The Marvel Super Heroes: The Incredible Hulk
And now, here’s the Hulk!
I have a lot of affection for most Marvel A-List heroes. Many of them are in some form, outsiders. But none are more outsider-y than the Hulk. He’s also probably the one who changes the most. Oh, within the comics he cycles back around to recurring themes but unlike Spider-Man, he’s not really tethered in a way to a family or a specific lifestyle so even though there are formulas people return to, there’s a freedom to the Hulk and how to approach him. He’s constantly in mental flux, alternating between hero and anti-hero and on rare occasion outright villain. There’s also an inherent sadness to the character, and though there’s a cast of other characters, he’s often more alone than the other heroes. There’s also humour to him, in that he’s often a brute, whether it be a dim-witted or childish one or sometimes a sly, nasty piece of work. There are tons of different approaches you can take with the character and still somehow have him be the same character: a powerhouse full of hurt and unpredictability.
And he has a delightful theme song.
We start with some nerd at a machine.
“Doc Bruce Banner
Belted by gamma rays
Turns into the Hulk
Ain’t he unglamourays”
This song is goofy as fuck and I am HERE FOR IT! It is silly and playful and sort of undercuts the menace and tragedy of the character.
Anyway, we see Banner bombarded by the rays and he turns into the Hulk with his back turned. Then we get a close up of his face when it is being lightly insulted.
“Wrecking the town with the power of a bull.
Ain’t no monster ‘round, who is so loveable”
We see the Hulk’s feet and fists crush tanks and cannons so hard that it crushes the comic paper (or maybe stage canvas) that they appear on. One of them also features a top tier sound effect.
“Skroonk” is some hot stuff. We need to use it more often.
We then see the monster head on.
“The ever-lovin’ Hulk!
Hulk! Hulk!”
Hulk jumps around (that’s kind of how he travels) as the song ends.
Did It Make Me Want To Watch It?
Oh, for definite. For some reason Hulk and I think only the Hulk aired a fair bit late night on Teletoon, the Canadian cartoon channel, so we got to see this intro a lot. Its stupid and wonderful and great. Its kind of downhill from here, theme song wise, so sorry for disappoint you. Skroonk.
What Did You Find on Wikipedia?
Not a lot left, really. Oh, the guy who voiced the Hulk was a Canadian satirist of note and the voice of Banner was the same as 60’s Spider-Man.
Fan Art
There’s some good stuff here.
Capture’s the relationship between the two in the early days well.
Oh, this one is even cooler.
The most terrifying Hulk of all.