As many readers of the blog know, the Hulk has a strong devoted following. The mixture of the horrific and heroic, Hulk is an engine of destruction with powers and abilities far beyond the norm. The strongest there is, the Hulk has faced threats from every corner of the cosmos, but is perhaps best known as the first foe of the Avengers.
Just announced at the NYCC, Marvel Comics is unleashing a 5 part mini-series in which the jade giant smashed the Avengers, one era after another.
The Hulk may be a founding member of the Avengers, but that doesn't mean that h e gets along with them all of the time. Or most of the time.
That long, complicated history is at the forefront of Hulk Smash Avengers, a five-issue weekly miniseries running through February 2012 — just a couple of months before Hulk appears on the big screen in The Avengers film. Announced by Marvel at their "Incredible Hulk" panel Sunday afternoon at New York Comic Con, the book features five different creative teams taking on five different eras.
Things start in #1 with Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz taking on Hulk.
versus the Silver Age Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Giant-Man, Wasp and Thor), Joe Casey and Max Fiumara depicting Hulk vs. a '70s Avengers team (Iron Man, Wasp, Vision and Beast), Roger Stern returning to his era (Captain America, Hawkeye, Wasp, She-Hulk, Captain Marvel and Thor) with artist Karl Moline, Jim McCann and to-be-decided artist on the West Coast Avengers (Hawkeye, Wonder Man, Mockingbird, Tigra and Iron Man) and Fred Van Lente and Michael Avon Oeming tackling recent history with the Red Hulk against the Mighty Avengers (Black Widows, Ares, Wonder Man, Sentry and the Wasp).
Newsarama talked with Bill Rosemann, editor of the series, plus DeFalco, Stern and Van Lente to look more about the series.
Newsarama: Bill, what can you say about the genesis of the Hulk Smash Avengers series? Sure, there's an Avengers film coming out with the Hulk playing a prominent role, but what inspired the historical perspective angle?
Bill Rosemann: As all True Believers know, over the years, the Hulk's personality and body have morphed as often as The Wasp has changed costumes. He's been smart, dim, conniving, heroic, focused and out of control. Likewise, the Avengers have expanded and reduced their ranks, their power levels rising and falling with the seasons. But through it all there have been certain emotional truths and dramatic tensions that have brought these two great forces together, either as allies or enemies. It's a saga of clashing motivations, tragic misunderstandings and larger-than-life personalities... and don't forget the smashing!
Newsarama: Roger, obviously your Avengers run is held in very high regard by fans — what was the experience like returning to these characters? Was there any trepidation at all, or just excitement?
Roger Stern: Oh, it's always exciting to write about the Avengers. The Avengers was always one on my favorite Marvel comics. And, in fact, one of the very first things that Marvel ever paid me to write was an overview of the team — in the form of an interview with Jarvis the butler — for their old fan magazine F.O.O.M.
Little did I realize, when I turned in that assignment, that I would wind up editing the Avengers... and later, that I would write the book for five years.
But... trepidation? Maybe a little. But that all went away the moment I started plotting the story. It was like picking up a conversation with old friends.
Nrama: The series is all about the relationship between Hulk and the rest of the Avengers, and of course that's a dynamic that changes as much as the Hulk changes (a lot). What's the status of the Hulk in your story?
Stern: The story is set during a period when Doc Banner's mind was more-or-less in control of the Hulk. "More," in that he maintain his intellect and didn't speak of himself in the third person. And "less," in that he still had a temper that could lead to building-smashing rages. But because of the former — and despite the latter — he had been granted a presidential amnesty, and was trying to adjust to his new life with all its attendant celebrity.
If you're at all familiar with Bill Mantlo's tenure as writer on the Incredible Hulk, this story fits in between issues #280 and #281... as well as between my Avengers #227 and #228. But if you've never read those issues, don't worry. My story tells you everything you need to know to understand what's going on.
Newsarama: Fred, while the other issues of the series deal with Avengers teams from many years ago, you're writing the Mighty Avengers team from relatively recent history. So since most readers probably have pretty clear memories of those books, does that give you less room to put your own spin on things? Or is there maybe more to explore than one might expect, since the team wasn't together all that long and there's surely untapped potential there?
Fred Van Lente: Well, I did a lot of books related to this period, so I was pretty comfortable with it. I'm more interested in telling an exciting action story between the Hulk and the Avengers — with the tinge of the political thriller, as Iron Man tries to talk the imprisoned Bruce Banner into revealing the identity of the Red Hulk. It's the interactions of the characters that are center-stage here, and that's the best kind of potential there is.
Read the entire interview here
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