 |
 |
 |
The Incredible Hulk and all things Marvel-ous
Don’t make me angry...you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.
Those lines were uttered and timed so perfectly by the late Bill
Bixby in the Hulk TV adaptation. Now nearly 30 years later and
much to the delight of comic geeks all across the world the big
green Goliath known simply as “Hulk” has finally made it to
the big screen.
Hulk History
Who or what is The Hulk? If you have to ask that question you
must have lived under a rock most of your years. The Hulk is one
of those rare fictional characters who have slowly risen to icon
status in pop culture along with other great comic book
creations—Superman, Spider-man and Batman. Since Hulk was
created there hasn’t been a decade that has not had the
opportunity to experience the hulk outside of the comic book
medium. From the Marvel superheroes cartoon hour in the 1960s,
on to the successful “Incredible Hulk” TV series starring
Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno in the 1970s, made-for-TV movies
(also starring Bixby and Ferrigno), then back to the animated
Saturday morning cartoons in the 1980s—not to mention that big
flower-holding Hulk on the front of Mad Planet nightclub on
Center Street—Hulk is everywhere. There have been millions
made in Hulk merchandising, t-shirts, lunch boxes, toys and
action figures. All this from the creation of a then fledgling
comic book company, Marvel, and the imagination of a young
editor named Stan Lee.
Stan Lee, a.k.a. Stanley Lieber, was the teenage cousin of the
wife of Martin Goodman, owner of Marvel (then Timely) Comics. He
entered the family business in 1939. When he finally took the
reigns of Timely, it had just reemerged as the struggling Marvel
Comics in1961. Dogged by the competition from DC Comics and
DC’s new super team, The Justice League of America, Marvel
needed a hit—and it came in the form of the Fantastic Four!
The creative juices of Lee and now legendary illustrator Jack
Kirby started flowing.
Lee remembered how much he enjoyed Boris Karloff’s
Frankenstein monster, and how he felt the monster was the star
of the movie and victim of those movie villagers with their
torches—a misunderstood creature hounded because of its
appearance. He also took elements of another favorite archetype
of his, Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. Lee wanted a different type of
hero, an anti-hero, and Hulk was Lee and Kirby’s answer.
Hulk’s Origin
The Incredible Hulk in Volume One, Issue One, in 1962 was much
different in nature than who he is today, although the story has
remained basically the same over the years. Gamma rays, those
damn gamma rays will do it to you. While doing an experiment for
the military on the new gamma bomb, a young rebel named Rick
Jones is caught on the test field. Dr. Bruce Banner rushes out
to save him, pushing Rick into a handy trench, only to be caught
in the explosion, absorbing those damn gamma rays.
Lee explains that, for The Fantastic Four, he used cosmic rays,
and, having already used that, he thought gamma rays sounded
cool—not really knowing what gamma rays were. But, to tell the
truth, who cares but rocket scientists? It worked and Hulk was
born, though not exactly the same Hulk we know now.
Stan Lee didn’t want to give him a costume (thinking, why
would a monster put on a costume?) but he knew costumes of some
sort were important to his readers. He decided to give Hulk a
unique skin color, so he made Hulk gray. However, the printers
of 1962 were having a hard time reproducing the color gray.
Green became the hulks hue because no other super hero was
wearing green.
The Psychology of Rage
At first, Hulk also transformed when the moon was full, just
like a werewolf. But this proved to be limiting as far as
stories went. As the stories of Hulk’s exploits unfolded,
rage, and not the moon, became the trigger that set off
Banner’s transformation. This small little plot twist proved
to be another stroke of genius. It instantly cemented Banner’s
plight to that of every man women and child on the earth. Who
hasn’t been so mad that they felt like they would lose it? Who
hasn’t lost it and then regretted what they did afterwards?
Hulk was born at the start of the Marvel Comics tradition of
giving their characters all-to-human flaws (even The Mighty
Thor, the Norse god of thunder, a Marvel character who predates
the Hulk and Spider-Man and the early 1960s rebirth of Captain
America, has a human alter-ego who is disabled). Dr. Banner had
one of the most common yet cruelest flaws. When Banner loses it,
he turns into a 1,040-pound raging man beast with the strength
of 1000 elephants and little knowledge of what he just did when
he comes down. But Marvel also crafted a childlike personality
for the Hulk to temper his destructive nature, much like the
Frankenstein creature.
To anyone who has ever been bullied, cheated, threatened, mugged
or received a parking ticket, turning into a raging beast would
seem appealing at first, but the consequences of destruction on
a enormous scale are sobering. In Dr. Banner’s case, he is
hounded by the Army and forever cut off from the people he
loves. “Don’t make me angry; you wouldn’t like me when
I’m angry.”
Banner’s anger also transformed as different writers took over
the series. In trying to explain the anger and Hulk, they turned
to psychology. Thus, the previously innocent Banner was
“outed” as having a multiple personality disorder due to an
abusive father. His origin from Marvel now reads, “Bruce
Banner was raised in a troubled home. An alcoholic, his father
finally murdered his mother after years of beatings. Suppressing
his pain and rage, the highly withdrawn, intellectual Bruce
threw himself into science, where he felt safe from the chaos
that ruled his life.” The Hulk grew into a super hero comic
that read more like a great tragedy.
Hulk the Movie
Ahh, but to dwell on the good doctor’s horrific past is to
miss all the fun of seeing Hulk kick major bad guys’ asses.
The thrill of seeing Bill Bixby’s Banner get tossed over a
counter by some thugs only to bust out as Lou Ferrigno’s Hulk
was sheer delight for my dad and me as we took in our weekly
episode of “The Incredible Hulk.”
Fast forward to 2003, and Hulk gets updated and revamped by Ang
(Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) Lee! Now that special effects,
led by eight-time Oscar winner Dennis Muren of Industrial Light
& Magic (CGI), can render more lifelike creations, we
finally get to see Hulk as Stan Lee and Jack Kirby envisioned
him. This is the Hulk from the comics and cartoons—a huge
15-foot-tall beast of a man, all muscle and rage.
At first, small trailers on the net stirred the ire of some
dedicated net geeks who complained that the creature did not
look real enough. Soon, however, most detractors warmed up to
the images as more developed and focused shots of Hulk appeared
in trailers released by Universal studio. Lee explained to Wired
Magazine in an interview that, “It took a long time, months
and months, to get a sense of how to create this character. I
didn’t want him to do cartoon-type of acting. It was rough
getting his weight, the way he moves. You can’t do motion
capture—no human reference is good enough. And he has to look
twice as real, because we know he’s not.”
Lee went on to say that “The Hulk puts almost everything
(Industrial Light & Magic) has done previously into one film
and takes it beyond, because essentially what we are dealing
with is a digital human who happens to be 15-feet-tall, happens
to be green.” Let’s hope it’s worth the trouble.
Marvel’s movie wing, led by Avi Arad, has had success on top
of success. Could Hulk be the next in a string of hits from the
house of ideals, or will it be mighty Marvel’s Batman and
Robin? It’s too early to predict but one thing is for sure:
the comic geek in me can’t wait to see this movie. •
|
|