Skip to main content

New Planet Hulk Omnibus 'Dropped' Today

The new Planet Hulk Omnibus dropped today and I found my copy in my mailbox after work!

The Incredible Hulk is one of those characters that seems very hard to write for over a long period of time. The standard man-transformed-into-monster storylines get run through very quickly but in the case of the Incredible Hulk they were very fortunate to have a successful live-action TV show in the 1970s. Now, the technology for transforming a regular sized human into a hulking monster wasn't as sophisticated as it is today, CGI, if it existed at all was in its infancy and very expensive. It would have been used for seconds here and there in commercials and not in a weekly television show or even a full-feature movie.

What the writers of the Incredible Hulk TV show did was to draw inspiration from an older successful TV show called The Fugitive starring David Janssen which, itself, drew inspiration from the French novel by Victor Hugo called Les Misérables about a paroled prisoner Jean Valjean who was sentenced to 20 years hard labor for stealing a loaf of bread but he fails to show up for his parole appointments and is hounded by the former guard turned police inspector, Javert, who is a very by-the-book type of policeman and hounds Valjean throughout the novel. The Fugitive was also inspired by the real life crime case of Doctor Samuel Sheppard who had been falsely convicted of murdering his wife.

At any rate, the TV show breathed new inspiration into the comics and for a short while there was even a full-sized magazine version of The Hulk with glossy pages and more adult themed stories that followed more the lead of the TV show.

Eventually, in the pages of the comics the Hulk and Bruce Banner are separated and Banner becomes somewhat unhinged while the Hulk is off in other dimensions, both suffering the from the lack of the other.

I am glad to finally have this omnibus of Planet Hulk in my hands as it seems to be one of the most celebrated Hulk stories of the modern era, which is to say post-2000. And next month will see the release of its equal or maybe it is even considered its superior, World War Hulk, both stories actually being one mega story.

Based on what I have heard from other YouTube comic book channels, this volume sees the Hulk shot off into space when the Avengers and Fantastic Four decide the Hulk is too great a threat to the earth.  The Hulk crash lands on an alien planet where he becomes a gladiator, finds love and happiness, and loses it all.

And if you're a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you'll be interested to know that Thor: Rangnarok is going to be based, at least partially, on Planet Hulk, and while it will only be the concept of Hulk as a gladiator so he can fight Thor, the movie will be fun and you can enjoy the alternative story in this awesome omnibus!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Movie Tie-In #1: Thor and Beta Ray Bill

On the eve of the opening of Thor: Ragnarok we dive into Walt Simonson's Thor Omnibus and take a look at the first four stories which introduce us to Beta Ray Bill and the idea that anyone who is worthy can wield Thor's hammer, Mjolnir. Thor (as Doctor Donald Blake) is summoned by Nick Fury when  S.H.I.E.L.D. detects a very fast moving object headed toward our solar system. An object that devours suns! When an imminent threat appears a half a galaxy away, Nick Fury seeks out the Mighty Thor! Thor heads off into space while in Asgard a very unhappy Sif is seeking a battle worthy of her skills to take her mind off of Thor. Upon reaching the fast approaching space ship, Thor is mistaken for a demon by Beta Ray Bill whose mission is to protect his people that have been under demonic attack for millennia. Thor is transformed into Donald Blake and loses Mjolnir which has reverted back into his walking stick. Finding the walking stick, Beta Ray Bill stri...
Post a Comment
Read more

From The Pile Episode 4: The Flash 42:"Night of the Mechanical Zombies"

Today I bring you The Flash #42 from 1990 by William Messner-Loebs, Greg La Rocque, and Jose Martin Jr. "Night of the Mechanical Zombies" starts off with a nice philosophical discussion comparing a computer's creation of cyber-space-time with a human being's creation of space-time. Unfortunately, I didn't know all the characters. I didn't read the Flash. Even now I have read very little Flash and am mostly familiar with the character through the 1990 and current TV show. That being said, I really enjoyed this story. It had so many cool elements to it, like the opening monolog I mentioned above and then we have a woman whose name I never learned, who is inhabited by the ghost of an ancient Irish Bard named Seamus. We get a brief glimpse of Wally West's then-girlfriend who is a supermodel who sells cat food named Connie. And then we have our heroine who's name is Tina, a former girlfriend of Wally West. This story does a great job of buil...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus Drops 12/12/2017

As I said in one of my previous videos, the main reason I started this channel is to keep other people who interested in omnibus editions up-to-date with upcoming titles. Especially the ones I am most interested in. Now at any given time there are a boatload of new and reprinted omnibuses coming out as well as collected editions, collected editions usually being the trade paperback that generally contains 6-8 issues of a given title. Sometimes collected editions are lumped in with omnibuses but an omnibus is usually an event comic that contains the main event title and all the related tie-ins. Other times an omnibus will contain an entire run of a title or, as in the case of my most highly anticipated omnibus of the next few months, an entire line of comics. Currently scheduled to be released on December 12, 2017 and part of the Kirby 100 celebration is  Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus   is my number one 'get' of all the upcoming omnibuses. It is impossible to und...
Post a Comment
Read more