Bruce Banner: The Hulk Appreciation 2019

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Tales to Astonish #60 Oct 1964
"The Incredible Hulk!"
Bruce creates an indestructible robot which is able to withstand the power of a nuclear blast

but the stress of completing it on schedule causes him to transform into the Hulk
and he leaves this massive weapon of awesome power unattended;
So of course, a foreign spy who has been hanging around gamma base
looking for just such an opportunity jumps into the robot and takes off.


Script by Stan Lee, art by Steve Ditko and George Roussos (as George Bell).

[PlatinumThorns]

Al Ewing answers questions on Ask Marvel. Some interesting stuff about his inspirations, but the most intriguing bits were the fact that She-Hulk is guaranteed to appear again in the near future and the One-Above-All will also make an appearance.

[ChrisIII]

Tales to Astonish #60 Oct 1964
"The Beasts of Berlin!"
Bruce creates an indestructible robot which is able to withstand the power of a nuclear blast

but the stress of completing it on schedule causes him to transform into the Hulk
and he leaves this massive weapon of awesome power unattended;
So of course, a foreign spy who has been hanging around gamma base
looking for just such an opportunity jumps into the robot and takes off.


Script by Stan Lee, art by Steve Ditko and George Roussos (as George Bell).

If I remember correctly this is technically the first Hulk/Abomination fight, although in this case it's before Blonsky's transformation.

[Intothevoid]

Al Ewing answers questions on Ask Marvel. Some interesting stuff about his inspirations, but the most intriguing bits were the fact that She-Hulk is guaranteed to appear again in the near future and the One-Above-All will also make an appearance.

That's actually amazing 2 of the questions there were mine. The one about a Hulk What If and Hulk event and the other question about The One Above All. I am really happy we will get to see things from the aspect of TOAA.

[FrazettaHulk]

That's actually amazing 2 of the questions there were mine. The one about a Hulk What If and Hulk event and the other question about The One Above All. I am really happy we will get to see things from the aspect of TOAA.

Great questions. I don’t get his hangup about doing a Hulk event. Literally every Marvel character with sales near where Hulk’s is, has gotten their own centered event in past few yrs. Thor (War of the Realms). Venom (Absolute Carnage). Spider-Man (bleep-ton of em). Captain America (Secret Empire). World War Hulk was over 10 years ago!! Does he think its a burden buying more books starring fave character? Doesn’t seem to be an issue for other writers.

And both times Hulk has been used in the Avengers weekly events, in the last 2 issues Hulk has been absent. So hasnt played a part in resolving either event there either. So if 3rd one of those does get announced, not confident he’d play major role in resolving that either. So may wanna watch that for the Incoming’ thing.

Writers can go whole careers w/o ever writing anything that resonates or hits. Ewing has written a lot of things that have been well reviewed but havent fully “hit” with the fans. In his Immortal Hulk run he has found that hit. Both in sales and in critical response. Yet, for some reason he’s inclined to shorten (from 5 to 1 ish 9th Cosmos), ignore (No Hulk event) or plan to end run relatively early (issue 50).

I’m loving his run. Just wish he wasn’t always concerned about there being too much Hulk out there. To paraphrase ‘Field of Dreams’, “If Al writes him, we will come”!!!!

[H-E-D]

I think doing a Hulk event would be a mistake – for the simple reason that I've yet to see a major run transition into an event in a way that wasn't a mistake. Recent example would be War of the Realms, which would have been much better served as a self-contained arc in Thor. Events are never the best way to tell a story, and I'm glad that Ewing is committed to focusing on the best way to tell Immortal Hulk, rather than the best way to monetize it.

[Intothevoid]

Great questions. I don’t get his hangup about doing a Hulk event. Literally every Marvel character with sales near where Hulk’s is, has gotten their own centered event in past few yrs. Thor (War of the Realms). Venom (Absolute Carnage). Spider-Man (bleep-ton of em). Captain America (Secret Empire). World War Hulk was over 10 years ago!! Does he think its a burden buying more books starring fave character? Doesn’t seem to be an issue for other writers.

And both times Hulk has been used in the Avengers weekly events, in the last 2 issues Hulk has been absent. So hasnt played a part in resolving either event there either. So if 3rd one of those does get announced, not confident he’d play major role in resolving that either. So may wanna watch that for the Incoming’ thing.

Writers can go whole careers w/o ever writing anything that resonates or hits. Ewing has written a lot of things that have been well reviewed but havent fully “hit” with the fans. In his Immortal Hulk run he has found that hit. Both in sales and in critical response. Yet, for some reason he’s inclined to shorten (from 5 to 1 ish 9th Cosmos), ignore (No Hulk event) or plan to end run relatively early (issue 50).

I’m loving his run. Just wish he wasn’t always concerned about there being too much Hulk out there. To paraphrase ‘Field of Dreams’, “If Al writes him, we will come”!!!!

I get what you mean but it seems Al just wants IH to be it's own self contained story instead of whoring it out as a gimmick the way Aaron has done with Thor and Cates has done with Venom. The reason he is going for around 50 issues is presumably because he has been burned so many times, his Ultimates, US Avengers, Loki, Contest of Champions, etc... all got cut short due to sales dropping, he never got to finish the stories he set up to do with them. So he isn't taking his chances with IH. And yea i know the Hulk is doing great now and i am sure he knows as well but he probably already had this all planned out ahead of time, simply he is more interested in writing his "perfect" Hulk story than he is worried about milking it, he said many times he doesn't want to drag it out or overstay his welcome.

Simply put i think he is too afraid he might not get to finish this story properly, he is genuinely interested in writing a perfect Hulk story rather than doing a gimmick events, if he were to do an event it would need to be very meaningful it certainly wouldn't be like Aarons War of the Realms which was literally a bunch of nothing.

[Intothevoid]

Also a warning to everyone, spoilers about IH 25 are going around as some sites have already done reviews for them and they even posted images from the book including how the Hulk looks like, so be cautious if you don't want to spoil yourselves, best not to google Immortal Hulk 25.

[PlatinumThorns]

Great questions. I don’t get his hangup about doing a Hulk event. Literally every Marvel character with sales near where Hulk’s is, has gotten their own centered event in past few yrs. Thor (War of the Realms). Venom (Absolute Carnage). Spider-Man (bleep-ton of em). Captain America (Secret Empire). World War Hulk was over 10 years ago!! Does he think its a burden buying more books starring fave character? Doesn’t seem to be an issue for other writers.

And both times Hulk has been used in the Avengers weekly events, in the last 2 issues Hulk has been absent. So hasnt played a part in resolving either event there either. So if 3rd one of those does get announced, not confident he’d play major role in resolving that either. So may wanna watch that for the Incoming’ thing.

Writers can go whole careers w/o ever writing anything that resonates or hits. Ewing has written a lot of things that have been well reviewed but havent fully “hit” with the fans. In his Immortal Hulk run he has found that hit. Both in sales and in critical response. Yet, for some reason he’s inclined to shorten (from 5 to 1 ish 9th Cosmos), ignore (No Hulk event) or plan to end run relatively early (issue 50).

I’m loving his run. Just wish he wasn’t always concerned about there being too much Hulk out there. To paraphrase ‘Field of Dreams’, “If Al writes him, we will come”!!!!

Character-specific events lessens interest in the main series. Ewing said it himself, he doesn't want to the burden the readers to feel like they have to read multiple other issues to understand the head one. Hence the reason why every crossover book from Hulkverines to Absolute Carnage have been largely inconsequential. Heck, Immortal Hulk is so stand-alone that if weren't for the occasional Avengers appearance then it might as well be an alternate universe.

[Cth]

!!!!!

Going to love seeing everyone's reaction to tomorrow's issue.

[FrazettaHulk]

!!!!!

Going to love seeing everyone's reaction to tomorrow's issue.

Yeah. Having read it a few times, should be pretty lively. Think it brings clarity to what the rest of the run will be about and who will play a huge factor. (will say tomorrow).

[Superfan90]

This issue was awesome. But man, what a depressing ending.

[Intothevoid]

That was one of the most depressing things i have read in a very long time...

This also maybe the single best standalone issue i have ever read.

[Desmark]

Ewing seems to impart a Nietzsche's philosopher vibe to the the one below all with him eradicating all life that he hates as imperfect or superfluous so that he can exist solely and convert existence itself into a labyrinth of the beast where he contemplates himself endlessly. .

[Username taken]

I need some help, is the Devil Hulk being influenced by The One Below All?

Because it's becoming increasingly clear that this Hulk isn't at all a hero and is quite different from the previous ones.