The Incredible Hulk

Thought I would post this email I wrote into my blog since I'm going to be talking about superhero movies in a post or two. This is just my geeking out over the latest Hulk movie.

Clever/Interesting bits. Possibly some spoilers:

The serum originally given to Blonsky (who becomes the Abomination) is taken out of a deep freeze security vault from a canister with the name Dr. Reinstein on it. That was the original name of the doctor (later changed to Erskine) who created the Super-Soldier Serum that created Captain America. The serum required a precise kind of exposure to radiation, which is unknown (explained next) which is why Blonsky mutates into the Abomination.

The army kept it but apparently never used it until the events in the movie because after Captain America was created, a Nazi spy murdered Reinstein/Erskine, who had not written down the entire Super-Soldier creation process leaving Captain America as the only Super Soldier.

This is the second film that Ed Norton and Paul Soles have been in together (the other one being, “The Score”). Soles’ character’s name is Stanley. Stan Lee (who is in the film like he is in most Marvel films) created or co-created many of Marvel’s most famous superheroes: Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, X-Men, etc.

Soles was the voice of Hermy the Elf in the original Rudolph cartoon. He was the one that wanted to be a dentist. He also provided voices for many Marvel cartoons in the 1960s including Bruce Banner’s in the Hulk cartoon, Peter Parker’s in the Spider-Man cartoon, and various voices in the Captain America cartoon and the Iron Man cartoon. He also lives in the same Toronto retirement home that the voice of Rudolph, Billie Mae Richards, lives in.

The Leader, a gamma-ray created super-genius in the comics, has his origins in this one. In the comics, gamma rays mutate people differently, bringing out different aspects of a person’s personality – Banner’s repressed rage, the Leader’s egotistical superiority complex, etc.

One of the college students witnessing the battle between the Hulk and the army is a black guy named Jim Wilson, who in the comics was the Hulk’s sidekick for a while (and was one of the first major cartoon characters to die of AIDS). He is accompanied by a fellow student named Jack McGee, who in the Hulk TV show, was a tabloid reporter constantly tracking Banner/Hulk.

The theme to the 1970s Incredible Hulk series is heard during the movie.

Like in the 2003 Hulk movie, Lou Ferrigno, the 1970s Hulk, plays a security guard as well as provided the voice to the Hulk. Ted Cassidy, Lurch from the Addams Family, provided the snarls of the 1970s Hulk.

Tony Stark (Iron Man) makes an appearance at the end of the film hinting at the creation of a superhero team (Avengers), which Marvel is planning on pushing out after a few more single superhero movies like Captain America and Thor. Nick Fury's name is also seen in the opening montage of the movie (the character appeared at the end of the Iron Man movie to recruit Stark to work for SHIELD/the government.

The reason why this film is so much better than the 2003 movie is that it captures the angst of Bruce Banner from the classic comics (and even the 1970s show) of the Hulk – where Banner is constantly on the run from the government, trying to keep his temper under control so he won’t change and waking up and having to restart a semblance of a life in strange new places when he does change, and the Hulk takes him someplace new. I wasn’t sure that Norton would be able to pull off the role of Banner, but he came through with the geekiness.