#immortal hulk: great power

[vertigoartgore]

2021's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.6 #11 ("11: Here we make our stand.") last (splash) page by Al Ewing (script), Juann Cabal (artist), Federico Lee (colors) and VC's Cory Petit (letters).

I'm still regretting that this very good run didn't last a bit longer (but as the saying goes: "don't be sad it's over, be glad it happened").

#guardians of the galaxy #al ewing #juann cabal #marvel comics #money shot #splash page #2021 #2020s #star lord #peter quill #nova #richard rider #gamora #drax the destroyer #moondragon #phyla vell #prince of power #team shot #then its us #underrated #great run #not as good as immortal hulk but still #team roster #cosmic comics #olympian gods #gone bad #ol #hold that pose #cool comic art

[browsethestacks]

Art Process: The Immortal Hulk: Great Power #01 (2020)

Art by Jorge Molina

#Comics #Marvel Comics #Immortal Hulk Great Power #Hulk #Spider-Man #Jorge Molina #Original Art #Before And After #Art Process #2020 #2020s #20s

[marvel-and-moor]

Sometimes I think I don't like Devil Hulk that much but then he says something like this and I 😭😭😭😭

#Immortal Hulk #Immortal Hulk Great Power #Devil Hulk #this is right after Spider-man sat with Bruce to be with him during the shift #man this issue made me feel things

[superectojazzmage]

Of everything that happens in the new issue of Immortal Thor, this scene stands out the most to me as something I feel will be one of the most important scenes of both the issue and the run as a whole.

In the very beginning of gods, of Earth, of humanity, of stories, among the very first incarnations of the archetypes that Thor and Loki embody - the mighty warrior and the devious trickster - see each other and immediately get into a fight out of sheer revulsion of everything their twin stands for.

Good vs evil. Light vs dark. Order vs chaos. Brawn vs brain. Control vs freedom. Life vs death. Fate vs choice. Peace vs war. Mundanity vs magic. Law vs crime. Creation vs destruction. Love vs hate. And many more. Clashing opposites, battling for supremacy. A cycle of violence and debate passed down the generations, from father to son, mentor to student, predecessor to successor, and so on. Brother waging battle against brother just to prove a point, to fulfill their role in the story. An ideological blood feud applied to archetypes and titles and narratives. Trickling all the way down into it's present expression... Thor and Loki.

Already it's clear that cycles of this sort are going to be a very large theme of Immortal Thor. The concept of recurrences and stories being retold over the years have been talked about a lot by the narrator. The comic goes to great lengths to draw attention to how Thor and his cast and, by extension, their own world in the form of comics are falling into patterns that transcend through time. And I feel that's going to be the crux of a great deal of the plot.

Loki hates the cycle. In their roles as both the goddess of stories and the god of mischief, they abhor stagnation and repetition. They want to be free of the roles "assigned" by the narrative. They want to be free of the debate, the never-ending battle of good and evil that ha destroyed their family time and again. Thor would want to be free of it too, if he realized he were part of it. But he struggles to do so. He's a rock in the sea of time. A god among mortals, a child of two worlds watching in confusion and grief as his human friends age and change and die around him while his divine brothers and sisters continue to stay the same. In this, they are trying to do what Gaea wanted to do but couldn't; to break the cycle.

Toranos and Utgard-Loki don't want to break the cycle. They ARE the cycle. Embodiments of the sins of the forefathers carrying down to their children. Representations of the archetypes of Thors and Lokis at their absolute worst, shorn of all true depth and compassion and true belief in their aspects in favor of continuing the godforsaken argument. Shades of the old festering in the blood of the young, infesting them with their baggage, holding them back from growing better, and lashing out at them when the new generations fail to meet the standards of the elders. And they may not even realize they're doing so.

This isn't the first time this theme has come up in Al Ewing's work.

Immortal Hulk presents the conflict between the Hulk and his archenemy, the Leader, as a similar generational feud. Both in a literal familial sense (the Banner and Sterns families being divided and warring after Robert and Samuel Sterns turn on each other) and a larger ideological sense (people using the power of gamma for good or ill, going all the way to the first Hulk being born from a leader's selfish desire to misuse magic as a tool of conquest). Sometimes the thoughtful man is the hero, sometimes the brute is. But they always fight. Senselessly and pointlessly. And the Green Door and the horror it brings was only stopped... by breaking the cycle. By defying it. By Hulk choosing to never sink to Leader's level, or those of his predecessors, and instead choose to forgive.

And Ewing makes clear cycles and wars spanning centuries like this are common in the Marvel Universe. The Eternity Mask is passed down generations of men and women, always fighting for freedom against those who would deny it. Nick Fury passes his name and identity and role onto his son. There's always an Ant Man, inheriting their predecessor's problems, and there's always an Ultron, trying to claim dominion. Arakko and Krakoa alike are divided between those who hold to the old ways and those who seek new ways. Ebony and Ivory Kings do their work, from within and without. On and on, the wheels turn.

It even goes back to the very beginning. To prior multiverses. All tracing back to the first super battle, the first superhero and first supervillain - Lifebringer-One and Anti-All, the cosmic knight and the entropic dragon - fighting for the fate of the nascent world.

Effectively, Ewing views and represents the narratives of superhero comics as we know them, as a sort of repeating song. The metatextual commentary is that all this has happened before and will happen again, because humanity will always dream of heroes battling monsters. There will always be a knight and a dragon. A warrior and a trickster. A superhero and a supervillain.

But he also acknowledges how this can go too far. How comics can fall into stagnating loops of repeating stories and stall status quos. Spider-Men being denied their stories because editors want to live in nostalgia instead of the now. X-Men getting their progress towards coexistence undone because writers can't handle change.

And this is all what Immortal Thor is about and will be about. The struggle for balance between opposites and extremes. Cyclical narratives and worlds. Ideas and stories being inherited and passed on. And all of it a commentary on comic books themselves and their history and role in culture.

It's brilliant stuff.

#immortal thor #the immortal thor #thor #mighty thor #thor odinson #loki #loki laufeyson #marvel #marvel comics #marvel 616 #earth 616 #marvel universe #al ewing #comic books #comics #media analysis #character analysis

[eamo2004]

A Beginners Guide To The Different Alters Of Bruce Banner: Part 1

• Bruce Banner: This is the host alter and the original personality of Bruce Banner. He is usually a kind hearted, soft spoken human man with a genius level intellect. He had a habit of repressing his negative emotions until a terrible accident.

• Savage Hulk: This is the most common Hulk. The strongest one there is. The Savage Hulk is comparable to a child, being the manifestation of Bruce's anger from a childhood of abuse from his father that he never released. As a child, Bruce would be powerless to stop his father from hurting him and his mother, Bruce repressed his rage, thusly the Hulk was formed as a way of expressing his rage as a child

This alter is almost always guaranteed to emerge when Bruce is either under extreme distress or in grave danger, depending on whether he is the dominant Hulk at the time.

When Bruce shifts to this alter, his physical form changes also, growing in size and muscle mass, his skin also turns bright green.

The Savage Hulk's strength depends on how angry he is. The angrier he is, the stronger he becomes, this strength is seemingly unlimited. Savage Hulk is one of the strongest alters. However, while Savage Hulk excels in raw strength and power, he lacks in intelligence. He has intelligence akin to a child, and lacks any form of control over his emotions.

• Joe Fixit/ The Grey Hulk: This is Bruce's first Hulk transformation in universe. Joe has a cunning and ruthless personality, usually being selfish and rarely looking out for nobody but himself, though he can be shown to care deeply for others. He is of average human intelligence, but is particularly street smart, being an expert in the art of crime. Bruce developed the Joe Fixit alter from watching black and white movies as a child after his father had beaten him to the point of having two black eyes. Joe was Bruce's idea of what a man was as a child, a tough guy who wisecracks and would beat somebody to death for pissing him off.

Joe's appearance in physical form usually depends on whether or not he is the dominant personality. He was initially the dominant Hulk when Bruce Banner was struck by the gamma bomb, but was made dormant when The Savage Hulk appeared.

When he initially began shifting to this alter, Bruce would grow in size and muscle mass, with his skin turning grey. Sometimes Joe Fixit would remain in Banner's human form. Most recently after being exposed to cosmic radiation, Joe would become a Hulk with gray skin and glowing red veins.

Initially, when Joe was The Grey Hulk, he would essentially act as a middle ground for Banner and Savage Hulk, being stronger than Banner and smarter than Savage Hulk, while being less intelligent than Banner and weaker than Savage Hulk. When in his human form, he is seemingly just a normal human in terms of abilities. When in his Cosmic Hulk form, Joe is seemingly stronger than his former Grey Hulk form, but it is unknown how his cosmic form compares to the other Hulks.

• Devil Hulk / The Immortal Hulk:

• Devil Hulk: One of Bruce's earliest and most dangerous alters, Devil Hulk feels responsible for protecting Banner, and destroying anyone who is a threat to him. This alter manifested from Bruce's subconscious urge to kill his abusive father and lash out from those who would hurt him. Devil Hulk is extremely protective of Bruce, going to great lengths to keep him safe and loving him in an almost parental way. He is especially protective of Savage Hulk, who is the manifestation of Bruce's inner child.

Bruce kept Devil Hulk locked away for most of his life, terrified of the consequences of releasing such a terrifying being into the world. When Bruce was a child, Devil Hulk would plead with the young boy to let him take control so he could murder Brian Banner and protect Bruce, with Bruce seeing him as a monster under the bed. Devil Hulk's need to protect Bruce is to a deadly extent, willing to do anything to protect Banner. Although Devil Hulk does seem to carry a moral compass, however small it may be, as he once went out of his way to track down a robber to punish them for killing a little girl and attempting to kill Bruce, and promptly broke every bone in that robber's body, leaving him permanently comatose and disabled.

The circumstances of Devil Hulk's appearance are rather unique. When in the physical world, Devil Hulk takes the form of the classic green Savage Hulk, but in Bruce Banner's mindscape, Devil Hulk takes the form of a draconic monster, with red and orange scales and sharp teeth.

In terms of strength, Devil Hulk seems to be on the same level as the Savage Hulk in terms of strength, but it isn't known how strong he is exactly. What makes him dangerous is his sinister intellect, seemingly on the same level of intelligence as Bruce Banner himself.

#bruce banner #hulk #incredible hulk #immortal hulk #devil hulk #grey hulk #savage hulk #marvel #marvel comics #comics

[self-winding]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dymJ-ViBRhQ

I watched this review of The Batman (2022) a while ago and keep mentally coming back to it.  I generally think his comments about The Batman movie itself and how it differs from previous incarnations of Batman are good and interesting.  I personally love this movie and its take on a Batman who is kinda unhinged and fucked up but also framed as unhinged and fucked up, and who has to wrestle with the uncomfortable, looming feeling that he’s not all that different with the guy he’s trying to hunt down.

Most of the analysis is a solid, if somewhat basic deconstruction of vigilante, beat-em-up power fantasies in which the hero breaks free of society’s rules and stops the bad guys by taking things into their own hands.  And The Batman does better than most superhero movies at being self-aware about the realistic drawbacks and ethical perils of vigilantism.

However, the final part of the video veers into some weird territory where the creator starts talking about a comic called The Immortal Hulk, which I haven’t read but which, just based on the excerpts, looks pretty bad.  The way it’s described, it’s like...Marxist Hulk beating the shit out of various people, including these weird entities that are supposed to symbolize liberalism and capitalism, and that premise plays out every bit as cheesy and preachy as you’d imagine.  It’s a comic that presents a very black-and-white view of morality, with the solution to society’s problems being to ignore the restrictions society has placed on you and just kill the bad guys.

You’d think, based on the reviewer’s low opinion of vigilante power-fulfillment fantasies, he would also be critiquing this comic as another one-dimensional, adolescent, macho power fantasy, but no.  He thinks it’s great and he holds it up as a contrast to adolescent, macho power fantasies.  This, he says, is a comic that is Doing It Right.  There’s a point where he says in this giddy fanboy voice, “The Hulk literally smashes capitalism!”

And I’ve seen this kind of thing before.  People who critique toxic masculinity, vigilante fantasies etc. will quickly turn around and sing the praises of all those things when that violence is aimed at a target that they consider legitimately bad.

It’s not so much that they don’t like adolescent power fantasies.  They just want more adolescent power fantasies that cater to their ideological tastes.  Instead of one-dimensional cowboy narratives about punching criminals, they want more one-dimensional cowboy narratives about punching cops.

That’s all.

[alfietalksaboutcomics]

Some Thoughts On First Pages

I have this theory that you can identify a great comic from its first page, or first two pages really since frankly that’s how most of us end up reading these things, in physical. The first page is an opportunity to not only draw the reader into the narrative of a comic but to make a thesis statement about the broader comic. First impressions have a lasting impact in the mind, the best comics creators know this and use the prime real estate of the first page (or two) to hook the audience right off the bat. I’d like to go over a few examples to illustrate what I mean, starting with New X-Men by Grant Morrison. 

New X-Men #1 By Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely

I’m vaguely aware that Patrick (H) Willems talked about this page and how excellent it is in his video One X-Cellent Scene - It's Time For X-Men to Evolve, I haven’t seen the video but I would feel remiss not to mention it since Willems no doubt discussed this brilliant page with more insight then I will provide. That being said I will still try and give my thoughts on what makes this page so instantly iconic and what it says more broadly about Morrison’s New X-Men. 

New X-Men was my second X-Men comic, after reading Joss Weadon and John Cassaday’s Astonishing X-Men, and let me tell you that the second I saw this first page I knew I was in for something special. First off Quitely’s art is just spectacular, the composition is one thing but my god is it just a beautiful page overall. There’s just something about this page, something indescribable for me, something that just makes me want to frame it and hang it up on my wall. In one page Morrison and Quitely give glimpses into the characters of Wolverine and Cyclops (alongside the new character of Ugly John). Morrison and Quitely also show off their bold new vision for the X-Men in this page. The sentinel being a symbol of the teams past, while Wolverine and Cyclops’s new costumes are a symbol of this all new all different take on the X-Men. It's forward looking while also being firmly rooted in the franchise's history. 

Immortal Hulk #1 by Al Ewing and Joe Bennett

Immortal Hulk #1’s first two pages are simple but say magnitudes, the real thing it conveys is theme. The narration spells it out plainly “There are two people in every mirror. There’s the one you can see. And then there’s the other one. The one you don’t want to." This is the entirety of Immortal Hulk summed up in just two pages. The idea of duality, man and monster, Keter and Thaumiel, Banner and Hulk. Throughout the series this concept of the opposite reflection is brought up again and again, it’s the very essence of Immortal Hulk. This first page is also an excellent example of set up and pay off, the very first page of this comic has a man looking into his own reflection, likewise to reinforce the theme the comic ends with Banner looking into a mirror and looking back at him is the Hulk. 

House of X #1 by Jonathan Hickman and Pepe Larraz

Let’s end with another X-Men comic, the franchise redefining House of X #1 by Johnthan Hickman and Pepe Larraz. House Of X #1 opens on a panel of these cocoon-like eggs, then a wide shot of the eggs as far as the eye can see, all the while a silhouette of a man stands in the foreground. Then we cut to a hand emerging from an egg and then to people crawling out of them towards the man. On the next page we get a glimpse of one of the people, a man with red energy coming out of his eyes having his chin lifted up by the  mysterious man. The next panel is a shot of the people reaching up to the man, a boldly redesigned professor X, finally the last panel cuts to a close up of his face where he proudly proclaims the iconic line “To me, my X-Men.” 

The first time I saw this page I had that same feeling I had with New X-Men #1, I knew I was in for something special. House of X and Powers of X radically redefined the X-Men and it all started here with these first two pages. Larraz’s art is spectacular and breathes life into this bold new world for the X-franchise, it’s simple yet profound. It invites so many questions, what are these eggs? Where are we? What is different with Professor X? And many, many more all within the confines of two pages. The icing on the cake is the invoking of that iconic line “To me, my X-Men.”. This page has become iconic and has been mimicked throughout the Krakoa era many times. It’s truly something special.

I could list many, many more examples of great first pages but I hope by now you get the general idea. First pages offer a unique opportunity for comic book creators to introduce us to their worlds, characters, and themes all within those first two pages. I should clarify that this isn’t a requirement for a great comic, plenty of amazing comics have forgettable first pages but by god is it effective when the stars align and creators craft a memorable first page (or two).

#xmen #comics #x men comics #mutants #comic books #xmen comics #comicbooks #wolverine #xspoilers #new x men #first pages #first page #uncanny x men #incredible hulk #hulk #immortal hulk #house of x #powers of x #hoxpox #cyclops #x men #logan howlett

[witherstarau]

Fuck it, I’ll post the full species notes right here

Keep in mind, these are concepts/notes

Feel free to send asks!

Admins

Powerful beings created by The Great Jebb were given the sole purpose of protecting the world he created before he dissolved into the ocean.

They were created from Terracotta and other items like diamonds, gold, and apples. etc

Very tall, can range from 7 to 14’11 feet

Their appearance can be based on what powers they have

Before TKR, most of the Admins were reclusive and didn’t interact with anyone who wasn’t their worshippers, though they didn’t mind talking with Mortals

After TKR, the Admins were nearly wiped out and were forced along with the Mods to take retreat in The Underneath

Immortal, can only be killed by other Admins or something created by an Admin

Mods

A subspecies from Admins, think of Nymphs from Greek Mythology

Their appearance depends on what kind of place they’re born in:

Ocean - Fish-like and have scales on their arms and legs, their eyes are wide and their scleras are dark.

Plains/Forest - Mostly resembles Crafters, but they’re much taller and have long and pointy ears. They often decorate their hair with beautiful flowers and love fruits.

Mountain/Snow - Large and hulking beasts, very hairy due to the cold, and have long tails that can glow to guide others through blizzards

Desert - Glossy and tanned skin, gold marks on their forehead, and sharp claws. Most Mods in this category have wings due to being created by Celeste.

Have powers just like Admins but are much weaker.

Not immortal but can live for 1,000 years

Created by using items such as gold, lanterns, or fruit. etc

Created for helping the Admins and acting as ‘mini guardians’ for the Mortals

Retreated to The Underneath after the events of TKW

Crafters

Created by Delphineas an accident by using clay and flowers.

Famous for their knack for crafting and building, they’re often the main source of entertainment for the Admins

Their social dynamics are complex, some Crafters prefer to live in villages, some prefer to travel with groups, while others like to live alone.

They also live in an aromantic society, they don’t care for relationships and are very affectionate with their peers. Boyfriend/Girlfriend/Spousal relationships are often replaced with Partnerships.

Familial relationships are loose and Crafters tend to include closest friends in their family circle

Scars and good armory/weaponry are considered attractive

Sheeplings

Created by an Admin named Eberhard in an attempt to create another species like the Crafters

Were created with hay and wool

They are humanoid sheep that survive by sticking with their village and relying on Golems and wolves to fight against Illigers and Zombies

Long wool is considered attractive and masculine

Sheeplings often shave on hot summers

Huge vegetarians, and whatever you do, DO NOT GIVE THEM LAMB

Invented dye and sells their wool at celebrations

Very neutral towards Crafters, as long as they don’t fuck with them, they’re fine

Huge trading market, merchants will go out into the world to conduct outside trading markets

#minecraft story mode au #minecraft story mode #minecraft story mode rewrite #mcsm au #witherstar au #species lore #Wither Lore

[enddaysengine]

Zombies (Paths Beyond)

The walking dead. Brain eater. Shambling corpses. You all know what the classic reanimated slowpoke (not that one) is all about and Pathfinder supplies them in spades. Today, I'm going to handle the four in 2e's first Bestiary since they all get super short entries.

The brute, hulk, plague, and shambler variations all follow the same basic zombie pattern - slow, plodding motions without anything in the way of thought or tactics. They make up for this with customization, the entry comes with multiple additional abilities to make zombies even grosser and tougher. Notably, while d20 games don't usually roll with the infectious dead idea like pop culture does (at least for zombies), the plague zombie does and the plague-ridden ability allows other walking dead to as well. If you want a swarm of walking dead to attack, Bestiary 3 also has the Shambler Troop, which also covers you military necromancy needs.

While the shambling dead make great canon fodder for a villain, think about using them as metaphors in planar adventures.  Obviously, they can be symbols of illness or disease, but given their decaying state, they can also be signs of societal rot or corruption. If you want to pull on Planescape, they can be signs of callousness and cynicism when treated as things rather than human remains. If you've played Torment, think about the Post having flyers nailed to its skull.

Zombies aren't intelligent enough to sing, but in the Furrows entire choruses sing the same songs in Necril. While many are rightly afraid that this is some new scheme of the Whispering Tyrant, the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye is not convinced. They hire adventures to investigate key junctures between the mortal world and the Negative Energy Plane in Ustalav, Osirion, Geb, and Mzali in order to find the origin of the mysterious undead language.

The Order of the Eternal is a hellknight order convinced that in order to bring perfect law to the planes, mortals must become immortals. Without immortality, they will be subject to the whims of fiends, celestials, gods, and monitors alike. Erkas is a signifer who seeks immortality through undeath, but has chosen a quicker path than a lich or graveknight. He aims to become a zombie lord, but first must refine his reanimation techniques, resulting in an overflow of zombies near his citadel in the Hanging Marches.

The One-In-Many started off as an ordinary Gebbite plague shambler, but exposure to the Nexian war machine granted it intelligence and flung it into the Great Beyond. Now, whenever the One animates a new corpse, its hive mind spreads to infect the new body. One-In-Many is careful about using this power, preferring to act as a covert information broker across the planes. After all, who watches what they say around zombies?

#Zombies #Undead #Pathfinder #Paths Beyond #RPG #plot hook #rpghook #worldbuilding #pf2e #paizo publishing

[mttmurduck]

I would love to know your thoughts on Bruce in Hulkverine (Ario Anindito) and avengers no surrender (Pepe Larraz) and the Immortal Hulk one shots (flatline: Declan Shalvey ; Great Power: Jorge Molina ; The Threshing Place: Mike Del Mundo)

Sorry I don't have good pics to share for any of them

No worries about sharing pics! I had a good time going through and searching for them (and I ended up reading Hulkverine lol).

Ario Anindito - Hulkverine #3

a very rough banner, the man on the run while investigating and helping. i like the slightly purple/blue hue on him, but he still reminds me of wolverine too much. (though, maybe that's deliberate?) 5/10.

Pepe Larraz - Avengers: No Surrender #690

digging the messy hair, and i can see the deep melancholy within him. but uh, im very confused about the rest of his hair. the back of it springs up like it's long in some panels? 7/10.

Declan Shalvey - Immortal Hulk: Flatline

i like this bruce. scraggly with the obligatory +10 stealth baseball cap. also, i gotta hand it to the writer who did all of the art, too! 8/10.

Jorge Molina - Immortal Hulk: Great Power

im muddled on this one. in some panels i can see the soft, troubled scientist. but, mostly i see superman??? i have to ask, why is he ripped???? how does he have the body of superman???? 3/10.

Mike Del Mundo - Immortal Hulk: The Threshing Place

i love this bruce. the science baseball cap for going incognito. the iconic purple. (and i love Del Mundo's style! soft and human.) his friendly, inquisitive expression that speaks to his confidence in understanding his state in the world. 10/10.

#thanks for the bruces :D #bruce banner #616 bruce banner #marvel #i also read threshing place since i saw that it was written by lemire! #probably going to end up reading the other oneshots #they looked nice too

[thevindicativevordan]

Are you happy with PKJ taking the reings on Hulk? I think he will become your favorite writer ever.

Anonymous asked:

Holy Hell, PKJ on Hulk !

Anonymous asked:

Thoughts on PKJ getting to write Hulk?

Short of Hickman himself taking over, I could not be more excited.

My favorite Marvel character getting the guy who has written some of my favorite Superman stories, and an artist who is fantastic, has me grinning from ear to ear. Didn't see it coming but hell yeah I'll be there Day 1 for this team. Cates did PKJ a huge favor by being the one to try and follow up Ewing. Now PKJ just has to do a better job than Cates did, rather than try and live up to one of the greatest Hulk/Marvel in general runs of all time. We're going back to horror, but the use of "Incredible" instead of "Immortal" likely signals that it will be a different kind of horror than what Ewing did.

Hope for me is that where Ewing's run was ultimately inwardly focused - the OBA was connected to gamma the source of Hulk's power, Bruce and his alter egos interactions was given lots of focus, the Leader attacked Hulk mentally rather than physically - PKJ's run will be more outwardly focused. By that I mean I hope the new monsters and gods won't only be gamma based, I'm eager to see more of Hulk's non-gamma foes appear and given revamps, and I'd like to see PKJ's worldbuilding applied to Hulk in a way that isn't just rehashing what Ewing did. But if he does want to expand on Ewing's Gamma Mythos, I'm open to seeing him try. Over in The Warworld Saga he didn't shy away from connecting Superman and Moses, Ewing's injection of religion and myth into Hulk would be right up PKJ's alley. And the one gamma Hulk foe I do want to see return and get used here is Abomination. Ewing didn't use him in the main Immortal book, with his usage of Abomination over in Gamma Force being pretty bog standard, and Abomination is the most prominent Hulk foe who desperately needs to be reestablished as a formidable opponent. Dig into Abomination and explore what makes him great beyond being a mere physical match for Hulk, just like what PKJ did with Mongul and Superman.

Book will probably start off with just Bruce as the focus, but I expect that PKJ will bring in Betty (will he follow up on Ewing's unresolved plot thread of Betty wanting to talk to Bruce about something?), Skaar, maybe Rick Jones too before long. Betty and Skaar are my main wants, give me the Hulk Family together as the broken mirror to what PKJ is trying to do over in Action Comics with the Superfamily. Speaking of that, man is living my dream, getting to write my two favorite characters at the same time! I obviously see a ton of similarities between Superman and Hulk, despite Hulk more than anyone else being Superman's true antithesis, and I'm eager to find out how PKJ's approach to Hulk differs from his approach to Supes. Obviously it's a topic I've thought a lot about, maybe PKJ has some thoughts on the subject too. There's an opportunity here for PKJ to explore the struggles and trials of a healthy emotionally supportive man and his family in Superman vs. the totally dysfunctional man and his family in Hulk.

#hulk #phillip kennedy johnson #nic klein

[cluepoke-archive]

Immortal Hulk is one of my favorite comic runs ever- it's dark, but hopeful. It's got a great portrayal of DID, excellent characters, art, religious themes- it's incredible.

And then the immediate next author tore it all to shreds for the sake of doing the same story he did on his last comic run and I will never forgive him for that

I've heard AWESOME things about immortal hulk but I kept putting it off because of some out of context stuff (wich is what I imagine the writer who tore it to shreds did!)

I've always been super interested in Bruce banners whole Deal especially in parallel to how the hulk is portrayed in congruence with his DID and the general realization after Jen gets her powers that. OH maybe this is Deeper than just super powerd angry guy... like the narrative foil between the two characters and what I've read about their histories

Also I NEED to learn more about this transgender lady with a portal gun

#GoingPostal

[marvel-and-moor]

Thoughts on Cates Hulk Run so far

I've read issues 1-8 (plus tie in issues for Banner of War)

Before even reading the issue, I was appalled at the concept. Bruce has (using magic of some kind?) turned the Hulk's body into a cyborg-esque spaceship, complete with rocket guns in the shoulders. He uses Hulk's rage to power the suit which means Bruce is consciously and constantly keeping Child Hulk in a state of rage, battling simulated monsters inside the engine of Bruce's "mind palace."

I don't like what this says about Bruce. I disagree with it. It completely destroys all the work that the system did during Ewings run (not to mention ignores that there are more than 2 people inside this body. Where is Joe? Where is Green scar or the professor?). Eventually, you are shown that Bruce went through something horrible that caused him to lose trust in the Hulk and feel justified in locking him away like this. He was forced to watch his own hands (not a Hulk out, but Bruce's hands) murderer 17 people, while Titan piloted the body. (And he thought Hulk did that. Somehow)

So ... great. A new evil alter. Because that's what we need. After Ewing took the idea if Devil Hulk and changed him, softened his edges, gave him an origin and an understandable goal. Nope. Bruce still has an evil alter. .... ugh.

And originally I thought maybe Cates just hadn't thought through the implications of the starship Hulk, but no. Titan points out to Bruce exactly what he's doing, how he is caging a child in eternal abuse. Cates creates a Bruce who has no qualms about torturing his headmate. I hate it.

The thing is ... if you don't think about the implications ... storywise it's been pretty fun. Bruce landed in an alternate dimension and met another version of himself who never became the Hulk but has his fair share of guilt. He fought Thor, and as tired as that is, much of the story takes place in Bruce's mind as he explains the situation to the ghost of Odin. I'll admit, there have been pages that gripped me here and there.

Not all of them, I wasn't very interesting in the Thor-Hulk. I'm tired of other characters getting temporarily gamma'd. And there has been a lot of cartoon violence. It doesn't even hit home like the gore in Immortal Hulk did. This just feels gratuitous.

And I do think about the implications. They're horrible. We don't need Titan. We don't need Bruce to hurt Hulk even more. And we don't need more erasure of the other headmates.

#ray reads comics #Hulk #bruce banner #Hulk (2021) #spoilers #negative review #evil alter tw #titan

[jedusaur]

2022 fic roundup!

this year I posted 153,007 words on AO3, which is by FAR the most I've ever written in a year, and I didn't even start until the end of April! the summer was just an unprecedented deluge of words, don't ask me wtf happened. so here's what I wrote:

my top 5 favorites

A Hockey Stick Apart [Check Please, Jack/Kent] — cabin-in-Canada trope inversion where Jack won't let Kent into the cabin, and they both learn a whole lot about the complexity of navigating boundaries both physical and emotional (I think this might be my favorite thing I've ever written—certainly the most personally meaningful I've posted publicly—and of course it's in a fandom no one has touched since 2017 >.<)

okay to ask [Marvel, Clint/Bucky] — in which everyone uses a consent settings system to help communicate what kinds of contact they're comfortable with

just trying to matter [Ted Lasso, Roy/Jamie/Keeley] — in which Roy is outed and Jamie comes out, and Keeley handles the PR

but for the grace [Ted Lasso, Roy/Jamie and Jamie/Keeley] — dimension-swap fic about Jamie from canon switching places with Jamie from a world where he's learned to manage his emotions

Made For This (The Yoga Breaks) [MCU, gen] — a character study of Bruce set during Endgame, focusing on his relationship with his body after he merges with the Hulk

Marvel, Clint/Bucky

No Consequences, No Hangovers — time loop fic where Clint repeatedly gets tied back-to-back with Bucky for hours on end

remembrances ⊻ memoria — in which Clint is immortal and Bucky kills him repeatedly over the course of decades

The House Recommends and The House Rules — no-powers AU in which Clint likes to hook up and Bucky is a bartender who tells him who he should bang

burning the hole where I lay and the decision to want — in which Bucky is on a mission to kill all the HYDRA agents that tortured him, and Clint is a hooker with information Bucky wants

something in consciousness — in which Clint and Bucky both keep having the same wet dream at the same time

This Is Why We Can Have Nice Things — Christmas fluff with a coffee Advent calendar

Targeted Areas — gym bros AU, with sexually-charged partnered bodyweight exercises

you didn't hear that — in which they're roommates and Bucky can hear Clint jerking off with his super-senses

Awful Taste But Great Execution — celebrity/fan AU leaning hard on the starstruck crush angle

second watch — in which there are lots of cuddles and clothes-sharing and Clint cannot explain any part of his bizarre wardrobe

Snuggly Like the Wolf — in which Bucky is a werewolf but always sleeps through his shifts

untitled tumblr ficlet in which Clint habitually says "I love you" to everyone except Bucky

untitled tumblr ficlet about the discovery of the Hand of Irelugi because I'm a nerd

Ted Lasso, Roy/Jamie

the exact nature of our wrongs — fake dating fic in which Roy reluctantly helps Jamie kick his alcohol problem

Check and Mate and the best way to spend a night — soulmate AU in a world where soulbonds are triggered by kissing, so people kiss strangers a lot

if you want something — in which Jamie has been fantasizing about getting a spanking from Roy Kent for a very, very long time

more of the thing you just got a taste of — in which Jamie hates Roy and also can't get enough of his dick

Mounting Available On Request — in which Roy accidentally hires a hooker and it's Jamie

Player On Loan — in which Jamie likes Keeley to lend him out to people for sex like a toy

Unmentionables — lingerie kink, that's it that's the fic

The Down Low — in which Jamie finds Roy on Grindr

just do it — consent play, that's it that's the fic

The Core Issue — in which Jamie thinks apples are all the same and Roy forcibly educates him

Russian Doll

you can call any old time [gen] — it always bugged me that they never tried to exchange numbers, so I wrote about why they couldn't

Check Please

A Few Eggs [Kent/Jack/Bitty] — the long-overdue kinky threesome sequel to Omelets, in which Bitty is the consummate hostess in both senses of the word "consummate"

#fandom #marvel #ted lasso #check please #russian doll #my shit #fic

[lunarspiral1127]

So, I missed She-Hulk episode 6, so I'm just gonna say my thoughts about the episode. *SPOILERS*

Filler. That's what this episode feel like, and not the good kind.

Even though Jen got new clothes from that designer that's supposed to fit both forms, they still look a bit baggy on her.

Nearly everyone in the wedding is unlikeable. Like, they make her not be She-Hulk, they give more of a damn about her love life, they make her clean cause the bride's a total bridezilla who made the crew quit, and even make her iron all the guys' shirts cause they were playing on the Switch! She should've just left! The only exception is the cute dog (who I'm really concerned for his health cause the bride said that he was resuscitated before the wedding), Chet who's DJing the wedding, and Josh who likes not just She-Hulk but also Jen.

By the way, where the hell is the groom? Throughout the whole episode, we never see the groom at all. Why?!

Speaking of Josh, I don't trust him at all. This show has most of the men be jerks, sexists, idiots, or all of the above. I bet the show will make Josh unlikeable later on and have him be any of those categories or evil.

She-Hulk vs. Titania (oh yeah, she's in it too to get back at Jen). Honestly, it was a bit longer than their previous fight, but it was meh to me. Probably cause of the slomo being used that one time and the CGI. What I don't get though is that Titania gets punched in the face and doesn't get her teeth knocked out, yet she slips on some ice cubes, faceplants hard on the floor and THAT messes up her teeth. Hell, before that, Jen in her normal form gets punched in the face by Titania and her nose didn't break. There's no bruising or any damage on the face from that punch!

I don't like Titania. I don't like that she was turned into a Kardashian "celebrity" in the MCU.

Mr. Immortal jumping out the window to get away from Nikki and Malory is the most relatable thing and the best part in that entire episode.

Oh yeah, MR. IMMORTAL IS IN THE MCU....and he's butchered in it too. In the comics, he lost his parents, lived with an abusive foster father, his first love committed suicide, and he tried to end it all cause he couldn't take it anymore only to discover he couldn't die after many attempts. He was the founder of the Great Lakes Avengers and is meant to be the sole survivor of the universe and learn the "grand secret" that will reveal itself at the end of all things.  Also, Mr. Immortal would be the "appointed prince" by One Below All if Franklin Richards died. That's a big deal. So, what's his MCU counterpart? A guy who fakes his death to escape being with his wives and one husband because he can't confront them and be honest that he wants a divorce.....well, at least he's bi.

Seriously though, why would they make Mr. Immortal be like this?! It doesn't make sense when you read up on Craig Hollis and who he is. This guy lost his first love by suicide and tried to take his own life to join the ones he's lost! He wouldn't do what the MCU version would do!

It's also never explained how he and Titania got their abilities. I hope they're not gonna make them mutants like with Kamala. But, Craig has been around for decades, and SHIELD or anyone hasn't caught on that there's a guy who can't die? He killed himself multiple times to get away from his wives and husband and there hasn't been any footage or anything to show him coming back? It would've been better if the show introduced Craig as someone who recently discovered his powers.

Intelligencia is introduced in this episode. In the comics, it was a group comprised of some of the greatest and most sinister minds on Earth and they initially exchanged information between criminal geniuses. Members included Modok, Klaw, and Leader (who's gonna be in Captain America 4). Here, in the MCU, it's Reddit basically. And, someone going as Hulkking is the one who's after She-Hulk's blood. Some say it's Leader, but we won't know until later on.

As much as I like Malory and Nikki getting along, I just didn't care for this case compared to the previous ones. Just by how they acted towards their client and how Craig was ruined in the MCU by making him be another male character be a total jerk and a bad guy.

I think that's all I got from that episode. And in case you couldn't tell? Yes, I didn't like it.

#anti she hulk #anti marvel #anti mcu #mcu criticism #mcu critical #marvel critical #marvel criticism

[spider-xan]

If you had to make a League of your own, who would you include from that period? Which characters do you think would work best together?

I wouldn't consider myself a creative person, so honestly, I have never thought about whom I would include in a League of my choosing and would much rather analyze the existing Leagues in the comics and film. Also, I'm not really a reader, so I have barely read much Victorian literature, which may or may not come as a surprise, and therefore don't have enough literary knowledge to really choose characters more broadly.

That said, if I approach this as an interesting thought exercise, here's the mental process I would go through:

First, I would keep most of the original members from the comics as a starting point, save for Quatermain; I've written briefly about how I do think his inclusion in the comics and movie makes sense from a symbolic perspective, which I won't get into again here, but for my own purposes, I don't think he's very interesting, and if his role is to be the (monster) hunter, I think Mina fits well enough into that role given her experience and as a way to progress her character from the source material. Otherwise, everyone else - Mina, Nemo, Jekyll/Hyde, Griffin - fits well as a Victorian proto-superhero in a specific superhero team role while also being famous to the general public.

Second, the superhero team aspect is what sets the League apart from just any Victorian crossover concept, so that would drive any decisions I make about members and how their powers work; so yes, unpopular as it is, I would use Hyde as the Victorian version of a team's brute strength, and it would be rooted in the line in the novella about Hyde growing as Jekyll weakens, even if I don't necessarily go full Hulk.

I do like Dorian Gray as an invulnerable immortal with supernatural charm like in the film, but he would have to be blackmailed into joining, unless you find a way for him to get involved as part of his self-centered attempt at redemption. An older Alice is a great choice too to increase the number of women, and there are many ways to re-imagine her as a Victorian superhero - portals or travelling through mirrors was a popular idea back in the day, but she could also shrink and grow like Ant-Man, maybe do something math-related like probability manipulation, etc. I would not include Holmes bc I agree with Moore that his inclusion would overshadow everyone, but Irene Adler could work as a highly skilled member without powers like, say, Black Widow, where her role is to be an undercover spy - and again, more women, and she could balance Mina if you go with vampire!Mina instead of human!Mina.

Personally, I am also a stickler for the 'Only one character from each source material' rule to keep the team balanced and so that no one member has more support than another - which means no Jonathan, no Van Helsing, no Arronax, no Ned Land, no Utterson, etc. as team members.

Third, on the topic of who 'would work best together' - that's an interesting question bc it means something different on a meta versus in-universe level! On a meta level, the question would be, 'Are these characters together compelling and well-balanced so that the team makes narrative sense and would be interesting to read while covering a breadth of genres?', and I think I have answered that above; on an in-universe level, 'Would these people get along and co-operate with each other?', and my opinion is that it's more interesting when the characters don't quite get along bc they have different moral compasses, motivations, etc., but they have to find a way to work together bc there are greater things happening than their personal conflicts and they are a professional team with a job to do.

I could go on for longer, but that's my lengthy analytical rather than creative answer! Feel free to ask for more elaboration on anything if you want, and I would be happy to answer!

#asks #lxg #league of extraordinary gentlemen #gothic lit #gothic literature #long post