So after watching The Avengers, I decided to pick up a few Hulk titles. I’m about halfway through Marvel Essentials: Hulk Volume One which contains the first several issues in the series’ history. I read Planet Hulk, which was an extraordinary work of art, and I started the Marvel Visionaries collection which follows Peter David’s run as a writer.
The thing is, not a single one of the comics I have read so far portray Bruce Banner’s trigger as getting angry. He’s usually messing around with gamma rays or for some reason the sunset triggers his transformation. What gives? Where did the portrayal of Angry Hulk come from?
Also, the Hulk is kind of an asshole so far, and not a very nuanced character. It’s only the second series I’ve started, and it’s very different from all the X-Men titles I’ve read. I don’t really know how I feel. (Except Planet Hulk. Planet Hulk is one of the best anything ever.)
So if you could kindly reccomend some Hulk comics that you think are amazing, I would appreciate it. Bonus if they are in trade paperback format because single issues of anything are freakin’ expensive.
And also, help me understand The Hulk. What’s his deal?
I’m not any expert or anything, but I do remember that in the first couple of issues he was pretty dark grey instead of green and it was sunset that triggered the change to Hulk. He also was usually almost as smart and the same personality as Bruce Banner. I think I recall, the change to green was a publishing decision, it was easier to print than the grey. Also, Rick Jones soon became his ‘sidekick’ and they had a gamma-ray emitter that would change Bruce into Hulk ‘on demand’. Of course, eventually the puny human soldiers started hounding Hulk and things went downhill from there.
The grey was only in the first issue, and it was changed because the color process available couldn’t get the grey color consistent. From looking at the earliest issues it looks to me like Stan tinkered with the character for awhile before settling on anger as the catalyst.
It’s been some time since I read it, but my recollection is that anger becomes more prominent as the trigger by the time you finish that valume (which I loved, BTW, although it’s the Tales of Suspense stuff that really gets it going. The Hulk solo series was only so-so.)
But I expect the angry thing got codified by the TV show. Whether that was something the TV producers directly adapted from the comics of the time or whether they made it a more consistent trigger than it had been in the comics so they could slot it into their highly formulaic show, I couldn’t tell you for sure.
Peter David’s Hulk is the best the character has ever been written (although I like Planet Hulk a lot, so good pick there). A lot of the time, the Hulk’s solo series is, frankly, boring. It’s often more fun when he shows up in somebody else’s title.
To that end, Hulk vs. The Marvel Universe is a really fun collection. It includes some great comics, like a Jack Kirby-drawn Hulk vs. Thing fight, and the awesome Hulk vs. the Avengers fight from Hulk #300. Doesn’t look like it’s in print anymore, but it’s cheap used.
Hulk: The End and Hulk: Future Imperfect are both really cool future dystopia Hulk stories by Peter David. Both have fantastic art. They were collected in this edition, which also appears to be out of print but available.
My favorite period of the David Hulk stories starts with Visionaries vol. 8. The early 90’s was a really good period for the Hulk, and the X-Factor (which David was also writing at the time) crossover is excellent.
If you liked Planet Hulk, you may like World War Hulk if you haven’t already read it. It’s the Hulk’s return to earth. I thought it was a really fun comic with some neat tie-ins. I like World War Hulk: X-Men a lot, which was just three issues of the Hulk fighting every X-Man they could throw in a comic.
If you feel like watching some cartoons, I really liked the Hulk vs. Wolverine segment from the recent Hulk Vs. DVD, the Planet Hulk cartoon adaption is decent, and the current Avengers cartoon portrays the Hulk really well.
I should also add, if you’re willing to read about any additional Hulks, there was a ridiculously awesome She-Hulk comic a handful of years ago, and the Red Hulk currently starts in a really excellent ongoing series.
You’d also want to read The Ultimates (the Utlimate universe’s version of the Avengers) before that, since a lot of it is referenced in Wolverine v. Hulk. Fantastic series, both of them. I think The Ultimates had a Vol. 1 TPB that covers the first arc.
Um… was that ever actually finished? It was delayed for years.
As much as hate the worn-out plot of Banner and Hulk getting separated AND Banner being an asshole (see- The Ulimates)–Jason Aaron is doing something novel currently in the books… Banner and Hulk were spearated…AGAIN.. and then Banner was a crazy mad scientist making gamma creatures and basically being Dr. Moreau. Well Banner’s killed and is buried…and Hulk goes about basically enjoying life. He’s happy…and then suddenly he reverts back to mad scientist puny Banner. See, now the Hulk has STAY ANGRY (the name of the arc) or the villainous Banner will get out.
My thing with Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk is that it isn’t really a story on its own. It’s a bridge between stuff that happens in Ultimates, and it doesn’t have an ending so much as it just stops. It does have very nice art, though.
Do you recommend the current Hulk series, Push You Down? I gave it a couple issues and couldn’t get into it, but I’m normally a huge Jason Aaron fan.
I don’t know if the OP (or anyone else) buys digital comics, but Comixology is having a Hulk sale this weekend. Among the issues offered for $.99 are the planet Hulk issues, a good stand-alone Peter David story (that happened about a decade after he ended his long run), and the issues of Hulk that tie into World War Hulk (although for some reason the World War Hulk series itself isn’t included).
My favorite eras were the Peter David/Todd McFarlane run and the Pantheon era by David and Dale Keown and… who was the other main artist of that run… crap, can’t think of his name… anyway, I thought that was a great era, shame after it ended the Pantheon basically just vanished from the Marvel universe.
My least favorite era was definitely Bruce Jones’ run as writer. Though fortunately it later got retconned into a dream caused by Nightmare in an issue written by David when he briefly returned. Some of the stories of that era were near incomprehensible, and often contradicted stuff going on with characters near simultaneously in other titles. The art, by Mike Deodato, wasn’t bad, but did suffer from the dark muddy coloring that had come into favor by that time.
EDIT: looked it up, Gary Frank was the other artist of the Pantheon era. I knew Frank was in there somewhere but the only Frank I could come up with was Frank Quitely, who I knew wasn’t right, lol
My husband has Future Imperfect so I read that. World War Hulk is a great suggestion, as I am really curious what happens after his return to earth. I hope he lays the smack down on that asshole Reed Richards.
As for She-Hulk, I started reading that ridiculously awesome collection you mention and I think it’s hilarious. So far she’s not doing a lot of smashing, but there is some delicious satire.
