Comics are Awesome II

[BWprowl]

But Red Hulk was actually a different character, General Ross if I'm not mistaken, right? And sadly I can totally believe that that's right.

Well I was very obviously joking. And even then I didn't intend for the way I wrote it to come off like Hulk and Rulk were the same guy, sorry if that was confusing.

Speaking of, that 'Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.' thing is allegedly finally happening this August. That looks to be one of the silliest damn ideas for a cartoon I've seen in some time.

[Shockwave]

Nah, I knew what you meant, I was just clarifying cause I wasn't sure if I remembered it correctly. Generally speaking, Hulk is one of my least favorite comic characters. Ever.

[Sparky Prime]

Right, that was World War Hulk. He came back and everyone on Earth was fighting against him and he basically wound up in a coma under a lake or some shit. I'm wordering what happened after that.

Sentry snapped out of his crazy long enough to help battle Hulk and the two go at it so long and become so tired that they transform back into their human forms and Bruce wins. The Warbound are not happy to find out Hulk is really a little human and Miek then reveals the Illuminati had nothing to do with his ship exploding and that he could have prevented it, but chose not to. Bruce transforms back into Hulk even more enraged than ever, so Stark uses some satellites that zaps the gamma radiation out of him which transforms him back into Bruce and unconsciousness. General Ross later uses the energy in those satellites to turn himself into the Red Hulk. No one is able to stop him, so they decide the only way to fight him is to release the original Hulk.

Then like BWProwl said, a few more Hulks show up and we get World War Hulks...

[Shockwave]

Then like BWProwl said, a few more Hulks show up and we get World War Hulks...

So the story with the rainbow Hulks was actually called World War HulkS? Cause the story where he came back from Planet Hulk was called World War Hulk (I remember this because it's the only time ever that I had even considered buying a Hulk story so it kinda stands out to me). And I wouldn't put it past Marvel to have the only title difference between two different stories is that one of the has an "S" on the end.

[Sparky Prime]

So the story with the rainbow Hulks was actually called World War HulkS? Cause the story where he came back from Planet Hulk was called World War Hulk (I remember this because it's the only time ever that I had even considered buying a Hulk story so it kinda stands out to me). And I wouldn't put it past Marvel to have the only title difference between two different stories is that one of the has an "S" on the end.

Well they weren't actually rainbow Hulks... That was just the joke at the time given Green Lantern was introducing the idea of the different colored Lanterns at the same time they introduced the two Red Hulks. But yeah, they called that story World War Hulks, adding the "s" as the only way to differentiate it from the World War Hulk story. Although I think that took place in the Hulk titles rather than as it's own event title like World War Hulk was.

[Shockwave]

Oh ok. Thanks for clearing that up. How many different Hulks were there?

[138 Scourge]

Regular Hulk, Red Hulk, She-Hulk, I shot you not, Red She-Hulk (ever wonder where Betty Ross Banner went to?), and Rick "A-Bomb" Jones, who became, like, a giant blue scaly monster. He may or may not have had stealth powers, I forget. Oh, and Skarr, the Hulk's space barbarian son from when he was hanging out on Hulk world.

I know how ridiculous it all sounds, and believe me, I totally don't care for having multiple versions of one character. But a lot of those Hulks had pretty decent stories going for them.

Oh hell, and I forgot. At one point during WWHs, Hulkamania ran wild over the rest of the Marvel Heroes, and dudes like Cyclops, Cap, Spidey, Wolverine, and Thor were Hulks. What cha gonna do, brother?

[Shockwave]

What cha gonna do, brother?

Hulk Smash, brother!

[JediTricks]

In the case of "Knightfall", how much *better* could the story have been (at a purely event-driven level) if Bruce Wayne's injuries did not heal enough for him to become Batman. The escapees from Arkham Asylum would be rounded up, but Bruce would stay broken and a replacement would be needed. The writers could still throw in character moments showing Bruce adjusting to a role as a mentor/strategist and his replacement adjusting to being the new Batman. New characters=new stories=new drama.

Dude, have you never seen Batman Beyond? That was pretty much the entire point of the series, including Bruce's role as you described there.

With that in mind, recall that fans *loved* Batman Beyond, and it exists as a progression of the ongoing canon the was the DC Animated Universe.

If fans had loved it, it wouldn't have been canceled so soon. I enjoyed it, but it felt like it only worked for a small subset of fans because DC intentionally was trying too hard to grow outside the comic-buying audience into the "kid merchandisable character" market, and that's what took it down. Luckily JLU picked up the lost thread and kept it alive.

[BWprowl]

If fans had loved it, it wouldn't have been canceled so soon. I enjoyed it, but it felt like it only worked for a small subset of fans because DC intentionally was trying too hard to grow outside the comic-buying audience into the "kid merchandisable character" market, and that's what took it down. Luckily JLU picked up the lost thread and kept it alive.

'Cancelled so soon'? It lasted for three seasons and 52 episodes, not bad at all for a cartoon series like that. Heck, the network even announced they were planning a fourth season, but that got put on hold as they went straight into Justice League instead.

Nowadays it's still easy to find people who fondly recall the show. In fact, I would bet you could find more people who watched Batman Beyond when it was on than read Batman comics during the same time period.