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Walt Hall Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 23 January 2005 Posts: 36
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Posted: 16 July 2020 at 11:16am | IP Logged | 1
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In the Secret Wars issue, he admittedly says he was only bracing the weight. However, every writer of the Hulk going back to Stan Lee has acknowledged the limitless strength aspect and just about ever writer has had his strength somehow defy the laws of physics with some incredible, jaw dropping feat. So is there some "magic" to it, or is there something unique to Bruce who is the only the Gamma mutate with dynamic strength? Seemingly yes, in his own rite he is unique like Owen Reece.
Al Ewing seemingly took us to a future where Bruce mentally surrendered and a being call the The One Below All who can act through others used the Hulk and his limitless strength to break the cosmos.
I have always seen Bruce's core personality as a governor that holds his alter-ego aspect in check. Woe to everyone if he surrenders that responsibility or just as bad immerses himself in the rage as well.
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Eric Sofer Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 31 January 2014 Location: United States Posts: 4789
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Posted: 16 July 2020 at 4:04pm | IP Logged | 2
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Limitless strength... in the end, why bother to define it? The Hulk doesn't get tougher the angrier he gets, so even if he were enraged enough to punch the moon out of orbit*, he'd still go down to a series of punches from Namor, the Thing, Thor, or Superman (et. al.)
*More likely, he'd "leap" the moon out of orbit.
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Philippe Negrin Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 August 2007 Location: France Posts: 2644
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Posted: 17 July 2020 at 1:37am | IP Logged | 3
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Why don't these writers create new characters to tell these stories ????
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Eric Sofer Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 31 January 2014 Location: United States Posts: 4789
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Posted: 17 July 2020 at 7:54am | IP Logged | 4
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Phillippe N. - It probably wouldn't be as "kewl." And certainly nobody would buy the stories of a new character like this.
"Hey, I got an idea! I'll make a character STRONGER THAN THE UNIVERSE IS DURABLE!" "And... what do we do with him?"
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Daniel Gillotte Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 11 October 2005 Location: United States Posts: 2593
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Posted: 17 July 2020 at 11:49am | IP Logged | 5
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I don't have an issue with Al Ewing's exploration of the Hulk- he's building on what came before in weird and wonderful ways. It's not the Hulk I always want or the Hulk that I think should be the permanent status quo, but for a long time now there's been a variety of Hulks (even excluding the stupid shit with the red hulks and whatnot).
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Peter Martin Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 March 2008 Location: Canada Posts: 15809
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Posted: 17 July 2020 at 7:37pm | IP Logged | 6
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The Secret Wars thing was kind of at the boundary between crazy/acceptable. Far from the most egregious thing I've read and the idea of the Hulk acting as small, temporary brace for a very limited part of the mountain range has never filled me with Hulk-like rage.
That said, the Hulk's limitless strength is best left as a hypothetical notion rather than fully explored. Infinite anything doesn't really suit any story.
Edited by Peter Martin on 17 July 2020 at 7:37pm
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Eric Jansen Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 27 October 2013 Location: United States Posts: 2292
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Posted: 18 July 2020 at 12:18am | IP Logged | 7
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Why don't these writers create new characters to tell these stories ????________________
See, I think it's specifically BECAUSE the Hulk has been around for decades that they went this route. Each writer has to top the last writer. Each story has to be "bigger."
If they created a new man-into-monster character, his power level would probably start off much lower. "Ooh, he can break a padlock with his hand! Ooh, he can punch through a wall with only one or two hits! Ooh, he can actually lift a car off the ground--with only some strain!"
Superman went from lifting wife-beaters off the ground with one hand to pushing moons out of orbit. And Marvel always tries to be like DC (for some reason).
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Walt Hall Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 23 January 2005 Posts: 36
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Posted: 18 July 2020 at 4:51am | IP Logged | 8
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I agree with what Daniel said in that Al Ewing is just building on what has come before. I think that is what Jim Shooter did in Secret Wars #4.
The cover of issue #6 back at the beginning references his limitless strength and it follows into Tales to Astonish. Here are just a couple examples. It's what Stan and Jack established and I don't think you can fault a particular writer or artist in exploring that in their own ways. It works in the Hulk where it may not work with other characters or books because their is so much inner turmoil with the character. Limitless strength in the case of Bruce Banner can be just as much a limitless curse as a limitless blessing.
Army scientist, Dr. Zaxon describes Hulk's vast power as immeasurable. "I can hardly believe these readings! He's a veritable blast furnace of limitless organic energy! There is no way to even measure is strength!" From Tales to Astonish #78
The mutated super-genius, Leader, realizes, "The tests are worthless! There's no way to measure his strength! There is nothing he cannot do! I cannot build a device powerful enough to test him with!" From Tales to Astonish #73
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Greg McPhee Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 25 August 2004 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 5065
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Posted: 18 July 2020 at 7:37am | IP Logged | 9
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I’m sure Al Ewing isn’t writing the World Breaker Hulk as a be all and end all Hulk. The story seems to be averting this happening with The Leader’s interference.
Give the story a chance before jumping to conclusions. Ewing has been solid so far and has respected and used the history of the characters.
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Brian Floyd Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 07 July 2006 Location: United States Posts: 8360
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Posted: 18 July 2020 at 7:59am | IP Logged | 10
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The problem is that Marvel has made the Hulk literally unstoppable. When his strength has no limit AND he not only regenerates, but he even regenerates from being killed, how do you defeat him?
Other than tossing him into another universe or dimension and hoping he doesn't find his way back, total disintegration (maybe?) or tossing him into the sun......
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Eric Sofer Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 31 January 2014 Location: United States Posts: 4789
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Posted: 18 July 2020 at 10:49am | IP Logged | 11
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Brian F. - you paralyze his mind. Or destroy it.
And thus, another big question - could Kitty Pryde or the Vision destroy the Hulk? I can't imagine him regenerating his brain.
Drop him onto Jupiter. By the time he reaches its solid core, likely he'll have suffocated, or gotten stuck in the atmospheric pressure. Even if not, it'd be like trying to jump out of water to escape the thousands of miles of gas above him to open space.
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Walt Hall Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 23 January 2005 Posts: 36
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Posted: 27 July 2020 at 1:59pm | IP Logged | 12
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I actually think Al Ewing's approach is real genius. He said from the get go he accepted the notion that the Hulk is the "Strongest One There Is" and it therefore provided no hinderance. He felt it was consistent with the what had been established for the Hulk for decades so by running with it, it allowed to him to just move to the real internal struggles that have always dogged and plagued Bruce Banner/Hulk. It was clear from the get go in his run, so there was no need to challenge or test the notion. It allowed him to use it when necessary for storytelling purposes but allowed him to push the story in other directions. It has been a success in that relative to comic book sales overall, the Immortal Hulk has sold much better comparatively than a Hulk book usually does.
Also, he admits he was influenced the by all previous artists but says the Lee, Ditko and Kirby's original six and the early days of the Hulk was key. He likens his run to the fact even those comic titans had a hard time pinning the character down and he was in flux for quite a while. In the Avengers he was a hero in the first couple books and a quasi enemy in the very next issue. He see Banner/Hulk as a creature of chaos and why he went with the monster/horror aspect in his run. IMHO it's been very good.
Edited by Walt Hall on 27 July 2020 at 8:15pm
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