Genre Character of the Week: The Incredible Hulk

One of the best things in The Avengers (for me) was the character of Doctor Bruce Banner, aka our genre character of the week, The Incredible Hulk.

 

Now, like most people born in the ‘70s, my earliest memories of the Hulk were actually based on the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferringo television series, in which Doctor David Banner spent each week desperately hoping that no one would make him angry, because they wouldn’t like him when he was angry.  The show still sits quite nicely in my memories as a great twist on the Jekyll and Hyde story (which, according to Hulk creator Stan Lee, it actually is), and although I’m hesitant to revisit it as an adult, it had a huge childhood impact on me (pictured right).

 

The next time The Hulk showed up wasn’t until my twenties, when my BFF Mike started going on and on about the amazing Hulk comic-book series written by Peter David from 1987 to 1999.   Although I never got around to reading those (yet), Mike’s rantings about how great the story was led me to check out the 2003 Ang Lee film, Hulk.

 

You know what – I really liked it.  The actors (especially Eric Bana) are great and actually I still own that movie, and honestly, I think a film that basically came down to a character study of the man who ends up as the creature was a very well done film.

 

Then in 2008 Edward Norton starred in The Incredible Hulk, which, after the success of Iron Man, moved away from the character study and towards an action/adventure film, and actually did quite well there too – (I don’t own this one, but If I came across it at a used DVD store, I might pick it up).

 

Then last week my wife and I went to see The Avengers and the film actually looked into the character (this time played by Mark Ruffalo) and allowed him to smash like nobody’s business.

 

Honestly, in the end he’s a guy with some serious anger issues, but darn-it-all, I really like him.