User blog:Nausiated/Project 11/61: HULK SMASH!

Another lengthy expanded profile has just finished it's first wave of completion. Since he guest starred in I decided to start an expanded profile for the Hulk. Like with other major characters I took the first 10 years of his continuity from May 1962 to December 1969. On top of that I dug up all the stories about his life Pre- (his first appearance) and all the flashback stories that have been told since. I think I've caught everything up to which revealed how Tony Stark was somewhat responsible for the gamma bomb being powerful enough to turn Banner into the Hulk. Here are some thoughts on the entire research and writing process:


 * Complicated Early Life: I think the Hulk's early life from childhood to adulthood is probably the most revisited era of any character except for maybe Spider-Man. There is a LOT of stuff out there. A lot of it focused on or rehashed Bill Mantlo's landmark story "Monster" in . However to  gives an interesting glimpse into the teenage years of Banner. Previously they painted him as a nerdy recluse who was a push over. These later Hulk stories, published in 2005, were likely inspired by various real life school shootings that were perpetuated by supposed loners and outcasts. It was a popular story telling trope at the time since it was topical. Of course the most difficult thing to try and convey in the write up is all the psychological explanations, which if I couldn't find a way to convey them in the narrative I wrote, they're noted in the citations. I'm sure that I'm going to have to go back to the psychology of it all many times since those are usually text narratives, usually write ups by Doc Samson. But hey if you want to good look at one of Samson's write ups about Banner check out one of the back-up stories in  (published in 1992, I bet you could probably find it in a $1 bin at your local comic book shop, since like most comics from the 90s its hardly worth the paper its printed on)


 * Time Travel: Another wonderful trope of course was "going back to the past" I found two instances where the gamma bomb explosion was visited by time travel. First at the end of the the Maestro was sent back in time to the moment the gamma bomb went off, and was atomized. This later went on to explain how the Hulk was able to locate his place of birth. This also worked into a means of resurrecting Maestro later in  (because you know, they do that). The other time will be a little more recent for you guys, it happened in the Agent of T.I.M.E. story arc in Indestructible Hulk Vol 1, which concluded in  and . It used a lot of wonky time travel, that is somewhat confusing thanks to the outcome of Age of Ultron. But hey, it's relevant, so its there and explained to the best of my ability.


 * Joining the Avengers: In 2010, likely to hype up Marvel's various Avengers related movies, they went and retold the origin of the Avengers. Instead of merely reprinting they retold the whole story expanding a single issue tale into a five issue limited series in Avengers: The Origin Vol 1. Having read it, it's actually pretty good. I recommend it. It tells the same story, but modernizes it -- and for all you purists out there, YES, it does need to be modernized -- the story is basically the same as I said, but with some minor changes, such as the Teen Brigade getting a technology upgrade. For those of you who remember Avengers #1, the Teen Brigade (who were actually first introduced in  were originally depicted as a bunch of ham radio enthusiasts. While that might have been "with the times" for 1963, try selling that idea to a 21 century audience. One other major change was where the final battle between the Avengers and Loki took place. In the original story it took place at an automobile manufacturing plant in Detroit. In new telling it states that they fought at a military R&D facility in Colorado. Since the story mostly takes place in the southwest (because they were hunting the Hulk) it would make more sense that the Hulk was easily able to get to Colorado by jumping than it would be to believe he jumped all the way from New Mexico to Michigan in a matter of moments. The other thing was the practicality... I mean, at the end of the story, Loki gets dumped into a container for holding radioactive waste... Now, what sort of automobile manufacturing plant would have one of those? I mean for 1963, it was fantastic enough to be believable, but now? Not so much. Also, Detroit isn't exactly so big on car manufacturing any more, I believe the reason Stan chose that as a location in 1963 was because it was  booming industry in Detroit at the time. Whereas today, if you're to talk about a booming industry, it would be munitions.. which is a Colorado thing so far as I know. An interesting thing to note though is that in  (published in 2005), a series that told the story between issues of the Avengers, it retained the "final battle in Detroit" and references it a number of times in the story. Talk about confusing. And speaking of time travelling, Iron Man sure likes to travel back in time to the early days of the Avengers, as seen in  and.


 * Lots of Appearances, then and now: The last thing is that there are a LOT of crossover stories, that were published in the 60s as well as in later years... In particular around the time when the most recent Incredible Hulk movie was about to be released. Trying to find where all these stories fit in can be a little tough. I usually cross-reference with the Marvel Chronology Project.. But I don't always agree with them. A good example is their placement of which depicts the Hulk helping Giant-Man, Beast, and the Thing capture a bunch of rogue monsters and dump them in the Negative Zone. This is a flashback story that takes place during the silver age. The Chronology project places this appearance as happening between {{c|Tales to Astonish #91 and {{c|Tales to Astonish #92|92}}. Which doesn't make any sense. Why? It's quite simple really.. In the Monsters on the Prowl story, Henry Pym is in his Giant-Man guide. Which taking continuity into account does not fit since during the period between TTA #91 & 92, Pym was already in his Goliath guise, as depicted in {{c|Amazing Spider-Man Annual #3}} which is listed as happening a few stories prior to TTA #91. I personally would place it shortly after {{c|Amazing Spider-Man #15}}, which was an era where not only was Pym still Giant-Man, but he was still wearing his original Giant-Man costume (There were two that he wore as Giant-Man in the 60s after all). Why Amazing Spider-Man #15? Well the Chronology places an flashback from {{c|Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America #4}} as happening right after Amazing Spider-Man #15. The flashback doesn't have too many details, but basically Spider-Man recounts that it was his "first or second time" battling the Hulk and he was saved by Captain America. The setting is in a city, likely New York. I would say that it was logical that Amazing Spider-Man #15 was Peter's first encounter with the Hulk. After Spider-Man fled, the Hulk likely went after him to get revenge (this was not an uncommon thing, as seen in {{c|Fantastic Four #25}} when the Hulk went to New York to get revenge on the Avengers for harassing him in{{c|Avengers #3}}). So how does this fit in with Monsters on the Prowl #1? Well that story opens up with Bruce Banner, on the run, in New York... and he's hungry and needs shelter. It seems like the most logical place to put that story since the flashback in Fallen Son #4 is so vague -- in that they don't explain what happened to the Hulk after Cap defeated him -- and what made logical sense to me is that the Hulk was often defeated only to escape, often by reverting back to Bruce Banner and slipping away. It seemed like the most logical place to put that appearance.

Anyway, this has been a fun little exploration. Next I will be doing Hulk's supporting cast, in terms of who appeared in, namely Rick Jones, General Ross, and Betty Ross. I'll be doing the same as with the Hulk, only the first 10 years. But each of these characters will also warrant Expanded History pages, albeit with the exception of Rick Jones, the Ross family members will have some sparse stuff since all they usually did back in the 60s was either order attacks on, or cried over the Hulk (not a lot of character development for them back in those days).