Bruce Banner: The Hulk Appreciation 2020

[Incognito]

Just read the Immortal Hulk from Issue #1 to the current issue, one of the best comic books runs I have ever read. I like the exploration and the mythos of the Hulk's backstory and the introduction of the Below Place as well as showing more depth to Bruce's psyche and his eldritch transformations reminds me of Lovecraft Country.

[ChrisIII]

I think it can be argued that some of the longer-running 'cures' were "sort of" deaths for the Hulk, although Banner stuck around. (Although he died shortly after giving the gamma to Cho).



The Immortal storylines oddly enough explain a lot of the discontinuity surrounding the Leader coming back with no explanation here and there, and Samson's "huh?" ressurection in Civil War II.

[The Cool Thatguy]

I think it can be argued that some of the longer-running 'cures' were "sort of" deaths for the Hulk, although Banner stuck around. (Although he died shortly after giving the gamma to Cho).



The Immortal storylines oddly enough explain a lot of the discontinuity surrounding the Leader coming back with no explanation here and there, and Samson's "huh?" ressurection in Civil War II.

Didn't they imply that the Leader's fellow supernerds helped resurrect him during Fall of the Hulks?

[Intothevoid]

Btw that new Avengers comic, coming out next year has Hulk, Black Panther, Spiderman, Widow and Captain Marvel on the team. So yea Hulk is the only heavy hitter so expect him to ger Worfed as someone already said. Seriously what a weird team line up.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Btw that new Avengers comic, coming out next year has Hulk, Black Panther, Spiderman, Widow and Captain Marvel on the team. So yea Hulk is the only heavy hitter so expect him to ger Worfed as someone already said. Seriously what a weird team line up.

Where'd you see this?

Also, this is likely reflective of the next Avengers movie, some...four years from now, at least? So still weird but some logic

[ChrisIII]

Didn't they imply that the Leader's fellow supernerds helped resurrect him during Fall of the Hulks?

Samson died in the followup to that storyline "World War Hulks". However, during FOTH Samson did develop a dark Samson persona, which Samson has theorized in the new series was a result of the Hulk Syndrome/Rage infection that Banner's radiation seems to carry. The Intellica or however it's spelled did bring back Betty though, although with the side-effect of her becoming Red She-Hulk.

The 'ghost' of Dark Samson also showed up in the Red Hulk series ("Haunted Hulk" I think) and the 'good' Samson briefly returned in Chaos War. But then he showed up more permanently with little explanation in Civil War II, but Immortal Hulk explained that pretty well.

[Immortal Hulk]

Btw that new Avengers comic, coming out next year has Hulk, Black Panther, Spiderman, Widow and Captain Marvel on the team. So yea Hulk is the only heavy hitter so expect him to ger Worfed as someone already said. Seriously what a weird team line up.

Bad news for me. Not excited at all about it...

Well, at least Immortal Hulk #38 will be out next week!

[Immortal Hulk]

PAIN!

[Hulkbanner12]

PAIN!

Man, this is way too much. That should be devil hulk, right?

[Cth]

Ehh.. Hulk worked in Defenders. That was even an more powerful team.

[PCN24454]

Ehh.. Hulk worked in Defenders. That was even an more powerful team.

Because power is ultimately the most important part of a superhero team.

[Cth]

Because power is ultimately the most important part of a superhero team.

According to the ones complaining, yeah.

Let the character interact with others. Constantly being shunned and isolated does nothing. Who cares if he's Worfed.. he's already had that over the years.

Let the character evolve, possibly get new additions to his rogue gallery, etc.

The point is he's worked in team situations before. While I may not have confidence in some writers ability to write the character others might excel.

Anyways, in the above pic note the cosmic ray lines in the background (presumably)..I wonder if that's the case.

[Ptrvc]

According to the ones complaining, yeah.

Let the character interact with others. Constantly being shunned and isolated does nothing. Who cares if he's Worfed.. he's already had that over the years.

Let the character evolve, possibly get new additions to his rogue gallery, etc.

The point is he's worked in team situations before. While I may not have confidence in some writers ability to write the character others might excel.

Anyways, in the above pic note the cosmic ray lines in the background (presumably)..I wonder if that's the case.

There's character development and then there's having Superman kill criminals or the Punisher not kill criminals. It's just against the core of the character.

Hulk being a loner is like that it's not something he's supposed to grow out of. It's part of his core identity.

Secondly, I'd presume that any major growth for the character would come out of his solo, not out of team book. Team books tend to focus on the folks who don't have a solo on the team.

Lastly, about the power thing. Teams work when members all have unique roles and a purpose to be on the team. The problem is when the power between characters is wildly divergent, to the point that one member is better at everything than the rest of the team.

You either get the problem of Aquaman on the Superfriends where, since Superman can do everything he can do but better Aquaman becomes the talk to fish joke.

Or you get the modern wording problem where the supposed powerhouse only exists to get their ass kicked bu the villain of the week. Hulk in every MCU movie post the original Avengers.

[Immortal Hulk]

Yeah, I don't see how the Hulk would get better character development than in his own book; it certainly didn't happen in any of his times as an avenger.

[Cth]

There's character development and then there's having Superman kill criminals or the Punisher not kill criminals. It's just against the core of the character.

Hulk being a loner is like that it's not something he's supposed to grow out of. It's part of his core identity.

Secondly, I'd presume that any major growth for the character would come out of his solo, not out of team book. Team books tend to focus on the folks who don't have a solo on the team.

Lastly, about the power thing. Teams work when members all have unique roles and a purpose to be on the team. The problem is when the power between characters is wildly divergent, to the point that one member is better at everything than the rest of the team.

You either get the problem of Aquaman on the Superfriends where, since Superman can do everything he can do but better Aquaman becomes the talk to fish joke.

Or you get the modern wording problem where the supposed powerhouse only exists to get their ass kicked bu the villain of the week. Hulk in every MCU movie post the original Avengers.

So you agree that all the appearances in Defenders were out of character and wrecked the character?

I didn't say he should grow out of being a loner.. as we've seen in company events, he's still the loner and outsider to a fault.

What you guys want is to take the Hulk out of the Marvel universe and guess what? That way leads to takes like BANNER and THE THRESHING PLACE. When the character doesn't have to worry about consequences of his actions, lesser writers will have the freedom to tell their "He's an out of control monster" take where he murders people.

Ewing proved it's possible to write him in a team setting and retain his personality. And yes, every writer isn't Ewing. Imagine all the writers salivating at the idea of a horror take on the Hulk where he goes on murderous rampages. You all complained about Millar's Cannibal Hulk for years.

The more he's ignored, the easier it gets to make these out of character takes.. you get Spidey taking out the Hulk. We finally have the larger audience seeing the character written well and have a chance to reinforce that.. by letting that slip to the side, inevitably editorial will say "Ah well, Ewing's take no longer works, let's go back to what we know, a dumb Hulk.. a Hulk that kills indiscriminately"

Again, I didn't say the team book was going to be the source of major growth, but as we've seen time and time again, writers will do their own version of the Hulk outside the title and because there's so many writers that love the idea that Hulk is a killer it's considered canon. Look at Bendis and JMS take which eventually resulted in Civil War 2. We all know the Las Vegas rampage wouldn't have killed tons of people.

And since you bring up the MCU Avengers, it worked and cemented the Hulk as THE character everyone liked outside of Stark. HE worked well, both sides of him in that first movie. Hulk fans are frankly terrified of change despite it being the cornerstone of the character since inception.

Something else to keep in mind for those terrified of the idea.. for every idiotic take it's resulted in some excellent stories. If you didn't have Bendis ruining things, there'd be no Planet Hulk/WWH.. if he wasnt killed in CW2, Ewing wouldn't have gotten a chance to tell his Immortal take..

I just don't get why you guys are so afraid of him being on a team, especially since we don't know anything about it. Hell, the line up has people wondering what the book is going to be like. Again, I point to the Defenders.. he was on a team with Hellcat and Nighthawk and he wasn't jobbing left and right. He wasn't written out of character.

If history repeats itself, Hulk fans will reject whoever comes after the popular take (PAD, Pak, etc) .. sales will suffer and hover around the cancelation mark and Marvel will go back to the dumb Hulk or yet another controversial take before trying to recapture the magic by luring Ewing back at which point "fans" will turn on him. Repeat ad nauseum for the past 20-30 years.

Oh well, dark times ahead for the character, no matter what direction editorial takes him.