Grey Hulk?!?!

The Incredible Hulk. He’s one of Marvel’s most enduring characters and probably would rank in the Top 5 Most recognizable characters across the globe! He’s had his own TV series, several films, action figures, magazines, etc, etc. Before the kick off of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the release of 2008’s Iron Man, it was probably true that the Hulk was second only to Spider-Man as the most well known Marvel Comics super hero. He made his debut in “The Incredible Hulk” #1 in 1962 and has been taking the world by storm ever since. There have been many incarnations, variations and reboots over the past 53 years in order to keep the character fresh and give new readers of the comics a good jumping on point throughout the decades. Now as we get set for the launch of Avengers 2: Age of Ultron this coming May, the green-skinned goliath will once again be hitting the silver screen. But with Iron Man, Captain America and Thor getting sequels, the question remains: What about the Hulk?

The 2008 movie The Incredible Hulk wasn’t actually a sequel to Ang Lee’s Hulk which came out in 2003. It was more like a soft reboot. We accepted that the Hulk was already created and that Bruce Banner was on the run from the Army but that was about all. The entire cast also changed with Ed Norton taking over the role of Bruce Banner from the previous actor, Eric Bana. By far, The Incredible Hulk is superior to 2003’s Hulk. Partly because it is an established member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and partly because we’d all like to forget that Ang Lee tried to make Bruce Banner’s father into the Absorbing Man (played by Nick Nolte). Thus far, the Hulk is the only Marvel character who has not gotten a true sequel.

Apparently, the reason for this is two-fold. One reason being that The Incredible Hulk was the lowest grossing movie of the line from the Marvel Cinmeatic Universe to date. The other reason is that there seems to be some confusion as to what exactly to do with the Hulk in a sequel within the realm of what they already have established. According to an interview that Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige had with MTV, there are a lot of cool stories to be told, but they run the risk of being too overwhelming. Feige told MTV: “I think there’s pitfalls of continuity-overload, and mythology getting so dense that it almost collapses in on itself,” referring to the possibility of a Planet Hulk or a World War Hulk movie as part of the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe offerings. However, the one thing that I’ve never heard anyone speak of is the one thing that would make the most sense for the perfect Hulk sequel and also seemed to be the direction they teased at the end of Ed Norton’s Hulk movie: The Grey Hulk!!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with this particular segment of Hulk’s history, it’s important to note that when The Hulk first appeared, he was grey and not green. Later on in the 1980’s, his color was switched back to grey and given the back-story of it being another form of Banner’s fractured psyche. The grey persona was manipulative, cunning and tended to fight dirty with little regard for those around him. For my money, this was one of the best runs of the Hulk comics to date starting with issue 324 and spanning to issue 378. He fought with the Hulkbusters, was on the fun from S.H.I.E.L.D., convinced the world he died and then became an enforcer for the Las Vegas mob. Any one of these stories or a combination thereof would make for an intriguing and bankable Hulk sequel.

Here’s how I envision it: following the events of The Avengers 2 (depending of course on how exactly it ends for him….), Bruce Banner once again goes off the grid trying to find a way to control the Hulk side of himself just as we saw Ed Norton’s Banner trying to do during the first part of his movie. He ends up working at an experimental research facility out in the Nevada desert. While there, he secretly experiments with different means of ridding himself of the Hulk when one of the experiments goes wrong and he ends up changing into Grey Hulk and subsequently destroying the facility!! S.H.I.E.L.D. investigates and concludes that the Hulk died in the accident. Bruce Banner awakens in Las Vegas and finds himself changing uncontrollably into the Grey Hulk thus attracting the attention of mob boss and casino owner Michael Berengetti. The new Grey Hulk takes on the persona of Joe Fixit and goes to work for Berengetti in exchange for safe haven from public scrutiny. They could even bring in Crusher Creel (aka: The Absorbing Man) as an enforcer for a rival mob as an adversary and tie that back into his last appearance in Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (and also help wash away the memory of Nick Nolte as that character from 2003). This would be another great connection between Marvel’s TV show and their cinematic universe like we saw with Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier. The post credit sequence could show that the battle between Creel and Fixit drew the notice of S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Avengers. The Hulk is brought back into the fold so that he is present to face Thanos in Avengers 3: The Infinity War.

That’s my idea anyway. It would seem to be totally feasible within the already established framework of Marvel Cinematic Universe. I feel that the Hulk is being severely underutilized and I think it’s a shame that we now have a talented actor like Mark Ruffalo playing Bruce Banner and we are beginning Phase 3 of Marvel’s movie line with only one Hulk movie so far. Especially when there are so many great Hulk storylines out there based on his almost 53 years of existence in comic books. Hopefully we’ll start to see more of the character as the MCU expands and grows. If not, then Marvel is missing out on a cash cow simply because of their inability to give him a decent storyline and THAT is a waste of gamma-sized proportions.

Batman VS Batman VS Batman VS Batman

When it comes to comic books, everyone has their favorite superhero. Some prefer Spider-Man. Others are more of a Superman type. But most people who I have spoken with over the years are Batman fans. What’s not to love? By day, he is billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne. But when the sun goes down, he dons cape and cowl and fights crime as The Dark Knight Detective!! One of the things that drew me to Batman was the fact that he is basically what any one of us could be given the motivation and opportunity. Instead of super powers of any kind, he battles villainy with sheer athletic prowess and unparalleled martial arts skills, a keen analytic mind as well as an array of impressive gadgets.

Arguably Batman has had the most on-screen appearances of any other superhero that immediately springs to mind. There was the 1966 movie starring Adam West, the 1989 – 1997 films with Keaton, Kilmer and Clooney, the Nolan trilogy featuring Christian Bale and the soon-to-released Batman VS Superman starring Ben Affleck. While the latter has yet to be seen and the original mention is unquestionably iconic and campy in it’s own right, it is the 1989 – 1997 grouping that brings up the most commentary and fervor among die-hard Batfans such as myself. That is the grouping of movies on which I’d like to focus on for the purposes of this particular entry.

I should think one would be hard pressed to find someone who claims that, of these 4 films, the first 2 which were directed by Tim Burton were not the best of the group. The original 1989 film starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson was both record-breaking and ground-breaking in many aspects. It set the tone for all superhero movies to come. And then Joel Schumacher came along….. There were several reasons why Tim Burton did not come back for the remaining installments. One of the main reasons being that Warner Bros. wanted the films to move into being more “family friendly.” As a result, we ended up with garish colors, over-the-top sets and mediocre films (at best). Still, they are Batman films and I own them ALL on Bluray as any good Batfan should. 🙂 Now focusing in on these last two movies, Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, is where the debate really gets good. Generally speaking, people quickly throw out Batman & Robin as the worst of the series. I would argue quite the opposite! It is actually Batman Forever that is the lemon of the group. Allow me to elaborate:

First, I’ve always said that anybody can put on the suit and be Batman. Playing Bruce Wayne is the hard part. George Clooney had the suave playboy thing down cold. Val Kilmer, in many of his scenes, looked like he was more or less trying to be Michael Keaton playing Bruce Wayne. Secondly, I would point to the horrible way in which the character of Two-Face was handled. (A.) Two-Face is one of Batman’s most formidable opponents and they end up treating him like Riddler’s sidekick. (B.) They get a powerhouse actor like Tommy Lee Jones to play the part and then waste it by making him some psychotic, giggling goon. I suppose it’s just one of the unfortunately side effects of trying to cram too many super-villains into one movie. (Even if Tim Burton did manage to get it right in Batman Returns.) And let’s not forget the invented love interest. There is no such character in the DC Universe as Dr. Chase Meridian. (This would be a sticking point for me as well when it comes to the character of Rachel Dawes in the Nolan films, but there was so much awesomeness there, I could let it go.)

Now: here’s what Batman & Robin got right. First of all, everyone loves to blame George Clooney for killing the franchise. And, yeah, being the fall-on-your-own-sword” kind of guy Clooney is, he’ll even be willing to take the blame. But, as I stated earlier, he played Bruce Wayne perfectly!! The fault for the dialogue can’t be assigned to the actor. Nor can poor direction and storyline. Again, all of that rests mostly with Mr. Schumacher. Another problem people seem to have is with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s portrayal of Mr. Freeze. However, prior to the movie, the character of Mr. Freeze had just been re-invented and the costume and Schwarzenegger’s take on the character (puns notwithstanding) were not all that bad. I also liked the rebellious push between Robin and Batman. This dynamic did a great job of playing up the Jason Todd aspect of the character since this Robin was meant to be a conglomeration of the first 3 Robins from the comic books.

Was it a great movie? No. After all, Batgirl is daughter of the police commissioner, not the niece of Bruce Wayne’s butler. And Bane had just masterminded the downfall of Batman in the comic books, but here in Joel Schumacher’s vision, he was just the grunting toady of Poison Ivy. Batman & Robin was campy, cheesy and way, way, way over-the-top. But I still say it was a notch above Batman Forever. Say what you will. I refuse to be convinced otherwise.

WTF, NBC?!?

Comic books are big business. All anyone has to do to realize this is to look at the success that Marvel / Disney has had with their Marvel Cinematic Universe (I.E. Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Avengers, etc), Sony’s refusal to let go of Spider-Man, Fox’s work to keep their X-Men and Fantastic Four properties going, etc. Then there is DC / Warner Bros. desire to create an interconnected cinematic universe of their own with Batman Vs Superman and the subsequent movies leading up to a Justice League blockbuster! And that’s just on the big screen! Turn your eyes toward the TV and you’ll find ABC bringing in strong numbers with Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (and their fill-in show Agent Carter), the CW is bringing in very strong numbers with Arrow and The Flash, Fox has Gotham and CBS is getting ready to bring Supergirl to their small screen line up!! Even cable networks like TNT have gotten in on it by going ahead with their plans for a Titans series. Pretty soon, you won’t be able to go out to the theater or channel surf without coming across a comic book related movie or TV show. Unless, of course, you tune to NBC.

NBC does have a comic book based show in Constantine, but after ordering only 13 episodes, there is still talk of canceling the show altogether. While Constantine is definitely darker and edgier than the other TV offerings that I mentioned earlier, that isn’t necessarily the problem. As evidence of this, I would point to the success of the shows like Supernatural on the CW which, like Arrow and The Flash, has been renewed for yet another season and which has a strong following and is extremely popular despite dealing with the same kind of material which is shown in Constantine. The problem is NBC itself. We all will surely remember the days of “Must See TV” when we would turn on the Peacock Network to see comedy juggernauts such as Cheers, The Cosby Show, Seinfeld, Friends, etc. In recent years, however, it seems that NBC has had trouble finding a foothold and has simply turned into, as I like to put it, a revolving door of crap. The shows canceled in recent months on NBC include Dracula, Hannibal, Believe, Crisis, Growing Up Fischer, Working The Engels, Ironside, Revolution, The Michael J. Fox Show, Sean Saves The World, A To Z, Bad Judge, etc, etc. And that’s just recently. Now all networks cancel shows and, sure, it’s a numbers game. But can you imagine what would have happened if such classics as Seinfeld and Cheers had been canceled because of the low numbers that they pulled in their freshman season? And with comic book properties getting hotter and hotter each year, can NBC really afford to turn down what will most likely result in a strong show? Especially if they continue playing it after the already established Friday night mainstay Grimm?

There are numerous Facebook pages and Twitter accounts already dedicated to Constantine and the hashtag #SaveConstantine trends on and off. Obviously there are fans, obviously other comic book related properties are doing incredibly well for other networks, obviously this trend isn’t showing any signs of dropping off, so I have to ask: What’s going on over there, NBC? Why are you the one network not promoting and growing the show that you’ve got in addition to trying to bring even more comic related series into your line up? Am I missing something? Hopefully the angels (pardon the irony) will step in a save the show. If not, the next best scenario would be that another network recognizes it’s worth and snaps it up. In any event, I’m sincerely hoping that something happens to #SaveConstantine.

In the beginning…….

So about 3 months ago, I came to the Bill Clevlen and asked if I could start doing a segment on our weekly trivia show that covered Comic Books, TV Shows, Movies and video games. Being the supportive fellow that he is, Bill said: “Really?” Fortunately, my enthusiasm wore him down and then it was time to come up with a clever name for the segment. “Geek Chix”, “Haute Geek”, “My Big, Fat Geek Segment” and several others were bandied about before I finally settled on “It’s All Geek To Me.”

After the first 4 segments, I had the urge to grow it a little. Let’s face it; there are times when describing a picture or a video over the airwaves just becomes a little too problematic. And so a Facebook page and a Twitter account were both created so that I could talk about things as they were happening instead of waiting to do a weekend recap of the past 7 days events. Now I could direct people to go to my Facebook page and see the video or the picture about which I was speaking. I was even able to take interviews that I had done with Lou Ferrigno and Burt Ward and post them up on the website along with previous installments of the show in case people wanted to listen again or if they had missed hearing it the first time.

Like anything internet related, this snowballed even further. Now there is an Instagram account and, as of today, this blog! Ta-da!! And here’s where the adventure begins. I could say more, but brevity is the soul of wit. Not that this was witty, but it was pretty brief! Hey, you can’t hit the bullseye every time. But there will be much, much more to come. I promise. 🙂