Comments on: Puny Banner, Puny Me

By: Clyde Ripsnort

Clyde Ripsnort — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 22:06:48 +0000

The only reason people look forwards to WWHulk is hoping that he’ll rip the new Dicky Cheney/Tony Stark character a new hole.

By: admin

admin — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 05:38:59 +0000

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.

By: Michael Rawdon

Michael Rawdon — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 05:10:55 +0000

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.