Mark Beall's Geek Beat: The Incredible Hulk Redux

I really want to address this whole issue about the upcoming Incredible Hulk film not actually being a true sequel to the Ang Lee production a few years back. If you missed the story, Chris wrote a great little piece on it which you can read here; what it really boils down to is Marvel resetting the story on the Hulk. Instead of picking up where the last film left off, they'll be starting again (much like Batman Begins). Avi Arad, Marvel guru, says this is because although Ang Lee made a great film, he didn't really make a MARVEL film. It failed to accomplish the comic book pizazz, and so they're going to try it again.

This story pricked my ears as soon as I heard it because The Geek Beat wrote an article about this very concept not so very long ago. The thrust of that article was campaigning for a new version of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and I laid out a discussion asking for some studio to pick it up and try again. To push the reset button, if you will. It has been done before, with great success, but I thought it might be too short of time since the last one for a studio to try such. It now looks like Marvel may be laying a precedent with The Hulk, and I'm personally all in favor of it.

I know some of you out there think it is a ridiculous plan to redo a movie only a handful of years old ... but I disagree. If you've made a bad product, why give up and stop there? Why not try again and see if you can do it better? The Incredible Hulk is a proud mainstay of Marvel comics, and as of right now, a lackluster first film leaves us with three options:

A. Give up. Ir didn't perform, so let it die.
B. Force out a sequel to a poorly received film. It'd probably have to go direct-to-DVD and wouldn't have the same actors anyway.
C. Try Again.

If you are a Marvel movies fan, which of these three options looks best to you? If you are a Marvel executive hoping to continue to capitalize on the comic book movie trend, which of these looks best to you? The answer to both questions is C.

Now let's focus on another aspect of this I haven't heard much mention of so far -- the Avengers movie. We all know it is coming, and Marvel has been talking it up for some time. It is the last major powerhouse superhero team Marvel has left in their stable, and thus the biggest hope Marvel has for their new self-financed films concept. Let's review this quickly:

Marvel isn't a huge company. Thus, to be capable of affording their recent rash of films they've worked money issues out with various movie studios and financing groups. This means they only gain a small portion of final profits. Each success lets them demand a larger percent from the next film, and at this point they've been able to work out a nice little deal to take on a huge loan and produce their own films. If they succeed, they make tons of money. If they fail, bankruptcy city, and the potential loss of the characters. Marvel is making a big gamble with their new "warchest." Many of their big titles -- Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four are already under licensing deals.

This makes Avengers the strongest characters they've got running. Marvel's first round of "warchest" films will be Iron Man, Captain America, and some sort of Ant Man comedy something deal. Thor is in the works as well. All of this is obviously gearing up for an attempted run at a big old Avengers movie, and my mouth literally salivates at the thought.

Okay, got it so far? Marvel needs to make money. To make money, Marvel will make several Avengers related flicks, followed by an Avengers movie. Who remembers the founding members of The Avengers? Let's make the list. Iron Man, check. Thor, check. Ant Man, check. Wasp ... okay, nothing yet on Janet, but who wants to bet she shows up in Ant Man's film? And the fifth founding Avenger? If you guessed Captain America, you'd be incorrect. The answer is, of course, none other than The Incredible Hulk.

Now if Marvel wants to include the Hulk in their Avengers film (he may not have been a long-term member, but he was an important founder), they could run into two very real problems.

A. The Incredible Hulk was made before the "warchest," meaning a studio holds sequel rights. However, if they choose not to do a sequel, but to instead restart the series, they may well be able to sidestep this tricky issue and include the character in an Avengers film.

B. Which Hulk do you want in an Avengers movie? The angsty "vision" of Ang Lee, or "Hulk Smash"? Personally, I'm going with "Hulk Smash" all the way. A new film version would allow the character to be reimagined into a more traditional* Hulk.

From my perspective, Marvel's got a lot to gain and very little to lose by attempting to recreate the movie version of Hulk. He is a popular character with True Believers as well as casual fans and could be a strong workhorse for the Marvel film franchise. I personally enjoyed Ang Lee's flick for what it was, but would be quite happy to see it taken in a different direction for future Marvel projects. I like my popcorn-action comic-book movies, thank you very much. Now if we can just get LXG to do the same ...

*Let's not get into the discussion of all the various character types Hulk has taken on over the years. The most prototypical Hulk is the angry, destroying-things Hulk.