Hulk Smash Reading List!

Old Green Jeans (as Stan Lee lovingly called him), has long been a well loved character. When I was a kid, I had these violent temper tantrums where I’d wreck my room in fits of loud gravely rage.

My brother would laugh and say ‘Jamie Smash’ under his breath… which did not help matters.

But it is this rage personified that makes the Hulk such an icon. Sure, the marketing guys try to make him into some kinda hero, but mt heart never soared when I saw the Hulk rescue someone in an issue of his series.

Nah, the bits that I always loved involved pure absurd violence.

In Incredible Hulk 77 (cover pictured left), the issue opens with the Hulk tearing a Great White Shark in half.

That is a Hulk comic.

Recently Marvel Comics decided to turn their entire comic universe into one giant storyline with Civil War. As if in answer to this, a few of the comic series decided to send their characters (Uncanny X-Men included) into space so they wouldn’t have to worry about their characters fitting into some editorial storyline.

In the case of the Hulk, he got shot into space after being tricked by a group recently introduced into Marvel History called the Illuminati (pictured right). As their name suggests, the Illuminati are a secret cabal of the higher tier Marvel characters who, under the leadership of Iron Man, steer the fate of their planet.

After an extremely awkward meeting, the group decides that the Hulk is a time bomb waiting to go off. To sidestep the problem, they must get him off the planet. The idea is that the Hulk will be transported to a barren world where he’ll somehow survive. No one will suffer from his actions, his rage will have no consequences.

Things don’t exactly go as planned and the rocket lands on a strange planet called Sakaar where the Hulk is not the mightiest of creatures. Through a stunning storyline spanning a full year of the comic book’s publication (collected in the superb ‘Incredible Hulk: Planet Hulk‘ hardcover book released last week), Hulk conquers all that stand in his way and finally finds peace on the planet in the arms of a loved one and a child.

Then the rocket explodes taking away all of his hope.

While the rest of the heroes on Earth are dealing with the fallout from their complicated Civil War, they have completely forgotten about old Jade Jaws.

Well… he’s back.

After a brief battle with the Inhumans on the Moon, the Hulk turns Manhattan into a war zone. Fan favorite artist John Romita Jr. delivers the work of his career (again!) as the Hulk smashes apart the Moon, withstands a direct nuclear assault, then battles with the largest suit if Iron Man armor I’ve ever seen… only to come out even angrier and therefore stronger than he already was.

I obviously put a lot of importance on the Hulk’s rage as his power.

We all have awkward moments in life where we are enraged or frustrated by someone or something that is either bigger than us or just too difficult to deal with in any real way. With the Hulk… that’s not a problem. Hulk pretty much hates everyone and if he has an issue with you, he smashes you. I really enjoy the fact that Hulk gets the opportunity to tell his side of the story of what was done to him in this issue before smashing the heroes of Manhattan because it’s just so absurd. This isn’t an argument, it’s a super strong mutant in a space ship manned by a motley crew of badasses getting ready to level a city in revenge.

We should all get that level of clarity and authority in at least one argument.

One final note that it’s weird to see Iron Man and the Hulk fight like this because they used to be so tight, y’know?

Go buy this comic… then wreck your room.

For a fun review, check out today’s PulpSecret video.

Shazam?

Rumor at Comicbookresources.com’s Lying in the Gutters column is that Mike Kunkel (animator and creator of Herobear & the Kid) is working on a new Shazam project for DC Comics.

 

This would be good of only because Mike’s style is full of life and character, something that Shazam needs as a comic book series. The artist himself is very tight-lipped about the possibility that he actually is working on Shazam and will only offer ’slivers’ of clues on his blog, Astonish Factory.

Kunkel does offer one bit of encouragement, though.

“it’s not a new Herobear. . . yet. howeverrrrr, i am working on a brand new graphic novel now of Herobear and the Kid. so look for more of that coming in the near future.
“it’s not Spidey. nope, no webslingin’ storytellin’ from here yet. maybe someday the right situation will arise.
“no, this is something else. something equally as cool and fun. same as spidey, it’s something i’ve wanted to work on since i was a little kid.”

Until someone decides to spill the beans, we’ll have to keep wondering.

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