Travis | Phoenix, AZ | Personal Tumblr | Content is whatever I feel like posting.
There are two properties featuring The Hulk which finally got me interested in the character: The first is the Avengers film. Mark Ruffalo, I hadn’t seen him much before, but he brought a new almost ‘nervous’ edge to Banner and a knowing wink of fun in ‘the other guy’, that I had not seen before either. Eric Bana was the first I saw of the Hulk in live action, so Bruce always to me will be a bit scrawny, but Ruffalo’s ‘I don’t really wanna be here’ sort of presence was something quite interesting, and the interaction between Tony and Bruce was like a lightswitch turning on. Why on earth had they not paired up before in the comics to do SCIENCE!?
Edward Norton was great for what material he was given to work with and while it was a shame that he could not show up for the Avengers, his replacement was fantastic in his own way. Norton has always been an actor’s actor, and I hope that somehow, people can recognize that every single actor playing Hulk is showing one side of a deeper character. The same being viewed through a different prism.
The thing is, as much as I’ve always been ‘meh’ about the character, I think the movie made me appreciate him in a new light. That goes for the entire cast too of course, but it was the greatest leaps between what my mind had always thought up when I encountered something with the hulk before, and what possible things that the character could be capable of now. Second would probably be between Captain America and Hawkeye. This movie made ALL the characters interesting in new and significant ways.
I mentioned two things, yes? The other was the “Planet Hulk” storyline from the comics, which not only featured great alien characters, but gave the Hulk the center stage for once as a character, and not merely a living wrecking ball (though he does plenty of that) with no depth. There isn’t probably as much depth as say, Batman, but its deeper than the shallow end of a kid’s pool as I previously thought.
I would probably type more but I spilled soda on my keyboard the other night and now typing is becoming difficult =\
