A longtime showbiz journalist and fan's thoughts on comic books, movies and other cool stuff.

Tag: Hulk

You really don’t want to “read” Hulk’s “Grab Bag”

You won’t like him when he’s angry, but you’ll like him even less if you make him angry by messing with his “grab bag.”

Screening Room: “Hulk Vs.”

Switching gears, I’ll get into a bit of animation. For those who don’t know, I’ve taken on a new gig as the online editor at Animation Magazine, and have been plunging into my DVD collection to revisit various animated features and bits such as the original “X-Men” series and the 2-D edition of “Star Wars: Clone Wars.” And then arrives “Hulk Vs.,” the most recent Marvel Animation feature DVD. This 2-disc set includes two features, each about 40 minutes long: “Hulk vs. Wolverine” and “Hulk vs. Thor.” I had seen “Hulk vs. Wolverine” in its entirety at Comic-Con last summer (and wrote about it for Newsarama.) Watching it again, I still like it for its alternately violent and slightly goofy revisiting of Wolverine’s origin and first battle with the Hulk. There’s lots of Weapon X in here and some good slicing and dicing with Wolverine facing off against Sabretooth, Deathstrike, Omega Red and Deadpool.
But I liked “Hulk vs. Thor” a lot more. For one, the story was better – you could almost believe that Hulk deserved top billing in this feature. Plus, it did a nice job of bringing in a whole bunch of Asgardian characters who I don’t think have been seen before in animation: The Warriors 3, Enchantress, Sif, Hela, Odin, Baldar and, of course, Loki. The plot and the action are a nice updating of the kind of classic Marvel storytelling you’d get from an issue by Kirby or, more recently, Walt Simonson. The animation also is quite nice — elegant in its look and feel, but still fast and forceful in its motion. There’s a sneak peek on the disc of the upcoming Thor feature, which promises to explore the origins of Thor’s relationship with Loki and looks pretty good. I really find myself enjoying these direct to DVD features. On the Marvel side, “Doctor Strange” in particular was a really cool way to spend 75 minutes, while “Justice League: The New Frontier” is my favorite of the DC ones. (I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m looking forward to Wonder Woman.)
It’s came up in the Comic-Con panel (and again in reports from Marvel Animation’s New York Comic-Con panel) that fans need to buy these if they want them to continue — suggesting that the entire program is on the bubble. These are interesting and fun, so I hope they sell well enough for these to continue for a good, long while.

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