Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Planet Hulk

There are indications that, some time soon, The Incredible Hulk might not suck: Greg Pak discusses the upcoming “Planet Hulk” story arc at Newsarama

what the fuck you lookin' at?


Okay, so I know this doesn’t exactly look groundbreaking, and it certainly has its roots in old "Jarella’s World" stories (and, to a lesser extent, Bill Mantlo’s “Crossroads” arc), and "Planet Hulk" is kind of a dumb name, but he’s got a big fuckin’ axe and he’s cutting up that bug thing and there’s the thing with the armor and the weapons and DUDE he’s fighting monsters and shit.

It’s too soon to tell, but is it possible that we’ve got a Hulk writer who’s going to let the Hulk BE the Hulk? No more pseudo-spy thriller bullshit? No more contests about who can revamp the Hulk’s origin better than who? No more splintering the character’s psyche into a million pieces? Just big, monster-stompin’ action?

Not that there isn’t room for introspection in the story of the green goliath, but it’s just gotten so convoluted and stupid. I’ve failed to understand any of the praise most of the post-David Hulk stuff has received. Azzarello’s Banner did nothing but reveal that, in real life, the Hulk might hurt people (shocker). His incarnation in Ultimates didn’t do much more. Ennis’s Hulk Smash was a retarded, five second long soldier morality tale. Hulk: Gray was so bad it read like someone trying to impersonate Jeph Loeb. And, Bruce Jones, well. Good luck, DC. Christopher Priest’s one-shot was cool; there have been some fun guest/team appearances (mainly in Black Panther and Defenders); and Jenkins did some stuff that wasn’t horrible, most notably with the Incredible Hulk 2000 Annual and Sentry/Hulk one-shot, but for the most part the post-David Hulk stories have been occasionally mediocre and usually pure shee-ite.

I realize I’m basing this off very little, but it seems there’s just the faintest glimmer of hope that the Powers That Be at Marvel have realized the green guy is at his best when he’s handled more like a mythic hero than a Bixby/Ferrigno clone. This looks more like the days of Roy Thomas and Len Wein, and very soon it may become difficult for me to adhere to my wait-for-the-trade rule.

2 comments:

James Meeley said...

I completely agree. The Hulk really hasn't been allowed to be himself for some time. This latest issue, by Daniel Way, was pretty good, as if felt like the of 70's Hulk t.v. show, but we haven't seen "the true Hulk" for some time. I hope "Planet Hulk" gives that to us.

And if you are interested, stop by my blog and check out my post about trying to rally folks to get Marvel and Dark Horse to produce a Hulk vs. Godzilla crossover comic. If ANYTHING would give us "the real Hulk", that would be the one.

http://thecomicasylum.blogspot.com

Mick Martin said...

Thanks for the comment, and I definitely will stop by.