The state of the Hulk
SolitaireRose
Posts: 1,445
I am reading the last few years of The Hulk, getting caught up and it's very clear to me that the series has lost its moorings. The comic doesn't READ like The Hulk and seems to have gone completely off the rails. My issues are:
1) Too Many Hulks! We have the Banner/Green Hulk, Red Hulk, Rick Jones Hulk, Son of Hulk, Red She Hulk, Green She-Hulk and for all I know one or two more, since I'm pretty far behind. The character isn't unique at all any more, and the entire supporting cast now has super-powers.
2) Bruce Banner is broken. In the last year, Banner has become a mad scientist who had a James Bond villain island in order to conduct crazy experiments, and it's implied that he has been like this all along. Sorry, I've been reading the Hulk for a long time, and there's NO indication of this before the new series. The best "everything you know is wrong" stories at least have SOME basis to hang their hat on. For Hulk, the PAD run built on what was already there, and moved forward with it. Banner was damaged, Hulk was a form of MPD, and as he moved toward being cured, Hulk changed. Much like when Byrne tried to wipe out 20 years of history in his short run, Aaron is trying to insert something that just doesn't fit.
3) The current history is too convoluted. Just try to explain the last 5 years of The Hulk to a new reader...and while I liked Planet Hulk and World War Hulk, after that it becomes a convoluted mess that just can't be explained easily. Even with all of the changes in, say, Spider-Man, the core of the character remains: Peter Parker is a hero because his inaction caused the death of his Uncle, and guilt drives him. For Hulk, it was always: Bruce Banner has a monster inside him that he struggles to control. Now, Hulk struggles to control Banner, I don't know WHAT Red Hulk's motivation is, and Rick Jones as a Hulk is...well, just a poor use of the character.
Things seem broken to me. Am I missing something? Do people like the new status quo and I'm just a grumpy old fan?
1) Too Many Hulks! We have the Banner/Green Hulk, Red Hulk, Rick Jones Hulk, Son of Hulk, Red She Hulk, Green She-Hulk and for all I know one or two more, since I'm pretty far behind. The character isn't unique at all any more, and the entire supporting cast now has super-powers.
2) Bruce Banner is broken. In the last year, Banner has become a mad scientist who had a James Bond villain island in order to conduct crazy experiments, and it's implied that he has been like this all along. Sorry, I've been reading the Hulk for a long time, and there's NO indication of this before the new series. The best "everything you know is wrong" stories at least have SOME basis to hang their hat on. For Hulk, the PAD run built on what was already there, and moved forward with it. Banner was damaged, Hulk was a form of MPD, and as he moved toward being cured, Hulk changed. Much like when Byrne tried to wipe out 20 years of history in his short run, Aaron is trying to insert something that just doesn't fit.
3) The current history is too convoluted. Just try to explain the last 5 years of The Hulk to a new reader...and while I liked Planet Hulk and World War Hulk, after that it becomes a convoluted mess that just can't be explained easily. Even with all of the changes in, say, Spider-Man, the core of the character remains: Peter Parker is a hero because his inaction caused the death of his Uncle, and guilt drives him. For Hulk, it was always: Bruce Banner has a monster inside him that he struggles to control. Now, Hulk struggles to control Banner, I don't know WHAT Red Hulk's motivation is, and Rick Jones as a Hulk is...well, just a poor use of the character.
Things seem broken to me. Am I missing something? Do people like the new status quo and I'm just a grumpy old fan?
Comments
Even though I enjoyed the Incredible Hulks, the Hulk himself was no longer anybody special.
The portrayal of Bruce as an evil mad scientist made absolutely no sense. I was hoping it was something that happened only as a result of how Bruce and Hulk got seperated and who did it, but you get nothing of the sort and instead are force fed that Bruce has been this way since day one.
The Hulk of late has been a ship off its course and it needs to be corrected. I was really hoping Jason Aaron would deliver a good Hulk run, but what he has put out there is not even close.
As far as Red Hulk and Red She-Hulk, what purpose is there in keeping the general and Betty this way? The transformation of these characters into Hulks is no longer neccesary and has oulived it usefulness. And yeah, Rick Jones as "A-Bomb" aka blue Hulk,...why? Somebody should have have gotten a boot to the head when that idea was pitched.
Things in the Hulkiverse are broken. I don't like the status quo. Hopefully Mark Waid will right the ship.
Definitely too many Hulks. I didn't even know Rick Jones was a Hulk now. Too many series. Too many supporting characters yanked away to launch their own series. I don't know what title to follow, and I don't care enough about all these second tier Hulks to want to read them every month.
It feels like a plot that's spiraled out of control. Maybe multiple Hulks was interesting in the main series, but to keep them around and launch book after book based on it? I just don't get it. The Hulk segment is currently the most baffling part of Marvel's Universe. I could probably jump aboard the X-books and follow them more easily than the Hulk line-up. Just to give the Red Hulk series a try for a couple issues required me to go to Wikipedia to understand what the hell was going on.
Sometimes they've done amazing things - like Future Imperfect, Mr. Fixit, Planet Hulk, WW Hulk, etc. - so I think they're entitled to a miss ever now and then. I'm willing to bet in another five years they'll have moved on to something else. Although I do hope they keep Lyra (the Savage She-Hulk) around...her team up with Jen (the original She-Hulk) was a really good story.
I dropped the Hulk from my pull list right after WWHulk. I was thinking of picking up a couple of trades to see how things have been going, but it doesn't look promising.
The idea of Betty as the Red She-Hulk makes me feel ill.
So that's, what, seven Hulks running around right now?
Maybe Hercules can come back and take over the comic again. :)
That said, though, and take this with the caveat that I do my Hulk reading via the Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited (and the all you can eat for $60/year price can really take the sting out of cover prices), but there has been a lot of Hulk on there, even during this crowded time, that I've enjoyed. Specifically in the period where Loeb/McGuinness (et all) were doing Red Hulk stories in Hulk, and Greg Pak was doing Banner Hulk stories in Incredible Hulk. Maybe it is because of how all that smashing looks on a big Mac screen, or maybe it is not having to pay four backs and wait a month between issues, but there was a lot there I liked. And I hope they put the Aaron/Silvestri/Dillon stuff up eventually. I also have really enjoyed Red Hulk in Avengers.
That said, with the amount of Hulks running around, and the various volumes and title changes, I can totally get the criticism that there was a lack of direction or clarity, and the brand of what a Hulk is was getting watered down.