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Jason Aaron’s Run on The Incredible Hulk – Vol. 1-2 (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Darren

To get ready for Iron Man 3, we’ll be taking a look at some Iron Man and Avengers stories, both modern and classic. We hope to do two or three a week throughout the month, so check back regularly for the latest update.

Of the major writers currently working at Marvel, Jason Aaron seems the best fit for the Hulk. Aaron has an undeniably charming pulpy style, an approach to mainstream superhero comics that has given the creator enjoyable and engaging runs on characters like Ghost Rider or Wolverine. As such, Aaron would seem to be the perfect fit for a character who likes to smash things. Aaron’s run isn’t perfect. It’s too scattershot to really offer an insight into the character, too short and all over the map to be a “definitive” take on the Hulk.

However, the run consists a fun and amusing set of comic book stories, where thoughtful high-concepts combine with absurd set pieces to create something the feels quite unique. While certainly not the strongest one there is, nor the best run for character or author, there’s a wit and a charming energy to Aaron’s run on The Incredible Hulk.

Green with envy…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Aaron, Banner, Baron Zemo, Betty, betty ross, bruce banner, hulk, incredible hulk, iron man, iron man 3, louis leterrier, Mad Thinker, marvel comics, Red Ghost, Tinkerer, World War Hulk | 5 Comments »

Greg Pak’s Run on The Incredible Hulk (With Jeff Parker) – Fall of the Hulks (Review)

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Darren

April (and a little bit of May) are “Avengers month” at the m0vie blog. In anticipation of Joss Whedon’s superhero epic, we’ll have a variety of articles and reviews published looking at various aspects of “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.” Today, I’m focusing on one in particular, the Incredible Hulk.

I have to confess, it’s quite difficult to find nice hardcover collections featuring The Incredible Hulk that you can recommend to non-comic-book fans. Given the character’s fairly massive impact on popular culture, you’d imagine that Marvel would produce any number of easily accessible collected editions featuring the not-so-jolly green giant. He has, after all, featured in two movies in the space of ten years, an iconic television show and a whole host of other media. Unfortunately, Fall of the Hulks is unlikely to be that collection, and is unlikely to prove accessible to new readers looking to pick up a book featuring The Incredible Hulk. While it undoubtedly has quite a few qualities to recommend it, it is certainly not for those unfamiliar with the character.

Men of action...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Advertising Banners and Exchanges, bruce banner, comic books, Fall of the Hulks, Greg Pak, hulk, IGN, Jason Aaron, Jeff Parker, jeph loeb, joss whedon, M.O.D.O.K.: Reign Delayed, Pak, Promotion, Red Hulk, the hulk, the incredible hulk, Todd McFarlane, Web Design and Development, Whilce Portacio | 1 Comment »

Carrying the Banner: Why Ed Norton Remains the Best Bruce Banner…

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Darren

I had the pleasure of seeing The Avengers last week. It’s a solid film, and Whedon does a great job tying it all together. What Whedon does especially well is presenting us with a live-action version of the Hulk that really works. Whedon’s green goliath is treated like an actual character rather than a special effect or a plot point, and it looks absolutely incredible, appropriately enough. However, I can’t help but feel like the movie still struggles with the Bruce Banner aspect of the character, and that Mark Ruffalo isn’t a convincing replacement for Ed Norton, who was as perfect a fit for the rage-managing monster as Robert Downey Jr. was for the redeemable Tony Stark.

Distilled Banner?

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: ang lee, Avenger, Banner, bruce banner, captain america, edward norton, hulk, incredible hulk, joss whedon, louis leterrier, mark ruffalo, Marvel Studios, robert downey jr, Ruffalo, Whedon | 29 Comments »

Planet Hulk (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on September 22, 2010 by Darren

This is the second in a series of comic book reviews that will look at the direction of Marvel’s “Avengers” franchise over the past five or so years, as they’ve been attempting to position the property at the heart of their fictional universe. With The Avengers planned for a cinematic release in 2012, I thought I’d bring myself up to speed by taking a look at Marvel’s tangled web of continuity. We’re taking a bit of a detour this week, but it’ll feed into Marvel’s event-driven central narrative fairly shortly. Get an overview of what I’m trying to take a look at here.

Finally. Hulk knows who to smash.

– Hulk, less than ten pages into the event

Planet Hulk is perhaps a prime example of the type of event-driven storytelling that has become increasingly common at Marvel in recent years. It isn’t really an event of itself, but there’s a strong smell of editorial mandate behind the plot. The key objective – and one conceded by the powers that be – was to isolate the Hulk character from the greater Marvel Universe during the Civil War event (which he would arguably have considerably complicated) and position him for the follow-up event World War Hulk. As such, exiling the Hulk to a foreign planet and watching him play out his own version of Gladiator isn’t exactly the most fluid storytelling direction. However, it’s to the credit of author Greg Pak that the story works as well as it does.

A smashing good time...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: bruce banner, Greg Pak, hulk, iron man, marvel, marvel universe, planet hulk, the incredible hulk, World War Hulk | 1 Comment »

Hulk: Grey (Review)

Posted on July 21, 2010 by Darren

So far the final book in Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s superhero “colour” series (although there was a planned Captain America: White and a rumoured Iron Man: Gold which never got off the ground), Hulk: Grey is perhaps the most fascinating of the three novels. Loeb would go on to writing the on-going Hulk series (to near universal damnation, it should be conceded), suggesting perhaps a closer tie between the author and the character here than in Daredevil: Yellow or Spider-Man: Blue. As opposed to those two novels which covered a relatively large portion of the central character’s life, the flashbacks which provide the core of this particular tale cover a single night – the first night. Perhaps befitting the nature of the Hulk, the narration isn’t provided in monologue here, as it was in the other two titles, instead offering a dialogue between Bruce Banner and Doctor Leonard Sampson, his psycho-therapist. It’s a lovely little story that perhaps isn’t as strong as Daredevil: Yellow, but is still a fascinating read.

It took the Hulk a while to figure out the whole "door" concept...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: bruce banner, comic book, gray, grey, hulk, hulk: gray, hulk: grey, jeph loeb, jeph loeb & tim sale, marvel, pop culture, the hulk, the incredible hulk, tim sale | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Hulk

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Darren

Ang Lee directing a superhero movie? He’s certainly a strange choice to handle the first big screen adaptation of Marvel’s iconic green monster to the big screen, but arguably a smart one. Hulk is at its best when it hints at the psychological melodrama playing out behind its lead character, but suffers greatly from the fact that it is apparently really uncertain about its source material or what it wants to be. It’s weird to see a movie so wonderfully risky in one sense, but so utterly bland in others. Hulk is an experiment, but sadly isn’t consistent enough to be a successful one.

"Hulk Splash!"

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: ang lee, ang lee's hulk, betty ross, bruce banner, comic books, eric bana, hulk, jennifer connelly, jennifer connolly, marvel, monster, nick nolte, non-review review, peter david, review, sam elliot, the hulk, the incredible hulk | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Incredible Hulk

Posted on May 27, 2009 by Darren

While waiting for the 24 finale last night, my brother and I checked out what we had on DVD. We caught The Incredible Hulk, one of the blockbusters that seems to have unfairly become lost in the mix last year. It didn’t fail as spectacularly as Speed Racer, nor did it soar as high as Iron Man or The Dark Knight. Not expecting much, we found ourselves quite enjoying it.