Bruce Banner: The Hulk Appreciation 2019

[Ichijinijisanji]

BTW this issue was amazing, i am so glad Hulk finally lost his weakness, the stakes have never been higher now.

My friend who is a big Superman fan isn't gonna be happy about it lol.

does superman even throw out UV radiation?

[Vordan]

Good issue. Not as good as previous issues, the horror aspects have taken a back seat to some pure superhero action with this arc. Hulk is clearly heroic here which is what I expected given Roxxon has always been cartoonishly evil, and they have a Minotaur as their CEO. Looking forward to how Dario retaliates.

[Intothevoid]

Oh gee I wonder who you could be talking about

Seriously what a great issue though.

Hehe, the series just keeps getting better.

does superman even throw out UV radiation?

I dunno if UV radiation was ever specifically mentioned, although you can make an argument that his Solar Flare is just basically a mini-supernova. Either way it doesn't even matter anymore.

[LordUltimus]

Good issue. Not as good as previous issues, the horror aspects have taken a back seat to some pure superhero action with this arc. Hulk is clearly heroic here which is what I expected given Roxxon has always been cartoonishly evil, and they have a Minotaur as their CEO. Looking forward to how Dario retaliates.

One could argue that the horror aspects are still present, just focused more on the scary power corporations have nowadays, especially given the recent solicitations.

[Vordan]

One could argue that the horror aspects are still present, just focused more on the scary power corporations have nowadays, especially given the recent solicitations.

Fair point and this is only the opening issue of this arc so we’ll see where it goes from here.

[Intothevoid]

Yea the focus will be more on big corporations like Roxxon, Ewing already mentioned in an interview how we had Hulk take on the superheroes, forces of hell, the military and now he will take on capitalism. I don't think this book is gonna move away from horror any time soon. Besides Al has confirmed that TOBA and all that stuff will be back again in the not to distant future.

[Immortal Hulk]

IMMORTAL HULK #31
AL EWING (W) • JOE BENNETT (A) • Cover by ALEX ROSS
Variant cover by GEOFF SHAW
GWEN STACY VARIANT COVER BY DAVID NAKAYAMA
• There’s a new monster in town. He’s cuddly. He’s lovable. He’s down with the kids. And he’s available for your corporate retreat.
• Yes, there was another Hulk, once - the one who made all those nasty threats to end the world. But who needs him?
• THE LIVING HULK is here. And he’s going to save us all - or your money back.
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99





We never know where this book is going to! Ewing is amazing.

[GrandEleven]

Clearly a pallet cleansing "Hulk Smash" arc ... which honestly is timed well. Still, not a perfect issue, but had some interesting developments anyway.

The big one is Hulk's power level. So if the various personas are in "agreement" it seems Hulk can limit his weaknesses and possibly even scale higher in strength (implied by how easily he handled the 4 Roxxon Berserker despite everyone else being certain they were Hulk-level threats on their own). This is a new angle that I think can lend itself to fun scenarios, as it would no longer be simply anger that can drive up higher power levels ... but agreement. That is a fun mechanic to add, I think.

I also like the idea of going after the social media presence, BUT it was executed .... kind of poorly. Earlier I mentioned Hulk was having a "Fight Club" moment, but even in a movie released in 1999 they knew they had to hit multiple data-centers across multiple coastlines to make a dent. In the age of AWS/Azure, such a single system scenario should not exist, especially from a corporation that spans planes of existence. But again ... this was about Hulk Smash, so for that I guess I'll let it slide.

Just going to enjoy the ride with this one, but hopefully its a short arc. The main story is much more engaging.

[GrandEleven]

-I know people'll say Dario's defenses of their data was poor/stupid, but think about it. You have the BERSERKERS who clobbered Thor and other high-level beings. Most people couldn't get past them and Dario said it himself: no one would go after them at their home turf.

Even in the real world where there are no super threats, no amount of body guards can protect you from natural disasters, power grid issues or other "acts of god". Any 1st year IT learns about DR and HA. For me personally it wasn't about the security, it was about the complete disregard for resilience.

But still, we got to watch the Hulk smash the heck out of 4 baddies.

[GrandEleven]

I think the idea is that they didn't want anyone getting access to their servers. You never know when Stark, or some superhacker, or technopath, or magician is gonna stumble upon your system, (not the Marvel Universe anyway.) So it might make sense to store everything in one location which is defensible and have internal redundancy rather than scattering everything everywhere.

Admittedly, not necessarily the best plan, but something I can see a corrupt corporation coming up with.

Physical access has never been needed for a hacker, in comics OR real life. Its a social media system ... you just need endpoints to exploit. It's already on the internet and exposed to the world.

Honestly, as a guy in the industry, it would be cheaper and safer to scatter this data on a public cloud service. What he's doing doesn't take any horsepower. Just a data lake.

[Speed Force League Unlimited]

I'd like to see a new Hulk solo series, not based on "Agents of Smash" (though I'm glad that was successful). I guess at this point the producers' inclination would be to cherry pick from his overall history, but I'd be more enthused to mainly use characters from the first 25 years or so. Not really feeling the Pantheon and most of the characters from that era forward. I would also feel that the current comic arcs are too dark for an episodic animated show. Fine for the comics, though. Hopefully Mr. Ewing gets to continue his arcs.

Nobody should make a new animated series in the vein of anything in that line up of animated shows of Agents of S.M.A.S.H. and ilk. I enjoy that mess, but it's a mess that is low on quality most of the time.
I'd love to make it solo, with a season focusing on his time with the Defenders (not that Netflix team with the same name), the real Defenders.

[ChrisIII]

I'm surprised there hasn't been some sort of "Greenpeace" pun yet.

[HeavenlyDemonic]

Savage Hulk wouldn't do much good in Banner's body as we've seen. Also he just kind of busts out.

Fixit seems to be handling what Banner can't right now. He's a clever bastard so he can do things with Banner's body that Banner lacks the mentality to do.

(I the took over for long enough, I wonder if we'd get a buffed out, full thug Banner?)

My theory with the Fixit/Banner dynamic is that Joe Fixit represents the stereotypical "alpha male" (I hate the term) that Bruce both despises, and yet wants to be.

Joe is vindictive, has loose morals, and is a jerk, BUT he's tough, he's cool, and isn't afraid to go after what he wants.

Joe in turn resents "Devil Daddy", and "The Big Guy" the former because his authority, and the latter because despite everything Joe says about the Savage, Greenie could whoop Joe's gray ass in a second and he knows it.

I do wonder what they'd think of the Green Scar? Maybe he can only exist when Joe Fixit and the Savage are United?

I think your analysis of Bruce and Joe’s relationship is on point. Joe is the tough, cool teenager that Bruce never got to be. Ewing has confirmed that the sunlight is having a calming effect on Joe, and in his own way, he’s becoming more protective of Bruce. I think Devil Hulk has suppressed Gravage/ Green Scar because that personality represents Bruce as an adult( as far as I’m concerned), and since Devil is running Bruce’s “system”and acting like the parent, he doesn’t want Gravage challenging his authority. Especially with how in sync Gravage was with Bruce during PakÂ’s run. Devil knows that Gravage is probably the one personality that could talk Bruce out of their current course of trying to end the world.

It would be interesting to see Devil and Gravage interact though, since they both seem to be blended personalities with aspects of both savage and Gray hulk in their actions and behavior.

[Hypestyle]

I wish the savage hulk would return for an arc. or two. just an idea.

[Electricmastro]

I find it interesting how in Peter David's first year in writing for Incredible Hulk, one of the first issues he writes prominently features spouse abuse, and the Hulk really isn't even the one who ultimately resolves the problem. Probably just goes to show the sort of direction David wanted to take the Hulk in at the time, which seems to have resonated with many (Incredible Hulk #333, July 1987).