Bruce Banner: The Hulk Appreciation 2020

[SanityOrMadness]

Pak also did something similar when Gravage would temporarily switch back to the Savage personality( usually when he was fighting with Skaar( I feel to Hulk being emotionally conflicted). Again, it was a psychological transformation only.

...when? If anything it was the reverse - when Pak was on Skaar, during the Loeb run, he had the Green Scar briefly emerge when he remembered Sakaar, still in full "Worldbreaker" mode until Banner stamped him back down (I think he suggested that Savage was around under Loeb because Banner was working so hard to suppress the GS/Gravage that another Hulk popped out instead, but I forget if that was implicit or stated).

Pretty sure that's intentional. Devil Hulk is using the Savage's body like Fixit has been using Banner's.

If so, it begs the question of which other usurpations have happened. There used to be a theory on another board that Fixit (who is, if anything, based on the early Green Hulk from the tail end of the abortive original run, after Banner had briefly had control of the Hulk) was only Grey because he had usurped the IH #1 Hulk's body, after it briefly popped out when Banner & the Hulk were remerged. (Incredible Hulk v1 #1 Hulk in no major way resembles Fixit. It's closest to the Savage of the "major" Hulks, if anything. Even PAD made the difference clear when he wrote a "fake" version of that Hulk in his brief second run.)

The difference is that Joe hates being in Bruce’s body. The real question I have now is why is Devil using Savage’s body? If it’s strength and power he’s after, then why not use Gravage’s body? Gravage is the strongest personality in terms of raw power; it would be incredibly easy to end the world by tapping into the worldbreaker power up. Perhaps Bruce is the roadblock there, since he’s the one who has to subconsciously allow Gravage to access the power in the first place. Still, taking the body of the most unpredictable and least intelligent personality doesn’t make much sense. Did Devil not anticipate the big guy’s resistance?

Probably not? Pretty much all of the Hulks are stubborn, but most of them are also at least cunning, if not outright intelligent. You can see why the naivest Hulk would seem to be the easiest to pull a runaround on.

It'd be interesting to see the Professor again as well. Although he's identified by Cho as one of the more heroic Hulks, he also could be unstable at times, especially at the beginning and end of his dominance.

I think his most stable period was probably in the #410s, when his relationship with Betty was pretty much back on track and Rick and Marlo got married. Gary Frank was drawing him as well, and seemed to give a very Superman style haircut and jaw line (Frank would of course also draw Superman later on). I think it part this was because he was "scared straight" by the events of Future Imperfect (I think this is mentioned by Doc Samson at one point), but of course things started to unravel with the fall of the Pantheon.

Depends whether PAD's Merged or Jenkins' rather bland "Professor" is the one who shows up.

[HeavenlyDemonic]

...when? If anything it was the reverse - when Pak was on Skaar, during the Loeb run, he had the Green Scar briefly emerge when he remembered Sakaar, still in full "Worldbreaker" mode until Banner stamped him back down (I think he suggested that Savage was around under Loeb because Banner was working so hard to suppress the GS/Gravage that another Hulk popped out instead, but I forget if that was implicit or stated).


If so, it begs the question of which other usurpations have happened. There used to be a theory on another board that Fixit (who is, if anything, based on the early Green Hulk from the tail end of the abortive original run, after Banner had briefly had control of the Hulk) was only Grey because he had usurped the IH #1 Hulk's body, after it briefly popped out when Banner & the Hulk were remerged. (Incredible Hulk v1 #1 Hulk in no major way resembles Fixit. It's closest to the Savage of the "major" Hulks, if anything. Even PAD made the difference clear when he wrote a "fake" version of that Hulk in his brief second run.)


Probably not? Pretty much all of the Hulks are stubborn, but most of them are also at least cunning, if not outright intelligent. You can see why the naivest Hulk would seem to be the easiest to pull a runaround on.


Depends whether PAD's Merged or Jenkins' rather bland "Professor" is the one who shows up.

True, Devil probably thought the big guy would be the easiest to manipulate due to his child like intelligence.

And I don’t think we’ll ever see the merged hulk (as PAD wrote him) ever again. The Jenkins retcon totally ruined the concept of that incarnation. After a retcon that undoes a 5 year storyline, how do you possibly go back? The only opportunity I can think of was PAD’s Tempest Fugit arc during his brief return to Hulk.

[Cth]

No, that's Professor (né Merged). Gravage/Green Scar is the Hulks united, if anything.

United in the sense that they are on the same page in terms of world view and sharing the host/system.

When Hulk shifted to Banner when the Spikes were feeding off of him and there was sort of a blurring of lines between Bruce and the Hulk.

So when Devil Hulk says to Samson he and Bruce are on the same page and at times shifting seamlessly/speaking similarly, that's what I was suggesting.. for that alter to appear implies Bruce and Devil aren't on the same page, and he turns to his heroic alter which also was on the same page with Bruce. So, he's torn between being good and being bad.. both alters wanted to protect Bruce (GS to keep him safe physically and to a degree protect him from humanity and his friends rejecting him to the point of exile)

And if GS and Devil Hulk are opposites, it makes total sense why Devil would try to lock him away, same with "Professor" as both are partial coming together of alters. Devil is trying to form his own system to support Bruce, one where he gets as much "face time" as he can. Previously, Bruce was terrified of him and locked him away.

Anyways, long story short, it's interesting to me as it seems Ewing is building towards another merger or coming together of alters, possibly to coincide with finishing up his story arcs at which point he and Marvel will decide if they want to "renew" their contract and explore this new status quo, or move on and leave some fertile ground for another writer to flesh out and make their own.

[Jody Garland]

Xemnus plan is to make everyone forget about Bruce Banner Hulk being the Hulk and that he is just some dangerous green monster, while Xemnu is actually the real and only Incredible Hulk that has saved Earth in the past from bad guys. He is trying to turn the public perception of Hulk against him, so that Hulk has no one to turn to and everywhere he goes he is hated, this the reason Roxxon employed him. Bruce Banner Hulk now needs to stop him before Xemnu turns the whole planet against him.

Plus, with the solicits, it looks like Agger is playing a game of his own by attempting to beat the Hulk ideologically by turning him into a marketed license. The Agger-Xemnu alliance is extremely clever writing by Ewing and I love the Pennywise-as-a-childrens-show-host character he's giving Xemnu.

[Intothevoid]

Plus, with the solicits, it looks like Agger is playing a game of his own by attempting to beat the Hulk ideologically by turning him into a marketed license. The Agger-Xemnu alliance is extremely clever writing by Ewing and I love the Pennywise-as-a-childrens-show-host character he's giving Xemnu.

Speaking of Pennywise, Al said in an interview that Joe came up with something disgusting/disturbing when it came to how Xemnu eats, I am guessing he really will be eating children.

Also in case everyone was wondering what Hulk was doing while Empyre event was happening

http://www.multiversitycomics.com/ne...astic-four-22/

[FrazettaHulk]

Speaking of Pennywise, Al said in an interview that Joe came up with something disgusting/disturbing when it came to how Xemnu eats, I am guessing he really will be eating children.

Also in case everyone was wondering what Hulk was doing while Empyre event was happening

http://www.multiversitycomics.com/ne...astic-four-22/

In a podcast interview, Ewing was saying Joe came up with a disturbing HOW Xemnu eats since he doesn’t have a mouth. Thru the metal stomach seems like a likely way BUT thats not really that disturbing given everything else in this run, so I’m a bit stumped.

[Ptrvc]

Speaking of Pennywise, Al said in an interview that Joe came up with something disgusting/disturbing when it came to how Xemnu eats, I am guessing he really will be eating children.

Also in case everyone was wondering what Hulk was doing while Empyre event was happening

http://www.multiversitycomics.com/ne...astic-four-22/

As much as I love that teamup, I've never read a Hulk appearance by Slott that I've liked.

Wait and see. I'd love to eat crow on this one.

[GreenScar1990]

It amazes me how much of a size difference there is between Devil Hulk and the Green Scar! It definitely makes Green Scar scarier and all the more impressive in power by comparison! I cannot wait for this little confrontation within Banner's psyche!

And I'm loving the current arc involving Xemnu the Titan & Dario Agger of Roxxon Corporation... even if a few people are still whining about it. How quick they are to forget the 8 years of mediocrity we Hulk fans were forced to deal with before Al Ewing and Joe Bennett came along with THE IMMORTAL HULK. I honestly want to ask them, do you want to go back to that crap?

Do you want to deal with mediocre, garbage runs like those of Jason Aaron, Mark Waid and Gerry Duggan again?

Appreciate the great run on Hulk we got NOW. It won't last forever, sadly. We do not know who will be the next Hulk writer after Al Ewing departs. And I can honestly say... there is very FEW writers in comics that I would willingly accept taking up the reigns on Hulk after Al Ewing ends his glorious run. I certainly don't envy them, that's certain. They're gonna have A LOT to contend with if they want to rank among the best Hulk scribes.

[ChrisIII]

I was OK with the Dagger run although it generally was mostly concerned with undoing a good chunk of Pak's later stuff (The "Hulk family" for example) although a lot of that's not been undone too by Ewing, although with Betty now more grotesque and Rick some kind of floating gamma radiator instead of an abomination (although he was one for a bit).


I really think Jeff Parker did a pretty good job with his Red Hulk (Where Fortean came from in the first place!) and a short run with Betty's RSH, although the character's still pretty much still dead I wouldn't mind Ewing reviving him at some point (Although we did get some flashbacks and a "hell" version). Doesn't even have to be a Red Hulk, could be some kind of further mutation like we've seen with Betty and Rick; perhaps something with ZZazx's powers?

[HeavenlyDemonic]

I was OK with the Dagger run although it generally was mostly concerned with undoing a good chunk of Pak's later stuff (The "Hulk family" for example) although a lot of that's not been undone too by Ewing, although with Betty now more grotesque and Rick some kind of floating gamma radiator instead of an abomination (although he was one for a bit).


I really think Jeff Parker did a pretty good job with his Red Hulk (Where Fortean came from in the first place!) and a short run with Betty's RSH, although the character's still pretty much still dead I wouldn't mind Ewing reviving him at some point (Although we did get some flashbacks and a "hell" version). Doesn't even have to be a Red Hulk, could be some kind of further mutation like we've seen with Betty and Rick; perhaps something with ZZazx's powers?

Parker’s Red hulk run was great. It was how a powered up Ross should have been written from the start. I’m glad we Hulk’s supporting cast back, as Betty and Rick bring out the best in Bruce/Hulk and make them more complete characters. Ewing, originally wanted to use Ross as the antagonist in this run, but couldn’t do to the plot in the Captain America book. So he substituted Fortean instead. I think it worked out for the best. Though it would definitely be interesting see a Ross, Bruce and Betty conversation now, given the latter two’s huge psychological changes

[ChrisIII]

The Devil Hulk does seem to have some of Ross's more sadistic tendencies here and there.

[Lvenger]

Apparently Ewing plans to conclude his run at around issue 50 as he doesn't want to drag it out and he's had the ending in mind since before he started Immortal Hulk. I haven't seen a source for this yet but it sounds about right for Ewing's approach to the Hulk.

[ChrisIII]

Jeff Parker busy on any other titles? About time I think he got a crack at the regular Hulk.

[Intothevoid]

Apparently Ewing plans to conclude his run at around issue 50 as he doesn't want to drag it out and he's had the ending in mind since before he started Immortal Hulk. I haven't seen a source for this yet but it sounds about right for Ewing's approach to the Hulk.

While Ewing himself hasn't explicitly confirmed this, i did see Bennet say that around 50 issues sounds about right for the series and i do remember when people asked Ewing last year if he would be on Hulk for like 5 or 7 more years he said no, but when someone asked him if he would be on it for another 2-3 years he said that seems about right. So yea my guess is sometime in 2021 is when his series will end.

The question is, who would follow...

[GreenScar1990]