Ang Lee's "Hulk" may have been a colossal disappointment, but I did enjoy some of the Hulkish action scenes. They hinted at what a real Hulk movie could be and the technology was there to make it real, it was just wasted on a really weird origin story. Rather than try to fix it with a sequel, Universal Pictures is already pulling a franchise reboot (you're supposed to wait a few more movies to do that, guys) with the next film titled "The Incredible Hulk" directed by action director Louis Leterrier (of "Transporter 2" and "Unleashed" fame). I'm not terribly impressed with their choice of director ("Transporter 2" was practically a cartoon), but at least he's known to choose action over plot which is what a Hulk movie needs (especially considering Ang Lee's propensity to have Hulk staring instead of punching). The part of Bruce Banner has been recast with Ed Norton and Betty Ross is being played by Liv Tyler. Recent news has Tim Roth signed up to play the Abomination, which is as good a villain as any, I suppose. The Hulk doesn't have a very robust rogue's gallery, at least not many that would work on film without some retooling (The Leader would be embarrassing). Using the Abomination (who is really just a bigger, stronger, evil Hulk) allows them to have some truly fantastic action sequences with lots of property damage and very heavy, large objects being hurled through the air with reckless abandon. It could also go the other way and we could all be bored to tears watching two large green guys punch each other with half the audience whispering, "Which one is the good guy?" With the recent success of "Spider-Man 3", I think the studios can see that a superhero franchise that is handled correctly can pay off in big ways, so I expect Universal to try to meet the needs of the fans as much as possible.
I promised some 52 action, but I still haven't been able to rally the troops to put it together. I plan on pouring through the entire saga once some trades materialize, but it looks like writer Matt Fraction has already posted a pretty good review of it. I like seeing what comic writers think of comics they don't write. It always sounds a little practiced when they talk about their own stuff, but when they are generally excited about someone else's work in the medium, it comes off a lot more genuine. I'm a fan of Fraction's THE IMMORTAL IRON FIST and PUNISHER: WAR JOURNAL so I tend to give him the benefit of the doubt, and it looks like he had the same problem I did early on with 52. I could not see the big picture and the minutia of those lesser characters was too much for me to bear. It doesn't help that I'm not a hardcore DC fan, and I don't know who many of those characters are. I read and enjoyed IDENTITY CRISIS and INFINITE CRISIS, but I also received regular tutorials from the DC crowd. I picked up COUNTDOWN #51 today, and from the look of things there are now 52 "multiverses" and Darkseid promising to play some role in things. I'll try to stick it out through COUNTDOWN, but in times of weakness I'll need the aid of some DC fanboys.
In a recent column I wrote about Greg Land and the controversy his art has caused. The new issue of ULTIMATE POWER came out today, and this is the first issue of it I've gotten since I read up on Greg and some of his purported methods. As I flipped through the issue, I did see that Sue Storm's hair changes style and lacks consistency and some of the panels look like they've been put together like a collage of magazine ads, but ultimately I didn't really care. The art looks good and if you read the comics without searching Google images for the references, you just might enjoy them. It may be distasteful to budding artists out there if Greg does trace some of his art, but unfortunately for them there are a lot of us who don't mind a continued blissful ignorance about the whole thing.
Speaking of the Ultimate universe, I'd much rather be reading a new issue of ULTIMATES 2, but until that starts to come out with some regularity I'll take these Ultimate mishmash battle royales where I can get them. I was really looking forward to ULTIMATE WOLVERINE: ORIGINS (or whatever the Jeph Loeb and Michael Turner take on the origin of Ultimate Wolverine is going to be called), but with the frequency that Turner's SOULFIRE is coming out, it could take six years to tell the entire arc. I like Turner's art quite a bit, but he seems pretty busy doing covers at the moment and I wonder how he'll do entire issues. All this pales in comparison to the robbery and deception that was ULTIMATE HULK VS WOLVERINE. A series that started off so strong has now been completely eclipsed by the entire Ultimate universe. When that book first started, the fate of Bruce Banner was not known. When he showed up in ULTIMATES 2 I thought, "Well, I guess it all works out with Wolverine." It's too bad. It could have been a contender. I suppose Damon Lindelof is too busy trying to figure out what the hell is going on in "Lost" to finish it. Damon, just have them wake up and find Bobby Ewing in the shower and get out of there. Finish the comic.
Here are my picks for this week.
- DC
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- Countdown #51 - Another weekly series from DC and another opportunity for them to lose me at week 4 (or week 48 in this case). It's got Darkseid, though, so that's something.
- Image
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- Battle Pope #14 - It's the end of the series. I think the only reason conservatives aren't protesting this is because they don't know it exists. It's just as well.
- Marvel
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- The Amazing Spider-Man #540 - Spider-Man hunts down the gunman who shot Aunt May. I hope something interesting happens soon in this story.
- The Immortal Iron Fist #5 - Iron Fist Danny Rand learns a bit about the legacy he's a part of and where his ultimate destiny may take him. Also people are punched.
- Marvel Zombies: Dead Days - It's a prequel to the Marvel Zombies mini-series, but still doesn't explain the real origin of the virus. It's Kirkman, though, so it reads just like Marvel Zombies.
- The New Avengers #30 - Ronin's identity is revealed. I'm hoping we're almost done with the two running chronologies and we can just move forward.
- Nova #2 - I bought this and Nova #1 when I saw that the Thunderbolts were going to be involved. Also, I like the idea of a cosmic force like Nova showing up and Tony Stark asking him to register. I expect him to say, "Umm...no," and hilarity to ensue.
- Punisher: War Journal #7 - Punisher takes on the weird Neo-Nazi group in white (and he eventually wears that ridiculous Punisher/Captain America costume).
- Thunderbolts #114 - The Thunderbolts fighting people I've never heard of is great and all, but I'd really like to see them after the New Avengers, and since when is Venom the size of a building?
- Ultimate Power #5 - Hyperion pretty much owns Thor and the Fantastic Four, and the Nick Fury angle is explored more.
- Top Cow
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- Madame Mirage: First Look - I never buy Top Cow books, but this is written by Paul Dini, and it was only 99 cents. She appears to be some kind of fishnet vigilante seductress, and since it's a Top Cow book, you can expect some T&A.
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