JEPH LOEB ON HULK
The writer reveals his plans for the mysterious crimson goliath in his new series with Ed McGuinness
By David Paggi
Posted January 16, 2008 4:45 PM
“When Hulk said ‘Smash,’ I didn’t think he meant ‘Smash Hit,’ but I guess that’s what he means,” quipped Jeph Loeb, kicking off today’s Hulk Spotlight Marvel Podcast. Loeb, along with frequent collaborator Ed McGuinness, has begun a new chapter in the Hulk saga that fans have responded to in a big way. “We were a little intimidated by the fact that Greg Pak had put together this roller coaster of ‘Planet Hulk’ and ‘World War Hulk,’” says Loeb. “But Joe Quesada, to his credit, thought that we could pick the ball up and take it a little further down he field.”
The team’s first order of business was making the Hulk red (though no one in the book knows that yet). Second — Banner isn’t Hulk. At the end of World War Hulk, Bruce Banner was left in a coma. When Hulk #1 opens, Doctor Leonard Samson, General Thunderbolt Ross, Iron Man, Jen Walters — a.k.a., She-Hulk — and Maria Hill are tracking down another Hulk who has just busted a cap in the Abomination. They’ve got an old-fashioned murder mystery on their hands. So, “Who dunnit?”
“I’ve always believed that the detective is the first one that you have to look at,” Loeb said in reference to Banner, who our other detectives go to for help at the end of the issue. Banner is out of his coma, but now he’s incarcerated in a special sort of prison. “I would say it’s pretty hard for someone to get out of that particular prison that he’s in. He’s five stories below ground in a base that has no human contact with him unless you go through incredible security. We’ll see more of exactly what that base is made of in issue #3. If you’re gonna keep Banner under lock and key this is probably the best way to do it. We’ll see whether or not that counts for everything in the real world.”
So who exactly is this new Hulk? Why is he Red? Does he wear purple pants? All good questions that will be answered in due time, but what we know now is that this isn’t your daddy’s Hulk. “He’s very fast, and a strategist,” says Loeb, mentioning a specific scene in the second issue where the cast first encounters the new Hulk. “He sort of appears like the alien in ‘Aliens’ and grabs one to team members, and out of sight beats the crap out of him and throws him back into sight. Tony Stark, who’s a pretty bright guy says, ‘I saw red hands, did anyone else see red hands?’ So you start to get an idea that there is something different happening and by the end of that issue, at least Iron Man will know what he’s up against.”
According to Loeb a lot of the impetus for this new direction came from perceptions of the Hulk in classic Tales To Astonish stories where Hulk wasn’t a public figure. “Before anybody knew that Banner was the Hulk, the Hulk would come out mainly at night and we barely knew what he was,” says Loeb. The detective perceptions of what the creature is are now being played more real. “If this big giant red thing came out and grabbed somebody and disappeared, I don’t know if your immediate reaction would be to say it’s the Hulk. I think we’re back to the status quo of the world doesn’t know if Banner is the Hulk now. For so long they didn’t know who the Hulk was. We are going to pose the question: maybe the Hulk isn’t anybody. Maybe the Hulk is the Hulk! And if you calmed him down, what you’d get is a Hulk that goes to sleep, not a Hulk that turns back into a human.”
But that’s not the only option readers are given in the first issue. In fact one familiar character is set up as a prime suspect. Rick Jones, who was presumed dead in Manhattan, is walking around the Alaskan frontier in tattered pants, and he thinks he has something to do with a destroyed oil line. “My instinct is that he’s not going to be in the Alaskan frontier for long,” says Loeb. “[Rick] has one friend in this world, and I think its safe to say that’s Banner, and all I know is that when they get together nothing good comes of it. So I’m looking forward to seeing the two of them get together and obviously that’s going to be very difficult to happen if you’re at the base.”
So will the team we see in the first issue be able to take down this new Hulk, who, as we’ve seen for the Abomination, isn’t above using some firepower on his foes? “I think that certainly time and time again the Hulk has been defeated,” says Loeb. “All we know is that the Hulk is behaving in a way they’ve never seen before. But they’ve gone up against the guy that ran the Pantheon; they’ve gone up against Mr. Fixit. There have been other personalities that have emerged. I’ve always believed that the reason the Hulk could never be defeated is that at the end of the day, Banner wouldn’t [let him win]. Because if you think about it, the madder he gets the stronger he gets — there’s no end to that. He just becomes big enough to punch the moon apart, or dare I say it, crack the Internet in half. I think the real question is, are we dealing with a Hulk we’ve ever dealt with before. He’s red, lets find out what that’s about. By the time you get to issue #4, you have a pretty good idea of what’s going on. That doesn’t mean you know what’s going on. But you have a pretty good idea.”
One other question a Marvel fan has to ask themselves at this juncture is where do all these characters, who are all staples of the Marvel, fit into Marvel’s big Secret Invasion plans of 2008, if at all? “I’m working very closely with (Avengers writer Brian Michael) Bendis to make sure I’m not doing anything that contradicts what’s going on in Secret Invasion,” says Loeb. “But in terms of the book itself I don’t think we’re going to cross over. We’re already dealing with a lot of new characters and new subject matter. Having said that I can’t promise you there isn’t something Skrully going on in the book. I just don’t know if it’s going to tie directly into what is essential in an Avengers driven storyline.”
Another thing you can’t overlook is the partnership between Loeb and Ed McGuinness, who together have pumped out some pretty awesome comics. According to Loeb, their plan for collaborating on Hulk will very much mimic their last series. “There is something very sweet about what we accomplished with Superman/Batman,” says Loeb. “And the idea of doing 25 issues and breaking them into pods so that we can invite some of our friends to come in — we’ve got some pretty exciting announcements [that we’ll make known in the coming months] about some of the people who might be coming in to do a few issues so we can keep Ed on time and [have him] do the big major plotline stories.”
And there you have it. Big things are on the horizon for Hulk, especially one grudge match that Loeb seems to be dying to see.
“I have promised the Hulk is going to punch the Watcher in the face.”
"Jeph stated that because of his increased anger, the Red Hulk could now fly"
after another week
"In Hulk #3, the Red Hulk has developed a new power - the ability to shoot laser beams out of his eyes"
continuing
"Jeph Loeb has told to us about his new intentions and we saw a preview- the Red Hulk is going to battle a being that scars his chest in a way it can't be healed...why...the scar looks almost like an "S"...hmm."
Of him all of sudden growing spikes from his Body. Becoming a mindless tool of destruction. And being able to come back from death stronger than before.
Well if he looks like a blur to Extremis Iron Man, who has reactions times pretty high up there (got a huge upgrade in reflexes / reaction time during the Extremis saga), then it would have to be pretty fast.
They're trying really hard to upgrade Hulk in order to go toe to toe with characters such as Superman or the like. This supposed 'speed upgrade' is ridiculous.
Marvel must've been reading lots of Superman vs Hulk debates and I think they were like "Hey, we've gotta do something about that. Let's make him fast and be able to punch a Watcher in the face. Yeah .. that'll do it. And since we're at it, let's change his appearence, try to make him cooler. Is red fine ? Oh, okay. "
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Last edited by Philosophía on Jan 17th, 2008 at 04:39 PM
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Jan 17th, 2008 09:25 AM
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