Hulk/Bruce Banner and the way he is written

[CTTT]

I watched a video on youtube from Comics Explained where he basically summed this up as "Hulk basically bounced around from writer to writer because the writers didn't really know how to write or what to do with the character other than Peter David and Bill Mantlo and once Peter David left the writing of the character went into a tailspin and never recovered." This was done before Al Ewing came on board. I'm curious to see if anyone who's read the character since 1962 felt this to be true.

[Ptrvc]

There is some truth to this, but not much.

Hulk took awhile to get off the ground. But once they finalized the Angry=Hulk, Madder=Stronger powerset dudes been an icon.

Sounds like this guys not a fan of the Hulk. PAD wrote a very different Hulk book, which, while quality, I'm glad didn't come to define the character.

Both Pak and Ewing have had very well received runs since PAD.

[Immortal Hulk]

There is some truth to this, but not much.

Hulk took awhile to get off the ground. But once they finalized the Angry=Hulk, Madder=Stronger powerset dudes been an icon.

Sounds like this guys not a fan of the Hulk. PAD wrote a very different Hulk book, which, while quality, I'm glad didn't come to define the character.

Both Pak and Ewing have had very well received runs since PAD.

No doubt about it. Also, Lee, Stern and Wein were very important runs for the character; the same can be about Jenkins'run, which has been an influence to the current run.

I could think of more than one marvel characters that, unlike the Hulk, had their books canceled (some more than once) for lengthy periods of time because no one had any ideas on how to write them or wanted to even get close to the character.

[ChrisIII]

Hulk, like the X-men, kind of took a while to really get good I think. It kind of really seemed to get it's groove with the Savage Hulk in the 70s, and of course the 80s and 90's got more experimental with the character.


Granted, there have been a lot of "meh" runs. John Bryne's second, for example (Didn't even have his art to save it really). The Bruce Jones stuff started OK but soon became a mess and has pretty much been retconned out of continuity. Loeb's stuff was OK but mostly goofy at times. The Aaron and Mark Waid runs were pretty iffy, with some odd creative choices (Such as an insane Banner seperated from the Hulk, and Hulk wearing armor?) Gary Duggan's run was pretty good IMO although it largely just focused on undoing a lot of Loeb and Pak's "Hulk family" stuff (Which Ewing is now reversing it seems).


One underrated one if Jeff Parker, who managed to really redeem the Red Hulk/Ross, even giving him his own set of villains (One of which is in the Ewing run).

[kingaliencracker]

I don't agree.

Like most characters, the Hulk has had his ups and downs, and there's doubt that David's run is likely the most epic. But he's been a pretty consistent star for Marvel since the 70's television show.
s

[DragonsChi]

I don't agree.

Like most characters, the Hulk has had his ups and downs, and there's doubt that David's run is likely the most epic. But he's been a pretty consistent star for Marvel since the 70's television show.
s

This.

I would take a lot of things Comics Explained says with a grain of salt when it comes to his opinions verse what actually happened. It's clear that a good portion of the old stuff he does not like and the new stuff he pushes because he knows Marvel and DC will grant him favors.

However, in saying that he does do a good job of actually putting stories together. It's just when his personal opinions on those stories come in it's better to keep in mind that they are just that. His opinions.

[CTTT]

Yeah I can definitely see that for sure. what was the reason that Hulk was Grey in the beginning?

[Superfan90]

PAD agreed with it too. Hulk was a character no writer wanted to write and they gave PAD the job as a last resort who was in sales.

https://ew.com/article/2013/01/10/pe...credible-hulk/

[CTTT]

Well, I disagree with PAD's assessment because from 1962 to when he came on board someone had to have read it for it to still be going at that time. Hell, by that point the TV series had come out which gave Hulk even more exposure.

[Immortal Hulk]

PAD agreed with it too. Hulk was a character no writer wanted to write and they gave PAD the job as a last resort who was in sales.

https://ew.com/article/2013/01/10/pe...credible-hulk/

PAD was referring to that specific moment, where Hulk suffered from the Mantlo-Byrne-Migrom transitions, which left the character in an awful state. And that's about it.

It's no different from what happend with thor twice. First with Heroes Reborn (he didn't even get a book) and again after Jurgen's run. According to JMS, no one even wanted to get close to the character.

[ChrisIII]

Yeah I can definitely see that for sure. what was the reason that Hulk was Grey in the beginning?

I think it had something to do with the printing not working well with the grey color at the time, so they made him green. The Hulk's personality and general look didn't change until several issues later-he was still potrayed with Frankenstein style hair, more of his shirt intact and brutish but not childlike intelligence for quite a while. (Fans often refer to this incarnation as the "Grayvage" Hulk, and it's one that's popped up a few times since, and many feel inspired the Planet Hulk and current Devil Hulk versions) I think around the time Tales to Astonish became The Incredible Hulk is pretty much when the "classic" Savage pretty much arrived permenantly.

[Superfan90]

PAD was referring to that specific moment, where Hulk suffered from the Mantlo-Byrne-Migrom transitions, which left the character in an awful state. And that's about it.

It's no different from what happend with thor twice. First with Heroes Reborn (he didn't even get a book) and again after Jurgen's run. According to JMS, no one even wanted to get close to the character.

Well just because Thor had it even worse doesn't means Hulk didn't had it.

Hulk before PAD wasn't very interesting IMO and his mythos were very weak.