PopHorror Let's Get Scared
“Don’t make me angry….you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.” The iconic line from an iconic franchise such as THE INCREDIBLE HULK brings up good memories for sure. Whether its the original Marvel comics, the 1977 television series starring Lou Ferrigno and Bill Bixby, the 2003 Hulk movie, or the topic of today’s editorial (the 2008 film), fans are going to smile at Hulk content no matter what generation or era. In 2008, it was time to form the MCU and one of the founding fathers was the big guy himself.
Let’s go back to the beginning: Stan Lee at Marvel Comics coming up with a new character. Genius scientist Dr. Bruce Banner is exposed to gamma radiation while saving someone’s life. Whenever he’s under emotional stress, anger, or pain Bruce transforms into The Hulk. A juggernaut wrecking machine that unleashes his rage on anyone and anything around him.
In May of 1962, Lee along with artists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko went to work on this new character. The crowd went……mild. The new comic was a flop and ended after just six issues. Stan had faith in the character and continued to use him in Tales To Astonish. Finally, in 1968, Lee retitled Tales To Astonish to The Incredible Hulk Volume 2. The character and comic have been a Marvel staple ever since.
In 1977, Hollywood finally made a television series about the Hulk and did it in a great way. Veteran actor Bill Bixby (My Favorite Martian – 1963) was brought in to play Dr. David (changed from Bruce) Banner while the makeup department had a field day to put together the makeup for bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno (Frogtown 2 1992) who played The Hulk. The show centered around nosy reporter Jack McGee (Jack Colvin – Child’s Play 1988) chasing Banner from town to town. Banner would get into some kind of mayhem and turn into The Hulk to clean house of any ruffians, thugs, or ne’er-do-wells guest starring. The show was a smashing success that ran for 5 seasons and three feature-length movies, one of them starring his Avengers buddy, Thor.
In 2003 there was a standalone film called simply Hulk starring Eric Bana (Black Hawk Down 2001) as Banner with Sam Elliott (Tombstone 1993) as General Ross, featuring Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind 2001) as Banner’s love interest Betty Ross. What would factor into this story later is that Edward Norton (American History X 1998) was interested in playing Banner, but thought the script was weak. The movie ended up grossing $132 million so even if it’s considered “meh” by critics, Hulk still did well. Five years later, a sequel to Hulk was in the works, but this time Edward Norton himself said “Woah woah woah, let me go over the script.” What we know as THE INCREDIBLE HULK was born.
This time it would be Norton as Banner with a CGI Hulk. Liv Tyler (That Thing You Do 1995) would play Betty Ross with the late William Hurt (The Accidental Tourist 1988) as General Ross. Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs 1992) would play Emil Blonsky aka Abomination, a long-time Hulk comic book villain. Norton’s influence over writer Zak Penn (The Avengers 2012) was to make it a pseudo-sequel to Hulk with the origin story kept to brief flashbacks.
The plot is Banner is hiding out in South America working on the line of a soda production facility while trying to find a cure for his radiation poisoning through a contact named Mr. Blue. One day Banner cuts himself and his blood drops into one of the bottles which causes an old man (Stan Lee himself) to have a gamma radiation episode. This alerts General Ross who enlists the help of Blonsky and Major Sparr (Christina Cabot – Fight Club 1999) to find Banner.
They do, but a group of hoodlums that also work at the plant enrage Banner just as the strike time descends upon him. Banner turns into The Hulk, smashes everything in sight, and escapes. Back in the USA, his ex-lover Betty has moved on but Bruce comes home to enlist her help to find Mr. Blue. Blue turns out to be none other than Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson – Heavyweights 1995). Comic fans may recognize Samuel Stearns as The Leader.
While this is going on, Blonsky wants a piece of Hulk, so General Ross gives him his own exposure to gamma radiation. Thus…..Abomination is born. Will Banner be able to find a cure or will Thunderbolt Ross and Abomination get to him first? Watch the movie to find out.
The Incredible Hulk grossed $264 million dollars. That sounds great, but compared to what came out after, it’s officially the worst-grossing MCU movie to date.
Spoilers Alert: At the end of the movie during the post-credits scene, a downtrodden General Ross is visited by none other than Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr – Iron Man 2008). Stark says he’s putting a team together. In May 2010, Iron Man 2 was released. The post-credit scene revealed the next movie was going to be about The Mighty Thor. The post-credit scene from Thor revealed Captain America was next. This all led to the first Avengers movie in 2012 which would be the most epic movie of the time.
The only problem is by the time that rolled around, Edward Norton would not be a part of it. Apparently, Norton wasn’t too happy with the final edit of The Incredible Hulk so he passed on reprising his role. For the last 11 years, Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight – 2015) has been The Hulk as we know him today.
As for The Incredible Hulk itself, it was pretty good. Norton got into the role while Tyler, Hurt, and Roth definitely turned in good performances. Lou Ferrigno makes almost the same cameo in this one as he did in the 2003 Hulk movie. The scenes in South America get pretty funny as is the cab scene. You’ll know when you see it.
When you get a chance, go see the second movie of the Infinity Saga, The Incredible Hulk. It’s currently streaming on Disney Plus and is also available on DVD and Blu-ray.
