The Incredible Hulk Returns (1988)

The first glimpse of the Hulk since 1982, the The Incredible Hulk Returns was a big deal back in the day. It may be viewed as an oddity today, but at the time it was the start of something new, a Marvel Universe explosion on TV screens across the world. The plan was to use the celebrity of the Hulk as a way to develop a back door pilot for several properties, starting with the Mighty Thor. I can remember Stan Lee’s diatribes in Marvel Comics editorials espousing the grandness of the coming TV franchises. Imagine my surprise when I sat down to watch a bizarre drama/action/comedy featuring a poodle-haired guy and his magical boisterous friend Thor.

It’s important to keep a sense of perspective on these things. Before the Incredible Hulk TV series, viewers were familiar with the campy Batman, the serialized Superman and not much else in the comic book manner. I strongly endorse the Spider-Man TV series but apparently I’m the only one so I’ll keep that quiet. My point is that no one knew quite what to do with a comic book superhero property on TV. For all of its success, the Incredible Hulk was essentially the Fugitive with a green giant deus ex machina in each week’s episode. It was a strange way to adapt the character from the page to the screen, but the Kenneth Johnson version worked and is still regarded as the litmus test for the Hulk. The 2008 film’s devotion to the TV series proves my point.

I purchased a complete set of the Hulk TV series about a year ago and have been moving through it at a snail’s pace. While the episodes vary greatly in quality, the pilot remains one of the most impressive American TV programs I have seen. I decided to skip ahead and revisit the late 80’s revival of the Hulk when Marvel had grand designs to unleash their stable of creations on the TV public.

The 1988 TV movie is intended as a kind of follow-up to the previous series. It opens with Banner on a beautiful beach front home with his girlfriend. Their relationship is good but strained due to Bruce’s insistence that they live apart and that she ask no question about his past. Banner is living under an assumed name working at a lab on a project that could mean the end of his alter ego, the Hulk. If he can find a way to use the machinery that he has devised for his employer properly, it will mean a new life for him and an end to his raging green persona. Enter Donald Blake, a former student of Banner’s from way back who apparently has a ‘troubled past,’ yet it is never explained what the trouble was. The guy is so white bread it’s absurd, so I’m thinking it’s either very very bad trouble or the shoplifting of a sweater.

Blake has a problem that is so important that it interrupts Banner’s experiment. On an expedition in Norway, Blake found the tomb of Thor and his hammer. Since then he has been the unwilling guardian of the god of thunder. Through the use of Thor’s hammer, Blake can call forth Thor, but the mad viking causes damage each time, leaving Blake to pick up the pieces. As such, Don Blake has lived on the road alone and confused until he figured out that Banner was working at a nearby institute. For some reason, Blake figures that Banner is his only hope to remove Thor from his charge completely. Knowing Banner will never believe him, Blake releases Thor who proceeds to destroy the lab while looking for a beer and draws the Hulk out of Banner for the first time in two years. The two fight, causing untold amount of damage and placing Banner’s project in jeopardy. Rather than moving on as he usually does, he stubbornly pushes Blake into helping him put everything right again to show him that responsibility is important.

Thor is rambunctious, unruly and looking for a fight, drink or woman no matter the situation. There is an interesting moment where he explains to Blake that when he is not called into being he lives in a strange netherworld of nothingness. Given that his previous life was full of rowdy fighting, drinking and sleeping around, his frustration is understandable. The irony of the situation is that Thor’s human familiar is such a schmuck, but the TV movie seems to miss that joke.

The remainder of the TV movie involves a sibling rivalry, hit men, the guy from Dollman and the most bizarre montage of Thor drinking and dancing that I have ever seen. Honestly, I find it hilarious that the intention of this film was to serve as a pilot for an ongoing Thor series. Donald Blake bears no semblance to his comic book equivalent and is more of a fey 80’s everyman who stumbles about ineptly most of the time. In contrast, Thor may have nothing to do with the comic book character but at least he’s entertaining after the initial disappointment fades.

Thor is a very sympathetic character and Blake is such a loser that you really feel the thunder god’s frustrations at being shackled to this guy. While the performance is hardly worthy of a spin-off series, Eric Allan Kramer’s Thor is certainly one of the high points of the program.

Even though it has been over six years since he has played the part, Bixby slides effortlessly back into David Bruce Banner, the neurotic traveling pilgrim looking to do good without releasing his inner demon. Bixby comes across as very emotional in this story, snapping at Blake and losing his cool all over the place. In Bixby’s performance there’s a kind of genuineness to his short tempered-ness that hits home for me. I’m not sure what the role meant to the actor, but there was definitely something personal there for him to come back to it. It also reinforces the fact that it is a difficult role to cast, so maybe it’s no surprise that we are on our third Banner in 5 years.

The TV movie has several ‘iconic’ moments such as the Hulk and Thor attempting to pull down a helicopter, running along a beach and fighting some hoodlums. Thor stops an American car with his hammer at one moment which was obviously aided by a ramp causing the vehicle to flip on its side, but I was impressed nonetheless. Even so, it all felt very vapid and empty, neither hitting the human mark that the TV series had nor reaching the blockbuster mark that a film featuring two superheroes should.

Even so, it didn’t stop a sequel being made that promised to develop another Marvel property for TV, Daredevil… but that’s for another time.

It’s funny watching these old TV movies how you can gain a kind of perspective for the recent attempts to transform Marvel Comics characters into big screen stars. We take the current movie monsters for granted, but there was a time when Lou Ferrigno painted green with a silly wig running in slow-motion was enough. I do think that the 2008 Incredible Hulk film blended enough of the TV elements and comic book concepts to make for an ideal final product and it’s a shame that the bean counters didn’t agree.

More likely than not, the next time we see Hulk will be in the Avengers film followed by a TV series rather than another feature film. But will it be a humanized take on the character or an awkward attempt to make a big budget film with TV dollars such as the 80’s Hulk movies?

Only time can tell.

Buy The Incredible Hulk Returns / The Trial of the Incredible Hulk at Amazon.com