Ha! Don't have to worry about explaining which series this one is!
Because, as it turns out, the totally awesome Hulk...wasn't awesome. Let alone totally.
Ironies, amiright?
The funny thing is, I should have been someone who ate up the whole concept. Amadeus Cho was a cherished favorite of mine a decade back, costarring in a succession of Hercules comics that were perennially among my favorite reads. I'm not a Marvel guy! This was a huge exception for me! And Totally Awesome Hulk was even written by one of the writers from that era, Greg Pak (who was also, ah, known for his Hulk comics; who flipped over to DC during the New 52, but didn't stick as well, somehow having landed a Superman gig; Hulk and Superman are two vastly different characters).
Cho got the Hulk gig because, well, Marvel was replacing all its iconic characters at the time. Literally all of them. I have no idea why they thought it was a brilliant idea. This was a '90s thing because the sales for the death of Superman were a huge bonanza for the industry. Doing it just to keep things interesting (although, technically, Superman's death was actually just an attempt to forestall his wedding, which ended up delayed for years, while the TV counterpart in Lois & Clark actually got far less popular the closer it got) (ironies, amiright?), turned out just to piss off whatever fans were still paying attention.
And for whatever reason, this issue ties into a "Weapons of Mutant Destruction" crossover event. I have no idea why the Hulk has anything at all to do with mutants, other than...reasons.
But then, having a Hulk who wants to be the Hulk is also...not the Hulk. At all. It's the total opposite of the Hulk! And...why was Cho even tapped to be the Hulk? It makes no logical sense to anyone who didn't read the relevant material. It's just...reasons. This was a character who made his name by being one of the smartest people on Earth. He thought Hulk was cool. Apparently he cured Banner. That "cure" would've done better to make Banner happy to be the Hulk. This doesn't even work as a Doctor Spider-Man gimmick. it defies all logic, ideas approved without being thought out, just tossed out there. I think "The House of Ideas" can do better than that.
It's bad storytelling all around.
I read the first volume on Amazon Prime (you still can) and wasn't all that impressed. But the first issue of that didn't really get so much into why he was turning into the Hulk since that must have happened in something else. I think the horror-ish Immortal Hulk is more the way to go with the character.
ReplyDeleteAnd it was weird they decided to do all of these replacements in the comics right when the movies were really hitting their stride, so anyone who liked the movies literally couldn't read about those versions of the characters in current comics.
I don't know what Marvel was thinking. Probably that there was no crossover appeal between the comics and movies. Or didn't want to look like they were doing comics based on the movies. Even though they literally prostituted themselves all over the Guardians of the Galaxy as soon as that was a surprise movie sensation.
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