The Incredible Hulk Returns (1988)

This weekend saw one of the biggest film franchises reach a major changing point as Avengers: Endgame was released into theaters.  It saw characters from 11 years worth of films come together for one fantastic conflict.  It was a goodbye to the franchise as the fans knew it, and a welcome push to the future of what the franchise would become.  It was a season finale, after 22 episodes of riveting superhero action.

It wasn’t the first time that Marvel had come to the big screen.  Or the small screen, for that matter.  The Marvel Cinematic Universe was far from the introduction of many of these characters to film and television audiences.  Spider-Man has had numerous film franchises and television series throughout his history.  Captain America had a few movies come out in the 1970s and 1990 before getting the MCU treatment.  And then there was that Nick Fury television movie with David Hasselhoff in 1998.  Doctor Strange had a television movie.  Through years of Marvel properties getting the television or film treatment, few have made as much of an impact as Hulk.

Hulk has gotten a few television series.  The first was The Marvel Superheroes.  The animated series had five different segments, each focusing on a different hero.  Hulk was one of them.  More animated series came in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2010s.  The most popular show of all for Hulk was the 1978 live action series The Incredible Hulk.  David Banner (renamed from Bruce Banner) was played by Bill Bixby.  When he got angry, he transformed into the bigger, greener Hulk, and was played by Lou Ferrigno.  The show was notable for many things.  It was the first live action success for a Marvel character on television.  It made Lou Ferrigno a household name.  And, when the series concluded, it had three follow-up television movies, the first of which featured the first live-action team-up between two favourite Avengers team members.

The Incredible Hulk Returns was a television movie from 1988 that saw David Banner (Bill Bixby) creating a new gamma machine that would be able to rid him of his alter ego, Hulk (Lou Ferrigno).  As he was about to go through with the separation, he was confronted by his old colleague Donald Blake (Steve Levitt), who informed him of a trip he went on that led to his being tethered to Thor (Eric Kramer) through a mystical hammer.  Together, the two scientist friends would use their superhero connections to take down a gang that was trying to steal the gamma machine for nefarious reasons.

Thor and Hulk were working together, just like they would in the Marvel Cinematic Universe some twenty-four years later.  Things were a lot different, though.  Those differences weren’t only from the filmmaking standpoint.  There were differences in the storytelling, as well, that made for an interesting television movie.  There were choices made that changed characters so that they were different from their comic book versions and the Marvel Cinematic Universe versions that future generations would fall in love with.

I never saw a single episode of The Incredible Hulk, so my introduction to a story from the series was this television movie that followed a few years after it went off the air.  The first notable difference was that the character of Bruce Banner had been renamed David Banner for the television show.  There are a few stories floating around out there about why the change was made.  The one that sounds the most ridiculous, but at the same time sounds the most realistic, is that the name was changed because the producers thought that the name Bruce was too gay.  It’s a weird reasoning since there’s really nothing all that gay about a name.  In the 1970s, people weren’t as open to differing sexualities, so it makes sense that they would shy away from something that seemed gay.  The name Bruce though?  That sounds kind of ludicrous, but for the 1970s, sounds believable.

David and Hulk were two separate sides of the same person, which was the same as in the comics.  Just like Bruce, David would become angry and turn into the rage-filled Hulk to wreak havoc on everything around him.  He would usually turn out to be a hero, as he did in The Incredible Hulk Returns.  There were a few differences in his powers, though.  Most notably, Hulk wasn’t as strong as he was in the comics or would be in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  They wanted to make the character feel a little more grounded.  He was still stronger than the human characters.  He was able to throw people and things farther than a normal person could.  He could stop a car from speeding into battle by pulling on it.  But he wasn’t going to be knocking down buildings, throwing entire cars (at least, I didn’t see that), or jumping far distances.  He could smash, lightly.

Other characters had differences too.  There was the character of Jack McGee, played by Jack Colvin.  He was a reporter hot on the trail of Hulk, who thought that the green superhero could be the story to bring him fame and fortune.  This character was similar to Thunderbolt Ross, a nemesis from the comics.  The main difference was profession.  Jack McGee was a reporter hunting Hulk, while Thunderbolt Ross was a military general who wanted to hunt and kill Hulk.  They served essentially the same purpose, though the lack of military presence in the television show probably made the production easier in the 1970s.

The final major character difference was Thor.  There have been many different versions of Thor, each with their own way of dealing with the character’s presence.  The version that most people would know right now is the Marvel Cinematic Universe version, where Thor is a Norse God and that’s that.  He was sent to Earth to learn humility, but he was always the God of Thunder.  There was no other identity.  In the comics, he was sent to Earth to learn humility, but was put into the body of Donald Blake, who could turn into Thor by striking a walking stick against a rock.  The walking stick became Mjolnir, and Blake became Thor.  The Incredible Hulk Returns kept Donald Blake and Thor as two separate people, with Blake being able to summon Thor by holding Mjolnir and shouting “Odin!”  It made sense, since the television movie was meant as a sort of backdoor pilot for a Thor series, and having the two play off each other was fun to watch.  A full series that was like a buddy cop comedy with Donald Blake and Thor could have worked.  Outside of that prospect, it was a little weird to have the power do that.

The Incredible Hulk Returns was an interesting crossover between two characters who I primarily know from different iterations.  Their interactions were different from what I’m used to.  The characters had slightly different personalities.  And the bad guys they had to stop were a group of thieves trying to steal a gamma machine for no real reason other than to have it, I think.  It wasn’t as high stakes as most superhero stories.  It wasn’t as personal as other superhero stories.  It was a simple heist that they had to stop.  Few superhero movies keep their stakes so lowkey.

Avengers: Endgame was a very high stakes movie.  The world had been put in danger during Infinity War, and the surviving heroes were now fighting back to retake what they had lost.  And it brought together characters from the past 11 years’ worth of movies in order to do it.  It’s no wonder it has made such an impact during its opening weekend.  None of it would have happened without The Incredible Hulk Returns being the first live-action crossover between Thor and Hulk.  The world would be different without it.

Now for a few notes:

• 1990’s Captain America (week 181) and 1998’s Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD (week 284) were mentioned in this post.
• Charles Napier made his fourth Sunday “Bad” Movies appearance this week in The Incredible Hulk Returns.  He was in Steel (week 127), Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (week 224), and Return to Frogtown (week 334).
• This week was also the fourth appearance of Lou Ferrigno.  He previously popped up in Sharknado 3! Oh Hell No (week 190), Sinbad of the Seven Seas (week 235), and Return to Frogtown (week 334).
• Tim Thomerson was one of the bad guys in The Incredible Hulk Returns.  You might remember him from Evil Bong (week 52), and Iron Eagle (week 90).
• Finally, there was an actor named Tom Finnegan who was in both The Incredible Hulk Returns and Road House (week 200).
• Have you seen The Incredible Hulk Returns?  Have you seen any of the series?  Can you fill me in on it?  Let me know your thoughts and other stuff in the comments.
• You can use the comments and Twitter to suggest movies I should be watching for future Sunday “Bad” Movies installments.  I’m open to most of the suggestions, unless you’re suggesting something critically acclaimed, beloved by many, and an all-around good movie.  Only bad movies here, please.
• There’s an Instagram account for the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  Check it out.  There are some good things coming to it soon.
• Now let’s talk about next week.  The year is 1999.  Movies based on television shows are big.  Brendan Fraser is big.  The two come together for a live-action adaptation of Dudley Do-Right.  Now, twenty years later, I check it out.  Come join me when I put up a post about Dudley Do-Right, right here, next week.