Recently in Hulk Category

Hulk: Raging Thunder features a really cool story by Jeff Parker, featuring my favorite Femizon, Thundra!  As you can see in the backup story, Thundra first appeared in Fantastic Four #133, coming from an alternate dimension (where women ruled the world) to challenge Ben Grimm in super-powered battle of the sexes.  In this new story, Thundra challenges the Hulk, but it's not what you expect at all!

Parker actually takes the silly events of the past Thundra stories and makes something a little deeper out of them!  Thundra is making trips into Marvel Earth and filming her battles against super-powered males to appease the United Sisterhood.  As Thundra's assistant says:  "These encounters boost morale all the way to the borderlands.  They do not need to know the real purpose."  Thundra's past encounters with the Thing, which developed into a friendship, were kept hidden from her subjects.  The videos taken with her recorder are edited into a propaganda type of film that makes Thundra look like the victor, no matter what transpires.

Thundra trades some good blows with the Hulk.  But it really is not a fight that Thundra can hope to win, she has an ulterior motive.  I can't spoil the ending (let us say it has something in common with Skaar), but I was genuinely surprised.  If you're a Thundra fan, pick up this book.  Jeff Parker rocks!  Nuff said.

Link: Jeff Parker Inteview on Wizard World about Thundra.

Link: Jeff Parker's website.

There's a nice pictorial walk down memory lane on Giant-Size Marvel Comics.  The three titanic Hulk and Thing team-ups produced by Jim Starlin and others!  Nuff said.

Link: Jim Starlin's Hulk and Thing, Funnier than Lewis and Martin!

I've been following the Twitter feed of ComicList (New Comic Book Releases web site).  I guess Twitter isn't as useless as I thought; I've been reading this website for years and never knew they had so much content.  ComicList posted this story about 50 Hulk #1 covers being created for Hero Initiative at Emerald City ComicCon.  I just love this Dale Keown cover.  Nuff said.

This here greatest moment never happened, cuz it was one of those imaginary stories.  In 1977, Marvel started publishing "What If?" a series devoted to imaginary tales, each one being complete in a single issue.  DC had done "imaginary" stories in their regular superhero titles for years, warning kids on the cover "Hey it's a Goldarned Imaginary Story!" to make sure they knew it wasn't in continuity.  Well, ol' Mighty Marvel figured, if we got a whole series of tall tales, no one will get confused.

What If #3 (What If The Avengers Had Never Been?) was published in 1977, story by Jim Shooter, art by Gil Kane and Klaus Janson.  I think this is one of Shooter's best Marvel stories, and it was enhanced by the Kane/Janson team.  I always loved Janson's inks on Kane's pencils, and this effort was amazin'.  The story takes place right after Avengers volume #2, where the Hulk said "I don't need to be a member of your little superhero club, adios!"  This moment struck fanboys in their chest just like acid-reflux after eatin' a bag of Doritos.  I loved the Hulk, I loved the idea of Hulk in a team.  I always wanted to see the Avengers with the Hulk and never got this again until The Ultimates.  That aside, what happened in Avengers #3?  The Avengers go after the Hulk, the Hulk teams up with Sub-Mariner and nearly wipes them out.  Only the Hulk changin' into his alter ego, Bruce Banner, brings an end to the team up.

In What If #3, the moment the Hulk leaves the Avengers, that's when Thor decides to throw in the towel and call it quits.  Giant-Man and Wasp leave Tony Stark alone, who still realizes that leavin' the Hulk alone ain't a smart idea.  Then Stark has a purty good idea, an idea so good they should have done it in the Initiative.  He creates the Iron Avengers.  Rick Jones, Henry Pym, and Janet Van Dyne, in different variations on the Iron Man armor.  Jones' armor can phase in/out of objects, Pym's armor is super-sized for his Giant-Man form, and Janet's armor is super-small, but with high-tech stingers.  But these guys are losers who can't even keep their own series goin'!  They give up on the armor when they find it is too difficult to control.

Tony Stark decides to take on the Sub-Mariner and Hulk all by his lonesome superhero self.  From here on in, it's all action in the mother of all superhero battles.  Iron Man supercharges his armor and deep fries the Hulk in the ocean.  That takes out ol' Greenskin, but the Sub-Mariner is in his element, and batters Iron Man to pieces.  The calvary arrives when the Iron Avengers decide that those supersuits ain't so bad after all.  They succeed in drivin' away the baddies, but only through Tony Stark's ultimate sacrifice at the end.  It just brings tears to this ol' cowboy's eyes everytime he reads it.  Nuff said.

The Incredible Hulk trailer has been released on Apple's Universal site, check out that HD trailer, pardners!  CBR has screen captures already--those boys don't waste time!   Even though the Hulk looks a mite unreal (as opposed to the real Hulks I see on the highway), the movie still looks good.  Here's what I'm thinkin':

Liv Tyler is real purty.

If I was a fugitive, would Liv Tyler kiss this cowboy?

There's a bedroom scene.  Oh Liv, that Thing You Do Do.

Gamma Radiation means no more Viagra?

If Liv Tyler spoke Elvish to the Hulk, would he turn back into Bruce Banner?

Will the Hulk speak in this movie?  I really want to hear "Hulk Smash!"

Nuff said.

I like that feller Jeph Loeb.  He knows how to write funny books.  Although he took his time his time gettin' the title character to make an appearance--ol' Greenskin finally shows up in issue #3 of his new book.  But it was worth it, because the Hulk talks like he used to.  "Hulk is Hulk!"  I'd like to go around talkin' like that.  "Dick is not Rick.  DIck is Dick! Dick is Not Dumb!"  Only one complaint about the new Hulk book: the story goes by too fast!  I can't wait for the fight next issue!  Nuff said.

There is no doubt that I am going to see the Iron Man and Hulk movies--heck, I'm sure I'll even buy the DVDs. Although I think if I skipped the movie theater and waited for the DVD in a few months, I'll have saved $10.

The problem is, there's no suspense or surprise with the Marvel movies. Iron Man's trailer gives the whole plot away. The only question in my mind is whether they will kill off Obidiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) by the end of the movie. Likewise, the Hulk movie pretty much lays everything out--I think old Greenskin will batter the Abomination and be somewhat redeemed as an anti-hero. But will the CGI Hulk look better than the previous one? In the trailer he looks pretty fake, a giant green smurf as Kenneth Johnson (CBS Hulk producer) said in a recent Fanboy Radio interview. They would have been better off getting another body builder and painting him green--that might have more heart and emotion. Iron Man can work slightly better because it some scenes it is a Stan Winston suit that Robert Downey or a stuntman is wearing.

I'm more excited about the new Will Smith movie, Hancock. This looks to be loads of fun and even somewhat more realistic. Superheroes flying drunk, smashing into freeway signs and tossing little girls up in the air? Entertainment Weekly suggests that Hancock will outperform both Marvel movies at the box office. Nuff said.