Bruce Banner - The Hulk Appreciation 2021

[FrazettaHulk]

And did these Immortal Hulk issues take place before this weeks Avengers? Jen was free in one and captured in the other.

Avengers is after this Hulk story. Hulk is still in winter time frame. Without pandemic AND a change in shipping schedule, Immortal Hulk 50 hits in March.

[your_name_here]

I mean besides stopping TOBA's metacrisis "bad end" and remerging w/ Bruce Banner, is there a lot to wrap up IH? At the end of today's issue it linked the Gamma Flight and upcoming Defenders minis, which any lingering plot threads will be followed up in. Ewing also has to leave Donny Cates something to work with in his run.

My only real concern atm is what Ewing plans to do with TOBA and the Green door. They're really great concepts but Marvel loves it's status-quos, so the really crappy scenario I hope doesn't happen would be to have the One-Above-All annihilate them both which would basically reset everything back to 'zero'.

Although that doesn’t sound like a lot to wrap up in theory, it definitely will be in practice if they want TOBA to be as credible threat as he’s been portrayed throughout the series.
I’m pretty sure Devil Hulk will be back to, as Bruce mentioned something a little strange before Joe went all grey/red hulk on us.

[Cth]

I just realized..

What has Leader/TOBA been doing to Bruce since he's been trapped in Hell?

I guess in a way that COULD explain why Bruce is suddenly trying to cure himself/control the Hulk with Cates's run.

Surely he's not going to come away from it unscathed. And Ewing makes a point to say Joe abandoned him in the latest issue.

Maybe the reformed Joe, after his talk with Ben appeals to TOAA to save Bruce. That way we don't downplay TOBA by having Joe march in and beat him, establish the rivalry between TOAA/TOBA fighting over one soul as opposed to directly attacking each other, etc. Joe "decides" much in the way Metatron was asking Bruce.. maybe that was a foreshadowing of how Bruce feels post Hell/split. Especially as that would mirror Job in a way.

Ha. Just realized Job/Joe.

That'd be a weird status quo. All the Hulks agreeing with a dissenting Bruce. In a way Bruce would become the monster.

[Dinosaur Hulk]

Although that doesn’t sound like a lot to wrap up in theory, it definitely will be in practice if they want TOBA to be as credible threat as he’s been portrayed throughout the series.
I’m pretty sure Devil Hulk will be back to, as Bruce mentioned something a little strange before Joe went all grey/red hulk on us.

The fact that Bruce keeps talking to Devil (who is "kinda" missing a head and half a body) hints at his revival. He's not "dead", just neutralized for the time being.

[ChrisIII]

Maybe Devil sort of kills the One Below all and takes his place, and is ruler of that place when Banner is present in "our" world.

The gamma hell place kind of works like Banner's mindscape a bit when you think about it, the incarnations are all separate "physical" beings.

[Cth]

Maybe Devil sort of kills the One Below all and takes his place, and is ruler of that place when Banner is present in "our" world.

The gamma hell place kind of works like Banner's mindscape a bit when you think about it, the incarnations are all separate "physical" beings.

I'm leaning towards that not being the case as Ewing stated he wanted to add something to the Marvel U for other writers to play with.

Devil is Jenkins and it'd be leaving the Hulk in other writers hands.

[Vordan]

I am wondering if Devil will still be the “main” alter in Cates run, or which of them he’d use. Personally I think Worldbreaker would be the best alter for Cates given his interests. I think the gamma mythos Ewing has created (OBA, Hell, Green Door) are the concepts he means when he talks about leaving stuff for others to play with.

[McFarlane's Green Hulk]

Incredible Hulk #347
“Crap Shoot”

Cover Date: September 1988
Sale Date: May 17th, 1988
Writer: Peter David
Artist: Jeff Purves
Inker: Mike Gustovich (with assists from Valerie Gustovich)
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: Petra Scoteste
Editor: Bobbie Chase
Guest Stars/Supporting Cast: Michael Berengetti, Anthony Gold, Suzy, Mona, Marlo Chandler
Antagonist: Anthony Gold
Synopsis: The story starts with a desperate gambler taking out his frustrations on his favorite slot machine after losing on his final quarter. Owner Michael Berengetti is called down and the tense situation is diffused with the mention of bringing “Mr. Fixit” in. As he enters his office, Berengetti is subtlety threatened by a representative of an Anthony Gold about joining forces in various deals. Words are exchanged and the man leaves. We are then introduced to Marlo Chandler and her roommate Mona, who has just been informed that she’d been set up for a date with this mysterious “Mr. Fixit”. We get a one-panel intro to Anthony Gold in a steam bath and his reaction to Berengetti’s brushoff. Later on, Berengetti and Suzy head out on a late night date, but are forced to fire-gutted casino instead. He pages Fixit rather than let the driver make a break for it. Marlo arrives at Fixit’s apartment as his beeper goes off. Cut back to Berengetti, who is getting roughed up by Gold and his goons. Before the trigger can be pulled, a hulking bruiser comes crashing through the ceiling, dressed in a pin-striped outfit, oversized purple coat and hat. Gold’s goons start shooting but the bullets ricochet back at them. Turns out it’s the Hulk and he tears into them easily. Some small talk between “Fixit” and Berengetti end with him leaping away, as he’s got a date. Later that morning, Marlo is basking in the glow of…whatever happened on their date and we cut to the inner thoughts on the Hulk’s current happenings. It’s been three months since the Middletown incident, someone named Gorsham has made it possible for him to be the Hulk during the day and night time hours, and he has landed “this great deal” with Berengetti in Las Vegas. Suddenly, he’s hit with a familiar pain and realizes that it’s Banner. He manages to suppress the change but unsure how long he can hold it back. The issue ends with Gold hiring the services of Crusher Creel, the Absorbing Man, to take care of “Mr. Fixit”.
Commentary: New artist and editor, new cast of characters. Real-time, I was aggravated and annoyed. I thought the art sucked and wasn’t a fan of the previous cast being brushed off with no follow-up post-Congressional hearing. To be fair to Purves, he shouldn’t have had to follow McFarlane. This was the late `80’s, and the future Image founders are starting to make waves in the industry on their respective titles, and I was drawn to most of them. We had Buscema for the last ten years, a smattering of short stints by Mignola and Byrne, and then brought down by Milgrom. McFarlane brought some stability and it was a fun ride to see his art progress from rookie to mid-card status (His heavyweight status came with Spider-Man). Purves brought a vastly different style and it was jarring. Then again, the mass and monstrosity Todd brought to a supposedly 6’6” gray skinned brute who was supposed to be smaller than his formerly green self – probably not a good fit for the next batch of stories. I would really like to know how much the Hulk is holding back in this era, as he laid into one of those guys pretty heavy. There should have been a large, red stain on the floor after that. Regarding the story, we get caught up to what the Hulk’s been doing, but there’s no mention of Rick, Betty or Clay and the mystery of how he survived (without mutating into the green Hulk!) is a few issues away. Drove me nuts as a kid, I seriously thought that the green Hulk was coming back, and that aggravated me even more now that McFarlane was gone.
Fun fact: Marlo and Mona were originally pitched as a hookers, not a fitness instructor and nurse. Note the letter style change during the phone call between Suzy and Marlo about being set up with the Hulk. According to PAD, there was a last-minute dialogue change before it went to press.

[ChrisIII]

I am wondering if Devil will still be the “main” alter in Cates run, or which of them he’d use. Personally I think Worldbreaker would be the best alter for Cates given his interests. I think the gamma mythos Ewing has created (OBA, Hell, Green Door) are the concepts he means when he talks about leaving stuff for others to play with.

Could be a "rotating" Hulk like we've seen a few times. Ewing started with just Devil but then Savage and Joe showed up within a year or so. Jenkin's run and parts of Loeb's also frequently swapped around the personas.

Now that I think of it it's been an extremely long time since we've seen Professor in the actual comics (apart from flashbacks/occasional covers/stuff like Maestro's VR illusion), possibly not since the Jenkins run when Bruce was dying and was mostly relying on Professor to help him through it, probably because he was one of the more stable personas. Doc Green had some similarities but he was really just an artificially enhanced Savage Hulk.

[witchboy]

Professor Hulk is my favorite version of Hulk. I could see where it would make sense now to use him since he's recently had an bump in public awareness from Endgame.

[Intothevoid]

Knowing Cates the Professor Hulk personality is the last one he will be using, it's likely going to be either Devil or Green Scar as the 2 main suspects and then followed by Savage Hulk as a less likely one, but either way it's gonna be one of those 3.

Personally i think it's gonna be Green Scar(Worldbreaker) because Cates made a tweet a few days ago when talking about Hulk and comics in general and people asked him if he is planning to move to DC and he said he still has plenty of stories to tell and worlds to break which made me think it's a direct hint at Worldbreaker Hulk but we will see.

[Vordan]

Yeah the Professor is too laid back a take for Cates Hulk. I’m rooting for Green Scar because that was “my” Hulk, Planet Hulk was the first Hulk story I read start to finish and I’ve always been attached to that take the most (Devil is now second for me). I could see Cates creating an entire new alter for Hulk though.

[Hypestyle]

I can remember not really caring for the art in these arcs myself. I liked McFarlane's art. And I could follow the stories leading up to the big blow-up... but then... Vegas? Hulk as kind-of a leg-breaker for a Mob-adjacent casino owner? Punching out easy-mark humans? eh..
At the time I didn't read enough into it to figure out that Marlo was "sleeping" with, er, "Joe".. I had largely stopped buying the issues so I didn't know at first about the angle of Joe telling the lie that "Bruce" was his (much smaller, wimpier) "Brother" who only showed up in the daytime.. lol.. I don't recall too many traditional Hulk-villains showing up, either.. which of course was on purpose, I guess.. since this was supposed to be a big secret that the big gray guy was not "the Hulk". (also at the time I knew nothing about the "gangster" personality glimpsed in the earliest Stan Lee comics)

[Cth]

Yeah I wasn't a fan of the art as well and I'm generally good with everyone, especially indy artists.

In the shot above, I'll admit I like the trenchcoat shot and the close up (I think it's the shadows that helps Purves art).. but I have Purves as one of the worst Hulk artists of all time personally.

He looks like the Toxic Avenger and everyone's eyes are all spaced too far apart which I think is one of the problems I had. The other is there's almost no background work at all.

EDIT:
Now that I think of it, the coloring seems off as well. That cover is awful, as if rushed and the page generally is flat, the one where shades are varied/shadowing works for me... it may be that Purves art is just flat looking and doesn't lend itself or that the colorist didn't mesh well. (Checking now, it was a new colorist as well)

[jebsib]

This is fascinating - Without the internet in 1988, all we fans could do was rely on (accurate?) letter page fan response.

To now learn that so many people agreed with me that Jeff Purves, the Vegas Mob Legbreaker saga, no mention of Rick or Betty, etc were a terrible and jarring shock is very interesting.

I wonder how sales compared with McFarlane... and whether PAD panicked.