Geek Tee Friday - The Hulk

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This Friday's geek tee is one of the Hulk taken from the Thor: Ragnarok movie from 2017. This is the 3rd of the 4 mystery shirts I got for £15 and did a bag opening in this BLOG here. Check it out.

I wasn't too impressed with this one at 1st it seems a bit muted colour wise and I am sure there are better Hulk shirts out there but hey ho it is what it is, I'm sure it will grow on me!

As a character the Hulk has been around since May 1962  when he was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. He 1st appeared in The Incredible Hulk #1, a book that only ran for 6 issues before the big Green/Grey one was moved to Tales to Astonish which was later renamed as The Incredible Hulk in April 1968. It ran under a few different names up till 2013 when it was replaced by The Indestructible Hulk as part of Marvel's Marvel NOW! relaunch.

I remember that Marvel UK had a Hulk comic too that I know I read some of as a kid but I would expect that my 1st encounter with the very angry one was when Lou Ferrigno played him in the TV show of the 70's. It was pretty big in it's day this show I seem to recall, with Bill Bixby playing the role of the mild mannered scientist David (not Bruce??!!) Banner. The show ran for 5 seasons, (82 episodes) on CBS in America from 1978 - 1982 apparently. Wow, I didn't realise it was as many as that, I wonder if we got to see them all in the UK. 

It was a cool show, he was always on the move from town to town, working on cures for his Hulk problem and he'd end up befriending and helping someone with the big green one's aid and have to move on again at the end of the show. The poignant music would play out as he trudged off, (normally in the rain I seem to recall), to a new town and new adventures. 

They also made 3 films the 1st of which, The Incredible Hulk Returns features him meeting up, I am sure for the 1st time on screen, with the thunder god Thor himself. See they really are old friends from work!!

The Incredible Hulk Returns - 1988

He also met up with Daredevil in The Trial of The Incredible Hulk (1989) and in The Death of The Incredible Hulk (1990) he falls in love with an Eastern European spy (Black Widow surely!!)

I have quite a few issues of Hulk in my collection, I'd guess I must have collected him for 3/4 years but I need to go dig them out to confirm this. I know I have quite a few of the Peter David era of the big green goliath. He united his Banner/Hulk personas for a time during this period and we also learned that Bruce was abused by his father making Hulk ostensibly his childhood fury manifest. When Hulk refused to emerge during Avengers: Infinity Wars I theorized that his inner child bully Hulk was scared after the beat down that he received from Thanos. I think he might need a little lie-down on Doc Samson's sofa once again to get his head right. Also a lot of fun during David's run was when Hulk went grey again and had dominance over Banner, he became Mr Fixit for a time, a mob enforcer cracking heads to order for a crime boss. He was no where near as strong at this point, he had better intelligence and reasoning so he couldn't channel his boundless rage into strength.

I wonder if Hulk has featured in more Marvel movies than any other character. Does anyone have the figures at all? Maybe he is the character that has fronted the most movies. He has the 3 TV tie-in ones that I already mentioned and then he has had 2 others, Hulk (2003) with Eric Bana as Bruce Banner and The Incredible Hulk (2008) with Edward Norton in that role. He's also been in 3 Avengers movies, (I think) with Mark Ruffalo as Banner, and of course Thor Ragnarok where he has a tumultuous & fun battle with the titular hero. 

Fights between The Hulk and Thor have been plentiful over the years with many a debate being had between fans over who would win in such a battle. Hulk (in some versions), has brute strength that seemingly has no limits, increasing as his anger does, but Thor is a god, a skilled warrior with the might of Mjolnir and the power of thunder. I tried to find out when they 1st battled in the comics, the earliest encounter I could find was Journey Into Mystery #112 from January 1965. 

I am sure we will see him next in Infinity Wars Part 2 but I wonder if there are any plans to have him star in his own movies again at some point. I certainly hope so as I for one will NEVER tire of the Superhero genre, I don't remember a time when I haven't loved them and I can't picture there being one in the future either. Keep 'em coming I say.

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