Bruce Banner, The Incredible Hulk Appreciation 2022

[Dinosaur Hulk]

I say we go even further.
What if Titan had a Hulk?
What if Donny Cates himself had a Hulk?

Also no way Hulk can finish off Living Tribunal or Phoenix. I am a huge Hulk fanboy and I want to think that Hulk's power is limitless (in theory) but even I understand that he stands no chance against abstracts. They'll just disintegrate him if they want to.

[Intothevoid]

I say we go even further.
What if Titan had a Hulk?
What if Donny Cates himself had a Hulk?

Also no way Hulk can finish off Living Tribunal or Phoenix. I am a huge Hulk fanboy and I want to think that Hulk's power is limitless (in theory) but even I understand that he stands no chance against abstracts. They'll just disintegrate him if they want to.

Those aren't real, they are literally just imaginary created by Banner inside his head, they obviously dont represent the real ones. Especially since in the next 5 issues Hulk is gonna struggle against and ultimately lose to Thor, so obviously he isn't soloing an entire stage 5 where it's Thor plus a bunch of other gods, let alone soloing stage 9 with literal abstracts in it.

[Lukmendes]

I say we go even further.
What if Titan had a Hulk?

For fuck's sake man, I was just about to post this .

What if Donny Cates himself had a Hulk?

If he does it might already be active, and writing this story.

Also no way Hulk can finish off Living Tribunal or Phoenix. I am a huge Hulk fanboy and I want to think that Hulk's power is limitless (in theory) but even I understand that he stands no chance against abstracts. They'll just disintegrate him if they want to.

The Hulk that would have the best chance against beings like those would be Devil, given that he's somehow able to kill beings that can't be killed, but even then, their power is just casually above his' so even if he can hurt them, it doesn't mean he'll manage to do so.

But who knows, I remember hearing Phoenix isn't as strong anymore, and once a writer who I think is Jason Aaron listed Thanos as a Phoenix killer, and while he is strong, without something like the infinity gauntlet, I don't see him winning unless the Phoenix got ridiculously nerfed.

[Intothevoid]

Also Ottley has confirmed he is jumping ship after issue 12 of this run. Yea, things are pretty bad and are only gonna get worse, hopefully this run gets canceled sooner than later.

[Vordan]

Underwhelming to say the least. Titan is just black and red Hulk with spikes, and I guess he’s evil or whatever, but he didn’t even do all that much. He just smashes some stuff and then disappears. No clue what his role is in all this or what’s up with Betty (we still don’t know if she’s a foreign entity or another aspect of Bruce’s mind) and this whole arc was basically just filler. Bruce and Hulk are right back where they started and we still don’t have any answers about what the hell is going on.

Also Ottley has confirmed he is jumping ship after issue 12 of this run. Yea, things are pretty bad and are only gonna get worse, hopefully this run gets canceled sooner than later.

Damn pretty much the only thing this run has going for it is his art.

[SJNeal]

^ ^ ^

I'm gonna go with filler. This book's officially dropped from my list. I may check out the Thor crossover down the line when the issues inevitably end up in the bargain bins, but I ain't dropping no more cash on this series.

[McFarlane's Green Hulk]

Seeing all the responses to the current Hulk series is making me queasy, so here's another classic Hulk review to act as Pepto before I leave for a quick out of town vacation with the wife.
(Dang, this means I'm behind on reviews again. I stopped with this issue, as I'd done the last 9 issues in one giant sitting.)


Incredible Hulk #386
“Little Hitler”
Cover Date: October 1991
Sale Date: August 20th, 1991
Writer: Peter David
Artist: Dale Keown
Inker: Mark Farmer
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: Glynis Oliver
Editor: Bobbie Chase
Guest Stars/Supporting Cast: Rick Jones, Betty Banner, Marlo Chandler, Agamemnon, Achilles, Delphi, Ulysses, Greta Rabin, Max Meer.
Antagonist: Sabra
Synopsis: Delphi has a horrific vision about a possible future dictator name Max Meer, whose actions are in line to be worse than Adolf Hitler’s. Achilles rushes to her aid and she stuns him with the question about killing someone now if it prevents their actions in the future. In Reno, Rick and his band are playing a show at a local bar, with Bruce, Betty and Marlo in the audience. Agamemnon appears, but only visible to the Banner’s brainwave patterns, and he pleads for his help. Banner denies the request, claiming that he needs to put his life with Betty back together and he should find someone else to do it. Agamemnon says the used Achilles…and he went rogue. Rick sees the conversation and makes an excuse to head out. Cut to Isreal, where we’re introduced to the Meer family and the young boy Max. We also see a very hard-nosed and determined Achilles lurking outside the embassy. Aboard the Pantheon ship, Rick and the Hulk are briefed on what’s happened/happening. We cut to a scene with Betty and Marlo getting harassed by a reporter and then another cut to see young Max make his acquaintance with a young girl named Greta. Max is bored and Greta offers to show him the Old City. As they take off, we’re then re-introduced to Sabra, and see Rick and Banner trying to stay under cover while looking for Achilles. Rick gives chase to the cop partnered with Sabra, and loses sight of him after he’s knocked out by Achilles, who then swipes his uniform. He soon catches up to Max and Greta, and Rick is able to thwart is assassination attempt. As this is happening, Sabra spies the Hulk chasing the boy and in classic Silver Age Marvel, creates a bigger problem for herself as she paralyzes the Hulk’s larynx with he darts, giving her the impression he’s a mindless monster again as he tries to explain his actions. The issue ends with an enraged Hulk looming over Sabra and a hypnotized crowd about to attack Rick and Achilles.
Commentary: This one tackles the old adage of “if you could kill Hitler as a child to prevent WWII, would you do it?” Next issue fills in the gap on why Achilles has such a hard-on to kill this boy. Sabra’s return was a surprise, and her comments kind of throw the timeline from a hundred issues back for a loop.

[xcoijoi]

Looks like it's all really just a setup for "The Ultimate" Hulk vs Thor slugfest.

[Cth]

Ehh, it was better than I was expecting.

But yeah, it's like reading ADHD Hulk.. "Big fight..talky.. big fight... robot.. OOH SQUIRREL! Big fight.. OOH THOR!"

The one bright spot that someone pointed out elsewhere was when Hulk told Bruce he was sorry. I dismissed it as referring to El Paso, but they suggested it was because Hulk "Hulked Out" so he got an idea of what it was like for Bruce to lose control all these years.

That being said, his speech pattern is still weird.

Cates was right though, after all of that, Bruce still throws the kid into the engine room, and has tech stitch itself into his body in the real world.

[Vordan]

Ehh, it was better than I was expecting.

But yeah, it's like reading ADHD Hulk.. "Big fight..talky.. big fight... robot.. OOH SQUIRREL! Big fight.. OOH THOR!"

The one bright spot that someone pointed out elsewhere was when Hulk told Bruce he was sorry. I dismissed it as referring to El Paso, but they suggested it was because Hulk "Hulked Out" so he got an idea of what it was like for Bruce to lose control all these years.

That being said, his speech pattern is still weird.

Cates was right though, after all of that, Bruce still throws the kid into the engine room, and has tech stitch itself into his body in the real world.

If that’s what Cates is going for I will say that I like that. Hulk understanding why Bruce feels the way he does about Hulk after undergoing his own transformation is nice, but it still doesn’t really tell us anything about what Titan is. Yeah he’s “Hulk’s Hulk” but what does that really mean? Dumb as Kluh was I could at least tell you what his deal was personality wise, Titan just seems to be another power up. What does Titan bring to the table that another Hulk alter couldn’t?

[Intothevoid]

I dont understand how Cates can craft such a underwhelming script... when he talked to Ottley about it, did he come up to him with like

"Ok Ryan this is what we are gonna do for this issue that we hyped so much where Titan will finally appear, here is what is gonna happen. He is gonna appear and THEN... he is gonna fight with fodder gamma monsters for like 2 page and disappear...."

Is that genuinely how Cates approached this issue? He didn't like at least try to go over the top and have actual fun with it? Like Titan appears and the ground trembles for miles away, the mantle splits and lava comes out of the ground, something really grandiose, no the revelation of this Hulk is literally more underwhelming than Doc Green lol, who was literally a nerd Hulk. This is what i said before, Cates is writing this on auto-pilot. He is actually putting some care into the Thor stuff and when it comes to Hulk he is just picking up a paycheck, over hyping shit because he knows hypes sells and all Cates ever knows how to do is hype, which is why this issue had so many variants and why he is trying to cash in on Hulk vs Thor, but after that we saw that he is just going back to the same old, rehashed, boring formula... "Oh guys what if there was a planet full of Hulks and we will call it Hulk Planet, nobody ever thought of that idea before...."

[Spiderfan001]

Also Ottley has confirmed he is jumping ship after issue 12 of this run. Yea, things are pretty bad and are only gonna get worse, hopefully this run gets canceled sooner than later.

Source on that?

Although it makes sense, Cates missed the mark by a mile

[Tendrin]

Source on that?

Although it makes sense, Cates missed the mark by a mile

He didn't confirm he was leaving Hulk with twelve. He confirmed that he was contracted for twelve issues with the Hulk. He may move on after that anyway but it's not really the same thing as saying he's eagerly jumping ship.

[Intothevoid]

Source on that?

Although it makes sense, Cates missed the mark by a mile

He wrote on twitter that he signed up for only 12 issues. Given the reception he and Cates have received it's pretty obvious he isn't gonna be continuing the run after that.

[Intothevoid]

He didn't confirm he was leaving Hulk with twelve. He confirmed that he was contracted for twelve issues with the Hulk. He may move on after that anyway but it's not really the same thing as saying he's eagerly jumping ship.

I am pretty sure he isn't gonna write he is eagerly jumping ship, but you can read between the lines, both him and Cates have complained already about the reception they have received from Hulk fans was less than optimal, lets put it like that.