Welp, I finally saw him. Since March of last year, Bruce Banner has been missing from his own book as much as the Hulk’s been missing from the Marvel Universe. The last time he was on panel at all was during the mission that SHIELD devised to trick him into space. When the creature he was supposed to be fighting towered above his human form, it told him it wasn’t human. Bruce Banner replied, “That makes two of us.” and transformed into the Hulk.
What a weird set of last words. After all, it’s Banner’s humanity that makes the Hulk in the first place. He’s not mindless, he’s an extension of human emotion to a dangerous point, blurring the line between man and monster. It’s that conflict that makes us tune in… or at least why I do.
Anyways, Bruce became the Hulk and he fought, he won, but his boss didn’t like him so he shot him into space. And all throughout Planet Hulk, I’d been waiting for the anger of rejection, the anger of being lied to by people you once trusted, the anger of having to listen to people leave you this terrible message explaining your own doom because ‘it’s for your own good’ . I wanted some serious smashing, and instead, I got Gladiators in Space, Tyrant Revolution and now Ruling a Planet. He tried to be apathetic about it, but has gotten more mired into this new word he’s been exiled to than I expected.
In this latest issue, he shows up as he willingly gives his own strength to the Spikes, some Borg-y like misunderstood villains that he’s choosing to help. The strength drained from him, he hides under a blanket so people don’t know that the ‘Hulku’ (what, they can say ‘Miek’ but not Hulk?) has a secret weaker form. When he marries Mara Jade the former bodyguard of the Emperor, the Hulk reveals his Banner side to prove there are no secrets between them. She embraces this puny form, and the Hulk shifts back.
Their roles are reversed. For the first time, the Hulk when feeling vulnerable will change into Bruce Banner. Instead of the anger I wanted, Greg Pak had Bruce Banner simply give up and let the Hulk take over and run his life. Mind you, this is something along the ‘Professor Hulk’ persona, far from the childish ‘Savage Hulk’ and the bratty teen ‘Mr. Fixit’, a Hulk who’s angry but funnels that anger to forge a control of the world around him. Hulk’s bitter post college years where the job market wasn’t there, if you will.
Long ago, Peter David quit the Incredible Hulk because of the direction the editors wanted to go towards less a drama-fueled story and more of a Monster on the Loose formula with smashing and theatrics. Peter David quit the book shortly after, citing ‘creative differences’ and we got ‘HULK’ (or was it ‘Rampaging Hulk’?); we have a lot of these in the Quarter Bin. We had gotten so spoiled on Peter David’s tight knit supporting cast, his very drama fueled stories and quick humor, that what came before didn’t measure up.
From the New York Comic Con Panel on World War Hulk:
Where did the idea of Planet Hulk and World War Hulk come from?
Quesada: Alan Fine, of Toy Biz and Quesada had similar ideas, that is, that it was time to get the Hulk back to big, savage action since the character had gone through various eras that moved him away from that type of story.
Familiar and for what it’s worth, second time seems to be doing the charm. People are excited and happy to see the upcoming World War Hulk, not to mention the hit the Planet Hulk it right now. Maybe I should say more about this later…
3 Comments
Planet Hulk is a pretty good fantasy romp, but it’s not very deep, I agree. It would be more successful if it were plumbing the depths of the Hulk’s psyche: It gives lip service to the notion that the Hulk fears himself and hates and mistrusts everyone else, but for the most part it doesn’t really do much with those concepts. Instead it concentrates on how the Hulk’s aloof attitude affects the characters around him. As I said, this makes for a pretty good story, but it probably won’t end up being a memorable one.
I’m not specifically wedded to the idea of Banner’s struggles with his inner persona making the Hulk comic. Lee/Kirby did decent stories both revolving around Banner, and without much of him present. David’s series I think was at its most interesting when it concerned the gray Hulk and his dealing with his friends and enemies; the Professor Hulk - and particularly once the Pantheon got involved, I felt it got stale quickly.
I’ll be happy with World War Hulk mainly if the Hulk can kick Iron Man’s and Mark Millar’s asses around a few times as vengeance for Civil War.
If Planet Hulk was it’s own book without the Hulk label on the front, I’d read. I’d probably enjoy it more too. Heck, would have made a great Annihilation tie-in! But when the Hulk is involved, Peter David and Paul Jenkins have trained me to expect certain things, like… well, Bruce Banner having some problems.
I agree that PAD went a little wonky when it came to the Pantheon, as if he became too enamored of his new characters than trying to revolve more things around his central character. And in typing that, I think that might be one of my problems with Planet Hulk too. If you think about it, it doesn’t have to be the Hulk to make this story; he’s just as interchangable with any heavy hitter from the MU, like the Thing or such.
Oh, and how I would love for WWH to be nothing but the Hulk taking heroes to task for their War Atrocities, but … I have my doubts.
The only reason people look forwards to WWHulk is hoping that he’ll rip the new Dicky Cheney/Tony Stark character a new hole.