Was the Hulk Gay? - Follow Up

I get a lot of hits on this blog through this post: "Was The Hulk Gay?", which is this weird little story about why Bruce Banner's name was changed to David Banner for the TV show.

(I am referring to the Bill Bixby David Banner, and not the David Banner rap artist who I first discovered in Def Jam's "Fight for NY II" on the XBox. If I was a rapper, I know I'd want to be named after Bill Bixby.)

(Also, David Banner's end-fight taunt from "Fight for NY" is easily the most awesome and most confusing taunt of that game.)

(I have to share it: "I'm from the M I crooked letter, cooked letter I crooked letter, crooked letter I humpback, humpback I make em all die!" That is solid gold, my friends. I love that game.)

Back to the point at hand, I would like to hope that people finding the old post in question are having a similar discussion with their idiot friends. I would really like to think that, because the alternatives are that people a typing "Hulk" and "Gay" together into Google and are not happy to see the irreverant little anecdote from the 70's.

Even if that is the case, I hope they at least read the post before diving back into the gutters of the internet.

Hulk Vs.

I had picked up a copy of the Hulk Vs. DVDs a few weeks ago, but did not watch them right away because I had figured that Marisa would want to watch them with me, at least the Wolverine one. We went out Saturday night and were up late, so yesterday, a lazy Sunday morning, was a good time to slap on some cartoons to watch while having breakfast and before the big gold medal hockey game.

The other Marvel cartoon movies have been okay, but not great. The Ultimate Avengers, Iron Man, and Doctor Strange ones were good, but nothing spectacular, so I went into this one with low expectations, and realizing that anything with the Hulk will have a lot of time on screen of the green guy smashing stuff.

Hulk vs. Wolverine was the first one we watched. First of all, I should note that this DVD had so many trailers on it, that it was getting a little ridiculous. They just kept going and going. They had trailers for movies that had been out for years on it. Marisa got fed up after about the 5th one, and insisted we skip ahead.

The movie probably should have been called Wolverine vs Hulk, as it had to do more with Logan than his foe here. Aside from the headliners, Sabretooth, Omega Red, Lady Deathstrike, the professor from Weapon X and Deadpool were all involved. Wolverine slashes everyone and everything, and kills several guards in the villains compound. (Yeah, there's no doubt that he kills them, claws, blood and screams made that pretty clear.) The plot was very elemental, but the one aspect that elevated this from just a beat 'em up was the dialogue they gave Deadpool. He was funny. Marisa laughed out loud more than once, and I thought he was great. The ending of the movie was a bit of a cop out, not really giving you a clear winner between Hulk and Wolvie, but all in all, it was at least a fun ride.

Hulk vs. Thor was probably a better constructed movie, and flowed a little better in terms of telling the story, but it didn't have the same flair. Set in Asgard, it was also not very Hulk-centric, with The Warriors Three, Balder, Loki and the Enchantress all involved. While this one was a nice story, it didn't have the same pop that the Wolverine one did. It did, however, quite clearly show who won in the fight between the two title characters.

These flicks were worth watching, exactly as we did; hung over on a Sunday morning while having breakfast. It was almost as much fun as the last Hulk movie, not great cinema by any means, but they were a fun violent romp.

The Incredible Hulk

I went to see The Incredible Hulk last night, just on a whim and not really with much anticipation. I liked the last one well enough, but it never really grabbed me, and the Hulk can be really hit-or-miss as far as storytelling engines go.

First off, the opening credits cut right to the chase, and as the music is still playing, you get that Bruce Banner is the Hulk, and he's on the run. This really lets the story get going right away, and even if you missed the Ang Lee/Eric Bana movie from 2003, you still get it. It was a smart move, and really kept the audience into the film.

The next thing that worked well was something that I was really worried about, and that was the casting of Edward Norton as Bruce Banner. I thought he'd either be too deep or play it too pathetic, but he really seemed to play Banner the way that I read the character as being in my favorite comics. Nervous, but responsible, and just driven enough to keep going. He was a great Banner, and he gets my kudos for it.

The Incredible Hulk also picks up where Iron Man left off, and really sets itself in the Marvel Universe. As the Army gets ready to chase Hulk around, weapons and schematics are labeled with "Stark Industries" and documents and references are made to SHEILD. The last scene of the movie, which I won't spoil, also made sure to make the fanboy in me salivate.



The movie also borrowed plots from the comic books, taking elements from both
Bruce Jones' run (Banner the fugitive) as well as from The Ultimates (Banner working on the Super-Soldier serum) and this really made the world more cohesive without pulling non-readers out of the story.

All in all, the movie was a success for me. The cast was as good as they had to be, the action was clear, Hulk smashed the Army and the Abomination, and the movie left the door open to introduce Doc Samson, The Leader, or tie into other things without weakening itself as a stand-alone. If you liked Iron Man, you'll like Hulk too.

Was the Hulk Gay?

How odd is my life that this came up in conversation amongst my friends last night?

Taken from the Wiki article:

"...according to Stan Lee, Universal changed the name because the name "Bruce Banner" sounds like a "gay character" name, and "David Banner" sounded better for the character. (However, "Bruce" was used as his middle name, as that was the case in the comics, except in the comics his first name is "Robert," not "David.")"

My pal Keith was nonplussed at my recounting this fact, saying "He's a big, muscled guy who rips out of his clothing and runs around in his underwear." which of course leads me to believe Keith has never really known any gay people, or if he has, has known very scary and odd gay people.

In any case, I think that Bruce is a perfectly honest name, with no sexuality implied either way. I also think the 70's were an odd time.