Hulk Vs.

I've been meaning to write this review for awhile now.

So I saw Hulk Vs. about a month ago, it was interesting. It's kind of hard to review because there were two separate stories and each one had it's own look/problems/successes.

I guess I'll start off with Hulk Vs. Thor, which is the first one I watched. This one took awhile to get started, and to be honest, I was kind of bored for most of the movie. There are a couple of good action sequences, but then it's broken up into exposition pieces and it just gets tedious. I liked the use of the spells and magic, especially how they were expressed on the screen.

Hulk Vs. Wolverine was next, and I would say this was the better movie, but it's not by a very wide margin. It's better, it's just not head-and-shoulders above the Thor movie. It's a little more interesting because it goes into more of Wolverine's past and it kind of changes the Weapon X history (as every media version that Marvel puts out tends to do). I thought it had better guest appearances, as I am a fan of Deadpool and to a lesser extent, Sabertooth. I could have done without Omega Red, but he's pretty much a standard enemy for Wolvie now, so I understand why they put him in there.

As far as the main character goes, I like how he was portrayed in the Wolverine story a lot more; he looks a lot more like the classic Hulk than in the Thor story. They took a bunch of liberties (at least I thought) with the character design in the Thor story, and I just thought he looked better in the Wolverine story.

I rented the Blu Ray version, and, I've gotta say, the quality was pretty impressive. The animation is great, but I'm kind of glad I didn't buy it; I think one viewing was enough. Overall I thought it was pretty good, and I hope Marvel keeps developing and releasing these animated movies, they're pretty fun.

Hulk Vs. Update 12/10/08

Marvel released a new trailer for the Hulk Vs. DVD and it's pretty impressive. Sabretooth, Deadpool and Omega Red make appearances.

The Wolverine part looks like it has a pretty decent story to it, whereas the Thor part looks like it's going to be 45 minutes of the Hulk and Thor kicking the crap out of each other. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, but I am drawn to the Wolverine story more and more each time they reveal more of the story.

I highly suggest viewing the trailer, it's starting to look very promising.

Hulk vs. Wolverine Update 7/29/08.

Another Hulk vs. Wolverine update. Some pretty interesting stuff, especially the part where they say that the Hulk will show up in the Wolverine & the X-Men series. I also like that they've inserted Deadpool, Sabretooth and Omega Red into the story. Can't wait to buy it when it comes out.

Hulk vs. Wolverine.

Check out this article over at Marvel.com. They partnered with Lionsgate to release some Direct-To-DVD/Blue-Ray animated movies. They're starting off with "Hulk Vs.", which will be available in January of 2009. The first half of the DVD is 45-minutes of Hulk vs. Thor, with the second half as Hulk vs. Wolverine clocking in at 33-minutes. Pretty awesome. I have a reprint of the Hulk #180-181 and I can't wait to see it on DVD. There's a trailer on that page and it's pretty awesome. With this and the two animated TV series (Iron Man and Wolverine & the X-Men) I really think that Marvel is onto something here. I can't wait for that to hit stores. I am pretty stoked.

Incredible Hulk Review

Spoilers ahead!

I caught Incredible Hulk on Saturday and thought it was pretty good. I've never been that big of a Hulk fan whatsoever. I thought Ang Lee's version a few years ago was decent, but then again, I only saw it once. I was a little concerned about this new version since I heard Ed Norton was doing a bunch of re-writes on set.

Overall, it was a good movie. Not as strong as Iron Man but that may be because I'm not as well-versed in the Hulk character. This movie doesn't spend a lot of time going through the Hulk's origins - most of it is told in quick flashbacks, which I liked. I did like that the Hulk and Emil Bronsky aka The Abomination square off three times in the flick. It felt like it established a real rivalry between the two, rather than just "okay, this is where Spider-Man fights the villain and we end the movie."

The cameo at the end of the movie was kind of a waste, since it just reiterated the cameo at the end of Iron Man's credits. I'm still looking forward to how they tie together Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America and then The Avengers but I thought Tony Stark's cameo could have offered a little bit more.

All in all, a decent movie and Marvel continues on a strong roll.

The Incredible Hulk TV series.

I'm behind a little bit here, so there might be a couple of posts today. Marvel posted this a couple of days ago, but they ran an article about The Incredible Hulk TV series. I loved that show as a kid. Somehow, someway, I hope Shaq gets traded to the Clippers because he seems to volunteer for police work no matter where he goes. You can probably see where I'm going with this, because I wrote a couple of months ago about Lou Ferrigno becoming a Los Angeles Reserve Deputy Sheriff. Pair the two up together, and get some cameras to follow them around. Just give me a producing role. I could easily be a hollywood producer.

In other Hulk news, they're releasing out another video game, I think it's based on the movie. Looks pretty cool.

And speaking of retro-eighties-throwbacks, someone blogged about the Spider-Man video game for the Atari 2600. I remember that game, a friend of mine had it and like most Atari games, it never ended and it was hard as hell.

The Incredible Hulk #216, 1977.

Double-Sized 100th Issue!
Yes, this is our 100th post, and we kind of got away from one of the main reasons we started this blog, and that was: making fun of old comics. So here we go.

I present to you, Hulk #216. Written by Len Wein, with pencils by Sal Buscema & Ernie Chan. I bought a random run of comics off of eBay a couple of months ago and I did not expect to get this gem. It is truly a masterpiece. This issue prominently features the Bi-Beast as the Hulk's main foe. I am not kidding around, the main villain's name is the Bi-Beast. The reason he's called the Bi-Beast is because he's got two heads; one is in the normal location, and one is in his chest. So, yeah, there you go, Bi-Beast in the house. This issue also features the Hulk getting in a fight with a steel door. I am 100% serious. Don't believe me? Well, just hold on a second and we'll get to it, I promise.

So, you're probably asking yourself right now, what the hell is a Bi-Beast? Well, according to wikipedia, not only did he have two heads (one contains knowledge of warfare, the other knowledge of culture) but he was an android created many years ago by an Avian race that were in turn a sub-species of the Inhumans. Wow, that is one complicated answer. I just really wanted to know why Marvel actually called it the Bi-Beast. I have a hard time believing that even back in the '70s, Marvel had no clue that years later his name would sound like a bad S&M porn flick. I mean, come on, who doesn't do a double-take when they see that name? I guess Marvel just decided, "What the Hell, we're Marvel, we do what we want" and ran with it. The Bi-Beast was assumed drowned after this conflict with the Hulk, only to come back and get his ass kicked a few more times before developing an attraction to She-Hulk. Yes, you read that right, he wanted to hook up with She-Hulk. Wow. I mean, wow. Am I the only one that thinks this is insane? Also, the Bi-Beast has been horribly underused for that last 10-15 years. I'm just sayin'.

So, I know that was a long intro, and that we should probably get to the comic "review". This one is basically a stock Hulk story from the '70s where the Hulk and the villain of the month (in this case, the aforementioned Bi-Beast) fight and fight and fight and fight and smash and smash and smash; resulting in lots of collateral damage. This time, I think it takes place on a S.H.I.E.L.D heli-carrier for some reason, and I don't really remember why. Anyways, so the Hulk and the Bi-Beast fight, and eeventually the Bi-Beast gets away, so the Hulk follows him through the doorway he fled through. But the door closes on him and we get a narrative from the Hulk (check the scan off to the right for even more awesomeness): "If puny door thinks it has caught Hulk...door is wrong!"

Totally. Awesome.

That is some amazing writing right there. Didn't I tell you this one was gold? But wait, it gets better. So, inevitability, the Hulk gets frustrated and goes crazy and starts trashing the place. I know, big shocker, but that's pretty much the whole point of buying a Hulk comic; you want to see him beat the crap out of someone, or, at the very least, an inanimate object. Either one, I'm not very picky when it comes to Hulk smash scenes, just as long as he's destroying something. Anyways, the Bi-Beast then tries to burn Hulk with a flame-thrower and that's a pretty bad idea because, as it turns out, Hulk is stronger than fire! Bad move Bi-Beast, you just succeeded in making him even more angry than he already was. I think the Bi-Beast is a few clowns short of circus if you know what I mean. I'm just saying that for a super-intelligent android, he's actually pretty dumb.

At some point, I think they fall off the heli-carrier and it ends in a cliffhanger because the reader isn't sure if either of them survived the fall into the ocean. Hmmm, I wonder who survives; the guy who has his own book, or someone we've never heard of?

So, I've got my checklist right here; Hulk: stronger than a steel door; check. Hulk: stronger than fire; check. Hulk: stronger than the Bi-Beast; well, duh. Hulk: strongest one there is?; double-check.

And that pretty much sums up this awesome issue. Check it out if you get the chance, it's amazing.

Incredible Sheriff.

I was reading Make Mine Marvel this morning (which is an excellent blog by the way), and there was a link about Lou Ferrigno becoming a Los Angeles Reserve Deputy Sheriff. Crazy. I couldn't imagine getting pulled over by the Hulk. This is going to scare me into obeying all traffic laws (even though that's not where he's going to be utilized) because I don't want him to pull me over, then Hulk out and end up throwing my car with me in it all the way to San Bernardino after I smart off to him. Crash landing in the 909 without a way to get back home would not be a whole lot of fun.