Bruce Banner - The Hulk Appreciation 2021

[Intothevoid]

Still haven't read it myself, waiting for it to pop up online but i heard only bad things, something i predicted with Cates taking over. Even though i haven't read it, from some pages i have seen so far i can tell that Cates has not nailed Bruce's voice down at all.

[Hypestyle]

Honestly I’m worried. The FCBD story was not great… Bruce was written too casual and youthful and the premise is a bit weird. Even Ottley - who I just loved on ASM - seemed off. It felt a little like Waid’s run - which isn’t good news.

so what exactly is going on? Is it established how far ahead in the future this is?

I hope their bodies are not separated again.

[Vordan]

Anyone read the FCB story? Havent myself yet but curious how it was.

Me neither, hoping for some reviews.

Honestly I’m worried. The FCBD story was not great… Bruce was written too casual and youthful and the premise is a bit weird. Even Ottley - who I just loved on ASM - seemed off. It felt a little like Waid’s run - which isn’t good news.

Well that’s not a promising start

[TCHRISJ]

It honestly felt like Banner is the one controlling the body with the way he was talking about his childhood dreams etc.

[Webhead]

If the FCBD issue is anything to go by, it's gonna be tough to take such a mood shift after Ewing.

[Intothevoid]

Finally read it and it was awful. The shift from Immortal Hulk to this tonally feels like the biggest whiplash i ever had. Bruce Banner(i presume it's Banner talking in Hulks body it's not 100% clear but it seems to be that way) talks 1000 miles an hour and almost juvenile and not like a scientist who at this point is either in his late 30's or early 40's. Even the action itself, you would think it would be exciting but it somehow felt stale... Donny Cates and Ryan Ottley somehow made throwing trains seem boring... I dunno but this run really isn't for me if this is the direction and tone of it, i was hoping since Immortal Hulk was missing lots of action/smashing i could forgive everything else and just enjoy the brainless aspect of Cates run but it failed to hit it's mark IMO.

I will still give it a chance when it comes out for the first arc because that's fair, can't judge the whole thing on a 10 page free comic, but i hope both Cates and Ottley step up their game, i say Ottley too because his art felt really inconsistent here and it was hard for me to overlook that part.

[Dinosaur Hulk]

Even Ottley can't save a boring comic. It's like Waid's run meets Aaron's run- double negative from me.
And I was wrong- Hulk IS going to wear this dumb helmet. Isn't it just wonderful...

Guess when IH ends I am switching to Aaron's Avengers, I've found myself more interested where this one goes instead of new Hulk. I know it's just FCBD, please wake me up when something interesting actually happens. Oh and also Ewing's Venom looks pretty promising to me.

Donny Cates and Ryan Ottley somehow made throwing trains seem boring...

Okay well this is my stop then lmao

[Cth]

I need to see how 50 wraps up, but on one hand, I can see Bruce giving up and leaving Earth -- from how humanity is hell bent on destroying itself, to the constant "events", to the inevitable betrayal by superheroes and finally being stuck in Hell..

Then again, being in Hell doesn't mesh with the FCBD Banner.. but maybe his status quo is reset and he's given a new outlook/fresh start/deus ex machina to make that happen. THAT would be a awful ending.

Could he get a glimpse of the events of #25 and subliminally be drawn to outer space as a result? Maybe. Could it be a tiny bit of TOBA influence? Unlikely but why not?

What's curious is that Aaron's Heroes Reborn kind of sync's up with FCBD Hulk in that Hulk was travelling in space, enjoying things.

..

Who am I kidding, it'll be Ultimate Reed Richards/The Maker who will be revealed to have influenced Bruce to the stars where he can isolate him and corrupt him much like the Ultimate Hulk.

The real question is just what kinds of multiverse weirdness are we going to see? If you thought Jenkin's Cave of Hulks, imagine a universe of them.

[Dinosaur Hulk]

Could he get a glimpse of the events of #25 and subliminally be drawn to outer space as a result? Maybe.

That's too much credit for Cates... I am not sure if he even read/remembers this stuff but if he IS referring to TOBA using Hulk's body as "indestructible green spaceship" then... wow. Props to him, that's a great analogy. Boring comic, but great analogy.

[Vordan]

I still think action wise Cates and Ottley will bring it, but I knew it was going to be a much dumber comic than Ewing wrote. I say let’s see what issue 1 brings before entirely hopping off, but I can’t deny that I’m also getting Waid/Aaron vibes. Those two are among Cates favorite writers (he loves Aaron in general and I know he’s a huge fan of Kingdom Come), so I’m not surprised he may be inspired by them. Bracing myself to be disappointed.

[Intothevoid]

I still think action wise Cates and Ottley will bring it, but I knew it was going to be a much dumber comic than Ewing wrote. I say let’s see what issue 1 brings before entirely hopping off, but I can’t deny that I’m also getting Waid/Aaron vibes. Those two are among Cates favorite writers (he loves Aaron in general and I know he’s a huge fan of Kingdom Come), so I’m not surprised he may be inspired by them. Bracing myself to be disappointed.

Well we all know how much Cates loves Aaron... i mean he literally credits him for why he became the comic book writer in the first place, then there is also this regarding Waid

https://twitter.com/Doncates/status/896633680587784193

So yea it becomes obvious why this feels like a mishap of Aaron/Waid stuff. It's very much possible this run could actually be really solid at least in terms of action and to be completely fair i would be ok with that. I would read it happily, after Immortal Hulk which is a much more serious and heavy run that didn't feature much action i would be ok with getting a bit of a break for the next 2-3 years of branless action. However it needs to be some top tier action and Cates has to stay away from retconning anything and doing something really stupid, if he manages to achieve those 2 things i will give him a thumbs up, so far this 10 page issue doesn't seem promising but perhaps it's too early to judge, we will see hopefully issue #1 actually ramps things up because this was just meh...

[ChrisIII]

Kind of curious how this might work with the end of Ewing's run. Maybe Banner got ticked off that Joe/Savage left him to suffer that he decides to assume full control (Like in the middle Mantlo era) again? Or maybe perhaps this is a "merged" Hulk of some sort? Joe and Savage are much closer together than they ever were in the 370s....

[Vordan]

Well we all know how much Cates loves Aaron... i mean he literally credits him for why he became the comic book writer in the first place, then there is also this regarding Waid

https://twitter.com/Doncates/status/896633680587784193

So yea it becomes obvious why this feels like a mishap of Aaron/Waid stuff. It's very much possible this run could actually be really solid at least in terms of action and to be completely fair i would be ok with that. I would read it happily, after Immortal Hulk which is a much more serious and heavy run that didn't feature much action i would be ok with getting a bit of a break for the next 2-3 years of branless action. However it needs to be some top tier action and Cates has to stay away from retconning anything and doing something really stupid, if he manages to achieve those 2 things i will give him a thumbs up, so far this 10 page issue doesn't seem promising but perhaps it's too early to judge, we will see hopefully issue #1 actually ramps things up because this was just meh...

Dammit, I love Waid elsewhere but not his Hulk. It’s been a while since I read it though, and we’ve got another month until Immortal Hulk 50, maybe I’ll go reread Indestructible. Maybe reading it again will change my opinion of it.

[Spiderfan001]

This ain't it.
This is everything Immortal Hulk is not, which is bad.
The writing is so Aaron and the art work doesn't save it.
The premise could work but they should make it much more grim, him leaving forever should be a serious deal but they play it like a joke.

[Intothevoid]

Dammit, I love Waid elsewhere but not his Hulk. It’s been a while since I read it though, and we’ve got another month until Immortal Hulk 50, maybe I’ll go reread Indestructible. Maybe reading it again will change my opinion of it.

Waid has done some really decent stuff, like his Superman Birthright comic which is one of my first Superman comics i ever read. But the problem with him and Hulk is he famously did an interview shortly before he was put on Hulk where the interviewer asked him what is one character he isn't interested in writing in at Marvel and his answer was Hulk... So why on Earth editorial put him on Hulk is anyones guess.. My best guess is the Aaron Hulk stuff was so poorly received and ended after barely going on for a year that they had no one else at the time to put on it but Waid. Either way when you put a writer that simply isn't very familiar with Hulks history, on top of that isn't interested in writing him and finally was VERY antagonistic towards Hulk fans who pointed out to him inaccuracies in his run you had a recipe for a very bland run. I remember a friend of mine only liked it because it had decent feats for Hulk but as a story it was bleh... Hulk literally wasn't even a character in it, basically a mindless robot for Banner to point into a direction and say: "Go Smash!".