Sfdebris.net

To the Incredible videos on the site:
https://sfdebris.com/videos/special/incredible.php

To the Youtube video for Part 4:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE_7I2Nn1Ic

I'm rather enjoying these reviews. I never knew the Hulk had such an interesting backstory / early history, and it is a rather fascinating exploration of the ideas of the mind. The Hulk really was more of a hero than I had thought he was.

This may be beside the point, but I would have said the idea of child abuse as the psychological spark for the Hulk (with the original addition of that idea form 1985) is not the most famous aspect of the character. Rather I think on average the most famous version of the character is just the wandering the earth vagabond who you won't like if you get him angry portrayed in the 70s Hulk TV show. I think this version is the archetypal one that dominates in the public consciousness. Even if that is a much vaguer description and could be accused of just tacking a gimmick on to the plot of the Fugitive.

I mean among comic book readers the child abuse story is probably a dominant element of the Hulk characterization, but to me that is a bit inside baseball.

I read collections of the Hulk's early run years ago and it was interesting seeing how his characterization was all over the map. The constant themes were that he was strong and contrasted his brutish power with Banner's intellectuallism, but other than that all bets were off in terms of how his power worked and even a lot of basic issues of characterization.

I think some people would argue that the wandering vagabond version of the Hulk is really just the best form of the character, I'm not sure, but I do think the early convolutions of the Hulk suggest at least he is a bit of a tricky fit as a continuing character (rather than a one off or occasional type character).

I'd even argue that most people don't even know about the child abuse aspect of the character.

I think it's interesting how Marvel characters changed a lot during the early years and then were pretty much static for much of the 70's and early 80's. Peter Parker graduate high school, went to college, dropped the glasses, and was pretty much friends with the popular crowd. With the exception of specialty armor and occasional helmet tweeks like the nose, Iron Man's armor didn't change appearance between donning the red and gold and the "Silver Centurian" suit.

cdrood wrote: ↑Tue Sep 15, 2020 3:04 pm I'd even argue that most people don't even know about the child abuse aspect of the character.

I genuinely didn't. Now, I've always been more of an X-Man-end of Marvel (and that started around the 90s, with the cartoon), but you do get a moderate amount of stuff from osmosis or from the peripherial media. I knew of, in broad terms, stuff like grey hulk and recognise most of the villains and the characters - for example, but that was entirely new to me.

the hulk was never been one of my favorite character in marvel so i know very little of him unlike say spiderman and this look at his early history does show me things. Its interesting that how much the marvel staff kept tweeking him as they wrote him trying to find the balance that would work. I was around the time when hulk try to assimilate all his personality thanks to doc samson, but that storyline didn't capture my imagination and as a kid with only 20 dollar to buy comic, it was an issue i drop in favor or other issue. (comic at the time was 1.25 so you can tell i was reading a lot of comic then if i drop the hulk. I think it was all 3 spiderman, the xmens nearly all. didn't read wolverine, avengers, the occasionally new one that caught my attention l ike the new warriors)

Banner's/Hulk's child abuse backstory does not feature in the various animated shows Hulk has had over the years. I don't feel that is unreasonable, but that would be an account for why if you aren't into Hulk comics you might not know.

The Ang Lee movie Hulk centered the plot around this. Unfortunately that is what makes it not a very good movie IMO, as it is way too dark and humorless.

Bruce's abuse at the hand of his father is a very, very mixed bag for me. On the one hand, some of the best stories from before Planet Hulk (which is also a very, very mixed bag for me) deal directly with his mental health struggles... on the other hand, these are comic books. So a lot of misinformed bullshit is treated as gospel when it comes to mental health.

I gotta say, though, the more I watch these videos, the more it feels like Chuck is doing all of this just to talk about Immortal Hulk. Which I am 100% OK with.