Bruce Banner, The Incredible Hulk Appreciation 2023

[Frontier]

http://www.multiversitycomics.com/news/tih-2-2023/

Cover and synopsis for The Incredible Hulk #2. Klein is crushing it!

Rise of the female monsters!

[Intothevoid]

Rise of the female monsters!

I noticed that too, a lot of female monsters all of a sudden. The Mother of Horror, now this Eldest character, also the supporting character seems to be some girl as well. Not complaining really, Hulk definitely could use more females to his rogue gallery.

This Charlie chick is dying by the end of the series though, for sure.

[Frontier]

I noticed that too, a lot of female monsters all of a sudden. The Mother of Horror, now this Eldest character, also the supporting character seems to be some girl as well. Not complaining really, Hulk definitely could use more females to his rogue gallery.

This Charlie chick is dying by the end of the series though, for sure.

I wonder if they're setting her up as the new Rick.

[McFarlane's Green Hulk]

Incredible Hulk #461
“Self Destruction”
Cover Date: February 1998
Sale Date: December 17th, 1997
Writer: Peter David
Artist: David Brewer
Inker: Andrew Pepy
Letterer: John Workman
Colorist: Igor Kordey/Digital Chameleon
Editor: Bobbie Chase
Guest Stars/Supporting Cast: General Ross, Col. St. Lawerence, Betty Banner, Rick and Marlo Jones.
Villain: The Destroyer
Synopsis: The disheveled animated corpse of the Maestro is stumbling across the New Mexico desert. Although he stole enough gamma energy to restore his body, it’s still far too weak to do anything significant. Randomly, a pack of Asgardian trolls appear and take the body to an underground hideout. Elsewhere, we see General “Thunderbolt” Ross and Col. St. Lawerence surrounding a small café in Flagpole, Arizona. Inside, we find Bruce Banner eating a meal all by himself. Apparently, the waitress recognized him and panicked, which in turn, caused the military deployment. Ross and Banner exchange words and things look to become extremely tense when the Destroyer and a horde of trolls suddenly burst from beneath the streets. Its actions cause Banner to transform into the Hulk, and for a brief moment, he recognizes the inhabitant inside the armor. The two battle across the small townand we get a small cut scene to Cairo, where we see Betty, Marlo and Rick still in the hospital. Rick isn’t fully aware of his situation and is unable to recall the events. Back in Arizona, the battle between the Hulk and Destroyer comes full circle, as we discover it’s the Maestro who has taken control of the Destoryer. Inexplicably, the Hulk’s spirit is yanked from his body and the two souls battle over control of the armor. It’s the Hulk who gains the upper hand and forces the Maestro out, ending the battle and killing the trolls and burying the Maestro’s recovering corpse. Some time later, we Ross and St. Lawerence, along with a horde of soldiers surrounding Banner. She threatens Banner should he make a move to become the Hulk again. Surprisingly, it is Ross who ends the hostilities and offers Banner a cigar as a truce.
Commentary: Getting used to Brewer was easier with this issue. There are some panels where he’s channeling Kubert. Weird to see Igor Kordey as the colorist, I associate him with X-Treme X-Men after Salvador Larroca left the book (and I did too…woof!) The Hulk’s demeanor seems off. He seemed clouded and stilted after the initial transformation, and damn, the size comparison between him and the Destroyer…

[The Cool Thatguy]

Did that exact Maestro ever show back up again?

[McFarlane's Green Hulk]

Did that exact Maestro ever show back up again?

Nope.
This page makes it sound like the Destroyer, the trolls and the Maestro's body are smushed in an avalanche, never to be seen again.




BUT...back in issue #451, the Hulk literally crushed the Maestro's skull at the gamma bomb site, soooooo....who knows.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Yeah, long before Ewing, Hulk was hard to kill and keep down, lol

So there could be 3 freakin' Maestro's out there.

The one from Contest of Champions/Secret War, this one and the one from Old Man Logan.

[GreenScar1990]

HULK #14 Preview

https://aiptcomics.com/2023/04/21/ma...eview-hulk-14/

[FrazettaHulk]

Nope.
This page makes it sound like the Destroyer, the trolls and the Maestro's body are smushed in an avalanche, never to be seen again.




BUT...back in issue #451, the Hulk literally crushed the Maestro's skull at the gamma bomb site, soooooo....who knows.

My theory is PAD was told he would be off the book after Betty’s death after he wrote issue 460. Theres just no way he would have gone thru the effort of bringing back his best villain, only to be done away with in the next issue as a a spirit controlling The Destroyer armor. Issue 475 might have even been too soon to wrap him up. If told right maybe issue 500 would have been the perfect end point of his and PAD’s run.

[McFarlane's Green Hulk]

My theory is PAD was told he would be off the book after Betty’s death after he wrote issue 460. Theres just no way he would have gone thru the effort of bringing back his best villain, only to be done away with in the next issue as a a spirit controlling The Destroyer armor. Issue 475 might have even been too soon to wrap him up. If told right maybe issue 500 would have been the perfect end point of his and PAD’s run.

Sound like it. I always forget to take out the lead time on comic creating over the actual publishing date.

But like he said in this article 10 years ago...

https://ew.com/article/2013/01/10/pe...credible-hulk/

I actually didn’t know I was going to be leaving The Incredible Hulk when I did go. What happened was that my editor at the time, Bobbie Chase (also now at DC, go figure) had suggested — when we were kicking around future plot directions — that I kill off the Hulk’s wife, Betty Banner. Betty had always been my wife’s favorite character and because of that I’d always sworn nothing bad would happen to her. But then my wife left me so that she could go off and do other things like, I dunno, not be married to me. On that basis, Betty’s safety measure was gone. When Bobbie suggested we plug her, I said, “Sure, why not?” So I killed her off. This got Marvel all excited. See, when I’d started on the book and, over years, doubled sales on it, it caused people to suddenly start paying attention. With the death of Betty, this prompted Marvel to have a Brilliant Idea. Mourning the loss of his wife, the Hulk would now go dead silent, stop talking to anyone, and run around the Marvel universe smashing everything in sight.

When I was told the new plan, I objected. I told them it was out of character with the psychologically complex giant I’d created over the years. I said I wouldn’t write that. And the editorial higher-ups (none of whom still work for the company) said that I shouldn’t hesitate to avoid having the door hit me on the way out.

[Cth]

HULK #14 Preview

https://aiptcomics.com/2023/04/21/ma...eview-hulk-14/

Interesting..

spoilers:

So, the Green Door appears again. Also worth noting Titan's appearance on the mental plane vs reality. In reality he resembles D'Spayre with the lack of nose. I guess this explains all those early depictions of Titan not being consistent. Last month I said maybe it's the Dweller in the Darkness, hoping that's the case here.

end of spoilers

[PlatinumThorns]

HULK #14 Preview

https://aiptcomics.com/2023/04/21/ma...eview-hulk-14/

Hmmm... So someone from the Green Door (potentially TOBA?) gave D'spayre a small piece of it's power which grew to become Titan? I guess that would be an interesting twist. My problem comes from the fact that it seems like he was "infecting" Banner's mind for some time, so why didn't anyone notice it during Banner's mindscape turmoil in the Immortal hulk saga?

[Intothevoid]

Hmmm... So someone from the Green Door (potentially TOBA?) gave D'spayre a small piece of it's power which grew to become Titan? I guess that would be an interesting twist. My problem comes from the fact that it seems like he was "infecting" Banner's mind for some time, so why didn't anyone notice it during Banner's mindscape turmoil in the Immortal hulk saga?

I would assume it's TOBA... considering how D'Spayre describes him as a being with more power than anything he encountered before, even just a spec of that power was enough to overwhelm him. So more than likely it was TOBA.

Obviously this is something that Cates or Ottley came up with the spot, even if they retcon it to be something that was happening during Immortal Hulk, there was no way Ewing could predict what a future writer could write, so that he would retroactively account for it. Either way it doesn't matter, one more issue to go and we probably will never hear of Titan again, let alone find out who it was that really spawned him.

[The Cool Thatguy]

I would assume it's TOBA... considering how D'Spayre describes him as a being with more power than anything he encountered before, even just a spec of that power was enough to overwhelm him. So more than likely it was TOBA.

Obviously this is something that Cates or Ottley came up with the spot, even if they retcon it to be something that was happening during Immortal Hulk, there was no way Ewing could predict what a future writer could write, so that he would retroactively account for it. Either way it doesn't matter, one more issue to go and we probably will never hear of Titan again, let alone find out who it was that really spawned him.

Thus the problem with great ideas in shared canon, someone is always gonna come along and fumble the ball.

[Vordan]

I noticed that too, a lot of female monsters all of a sudden. The Mother of Horror, now this Eldest character, also the supporting character seems to be some girl as well. Not complaining really, Hulk definitely could use more females to his rogue gallery.

This Charlie chick is dying by the end of the series though, for sure.

Agreed. And some new foes who aren’t gamma powered sounds cool also.

She’ll either die or somehow become the new force keeping Mother imprisoned.