When I first started working at Metro, I had this strange obession with Incredible Hulk back issues. Mostly, it was due to a good friend of mine turning me on to how utterly awesome the Peter David run was, but I think a lot of it had to do with the thrill of your first employee discount. Anyhow, I got a lot, and I mean A LOT, of David written Hulk issues and came to adore the relationship between Bruce Banner and his wife, Betty. It was interesting to see someone who wasn't super-powered at the side of a man who could quite possibly kill her at the wrong moment in time.? It was dangerous, but it was love and it was a new kind of story to the turn-of-the-millenium me.
If you ever get the trade of INCREDIBLE HULK BEAUTY & THE BEHEMOTH, you'll find an awesome little note at the end of the book by Mr. David who opens up about why Betty had to go. It was personal, it was reasonable, and I cried a little bit over the last issue long after the woman had left the book and the writer shortly after. I longed for her return, thinking of how General Ross still had her under stasis underground somewhere, giving the reader that little bit of 'Well, maybe down the line...'. After all, this is comics.
When Jenkins got ahold of the Hulk in later issues, it was like a second coming for me. The man has such a way with heart-driven stories it really makes you feel like the person on the page is someone you know and the story is something they're living through. (then again, 'Penance'... I guess they can't all be winners) Anyhow, his take on the Hulk was just a little stroke of genius for me and one of my favorite tales is, in fact, a deal with the Devil.
Devil Hulk, that is. IRONY! As Bruce Banner's body suffers from an incurable disease, that dark, dark part of him best kept locked away from the light of day, attempts to get out. Not by forcing his way through Banner's psyche, no... something far more insidious. Just for a moment, Bruce Banner is given the opportunity to live the life he's always wanted: Betty alive and healthy, two darling children, a supporting cast of family and friends, a chance to be brilliant and never threaten anyone again with the Hulk and all his ills, it's idyllic and soothes a torn heart. All he has to do to live this one moment for the rest of his life is to give the Devil Hulk control of Banner's body, allowing him to be the dominant personality while Bruce can live this fantasy in the back of his mind. Everything he's ever wanted, Bruce willingly denies himself so that the Devil Hulk remains locked away in his psyche; his kisses his wife goodbye, embraces his terrible nature, and wakes up with her name on his lips and tears in his eyes.
Oh, it's incredible. Simply incredible. I read the issues constantly and inflict them on co-workers when I can. This marked the second time I had to say goodbye to Betty Banner and I again found myself in tears, but with a stronger feeling of her passing. This was it, I thought. Bruce can't have his wife back because she's a part of his woes, the weight on his shoulders. It was because of his monstrous alter-ego (through the attentions of the Abomination) that she died; if he had been the little milksop and had no Hulk to speak of, she'd still be alive today. They might have had those two kids by now.
But Betty didn't choose that, she chose Bruce for better or worse. There were times she was in the arms of another man, times she was even a nun for Heaven's sake! But it always came back to Bruce, danger or no. Sorrow or no. For better and worse, sometimes at the same time. Because Bruce chose to accept that, because he denied the dark impulses of his deepest nature and kept on keepin' on despite the easy road being offered, he kept Betty's memory alive and I was cool with that. I was cool with her being gone as this was my second exposure to putting her to rest; this time, it really kicked in.
Then there was Bruce Jones.
And you know what? Those issues don't exist for me. I don't want to hear that Betty was revived, given plastic surgery and gamma powers and that all of the deep emotional impact that hit me hard because of two fantastic writers is lost to some dumb story that had little ties to what came before it. I could go on about how bad those stories were, how angry I got at Marvel for allowing Jones to run roughshod over these characters and how little of it made sense, but in the end that doesn't change a thing. The marriage has run its course, Betty Banner lives on through the characters and her death was not in vain. It's a little bit of the best kind of irony that Bruce Jones's Betty was placed on 'Nightmare Island' at the end of Peter David's last run at the book.
So does this relate to anything? I don't know, it's not for me to decide. All I know is that I miss Betty Banner... but on the other hand, I kind of don't. I think that's good writing.
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For Better or for Worse
When I first started working at Metro, I had this strange obession with Incredible Hulk back issues. Mostly, it was due to a good friend of mine turning me on to how utterly awesome the Peter David run was, but I think a lot of it had to do with the thrill of your first employee discount. Anyhow, I got a lot, and I mean A LOT, of David written Hulk issues and came to adore the relationship between Bruce Banner and his wife, Betty. It was interesting to see someone who wasn't super-powered at the side of a man who could quite possibly kill her at the wrong moment in time.? It was dangerous, but it was love and it was a new kind of story to the turn-of-the-millenium me.
If you ever get the trade of INCREDIBLE HULK BEAUTY & THE BEHEMOTH, you'll find an awesome little note at the end of the book by Mr. David who opens up about why Betty had to go. It was personal, it was reasonable, and I cried a little bit over the last issue long after the woman had left the book and the writer shortly after. I longed for her return, thinking of how General Ross still had her under stasis underground somewhere, giving the reader that little bit of 'Well, maybe down the line...'. After all, this is comics.
When Jenkins got ahold of the Hulk in later issues, it was like a second coming for me. The man has such a way with heart-driven stories it really makes you feel like the person on the page is someone you know and the story is something they're living through. (then again, 'Penance'... I guess they can't all be winners) Anyhow, his take on the Hulk was just a little stroke of genius for me and one of my favorite tales is, in fact, a deal with the Devil.
Devil Hulk, that is. IRONY! As Bruce Banner's body suffers from an incurable disease, that dark, dark part of him best kept locked away from the light of day, attempts to get out. Not by forcing his way through Banner's psyche, no... something far more insidious. Just for a moment, Bruce Banner is given the opportunity to live the life he's always wanted: Betty alive and healthy, two darling children, a supporting cast of family and friends, a chance to be brilliant and never threaten anyone again with the Hulk and all his ills, it's idyllic and soothes a torn heart. All he has to do to live this one moment for the rest of his life is to give the Devil Hulk control of Banner's body, allowing him to be the dominant personality while Bruce can live this fantasy in the back of his mind. Everything he's ever wanted, Bruce willingly denies himself so that the Devil Hulk remains locked away in his psyche; his kisses his wife goodbye, embraces his terrible nature, and wakes up with her name on his lips and tears in his eyes.
Oh, it's incredible. Simply incredible. I read the issues constantly and inflict them on co-workers when I can. This marked the second time I had to say goodbye to Betty Banner and I again found myself in tears, but with a stronger feeling of her passing. This was it, I thought. Bruce can't have his wife back because she's a part of his woes, the weight on his shoulders. It was because of his monstrous alter-ego (through the attentions of the Abomination) that she died; if he had been the little milksop and had no Hulk to speak of, she'd still be alive today. They might have had those two kids by now.
But Betty didn't choose that, she chose Bruce for better or worse. There were times she was in the arms of another man, times she was even a nun for Heaven's sake! But it always came back to Bruce, danger or no. Sorrow or no. For better and worse, sometimes at the same time. Because Bruce chose to accept that, because he denied the dark impulses of his deepest nature and kept on keepin' on despite the easy road being offered, he kept Betty's memory alive and I was cool with that. I was cool with her being gone as this was my second exposure to putting her to rest; this time, it really kicked in.
Then there was Bruce Jones.
And you know what? Those issues don't exist for me. I don't want to hear that Betty was revived, given plastic surgery and gamma powers and that all of the deep emotional impact that hit me hard because of two fantastic writers is lost to some dumb story that had little ties to what came before it. I could go on about how bad those stories were, how angry I got at Marvel for allowing Jones to run roughshod over these characters and how little of it made sense, but in the end that doesn't change a thing. The marriage has run its course, Betty Banner lives on through the characters and her death was not in vain. It's a little bit of the best kind of irony that Bruce Jones's Betty was placed on 'Nightmare Island' at the end of Peter David's last run at the book.
So does this relate to anything? I don't know, it's not for me to decide. All I know is that I miss Betty Banner... but on the other hand, I kind of don't. I think that's good writing.