an issue where we get a lot of new history on Bruce's father Brian and his relationship with wife and son, we also get this panel amid Ewing's narrations:

Looking back, the same panel is found on the very first page of issue #11, with different captions:

In a book where the focus is the dysfunctional relationship between father and son, it's hard not to see a panel such as the above as related to the characters' past.

But then, why are there two cribs in the picture in question?

Then another thing hit me when I went for another reread. When Jackie McGee tells the childlike Hulk to put the Devil Hulk back in charge to talk, he has a marked aversion to her characterization of his relationship to Banner:

Through McGee, Ewing seems to be metacritiquing the historical interpretation of the Hulk that's existed since Peter David's revolutionary Incredible Hulk #377, where the two Hulks (to that point) were explained as multiple personalities of Bruce Banner given form by the G-bomb. And the extant personality seems to disagree with that interpretation.

Now why would he do that?

The answer is one I think we've already seen without realizing. It's staring us in the face since the very end of issue #11, in the climactic moment where we see Brian talking to the suspended body of his son in the green light.

If you think of Hell in the strictest interpretation, it's a place where souls go when they die. So, if the Hulk, or Hulks if you prefer, are mere alters of Bruce Banner, why would they be separate in Hell?

Unless, of course, Bruce Banner and the Hulk have an altogether different relationship than we've been led to believe all of these years.

Unless Bruce Banner and the Hulk are brothers, not alters.

Twin brothers.

Remember that twins aren't an aberration in the Hulk mythos. In Peter David's out-of-continuity novel, What Savage Beast, Betty gave birth to twins named Ross and Brett before Ross died and Brett was kidnapped to be raised in a dystopic future by the Hulk's future self, the Maestro. And in-continuity, Greg Pak wrote of Skaar and Hiro-Kala, the Hulk's twin sons by his alien wife Caiera. And twins, as anyone with a passing familiarity with genetics will say, run in families.

So why haven't we heard anyone talk about Bruce Banner's brother before now? There are a few possibilities. It could be that another son was expected but that he was stillborn. Or perhaps he fell victim to the vanishing twin syndrome, wherein a twin dies in utero and its tissues are reabsorbed, often by the mother or sometimes by the remaining twin.

What if the Hulk were that vanished twin, absorbed back into Bruce, brought to life when the G-bomb struck?

It might even go to great lengths to explain how the Hulk possesses such remarkable healing abilities as he's demonstrated in the body-horrific issue #8. If the Hulk is a vanished twin--fetal tissue reabsorbed into his brother--then fetal tissue has unique properties that developed tissue does not. Hence why many scientists have begun experimentation on stem cells in therapies for treating various genetic diseases. I'm spitballing here, but perhaps the Hulk's healing derives from being, in effect, a mass of super stem cells?

Remember, one thing Ewing also brought up courtesy the Hulk's inner monologue back in issue #9 is the idea that perhaps he wasn't only with Bruce since the G-bomb, or maybe not even since being abused, but even further back in some form:

Put it all together and it sounds like the only remaining questions are just why there's so often a childlike Hulk and a smarter, craftier one.

Oh, and...

We'll see at least a few of the answers in The Immortal Hulk #13, on sale a week and a half from now. But in the meantime, we've got a lot of speculating to do. If the answers are even close to what I've postulated here, well, we're in for a grand old time as Hulk fans.

~G.

The Incredibly Morbid Hulk (Avengers #684 & Immortal Hulk #1, Forecasted)

He's baaaaaaaaaaccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkk.

And he's PISSED.

Since the last time I wrote, the Hulk--my favorite fictional character, as you should know if you've been following me for any length--largely remained dead since Marvel had him killed in their publicity stunt masquerading as event series, Civil War II, in mid-2016.

The series was written by Brian Michael Bendis, a writer whose work I've at times enjoyed (Alias, Daredevil, Ultimate Spider-Man--the first 50-ish issues) and other times loathed (gobs of Avengers and X-Men of varying flavors; Secret Invasion; Guardians of the Galaxy). As I've said before, his characterization of Banner and the Hulk just leave me cold, and each time I have to read something he wrote about them, I cringe at the total lack of knowledge of and utter disgust for them he seems to possess. I know not everyone holds Bruce Banner and his monstrous id in the same high regard as I, but dammit, do people who seem to outright hate him need to be so obvious about it?

The only thing more disgusting than the way in which Marvel chose to kill the Hulk is the way in which they've teased, time and again, his "resurrection." It's true that you knew they would never let him stay dead, but really, they tease by having the Uncanny Avengers fight a version of him apparently raised by the Hand and wearing tatami that still lets his green skin peek out around the edges? Not content with that, Banner's body is then turned over to Captain America, who at the time was a deep cover Hydra agent, his memories rewritten by the Cosmic Cube as part of a revenge scheme by the Red Skull. (Say that five times fast, I dare you!) Of course, Captain America Hydra turns the corpse over to Arnim Zola, who programs him to return to life just long enough to shred through Cap's heroic opposition like a sickle through chaff.

So of course, primed by these three "deaths," the new Hulk status quo is that he's--wait for it--immortal, and each time he's died, he was just destined to come back. That's the premise of the new series by Al Ewing and Joe Bennett, coming in June to a comic shop near you, called--yup--The Immortal Hulk. (Interview at link.) And Marvel is previewing this new take in their 16-part weekly series, Avengers: No Surrender, of which issue #684 is now on sale.

A Delusional Flashback: The Hulk Is Dead, Long Live...John Byrne's Hulk?

I thought it might be a good time to throw a new spotlight on another time the Hulk was threatened with death...by acclaimed writer/artist John Byrne!

If you haven't read the below articles, well...they're new to you!

John Byrne & The Hulk That Might Have Been (Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Post-Script)

Delusional Honesty will return later this week, with a long-delayed review of Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

~G.

Mortem Viridi - Civil War II #3, Dissected

SPOILER goggles on, fellas.

Let me tell you why I don't like Civil War II #3. (Shocker, I know.)

But first, a break...

The Physicist Has No Purple Pants: Marvel's Hulk-Sized Problems (2 of 2)

(Updated thanks to an eagle-eyed Facebook friend. Thanks, GG!)

When last we left our intrepid blogger, I was constructing a narrative by which I proved that there's a great, big target on the Hulk's green butt, put there by Marvel's powers-that-be and set to have the bull's-eye hit on Wednesday, July 13th, only 3 short days from now, in the pages of Marvel's Civil War II #3. Now, get ready to go beyond the actual event, into what the Hulk's death means for the world of Marvel Comics and its creators, for you the fans, and for the entire doomed comics industry.

(Whoops. Did I just say "doomed"? Heh-heh.)

While I've been taking the time to write these new chapters, I hope you've familiarized yourself with Totally Awesome Hulk #7-8, both now on sale, the latter of them since I published part one. As writer Greg Pak stated himself, the books mark his return to writing Bruce Banner. What he didn't say--but which is patently obvious from reading the eighth issue in particular--is that these stories are intended as a final look back at our favorite physicist, since his next appearance in Civil War II will end with an arrow through his [insert whatever part of Banner's anatomy you want].

O Death, Where Is Thy...Smash??!? (1 of 2)

(EDITED 7/8 thanks to Cth at The Incredible Hulk Message Board!)

It's been about a year since my last post on Marvel's Green Goliath. Those of you who have followed me for any considerable time know the Hulk is my favorite comics character. Hence, I'm a bit territorial when it comes to big events surrounding Big Green. And when I'm displeased, I'm known to write pieces like those dissecting the runs of Jason Aaron and Mark Waid.

Up to now, I've been staying eerily quiet about Totally Awesome Hulk. That ends today.

I've got much more to get into than Totally Awesome Hulk by itself, so I'll try to be brief. For Greg Pak--one of my very favorite Hulk writers, his name spoken in the same breath as Len Wein, Bill Mantlo & Peter David--to have a comeback would ordinarily be a cause for celebration. At the same time, there was apprehension, for what writer successfully returns to the book on which he made his mark? Even Peter David couldn't make lightning strike twice, leaving not even a year into his second tenure. It was true that this time, Pak was making his own creation, Amadeus Cho, into a brand new Hulk, in a move that I previously stated echoed Bill Mantlo's original plans before he handed the book to John Byrne. Some at the time called it a Gary Stu situation (look it up) beyond all others. Me, I went along for the ride, as Pak had earned much goodwill in his prior five-year run.

Γ (An Open Letter to Mark Waid)

Mark,

Long time no talk! You probably don't remember me. We talked in Pittsburgh, back at the old ExpoMart. Early on a Friday, absolutely nobody was waiting to talk to you. You signed some Flash comics for me including the introduction of villain du jour Cobalt Blue, the evil twin brother of Barry Allen. You suggested that Cobalt Blue wasn't, strictly speaking, a retconned-in character, because nothing in Barry's history outright stated he wasn't a twin.

One of my favorite Flash storylines. Don't judge. (Art by Steve Lightle.)

What you didn't know and what didn't even matter back then is that I am, was, and probably ever shall be a fan of that green goliath called the Incredible Hulk.

So, maybe I didn't take it so well the other day when the following showed up on your Twitter feed after what I'm sure was a frustrating time at Wondercon:

I used to think that hardcore Legion fans were the most unforgiving, impossible-to-please readers. Then I started writing the Hulk.
— Mark Waid (@MarkWaid) April 18, 2014

Now, I'm not about to take you to task over the above comment, which has incensed more than a few Hulk fans who are on my Twitter feed, or who friended me on Facebook, or who hang out on the Hulk Message Board with me, or who read this very blog.

About as angry as most Hulk fans I've talked to lately. Art by Mahmud Asrar.

I've been reading the Hulk's adventures for over thirty years, since I wasn't quite three years old. Long enough to be set in my ways, surely, right? Well, consider that I turned three in 1982 and that my first issue was Incredible Hulk #272, wherein Bruce Banner's personality became ascendant for the first long-term period in the character's existence. Consider that since my very first exposure to the character, he's never really stayed with one status quo for more than a few years at best, and you'll easily understand why I'm very, very comfortable with the concept of change.

You're one of my favorite writers, Mark. "The Return of Barry Allen" is one of my all-time favorite stories. I told Brian Augustyn how much I enjoyed "Chain Lightning" and "Dark Flash" when I saw him here in Arizona a few years ago. I loved Empire and look forward to seeing more of that world after your recent announcement. Captain America, JLA, Amazing Spider-Man, and even Ka-Zar? Terrific! Kingdom Come? Revolutionary! And nobody's brought Daredevil out from Frank Miller's shadow like you. (J.M. DeMatteis and Karl Kesel tried it, but the world just wasn't ready.)

So you, Mark, writing my favorite character? "Bliss" didn't sound like too strong a word, especially when considering the series had really and truly lost something with the departure of Greg Pak, the book's best voice since the departure of Peter David. Sure I was sad to see the book relaunched for the second time in two years, but it went along with the whole "Marvel NOW!" program and legitimately seemed like a new direction. "Hulk destroys, Banner builds"? Who doesn't love the dichotomy?

Waid's journey into Hulkdom begins. Art by Leinil Yu.

Something I didn't like about the run immediately preceding--without even getting into the story--was the constant artistic Armageddon going on. I know I said I liked change, but I prefer consistency in art. I grumble and I grouse that today there are seldom any unbroken artistic runs like in the sixties and seventies, and never at the Big Two. (Ironically, Hulk has been home to not one but two great, long art runs, by Herb Trimpe and Sal Buscema.) Generally, though, the more consistent the look, the more I'm willing to forgive.

So we had Leinil Yu, whom I've always wanted to see take the regular Hulk gig (since Wolverine #145). And then we had Walt Simonson (ditto, since Rampaging Hulk magazine). Then we had Matteo Scalera, the "new guy" with 4 generally good issues right out of the gate...before we ran smack into what must've been a mountain of Dreaded Deadline Doom. Kim Jacinto; Mahmud Asrar; Clay Mann; Miguel Sepulveda; Jheremy Raapack; Tom Grummett; Joe Bennett.

I know you don't have any control when the Doom hits, Mark, but let me tell you, nothing kills momentum like artistic inconsistency--even among artists whose work I casually enjoy. It honestly felt like nobody cared about the book since about the halfway point of "Agent of T.I.M.E." Each issue marked time (yes, please groan) until the relaunch.

So what was I expecting out of Hulk, the new series that started last week? I saw Mark Bagley's name and immediately connected the dots to his unbroken or nearly-unbroken runs on Amazing Spider-Man, Thunderbolts, Ultimate Spider-Man, New Warriors, and Justice League of America. Nothing says "consistency" like adding "Bags" to a project.

Story-wise, that's something different. Since the seventies, more casual fans have identified more with the mute Hulk of the live-action TV show. A mute or near-mute Hulk carried over into both the 2003 and 2008 films as well as Marvel's The Avengers. While it works well enough because of the character's physicality, the Hulk's near-muteness can be a real detriment to the comic book page, working best when hidden behind prose more purple than the Hulk's pants (e.g. Bill Mantlo's "Crossroads" stories) and worst when the Hulk becomes an incredible cipher (e.g. Bruce Jones's horror take of the early 2000s).

The segue into the relaunch. Art by Joe Bennett.

The Hulk is Bruce Banner's rampaging id, yes. Everything Banner represses sublimates into the Hulk, true. But the Hulk works better with a brutish personality, whether it's the craftiness of the Grey Hulk; the canny savagery of the World Breaker; or the unique blend of childlike innocence and blind rage that was the Savage Hulk. (Very few, it seems, can write the latter well anymore, alas.)

When you stray too much from a Hulk who is capable of articulating his rage at being bound to Banner--either by saying "Banner keeps Hulk locked in dark place!" or by imbibing so much booze before dawn that it leaves Banner incapacitated until his next change at dusk--you lose something about the character. The Hulk becomes less a character and more a mindless weapon to aim.

I don't feel that Banner's character development must come at the expense of the Hulk's. However, it seems that's what we've gotten lately. True, from the looks of last week's Hulk #1, you might just be priming us for a reversal of fortune for which I'd be ever so grateful.

I'm anxious, very anxious, at the questions posed between last month's Indestructible Hulk #20 and this issue. How can the Hulk's healing factor be so severely curtailed by two mere bullets? (Clever way to make the Hulk "indestructible" no more.) Who could have infiltrated a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility to make the hit, and why? Could one of Banner's own team be to blame? What does that frightening last page mean for the Banner/Hulk paradigm you've established? How will the physicist we know and love return to normal? And might we still have to worry about Banner's "insurance policy" he worked out with Matt Murdock?

Where the answers begin (we hope). Art by Jerome Opena.

So, you've got a whole lot of questions to answer. Hopefully a smarter Hulk is part of the answer. After all, a Hulk that doesn't talk--much if at all--is an invention of a television producer who by and large looked down at the comics medium. Comics shouldn't be beholden to that portrayal. Comics are, well, comics. So reach higher. Do more.

And for god's sake, "Hulk knows how to con-joo-gate stupid verbs! Hulk is not stupid!" Truth: As was frequently the case during Bill Mantlo's earliest issues as Greenskin's scribe, those around him underestimated the Hulk time and again. Just because the Hulk spoke like a caveman, that didn't mean he was as dumb as one.*

(* - With apologies to the Geico cavemen.)

With a character that's been through as many iterations as the Hulk has over the last 52 years, you're always going to do something that disagrees with part of the readership. You've just got to find balance--between Banner's intelligence and the Hulk's savagery; between loquaciousness and taciturnity; and between what you want to write and what the readers want to read.

Excelsior!

~G.

Indestructible Hulks & Marvel, Nowish

Well, now.

It's been a few months since I've been around these parts. For those of you with Twitter, you know I've still been as active in my fandom as ever; I just haven't been able to blog on account of a whole host of realtime issues. The Hulk book is still forthcoming, I promise. In fact, with this very blog post, I really have to watch what I say about at least one series I want to review because its release has totally thrown a spanner into the works of the final essay I've left to write.

Am I making sense?

So. Let's get on with it, shall we? What have I been reading during the last couple of months?

INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK #1 (Marvel, $3.99) - It's true that Marvel seems to be caught in a cycle of perpetually relaunching some of their characters, and the Hulk is one of their biggest targets. It started with "Planet Hulk" in 2006 and continued through the Red Hulk launch in 2008, the re-renumbering of Incredible Hulk in 2009, the introduction of the Hulk family in the transformed Incredible Hulks series in 2010, and finally last year's rebranding courtesy Jason Aaron. As part of the "Marvel NOW!" initiative, our favorite Jolly Green Giant has once again had his series restarted, written by Eisner and Harvey Award-winning writer Mark Waid, no less!

Let's get this out of the way right now: I love Mark Waid. He's written several of my favorite comics storylines, including "The Return of Barry Allen" early in his Flash run; "Chain Lightning" and the "Dark Flash" stories late in same; "Unthinkable" and "Hereafter" in Fantastic Four; "Man and Superman" in JLA; too many Captain America stories to count; "Urban Jungle" in Ka-Zar; and, well, you get the idea. In my top ten comics writers of all time, easily. Have I mentioned yet what miracles he's worked in making me enjoy the perennially-dark Daredevil by embracing a lighter mood? No? Corrected!

So far--and I realize we're only one issue into his and Leinil Yu's run--I remain optimistic, but can't help but feel we've moved a dozen steps backward. While it's an inspired choice to have Bruce Banner accept that he and the Hulk aren't going to be rid of each other anytime soon, and while there's a germ of an interesting idea having him set up shop with the same spy organization that once was complicit in exiling him into space, there's honestly precious little here we haven't seen done better elsewhere. We saw Banner using his incredible intellect on a regular basis during the final two years of Greg Pak's run, and Lord knows how many times we've seen him bring the Hulk's strength to a big think-tank organization. (The Pantheon, anyone?)

Then there's ol' Greenskin himself. Last month, Jason Aaron gave us a fully articulate behemoth who briefly swapped places with Banner due to the old stimulus of anger before giving way to a more well-balanced behemoth. Now, Waid seems to be fully embracing anger as a trigger, which no one's really done with any regularity since 1982. Not only that, but this first story only gave us a mute misanthrope rather than the "nobody's fool" incarnation of recent memory. If Kelly Sue DeConnick's Avengers Assemble and Jonathan Hickman's Avengers are any indication, it's very likely we're seeing the full-fledged return of the savage, child-like Hulk to the Marvel Universe.

And I'd be perfectly fine with that, if not for the fact that blessed few writers actually have a knack for the character since his exeunt from virtually the entire Marvel line in 1982. Being a fan of the "classic" Marvel tropes, I'd think Waid would fit among that number, but he's stated in an interview that he's "still having a hard time pinning down an exact 'voice' for Hulk," which doesn't exactly inspire confidence seeing how he's likely more than a few issues along in his scripting efforts. And when one of Marvel's best writers has a tough time with a character's voice, well, gulp!

Waid does have plenty of time to prove me wrong. With the so-far mute Hulk, though, I'm reminded of another relatively recent writer's run--that of Bruce Jones. Spy stuff? Check. Mute Hulk? Check. Boring as hell and wildly inconsistent with what came before? Check and mate. I'm hoping that, unlike Jones, Waid remembers, as Pak and David and even Jason Aaron did, that the Hulk has his own needs and desires. Even in his childlike incarnation--the one Marvel seems intent to foist upon the reading public as result of his scene-stealing appearance in the Avengers film--he has been underestimated in terms of cunning and yes, intellect. And those are aspects that have been lost in the shuffle, atrophied from years of disuse.

Buy it. Read it. Just don't expect to be blown out of the water quite yet.

---

On the other hand, there's Jeff Parker, Carlo Pagulayan, and Wellinton Alves's RED SHE-HULK #60 (Marvel, $2.99). Three months in, I'm enraptured by the narrative they're constructing in which Betty Ross has been desperately trying to avert a future that seems to already be happening. Parker has smartly begun reintroducing elements of Jonathan Hickman and Dustin Weaver's landmark SHIELD series, which is interesting because of Waid's tying the original Hulk to the modern version of same. It's also nice to see Parker keeping Machine Man in the mix, since he was in the Red Hulk's series ever since the "Hulk of Arabia" arc some months ago. Pagulayan and Alves's styles mesh well enough, and I'm hoping they're able to keep the series consistent for a while yet, as having two artists working concurrently on each issue beats trading off artists between arcs.

That conclusion to issue #60 does raise some interesting questions. Without spoiling anything, hey, it's not like we didn't see the same thing happen to Jen Walters before (in the late Steve Gerber's opus, "The Cosmic Squish Principle"). I'm just curious as to why it's happened, and what it means for Betty in the immediate future. If you haven't tried this book yet, please, please, please do.

---

It's been a while since I predicted this series' status quo change, but it's better late than never. THUNDERBOLTS #1 (Marvel, $2.99) gives General Thad "Thunderbolt" Ross a chance to share the spotlight with a team of Marvel's nastiest assassins and killers that's, perhaps ironically, named after himself. The seeds for this group, if the cover's any judge, were planted during Jeph Loeb and Ian Churchill's "Code Red" storyline in Hulk, with some of the extra stuff courtesy the recent "Circle of Four" arc. Writer Daniel Way sets up the story interestingly enough, framing the "pilot" as a conversation between Ross and the Punisher while intermittently flashing back to the incidents wherein he "drafted" the other team members. True, Ross no longer seems to be in hiding like he was in Jeff Parker's series, but it's too early to tell whether that's a good or bad thing. (I like having the Red Hulks' identities be secret to the world at large, as a counterpoint to the green Hulks.)

By far the most surprising thing about this first issue is the identity of the member that isn't on the cover. She's a Hulk foe from way back, and could be just the wild card the new Thunderbolts need. Kudos to Daniel Way. (Just please, please, please don't use the origin Peter David gave her.)

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: The weak link in this series is the horrendously average artwork of Steve Dillon. He works well on a "street-level" series like Punisher; not so much with a book filled with super-powered characters, one of whom is built like a brick outhouse. The book just doesn't have the visual "pop" it should, and a more dynamic artist would be tremendously appreciated, the sooner the better.

Still, this is a quality read and I'm anxious to see this group get together and kick some ass.

---

Alas, I've saved the best for last. THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #699 (Marvel, $3.99) has surpassed my every expectation. The final arc, "Dying Wish," has everything that I want out of a Spider-Man story: Life-and-death stakes, challenges that cut to the core of Peter Parker's character, insidious villainy, stupendous suspense, and that trademark humor. If you missed the last issue, please run, don't walk, to your local retailer. You can even catch it digitally on ComiXology if you like. If you miss this story, you're missing great comics.

Writer Dan Slott has been seeding this storyline since The Amazing Spider-Man #600 back in 2009. Doctor Octopus has been dying, his all-too-human body slowly breaking down because he's taken too much punishment at the hands of super-powered individuals. His schemes have steadily escalated, until now where he's finally in possession of a super-powered body that will help him show the world who's boss. Unfortunately, that body is our hero's! That's right, Otto Octavius has transferred his consciousness into Peter Parker's body, which means our hero's mind is in a body that is failing him by the hour. Not only that, but Peter-as-Ock's trapped in an underwater prison under armed guard! It can't end this way...can it?

Slott and artist Humberto Ramos bring their "A"-game to this Spider-saga, due to end in The Amazing Spider-Man #700 in just a few weeks' time. The whys and wherefores behind Ock's scheme become crystal clear in this story. Not only that, but the ending and the cliffhanger bring to mind the sagas of yesteryear that we just don't see in comics anymore. You know the kind I'm talking about, because I've written about them before. There's a feeling of momentum building toward the conclusion, rather than something new beginning like in just about every other anniversary issue Marvel and DC put out these days. Let's make no mistake: I want that book, and I want it now. Kudos to Dan Slott and the Spidey team supreme for making me feel that way.

That's enough from me tonight. What d'you think, sirs?

~G.

Against Incredible Odds: Who Will Write The Next 'Hulk' Series?

According to Marvel's October 2012 solicitations, made available today, The Incredible Hulk is being "canceled" with issue #15 of its current run by writer Jason Aaron. Putting aside the irony of the series being "doomed" with less-than-stellar reviews being wrapped up by a battle with Doctor Doom, we know in our bones that the company is just readying yet another relaunch of the series as part of their Marvel NOW! campaign that begins the same month.

Coincidentally--or maybe not so much--Hulk, the book that's been starring Thad Ross, the Red Hulk, concludes in August. The book has been sliding down the sales charts lately despite solid stories and artwork. Rumors have it that the series is being relaunched to coincide with Marvel TV's new animated series, Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. I have my doubts, not the least of which is the fact that in spite of some critical acclaim, Greg Pak's Incredible Hulks series that did pretty much the same thing tumbled down those same sales charts month after month.

Below, I've assembled my own serious picks for the new Hulk series that's sure to debut sometime between November and February. I'm likely to be wrong, but I'm playing the odds here. Somebody could come out of left field (even moreso than some of my suggestions!) and steal the book away.

In order from best chance to worst:

1. Fred Van Lente (2-1) - The odds-on favorite. Mr. Van Lente has closely flirted with Hulk super-stardom, having been buddy-buddy with Greg Pak since the days of Incredible Hercules. He created AIM's Scientist Supreme Monica Rappaccini and her daughter Thasanee, better known as the not-so-new-anymore Scorpion. Peter David one-upped him and established Bruce Banner and "Nicky" had a college fling which just might explain where her dear daughter got her green hair. Since then, those characters have only grown closer to the Hulk. Add in that we're a month away from Fred and Tom Fowler's revision of the Hulk's origin in Hulk: Season One and I think you can see where I'm going with this. The book is poised to introduce a new villain into the Hulk's corner of the Marvel Universe, and it will also plant the Scientist Supreme smack dab into his origin. Why not capitalize on these aspects in the best way possible and bring Fred Van Lente into the fold as the regular series' new writer?

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2. Matt Fraction (5-1) - The more radical, yet still safe bet. Matt Fraction has been on the periphery of the Hulk universe for some time, writing the 2011 Fear Itself event which turned the mighty monster into Nul, the Breaker of Worlds. Since then, he's been writing Defenders, showcasing the team of heroes the Hulk is most often associated with--that is, up to this summer's blockbuster film, what was it called...? Anyway, he has enough off-the-wall ideas in books like The Mighty Thor and The Invincible Iron Man that he could very well be right at home scripting the adventures of Earth's Mightiest Mortal. Certainly it would make crossovers between his book and Defenders far easier, which would be a major plus if for no other reason than Betty's over there as Red She-Hulk. I admit, I'd be very curious to see Fraction take over.

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3. Jeff Parker (20-1) - The guaranteed hit among Hulk fans. Jeff Parker has been writing the Red Hulk's adventures for about two years now. During that time, he's made the book--in this fan's opinion--a whole lot better than it has any right being, and ludicrously better than Jason Aaron's series about the "real," green-skinned Hulk. Hulk fans have longed to see him cut loose on Bruce Banner the way he has with Thad Ross. The only problem is whether Marvel will see the ever-declining sales figures of Hulk as a reason why he shouldn't be made the main series' writer. While his stories win critical acclaim and old-time fans' hearts, they don't seem to be catching on with the larger contingent of fandom essential to long-term success. Giving Incredible Hulk to Parker would be a gamble, but one I'm certain could pay off, especially if he's teamed with an artist capable of putting asses in seats.

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4. Kieron Gillen (40-1) - The longshot with the inside track. Kieron Gillen has been making a name for himself in the Fear Itself spinoff series Journey Into Mystery which many have described as Marvel's very own Sandman (DC's dark fantasy series of the 80s by Neil Gaiman). He's also begun plugging away at the X-Men and, as seen in the above cover, he's written the Red Hulk in battle with Colossus-as-Juggernaut. He's not a big name, but this Brit's star is rising, and as a friend said on Twitter, he "can mix bombastic superhero battles with intricate, character-driven stories, a MUST for Hulk writers." That certainly sounds like a ringing endorsement. Again, pick a stellar artist, and this might be the team to beat.

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5. J.M. DeMatteis (100-1) - The diamond in the rough. J.M. DeMatteis hasn't been doing much at Marvel these days, but what he has written has been as awe-inspiring as any of his older work. Like Gillen and Fraction, he really hasn't done anything substantial with the Hulk, his work relegated to a couple of stories in the black-and-white Hulk! magazine and some Defenders work here and there. However, when I recently interviewed him for my Hulk retrospective book, he told me that ol' Greenskin was right in his wheelhouse, as the character dealt with the themes of duality so prevalent in his best work. Anyone who enjoyed his stories in Spectacular Spider-Man, Silver Surfer, and Man-Thing would certainly see where he's coming from. Although he's known for deeper, psychological tales, he's also capable of light humor like in Justice League International and Defenders alongside longtime friend Keith Giffen. He's the best pick on my whole list, and I wish he'd get this gig. Never say never, but if the miracle came that we ever got him on Hulk, we'd never regret it.

Your thoughts?

~G.

Stay Angry: Or, How Marvel Must Want Me Behaving When Reading "Incredible Hulk"

(Warning: This review contains SPOILERS through this week's Incredible Hulk #8. Re-edited after 1st posting for clarifications.) 

Marvel Comics hates me.

It's been a few months since I've really discussed Jason Aaron's Incredible Hulk. I've had a few reasons for that, not the least of which being my forthcoming book all about the Green Goliath, which will include some commentary on the last several months' worth of stories. That may be the biggest reason, but the fact is, when I'm not discussing the Hulk on this blog, ever since I started posting more regularly about two years ago, it probably means the book just plain sucks.

It happened once before, as Bruce Jones wrote the series into a ditch around the time of the 2003 Ang Lee film. There were some good bits among the bad, but really, the era of decompressed storytelling kicked in with a vengeance, and the Hulk appeared maybe a few times a year in his own series while Banner became an everyman to whom we somehow still couldn't relate, involved in an overly labyrinthine conspiracy story.

It's happening again today, courtesy Jason Aaron and a bevy of artists who can't seem to stay on the book for any length of time. Marc Silvestri managed three issues (more or less); Whilce Portacio managed four; and now we're on our second of what will be, minimum, six artists who aren't sticking around longer than a single issue. We're told that each issue has a different artist to give each story a flavor of its own, and that "Stay Angry" is a five-part storyline that is made of individual tales with an overarching theme. I'm convinced that the book is really so far behind schedule--or that Marvel is pushing an accelerated publishing schedule upon the series--that they have no choice but to use artists in swift rotation.

The ending of "Hulk Vs. Banner"--the four-part storyline that Portacio drew--was no surprise to readers of this blog or anybody who was really following the storyline for any length of time. Since there was a Gamma Bomb on Banner's island, and since Amanda Von Doom and her henchmen were not in the practice of leaving mad scientists alive, you knew Banner would bite the big one. You also knew that, since Dr. Doom cloned him to "separate" him from the Hulk in the first place, it wouldn't be permanent. Furthermore, Doom obviously had plans inside of plans, because that's just how devious a M.F. he is!

I told everyone about the storyline that would proceed forth from the end of "Hulk Vs. Banner," and that eventually--maybe in a month, maybe in a year, Banner would be alive again and be re-merged with the Hulk. I believed that because the Banner that Doom created was a clone, the Hulk was only avoiding changing back and forth to Banner because he believed Banner to no longer be inside him. A flick of Doom's fingers, and the puny scientist would return, with full awareness of what the Hulk did to a being he believed was him. Cue new, dramatic status quo about how these two really feel about one another, albeit without Raving Loon Banner™.

Incredible Hulk #7.1 shipped a few weeks ago, and initially, I thought I was right. Certainly the issue, still written by Aaron with artwork by Jefte Palo, seemed to go in the right direction, with the Hulk doing everything he wanted to do now that he was finally sans Banner, only to find out on the final page that--surprise, surprise!--Banner had never really gone anywhere. The story had some funky sexual overtones, with a scene between Hulk and Red She-Hulk right in the middle of a city (while the Orb, an old Ghost Rider villain that Aaron somehow perversely enjoys, looks on). And Aaron had to reveal that the Hulk was thinking about his creation Amanda Von Doom the entire time, natch. But hey! Banner's back, and the dynamic of the book's going to shift somewhere interesting, because this isn't evil Banner, right?

Wrong. In "Stay Angry" Aaron reveals that the Gamma Bomb inexplicably fused Raving Loon Banner™ back together with the Hulk, which appears to have been Doom's dastardly evil plan all along. Further, the Hulk no longer has any memory of what happens when Banner is in control. And to top it all off, Banner appears to be going around from unusual situation to unusual situation, doing mad scientist-y things that leave the Hulk questioning just what the hell he's up to whenever he changes. Suffice to say, Banner might even be planning just where and when he changes, in order to keep the Hulk stymied.

The one good thing that Aaron appears to be doing is re-establishing anger as the trigger for the Banner-to-Hulk metamorphosis; or, at the very least, anger keeps the Hulk from transforming. His idea is a little like the Neveldine/Taylor Crank series of movies, in that to stay in control, the Hulk needs to stay angry. But inevitably he must be subdued, either by gas, or something else, and then Banner re-emerges. We never see Banner, but know that he must be up to no good, because we see his handiwork--a detached doggy-finger--and next thing we know, the Hulk awakens in a strange locale with a stitched-up hole in his chest.

Aaron's story gives echoes of Peter David's earliest stories, wherein Banner and the Gray Hulk jockeyed for control. Unfortunately, the similarities end there: According to both the series' recap pages and some in-story dialogue, it's made clear that this is "insane" Banner from the first seven stories. Gone is the sympathetic, even heroic Banner from as recently as last year, and Lord only knows if he'll return anytime soon. Even the Hulk--at least a little sympathetic in the first two arcs to counterbalance Banner--is brutal and ruthless in this story, teaming up with the Punisher--another of Aaron's pet projects--to track down some dog-faced drug-runners. He drags one of them from the back of a truck for several miles. I'd expect this out of the Punisher, but the Hulk?

There's a way of making Banner seem like the "bad guy" in the Hulk's eyes without actually doing it, but Aaron's stories have all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Put this bluntness together with these personalities, and you have two unappealing main characters without any vaguely heroic traits, only selfish ones. Without any relatability for Banner or the Hulk, the series loses the same qualities as recent movie efforts lost without a Bill Bixby-esque actor in the lead. (More on the need for a heroic protagonist in that book o' essays, promise!)

The artwork in this storyline isn't any better. Steve Dillon may be a great artist on gritty crime dramas like Punisher or Preacher, but big green monsters aren't his forte and this issue proves it in spades. Say what you will about Marc, Whilce, and Jefte, but at least they knew how to show the Hulk to scale. Dillon's Hulk is a lean character that owes more to Lou Ferrigno than to any Hulk artist of the last few decades. And hey, with a healing factor that can recover from virtually any wound, why is the Hulk still bald after three whole issues?

Aaron's abhorrent treatment of Banner to create a new and edgy dynamic for this series is a big reason why the book has lost virtually all its charm in my eyes, and the rotating string of extremely mediocre or ill-fitting artists just makes this book tumble further on down the list. Now that I see what Aaron's game is in "Stay Angry" and what it likely means for the remainder of his run, it can't be over soon enough. About the only way I could imagine this series improving would be if the Hulk, impossible as it currently sounds, decides there's something wrong with Banner, and wants to genuinely help him because he was never like this before and Doom made him this way.

Who knows? Maybe Doom will point the Hulk in the direction of the Marvel offices. And maybe this infernal storyline will be over, so I won't have to "Stay Angry."

Ahem. Your thoughts?

~G.

Puny God ("Marvel's The Avengers," Reviewed)

Yes, I've been away writing that book you've heard so much about. Let's remedy that, shall we?

Like many of you, last weekend I went to my local movie theatre to see what's being considered one of this summer's premier events: Marvel's The Avengers, a two-and-a-half hour roller coaster ride of a film starring the headliners from the comic company's five recent in-house productions. In addition to the invincible Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), the incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo, taking over for Ed Norton), the mighty Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Captain America (Chris Evans), several other characters seized the spotlight, including SHIELD director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson).

There was an indefinable energy filling the theatre when my friend Harold and I entered. Of course, I didn't go for just any screening of the film: We bought tickets to the all-day "Ultimate Marvel Marathon" put on by AMC Theatres, wherein all of the previous films were screened back-to-back from 11:30 in the morning all the way through the grand midnight Avengers premiere. The theatre was jam-packed with comics fans in their various T-shirts and other regalia recalling the heroes who were to appear on the screen all day long. (My choice of attire: You need to ask?) Each fan who attended received a special lanyard granting them access in and out of the building, a special release Avengers comic book, and one of four styles of Real D 3D glasses (available in Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man and Thor designs...again, guess which?).

The excitement level started out high, and only elevated throughout the day. Unfortunately, this theatre didn't receive the special introductions by Clark Gregg in his role of Agent Coulson that other AMC Theatres screened. I understand they were quite fun, and I'd like nothing more than to actually see them. Alas, the movies were draw enough. Up front were 2008's Iron Man and  The Incredible Hulk, followed by 2010's Iron Man 2 and 2011's tag-team of Thor and Captain America. In between some of the screenings, theatre employees gave away goodie bags and other special odds and ends to fans who answered depressingly easy trivia questions.

And then, the curtain rose on the final film at midnight. The moment of truth had arrived: Would writer/director Joss Whedon rise to the challenge of directing an action-packed feature filled with the heart and soul we knew was at the core of the mighty Marvel Universe?

You're damned right he would!

From the very first frames--a markedly slow beginning which served to introduce the Cosmic Cube Tesseract, the "MacGuffin" of the piece, locked away in the SHIELD and NASA-sponsored Project: PEGASUS (which any reader of seventies series Marvel Two-in-One will recognize)--I knew something special was happening. And when Loki (Tom Hiddleston) arrived, absconding with the Tesseract and narrowly escaping the Project's destruction, the stage was set. Fury began to assemble his team, and it was a sight to behold, having the stars assembled from the previous films begin to interact and their personalities begin to grate on each other.

Joss Whedon admitted he modeled much of the movie after The Dirty Dozen and Black Hawk Down, war movies which centered not on an overly labyrinthine plotline but on the characters that made up their respective groups. In many ways, Avengers is as much an origin story as Iron Man or Captain America, but instead of showing how the characters got their powers, it's a tale of how they learned to all tolerate each other's annoyances and shortcomings in order to beat the big bad. Yes, Loki is a scenery-chewing antagonist, and yes, he has a rather generic plan to enslave Earth's populace. He has an army which is generally ill-defined but who attack in such terrific numbers that any single super-hero would feel overwhelmed. The characterization of the villains really isn't as important as the scope of their operation. Whedon knows the best way to attack the narrative is in bringing out all the heroes' unique and sometimes grating personalities, and watching the fireworks.

Robert Downey Jr. has the majority of the film's best lines as "genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist" Tony Stark, once eliminated from consideration in Fury's Avenger Initiative but now recruited just the same. He's got a bone to pick with just about every member of the team, but learns to work with them just the same. (Especially brilliant is his line to Ruffalo's Banner about just how he's able to control his inner monster. I cackled for a good few minutes afterward.) As any fan of Whedon's television programs (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, et al.) will tell you, the writer/director is an expert at intelligent, snappy dialogue, and here it's no different. The movie is intensely quotable, from Stark's commentary on Thor's cape, to Thor's admission that Loki is his adopted brother, to Loki's quite misogynistic insult toward the Widow. (Yes, let's do look up "mewling quim" and gasp at what we find.) The bottom line is that the snappy dialogue works not just because it's smartly written by Whedon, but because in virtually every case, it all rings true with the characters involved, which is no mean feat in a super-hero film.

Such character moments don't often occur in an action extravaganza like Avengers, and let's make no mistake: This is an action-packed film. And while Downey's Stark may be the master of the witticism, he's physically upstaged in virtually every way by the ever-incredible Hulk. As motion-captured by Ruffalo himself, he steals literally every scene in which he appears, without exception. He may not talk much--and in fact, the theatre was so loud during one of his biggest moments that one could scarcely hear his clearest and perhaps only line of dialogue--but he more than makes up for that economy with the sheer, visceral thrill of seeing him match up against Thor and all manner of alien creatures, cutting loose as only the Hulk from the comics previously could. If you've been upset by the Hulk's seemingly lower strength levels in previous films, you'll find that issue remedied here. This is the Hulk you've been waiting years to see, and I'm hoping against hope that Mark Ruffalo gets to star in his own Incredible Hulk film sooner than later, penned by Whedon or one of his many traditional accomplices. Between actor and writer/director, they have given the character such a synergy that it'd be criminal to not have this character burst free into his own film once more. The formula is just right.

I don't want to go on too long about the movie because I really feel it's important that you see it, and so I'm really holding back on the spoilers. Suffice to say that by the time the ending credits roll, most diehard Marvel Zombies will feel like they've seen the be-all, end-all of super-hero movies. By sharp contrast with Christopher Nolan's Batman cycle, Whedon's Avengers is an unabashed celebration of the super-hero genre rather than a deconstructionist, "real-life" take. Since everyone knows I'm one of the biggest Hulk fans there is, I relish the larger-than-life qualities of that character and the remainder of the characters in Avengers. There are precious few issues with the story--I still don't like Hawkeye's status throughout the first half of the film--but they're outnumbered so greatly by "stand-up-and-cheer" moments that it's hard to remain upset.

And that ending? Stay all the way to the end, folks! You'll see not only the setup for another Marvel film (likely Avengers 2, the threat so great), but also a humorous payoff to what you'd likely believed was a throwaway line in the final battle.

I don't mean to gush, but this is one staggering sci-fi super-hero epic. It really doesn't get any better than this. The Avengers have assembled, and comic book films will never again be the same.

~G.

The Hulk Is 50. Join Me In An Incredible Celebration!

No doubt by now you've seen the graphic on the last few issues of The Amazing Spider-Man. Large as life, with a stylish, instantly recognizable pose straight from the great John Romita Sr. Fifty years of Spider-Man. He's fifty! Just like the Fantastic Four was fifty last year! It's certainly shaping up to be a banner year for the amazing one, with the new Sony Pictures film helmed by Marc Webb, as well as Dan Slott and Stefano Caselli's "Ends of the Earth" event beginning this week. And yet, for all the celebrating, I can't help but feel somebody's getting left out. Is his green skin a sign of envy toward Marvel's resident wall-crawler? Or is skin color immaterial, and he's just getting...angry about it?

That's right, Hulk fans: 2012 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the creation of our favorite hero, too! "Is He Man or Monster or...Is He BOTH?" intoned Stan Lee on the cover copy of the first issue, cover-dated May of 1962. All these years later, such is the central theme for the character still. He's gone through countless incarnations, from the original, brutish gray incarnation who only stuck around for the first issue; to the green-skinned counterpart who gradually lost his intelligence, resulting in the version which non-comics fans know best; to the Merged Hulk who was a staple of comics in the nineties; to the savvy, planet-conquering gladiator who was the centerpiece of Marvel's 2007 event "World War Hulk"; and far, far beyond. Ol' Greenskin has entertained generations of comics fans, and after fifty years of doing just that, he's earned a celebration as grand as any super-hero in existence.

And yet, all we hear from Marvel is that the Avengers have their own feature film this year, and yes, that Hulk character's a part of it. We had a comic book series that was nearly to its 650th issue, but the company had to cancel relaunch it with a new first issue late last year. That series has been woefully inconsistent and, I feel, isn't truly capturing the power and majesty of the Hulk. Nobody's mentioning the Hulk as having been created fifty years ago, and nobody appears to be lining up special projects, variant covers, or anything of the like commemorating the event. Nobody's embracing the character's rich history.

This is the part where I come in and tell you to spread the word. Copy the above graphic I've designed. Bend it, shape it, any way you want it. You've got the power. Stick it on your website or blog. Put it in your Twitter or Facebook profile. And please, link back here if you can. Raise awareness that Bug-Eyes can't hog all Hulk's glory, because Hulk is the strongest one there is!

Even if Marvel doesn't do anything about the incredible one's golden anniversary, that doesn't mean someone won't. Like, y'know, me.

Many of you have been wondering why I haven't been around as much lately. Why haven't I been entertaining everyone with new articles for this blog a few times a week like I did pretty much all last year? Had the G-Man finally run out of things to talk about?

Quite the opposite, mes amis.

Yours truly has been writing. And writing. And writing some more--but not, as you'd imagine, for this blog. I've got a huge project in the works and I've been aching to share it with all of you. I've wanted to complete enough of it that I can't turn back, to be confident in my own abilities and what I'm writing, before officially announcing the project.

You guys (and gals) all know me as a veritable font of historical knowledge when it comes to the Hulk. I've been a fan for many, many years. I've read the comics and books, I've seen the movies and TV series, I've played the video games and bought the toys. I know people, and I know all kinds of stories. I know what might have been and what nearly was. And Lord knows, I have opinions about the last fifty years of stories. There are stories I love that very few others enjoy, and there are some highly-praised tales I don't give a damn about. Of course there are others I agree are real gems, and still others, real stinkers.

The most comprehensive guide to the world of the incredible Hulk hasn't been published yet...but you can bet that it's being written right now. Part history lesson, part literary criticism, it's going to knock you off your feet with all the force of a Gamma Bomb detonation. Whether you're a dyed-in-the-wool Hulk fan from way back, or someone who's only picked up on the importance of the character since you've been reading this very blog, this book is designed for you.

Need more reasons to pick up this book when it finally arrives? How about the original interviews I'm conducting for it? As of this writing, I've been talking to comics pros like Tom Brevoort, Steve Englehart, Glenn Greenberg, Paul Jenkins, Erik Larsen, Al Milgrom, Greg Pak, and Daniel Way--and that's just the beginning. (Yes, Twitter and Formspring count...and more creators are TBA!) Where possible, I'll be bringing you the behind-the-scenes stories, the might-have-beens--everything that was and wasn't.

Meanwhile, if you've got ideas you want to see in this book, reply here! Although I'm well past the halfway point in writing, and I've got plans to cover all the important bits of Hulk history, I figure there's always a chance I'll have missed something and you guys'll remind me. I'm just trying to head off that possibility.

Similarly, if you're a creator who hasn't yet been contacted, and wish to contribute, then reply here or send me a message at delusionalhonesty [at] gmail [dot] com.

More information as it becomes available, my friends. The current plan is to release the book on the Amazon Kindle, with a limited print edition. The book will be fully researched, fully sourced, and totally unauthorized in order to bring you, the Hulk's fans, a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Join me in wishing the Hulk a happy 50th.

~G.

At Long Last: Amazing Arizona Con 2012

Howdy all,

Back in January, I attended the Amazing Arizona Comic Convention at the Mesa Convention Center in downtown Mesa, AZ. I renewed some acquaintances and met some great people in the three-day event. Presented in this blog entry are a bunch of photos taken by Agustin Alanis. Sketches procured by yours truly from artists on the show floor are shown, where possible, right beside the artist who did the work! Click on images for larger versions.

Where appropriate, I've linked the talents and people shown. If you find you or your works are displayed, uncredited, in one of the pictures below, please contact me (at delusional honesty at gmail dot com) and I'll add your name and a link to your website if applicable.

If anyone enjoys Mr. Alanis' brilliant work and wishes to see more and/or hire him for a photography gig in the greater Phoenix area, look no further than his Facebook page.

One of the big draws at comic conventions today is cosplay, and this show was no different! On every day of the show, one could see any number of fans dressing up in the (sometimes extraordinarily elaborate) costumes of their favorite heroes and villains...as well as, well, judge for yourself! You asked for cosplayers--you got 'em!

 

 

 

 

Some of the cosplayers at the show were there to promote new comics, like Lindsay Elyse, dressed as one of the characters from Ardden's Knightingail:

Then, there was AZ convention fixture Cara Nicole, also known as AZ Powergirl! You can "Like" her fan page on Facebook:

 

Out on the show floor, a few exhibitors showed their terrific props and other goods, both for sale and for show!

The Monster Shop is a part of Hall of Fame Collectables in Mesa, AZ. They've got original props, autographs, collector masks, and other limited edition goods. You can visit their website or "Like" their Facebook page. And below you can see a mask of Doug Bradley as your favorite Pinhead!

Chainsaw Killers Anonymous Studios specializes in photography and prop construction. They had a setup at the show with armor like that shown in the Predator series of motion pictures. Check out the picture below, then visit CKA Studios' website!

If you're more in the mood for just looking at scary figures instead of buying them, perhaps Monsterland in Mesa, AZ is more your speed! At the show, they had some of their exhibits on display. Scary, well-crafted stuff! If you're in the area, stop by--I know I'll be headed there soon. For more information, visit the Monsterland website. They also have a presence on both Facebook and Twitter.

With the rest of the show out of the way, it's time to show you some of the many creators from around the show floor. Writers! Artists! This show had a bevvy of them, and some even had the time to indulge me and draw some sketches for my collection!

I finally had the chance to meet up with Joshua Hale Fialkov, writer of Last of the Greats and I, Vampire, both of which you should all be reading! Josh attended the show alongside artist Tony Fleecs, who had some great prints available, including a noir-styled take on Cyclops and Emma Frost that I just had to pick up. Visit Josh's website and Tony's Fleecs Design page, and do it now.

Next up--and the guy who was on the receiving end of my first demand request for a sketch was Los Angeles artist Gerimi Burleigh. Gerimi has written and drawn the original graphic novel Eyes of the Gods and is now hard at work on a new project, Morningstar, about Lucifer's fall recast as a western. If you like his work, visit his website here.

Across the way from Gerimi I discovered a kindred spirit in my historical knowledge of comics in J. Scooter Harris, a writer and artist who is the brains behind Studio Hadra. Scotter has a very distinctive style with heavy brush strokes, and had a number of original works--most touching on burlesque culture--with him. We discussed old Marvel and DC comics, we discussed Archie comics, we discussed "good girl" art--and I scored the below (rather terrific) Vampirella piece from him. Scooter's also the writer/artist behind Studio Hadra's True Crime Theater comic series, and his illustrations are often found in burlesque magazines everywhere. Pay him a visit, why don't you?

An aisle over from Gerimi and Scooter, I met up with Joel Gomez, who's currently background artist on Detective Comics. Joel is an affable gent, and he readily agreed to draw another in a series of unusual requests--Kirk Langstrom, the Man-Bat! Joel is everywhere online these days, having his own deviantART page, his own tumblr, and yes, he even tweets!

Artist Jon Hughes had some terrific examples of his work on display at the show. I remembered seeing his art the previous year. One of these days, I'm going to get a commissioned piece from him. In the meantime, you can marvel at his work below, plus find him at his website, JonHughesArt.com!

Image Comics alum and Hyperwerks co-founder Karl Altstaetter was also at the show. Karl is most notable for having created Deity, who fronted her own series of miniseries. Since Karl's always drawn some lovely ladies, I thought he'd be the perfect artist to draw the New Teen Titans' Starfire in her original costume. I don't know about you, but I wasn't disappointed with the final result in the least! Karl can be found online at both the Hyperwerks website and his own blog.

In the middle of it all, I somehow found time to meet up with local artist made good Tony Parker, who's killing it right now on Aspen's Dead Man's Run alongside this site's very good friend, writer Greg Pak. With the #0 issue out--but the first formal issue not quite there yet--it was a terrific time to talk with Tony. Right around the corner, the Aspen booth did have preview copies of the first issue with an exclusive cover, which I snagged and reviewed in an earlier blog post. Since the second issue is coming out next Wednesday, there's no better time to pick up the series and enjoy Tony's terrific work!

Keeping up with the theme of sketches involving the women of comics, I noticed local creator Alfred Trujillo had some interesting pieces lined up at his table. I couldn't resist giving him an Incredible Hulks #635 sketch cover and asking him to draw Red She-Hulk. How d'you think he did? Alfred has his own web presence at his site.

Last--but certainly far from least--is another local artist, Val Hochberg of Bad Karma Productions. She has a manga-influenced style that caught my eye, and since I was already on a roll with sketches of the Hulk family, I thought why not see what she can do with Lyra, the Savage She-Hulk? It's the best piece of the show, in my not-so-humble opinion! Visit Val at BadKarmaProductions.com.

 

Last? Did I really say "last"? Au contraire, mes amis! Although that was the end of the sketches, there's no way I could end this blog entry on any photo other than this one, right here, right now, mutha#####s! It's the star of Twitter's #laymanvsscorpions hashtag--and, oh yeah, co-creator of Image Comics' Chew, it's...John Layman! (You can find him on Twitter, or on his blog.)

And, yeah, some schmuck in a Reverse Flash t-shirt. Who is that guy, anyway?

See everyone next year! Same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!

~G.