Amusingly enough, after years of simply pretending that the Hulk was always green, when it came to referring back to the Hulk’s origin (and Marvel went as far as to recolor the Hulk green when reprinting the original issue), later writers actually came up with a reason for why the Hulk was originally gray and then turned green. The gamma radiation, they explained, had not finished making its way through his body. Once it did, it made the Hulk completely green (although the gray look has returned at times over the years).
IN THE EARLY days of Marvel Comics, the writing staff was basically one man—Stan Lee. Lee occasionally had other writers do some work, including his younger brother, Larry Lieber, but for the most part it was Lee alone writing plots and, using the Marvel method, leaving it to the artists to figure out how to draw them. Then he would come in and write dialogue to fit the drawn pages. Lee simply did not have the time to write out full plots for all the books he wrote.
Not only was Lee writing a lot of comic books, but due to the amount of anthology/double feature books Marvel had, such as Tales to Astonish, Lee was also writing for quite a few characters. As a result, it was often difficult for him to remember characters’ names. This is the genesis of the prominent use of alliterative names for Marvel characters. It is easier to remember names when the first and last names begin with the same letter, and Lee made great use of that trick, with characters such as Peter Parker, Reed Richards, Scott Summers, Warren Worthington, J. Jonah Jameson, Betty Brant, Sue Storm, and, of course, the alter ego of the Incredible Hulk, Bruce Banner.
However, even this did not always keep Lee from occasionally slipping up. One notable error occurred about two and a half years into Marvel’s existence, when Lee began referring (for more than a couple of months) to the Hulk’s other identity as Bob Banner rather than Bruce Banner, as he was originally named.
Responding to criticism of the goof, Lee, in issue #28 of The Fantastic Four, laid out how he was going to handle the situation, “There’s only one thing to do—we’re not going to take the cowardly way out. From now on his name is Robert Bruce Banner—so we can’t go wrong no matter WHAT we call him!”
And that is still his official name today, although the television series ended up changing Robert to David. The reason why is an urban legend that will be addressed next.
THROUGHOUT THE HISTORY of adapting written works to film or television, there have always been differences between what fans of the original work have enjoyed and what the adaptor feels would best make for a good film/television series. Some notable examples include Dorothy’s silver slippers becoming ruby ones in the film version of The Wizard of Oz and a different, considerably more optimistic, ending to the film version of The Grapes of Wrath. These changes occur even when the works being adapted are considered classic works of fiction. When the work in question is a comic book, you can imagine how little preference is given to the original story!
Such was the concern when writer-producer Kenneth Johnson began developing the comic book The Incredible Hulk as a television movie (with the intent of turning it into a regular series). Johnson began his television career working on the popular program The Six Million Dollar Man, and he was a producer and frequent writer for the spin-off of that show, The Bionic Woman.
At first Johnson was not interested in doing a show based on a comic book at all! In 1977 Universal Television gave him the chance to adapt for television any Marvel Comic property he wanted. Johnson initially turned down the offer, only reconsidering after rereading Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables. The novel features a fugitive followed by a tenacious police officer. Johnson saw in the Hulk a chance to retell the Les Misérables story for a modern audience. The series featured Bill Bixby as Bruce Banner—on the run because of his monstrous alter ego, the Hulk—and Jack Colvin as Jack McGee, a tabloid reporter who is determined to track him down, echoing the way the steadfast police officer Javert in Les Misérables continues to track down the fugitive Jean Valjean.
Beyond this basic concept, Johnson was not interested in holding true to the comic book series, so beyond the idea that Banner, on the run, turns into the Hulk when he is angry, the rest of the plot of the television series was completely different from the Hulk comic book. Johnson, as mentioned, even changed the name of the lead character from Bruce Banner to David Banner.
For years fans have wondered why exactly Johnson felt the need to change the name. The most prominent rumor was that Johnson felt the name Bruce sounded “too homosexual,” and he wanted a stronger name for the character. Johnson has always denied this, and his stated reasoning follows with what we know about his development of the Hulk television property. Johnson thought that the general audience felt comic books were too childish, and the only way to appeal to an adult demographic was to make the series as adult as possible. He believed that alliterative names are a glaring sign of comic book heroes—that the very appearance of a name like Lois Lane, Peter Parker, or Bruce Banner would remind the audience that they were following a comic book character. So Johnson broke up the alliteration by changing Banner’s name to David, while keeping Bruce as his middle name to at least throw the proverbial bone to the original fan base. (By the way, the first name Johnson chose to use instead was that of his son, David.)
While Johnson was able to change the name of the hero, he also wanted to change the very color of the Hulk! Johnson did not understand why the Hulk was green. The change from Bruce Banner to the Hulk is generally brought about by anger and rage, and Johnson thought that a character fueled by rage would naturally be red—the color that best represents rage, after all. He ended up asking Stan Lee why the Hulk was green, hoping to learn the motivation behind the color choice (was it meant to be a statement about envy?). Lee explained to him the story from earlier in this chapter (page 121), about the Hulk’s color being determined due to poor color printing. Johnson, naturally, was disappointed that there was nothing more to the Hulk’s coloring than a last-minute substitution due to a printing problem. Therefore, he pushed hard for the Hulk to be colored red on the television series. Ultimately, though, it was determined that the image of the Hulk as a green-skinned giant was just too great, and too firmly established, to change, so Johnson was left with a green Hulk.
Amusingly enough, in a 2008 relaunch of the Hulk comic book, writer Jeph Loeb introduced a new red Hulk into the comic, most likely as an allusion to Johnson’s attempts to change the Hulk’s color way back in the 1970s.
IT IS QUITE lucky that Kenneth Johnson was not involved in the production of the comic book The Rampaging Hulk, because then the rumors regarding his thoughts about the sexuality of Bruce Banner’s name would have been given a whole new life.
The Rampaging Hulk was a black-and-white magazine that was set in the time between the cancellation of the Hulk’s original series and the beginning of the Hulk’s run in Tales to Astonish. Written by Doug Moench, the series was Marvel’s attempt to cash in on the (at the time) new Hulk television series. The book did not sell particularly well, and with #10 it was changed to The Hulk! with color stories designed to read just like the popular television series (which, due to the understandably small special-effects budget of weekly television, did not have nearly the same amount of action as a standard Hulk comic book).
Editor in chief Jim Shooter complained consistently that Moench wasn’t writing stories that read like the television series (Moench does admit that he felt constrained by the restrictions of trying to write for a different medium—why use fewer special effects and action when he is not constrained by the budget of a television series?). Shooter ultimately decided that he would write an issue to demonstrate to Moench how it was done (Moench took the opportunity to just leave the series period), and the resulting issue was more than a bit controversial.
In the story, Shooter definitely matched the sort of gritty traveler feel that the television series had, but Shooter’s attempt to add a touch of harsh reality also resulted in a rather unrealistic, and fairly offensive,
situation. In The Hulk! #23, Banner is staying at a YMCA in New York. Shooter spends part of the story doing a nice job of depicting the grim world of sex workers and drug addicts, but all of that fine work is forgotten when Banner goes to the shower and two men attempt to rape him. When Banner escapes, one of the men exclaims, “Oh, pith.”
A television executive called up Stan Lee to complain about the comic, and Marvel got a bit of negative media attention for a few weeks, but it ultimately blew over. Shooter today admits that the scene, or at least having one of the men say “Oh, pith,” was a mistake, but he does not think the scene was offensive. Perhaps this story was where the Kenneth Johnson rumors started?
THE HISTORY OF aggressive trademark protection in comic books goes back to the 1940s, when DC Comics trademarked the name Superwoman as a preventative measure in case some other company tried to create a character with that name. Marvel Comics, though, was even more aggressive than that, constantly keeping its ear to the ground to hear if anyone was planning a project involving one of its trademarks.
For instance (as explained on pages 172-73), Marvel quickly rushed out a comic book starring a new character named Spider-Woman to maintain the trademark on the female derivation of its star hero Spider-Man. It did so after hearing of plans to produce a cartoon series starring a “Spiderwoman.”
With the success of the television series The Incredible Hulk in the late 1970s, Marvel figured it was probably only a matter of time before the series would introduce a female counterpart to the Hulk. When a rumor came to the Marvel offices that that was exactly what the show was planning, Marvel acted quickly to introduce its own female derivation of the Hulk—the She-Hulk.
In early 1980, Marvel released The Savage She-Hulk #1, written by Stan Lee and drawn by John Buscema. The lead character was Jennifer Walters, cousin of Bruce Banner, who needed a blood transfusion after being shot by a criminal. Banner happened to be in town that day, and with no other blood donors available, donated his radioactive blood, causing Walters to transform into the She-Hulk. This issue marked the last prominent Marvel superhero that Stan Lee was at least partially responsible for creating.
She-Hulk’s series lasted only for a couple of years, but soon she popped up as a member of the superhero team the Avengers and also as a member of the Fantastic Four. In fact, she made superhero history in a way, as the first superhero to be members of two teams simultaneously! The character also appeared in the Hulk animated series, but never on the live-action program.
THE INCREDIBLE HULK was a popular television program that maintained a popular “cult status” in the late 1970s. The show was particularly popular with the male audience, making it unsurprising that the world of wrestling would attempt to tie in to the show’s popularity.
Terry Bollea performed in a number of rock-and-roll bands over the years until, in the late 1970s, he was convinced to give professional wrestling a shot. After training for a period of time, Bollea made his pro wrestling debut in 1977, using his actual name. He adopted a number of other aliases, until he signed on with the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF, later shortened to World Wrestling Federation, or WWF) in 1979, debuting as the Fabulous Hulk Hogan, the idea being that he was as strong as Lou Ferrigno, the bodybuilder who portrayed the Hulk on the television series.
The only problem with the name was that the WWWF did not clear the use of it with Marvel Comics. Naturally, when they were informed that a wrestler was calling himself the Hulk, Marvel warned the WWWF to stop or else it would pursue a legal claim against the wrestling group. The owner of the wrestling group, Vincent J. McMahon, chose instead to strike a deal, licensing the name from Marvel Comics.
This was the arrangement that Hogan worked under during his time at WWF, but it became an issue during the 1990s, when, after briefly retiring from wrestling in 1993, Hogan joined up with World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the main competitor to the World Wrestling Federation, in 1994. WCW picked up the licensing agreement with Marvel, but, possibly because Hogan had to kick in some of the fees himself, Hogan changed his name in 1996 to Hollywood Hogan.
Eventually, though, Hogan would return, both to the name Hulk Hogan, and to the WWF (now renamed World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE). The WWE had a pair of new legal entanglements with Marvel. First, Marvel took issue with the use of the name in rebroadcasts of famous old matches by Hogan. This led to the WWE, for a time, going back and editing out any references to the name Hulk in past broadcasts and editing in the name Hollywood instead. Next, there was a problem over a character Hogan developed in 2003, dubbed Mr. America. Marvel felt this infringed upon its trademarked character, Captain America, in both the name and the costume (Marvel copyrighted Captain America’s distinctive chest star, which also appeared on Mr. America’s costume). It ceased to be an issue in 2003, when Hogan left the WWE.
In February 2005, Hogan solved the rights issue with Marvel once and for all, by purchasing from Marvel the right to call himself Hulk Hogan. This solved the rebroadcast problem. From now on, the WWE will have to go to Hogan himself if it wants to use his trademarked name.
READERS OF JULES Verne know how far in advance some of his ideas were. A number of inventions he mentions in his science fiction of the late 1800s eventually became real devices. For the most part, inventions from Marvel Comics have managed to be fantastical enough that they have not popped up in everyday life (although the attempt to reach the moon in Fantastic Four #1, published in 1961, seems at least plausible post Neil Armstrong). But surprisingly, one element from a Marvel comic that has turned up in real life is the gamma bomb that changed scientist Bruce Banner into the Incredible Hulk.
In 1961 Banner developed a gamma bomb for the U.S. government, which emitted gamma radiation rather than the destructive explosions that went along with nuclear bombs. This was how Banner was able to avoid being destroyed in the blast and was instead hit by enough gamma radiation to turn into the Hulk (remember, in comic books radiation = good) and also why the fallout was so small that the boy Banner saved (which is why he ran out to where the bomb was being tested) was unaffected by the radiation despite being nearby at the time.
In 2003 Stan Lee’s idea was put into practice when the U.S. government revealed that it had developed a gamma bomb that worked by the same principles as Lee’s device. The gamma bombs would not have the awesome destructive power of nuclear weapons but would emit energy that would be a great deal deadlier than conventional chemical explosives. The big difference is that rather than producing energy by triggering a nuclear fission or a fusion reaction, these bombs would just emit gamma rays that would kill through radiation or people breathing the radioactive particles from the ray emission. They would cut the fallout to a minimal level.
7
CAPITAIN AMERICA
There was already a notable patriotic superhero by late 1940 (MLJ Comic’s the Shield), but no patriotic hero before or after caught the public’s imagination like Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s Captain America. Debuting in December 1940, Captain America Comics #1 featured Captain America punching out Adolf Hitler on its cover, so while the United States did not enter the war for a year after the comic was released, it was clear even then how the public felt about Hitler and the Nazis—at least judging by the massive sales of Captain America Comics #1.
Steve Rogers was a weakling from New York who tried to enlist in the army but was declared 4-F. Still wishing to contribute, Rogers volunteered for an experiment involving a “Super Soldier Serum” that a government scientist had developed. When Rogers drank the serum, he transformed into the peak of human perfection, becoming Captain America. Along with his sidekick, Bucky, Captain America fought wartime saboteurs (led by the evil Nazi Red Skull) before the United States officially joined the war, at which point Cap joined the fight.
During the war, Captain America Comics was selling a million copies a month, but after the war, sales lagged and eventually the title was canceled. During Marvel’s renaissance of superheroes in the
early 1960s, it was only a matter of time before Lee would bring back Captain America, and in Avengers #4, in 1963, he finally returned. He would soon take over half of Tales of Suspense (Iron Man taking up the other half) and ultimately, in 1968, taking over the book entirely.
In 2008 Marvel stunned its fans when it had Steve Rogers seemingly murdered in his comic, courtesy of an evil plot masterminded by his archnemesis, the Red Skull. Rogers’s former sidekick, Bucky, has recently taken on the title of Captain America.
CAPTAIN AMERICA STARRED in an animated series during the 1960s and a poorly received film in the late 1980s. Currently, a new Captain America film is in development, with a possible 2010 release.
In 1940, with the war raging in Europe, there was an increasing mixture of national pride and anti-Nazi sentiment in the United States, so it was inevitable that a company would introduce a superhero that would appeal to both demographics, and that’s what MLJ did in 1940 with the Shield. MLJ was a comic company formed by Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John Goldwater in 1939 (the name of the company took the first initials of each man) and produced a number of superheroes that did not last long, but for a time, the Shield was popular, starring not only in the anthology Pep Comics but also his own book, Shield-Wizard Comics (starring another MLJ superhero, the Wizard).
The Shield was Joe Higgins, the son of a scientist who develops a chemical that gives him super strength and invulnerability. Wearing a red, white, and blue triangular chest plate that looks like a shield, Higgins goes to work for the FBI, fighting against saboteurs and foreign spies.
Brian Cronin Page 11