The Incredibly Misunderstood Hulk

A lot of people had problems with 2003's Hulk, decrying Ang Lee's attempt to inject a bit of heart into a character who, they all said, was only good as long as he was smashing things. I'll be the first to admit that Lee's Hulk was a problematic film (Hulk dogs, anyone?), but I don't understand the retroactive hate towards it. Every reviewer who likes this new rebooted Hulk hated Lee's. Everybody who dislikes the new one said that the old one was better, problems or not. I've seen little middle ground.

While I've yet to see The Incredible Hulk, I think it's a shame that most people assume that the Hulk's only function as a character is to smash. It might have appeared that way in the 1970's TV show, but that show was as close to the comic books as the 60's Batman show. That isn't to say that it's a bad show - personally, I love it. Even that show had a heart to it, but most people seem to forget David "Bruce" Banner's trials and tribulations and have this shining recollection of Lou Ferrigno smashing everything in sight. This is why Lee's version ultimately failed - most people didn't remember Hulk as a character with a heart.

What Lee attempted would wind up being done to a much greater extent in 2005's Batman Begins, which took out the cartoonish vibes of the previous five films and replaced them with a darker, more human heart and soul. Batman is lucky though, because it doesn't (usually) deal with characters who would require a huge amount of CGI. Hulk? Not so much.



But when you ignore the TV show, which is where I'm guessing that at least 80% of reviewers have their recollection of the character, there's still the reviewers who assert that The Incredible Hulk is mindless enough to satisfy fans who were pissed with Ang Lee's version. This makes zero sense to me. The Incredible Hulk, as a comic book series, was never mindless.

Sure, the Hulk was an infantile character, but Bruce Banner? A genius scientist torn between two bodies. If the comics were so mindless, Banner wouldn't have been hell bent on a cure for the past 40 years or so...he'd transform into the Hulk at will, smash things, cream his purple jeans, and move on to the next city he hadn't destroyed yet. Banner is a quiet, pipsqueakish character who is only able to become the Hulk when he is angry though - he is the product of repressed anger, fear, and emotional distress; a Jekyll/Hyde on a much larger scale. When Banner utters the words "I like it," in Ang Lee's Hulk, I get chills down my spine because, honestly, what human being hasn't, deep down, wanted to smash everything in sight at some point in time?

Pointing to the comics again, the Hulk brags about his abilities, is surprised when another superhero confronts him, and typically responds with annoyance to their presence or the military's. One of my favorite lines from the early comics shows the Hulk jumping miles in the air, yelling "Only Hulk have leg muscles that let him jump three miles in air!" He's a child throwing a tantrum, and when the tantrum is over, we have Banner trying to control his anger, control his urge to become the Hulk, and figure out a way to live a normal life, free from all the smashing, tank hurling, Abomination-ridden madness that his life has been to this point.

The Hulk, like most classic Marvel characters, is human emotion at a very basic level. To call it mindless and to dismiss attempts at heart as unnecessary backstory is to deny the very things that make comic books great and what should be making comic book movies better.

Hopefully I'll weigh in on the movie tonight/tomorrow.